time with my mom

Tosh, Liv and I have been in Utah with my folks for the past two weeks. For updates on my mom's health please go here: http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/maryanadunning.

There is so much that I could write about, but in general I will say that it has been so wonderful to be here and to have the opportunity to help my parents and to serve my mother in any way I am able. I am truly treasuring this time.

I've been going through some of my mom's photos and things and wanted to share just a few favorite old photos of my mom:

This next one was on the boat to (or from?) Hawaii in the early 60's (my mom did a semester at the University of Hawaii with some of her girlfriends):
I love this one from 1976:

I haven't taken many photos since I got here but here are a few. Tosh and Liv playing with toys in my parents' basement:

Don't you love this sweet Sesame Street house that I played with as a kid?

Tosh and Liv were so excited to see and play in the snow a week ago! They even got a chance at helping to build a snowman.

This next one was while we were out for a walk in my parents' neighborhood a few days ago. (Liv wasn't willing to join us in the photo):

I should have Rob write a post about the doings in Arizona, including getting our kitchen cabinets painted and Hewitt losing a front tooth! Those boys are staying very busy and sounds like they are doing well and having a lot of fun too (dinner with friends, staying up late to watch Rob play church ball, etc.).

I realize there is a lot I am leaving out, but don't have the time (or energy) to write it all down. Thanks for all of the notes and texts; we appreciate the support and prayers. I know that our family is being blessed right now for sure.

take-off!

I love this face. Here we are, Utah!

memory monday: dear diary

So I'm in the mood for something light-hearted today.

Liv found my first journal in our bookcase and was carrying it around yesterday morning before church. I opened it up and read a few entries to Rob. We were laughing our heads off at this one, although it's kind of sweet at the same time:

Jan. 12, 1986
Good hello!
It's 8:04 and pretty warm for a January.
Boy ya know for some reason I feel real special tonight. I don't know why. I gave a talk in primary today, and I think I did okay. Ya know I wish I were 14 or 16 because then I could go to the stake dances and date. Tomorrow is a school skating party. I hope Geoff doesn't ask me to skate with him! He calls all the time and asks if I'll go with him. I don't like to thow. [I liked this guy, but wasn't allowed to "go with boys" of course]
I just recently got home from a church meeting. Thats probably why I feel good! My stomach kind of hurts thow. I in the past week had a lot of bad stomach hurts. I'm pretty bored. I'm glad it's a new year. I was getting sick of "85! Well I'm getting tired--
Tamsen Dunning

That last line about "getting sick of '85" had us rolling. And my poor parents that I was so boy crazy by age 10 (if not before).

holiday wrap-up

I thought I would try to catch up on the last two weeks.

Let's see, the last of the new Lego sets were finished up. The boys worked well putting this together (they were each in charge of their own section):

The Friday before New Year's we went to a little railroad park in Chandler that we've never been to before. The kids always enjoy a new playground, and they had fun walking around the duck pond enjoyed the merry-go-round and train ride, of course. Some photos from my phone:

Liv LOVED the Merry-go-round and afterwards would say, " That ride is awesome!" I think that's the first time I've heard her say 'awesome' and it sounds so cute as you can probably imagine. We went to the park probably five times over the last week and a half. One day we went to the park in our neighborhood and the boys all rode scooters over (Rob got a new Razor scooter for Christmas) and I walked with Liv while she pushed Bunny in the stroller. When the boys got ahead of us around the corner, Liv yelled out (very loud and clear), "Wait up, boys! I coming!" It was so cute. When we got the park Liv called out, "I here now Daddy!" She is cracking us up all the time.

Here is a random photo from my phone of Hewitt in the glasses (from an FBI set) he got from Burke for Christmas. After he put on the glasses he said, "Do I look more like Burke now? Because I want to." p.s. Hewitt seemed disappointed when he accompanied me to my eye exam and was told that he didn't need glasses when the got a turn at reading the wall chart.

We spent a few days working on potty training with Liv over the break. She is willing to sit on the potty most of the time, but I'm not sure she is really ready. She is starting to wear a pull up some, but I'm not in any real hurry and am not going to stress over this right now.

She has been carrying this "Indiana Jones" bag that my mom make for Burke's Halloween costume (in 2008) as a purse. She puts all sorts of goodies in her "purse" and then distributes her random treasures throughout the house.

Liv's bangs are finally long enough to lie down flat (instead of sticking straight up). I try to comb part of her hair over so the missing hair doesn't look so obvious. I think she is looking more normal...she sure is a blondie.

When we were at a city park on Tuesday, Liv climbed right to the top of this huge rock (One of the young women in our ward was up there and helped her at the end or I would have never let her do this). I couldn't believe how easily she got up there--almost scary. She truly is part monkey! She was so proud of herself and didn't want to get down.

Besides playing outside in the high 70's weather we've been having, we've done some house organizing and yard work. The kids head back to school tomorrow and things will be back to normal for a couple of days.

My mom has had a couple of rough days this week and after much discussion, Rob and I decided that I should fly to Utah on Thursday with Tosh and Liv to spent time with my parents (and hopefully be of some support/help). Our plan is that Rob and the older boys will drive up to get us in a couple of weeks. Liv and Tosh are so excited to fly on an airplane (Tosh is our only child that hasn't been on one, but of course Liv was too little to remember). We would appreciate you keeping our family in your prayers. Thanks and Happy New Year.

a very merry CHRISTMAS!

We've had a fun and busy week. My mom got the okay from her doctors to head south, so my folks drove to our home last Saturday. My brother Mark and his family also arrived on Saturday, and my sister Mindy was here with her daughter Samantha that night too (they were driving home to Texas from here). My brother Todd and his family arrived on Monday and we all had a great week together.

My mom spent most of one day at the hospital (ER) which was a bummer, but luckily they got her taken care of and got her the infusion she needed without admitting her. She has felt pretty well though and we are grateful for that.

I didn't really take any photos until the morning everyone left, but the cousins had a great time playing together and we were all able to enjoy the nice weather and play outside and do some hiking (My 12-year-old nephew is working on his 'hiking' merit badge and did two ten-milers that I joined him for most of).

The adults (plus my cousin Bob) were all able to go to the Mesa temple one day to do family sealings for some ancestors on my father's side. It was a very special experience. Here are a couple of photos we took outside as we were leaving:

(Back row: Mark, Grandpa Dunning, Rob and Bob.
Front row: Katherine, me, Grandma Dunning, Todd and Tracey.)

A photo of the kids while we waiting for everyone to gather: Back row: Eliza (Todd's), Rylan (Mark's), and Burke
Middle row: Adler (Todd's), Liv, McKaylynn (Mark's, Tosh, and Taylor (Mark's)
Front row: Tyra (Todd's), Cami (Mark's), Brock (Todd's), and Hewitt

My brothers both left on Friday to get home before Christmas. Boy, it sure seemed quiet without all the cousins here. I also laughed that cooking a turkey dinner on Christmas Eve for just the eight of us seemed pretty easy after cooking for a party of 20 all week! :)

After turkey, stuffing, etc. on Saturday night, we acted out the nativity (Grandpa was the narrator and Grandma was our audience):

Liv was very excited to be the angel and did not want to take the costume off. She was slightly tired by the end of the night, can you tell?
I really like having Christmas fall on Sunday. The last time that happened, Burke was three and Hewitt was one. Since we had church at 1:00 today, we let the kids eat new sugar cereal for breakfast, then we showered and got dressed for church, opened presents and then had a big late brunch of waffles, sausage, peaches, etc. before leaving for church.

Here is the gang all ready to open gifts:

I got a lot of pictures today, but here are some of my favorites:

For family home evening a couple of weeks ago we took each of the kids shopping to pick out presents for their siblings. The older boys willingly used their own money to buy their presents, and all of the kids wrapped their own gifts too.

Burke was really excited when he opened his gift from Liv-- a big bag of rubber bands! Great choice, Liv (with a little help from Rob).

One of Liv's favorite gifts was a tiara and wand that Hewitt picked out and bought for her. When the wand broke this afternoon (my dad glued it back together), Hewitt said, "Well, it's good that the CTR-uh didn't break!" Ha! We laughed so hard that he thought that 'tiara' was 'CTRa'. (CTR is a common acronym that Mormons use that stands for 'choose the right'.)

Liv wore her new dress-up heels most of the morning, but somehow ended up at church with her new purple converse shoes on (with tag still on). Oh well.

It was pretty much a 'Lego' Christmas here. I'm pretty sure Santa got it right this year.

Todd and Tracey gave my parents a wonderful gift: A homemade ceramic jar filled with memories typed on slips of paper. My parents laughed and cried as they read some of them out loud.

After the presents were opened, the building began!

Tosh shows off one of his new cars:

Burke completed Hagrid's Hut and the Harry Potter Quidditch set in no time:

Hewitt did awesome building the Knight Bus:

I was happy to be his assistant while Rob made brunch!

The boys were bummed that we wouldn't let them build the Hogwart's Castle today, but they all had fun and stayed busy playing all afternoon after church.

Liv was cracking me up this afternoon. She put the new clothes and underwear that she got in a pink bag and carried that around for hours. She would take each piece out and admire and hug it and then put it back in her "shopping bag." Now whoever said that clothes for Christmas is boring for kids?! What a funny girl.

I was thankful to get just what I wanted this year: to spend Christmas together with my parents. Thanks for the nice gifts, cards, texts, etc. that we received. I love this time of year and am always sad when Christmas is over.

Merry Christmas!

memory monday: two-year-old tantrum(s)

Today is a rainy day. Perfect for staying indoors, snuggling up with a book (or laptop), eating homemade pumpkin cookies, and listening to Christmas music. We had a good morning today. I took a picture (on my phone) of Liv and Tosh on our way out the door to school. You may have some concerns about what I let my children wear in public (or to school). What can I say? I'm generally happy to let my kids pick out their own clothes/dress themselves. Yea for self expression, right? Liv was so excited that I pulled out these pink boots (thanks, Aunt JA) that are similar to the ones Tosh has loved wearing lately. She also found a backpack to put on too. Cute photo opp, for sure:

Well, imagine Liv's disappointment when we walked Tosh (and his two buddies) up to the school to sign in and she wasn't able to stay with them. I guess she thought that wearing a backpack meant that she would finally get a turn at school. So sad. I am not kidding when I say that it took me TEN minutes to get her buckled in her car seat to drive home. Girlfriend is STRONG (both in body and will)! I felt really sad for her and hugged her and told her that I'm sorry she is still too young for school. She finally calmed down (thanks to the fact that I happened to have a library DVD of "Charlie Brown Christmas" in the van). All during the 'limp toddler, arched back tantrum' that went on for what seemed like forever, I was reminded of another two-year-old tantrum that occurred about seven years ago...

It was November 24th, the day before Thanksgiving and Rob's birthday. We were living in student housing in Provo while Rob was in graduate school. Burke was almost two and a half, and Hewitt was about eight weeks old. I am somewhat of a hermit and don't shop much, but I wanted to get a birthday present for Rob so I decided to go to the nearby ShopKo. My mom had been over to our apartment for a visit and was about to head home so I asked her if she would go with me to ShopKo before she left (I was nervous about taking two kids out on my own). As soon as we entered the store, we found ourselves surrounded by Christmas displays and toys. Burke got really upset about something he wanted and started crying and making a huge fuss in the store when I didn't give him the toy. He wouldn't get over it so I decided that this wasn't worth it and we decided to take off (Rob's gift would have to wait--he is really hard to shop for anyway and never likes anything I get him).

It was very cold outside (late November in Utah) and Burke threw a massive tantrum as I tried to buckle him into our blue Subaru Outback. You know, the same 'limp body, arched back' thing that all two-year-olds master. Well, in my struggle, I dropped the keys to the car on the floor in front of Burke. When I finally *won* and got him buckled, I shut the car door and heard that honk that tells you that the car is locked. Whoops. Somehow I had bumped the lock button on my keys before dropping them.

Now, thank HEAVEN my mom is there and is still holding baby Hewitt in his car seat. I called Rob's cell phone (he had told me that he would be in the library studying that afternoon), but he didn't answer so I left a panicky message. Since we were locked out of the car, I decided to go home to get my spare car key. I left my Mom (and Hewitt) to wait by my car, and then scanned the parking lot and spotted a nice, young co-ed. I ran over to her and said, "I am locked out my car and I have a screaming two-year-old inside! Can you give me a ride to my apartment?" She was very kind and did it (gotta love safe Provo!). I ran to the apartment manager's door and waited for them to let me in to my apartment (took awhile). I finally got in my apartment, but couldn't find my spare key! My mom had given me her keys so I grabbed her car and drove back over to the ShopKo parking lot.

My Mom and baby Hewitt then got into my mom's car to warm up and I desperately promised (still screaming) Burke that I would get him out soon. We probably tried Rob's phone about a dozen times and finally decided it was time to call the police. By the time the police arrived, Burke had cried himself to sleep. :( I think he thought that he was in the biggest "time out" known to man. Unfortunately, the officer that arrived did not have the right tools to open the car and so we waited for a different officer that was responding to another call. We waited for a very long time (at least an hour or two in all), when suddenly Rob gets dropped off in the parking lot by one of his school buddies. Note: they were both sweaty and wearing basketball clothes. I'm not going to lie, I was bugged that Rob went to play basketball without telling me where he was going to be, but was mostly relieved when he showed up with a key and we were able to get out kids home safe and sound and out of the cold. I should also mention that I'm pretty sure Rob didn't get anything on his birthday that year :).

Burke loves hearing this story, by the way, and I chuckled as I wrote it down just now. Rob called me just as I finished this last paragraph and as I read this blog post to him I was surprised that I started crying as I read it. I think it's mostly because the many memories I treasure of my mom, and how many times she has been there for me. I'm so grateful for her and also for my sweet kids and husband. I am grateful that Liv is safe and napping right now--long enough for me to get down my thoughts even. I love this time of year and feel so much gratitude for my blessings. I also feel grateful that I am a wiser mom than I was seven years ago, and was able to smile at the situation with Liv today. I didn't get frazzled or upset, but just held and hugged her until she calmed down...and I made sure I knew where my keys were!

fun with scissors!

So I was just telling Rob on Sunday that Liv's hair is finally looking cute without doing much to it. She likes me to blow it dry after a shower/bath and the sides are finally growing in, getting longer and looking pretty good.

Morning shot:
Same day, just after a nap:Liv's hair is still very fine and she gets some SERIOUS bed head!
Well, we now have more to deal with than a rat's nest in back of her head every day...

On Monday morning we all got dressed and then Tosh, Liv and I went to the park to play right after we dropped the older boys off at school. It has gotten really cold here (30s!) and we played outside for about 45 min or so and then decided to head home for some hot chocolate.

Here is a photo of Liv with her cocoa and whipped cream (yum!). We warmed up and then I read a big fat pile of books to the kids. It was getting close to lunch time (and time to take Tosh to preschool) so I turned on a little video for Liv to watch so I could change my clothes and get ready (I was still wearing my sweats from going walking at 6am).

I heard Tosh yelling to me from my bathroom so I came out to see what was wrong. He told me, "Liv has scissors!" Sure enough she had climbed up on the desk in the upstairs hallway and had found the scissors up in a high cabinet (by the way, I've been looking for these scissors for a while and didn't know they were up there until I told Rob this story and he said that he had seen them there). Liv was in our loft trying to cut some computer paper with the scissors. I went over to help her (of course telling her that she isn't supposed to have scissors) and then I noticed fine, blonde hair all over her sleeves. I looked over at her to discover this:Apparently my scream was quite loud because Tosh came running in from our play room and asked if I was ok. He then said, "I thought that Liv must have cut off your finger with the scissors because you yelled so loud!" Ha! Ha! That actually made me laugh which was nice because I felt so bad and sort of like crying/yelling. Busy Liv. Seriously, I can't leave this girl alone for a minute.

Another funny thing was that I asked Tosh if he had tried to take the scissors away from her (not that it's his job to watch her or anything), and he said, "No! She was trying to cut MY hair!" That also made me laugh. Got to protect those curls, Tosh. :)

So here are some shots I took of Liv on Tuesday after I had calmed down. It is what it is. Sort of a rite of passage, no?Is it me or is this a devilish grin :)I think we'll be doing a comb-over for now. I try to encourage her to wear a hat when we are out (it's cold outside anyway). Honestly, I'm not too worried about it; obviously it will grow back at some point (although let's face it, her hair doesn't grow all that fast).

In the mean time it will help spread cheer to others, right? They can smile (or chuckle) when they see her, and be reminded of their own stories and memories of other mischievous two-year-olds.