What have we been up to?

On Christmas Eve, in the afternoon, we went to Sea World. We saw the dolphin show and special holiday Shamu show. It was pretty fun. Clare did great! It was the first time she ever sat on the bench and watched the animals instead of burying her head in my lap. She talked all night and is still talking about seeing the dolphins jump! I was surprised that Sea World was so crowded because I figured everyone would be home doing holiday stuff. This picture, below, I thought would be fun -- to send warm wishes from San Diego! Also, you can see how big I'm getting. (I'm now just starting the third trimester).


Christmas morning Calvin woke up at 4:15am. This is something he has been doing a lot lately, so we had known it was quite possible. We stuck a little TV in his room with a few movies, snacks and a drink for him. He watched Jungle Book and Toy Story 2 before even trying to come out at around 6:30. Pete and Jessica arrived about that time and were waiting for the kids upstairs. They though it'd be fun to see the kids' reaction to their Christmas morning! The kids were shy of pete and jessica and also in some kind of daze so they didn't react the way we imagined. Calvin was silent and very timid 'til about 7:30 when he was finally excited about it! (by then we were done)! I didn't take many pictures but the one below is of Clare opening the present Calvin gave to her. He helped wrap it in white paper and then colored on the white paper instead of using christmas wrap.




We have a fireplace in our living room that we haven't used much but it recently occur ed to us that we should try it out and see if it helps warm up the house. It seems to help a bit so we've been on the lookout for firewood. The other day we were driving by a house and saw some small pieces of wood out by the road. The man of the house was in the garage so I asked him if he was trying to get rid of the wood and if we could take it. He said, "yes and I have a bunch more in the back, come and take a look." Dave filled up the back of the truck with some wood. The wood was chopped into bick circular blocks but Dave had to chop it all into quarters to burn. He was excited to go get an ax, especially since all men should have an ax!

Calvin!!!

Calvin brought home a craft from school that is supposed to be hung up as a Christmas decoration. It is very cute -- a wreath using their hand print as the greenery. Anyway, Calvin really wanted to hang it lower than some of the options I gave him of nails already in the wall. I was busy doing dishes and not that excited to put another hole in the wall to hang the craft at his eye level so I sent him on a mission to find the hammer out of the car (where it had been left the week before). So, he went away for quite a while and I continued to do dishes. when he came back he was talking about other things so I figured he had been distracted and moved on to something else. I asked him where the hammer was and he said he already hung up the craft in his room. He has some hooks for coats/hats in his room so I figured he hung it up there and told him good job. When I went to bed last night I saw that he had actually hammered a new nail into the wall (and his eye level) and put his craft there. INTERESTING!!! I guess he figured if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

Dave!!!

This morning we went to the playground and when we were finished I helped Calvin get into his seat and Clare walked around to Dave's side so he could help her into the car. I said, "Dave, here comes Clare, can you help her into the car?" He was distracted reading a book while at the same time opening up the car trunk to put in his sweatshirt. When I finished helping Calvin and went to sit in my seat I saw Clare was not in her seat still. I figured she was still standing on the other side of the car waiting for Dave's help. "Dave, where's Clare?" He looked at his left hand and saw his sweatshirt - "Clare?! Oh, I meant to put my sweatshirt away, I must have put Clare in the trunk instead!"


Disclaimer: Clare did not ever complain about being put into the trunk. She thought it was great fun!

Quote from dave on the event: "It could happen to anybody."

Zoo Trip and Driveway surfing

This week we went to the Wild Animal Park with Calvin's friend Davis (along with sister Hope (2 years old) and Mom Amy). They had a sledding hill that they set up during the Christmas festival. on the way to the park I asked Calvin, "do you want to play in the snow there?" He said "No mom. it doesn't snow here. only in Ohio." I explained that they make fake snow here for people to play with and he thought that sounded pretty lame! As it turned out, it was only open in the evening so it didn't matter much anyway!


Calvin loves the petting zoo -- he is not at all afriad of the deer they have there. He likes to pet them and feed them leaves off the ground.



This afternoon we went to play outside with some balls on the driveway. The kids found the boggie board in the garage enjoyed pretending to boogie board and making silly faces.

Surfer Dave

Dave got his Christmas presents (surfing stuff) a little early this year so that he could make good use of them while he is on an easier rotation. Once Jan hits, he'll probably be lucky to make it out to the beach once a month. This month, we've gone several times. Here is a picture of Dave in his new wet suit and with his surf board. It gets dark pretty early -- sunset at 4:30 and on this day we were there only a few minutes before sunset. It was beautiful and pretty chilly. Calvin wouldn't get out of the car. Dave was funny to watch - on his first day. He couldn't even sit on the board and wait for the waves to come without falling off! He has heard from others and is now learning for himself that surfing is hard to do! It is really good exercise and has beautiful scenery so hopefully he'll enjoy the journey, even if it does take him all 7 years!


It was too late and too dark for a good picture of Clare (on my camera) but the sunset in the background is beautiful!

It's only fair!

Well, I usually only post the silly and absentminded things that Dave does but I thought maybe I would share a little story about myself. This week I picked up some cute Christmas marshmallows -- red (more pink) and green Christmas tree shaped. I decided to make rice crispy treats with them. As I melted the butter in the pan I thought to myself "maybe I should make two batches -- one red and one green" but I ignored these thoughts and went on to make one batch of red and green rice crispy treats. But as all of you who finished kindergarten know - when you mix red and green you get an ugly grayish brown color that looks pretty nasty. Anyway, my holiday treat looked a little strange. Clare thought they were chocolate looking and Calvin just thought they were too weird to eat. So now you know I do dumb stuff too. Maybe it's contagious.

California Cold

It is starting to turn into winter. You may think that because we live in SD we do not get winter. Well, we don't get snow and below freezing temperatures (most of the time) but we do get a change in temperature. Right now, at 6am, it is 33 degrees outside. That is a pretty typical night time low for this time of year (mid 30's and low 40's). During the day it warms up to a lovely 60-70 and sunny day. We do not turn on the heat at all so the inside of our house gets pretty cold at night. It would be too expensive and kind of pointless to run the heater because we have vaulted ceilings. Our house doesn't heat well. So, we use lots of blankets and sweatshirts! During the warmest part of the day we go outside and sit on the deck to get some sun and warmth because by afternoon it is 10 degrees warmer outside than inside our house! Recently, we've gone out in the evening to a couple of outdoor activities and I have had to unpack my winter coats and hats! I used to think it was ridiculous, when I lived in Ohio or Utah where it was actually cold and snowy, to see Californians wearing winter clothes! Now I understand and have even joined in!

I thought you might be interested in what it is like here because you may have been like me, thinking SD is always warm. I would say that SD is not always warm but it is always beautiful. And, SD is warmer than many other places (just not in our house)!!

Happy Friday! I hope you have a good weekend!

Dave's keys

A while ago I wrote about Dave having lost his keys (about the same time as the fires). Well, he found them. Here is the story. Dave had his little USB port tied to his keys and on the day that he lost them he remembers using his USB port with keys attached and then getting paged for an emergency. He left them in the computer he was using and ran off without picking them up. Later in the night he went back to look for his keys and they were not there. The computer lab was a Dr's only lab so he figured somebody must have come into the lab and taken his keys. For the rest of the month he drove a different car to work worried that somebody might have taken his keys with the intent of stealing his car. (this had happened to his cousin whose keys were taken out of a dr. locker room and then his car was stolen a week later). So, fast forward a month. Dave got a page from someone at the hospital saying that they had his keys. He went in to talk to them and found that they were in a different computer lab -- still sitting in the USB drive, completely safe and sound. They had been there for a month. So, either someone moved his keys to a different computer lab during that night in October OR dave forgot where he had left them as he ran around the hospital in the middle of the night. My guess is option #2! We are glad they turned up so that we didn't have to worry about our car being stolen and so that we didn't' have to pay to make a backup key (which are expensive these days)!

Christmas time.

Today was a nice day. Dave got home from work at 9am (yes, AM -- it is not a misprint). We drove up to orange county to a rip curl outlet to look at wet suits. He ended up finding one and got it for himself. It is his Christmas present from me. He is very excited to try it out tomorrow so we will go to the beach in the afternoon. Technically, Dave is doing an anesthesiology rotation right now but he does NOTHING when he is there so he is spending most of his time studying for step 3 instead of hanging out in the hospital. It is interesting!

There is a family in our ward that hosts a Christmas event every year. Every night for about two weeks they transform their house and yard into Santa's village. Kids can come and meet Mr. and Mrs. Claus and get a small toy. They have hot chocolate, cider, cookies and crackers. It is pretty remarkable. It is all free. We asked the kids if they wanted to go see Santa and get a toy and some cookies. Calvin said yes but mentioned he didn't want to see Santa. Clare flat out refused to come because she is TERRIFIED of Santa. At the ward Christmas party last weekend she screamed when Dave tried to take her to Santa. Calvin wouldn't go anywhere near him. People keep asking us what we have done to our kids to make them hate Santa so much. We don't know!

While at this Santa event a guy dropped is 1 year old kid onto the driveway. (He was holding him in his arms when his other son tried climbing on a big dragon statue and nearly knocked it over. While trying to help one son, he dropped the other). Dave saw it happen and then heard the parents talking about the kid, wondering if he was okay and embarrassed about what happened. Dave offered to look at the kid and told him he was a "brain surgeon resident". The kid was fine....had a big bump but totally fine otherwise. Later in the evening Dave saw the kid again -- he was eating and playing and so Dave is sure he was just fine. The family was grateful for Dave's help and told friends that their kid was okay and that they found a brain doctor to look at him!

Since Dave is home and available to help, I have been singing in stake choir. Sunday night we had a fireside concert and then last night we had a concert at the San Diego temple. It was a nice experience. My favorite part was the primary choir. It has about 50 kids and they sang three great songs. They had everything memorized -- even part of a song in latin. In my opinion they are way better than the adult choir. We also sang three songs and had nothing memorized. Kids are amazing. I love kids!

Sunday in Primary we watched a short church movie about the nativity. I was struck by the scenes at the stable because in the background was the sound of humming flies. Nativity scenes always make the animals look so cute and cuddly and I think this week was the first time I thought of the stable as such a gross place to have a baby. It would have been dirty and smelly and really disgusting. Truly, He descended below them all with his humble birth. I think maybe I thought more about this because I have had a baby before and will have another one soon.

Great Entertainment

This morning while I was doing a little cleaning up, Clare found a pack of bubble gum and went to town! She chewed each piece for just a few seconds and then would spit it out and move on to another piece. She chewed through about 1/2 the pack in the 5 minutes I was gone! She had a good time.

Canker Sore Cure

First, sorry about the tiny picture --I couldn't find a better one.

Over a year ago, a dentist recommended that I try a new toothpaste to help with cankers. It took a little while to find this but I am so glad I did. I found it at CVS in Columbus and here in SD as well. It has basically cured my canker sores. I used to get several a month and now I get one on a very rare occasion -- I've probably had just a couple over this last year. One time I forgot to bring the toothpaste on a week long vacation and I did end up getting a couple by the end of the week. So, if you are the type that gets cankers I highly recommend Rembrandt toothpaste for canker sores. It is kind of expensive compared to the regular stuff but well worth it!

Dave new love

Ever since we moved here Dave has wanted a surf board. Last week he was finally able to get one. It is an 8 ft. board that he will hopefully be able to learn on and enjoy for some time to come.