Christmas 2009

This Christmas was the best Christmas ever. That's a quote from Jashon who is no longer a believer, but still gets Santa threats to keep him in order. Now that he knows who Santa is, he knows the threats are well within my power to execute :-) He has also helped out a lot with keeping the magic alive for the other kids.

Anakha is on the verge because of a friend of hers who keeps divulging fairy tale creature secrets to her. She's still a believer this Christmas and she was up around midnight, sneaking around the house. We let her believe she was getting away with it because hey, that's part of the fun of Christmas for a kid.

We thought we'd have Darien give us the gift of being potty trained for Christmas, no such luck. I think he wants to surprise us next Christmas with that long awaited event. For now he's content to release his deadly toxins at the most inopportune times. Usually when we're out in public and don't have access to a bathroom with an extendable changing table.

Adelle is happy to be alive and as long as you stuff her face with whatever she happens to want at the time, she doesn't give us much trouble. She has the demeanor and appetetive of an Ewok toddler right now, so she's gone from being an Anime lookalike to an Ewok lookalike.

We have a couple of traditions we do in our house on Christmas Eve which are detailed in the photos below.

Kids gathered on the couch watching a movie. I'm not sure why the bear gets most of the room on the couch, but that's how it worked out.

Tradition #1. Watching a movie together on Christmas Eve. It's usually a Christmas movie, but this year it was Toy Story 2.

Tradition #2. We make a "nest" and the kids sleep in a pile together to await Christmas morning. Darien has never made it longer than 15 minutes in the nest but we have hope for next year. Adelle is there just for show. She slept in her crib.

A more subdued group of kids in the nest, excited for Christmas.

Jashon gets his long awaited IPod touch. Everything he got centered around the IPod. A case, an itunes gift card, etc...

Anakha is our little princess and she got a few dolls though her favorite thing was the video camera she got. It was one of those flip camcorders that can plug right into the computer. Look forward to seeing Anakha, written, filmed, and produced movies in the near future.

The Ewok hanging with one of her favorite play toys........Molly.

Anakha got Adelle a stroller for Christmas. She and Darien both thoroughly enjoy it.

To keep with the Toy Story theme, Darien got Buzz and Woody (Thanks Nana!).

Darien and his bear. Now he can stop stealing Anakha's that he has claimed for the better part of this year.

Tradition #3 is we sit around as a family and read Luke 2 and talk about the true meaning of Christmas.

Christauna and I got a few things, but our big gift is a trip to Argentina in March and a new dryer that should be arriving a little later this week.

I hope everyone else had a very Merry Christmas!!!

I've often speculated about where Adelle got her huge eyes from. I know my grandma has big eyes, but I thought there must be someone closer in age.

So I had some free time and browsed through all of my siblings blogs. After months of research and serious reading, I found a photo that looked very suspicious...
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Yep, I found this photo deep in the archives of Courtney's blog, and now I know who to blame!

Dammit Bicky

Happy Birthday Mom!!! The only person I know that could have handled me and my siblings, but mostly my siblings, is my mom. She has been a wonderful mother for my 35 years of life. I'm not sure how that works as she claims that she's in her early 40's, but that's about how old she looks, so she can claim whatever age she wants (She never claimed 40's).


Happy Birthday Mom!!! The only person I know that could have handled me and my siblings, but mostly my siblings, is my mom. She has been a wonderful mother for my 35 years of life. I'm not sure how that works as she claims that she's in her early 40's, but that's about how old she looks, so she can claim whatever age she wants (She never claimed 40's). She has been a shining example in my life no matter what has been going on in hers. She's patient, loving, and one of the most remarkable people I know. She also has a very yellow personality which has made me and my siblings' lives very exciting. Whether it be strange bed time songs, or over the top birthday songs, she never dissapoints. I love her and am gratefull to have had the opportunity to be raised by her and probably don't know the half of what she has done for me. Without her, I probably wouldn't have survived childhood. Happy birthday mom, I hope it was a good one.

Least favorite month

For anyone that knows me, you know that I'm not a big fan of October or Halloween. I consider October a transition month to Thanksgiving and the real holidays. Halloween for me is a day where kids run around in costumes and beg for candy. I actually think that part is cute. What ruined me to Halloween is all the teenagers that run around, sometimes with costumes and sometimes not, and essentially beg for candy. Another downside is handing out candy. Having to pretend that I think all the kids that come to the door are cute and just look so "precious" in their costumes. The truth is the only kids I think are cute are my own. There is the exception of the children of friends and or family, but those are the exception rather than the rule. That being said, last night as I was running around with Cinderella, Sully, and a little elephant I was talking to my parents and they reminded me that I've been neglecting my blog. I blame it on facebook, but my dad only looks at my blog, not facebook (i.e. big waste of time social networking site). So here you go Dad, this blog's for you.

Kids just before they headed out. Jashon (Snake Eyes) went to a friend's party and ran around the neighborhood with friends. Chrisauna and I took Cinderella, Sully, and the Elephant around to a few houses. Adelle learned very quickly the meaning of Halloween and wouldn't let anyone touch her bucket after that. Darien just figured out Halloween this year and he was extremely exicted, shouting with joy after each house. Anakha and I broke off when we decided the youngest two needed to go home. Anakha's pillow sheet was so heavy that I had to carry it for her in between houses. She was this year's winner of the "most candy" award.

Every year we go to the pumpkin patch for pumpkins. We generally do it on Halloween day. Not because of tradition, but because that's when they cost the least amount (19 cents a pound this year). Adelle was more interested in looking at pumpkins than the camera in almost every photo we took.

Darien was excited to just run around.

Jashon was excited that we picked out the biggest pumpkin for him.

Adelle didn't like the Wheelbarrow.

Christauna is the Holiday extremist and I, as you know, am the Grinch for all Holidays.

Prep time before going out on the "treasure" hunt.

Adelle found some chocolate. She was truly in the spirit this year.


The carving station.

Not sure what Adelle's deal was. I think she might've been dissapointed that there was no chocolate.

This has nothing to do with Halloween. It just happened in October, so I threw it in. Adelle is obsessed with shoes.I had the opportunity to go to Germany for work. Little did I know that I would be staying in a place where Clark served for 7 months (Mannheim). Luckily I didn't tell him beforehand what city I was going to or he would've sent me to find Hannah. This is at the castle in Heidelburg. I only took a few pictures while I was there because we spent most of our time at the customer site and didn't have a whole lot of time to do anything else. I did have a good time there, discovering spaghetti eis (Spaghetti Ice-cream) after a co-worker tipped me off that I needed to experience that. It's basically ice-cream they make to look like a plate/bowl of spaghetti. It involves ice-cream, strawberry sauce (marinara) and white-chocolate made to look like parmesan cheese.

I'm-sure-you'll-think-it's-funny-but-I don't...yet

I wasn't storming off in a rage, I didn't slam the door or even feel like I wanted to. No, this was just a jovial jaunt to take a smelly diaper as far away from the house as possible, though it really wasn't any further than the outside trash bin. It's amazing how joviality can turn into tears with just a few well-placed mishaps.

Unbeknownst to me the knob to the front door had been locked. Now this brilliant little contraption allows the handle to turn from the inside while at the same time locking out other villainous folks (or mothers taking out a stinky diapers).

Now my good mood had turned into exasperation and a grumble followed some choice mutterings as I tried the window into the dining room which is always screen free and unlocked. Locked? Locked! Imagine my wails of betrayal.

My toes were starting to get a bit chilled but there was nothing for it but to tramp through the frost as leaves around the house to the back sliding door where after some irritated pounding I was able to create an audience of four (two dogs, two children), hopefully one of them being my savior. I was putting my money on Darien, as Adelle can't speak yet and the dogs don't have opposible thumbs. Unfortunately I'd had the foresight just that morning (after multiple escapes through the back door and over the fence by Darien) to lock down the house as solidly as possible, including placing the miracle stick at the base of the sliding door to prevent escape artists from-well-escaping. Here's a condensed version of how the next fifteen-twenty minutes went.

"Darien, sweety, can you pull the stick out of the door?"

Darien ignores me and attempts to slide the door open on his own.

"No, Darien, the stick. Right there. Do you see where my finger is pointing?"

Darien tries unsuccessfully to open the door again--I see frustration mounting in his eyes.

"Right there, Darien, I'm pointing right at it, just pull out the stick and let me in!"

About this point Adelle is giggling wildly, never having see anything so funny in her life, meanwhile Darien lets out a wail with his giant mouth, screaming "OPEN, OPEN, OPEN!" while pounding on the glass.

"Darien, stop crying right now! That's enough! There's no reason for you to be crying. I just want you to move the stick out of the door! Please! Please! Just please move the stick! Move the stick...!"

Darien runs away, crying and screaming, all the way up to his room and slams the door. Imagine me now pounding my head on the door while the dogs scratch at it, trying to get me to open it and Adelle laughs while toying with that !@#$ stick. Darien returns and we go through the whole thing again with varying levels of screaming, crying, and running-to-his-room (all Darien), scratching and whining (dogs), giggling (Adelle) and weeping (this is me).

About this time I'm thinking I should probablyto head to the neighbors house (thankfully I was at least dressed though woefully without makeup or my hair done or shod in any way) and call the fire department) when all the sudden Adelle falls on her rump away from the door, holding the stick in her angelic little hands. I leaped to my feet and wrenched open the door, just in case she decided she might like to put it back.

Needless to say, Adelle got some big hugs, Darien got a stern lecture and there is now a spare key hidden safely somewhere outside on our property. Just another day in the Asay household. I think I deserve the good stuff from Arctic Circle.

Children induced anxiety

Several times a day, I feel a jerk somewhere in my stomach region that signifies a minuscule moment of panic followed by a wrench of anxiety. There used to be only one very clear trigger for this phenomenon as loud as a siren... No really, that's what triggers it, the sound of a siren.

It started a few years ago when Darien first learned how to open doors. While this milestone is often met with some trepidation (i.e. what will the little darling do with this new found power) it does not usually instill full-fledged panic in the parent. Darien was able to create the wrench of panic with not one or two or even three or four little jaunts out to Grizzly Way (yeah, that's the main road not far from our door where high school kids drive with reckless abandon) but "holy-crap, I've lost count of escapes", which is usually the line I gave the person who found him endangering himself and brought him home. One of those helpful people was, you got it, a police officer who sounded his siren for a second to alert the neglectful mommy (me) that her child was running down the road in nothing more than a diaper. Thus the birth of panic every time I hear a siren.

I was eventually able to lock down the house (the only thing ending up working with any sort of consistency was duct tape) only to have Darien up and learn to climb the fence with monkey-like dexterity. Thankfully he doesn't go any farther than the drivers seat of my van these days. I'm just waiting for him to discover what those keys he loves to play with are really for. Anyway, even though he doesn't endanger himself to the degree he used to, I still get a panicking urge to go and lay eyes on his aggravating little face whenever I hear a siren (just F.Y.I. we live not far from the fire station so, yay for me, panic several times a day.)

That would be bad enough, to always live in state of siren-induced panic except that I have four children so another something-induced-panic was eventually going to happen. Well that started last week with no less than three phone calls from the elementary school. First, Jashon runs into a pole on the playground, splitting his chin open and needing stitches. Second, Anakha pukes at school and needs to be picked up and finally--

*ring* *ring* "Hold for the Principal, please. She needs to speak with you."

Imagine the dropping feeling in your stomach when you feel like you've done something wrong. I mean, the principal needs to talk to me so someone is in trouble.

"Hi, this is Mrs. Principal. Um...Jashon brought a toy gun to school today. He's been suspended and you need to come pick him up. I would also like to speak to you when you get here, in...say, ten minutes?"

*sigh* (Don't worry, children who bring guns to school get to spend the entirety of their Saturday cleaning the entirety of the house--oh and not play with friends for a month.)

Now every time the phone rings during the day, I get a clenching feeling somewhere in my stomach region that blossoms into panic if the caller ID happens to say "Jordan School District".

So what do you think? Is this normal or should I see a specialist to deal with my children induced anxiety?

German Fry Sauce

I've suffered a lot of persecution over my love for fry sauce and I just want to say that I'm not the only one. On a recent trip to Germany, I was in the cafeteria enjoying lunch with the customers we were meeting with. One of the individuals at the table had an order of fries. I watched as he opened a mayonnaise packet and emptied it on to his plate. He then did the same with a ketchup packet. I smiled because I knew what was happening. He didn't mix them together to form the famous "fry sauce", but he did use his knife and scoop a little ketchup and mayonnaise onto the fry (he was eating his fries with a fork by the way, I felt like such a barbarian eating with my fingers). He mixed the two condiments onto the fry and ate. So for those of you who think I'm nuts/crazy/whatever else. I'm not the only who who makes my own fry sauce on the spot. They do it all over the world. :-)