One year ago today...

We are absolutely smitten with this one. He is so so happy. Even today on his first birthday, he is sick and he still gave today 100%. His positivity is a breath of fresh air. We love him for every little moment he gives us. We love you Luke! Stats and other stuff

Poundage: 23 lb 13 oz.

Language skills: "Uh, oh", "Ma Ma" "Da Da" "No,No,No!"(first word), "Hi"

Non verbals: Gives Kisses, Waves Bye-Bye, folds arms for prayers

Special Talents: Dancing, Singing, Lip-sync, destroying cupboards

Motor Skills: Speedy stair climber, Approaches downstairs with caution (just learned to let himself down on his tummy),

Favorite Past-times: Pat-a-cake, Peek-a-Boo, Eating

Preferences: Mom's bed, Wiggles, Sesame Street, Dad for play time

Disposition: Always happy, except when sick or teething

Nuances: Picking mom's eyes, toilet fascination

spreading the love

generally we don't make too much fluff of valentine's day. we get a little something for eachother as a token of our affection in honor of the holiday, and if we are really lucky, we will try to go on a date, sans the kiddos (which rarely happens since everyone is going out and babysitters are in short supply).

this year we did something totally different, kind of by happenstance. we spent the entire Saturday, and much of the week beforehand making and organizing decorations and chocolate fountain stuff for an Elder's Quorum "Suprise" V-day Dance. some guys in the ward wanted to do it for their wives, and I ended up being the one let in on the suprise so that there would be more than a bowl of chips set out and a few red streamers hanging from the basketball goal. that's what happens when you're married to the EQ president. it was a lot of work but it ended up looking really pretty and those who did show up seemed to really get a thrill out of it

the best part of the night was the 45 minutes that I got to spend dancing with my three guys. not to throw ryan under the bus, but both of his little guys have already surpassed his moves. my little guys can really boogie.

the worst part of the day was the endless clean-up once we got it all back home. but the kids seemed to enjoythe decoration residue on Sunday, although Max was very sad to learn that a "mysterious bird" had entered our house Sunday night and flew away with all those balloons (right to the garbage can). he insisted for three days following that we go find that bird and put him into time-out for taking the balloons.

we enjoyed a nice dinner and i even tried my hand at a few festive treats. the idea was better than the turn-out I think, but it worked out alright. more than anything else, i think we felt exhausted at the end of lover's weekend. next year i think we will order out, get our treats from a bakery, and have our own little dance at home. wow, that sounds nice.

Birthday Preview

Luke's Great Gram sent a little something to him for his upcoming 1st birthday. To answer your question Gram--"What does a 1 year old do with $5?"--well I will show you. They throw it to the side and spend the next hour dancing to the Care Bear Music card that housed the greenback. Thanks, Gram. He, and his brother, love it.

Blessing Kian

Adorable

Two weeks ago we took a roady north for the blessing of my new nephew, Kian James Hassman, who is now about a month 1/2 old. It was a short but very pleasant trip and we were so thrilled to meet and hold that new adorable baby for the first time.

Proud Papa

Ryan was really glad that he was able to go with me, given his stint in the ER just 3 days before. I was really glad too as Ryan was the only guy from our side of the family to be there in the circle, other than Jim of course.

Our little family
Mothers in training

The night before we were to leave I kept telling Max that we were going to go to Uncle Jim's house to meet baby Kian. Max & Luke love their Uncle Jim and since we had Max's 3rd birthday at Jim's house in December that included a ride on Jane, Jim's horse, Max really loves Jim's house. I kept telling him we were going there to meet the baby, not for a birthday party or ScoobyDoo cake or horsey rides.Luke lovin' on Uncle Jim

To reinforce this concept I decided to pull up some pictures of baby Kian on Christine's blog.
Mom: "Max, come look at these pictures of baby Kian."

Max: "Oh, yeah. I like him Mom.

Mom: "You do? We are going to go see that baby at Jim's house. Can you tell me his name?"

Max: "Yep. It's Baby Jesus."

No pressure Kian. My beautiful sister-in-law and her brand new baby boy

The blessing was beautiful and Max was so excited to see the baby. Of course just as the closing prayer was said, Max's nose erupts into a bloody mess all over the place. We finally got it stopped and moved the circus into the lobby and onto Jim's house. I swear...can't anything just ever be easy?

Nice nose bleed buddy

Nana and crew enjoy the post blessing brunch

It was such a nice occasion, wonderful blessing, great company and best of all...

we got to love on this little guy!

It's hard, really hard

In my attmept to make an honest journalist out of myself, can I just say that today I win the award for worst mother ever! I feel like I need to check myself in somewhere. I lost my cool with Max about every 35 seconds or so.

As it turns out, every night I've really been praying to find the right parenting skill set in order to deal with my 3 year old who is hell bent on testing my limits. Today I think I was being given that chance over and over again , and over and over again, I failed. I kept having flashbacks of these power struggles I would engage my mother in, beginning with my exit from the womb and ending with my exit from the house.

I've been wanting to order some vinyl phrases for my home. I think I will start with this one: "God grant me patience to deal with my greatest blessings."

I would like it in wall-size please and it needs to be able to adhere to the ceiling above my bed. Heaven knows this is the first thing I need to see when I pry my eyelids open in the morning.

Womens Winter Wonderland Retreat, Magic Mountain, Idaho

My little sister Carrie invited all the Hassman ladies for a little women's retreat at her in-laws ski resort in Idaho last weekend. It was so much fun. There were about 18 women who came in all and we all stayed overnight at the lodge. We were treated to a yummy dinner and moon-lit snowshoeing (guided by my bro-in-law, Brandon) on Friday night. I have never been snowshoeing and doing it by the light of a full moon was incredibly beautiful. It was awesome. I kept thinking how cool it would be to do that with Ryan sometime. On Saturday we awoke to a delicious breakfast followed by a full day of tubing and snowboarding, with lessons included.

It was so nice of the Ryan's to let Jolea and I get away, sans the kiddos for a weekend, especially since I left on my husband's 33rd birthday! Kelsey was the taxi service and her little red sleigh did pretty good on the icy roads. Despite the missed exit and 40 mile detour, it was a fun road trip for Jolea, Kelsey & I.

I din't think snowboarding would come back to me after like 7 years, but it did. I'm still very much a beginner, which is why I coming down the very steep trail was not such a great idea, however, it was thrilling. Jolea was a champ and she attempted boarding for the first time. A few more times and she won't just be riding the lift, she will be ready to get off and let it go! Kelsey and Carrie are pretty darn good and are just working on tricks now. Oh, to be young. When Jolea and I fall, we felt it throughout our whole body. Those other two are like spring chickens.

It was so much fun to spoil and love on little Addie Jo. We loved just chillin' with Brandon and Carrie. Carrie's in-laws were so gracious to us. It was quite an eye opener to see how much work goes into running that place.

After a full day of snowboarding and falling again and again on our behinds, we thought a trip to the hot springs would be a great idea. I have to say Miracle Hot Springs was not only out in the middle of Nowhere, Idaho, but it was probably the strangest place I think I've ever been. It was like something out of a weird sci-fi movie set in a foreign country.

It was so fun to get away with a few of my sisters, but how I missed my boys. When I came home the little ones were well taken care of, the house was totally cleaned, all the laundry was done, and these flowers were waiting for me. I don't deserve him. I am one lucky girl.

33 and HOTT!

My man turned 33 on Friday. He gets better each year...in every way. We celebrated a day early as he wanted me to join my sisters for a girls ski weekend over his birthday.

SMART, FUNNY, HANDSOME, HARD WORKING, GOOD DAD, HELPFUL, FAITHFUL...really, do I deserve this?

Take a Guess

What do all these things add up to?

If you guessed this...

...chances are you know all about pee-pee treats, poop rewards, throwing away underwear, cleaning out underwear because you can't afford to keep buying it, carpet cleaner, etc...

Yes, Max is potty trained...well, mostly. #1 took about 3 days for him to figure out. He does better standing than sitting (amazingly). He is still trying hard to get #2 down, but we are having more success lately. I've learned that whenever he asks me to leave the room, I definately should not leave the room. Yeah, some things you have to learn the hard way.Max enjoying his Ki-Lan bubble machine (his first '#2' reward)

Lessons Learned
Kids will pee in the pot for Starbursts & poop for Scooby Doo. Who knew?

Underwear first, then Pull-Up over top for sleep times.

"Enduring to the End" means something totally different now.

I'm going to invent self cleaning carpets and make bajillions.

Give it at least 72 hours before you decide wearing diapers until they're 5 is totally acceptable.

Little potty seats & Pull-Ups--don't believe the hype.

Believe them the first time.
Another miracle happend in the toilet training week. Max decided he was okay with going to sleep in his own bed, by himself, for nap time. This is a HUGE breakthrough for our family. Now he prefers his bed for all sleeping over ours, but he still needs Dad to help him get to sleep at night. This is a TENDER MERCY for sure. Everyone is sleeping a little better around here which is PRICELESS.

SunBeam

Max is a SunBeam. He became one in January and I don't even know how that is possible. It seems as if we just got him settled into nursery. He is one of just over 40 Sunbeams in our ward. He is in the 4th of 6 Sunbeam classes. That should give you a pretty good idea of our Ward make-up.

Last Sunday a good friend of mine told me that whenever singing time starts he goes up to the front of the Primary room and stands right beside the chorister to lead the songs. The lady who plays the piano also told us that he claims the same chair on the front row each and every Sunday, the one right by the piano. Whenever she starts to play the music, he gets up to inspect the piano and her skills, then makes his way up to the front to assume his chorister position.

Apparently he isn't shy. Ryan was out in the hallway with Luke on Sunday and said he saw Max turning off the lights in his classroom at one point and then he ran out of the room another time.

Points to note: (1)Max needs to have his love of music nourished, (2)his inability to sit and listen must be addressed. Dually noted. That will be the lesson for FHE this week.

SHINER

We have no idea where or how he got this...(okay, let's be honest, we have a few ideas) but Luke woke up one morning with this beauty.

And this picture doesn't even show how bruised he really was!

When He Isn't...

It seems lately that Max is suffering from a serious case of

"IT'SMINE-YOUCAN'THAVEIT-NOIWANTIT"

Symptoms: outrageous tantrums, occasional physical aggression, mimicking threats one's parents use, and pouncing on individuals smaller than oneself

See Also Boy-Age 3

When Max isn't pouncing Luke, this is what we get...

and thankfully we get to enjoy this scene a lot.

IT MUST BE SOME CRAZY GENETIC THING...

Remember how Max likes to pick things...in particular my eyelashes to soothe himself to sleep? Well, I thought that it was just a weird picking thing that he did. We still have to remind him when he gets tired or anxious not to pick. (He tries to trade the eye lashes for picking the mole on my chin, as if that is somehow going to be allowed.)

Well, one of my fears as become a reality. Luke has started to try to pick...my EYES too! What in the world is up with my weird kids? He tries to start with the eyebrows and then make his way to my eyes. I have been a lot more stern this time around. We are breaking this little habit early...before he is three and asking "Picky eyes Mom?"

I have decided it must be a weird genetic thing and I am blaming the Loveless side because it's my blog and I can. The more I can blame on Ryan the better because there are already definite behaviors that I know come from their mother. So this one is on him.

Oh, and I am going see if this woman would like to come and live with us. It's the only solution I haven't thought of yet. Perhaps she can give me some relief.

'Twas the Morning of Christmas

'Twas the morning of Christmas,

all thru Nana's abode,

all the grandkids were stirring,

their parents out cold.

The mountain of presents,

nestled under the tree,

awaited terrorizing by

6 children and a baby.

16 stockings were hung

on every available hook,

A name on each one

to avoid candy crooks.

Santa brought a red slide

to one very good girl,

While their parents slept on,

The kids gave it a whirl!

After much prodding and pleading,

the parents awoke!

Only a few hours of sleep

seemed a cruel joke!

Aunt Jolea made order,

the deliverer of gifts--

a special position for sure

it was our Dad's favorite!

A tool set for Max,

For Luke busy gears,

Dad got some new runners,

keeping tight what's in rear.

Mom loved all her gifts,

the accessories for hair,

who new that burnt yellow,

was so popular this year!

What took hours on end,

to buy and make pretty,
took only minutes to unravel,
sometimes it seems such a pity.

Empty boxes and paper

made quite a large stash,

How would it all fit

Into Nana's trash?

After it was all said and done,

the kids stole out of sight,

Devouring the new toys

Santa had delivered last night.

All the glassy eyed parents

Longed for a sweet Christmas slumber,

But dinner needed fixen',

This crew is not few in number!

The turkey, the dressing,

The potatoes and yams,

Too many desserts,

Added a pound to my gams!Family time is for sharing

stories, time and of course games--

Jim taught us Texas Hold Em'

Skittles were lost and some gained!

Nana's place was just perfect

For our Christmas retreat, We miss our dear family

Counting down till we again meet!