Mommy's Birthday!

My birthday was awesome this year. Chris had the entire weekend off, which is a rare, yet oh-so-wonderful occurrence. In addition to just being around, he planned some fun surprises for me. It was a really fun day. I felt loved and special. Thanks honey!

We spent the weekend in Indiana with both of our parents and Chris's sister Emily and her family. Chris's father was playing with the Indianapolis Symphony in their Christmas show, Yuletide. Nana stayed home with the napping babies while the rest of us went to the show. It was really great. In fact, this show is the real reason that we all gathered in Indiana on my birthday weekend. Celebrating my birthday together was just a bonus. Every December for the last 25 years, the Indianapolis Symphony has put on this Christmas show. Each year the theme changes, and occasionally, my father in law will be asked to perform with them. If you are even in Indianapolis in December, you should make time for this show. It is really great.

After the show, we went to PF Changs for dinner. I love PF Changs! They have a great gluten free menu, which makes eating out easy, like it is supposed to be. After dinner, we went home for cake and ice cream. Godiva Chocolate Cheesecake from The Cheesecake Factory and Graeter's ice cream. -No, we did not count those calories. I am pretty sure that I cannot count that high...Yummmmm! Thanks to everyone for making my birthday special!

Chris, me, Rachael and Morgan in front of the massive Christmas tree at the symphony. (Kate was at home with Nana napping during the show.)

Jaron, Emily, Mikey and Spencer Sullivan. (Little Trevor is not pictured. He was at home with Kate during the show.) They traveled all the way from Iowa for the weekend visit. It is always such a treat to spend time with the Sullivan clan. Em and Jaron pretty much rock, as do their three adorable boys. (Obviously I had to include this picture in the post.)

Me and Kate at PF Changs. -Not the best ever picture of us as she is more interested in her dinner than the camera. However, I had to include a picture with her in it since she was not in the first one and this was our best option.

The cheesecake, oh, the cheesecake. Mmmmmmmmm. Thank you Cheesecake Factory for making this cheesecake gluten free. I think I love you.

Snow Day!

We had the first snow day of the season today. I LOVE SNOW DAYS!! They are great. It is like a bonus day off in the middle of the week. We get to sleep in, stay in our cozy sweat pants, drink hot cocoa, eat popcorn, read books, play the wii, watch movies, play in the snow, or do whatever else we want to do. Growing up in the southwest, I never got to experience these as a kid. I love having the kids home and listening to them play together when they would normally be at school. It is truly a treat for me. If we have several days off in a row, we may run into the occasional tiff, but for the most part, the girls just love being home too.

On this particular day, one of the girls chosen activities was to play with their dress-up clothes. They donned their fancy tutus from Aunt Alyssa and danced all around the living room. -They dug through the dress-up bin and even found a Kate-sized tutu. She loved the tutu and wore it all afternoon.

Candy Cane

This afternoon while I was doing dishes, Kate was happily playing in the living room. The rooms are right next to each other, and I could walk in and easily check on her. At one point, I heard her squeal with delight and then there was silence. After a minute or so of this silence, I checked on her again to find that she had gotten a candy cane off of the tree and was sucking on it. She had broken it in half and was so proud of herself.

Christmas Jammies a Bit Early

We have a close family friend that likes to give the girls pajamas at Christmas time . She has done this for several years now, and the girls look forward to it each year. This year, she gave them to the girls a bit early and said they could open them as soon as we got home for the day. -This was fully two weeks early.- The girls were thrilled. Thanks Dona for the super cute jams.

All three girlie-oes.

*Morgan and Rachael's pajamas came from a store called Justice. When Morgan saw the tag on the pj's, she said, "YES! Now I FINALLY have something from Justice. All the girls in my class wear clothes from Justice. This one girl said pretty much all the clothes she has came from Justice. I'm so glad I have something from Justice now." Wow. Way to be on top of things and know just where to get the cool clothes and pajamas Dona. I had seen the store, but didn't realize how big it was with the 4th grade crowd. Now I know and can keep that in mind when we shop for clothes in the spring...That way we can make sure at least a few things in their closet come from the cool store.*

Mommy's Lil' Helper

Kate loves to climb on the door and 'help' me unload the dishwasher, whether the dishes are clean or not. Not sure if the dishwasher door was made to withstand 23 lbs of baby love...

The Knife

Kate's typical hairstyle is a little fountain-like ponytail on the top of her head. It is super cute, makes her look like a girl, and she has enough hair for this little style. We call it 'Cindy Lou Who' hair in honor of the little Who character from How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Others call it 'Pebbles Hair'. Anyway, on this particular day, Morgan had an idea to spike her little fountain for a more funky look. She and Rachael lovingly termed this style 'The Knife'.

Morgan styling Kate's hair.

The Knife in all its glory. (No, we did not leave the house this way. It is kind of fun. Perhaps next time...)

*This is an old mirror. No matter how many times I clean it, it does not look clean. Granted, there are several finger prints on the mirror, but it is not as dirty as it may appear. Who am I kidding? It does not stay finger print free for long. In fact, the bottom portion is pretty much always covered in little Kate prints. I love the little finger prints. It's the old spots on the mirror that won't wipe away that I don't love.*

Crisco

Well, Kate discovered that she likes to eat Crisco right out of the package today. I do not have much storage space in my kitchen, so I have to be a bit creative when it comes to storing things. I have my baking goods in a drawer in a rolling cart in my kitchen. It may sound strange, but that is where I have the room. Furthermore, I use my mixer on the rolling cart, so it makes sense. Anyway, Kate has not really shown any interest in said drawer up to this point. Today however, she discovered the contents of the drawer. I was busy preparing dinner, saw that she was happily occupied, and kept on with the dinner prep. A few minutes later, I noticed that she had opened the Crisco and was eating it right out of the package. Yum.

A Word (or two) About November

Brutal. November was just brutal. BRU-TAL. Have I mentioned that November was brutal? -Because it was. I am usually a glass half full kind of a gal. Seriously, I am a perpetual look on the bright side person; I cannot help it. It was a really tough month though, and I am here to tell you that there were a few days when the glass was just half empty.

'Why was it so hard?' you ask. In addition to the crazy call schedule and the 80 hour work week, Chris was spending all of his extra time with my arch nemesis, The Grant. The Grant, is a big thing that he was writing in order to get some more funding for some pretty amazing research that he is working on. Really, the research is great and exciting. -Truth be told, I love that Chris is such a 'Go Getter', and that he is so involved despite being a resident. He is able to balance family life, work and keep his foot in the door in research without getting stressed out or overwhelmed with all that he has on his plate. This is honestly something that I admire as I cannot balance that many things myself. The only thing is that all of this involvement, at times, means a lot more work for me. More work that I can handle for a few weeks at a time. After a while it just gets hard. That is what November was for me this year. Hard.

So, as I was looking back at pictures in order to get all caught up with the good 'ol blog, I saw only a handful them. My initial thought was, 'Where are all of the pictures from November?' Then I remembered. 'Oh yeah, that was the month of The Grant.' Fortunately, Chris has defeated and submitted my arch nemesis and is significantly less busy. One good thing about The Grant, is that it made me realize that the 80 hr. work week is really not so bad. Do-able in fact.

Here are a few written highlights from November, and a token picture to remember that there were, in fact, smiles in the Runyan house in November.

1.) We took a day trip to Columbus, OH to visit the temple.

2.) We celebrated Thanksgiving with my parents, Chris's parents and my brother and his family. The girls had the entire week of Thanksgiving off, which was really nice. We headed out to Grandma's house a few days early for some rest, relaxation, and some good 'ol fashioned spoiling from Grandma & Grandpa and Great Grandmother. Chris was on call the day before Thanksgiving, and was thus post-call on Thanksgiving Day. My dad and brother drove all the way to our house (2+ hours one way) that morning to pick Chris up and bring him out to celebrate with us. This was done so that he could sleep and that we would not have two cars at Grandma's house. It was so nice of them to make that sacrifice for our family. Chris slept and woke up in time for the feast. I braved a few stores with my parents and Chris's mom on Black Friday, and had a nice time. All in all it was a lovely visit.

3.) I discovered that I LOVE to sew. I picked up sewing again in early Fall, but started in earnest November. The more I sew, the more I love it.

4.) We made it through the month. May not sound like much, but I was oh-so-glad to be on the other side of the month.

Kate discovered the drawer under the oven where I keep my pots and pans. She loves to climb inside if the drawer is open, pans in the way or not. (Is it just me, or does she have the pinchiest nose you ever did see?)

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! Chris has had to work a few Halloweens, and thus has had to miss the best thing about it; trick-or-treating. So sad. However, the doctor that he reports to this year said that he could sneak away from the hospital for a bit so that he could join us, so long as it was not too busy. Since I was not sure if he would be able to get away, I kept this from the girls. It turns out that he was able to get away, and the girls got the best surprise when he just walked right up to us in the street as we were trick-or-treating. It was a special treat to have him there. Thank you Dr. Goodman for letting Chris join his kids on Halloween!

A pre-trick-or-treating shot. Rachael was the 'Tooth Fairy' this year. She is holding Chief, who was a skeleton. Morgan was a 'Masquerade Ball Ballerina'. She is holding Kate, who was a lady bug. It was fun to see her in a costume that both of her older sisters wore...good 'ol trip down memory lane and what not.

A close-up of Chief. He really was so cute in his skeleton costume. In our neighborhood, some people passed out dog treats as well as candy. He thought this was pretty great.

Beleated Birthday Celebration

Opa and Nana (Chris's parents) came to visit and to celebrate Chris and Kate's birthdays a little late. We left the older girls with friends and went out to dinner. Four adults and one sweet baby Kate. It was so fun! Not only did we get to eat out at one of my favorite places, The Cheesecake Factory, but we got to have real live adult conversation. Uninterrupted. (Well, mostly uninterrupted. We still had Kate, but she is really low maintenance, so it felt uninterrupted.)

Chris had to work on Sunday, but Opa and Nana stayed and spent the day with me and the girls. We had a delightful time, and they had a nice little break from work and all of the extras that they do at home. (Chris is a bit of an overachiever, and he comes by it naturally...) We snapped some really great shots of Morgan and Rachael with their grandparents. (Kate was already in bed.)

Opa and Morgan.

Nana and Morgan.

Opa and Rachael.

Nana and Rachael.

*It is also noteworthy to mention that while they were here, Opa scrubbed my stove top. (I have an old school electric stove with the coils and the metal bowls underneath said coils.) I do not like my stove and would much rather have a gas stove, or even a flat cook top electric stove, but this stove does the job. Furthermore, there are other things on the "Items to Replace" list before the stove. Anyway, I don't clean the bowls as much as I should. Dad noticed that they were in need (desperate need) of some elbow grease, and he used his elbows for about 20 minutes. Thanks Dad for leaving my kitchen better than you found it.*

Autumn Outing

One Saturday this month, rather than be productive around the house, we opted to take a trip to a farm featuring a corn maze and a pumpkin patch. It was a lot of fun. The weather was perfect for romping through a maze. We went with some friends, which made it even more fun for the girls. While at the farm, we enjoyed a corn maze, a pumpkin patch, feeding goats, and a hayride. It was a really fun, much needed little day trip. We may not have been as productive as we should have been, but we made some good memories, which is equally, if not more important when you have a super busy daddy.

Here is Chris modeling the baby sling I made for him to carry Kate around in.

Kate in the pumpkins. She enjoyed crawling all over them.

We came, we saw, we conquered the corn maze. It was a rather large maze which featured a scavenger hunt highlighting key sights from the city. (Pictured are Chris, Morgan, Rachael, and Dave, Abby and Jeana Simpson.)

At the farm, there was a big metal tub filled with dried corn for wee ones to play in instead of sand. We thought Kate might like it. She couldn't stand it, as you can tell by the expression on her face, and lasted about 10 seconds before she very clearly indicated that she wanted to GET OUT. FAST.

So, who hasn't wanted to throw an egg just to watch it splatter at some point in their life? This was a fun idea that had quite the line. You buy a pack of four eggs and then throw them at this ghost. Rachael said, "You mean I can throw the egg?!" The mom in me kept thinking how wasteful this was, while the child within kept thinking how fun it would be to grab an egg and throw it myself. The girls loved it. We had to do it twice. (Pictured are Morgan, Rachael, Jeana and Abby.)

Last, but not least, a little family picture with some pumpkins. I really liked this shot. Aside from Kate looking off to the right, the rest of us actually have halfway decent smiles. In fact, we almost used it for our Christmas card this year. The only problem was that Farmer Bob and Son were in the background with the hayride truck. Dang!

Chris's B-Day.

Chris's birthday falls on the 14th, just four days after Kate. My mom's is the 16th, so October is a big birthday month for our family. Despite working nights and being super busy, we still managed to squeeze in some birthday fun for Chris. A bit of dinner, cake and ice cream, presents, and then off to work he went...

Happy Birthday Chris!

She is 1!!!

Kate had her birthday on the 10th, and is officially 1-year-old. Wow. That was fast. She has been the sweetest baby and has brought so much joy to our family. We had some family come into town for her birthday, and we celebrated with a fun dinner, and the traditional cake, ice cream, and presents.

Discoveries made about Kate on her birthday:

1.) She prefers chocolate cake to vanilla.

2.) She loves ice cream.

3.) She loves clothes. I kid you not. She loves clothes. She got toys and clothes for her birthday, and showed the same enthusiasm for both. She 'Ooooooohed' and 'Ahhhhhhhed' and held the clothes up to her little body. I think we might be in trouble with this one later...

Here are some fun pics of Kate's big day:


Giant cupcake birthday cake. Chocolate on the bottom, vanilla on the top. Mmmmmm. Birthday cake.


Kate as we were singing 'Happy Birthday' to her.


Mmmmmmm. Chocolate cake.

CRAZY

Sorry all. Things have been, well, crazy. -I say that like I have been the most consistent of bloggers and a two week absence is unusual for me. I am trying. Just when I was getting into a blogging groove, life got even busier. Chris has been gone a lot. We have had three family birthdays that I have been getting ready for. We have also had company twice and gone out of town once. In addition to these things, I have been getting in touch with my inner Martha and crafting and sewing. Will post about it later. Too tired, and writing about it is making me more tired. G'night.

Spirit Week: Day IV

Day IV: Hippie Day. The girls were excited about this one. They shot down some of my suggestions, which I must say would have made them look more hippie-ish, but this is about them and not me, so whatever. We had fun with it, which was the point. Here are the shots:

Spirit Week: Day III

Day III: Wild, Wild West Day. No dice. Girls opted out. Day IV is Hippie Day. I think they want to try that one. Stay tuned...

Spirit Week: Day II

Day II: Pajama Day! Everyone's favorite day. The kids get to wear pj's to school. How cool is that? -In case you are wondering, no, I did not let them wear the pajamas that they slept in the night before.

*Day III is 'Wild, Wild West Day'. Not sure if the girls will participate in that one.

Spirit Week: Day I

It is Spirit Week at school! This means that each day there is a theme that the kids get to dress along with to show their budding school pride. It also means that they get a piece of candy as they enter the school if they participate.

Day I: Mismatch Day. Kids get to wear things that don't match. It is a pity this was not around during preschool. This would have been many a day for Rachael, as she dressed herself. I kid you not, there was a two week span where she wore the same striped pants, under a plaid skirt, and rounded out the whole ensemble with her fuzzy pink boots. (For the record, she changed her shirt and underwear. Other than that, I washed the pants and skirt. A lot...) Anywho, kids also get to have crazy hair, or wear a funny hat. Cool.

Morgan is sporting one tennis shoe and one boot. She also has her shirt inside out and pretty funky hair.

The hair. Pretty fun, eh?

*Rachael opted out of mismatch day. She now cares if she matches. Sometimes. (Actually, she is going through a phase where she really worries what other kids think about her. How sad is that? She was worried that she would be the only one in her class looking mismatched. That and she did flat out did not want to participate in this one.)

General Conference Crafts

Last weekend was General Conference. Ahhhh, Conference Weekend. For you non Mormons out there, this is something that happens twice a year, and it is a big deal. The prophet of our church, along with our other major leaders speak to us, counsel us, and give us direction and words to live by until the next Conference weekend. These conferences occur on the first weekend of October and April respectively.

Anyway, technology being what it is today, allows us to stream talks via internet. This means that we get to stay at home and listen to conference. Such a treat. Since there are several general sessions to listen to, we have started a tradition of doing crafts while we listen. We color, do puzzles, play with play dough, do special conference packets, and during at least one session, we work on our stitching. This is by far the girls' favorite activity during conference. 'We get to SEW!' We are starting out small here, but it is fun to watch the girls come up with little sewing/crafty projects. Here is what they came up with this year:

Morgan made a pillow and a cape for her American Girl Doll, Elizabeth.

Rachael made a sleeping bag for her Zhu-Zhu Pet, Patches, and an ornament for Daddy. Chris and I helped Rachael out a bit with the stitching, but she came up with the design all on her own.

*I made some curtains to hang up in our office. Technically speaking, I made these after conference was over, so I did not include a picture in this post. Furthermore, are just your basic curtains and are simply not as cool as what Morgan and Rachael came up with. =)

And That's What You Call 'Ironic'

Because she has been teething and sick and teething some more, Kate has not been sleeping through the night for a couple of weeks. For the past two nights however, she has slept great. Hooray!! The only thing is, Morgan has been sick. So Kate's first nights sleeping through the night in a while, I have been up 3-5 times each night with poor Morgan. Boo and Hiss for illness and Morgan's utter discomfort. (She had to miss 3 days of school this week.)

*In true surgeon fashion, Chris said that he wondered if Morgan might need her tonsils out. This was only the 5th week of school and already Morgan has missed 5 days and come home early twice. Hmmmm. I wonder if he is on to something there...

T.P.

So, Kate is not my first baby to discover the toilet paper roll. She is, however, my first baby to rip to shreds all of the paper that she has pulled off of the roll. She has done this twice now. Fortunately, both times the roll was about gone so there was not much material to rip...

The first offense. While there was not much on the roll, she literally ripped everything that she pulled off the roll. It is noteworthy to mention that she did this in less than 2 minutes, and that I was right in the next room putting away laundry. Go Kate.

The second offense. You will notice that there is more paper off of the roll this time, though not as many tiny pieces for Mommy to sweep up. Thanks Kate.

*In looking trough our picture archives, I found this one of Rachael and her discovery of the toilet paper roll. Notice that she is more of an unroller, and less of a ripper.

PB & J

Is there anything as yummy as a peanut butter and strawberry jam sandwich? Oh, I don't know, maybe peanut butter and honey or peanut butter and apple butter. How about good old peanut butter and grape jelly? All of these options have been consumed by yours truly lately, and I say they are all simply delicious.

What's so great about a PB&J you say? Well, as a kid I thought it was fine. In high school, I started to notice a sensitivity to peanut butter that got so bad I found I had to avoid it completely. They say once you get your major *food allergies/sensitivities in check you can eat things that you couldn't eat before. Turns out they were right. Isn't that fun? Of course, since I can eat peanut butter, that also means that I can eat various and sundry candies containing peanut butter if they also happen to be gluten free. For the record, Reese's Peanut Butter cups and Snickers bars fit into this category. How I survived 15 years without eating these delectable morsels is beyond me.

*For those of you that don't know, I had to go gluten free three years ago. We discovered my girls did too. Poor Chris is the lone gluten consuming person in the house. He is hoping Kate will be normal like him. Of course, normal in our house is gluten free, so I guess he is hoping she will be abnormal like him.* :)

Canning

I love canning. This week I had the opportunity to can some 54 jars of scrum-didilly-umptious peaches. Home canned fruit is far and away better than the store bought variety. A good friend taught me how to can when she and her husband were living here for medical school. That was seven years ago, and with the exception of one off-year due to moving and pregnancy, I have canned every year since. (Ironically, the friend that taught me how to can had just moved across the country and she was just as pregnant as I was in the off-year previously mentioned. However, I am just not as turbo as she is. Plus, at the time she was like 22 and I was 30 in the off year. BIG difference.) On behalf of my family and my pocketbook, I thank you Kim for teaching me such a useful skill. I think of you and Grandma Blackham every time I can peaches. Or pears. Or anything else I am canning. Except for when I am canning apple butter. Then I think of my mom.

Visit with Dad

On one of his recent call nights things were kind of slow, affording Chris time for a visit from his 4 favorite girls. We took him some dinner and got to eat and visit for a little while. This was really nice and helped break up the time apart. It also got the girls a soda as a special treat from Daddy. Rachael thought it might be fun to snap some shots in Chris's white coat. *Kate was too busy crawling all over the lobby to stop for a picture. =)

First Day of School

Well, here we are at the first day of school again. The girls are in 4th and 2nd grades respectively. Wow. It is a sobering thought to realize that Morgan is only two years away from middle school. Woah. She is getting old. That must mean that I am too...nah.

Morgan's backpack. This year Morgan decided that she did not want to use her pink bag as she was worried that it might be 'too baby-ish' for 4th grade. This was a bag that Chris got a Plastic Surgery Council Conference. He was not using it and said that Morgan was welcome to it if she wanted it. She was pretty jazzed as it is a little different from the traditional style backpack she had before. It had some embroidery and a sheep patch on it that means something to all the plastic surgeons out there, but just looks kind of creepy to the rest of us. I picked out some of the embroidery with my seam ripper, and covered the sheep patch with this peace sign. It still needed something, and Morgan suggested the bling. It was just what the bag needed. Great idea Morgan!

Rachael's backpack. This is the fourth year that she will be using this bag. Yes, the fourth year. I LOVE Land's End backpacks. They are made so well that they just last. Your child will likely outgrow the bag before it falls apart. (We experienced this with Morgan.) To change it up a bit, we washed it (love the front loader), added some new butterfly patches and a little bling, and voila! New bag. Sort of.

Zoo Trip

After our trip to Arizona, we still had one whole week with Chris home before he had to head back to work. It was pure bliss. We filled it with a few day trips to favorite sites around town. It had been a long time since Chris came to the zoo with us, so we packed a lunch and made a trip of it. So fun.

Outside the manatee exhibit. This is one of our favorite exhibits. (Especially when it is hot outside...)

Kate's first carousel ride. She loved it. It was great to have Daddy there for this first.


Also outside the manatee exhibit. Morgan saw a picture of Rachael like this and could not wait to have me take one of her. Why is this so funny to them? It may have been funny to me when I was under 10.

What's that? Something behind me? You don't say... Okay, maybe it is kind of funny...