The Kitchen Table

Ever since our first trip to Coeur D'Alene and DeA discovered the rustic furniture store, she has dreamed of a rustic dining room table. Her dream finally became reality when her custom table was ready for pick-up. We loaded the trailer and drove through the fog to pick it up. It was a fun date weekend for New Year's.

I think she was excited.

DeA was definitely chomping at the bit to pick up the table, she didn't even workout!

She wanted to make extra sure that the table, chairs, and bench would be protected.

The base was too big to fit in the front door. Dad had the great idea to load it into a tractor bucket and drive it around to the deck. DeA was not a fan of this plan, and hid in the house and cried that she couldn't watch.

Here's the thing, I had just paid for this thing and driven five hours in fog and ice to get it home. Did she really think that I wanted it ruined?

Dad lifted it up with the bucket to the deck where Javi and I could pull it in. Then I had to attach the base to the top, and again DeA left saying that she couldn't watch. 

Thanks to Dad and Javi's help, the table was finally assembled and turned right side up.

Finally she looked happy and kind of appreciative.

It looked great, and we will create lots of memories when the kids are finally allowed to use it.

It took about a week, but the placemats finally arrived and now we can eat pre-approved foods on the table, with her supervision. 

 

A Boy and His Mixer, A Classic Tale

We had quite a freeze that made travel between Mom and Dad's and our house treacherous. DeA used a plastic board to sled over. I should have because I slipped and crashed.

Ryker used the excuse of the snow and ice to stay home and create with his new mixer. He made homemade, from scratch, fettuccine alfredo. 

DeA enjoyed it because she got a homemade dinner without homemade dinner work.

Oh, what's this? Homemade garlic breadsticks?

It was quite the meal!

The next day he decided that he wanted to try his hand at homemade hamburgers. Hampa had some steaks that needed used up, so we taught Ryker how to cube them and grind them with his new meat grinder attachment from Nama.

Surprisingly, DeA wanted nothing to do with this.

Grinding his own meat wasn't enough, he also wanted to make his own buns.

It made quite the delicious burger.

DeA was a little worn out from all the worrying about meat germs.

I'm not a huge fan of the week between Christmas and New Year's. It's lawless, unstructured mayhem at home but I still have a job. No one wants to let me go to bed in peace, and it made the mornings a little hard. At least I had the pretty sunrise to help me out.

Hampa got home from Utah and cooked up the prime rib that was intended for Christmas. Ryker wanted to contribute by making bread.

The prime rib was perfect, as it had to be with the newly appointed cooking expert watching. 

We had a lot of family time, Leo Boy loved watching Avatar at our house, away from the noisy kids.

Luca also liked being at our house, away from the noise. If all the kids were here, who was causing the noise?

Another day, another attachment experiment. This time it was turning $10 oranges into $2 juice. But it was delicious and fresh juice

A Different Kind of Christmas

Mom was planning on being around for Christmas, but Grandma Arlene wasn't doing well so Mom left early. That meant that she got to open her presents early, and the kids were not happy about it.

Everyone loves the new couches, even the ones that are not allowed to be on them.

Mom left just in time to miss Lindsea's crew. Nothing will stoke the lingering middle child syndrome like flying in from Georgia only to realize that your mom flew away an hour before you landed.

DeA still loves the couches.

Leo still is not sure why Ryker can be on the couch and fart but he can't be up there.

We attempted to play a Reindeer game in the crusty snow, 12 degree weather and freezing rain. Ryker made it a whole 10 minutes, Rock said that he didn't like football enough to keep going, and the big, strong adults showed the kids how wussy there were being.

It was definitely the most uncomfortable Reindeer Game that we have ever had. 

Lindsey sent DeA some hair thing to create curls.

It was quite stylish.

Christmas Eve was a little weird, with Hampa and Nama gone to be with Gma Arlene. Ryker tried to take over the pizza making duties, and did a great job. We realized too late that Nama's cool little pizza oven is too small to handle a big group.

Schnookums enoyed spending time with Sienna and away from the noise.

Christmas Day also felt a little...off. It was hard to explain, but I think between the kids getting older, Mom and Dad being gone, and Christmas falling on a Sunday it just didn't feel quite normal. Ryker was definitely excited to get his lift stand mixer.

I think the different feel hit Rock the most. He explained that it kind of felt like a "let-down" and I remember feeling that way about his age. It doesn't help that half his presents were a lift pass to Mission.

Schnookums' curl thing worked out wonderfully.

It was still a great morning, even if it was a little less than normal.

Ryker was so excited to use his Kitchen Aid that he didn't even wait to change out of his church clothes. We had the Hermanas over, and he helped make cookies for dessert.

We smoked a tri-tip and Marissa and Lindz helped with sides to created a delicious Christmas dinner.

It was Luca approved!

We spent the rest of the night playing games on the TV and computer. It was different, but it was still a great Christmas.

The Very, Very Busy Weekend

DeA had a very, very busy weekend. It began by driving to Wenatchee to take Rock to Mission Ridge. He was going to snowboard all day, then ride the ski bus into town and take the Link all the way to Manson. The drop-off went well, and DeA spent a few hours shopping in Wenatchee before coming home. Around 4:30, I received a few calls in a row from Schnookums. I was with patients and couldn't answer, but then she texted that Rock was stuck on the mountain because there was a no ski bus today. Between patients I called her, she couldn't speak because she was crying because her baby was stuck on the hill and it would take her over an hour and a half to go get him. I told her that we knew enough people in Wenatchee that someone could grab him and give him a warm place to stay until we could get down there. The first person I called immediately said "oh, you want me to go get him and bring him up to you guys?" which was amazing but not surprising if you know Becky. Thankfully, Rock did the responsibly thing and hitchhiked with strangers to the bus stop.

Knowing that Rock was safely on the bus, DeA and I went to our annual Christmas party for the office. Rock showed up with his snowboarding stuff after hopping off the bus in Chelan. After about two minutes with the office staff, he asked if he could grab a pizza and chill at the office. The party was great and a fun night. We got home round 9pm, and Ryker tried to open a cheese slicer that DeA gifted me. He managed to slice his index finger. It was a deep cut, but clean. After DeA helped him with a band-aid, I heard a thump followed by a high-pitched sound. I looked at DeA and she had her hands on her temples and looked scared to death. I came around the corned of the island to see Ryker on his back appearing to be having a seizure. It only lasted a few seconds, and he snapped out of it and asked what was happening and began to cry. 

I carried him to the couch and held him while DeA explained how his eyes went white and he passed out. It made me feel better to know it wasn't a seizure, but he was having a concussive response. DeA continued her high-pitched noises, and looked like she was about to pass out herself, so I had Rock call Hampa. I could handle Ryker, and I could handle DeA, but I couldn't handle both. Hampa told Ryker stories about other times big guys passed out, Ryker told him it wasn't helping, and then Hampa told him other stories. He passed all the concussion tests, he didn't even have a headache. DeA didn't want to let him sleep alone, so she cuddled him on the couch all night.

The next morning Jens had a basketball game. It was so fun to watch her with her friends.

The gym made it hard to get a good picture of her, but she played hard and said that she had fun.

I don't have pictures from the rest of the day, but there was a baptism, writing a talk, and helping Mom feed the missionaries. She sat down on the couch and within two minutes completely crashed. Ryker later snuggled in close.

Sunday began with me trying to follow the Argentina World Cup match without disrupting my meeting, setting up for Sacrament Meeting without disrupting Ryker watching the match on DeA's phone, and then trying to make it seem like Ryker was the one that yelled when Argentina won and not me. DeA gave a great talk, she does a really good job even though she works herself up. 

We had family dinner after church. People kept asking if so-and-so could also come, and the answer is always yes, so we ended up with around 70 people. When the final guest left, DeA put on her PJs, shut the blinds in the bedroom, and curled up under the covers for a much-deserved monster nap.