Kids are so random

Last night during dinner Kenley looks down at her shirt, sniffs, and announces, "I smell... perfect!"

Hampton Family Christmas - eating dirt, a Snow White Virgin Mary, and other adventures

The riveting details of our holiday? You know you want to know...

From earlier in the week...So the box of gift from the in-law Hamptons contained these silver pots with dirt pods and seeds so you can grow your own spruce tree. Parker REALLY wanted to play with Kenley's and was actually throwing a ginormous tantrum about it for some reason, but of course I couldn't find his. After a 20 minute search, I found it on top of my computer armoire, handed it to him, and said, "Here! Geez!" or something similarly loving. And he grabs the dirt pod out of the bucket and takes a huge BITE out of it! I guess he thought it was a cookie the whole time. Oh man, the expression on his face was awesome. I mean, sad, but seriously awesome.

Christmas Eve morning we had Santa and Christmas with our own little family so that it wouldn't be too rushed on Christmas. All went well. Kenley decided that what her little heart desired was Princess Dress-ups. A fabulous coincidence since that's what Santa had already gotten for her. So the kids loved their gifts. They're easy to please. Then James headed off to work and we went to San Diego to spend the day with my family.

We have been searching for a new Christmas Eve tradition for the past few years. We used to go to a fancy party but it either got cancelled or we were uninvited, so we've been left tradition-less. This year we were lucky enough to have Kathleen Muir and my cousin Calvin with us, so even though we were missing James, we had enough of a crowd to feel compelled to do something. My mom decided we were going to do a talent show (?) and have my two young children act out the Nativity story. The talents were wonderful. Kenley's talents? She "sang" Away in a Manger, and danced with Parker. But she announced that her real talent was going to be to lay out all her new Princess Dress-Ups in matching outfits and change into a new one for each talent. Which she did. So before anyone did a talent, we had to wait for a three year old to go put on a shirt, skirt, bracelet, headpiece, and clip-on earrings. All by herself in the downstairs bathroom. I'm afraid it held up the proceedings a little, but she was quite proud of her "talents." I was quite impressed that she could put on the clip-on earrings by herself. Here she is with her clothes all laid out.


Then it was time for the ill-planned Nativity. You know how some families have props and costumes and a reverent spiritual experience? That's not really how we roll. We had no baby Jesus, so had to debate which would be the least sacriligious substitute: my mom's old dog Bailey, her angel bear tree-topper, or Meow the mangy stuffed cat. We finally decided none of them really compared to the fact that the Virgin Mary was being acted out by a three-year-old in a belly-baring Snow White costume, so we went ahead with the bear tree-topper wrapped a towel. I look forward to continuing the tradition and this was definitely a memorable first year. I tried to upload the video but it didn't work, and wasn't actually all that riveting so I didn't make much of an effort. But here's Mary like you've never seen her before:


Then Christmas morning we were off to celebrate with Dad and Joanie, who were so sweet to get us tickets to go see Wicked. We can't wait! It was a really fun and relaxing day, although Kenley threw up all day and four times that night. Good times. And we haven't even celebrated with my mom and Kirk yet, so stay tuned for more awesomeness.

I love these guys:

A few of our latest little stories

Oh, my little Kenley. She is so sweet and funny. She says things every day that just make me so happy. She has such a tender little heart. Yesterday Parker hit her on the head with a plastic golf club and she was crying her little eyes out. I put him in a time-out in his room and then had him come in to say sorry to Kenley. She kisses him and says, "It's okay, buddy." Then she looks up at me with these red, tear-stained eyes and says, "I know he not mean to Mommy." Awww... Then also yesterday Parker inadvertently hurt me as well, and she's patting my back and saying, "It's okay. You're alright Mommy. He not mean to. He not mean to."

Then today we had one of our funniest Kenley moments ever. There are still a few words she really mispronounces, and "poodle" is one of them. She thinks it's called a "toodle." So I let her wear a poodle barrette today just so I could hear her say "toodle" all day, and when she was telling my mom about her toodle barrette, I told her, "Hey Kenley, did you know that Bailey (my mom's dog) is part poodle? His mommy was a poodle." And her head jerks around to my mom, totally confused, and she goes, "Gwandma? You was a toodle?!" After I stopped laughing I had to explain to her that Grandma Kerry isn't Bailey's real mom, that he has a dog mom out there somewhere, who, incidentally is/was a poodle. Or toodle.

Kenley always gets embarrassed when I tell stories about her, so tonight when she overheard me telling my friend Jaime this story, she had to quickly think of something to upstage it, so she shouted from the backseat, "No! Tell her the bad story about the Animal Park!" So at her request, I'll tell you all as well.

Saturday night we met some friends at the Wild Animal Park to see the Festival of Lights. I was really debating because it was FREEZING, but decided to go. So I gather coats, mittens, and hats (don't laugh, it was seriously cold), load the kids in the car, drive an hour to the Wild Animal Park, set up our double jogger, load the kids and winter gear into the stroller, stand in line to shell out $100 for our new passes, finally meet up with our friends (an hour late), where we proceed to first go down to this area where they have these little turtle shells for the kids to play in and on. And then Parker proceeds to fall into the nasty, stinky, cold duck pond, and I have to fish him out. Within our first ten minutes at the Park. Possibly our first five. Yes, he went totally under. Yes, I had a freezing, stinky boy. No, I did not leave the Park. Did you even read all I went through to get there? I changed him into a different jacket on top, then stole a jacket from the Lost and Found (with the Park's permission), stuffed his legs through the arm holes, and tightened it with my hair tie to make him an awesome pair of "pants." And then I told him that he'd dang well better smile and enjoy the night. And you know what? I don't think either of them even liked the Festival of Lights all that much. I love being a mom.

She's home!

Okay, I'm done with my blogging hiatus. My sis is back, we had an exciting night welcoming her home. She told us later that she almost missed her flight to San Diego; she had a really short layover and RAN from one end of the airport to the other and got there just as the door was closing. We're so glad she made it. I think I would have hyperventilated if I had had to wait any longer to see her. Not to mention it would have messed up our dinner plans. :)

We had a great crowd down at the airport - immediate family, some close friends, and the added bonus of having some additional family in from out of town. Then we met at Scott's apartment for a big dinner from California Pizza Kitchen, where we all got to visit and chat a little bit more.

To answer the most common questions:
*What is she planning on doing now? Getting married to a guy she met on the plane! Just kidding. She's just riding it out through the holidays, spending time with family and friends, and then she'll figure out her life. No rush.
*Did Parker and Kenley remember her? Well, Parker was a mere 6 weeks old when she left, so no. Kenley.... I don't know. Andrea has just always been a part of our lives, through pictures and stories. I don't know whether or not she remembers life when Annie was here, but she definitely knew who she was, and remembers going to see her in Nauvoo.
*Is she adjusting okay? Mostly. She is very much her normal self, other than the fact that she keeps proclaiming how cute her bedspread is at Mom's house, and it's this total country bumpkin print that is so not her style, I think she's confused. But other than that, her personality hasn't changed a bit. She is still just going about her life figuring out how she can cram the most into each day, hanging out with the most people, and being the most productive she can be.

Ready for picture overload? Here you go:

Still doing missionary work as she exits the plane:


Apparently amazed that we all came to meet her:


Parker was not too sure of how to respond to all the madness:

I am Thankful

For this:

For some reason, my thoughts lately keep turning to the group of girls I grew up with and how thankful I am for their friendship. We moved to San Diego in 1987 and quickly became friends with the Muirs, Drakes, Fishers, and Humberstones. Along the way we added a few more families and friends, and in the years that passed, we spent countless hours together. As we got older, the line between my group of friends and Andrea's was blurred as some of us went to college together, got married, and had babies. How lucky we are to still share our ties with these same families.

The morning of Thanksgiving we ran a 5K with the Drakes, and Tara mentioned to me that she thinks that Kenley looks a lot like Andrea at that age. It's really just amazing to me that I now have a child the same age that Andrea was when we moved here. I remember when Jana was born, and now she's in college. Later that day we had Thanksgiving dinner at the Muir home, and as Erin and I laid on the floor together, watching our collective five children play together, I was just so happy to have this, to have these girls. For some reason I thought when I went to college I might lose these friendships, or when I got married, or when I had kids, but here we all still are.

We've all been through trials in our 20 years of friendship, but these girls have supported and sustained me and my family through so much. We have so many wonderful memories together. I love that they know me in the context of my whole family and basically my entire life, that they know where I came from and what has made me who I am. I love that they can pinpoint facial expressions that my kids make, and it's not just me who notices that it looks like a face that Scott or Annie made when they were a kid.

In honor of so many good memories with these girls, I'll share one of my favorites. I was sleeping over at Erin's house, and Alan Sabin was having a sleepover with Devan. Erin and Devan's bedrooms shared a wall, and late that night we had the idea to listen in on their conversation, doubtlessly expecting to hear something like, "Hey, do you like so-and-so?" "Yeah, she's hot." Instead, we heard.... silence.... silence... silence.... and then Alan asking, "Do you ever sleep with your socks on?" So much for the profound conversations of teenage boys. It still makes me laugh.

I love all you girls. You are the best.

Oh, and tomorrow? My sister comes home! We will keep everyone posted on the many parties and get-togethers that I'm sure are forthcoming!