2018 Holiday Card

2018 will be one of those years with the hard and fast swings!

At the beginning of the year, we started with a toddler and an infant and now have two bumbling toddlers that run the house with a baby on the way. Our new house motto is, The Remynse House: where someone is always crying.

Here's a rundown:

Grady - this boy walks, eats, and laughs. He's pretty laid back and he's so used to his sister. He likes to take his shoes and socks off and he loves to eat, I know I mentioned that already but let's call it what it is. He's starting to get interested in books and will drag his bedtime books out and turn the pages and his other favorite toys include the broom, the pieces to the shape sorter, and random kitchen items.

Eleanor - the sass is strong with that one. She's strong willed and fierce and if she'd use her powers for good, she will change the world. She loves hard and strong and has a passion. She's got some hoarder tendencies - she likes to have all her books, or all her animals with her and every morning she drags her pillow, her 2 blankets, as many animals as she can round up, some books, and occasionally her sheets to our bedroom. She likes animals, gardening, and rough housing... her favorite toys are coloring (with stickers),  reading, and making dinner in her kitchen. AND oy is she chatty.

Matt - he's had a full year taking care of the rest of us. He golfed more this year than in the past. He's hunted this year more than the past. He had some big projects at working including the runway project, the PD training, and his first ever perfect certification. He's been busy with some industry research and even made a trip to Cleveland for work.

Amanda - It's been a tough year for me. The highs have been high - like the trip to England, watching the kids grow, planning their birthday parties, seeing both kids grow and change, and getting pregnant with this last baby. But the lows have really taken the wind out of my sails - situations at work and the biggest heartache has been Janice's death. All in all, my family continues to be the bright spot and keeps me going. I feel like I'm in the experience and memory business - whether it's trips to the zoo/Applefest/Papa's Pumpkin Patch/Super slide or everyday fun like raking leaves or baking cookies or making pancakes - I want them to experience life. Smell the world around em and soak it in.

It's been a busy year, one that has taken us somewhere completely different than we would have guessed from last year.

To those that read this... may this holiday season be filled with laughter and light of those that you love. Hold hands, use the china, eat the chocolate, kiss, take the picture, just cherish those that mean something to you - it doesn't matter who they are or where they are as long as they mean something to you.

Love, The Remynses.

2018 Wish List.

Grady
Outside table for eating on
Huge stacking blocks
Radio Flyer 4 in 1 Trike
Puddle Jumper Vest for Swimming
Mittens - preferably thumbless


Eleanor
5T Pajamas
Dance classes at daycare - $45 for 6 weeks
Mr. Potato Head
Baking Apron - child-sized
Egg Sort Set
Magnetic Build Set
Mittens
Sticker activity books
Stuffed Animal Zoo
Puzzles... more advanced (like 20ish pieces - jigsaw)


Amanda
Rothy's size 9 (Twilight Metallic Captoe)
Birkenstocks size 9
Rocketbook Notebook
Instant Pot or similar
12 wooden salad bowls
Pancake dispenser
Jewelry Box
Water Pik - for teeth
Bagnet
Stoller Attacher board
At Home at Highclere, book


Matt
Large plastic storage chest for truck (similar to toolbox)
Grass Seed
Weed and Feed for the lawn
Foam golf balls
Scheel's cards


Family gifts
Diapers - Pampers, size 6 mostly.
Family Zoo Pass renewal

Sota, Light Night, Petroffs

It's been a week.
Highs and lows for sure.

The biggest goal of the week was to get the pickup back to Bismarck. It arrived back at the body shop on Friday afternoon. One of the biggest successes of the week was the other insurance company admitted liability for the wreck - something we knew but hearing confirmation was good. I went to two chiro appointments and have 2 more scheduled - hoping to feel more aligned by the end of the year.

Mom and I also assisted in sorting through some of Janice's things. It was hard for me to see a life and person I value so deeply come down to the bare essentials of her everyday living. There were essences of her there is some of the items - things that I have seen her use daily and things that were so drastically her. I saw the pictures she hung of my children on her wall in her kitchen and I couldn't bring myself to remove them from the wall - like doing so would mean that she's really gone from their lives as she is from mine and that they will never know this spirit who has been so interested in the people that they are becoming. It breaks my heart. I did attempt to gather her essence for them - even though I know it's somewhat useless. Each will be given a teacup from her special collection.
I brought some things for Matt too - her gin, a decanter, and a box of Bob's ties. Which he examined that night and picked 10 or so out of the box of 75.


Baby had a cardio echogram on Monday, which we were glad for the timing given the accident. All looked good. We also followed up with a 28 week health check - all good there, 158 was the heart beat and no gestational diabetes! Health baby is the best news we could have at this point after the scary weekend.

We also had a lot of Christmas activities over the week -
We took our trip to see Santa - I thought this was the year that she really took it on. We've been asking what she wanted from Santa, she's been practicing her "HO, HO, HO" repeatedly, and even has been somewhat singing Christmas carols. She sat on his lap and just pointed at me. The only thing she said to Santa was Mommy. Grady was better-ish. He just kept kicking his shoes off. All in all - it wasn't horrid, there were no tears, and both kids left Santa (or Sota as it sound when E says it) happy and giddy with candy canes in hand. So... success?

We also had annual Light Night - which Matt and I've been looking forward to because E is so observant of the Christmas lights this year. We ate at Taco John's - which I think was Grady's favorite part. He ate more than anyone else. He had a bean burrito, half a quesadilla, half a soft taco, his own portion of ole's, and all the olives off the Feliz Navidad nachos. Oh, I forgot to mention the graham cracker for dessert too. E's favorite snack of the night was the candy cane that we gave her while driving around. She ate half of it and then handed to her dad. It was a good night - Grady fell asleep for a majority of it - that's consistent with last year's performance as well.

The next day, we prepped more Christmas things including organization of the house, setting up the toddler Christmas tree, wrapping a few presents... and so on.  Had to make another run to the clinic for Grady - another ear infection. UGh.

On Sunday, we had Petroff's over to play and exchange gifts. They had a blast playing with Alice. Alice may have been a bit unsure about them - I don't blame her. They beautiful moments of play and when Alice left there were hugs and waving. G kept hugging her time after time - made me chuckle. E also liked reading books with her godmother Shantelle - it's fun to see those two interact together as I know they don't get as much time as we'd like.

ALR: Eleanor, can you show how you do somersaults? 
EER giggles and gets herself ready.
EER does somersault.
All cheer.
Alice does somersault.
All cheer.
Meanwhile, GRR watches. 
GRR sets himself up.
GRR does somersault by himself
All cheer.
GRR keeps doing them, laughing the entire time!

Crash, Jump, Tree

I'mma gonna this post with, yes - we are okay.
We have no broken bones, no hospitalization, we walked away with bruising and tender spots with a side of headaches - lucky.

This past weekend, en route to Grand Forks, we left lunch on broadway in Fargo - started heading west on 7th and got broadsided by a buick who ran a red light on 10th. I can hear the crunch, I can feel the jostle, and I can practically watch each screen play out in my mind from seconds before the actual crash, to the tightening of the seat belt, to the slow grading creep the truck seemed to take toward the street light pole, stopping just shy of the major pole but taking out the pedestrian pole. I've been driving for 20 years - I've never experienced that type of crash. The police appeared on scene, the firetruck, and then the ambulance.

Matt got out of the vehicle to check on the other driver - both of her airbags had deployed - her car looked done. She had first hit us at the front wheel well and then due to the force actually careened back and her rear hit our rear tire well as well before sending her perpendicular to her original travel. 911 was on the phone through blue tooth and asking for address, to which we didn't know - I remember careening my neck through the pain of the seat belt tension to see the traffic signs on the lights above us. That was the first point where we were suddenly very aware we were not at home - we had no vehicle, we didn't know where we were, and we had no back up car. The seat belt tensions had blown and pieces of the vehicle were dragging underneath - these along with the low tires made the car unable for us to drive. Matt began working on insurance angles after the paramedics cleared me and I started working on options for us to get home and also just get out of the cold. We stood there on the corner with our luggage.

We had three heroes that day for sure - I called Jon to let him know we weren't going to be making it to Grand Forks - he was in Fargo and volunteered to come grab us. I didn't have anywhere lined up for us to go but at least it got us off the streets so we could game plan. I was also lucky to remember Matt telling me about NDSU having a game in town that day - I was able to secure a ride back with Wade and Lynn as they had come to the game. So Scraper took us to them and then they took us home. We were sore, tender, sad, and relieved. Aside from having friends to call, and no real harm done, we were so glad that the kids were home with my parents. I've been worried enough about the one inside of me and the impact she's had but compounding with E and G - that's enough keep me awake at night.

Updated Valley News Story.

So enough of the serious - we had a weekend of joy too.

On Saturday morning, GRE had their annual Christmas party. The thing about their party is they encourage family to come - so that gave us an invitation to come with Mom to Sky Zone Trampoline Park. E had already been with Grandma as she had a sleep over the night before. G has been fighting off croup all week so we didn't want to put Grandma through a hard night so he went with us the next day. They had a blast. She was a little ensure from the start but by the end was a little jumping machine. Grady just giggled the entire time and he didn't even jump, mostly just fell down.
The kids then went to out to the farm so we could go to "Grand Forks."

On Sunday, after processing our insurance claim - we headed out to get the kids, did errands, and then headed home for naps. We ended the night with decorating the tree which was a bit like kissing a wolverine. Stressful and not enough arms. There was a lot of "once it's on the Christmas tree, we only look, don't touch." or "Mom is the only one that reaches into the ornament box." or "Grady we don't pull on the TREE!"

ALR: Here's one for you to put up, Eleanor.
EER takes ornament, puts it on the tree on the same branch as she put the last 4 ornaments on. 
Branch has begun to droop.
ALR: Eleanor, why don't you spread out your ornaments more, then you can see them better.
EER: points at branch: This is my stuff.
MJR looks at ALR: That's hard to argue with. 

Peppa

It's been a full week - Matt's crazy at work. I'm going to work. G went to the ENT specialist and will have tubes put in next year. E has been starting to learn about Christmas. We drive home at night and she talks about looking at Christmas lights and Christmas trees. There are a few houses on the way home that are decorated - makes me look forward to our annual Light Night.

G is starting to come into his personality too - whenever I come to daycare to pick him up he sees me and runs to the corner where his jacket is hung. Pointing and grunting. From there we get him dressed and he waves goodbye to the ladies as we go to get Eleanor. He's also been pretty good with his babies at home... puts their hats on, kisses them, hands them to me to wrap them in blankets.

 

The weekend started off with a little date time with Matt and I - we took in the Pride of Dakota Show on Friday night before grabbing burgers at JL. We picked up the kids - who were in great moods and took the long drive home to see a few neighborhood Christmas lights. Saturday was a bit of morning shopping and then naps in the afternoon. I put up the Christmas tree. I had a little help, that is, until he crapped his pants and I finished the project myself. Eleanor didn't notice the tree was up until the next day!

But the big news was that Matt and Eleanor went to Peppa Pig Live. That's right. The two of them went to the show. G and I hung out. But it's was Eleanor's first date. Matt and I've planned this since probably September but we've been keeping it pretty lowkey. We had been decorating for Christmas and stopped.

ALR: Eleanor, why don't you go upstairs. Mom set your clothes out, you need to get ready to go on your date with Dad.
EER: Date?
MJR: Yes, you and I are going to go out. First we will get a snack and then we are going to go see Peppa.
EER stares at him.
EER looks at ALR
ALR nods: He's right, you are going to go see Peppa. Let's get you upstairs.

We got her dressed in a nice outfit, did her hair, and I explained that Dad would pay for everything tonight and treat her well and open the car door. The two of them looked pretty excited as they headed out the door. The first stop was Perkins for pie and cookies. Then to the Peppa show. Matt said she was confused at first and seemed a little impatient but she didn't leave his lap and after the first half started getting into it. They were cute when they got home at supper time and reenacted some of it for me including the crab and ocean scene. He was so proud to take her and give her something that made her smile and a moment for them.

MJR: Did you see?
ALR: See what?
MJR: Peppa Live is coming to town.
ALR: I looked at tickets, I tried calling "ins" I may have and here's what I'm coming up with. We are looking at $75 for seats that aren't great for her and $90 for what we probably should spend.
MJR: Yeah, I called my contact at the event center - she suggested we go for midrange to keep off the floor and nose bleeds.
ALR: Matt, she's two. She's not making memories yet.
MJR: Her favorite story is coming to life. How would you feel, how excited would you be... it's like Indian in the cupboard.
ALR: Sigh.
MJR: Here, I won't get the deer license or the turkey license and we'll save money on going down there so we'll just reapply that money towards her show.
ALR: You are a good dad, you better take a lot of pictures.