Festival of Trees

We went to the festival of Christmas trees at the South Towne Expo Center this afternoon. For those who've never been, they have Christmas trees decorated to every possible theme you can imagine. Anyway I'm posting a couple of the trees that Crystal liked the best:

Elmo Christmas Tree:



Snowman Christmas tree:
(Crystal loves snowmen)


And the Star Wars Christmas tree
(You have to zoom in to appreciate the detail)

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Crystal Screamed at the Nutcracker tree...she's terrified of nutcrackers, don't ask me why. Unfortunately we didn't get a picture of that one. After we had enough of looking at trees we went to Black Angus for an excellent meal and called it a day.

November/Thanksgiving

Okay people, sorry it's taken a while to get on the computer. This break has been pretty crazy with the holiday season, and it just seems to keep going and going. Thanksgiving was great. We spent it at Lisa's parents home and actually ate early since Denise and Jared (Lisa's siblings) had to go to work. After the feast we just hung out at the house and picked at leftovers for the rest of the day if we got hungry again. We watched some thanksgiving movies; "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," (which is a tradition in both Scotts and Lisa's family to watch every year for thanksgiving), and "The Ultimate Gift," which just came out this year, but we like it, so we watched it as a big family as well.
After Thanksgiving we went to temple square during the weekend to show Crystal the lights and enjoy some holiday fun with Todd, Megan, Johnny, and Dani. (From scott's side of the family.) Then we went to Macaroni grill to enjoy some warm food because it was freezing.


We also set up the Christmas tree, which is fun with a nearly two year old because she was so excited she couldn't stop squealing the whole time. Daddy would unwrap an ornament and give it to Crystal, and Crystal would walk it across the room to Mommy and Mommy would hang it on the tree. Now Crystal insists on watching T.V. on the floor next to the tree because she likes to be next to it at all times.

So we've been having some fun.
Getting ready for Christmas is always fun. We went and bought some toys already (also during thanksgiving weekend), to get some holiday deals and get Crystal's presents ready. Just being in the toy store was an exciting field trip for her. The great thing about toddlers is they don't really care about the expensive stuff yet. When Lisa was three she wanted a little plastic alligator to play with in the tub. When her youngest brother was about that age he wanted a bag of marbles to play with. Crystal seemed the most happy by a little mock cell phone and some plastic bath toys...(she's obsessed with bathtoys, much like her mom was).
We're also planning on going to the Festival of trees tomorrow since Crystal is so obsessed with Christmas trees.
In a few weeks we're taking off to spend our Christmas in Philadelphia with Scott's family, which will be fun because we don't get to see them that often. Scott's parents are nice enough to fly us out there as a graduation present to Scott...who's graduating in a couple of weeks. Life has been busy and will continue to be for the next couple of months with some of the stuff that we have planned and some other things that have come up.
Well sorry if this update has been a little long and maybe boring. I'll try and do better next time. Here are a few more pics for the friends who love to look at pictures and don't get bored by them:

Fake Smile

Crystal has a fake/courtesy smile she uses whenever we've asked her to smile for pictures lately. The problem is, it looks nothing like a smile and she just looks like she's crazy. I had to get it on video before she stops doing it and it'll just be a memory. Kids can be so odd...but they make me laugh.

fake smile from Lisa on Vimeo.

How we spent our Halloween

This was a fun and memorable Halloween. First, we ran to the Grocery store to pick up a pumpkin to carve for Crystal at the last second. Then we headed over to Lisa's parents house to get ready for Halloween night. We got Crystal dressed up in her bumblebee outfit, and then Lisa carved the pumpkin for Crystal. Crystal got to watch and really enjoyed it. Once it was carved, she immediately played with it, and looked for things to hide in it. After that was done, we immediately started helping Lisa's dad for the preparations in the scare fest, that was to follow in the front yard. For those who don't know, Lisa's parents go all out for Halloween. There are all kinds of gross and scary things on display in the front yard, from impaled heads, to bloody corpses on nooses. The real fun, however, is on Halloween night, when all the men in the family along with some of the neighbor boys, participate in scaring any brave trick or treaters who come to the door. On Halloween, all these boys replace the dummies in the front yard with themselves, and jump out and chase children all over the yard. They had smoke machines, strobe lights, sound effects, and a professional amplifier with a microphone where Lisa's dad would scare the children with his evil laugh when they would try and ring the doorbell. Lisa's brother, Matt, would be posing as a corpse in a coffin, that was also on display in the front yard and pop out at anyone who came near. He asked Lisa to do his makeup. Lisa used some latex, fake skin, oil paint and fake blood to makeup his face and it took a couple of hours, but looked great. In the meantime, Scott got dressed up in an extremely scary Devil Costume to pose as a statue at the front door, opposite the witch statue that Lisa made with her mom which was pictured in an older post. Crystal is afraid of the devil costume, so we had to hide her with grandma where she watched beauty and the beast, while he got dressed up in it. Anyway, when kids were getting close to the door, Scott would break his statue pose and try to grab them, which was usually a huge shock as you can imagine. He made many children cry this year. Jared and Mike, (Lisa's two other brothers) were also dressed in scary costumes and mingled themselves in with the display to scare the children. As sneaky as it was, it's also a little funny to watch little batman see a dummy come to life, and turn and run down the street as fast as he can without looking back. All the kids who were brave enough to make it to the doorbell were rewarded with king sized candy bars, and large packets of skittles. The really little kids that made it, got the most candy since they were so brave. So we did try and make it worthwhile for them. Every year, the whole neighborhood looks forward to the scare display in the front yard at Lisa's parents house. There were a lot of groups that came this year...so many in fact that it took nearly an hour longer than other years to shut down. Obviously the parents who had sensitive children knew not to bring them to the house, but it's a lot of fun for the kids who want to see how brave they are. During all the scaring, Lisa took Crystal around the block to go trick or treating for the first time. Crystal took to it like a duck to water. The only problem was that instead of saying "trick or treat" she'd say "More candy?" when people would open the door. After they would close the door she'd look up at Lisa and say "Nother house?" She got so used to this routine that sometimes she would embarrass Lisa when a neighbor would take out the candy by digging both of her little fists in the bowl and trying to pull out as much candy as possible to stuff in her bag. After trick or treating, we went back to the house (the scarer's kindly stopped scarring long enough to let us in the house) and crystal got out of her costume, and immediately went through her bag of candy, unwrapped all the suckers, and made a sucker bouquet to lick as she toddled around the house. Lucky for us, Crystal doesn't really like candy, and after a few licks gets bored and gives up. Crystal would take a plate of broccoli any day over a cookie. We have no problem with that, and as a result, don't really have candy at home, so we don't know what we're going to do with it all. So far, she's just been laying it all out and organizing it into little piles...but once again, won't eat it, which is perfectly fine with us. When the boys finally shut down the haunted front yard, we sang happy birthday to Lisa's mom, who's birthday is on Halloween, and we all had some cake. Everyone enjoyed themselves this year.

Clean teeth

As a dental assistant I saw many unspeakable things happen to peoples mouths when they didn't take care of their teeth. This has made having clean teeth a big deal for me, and as a result, I always try to make sure Crystal's teeth are clean too. (Little kids with big cavities in the dental chair is a heartbreaking sight).
Anyway, I'm glad to report that Crystal loves brushing her teeth. As a matter of fact, she's slightly obsessed with it, and would do it all day long if I let her. When I tell her it's time to put the toothbrush away and do other things she gets really upset and cries and cries. I guess if I were a nicer mom I'd just let her do it all day, but I'm afraid she'll spill water everywhere if I'm not watching her, and I don't want to deal with the mess. Here's a 12 second clip of her brushing her teeth. The background music is Scott playing his xbox.

LET THE GAMES BEGIN.....

Welp, it's about that time. I am really not looking forward to this since I potty trained two of my brothers and my cousin when they were toddlers and it was horrible. Of course I was much much younger, so I'm hoping that it will be easier for me this time around. She's still pretty young though, so I'm not going to pressure her. POTTY ON DUDE!

Pushing the limit

I told Crystal today that she was not allowed to get off the couch while I went to make her chocolate milk, because I didn't want her to take out all the toys I'd just put back into her box. She knows when I mean business and knew that I didn't want her off the couch until I got back at all. I explained to her that when I got back she could come off the couch all she wanted, but not until then. The problem is like all toddlers she gets bored fast, so instead of climbing off, she just found a more interesting way to sit on it....she took her pants off and climbed to the very top. When I came out she just waved at me. At least she's obedient.

"Honey!"

Crystal is having her friend Gabriel (the son of Scott's friend, Mark Owens) over everyday this week for an hour or so, and for some reason when he came over yesterday she decided that she needed to refer to him as "honey" instead of Gabe. I guess she just copies what she sees at home. She did this the whole time he was over. If you listen carefully she keeps saying "Thank you honey!" every time she hands him the ball.

Crystal is ready for Halloween!

Here's Crystal looking festive for the season. Unfortunately by the time we were done taking pictures it was naptime so she had a tantrum in the last picture...but it looked really funny cause of the outfit, so I posted it in the slideshow.

Lazy

To keep her out of mischief, I let Crystal have her own little bowl of popcorn in her playpen while I got ready to go out. When I came back she had it balanced on her tummy and was laying on her back eating it like a lazy bum.


What a little Goof ball! She never ceases to amuse me.

Making Children Mind Without Losing Yours

I am currently in the process of reading a really great book called "Making Children Mind Without Losing yours" By Dr. Kevin Leman.
Dr. Leman, is a well known psychologist and the author of 21 books on marriage and family, and also has been a guest on Oprah, The view, Regis, Good Morning America and many other popular television programs.
Unlike many psychologists, he is a very devout Christian and father of five, who believes in incorporating the Savior in all family aspects, including how we discipline our children.
The book, is largely based on the scripture Ephesians 6:1-4 which states:
"Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right.
Honour thy father and mother; (which is the first commandment with promise;)
That it may be well with thee, and thou mayest live long on the earth.
And, ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord."
Of course, not being LDS and not using the King James version, his quotation is slightly different, however the idea is the same, making it applicable to LDS parents as well as those of his own religion.
A lot of what he writes is how our relationship with Christ can make us a better parent, and a better friend to our children.
One of the key methods he uses in parenting is called Reality Dicipline, which incorporates establishing a healthy authority over your children, holding them accountable for their actions, letting reality be the teacher, using action more than words (instead of warning your child a thousand times what your going to do if they keep up negative behavior), and living by your values.
He explains the differences between healthy and unhealthy discipline, as well as explaining why children misbehave and what to do about it.
He also gives informative and simple suggestions to everyday issues in raising kids like picky eating, temper tantrums, sibling rivalry, attention seeking, lying, forgetting, talking back, bedtime battles, potty training, watching too much TV, road trips, dangers of life, peer groups and many, many other issues that parents continually deal with. His suggestions can be applied to children from as early as 2 years old up through the teenage years.
He has entire chapters on setting suitable allowances, curfews, and privileges, and how to use them as a means of discipline when the child misbehaves.
Accountability is a big deal to this author. He explains that children as a whole in society are growing up without learning to be accountable for their own decisions, and as a result, struggle when they start to grow up and enter the real world.
Something I also like about him is that he makes it clear that child rearing is an art form, and a lot of times you have to go with your gut. He also explains that although his book offers many suggestions, that it is up to the reader to decide what is appropriate to use in their home and what they choose to do without.
Not all of it is easy, especially how he emphasizes on remaining calm as a parent when your child is acting up, and to be careful not to discipline them in the heat of anger and frustration. However, his suggestions make a lot of sense, and I hope to practice many of his suggestions with my own children.
Anyway, I recommend this book to all my friends out there who are raising little children of their own, and would like to look at some new options on ways to teach your child how to be responsible and successful, while using authority and decisiveness to show your children that you care about them.
I bought it used, on amazon for four dollars including shipping and handling, and I'm sure you can all find it for the same price if you just buy it used instead of new, which I also recommend. Have a nice day! (:

Fall season is here, so far so good

Sorry it's been a while since we stuck in some new posts, (a special apology to Liz). I guess it's easy to get sidetracked into the daily stresses of life and loose track of the little things. September was a good month. Not too much new going on around here. Crystal has become obsessed with the magnets on the fridge, so we bought the little alphabet letter magnets, which have become her new favorite pastime. It actually comes in handy as a great distraction when she starts getting whiny. Lately as soon as she acts up, one of us will say something like "Go find me a letter J." She then gets a huge grin on her face and runs to the fridge and stares at it for fifteen minutes until she finds out where the J (or whatever letter we ask for) is hiding and brings it to us. Now that it's October, we're helping Lisa's parents with their somewhat famous Halloween display in their front yard. Every year they successfully frighten all the young trick-or-treaters in the neighborhood with their decorations, smoke machines, sound effects, etc. They go all out, and as a result, many in Lisa's family look forward to Halloween every year. We'll be sure to post a few pictures when it's finally all set up. Conference was awesome, as always. We look forward to reviewing the talks for the next six months to catch anything we may have missed when Crystal would get loud...but hey, that's parenthood, right? Other than that, nothing too new happening. Here are some fun pics of Crystal being Crystal to pass the time:

Halloween decorating

Here is a Witch Lisa made with her mom during the priesthood session while the husbands were gone. We added a cape which we bought at Savers later on, but it's not in the picture. It's going to be the newest addition to the display in her parent's front yard. Isn't it nice and ugly?

Another haircut

Okay, this is the last time I'm going to cut it for a while, I promise. I guess I just get bored so I mess with my hair a lot. I actually did it a while ago and forgot to post it for those who care, so here you go. As you can see, it's a couple inches shorter with some added highlights. I like it.

Elmo is religious

So every night before Crystal goes to sleep I run through a little prayer with her. She loves to pray with me, and is very obedient when asked to fold her arms. Her favorite part is saying "Amen!" at the end. As a matter of fact, she doesn't call it "praying", she just refers it to doing "amen". Well the other night after we said our prayer together we read her usual Elmo book. On one of the pages Elmo is bending over and laughing with his arms crossed over his belly, and when we got to that page, Crystal brightened up and said "Elmo amen too!" I never looked at it that way before, but she did...what an observant little girl!