Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
January Family Letter
We submit a little update to a family email newsletter every month on Chris' side of the family. Here is what I wrote for January.
We had a crazy start to the year. We had to be out of our house on the 30th of December and we didn’t move into our new house until January 9th. It felt like forever as we were renting two huge moving trucks and a storage unit by the day and we had to live at my parent’s house (which is already full of my parents, two of my brothers, a sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew). Now it is all over and we are happily settled in our new (old) house. We are looking forward to making it our own and that entails years and years of work and time. Settling into the new ward is going well…we get to speak at church on Sunday!
I have a calling as the RS chorister, a fairly awkward calling for me as I don’t like the idea of teaching others music…time to get creative with the “practice hymn”. At least it is a calling that allows me to be in RS the last hour of church…I really love RS. I am taking a knitting class and it is nice to have a few hours on Saturday that aren’t spent achieving all the things on Chris’ “honey-do” list that is ever growing with our move. I still look forward to nights out with friends from our old ward/neighborhood and I’ve even met a few nice moms in our new ward. J
Chris has big plans for the yard, starting with a large composting crate thing he has in the backyard. He spent a full day last weekend taking care of years of ignored fir needles and looks forward to many solitary Saturdays out in the yard. Trident is entering the busier season strong as the winter proved really great for new hires. The new branch is taking off and proves to have been a great decision for their company.
Ruby is really enjoying her ballet classes. She knows how to write her name and is really excited about rhyming. I bought an exercise dance video that she loves to do with me (remember we live in rainy WA) and we are starting to do a little school time together on MWF, the days she doesn’t have preschool. She loves to have that time with just the two of us. She is full of the cutest observations and declarations. They usually involve something to do with the gospel—questions like, “What do Spirits look like” and “is it going to be a long time before I live with Heavenly Father?” (answer to the latter question, a resounding “YES…let’s hope so!”). She is very interested in right and wrong and is proud to know that she chose to have a body before she came to earth (more importantly, she has that toddler fixation on the fact that not everyone made the same good choice that she did). She had lots of fun playing in the snow this month. She made her first snow angel and really enjoys hot cocoa with marshmallows to warm up. She is still a snuggler. The other day, I was distracted doing something and she was saying she was cold. I suggested she get some socks on to help her warm up. She said, “my feet aren’t cold though.” So I explained that making her feet warm may just help her whole body feel warm. Then she said, “I know what will make me warm mamma! Mamma cuddles will!” And there it was, the real reason she was cold…she wanted a little more of my attention. She knows of no one who can pass on a good cuddle.
Alice is going through a period of misery. She is impossible to please and the only thing that would make her happy is eating adult portions of food. However, now she is getting pickier and she wants to eat, but we can’t figure out what she will eat. She cries most of the day (like she is right now) and that makes for a long day for everyone. She likes to leave the house and go to new places or have new people at our house for diversion. She is extremely bored of Ruby and I and we can’t seem to entertain her. Ruby and I both jump, trying to please her and we’ve decided that Alice is in charge. Ruby will say to me when we are both exhausted of trying, “Mom, who’s in charge here?” and I’ll say, “Babes is.” And we both laugh because we don’t know what else to do. Ruby loves to give Alice the benefit of the doubt. She’ll usually say (I’m reminded because she just did say it), “Babes must have more teeth coming in.” Alice says a few words now. She just started with “Dada” and she says, “pooh pooh”, “ucky”, “ni night”, “banana”, “bonk” (sounds like gonk), “good girl” and “num num”. At 16 months, not much of a talker. She is full of energy and loves to stand up in her high chair and stick things in outlets. All the things we had to work really hard to teach Ruby to do, Alice just does on her own. She taught herself to safely come down the stairs, climb up on the couch, etc. She is a good sleeper and loves to follow Ruby and her friends anywhere they go. She is possessive of everything that is in Ruby’s hands, and doesn’t take “no” for an answer.
We had a crazy start to the year. We had to be out of our house on the 30th of December and we didn’t move into our new house until January 9th. It felt like forever as we were renting two huge moving trucks and a storage unit by the day and we had to live at my parent’s house (which is already full of my parents, two of my brothers, a sister-in-law, a niece and a nephew). Now it is all over and we are happily settled in our new (old) house. We are looking forward to making it our own and that entails years and years of work and time. Settling into the new ward is going well…we get to speak at church on Sunday!
I have a calling as the RS chorister, a fairly awkward calling for me as I don’t like the idea of teaching others music…time to get creative with the “practice hymn”. At least it is a calling that allows me to be in RS the last hour of church…I really love RS. I am taking a knitting class and it is nice to have a few hours on Saturday that aren’t spent achieving all the things on Chris’ “honey-do” list that is ever growing with our move. I still look forward to nights out with friends from our old ward/neighborhood and I’ve even met a few nice moms in our new ward. J
Chris has big plans for the yard, starting with a large composting crate thing he has in the backyard. He spent a full day last weekend taking care of years of ignored fir needles and looks forward to many solitary Saturdays out in the yard. Trident is entering the busier season strong as the winter proved really great for new hires. The new branch is taking off and proves to have been a great decision for their company.
Ruby is really enjoying her ballet classes. She knows how to write her name and is really excited about rhyming. I bought an exercise dance video that she loves to do with me (remember we live in rainy WA) and we are starting to do a little school time together on MWF, the days she doesn’t have preschool. She loves to have that time with just the two of us. She is full of the cutest observations and declarations. They usually involve something to do with the gospel—questions like, “What do Spirits look like” and “is it going to be a long time before I live with Heavenly Father?” (answer to the latter question, a resounding “YES…let’s hope so!”). She is very interested in right and wrong and is proud to know that she chose to have a body before she came to earth (more importantly, she has that toddler fixation on the fact that not everyone made the same good choice that she did). She had lots of fun playing in the snow this month. She made her first snow angel and really enjoys hot cocoa with marshmallows to warm up. She is still a snuggler. The other day, I was distracted doing something and she was saying she was cold. I suggested she get some socks on to help her warm up. She said, “my feet aren’t cold though.” So I explained that making her feet warm may just help her whole body feel warm. Then she said, “I know what will make me warm mamma! Mamma cuddles will!” And there it was, the real reason she was cold…she wanted a little more of my attention. She knows of no one who can pass on a good cuddle.
Alice is going through a period of misery. She is impossible to please and the only thing that would make her happy is eating adult portions of food. However, now she is getting pickier and she wants to eat, but we can’t figure out what she will eat. She cries most of the day (like she is right now) and that makes for a long day for everyone. She likes to leave the house and go to new places or have new people at our house for diversion. She is extremely bored of Ruby and I and we can’t seem to entertain her. Ruby and I both jump, trying to please her and we’ve decided that Alice is in charge. Ruby will say to me when we are both exhausted of trying, “Mom, who’s in charge here?” and I’ll say, “Babes is.” And we both laugh because we don’t know what else to do. Ruby loves to give Alice the benefit of the doubt. She’ll usually say (I’m reminded because she just did say it), “Babes must have more teeth coming in.” Alice says a few words now. She just started with “Dada” and she says, “pooh pooh”, “ucky”, “ni night”, “banana”, “bonk” (sounds like gonk), “good girl” and “num num”. At 16 months, not much of a talker. She is full of energy and loves to stand up in her high chair and stick things in outlets. All the things we had to work really hard to teach Ruby to do, Alice just does on her own. She taught herself to safely come down the stairs, climb up on the couch, etc. She is a good sleeper and loves to follow Ruby and her friends anywhere they go. She is possessive of everything that is in Ruby’s hands, and doesn’t take “no” for an answer.
Valentine Artist
Ruby made her own Valentines this year. She put as many "princess stickers" on each one as possible. Her friends loved them!
Ruby feeding Alice a bottle
Ruby's enthusiasm over having a baby sister hasn't waned even a little bit in the past sixteen months. Now that Alice is too big to "hold", Ruby loves to take advantage of the few minutes it takes Alice to down her milk to hold her.
Alice's Many Faces
Alice loves to make funny faces. She'll go from "smiley" to "stink eye" and then back to "smiley". Here she is making funny faces for the camera during a bath. She is a very spunky little girl. She is loud with lots of persistent sounds for things she wants. This particular day, I decided to allow her to bring her prized blanket into the tub. I usually fight her, but there comes a time when she just needs to learn. Ruby learned the same lesson around this same age with her Piggy. Boy was Alice stressed out when she couldn't lift her drenched blanket. Good thing we have a spare!
Our Ballerina
Ruby loves to dance. We have her in a ballet/tap/tumbling class at a local studio. She really enjoys it. Not the most graceful at her age, but she is thrilled to be a ballerina. She'll dance herself breathless at home anytime she hears music playing. Sometimes, if she is really serious, she'll ask me not to watch. Her friend Kiley (the blond) takes the class with her and her mom is the talented teacher.
Snow Day (January)
Whoops, forgot to rotate that picture! We had snow as early as November this year, but I didn't get Ruby out to play in it until we had a week or more of snow. It was fun for her to eat the snow and learn to make a snow angel.
New House
Many of you know that we recently moved. We still live in the same city, but we moved to a neighborhood that is strategically placed by shopping, freeways and Chris' work. We just couldn't stand the 20 minute, six mile drive from our house to the stuff we needed, so we relocated to the backyard of everything. We found a house that we feel we can stay in forever. It is nice to imagine that the painting, landscaping and decorating we do will be ours to enjoy long term. It is an older home built in 1990 on a private .46 acre lot. It needs some cosmetic updating, but otherwise, we love it. We moved in the beginning of January. We have a stunning view of Mt. Rainier in front of the house. Here are some pictures I took the day we started moving in. I wanted before pictures of all the wallpaper so that we can remember what it looked like before we transform it.
Making an Effort to Update...
Previously, our family has had a website, www.etherdox.com/family/Ruby/ (username: rubyjane Password: pierce). This website is maintained by Pam, my sister-in-law and we love it! I haven't been very good about posting to it the last few months, and it is silly to take her time when there are such convenient, free options out there that I can bother myself with. So...please refer here for our family updates from now on!
I realize that this will be full of pictures of our kids and may only be interesting to our distant extended family...that's okay, because that is what it is for.
I realize that this will be full of pictures of our kids and may only be interesting to our distant extended family...that's okay, because that is what it is for.
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