Holidays in Review

2009 is here! We're still reveling in the wonder of Christmas and Thanksgiving - here is a recap. Somehow three of the six Hinckley sibs are currently living in states placed not too far apart from each other in that vast expanse known as Middle America: Kansas, Ohio, North Carolina. So a Cincinnati Thanksgiving it was, and we even convinced Uncle Spence to fly in from Salt Lake for the event. We had seven adults and seven children - pure chaos and pure magic. Cincinnati had gorgeous weather, and we ate a meal that would make Michael Pollan proud - local organic farm fresh herbs, vegetables, and eggs. Amish pasture-farm raised turkey. Milk from a pasture based dairy farm less than three hours away. Local honey. Homemade rolls. The Rowans worked their gourmet magic. Jenni whipped up scrumptious Koelliker rolls and mashed potatoes (and even taught the nieces to make the rolls). Pure gustatory pleasure all around. Spence let the kiddos crawl all over him all the time. Ann and I went running on the Loveland Bike Trail. Jamin played football and swingset games with the kids in our backyard. We cried as the cars drove out of the driveway towards their home states, and when we dropped Spence off at the airport. Ellie keeps saying, "Mom, where are the kiddos? I want to play with kiddos." I think the picture on the sofa says it all:

Fortunately, Grammie and Pops arrived a week later with pictures of each kiddo, so Ellie can flip through a picture book and talk to her cousins. Grammie and Pops were here for Matt's blessing, a quick but very wonderful visit.

Little guy is the most adorable baby boy on the planet. Period.

Christmas came and went too quickly. I always want to savor every single bit of Christmas, and there is never enough time - never enough time to hear all the great Christmas songs on repeat, never enough calm candlelit nights, never enough quiet moments worshiping the Christmas tree and remembering the story behind each ornament. Christmas Eve and Christmas morning go way too fast. All too soon, the presents under the tree are opened and time marches on. At our house, the Christmas decorations are still up and I'm still listening to Christmas music. I think I at least get until the end of the year before I have to give up December magic entirely. We had a wonderful Christmas day with all the Lesans, and Ellie was very excited that Santa came to both our house and Grandma and Grandpa's house. Ellie got to visit Santa three times - once at the ward Christmas party, once at Macys, and once at the Zoo.
The one at the ward Christmas party was the one that stuck in her mind, apparently, because last week on the way to Church she said, "Matt, we go to Church. Jesus be there, and Joseph Smith, and Santa."

Sigh. Now it is New Year's Day, and I suppose it's time to take the Christmas tree down for another year. Good thing 2009 promises to be so wonderful!

Toddler Chic

I was in those last frantic minutes trying to get out the door for Church - gathering diapers, bottles, sippies, scriptures, and snacks. "I'm ready for Church, Mom," she said. I turned around and saw this:Here she is waiting patiently to go to the zoo:


And waiting to go to the park:


And dancing in her Cinderella costume from Grammie:


And cheering for the Buckeyes:

And today, sporting her new tall boots:

The Skeleton and the Pink Kitty Cat

Halloween 2008. Have you ever seen cuter kiddos? Ellie's trick or treat back was her Little Mermaid purse - a gift from Daddy's trip to New York last month. She was pretty much the hit of the neighborhood. Once she figured out that everyone gave her candy, she kept saying and signing, "More, Mom, more houses." In our neighborhood, everyone sits out on the driveway to observe the crowds and chat across lawns. The night was a balmy 60 degrees, making it even more pleasant. Upon approaching each neighbor with a candy bowl, Ellie reached out for the candy, put her purse down on the ground, reached down to open it, put the candy inside, and picked it up again. We caught it a few times on video, fortunately. Rob stayed home with Matt to hand out candy to the trick or treaters, and Marc and Sarah came over to join the fun. We topped of the evening by trick or treating at Nana and Papa's house, where Nana had a special chocolate covered Oreo treat for Ellie in the trick or treat bowl. Nana fed us roasted butternut squash soup, a delicious salad, and a magnificent apple cake dessert. What a glorious night!

Trick or Treat!

iRumor Turns to iWish Come True!

Many, many months ago, chatter about a new MacBook began appearing on the numerous geek blogs Rob follows. And I say "geek" with all the appropriate respect. Rob started dreaming, but tried to keep his hopes from soaring. After all, it was only an iRumor. And we'd just purchased my iMac with the intent that we were not buying him a new computer any time soon. Soon after the rumors started, however, Rob's computer started making suspicious groaning noises. Other things seemed to go awry as well. I took a deep breath and realized that his computer was on the verge of falling apart.

In our family, we don't share computers. It's one way we maintain a happy marriage.

Conveniently, our friendly US government decided to send us an economic stimulus check just about this time. I voiced the idea of putting it into savings. The computer groans seemed to get more intense, and the computer seemed even closer to absolute collapse. Convenient, indeed. I took a deep breath again and realized that there was no getting out of it - President Bush wanted us to spend that check, and Rob wanted it to be spent at the Apple store. So then the waiting began.

There were rumblings on the blogs about an early August release of the new MacBook. Rob dreamed of opening up a new MacBook for his birthday. Then as July approached, the rumors started to point to September. Well, that would be okay, Rob thought - he'd get a new computer with his new baby. But September came without an announcement from Steve Jobs. Finally, one glorious day in October, Apple confirmed that changes were coming in the MacBook, and that the formal announcement would be on October 14 at 1:00 p.m.

October 14 started early for Rob. He woke up at 6:00 a.m., giddy as a little boy on Christmas morning. Unable to get back to sleep, he went into work at 6:30. About 2:00, as Ellie and I were at the zoo with Monica and Pratt, Rob called. Good news - the new MacBook was going to be incredible. Bad news - it wouldn't be in stores until the following day. Rob asked me to call the Apple store and ask if the computers were in, just in case. They were not.

October 15 started even earlier for Rob. He woke up at 5:00 a.m., knowing that today was the day his iWish would come true. Unable to get back to sleep again, he went into work. Arrived at his desk at 5:45 a.m. Still unable to let reality sink in, Rob asked me to call again to make sure our Apple store had received the shipment of shiny new MacBooks. They had.

At 3:30 p.m. Rob called me again. He couldn't wait, he was leaving work immediately and heading to the Apple store, and did we want to meet him for the big moment. We did. So I piled both kiddos in the car and off we went. The Apple store only had one new MacBook on display, and Rob started to panic a bit. We found Steve the Salesman, who confirmed that the 13 inch MacBooks were in stock, but they had sold out of the higher end model earlier in the day. Good thing our economic stimulus check only allowed us to buy the cheaper model, or it would have been a pretty sad day! Steve the Salesman started selling, not realizing that he was speaking to a geek blog follower who knew more about the computer than he did. Finally, Steve brought out the gorgeous box and rang us up. And out we went. There's just no feeling in the world quite like carrying a new Mac out of the Apple store. Buyer's remorse is just not possible.

So life is pretty great around here. Yesterday, Rob sat in the family room watching the Buckeyes destroy Michigan State while he played on his MacBook. Can you think of a more perfect day? Just look at his face in this picture, taken upon our arrival home from the Apple store - talk about all your dreams coming true and living happily ever after!

Congrats, Rob. You deserve it!

"I do yoga," she said

Sometimes bedtime takes awhile to accomplish at our house. Ellie is good at stalling: "I need milk and water," "Want to read Cinderella," "Want one more song."

One evening this week she found a new tactic: do something bloggable. After jammies and a song or two, she suddenly announced, "I do yoga," and pulled herself into a down dog. How could we resist a few minutes of bedtime yoga?

Shenandoah Costume GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Shenandoah Costume GIVEAWAY !!!!!!!

Do you ever check Grosgrain? As a person who can't thread a needle, to say nothing of sewing on a button, I'm constantly amazed at what she creates. I'm dreaming of Ellie wearing this gorgeous southern antebellum dress. Isn't it amazing? Crossing my fingers that I win, although winning the Citrus giveaway and the Grosgrain give away in the same month would be a truly amazing stroke of luck!

This Week's Adventures

Here are a few more pictures of Matt from the past couple weeks. So cute!







And here are some of Ellie's recent adventures:


Yes, adventures with the highlighter. I was out of my office for no more than three minutes. When I came back, Ellie had climbed up on my desk, found the blue highlighter at the very back of it, and taken it to the floor for some experimentation.

The pool picture is Ellie and Claire Jensen. I finally captured a few photos of these pool buddies. Dani and I have been taking her twins and Ellie to the pool every week all summer, and we just realized that we don't have any pictures of these cute kiddos swimming in Nana's pool! We're always in the pool with them! So on a warm September evening when Mom was in town, and the Jensens were wonderful enough to have us for dinner and swimming, I captured a few photos to represent our favorite part of summer.

And here's how some tired parents spent part of General Conference. As has become tradition, we had Monica and Jon Gibson over for the weekend. Six months ago we both had toddlers. Now we have a toddler and newborn, and the Gibsons have a toddler and one in utero. So, yeah, fatigue is pretty much the standard these days. I snuck a photo of Rob while he was sleeping, and he retaliated by getting a photo of the rest of us later. Good thing we recorded all the sessions!