Alyssa has discovered the game of "pull it out" and "pull it off". Here is one example. The other day she threw all of her clothes out of her baskets into her room. She regularly likes to pull magazines off tables and eat them. The Ensign has seen better days, but the scriptures do say to feast upon the words... 

All done! 

Our activity for today. 

laundry day

Today is laundry day and you should know I read all the tags every week. Some articles of clothing I remember from week to week and some it seems like I never remember. Hmmm, is this cold or warm? And then there are those that mock me. 'Hand wash in cold water'. Right. Like I am going to go get my washing tub and wash board and hand wash stuff - in cold water no less. That's why I wasn't born 100 years ago or in the Phillipe ans. So I give them a dirty look, fitting- as they are dirty after all, and throw them unceremoniously into the washing machine. I compromise though and put it on the cold setting. My slippers got splashed with citrus listerine and they had the gall to suggest wiping with a damp cloth. In they went too. I'll show them who's boss. And I have long ignored those delicate lady items, otherwise known as "over-shoulder boulder holders" instructions. I suppose it goes with my "no ironing" policy. So far I've survived this lack of true homemaking expertise, but one day it may bite me.

Christmas Newsletter

Christmas 2006

Dear Family,

Read it here because chances are I'm not mailing you one. :)

Another year has passed and we have many things to be thankful for once again. On March 1^st Alyssa Linette was born almost 3 weeks early. She spent 11 days in the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital before coming home on oxygen. She was off her oxygen after only 6 days once home.

After that adventure we decided to take a vacation. At the end of July we went to the Oregon coast where we rented a beach house and had a grand time. We loved the Sea-Lion Caves and the Newport Aquarium. The girls loved playing at a lake with a sandy beach much better than braving the cold wind at the ocean. We had a terrific time and hope to go back again someday. Besides our own vacation we’ve had short vacations with both our extended families and those memories are cherished ones too!

Alan has spent the year continuing to work at BYU and doing a consulting project on the side. He has decided to put off (possibly permanently) the pursuit for a doctorate degree after he didn’t get accepted to the schools he applied to. In his defense he did only apply to the top schools in the nation so the competition was very high. Alan has really enjoyed being the choir director in our ward and was recently asked to change hats and be in the young men’s presidency. Now he gets to go camping and work with 12 –13 year old boys. Yippee for him, I’m glad it’s not me. I am always amazed at how intuitive Alan his when it comes to being a daddy and husband. He is honestly the greatest at both. Although he discovered while I was at the hospital with Alyssa that he isn’t that great at being the mommy. I’m fine with that.

Sarah started kindergarten this year and loves it. Her teacher is superb and is able to challenge her even though she is the only one reading at a 2^nd grade level and able to write and work with numbers. We are very pleased with how she is doing at school and at home. Sarah is a wonderful oldest sister. She loves being the boss and also helping me with Alyssa. Sarah and Emmie play very well together most of the time. Sarah’s hobbies are drawing, she’s amazing at it, and reading. She likes to draw princesses, castles, and lately monsters. (Her monsters have hearts on them though so I’m not sure if they qualify as monsters.) Sarah’s blog is me-sarah.blogspot.com

Emily is a darling 3 year old. She enjoys going to the co-op preschool I do with my neighbors and has learned her letters, numbers, shapes, colors and how to write her name. She loves to wear dresses and is rarely in pants. Emmie’s greatest love is playing Princess and she is almost always found in a dress-up princess dress. Emmie also loves to read and do puzzles. She fixates on a video and will choose it when it’s her turn every time for months. During the summer we watched Snow White, the fall was the Muppet Movie, and currently we are hooked on 101 Dalmatians. Since the girls only watch 1 movie a day and generally no television it doesn’t drive me too crazy to hear the same thing for days. Emily’s blog is meemmie.blogspot.com

Alyssa is doing great and seems to be in a hurry to grow up. She has cut 6 teeth and is pulling herself up on everything and climbing stairs. Alyssa is a delight with reddish hair and blue eyes. She is a good baby and when not cutting teeth sleeps well. Her favorite expression is to pucker her lips up to her nose, furrow her brows and breath noisily through her nose. It’s totally cute and she does it a lot. Pictures of Alyssa are on my blog which is got-donuts.blogspot.com

I have had a super year too. Once I recovered from having Alyssa life couldn’t be better. I love my girls and so enjoy being home with them. Being in the primary presidency has also been enjoyable although challenging at times. We have a big primary with 145 children and a big nursery with about 50 little ones. I get to be over the nursery and activity day girls, which are girls ages 8-11. They have a similar program to the cub scouts although not so structured or formal. I was also in charge of writing and organizing the sacrament-meeting program that the primary did and am glad that’s over.

Today was the first big snowstorm and it reminds me of how quickly time flies. It seems like it wasn’t that long ago I was writing last year’s letter. Another year has gone but I have some fantastic memories of a brand new baby, our family in Oregon and of extended family gatherings all over. What a great blessing family is! At Christmas I ponder how the birth of our Savior provided the way for my greatest happiness, that of a good and wholesome family. I’m grateful to my Father in Heaven for blessing me with such superb families: my own, Alan’s, and the one Alan and I have created. At this Christmas season I wish you all a time filled with family and the love for a baby born so long ago in such humble circumstances.

Getting ready for family portraits. 

random stuff

Today is the last day of November and that makes me happy. It means Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat and all that. It also means that tomorrow the girls will start opening the advent doors in the advent wooden box we have. In past years I put candy in the boxes but this year I have planned activities for each day and will put a little card listing what the day's activity is in each box. I am excited! We are going to be reading new Christmas stories (thanks to Sarah's book order), and making cookies, writing and visiting Santa, doing some fun craft projects, decorating a gingerbread house (without eggs), and other stuff.

The girls all have coughs now. It was just Sarah but she shared. They're not too bad and I'm hopeful they will not get too bad.

The wind has blown the snow against the front door creating a small drift. I wonder if it will help insulate the cracks around the door and prevent the cold cold wind from blowing in. That would be good since having to reshovel the front walk isn't all that appealing. I'm not even going to bother trying to reshovel the sidewalk after the snow plow covered it up with icy snow again. It would take forever and be downright crazy considering how much ice there is. People will just have to either be careful or walk on the other side of the street where the snow plow didn't unshovel the sidewalks.

Not that I want anyone to think we're desperate, because we're no where near desperate, but finances wouldn't allow me to do the usual buying of presents thing and so I made a couple of gifts and the girls are getting a combined Santa gift and Alan and I aren't buying for ourselves (except in October I did buy something actually) but anyway the point is Christmas means more this year to me. I'm slow but I can learn. We are focused more on the point of Christmas and are having more fun even without the shopping and gifts. (Alan was waiting years for me to figure this out I'm sure.)

I do have to pat myself on the back for a brilliant strategy I figured out recently. The girls are in charge of cleaning up their own messes- i.e. the playroom mostly. When I send them down it takes them forever because they just start playing some other game or Sarah sits on the couch and reads while Emmie picks up. So, I let them take turns choosing which room they would like to clean and one cleans the playroom and the other picks up the family room. I usually give myself a room too (usually the kitchen) and away we go. We have a contest to see who will be done first. The person who wins helps the other until everything is tidy. This way the house is always tidy before bed and usually it leaves us enough time to play games together. They get mommy to play with them and I get a clean house. It works well so far.

Guess what Emmie told me she wants for Christmas. Yes, a princess dress. It apparently isn't enough that she has a new Cinderella dress and pink Aurora dress. She needs a Snow White one too. Unbelievable. Unfortunately for her, we've made other plans for her Christmas gifts. I'm just amazed at how girlie this girl is. She loves to dress up and takes turns deciding what princess she is. What cracks me up is how girlie she is without any flowing girlie locks on her head.

Sarah didn't win the reflections contest which is fine with both of us. She got a kit-kat bar out of it and so wasn't disappointed in the least and I just wanted her to have the experience of entering so we're both good.

Well that's about enough rambling. See you all later.

the best error message ever

This is the best error message I ever read. I found it while looking for pinewood derby awards.

bits and pieces

We are well and looking forward to seeing some of you on Thanksgiving. This past week was mainly uneventful with small events thrown in to spice it up. For example Sarah got the stomach flu Monday night and missed school on Tuesday. Alyssa learned how to drink out of a straw and cut her top tooth. She now has 6 teeth in her little mouth. Yesterday Sarah went to the dentist to have a couple of cavities filled and did amazing! They didn't have to numb her more that the numbing gel stuff and she did great. Every day this week we are doing a pilgrim activity. Yesterday we made butter and corn bread. Today we played "hide the thimble" and tomorrow we will try and sew a little bag. The girls are excited to learn how to sew, why I can't imagine. I think they get it from Julie.

I've really enjoyed chatting on gmail but Alan is tired of being confused for me so I got my own gmail account. I actually have an email now for the first time ever. It is gotdonuts(at)gmail(dot)com I would love an email or a donut, either one. Anyway there's not much else to report. Have a lovely Thanksgiving where ever you are. I have so much to be thankful for and you are all among my most cherished blessings!

Emmie sat on the stairs and asked me to take her picture in her "pioneer" dress. She said, "I will smile like this." and tilted her head. Potter, not wanting to be left out, sat down next to her and I took the picture. 

Caught in the act of climbing stairs. She saw me pick up the camera and immediately smiled. 

So I was in the living room reading and I look up and there's Alyssa all the way up the stairs from the family room! 

One of Alyssa's new things this week was scrunching up her nose and puckering her lips every time I gave her a bite of something, while at the same time breathing through her nose to make a lovely noisy sound. It was sooo funny!! 

Sarah saved me one evening from going crazy by feeding Alyssa for me. I love how she's opened her mouth as she offers Alyssa some pears. 

Alan was putting a toy in his mouth and Alyssa would grab it and laugh. She thought this was so funny! 

"I'm bringing home a baby Alyssa girl. Won't my wife-ee be so proud of me..." 

Can I get in yet? 

Getting ready for a bath. 

this week

First of all you all need to check the insegredient ignatz site.

Next a little about the week. We had a fun Halloween. As you can see from the pictures it was actually a family affair this year. It was really fun to have Alan as an FBI agent. I think it's all the "Numbers" shows we've watched that inspired him. Alyssa hasn't seemed to have a major aversion to the chocolate I've eaten this week so that's good.

Speaking of Alyssa, she's not been sleeping at night well since she started this teething thing. Last week we had one night where she was up every 2 hours. That's brutal. Then last night she slept from 8 pm until 6:30 am!!! Mind you I woke up several times thinking I should be feeding her but managed to go back to sleep without too much problem. I hope this will be a new trend. Her last top tooth is just about to break the skin. I think it will be today. Then she will have 6 little wee teeth, and hopefully a break before she cuts any more. She's so cute. She's been expanding her vocabulary to da da da and ba ba and ra ra. But sadly no ma ma. She tried yogurt this week and like it. She also tried a ritz cracker and thought that was pretty good.

Emmie is at a delightful age. I love 3 year olds. Of course she's not quite 3 but almost. Her birthday is on Thanksgiving this year. She wants a princess dress of course. She's way into dress -up as I have already stated in earlier posts. That hasn't changed. Yesterday she said she was wearing down sleeves and she likes up sleeves better. She's also been practicing her pronunciation of certain words. She'll wonder around saying, "Grooomit. Gro-met. Gro-mit." She was a butterfly for Halloween. She liked her preschool party and yesterday she liked going to Primary. The nursery children came in for singing time yesterday.

Sarah is at a comparative stage. She compares herself to everyone in everything. Sometimes I worry she is going to turn out uppity and snobbish. "Am I better at reading than everyone in my class? I am. I am better than Emmie at swinging. I am better than Emmie at singing. I am taller than Emmie. I am smarter than Emmie. Am I the smartest one in my class?" This is a sample. Our strategy has been to acknowledge her accomplishments while pointing out that others are better at other things and that Emmie is simply younger not less-smart. Yesterday in primary she was play hitting a boy sitting next to her. (Another activity learned at kindergarten which we have recently become aware of and told her to cease and desist.) I caught her eye and shook my head "no" and next thing I see she's leaning over and kissing him on the cheek! My daughter the flirt at age 5. She doesn't get this from me.

I had a good week. I've spent a lot of it doing primary stuff. I spent some of it shopping and some of it cleaning and some of it cooking. Well basically I've spent it being a mom, which is just right. I did however do some reading as well instead of watching tv in the evenings. My mom would be proud. This week I want to play more with the girls. One of the highlights of my week was going to Cabelas with mom and dad Wessman. I loved it there. What a cool store. We got to see them feed the trout and I was amazed at how quick they took down those little goldfish. I also had a dentist appointment and have nothing to report, which is good.

Alan did the same old things with the exception of Halloween which has already been discussed. He didn't have to teach on Sunday and spent most of church time home with a sleeping baby. We will be soooo glad when church is at 9 am next year!

"Area is secure." 

For the first time in at least 15 years Alan dressed up for Halloween! He is an FBI agent wearing a real FBI vest Jacob brought him back from Brazil, only without the bullet proof inserts. 

Emmie as a butterfly, Alyssa as a bunny, and Sarah is riding a unicorn. 

Finished. 

Our scary pumpkin, carved by Alan. If you look at the paper next to it you can sort of see the drawing Sarah made of what it was supposed to look like.  

To do list

Today I would like to:
Buy replacement garments for the ones ruined by the pen Alan left in his shirt pocket and I washed in a large whites load.
Buy a couple of shirts ruined in same said load.
Go to Walmart and get some groceries.
Clean up messy kitchen.
Vacuum main living areas.
Clean bathrooms.
Prepare and discard ruined clothing.
Make dinner.
Call to get different pinewood derby track.
Call activity day leaders to make sure they've passed out the cars to the girls.
Plan and prepare sharing time.
Read to the girls.
Make pumkin choc. chip cookies, only put raisons in some so I can eat them.
Think about how I should exercise.
Write thank you cards.
Read my scriptures.
Think about taking a nap.
Think about how much time I'm wasting writing this list.
Help Sarah start her "reflections" entry.
Put away the Halloween decorations.
Maybe sell my camper toys on ebay, sometime this week anyway.
Consider ironing my white shirt.
Start another book.
Call Mom Wessman and tell her how much I liked the book on the Delany sisters and ask if my Mom can borrow it.

a 2nd non-email

I don't like change, especially time changes. Let's just get that out in the open so we can move on to other things.

So this week was good. It was looking bad for the baby hero but she pulled through in the end and cut another top tooth. One more to go and she will have conquered all evil Pain until the next set. She finally slept through the night the last two nights, waking once to nurse each night. Some things she likes: prunes, shoes (especially ones with tasty filthy soles), paper, magazines (we found some text hidden in a poopy diaper and have reason to believe she's a secret agent), colored pencils, Potter's rawhides, and cheerios, the nordi-track when I'm trying to exercise. Things she doesn't like: getting dressed or undressed, her own toys, cereal, beans, teething, church during nap-time, me taking the things she likes away.


Emmie had a good week. She loves going to preschool and although one of the youngest and definitely the shortest she knows more, primarily because of doing school with Sarah and myself during the summer. I actually had a small stroke this morning when she picked out a top and pants to wear today!! Apparently all her "bootiful" dresses were dirty. Obviously it's laundry day.She's sure someone is going to get her a new Cinderella or Aurora dress for her birthday and I'm a bit nervous because we are getting her a princess dress, but it's not a disney princess dress. My parents chose to get her regular dresses she can wear during the week which are "bootiful". She loves to sing and has started the "why" phase this week. Why? I don't know. Emmie also began drawing objects that actually resembled what she said they were. My favorite are the spiders; circles with lines coming out all around them. She also drew a pumpkin which she said was, "scary, spikey, and grabby."

Sarah has started writing us letter this past week. They are delightful. Last night she wrote me this: Dear Momy, I am glad monstrs are pretend. Love, Sarah On the back she had drawn a Halloween picture with monsters, bats, and jack-o-lanterns. Yesterday in Primary one of the songs was "I love to see the temple" and this is currently one of Sarah's favorites so she belted it out with all the gusto she could muster. Her voice carried way above the rest of the primary and she attracted much attention from teachers, children and me. There was an abundance of smiles and general amusement and love. I admit that I have a pride issue when it comes to Sarah and love for her to astound people by reading scriptures in primary when it's her turn. She's so tiny compared to the other children her age that the affect is pretty cool.

I had a nice week primarily because I had my birthday to look forward to. Alan took the day off and we had a nice time. I got a new set of kitchen knives and my parents watched the girls so we could go to the temple. One of the greatest things was that I didn't have to cook dinner 3 days this week. Mom and Dad Wessman took us out on Wed. night, Alan and I ate at the temple on Thursday, and Alan cooked Yakisoba for us on Sat. I also enjoyed phone calls from everyone and was happy that Korihor met an untimely end. (I like to pretend that I'm reading the story for the first time and can't wait to see what happens next.)


Alan made some good progress on his consulting work this week and now has one more major part left to write. Mind you, it's huge and will take awhile-awhile meaning several years. :) He has been sneaking off this week into the backyard with his binoculars to look at comets. I think he is actually a secret agent with Alyssa. (NO of course I haven't checked his poopies for messages! How could you even think that?!)

not an email

I am not an emailer. I love to read everyone elses' weekly updates though so I decided to blog my email and thus avoid trying to figure out how to send it to you all. The last couple of weeks have been nuts. Mostly because Alyssa isn't sleeping well and when I'm tired more than a couple of days I get very tired. (Not as tired as Scott though.) Thankfully Alyssa has cut 2 of her top teeth with the other two soon to follow from the looks of it. She is so cute and says "Ba ba ba and ra ra ra." She is also pulling herself up on things, not wanting to be left behind by Holly-although I don't think she'll be walking as quickly as Holly.

Emmie is a delight as always. She is finally letting me put her hair, what little there is, in pigtails. She loves dresses and is hoping to get a dress-up Aurora dress for her birthday. We got her a princess (non-disney) dress and I hope that will be good enough. Her favorite day is Sunday because then she gets to wear a "bootiful" dress that I otherwise won't let her wear during the week. She is Cinderella every day and Sarah is the prince. They go to "bouncy balls" and give each other presents. (Presents are toys wrapped up in doll blankets.) She is really enjoying preschool even though she already knows all that they are focusing on in regards to colors, shapes, numbers, and letters. Truthfully she still has about 6 letters to learn. Lately we are working on teaching her how to spell her name. I decided to teach her Emily even though we call her Emmie. Is that bad? I don't know. Emily seemed easier to spell but maybe I'm out to lunch.

Sarah is wonderful as usual. She loves kindergarten and I love helping there on Wednesdays. It's so amazing to see the huge spectrum in abilities. Her teacher is great and she is learning and making friends. Last night around 9:30 pm Alan heard her whimpering in her bed and went up to see why she was still awake. Her legs were so itchy she couldn't sleep. I had already given her benedryl at bedtime because she was complaining about them and I couldn't give her any more. I came upstairs and she said, "I prayed to Heavenly Father four times to help my legs not be so itchy so I can go to sleep and it's not working." She was about in tears and so tired. Poor little thing. She had scratched them to the point of making them bleed in some places and so when I put cream on them it stung. We told her the story of Joseph Smith when he had the operation as a child to distract her but she was still pretty distressed. Thankfully she didn't wake Alyssa or Emmie. My theory is that she doesn't drink enough milk and so doesn't get enough milk-fat and that along with the dry air of winter makes her skin dry out and her legs itch. They also itch due to allergies, hence the benedryl. I need to start creaming them after every bath.

Alan...is busy. He seems to like his new calling as YM 2nd counselor. He borrowed Scott's camping stuff and used it camping last weekend. He is still trying to finish his consulting project and hopes to finish the main components by Christmas. I hope he finished before Sarah graduates from college.

Well that about sums it up. I have to call the scout office and find out how to rent a pinewood derby track for the activity girls pinewood derby. (I can't believe they want to do this. It is NOT something I think would be fun. I can't believe I have to organize this when I'm not even in scouts.) I have to come up with some sort of creative thank you card the children can make for their teachers for sharing time and do the laundry. I am very glad: Coralee's mouth is recovering, Rob and Dawn made it to the game and are getting out of the apartment, Stanley is learning the word versitle and most of all that Alan didn't get into a doctorate program. :) Have a lovely week.

Emmie being "bootiful" in her new dress I got off of ebay. 

Emmie and Alyssa in matching outfits. 

What cute girls. 

Alan and his girls. 

My niece Taylor got these dress-up clothes and Emmie is posing so cute with her cousins. 

I think this is so cute of Emmie eating an apple. Maybe it's the fact that she has to use two hands. 

Alyssa's first tub bath.