Christmas in Utah

As previously mentioned, we got to spend Christmas in Utah! Here are a few of the highlights:

Talmage's first time playing in the snow

He was so interested in it and immediately began trying to pick it up (check out that concentration!).

He rubbed his hand vigorously through it for 30 seconds or so and then looked at me with a panicked expression on and started fussing because his hand was freezing cold.

I put his mitten back on and he was off.

He looks like a little king of the mountain here.

This is one of my favorite pictures ever, and I am not even sure why!

Poor Sam has been roasting pretty much since we moved to Houston. He was so excited about the cold weather he didn't even wear a coat much of the time!

I love how little he looks here with Grandpa Brady.

Happy boy with Grandpa Brady and Grandma Elena!

Such great form!

Sam lifted Talmage up on the snow shovel...

...and then Talmage refused to get off. (Note his expression--he is clearly saying, "Um, Dad, what's the big deal here? Lift me back up!")

Sledding...in several locations

We started pulling Talmage around the yard on this sled. He lay flat on his back, completely stiff as we pulled him around. He looked like a wounded person being pulled to safety!

Yet every time we would stop, he would immediately start urging us to keep pulling him.

Then Elena had a turn!

We visited Great-Grandpa Brady's house and Talmage got to sled down the hill in the front yard. We also visited Sam's dad's old elementary school, and Sam and Talmage went sledding down the big hill there too! Too bad Houston doesn't really get snow...I guess we'll have to stick to ice blocking.

Playing with Buddy the dog

This very energetic dog would pounce on Talmage, yapping wildly, and knock him to the floor! Yet somehow, Talmage still adored him and chased him all around the house.

He liked Talmage's mittens and kept biting them off his hands. See Talmage's eyes squinted closed in his grin of delight?!

Seeing the house one of Sam's ancestors lived in

Visiting with Grandma Sue

Somehow I flaked on the pictures with Grandma Sue and my family this trip, but we had lots of fun with them too! We played lots of games, went to her performance of Handel's Messiah, and had a volleyball/racquetball/basketball tournament! I am known for fouling people all the time on accident (once I even fouled so many times in a Church basketball game they had to pull me out of the game and said I might have to go see the Bishop!), and this time was no different. I even accidentally elbowed her in the face! Sorry again! :)

LOTS of time in the car

Talmage was pretty good about things as we went from Salt Lake to Logan to Kaysville to West Valley and back and forth and back and forth! We were grateful to my parents for the use of a car and a car seat.

Going out to eat

Visiting some sites at temple square

Talmage loves his Uncle Joseph! We tried to get him to say "JoJo," but he called him "DoDo" the whole time. :)

This is a ship bunk the pioneers would sleep in. A couple and up to two small children were assigned to sleep in each bunk! Look at how squished the three of us are in there! Someone Sam's height (6'4") would be miserable! Learning more about their sacrifices was inspiring.

Snowmobiling in the Uintahs

We went snowmobiling with my dad, my brother, and Sam's brother! It was quite the adventure. I loved the going fast part...not so much the getting stuck part. It was extremely foggy and the snow was very heavy, so conditions were a little rough for we three beginners! Thankfully my dad and brother provided us with lots of help.

That area was so beautiful!!! It really looked like pictures from a calendar. At one point the trail was completely surrounded by huge pine trees heavily laden with pure white snow! It was truly breathtaking.

Talmage's first haircut

While we were off snowmobiling, my mom gave Talmage his first haircut!

She used to be a hairdresser, and her experienced hands did a much better job than I could have done. I take advantage of her expertise every time we visit!

Laura, my brother Corban's wife, kept him happy with a spraybottle of water and graham crackers.

Love that face! He wasn't a fan of the hair falling down and tickling his nose.

Opening pajamas on Christmas Eve

My handsome brother Bronson--I can't believe how big he is getting!

Talmage and Maxton

I made our matching pajamas again, in keeping with the tradition.

What a ham Talmage is! Look at that face!

Opening presents Christmas morning

Helping Talmage with his toys from Santa

He loved playing with Maxton's toys, too.

Cute little Peter!

This year Sam and I were assigned my sister Jocilyn and her family. I made them a nativity advent calendar with activity tags to do each day of December as they put the nativity pieces on the quilt. She gave a satisfying reaction!

Here is the finished quilt, just slightly jumbled from being wrapped.

Playing with his toy laptop from Grandma Sue

Airport adventures

I teach piano lessons to a girl whose mom works for Southwest Airlines. She offered to trade me lessons for buddy passes (stand-by tickets), so that is how we got to Utah! Sam had to be back for a meeting, so he had an actual ticket back to Houston. Talmage and I were going to be flying stand-by again, but we didn't anticipate that it would be a problem, since we got there without a hitch. Well, the weather didn't really cooperate, and due to cancelled flights and re-routed passengers, the available seats quickly filled up! After finding out we wouldn't make a flight on Monday, when Sam was going home, or even Tuesday, we went to the airport on Wednesday.

Additionally, I was going to be taking care of a 7 year old little girl for my friend's friend! After spending 5-6 hours in the airport on Wednesday, it became clear that we weren't going to make it on a flight, so we went back to stay with my family. Our luggage had already gone to Texas, however, which meant living out of the few things in our carry-on bags. I unwisely decided against packing a change of clothes in our carry-on. So the next morning, travel weary before we even started our journey, we went back to the airport and made it onto a flight to Oakland, CA. They had to de-ice the plane, however, so we were delayed and missed our connecting flight to Los Angeles. Thankfully we made it onto one an hour or two later, and from there we flew to Houston, arriving just before midnight on Thursday night. We were so grateful to finally be back with Sam!!! Talmage was so good on the flights and mostly just slept. It's a good thing he is such a good traveler since we live so far away from our families!

He did get a little antsy during the 5-6 hour wait at the Salt Lake airport. He found a way to wiggle out of his stroller while he was still buckled in. It shouldn't have been surprising, knowing his persistent personality, but it still was!

Other highlights include:

Leaving my purse in a dressing room and returning a couple of hours later to find everything intact, including the digital camera and nearly $400 cash! I am grateful for honest people!

Making homemade candy--a Christmas tradition with my family

Christmas programs with both families

A brief visit to my old house in Brigham City--now Sam has seen every house I have lived in!

Enjoying my parents' ward Christmas party and accompanying hay ride

Participating in a musical number in my parents' ward (my sister Breanne sang and I accompanied her)

Visiting the graves of Sam's grandparents

...and the list goes on!

It was such a great trip to Utah! We loved spending time with our families, and we were so blessed to be able to be there for Christmas. Thanks to everyone who made it possible!

Life Lately

Between our trip to Utah (more to come on that later), Talmage's illnesses, and computer difficulties, things have been a little crazy around here and we are in need of some catch-up time! So, without further ado, here is a brief summary of life at the Brady household lately.

Talmage loves to help me cook! Here he is a bit before Christmas doing just that. The challenge I have been encountering these days is getting him to stay sitting on the counter--he always stands up and tries to walk around...

Here he is asking me very nicely to please open his bristle blocks bag.

One of the gifts we gave Talmage for Christmas was a little toy version of our vacuum (I got it at Goodwill for $3! It even makes vacuum noises when you push the button!).

Talmage just loves it. He loves pretty much anything he can push around, actually. I guess it makes him feel like he is in control.

Talmage was quite sick there for a while, and between his vomiting and picky eating, he was losing weight (he's in the 4th percentile!) and his ribs were poking through! I decided that nutritious or not, this boy needed some fat and calories, so I bought him a large chocolate milkshake from Sonic. He sat on the couch and drank almost the entire thing!! Imagine how you would feel if you had a shake that spanned from your waist to your shoulders!

He loves anything he can put in slots or holes. Favorite toys lately include his shape sorters (he's gotten to be quite good at them!), pens (he can take the lid off and put it back on), MegaBloks, and this variation of Mr. Potato Head Sam's professor gave us. It is Bert on one side and Ernie on the other:

plus it has a bunch of goofy face parts. It is not at all the kind of toy I would normally get for Talmage, and what do you know, he is obsessed with it.

I love the way he purses his lips when he is concentrating. He loves putting the little pieces in the holes!

Sam gave me this beautiful swing for Christmas! We're just waiting to hear whether or not we'll be allowed to hang it above our balcony or whether he needs to build a frame so we can have it in the backyard.

Standing on anything raised above ground level is another recent obsession of Talmage's. He loves to climb up onto things!

We didn't really celebrate our 2nd anniversary on the 27th of December since we were in Utah/coming home on that day (although being there was a great celebration!), but we had a fun date that Saturday! Sam called my mom and found out where the house is located that we lived in when I was 5-8 years old and then he surprised me and took me there! My sisters and I would climb one of the large trees in the front yard almost every day in the school year and do our homework up there. Ah, the memories that came rushing back when I saw this place brought quite the sense of nostalgia!

Side notes to parents and siblings: See the grass in the front yard?? The front door has been painted bright red! The back of the house has been painted peach. The alleyway still looks the same, and the cul-de-sac tree we would play in is alive and well. I forgot that even though it is a 2-story house it looks like a 1-story house from the outside and it took me a few seconds to recognize it. :)

Then we found my old elementary school (the good ol' Nottingham Knights!) and played with Talmage on the playground.

That night we went out to dinner and then saw the new Narnia movie! Talmage gave us tickets for Christmas. :)

We're loving life! It's hard to believe we have been married for 2 years, and yet when I think about the time before Sam it seems like a different lifetime. Our happiest moments come when we are together--I'm so glad it's for eternity!!!

Sicky

Note: I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I will try to post some pictures soon, but for now the computer I put all the pictures on needs a new cord and will only stay on for about 5 minutes at a time. So bear with me for a bit longer!

Talmage has been sick. Actually, it all started on Sunday. Church now starts at 8:30 am, and since Talmage was still in recovery mode after our trip, I actually had to wake him up to leave for Church (he normally wakes up between 6 and 7). I hurriedly gave him a sippy cup full of milk to tide him over until we could get to the church and I could give him a granola bar for breakfast. He started gulping down his milk, and about halfway to Church spit up milk down his carseat...twice. I was slightly concerned, but figured he just drank it too fast.

Then, after we arrived at Church, we were talking to the missionaries, and all of a sudden milk spewed from Talmage's mouth, arcing through the air and nearly hitting the elders. It splattered all over the chapel carpet. I plopped him down on the ground, ran out to the car to get some wipes, and began cleaning it up. Sam happened to walk up at that moment (he had a 6:00 am meeting), so he ran to get cleaning supplies, and the missionaries also ran for paper towels. As we cleaned up I said, "This wasn't in your job description, huh?" to the elders. One said, "Well, it's probably in our job description as future dads!" and the other said, "Yeah, they didn't teach us this in the MTC."

After we got that all cleaned up, I settled down in a pew with Talmage. He was being particularly good as Sacrament Meeting started. He was throwing his hand high into the air to sustain people, loudly shouting, "MEN-MEN!" at the end of every prayer, and being very attentive overall. Then, right in the middle of the Sacrament, it happened. His stomach contracted, he let out a cough, and suddenly he was violently throwing up...not just spitting up milk, but throwing up horrible curdled cottage-cheese-like milk mingled with granola bar chunks. I froze in shock for just a moment with my hand thrust under his chin, catching some of the throwup that continued to spurt from his mouth. I was covered, he was covered, the bench was covered, and I was unsure what to do. After a couple of seconds, I could see that I just needed to get him out of there, so I sprang to my feet, ran out the door, and headed down to the women's restroom.

Our home teacher ran along beside me (since Sam was up on the stand), asking questions like, "Do you need anything? Do you need help into the bathroom? The mother's room has a sink, right?" I informed him that I was fine, but he vigilantly stuck with me until we got to the women's restroom, he threw open the door for me, I ran in, and began rinsing things off and taking Talmage's clothes off of him.

At this point the bathroom door started opening and closing as more kind, concerned ward members came to see if I needed help. They also explained that several surrounding priesthood brethren were faithfully scrubbing up the bench. It was apparently quite a challenge, I guess, because the curdled milk just smeared into everything. And boy was that fragrant! I felt so bad for anyone within a 20 foot radius, to say nothing of the men who were cleaning it up. A young woman showed up with the diaper bag and my purse, and I decided I had better not go back into the chapel.

So I plunked Talmage into the carseat, clad in just his diaper and a pair of socks (where was my extra outfit I keep for emergencies???), and we came home. That night, he woke up crying, and when I checked on him, I discovered another puddle of vomit in his crib. The poor boy has thrown up several times since. Thankfully most of our floors are tile so it cleans up really easily! I hope he gets better soon.

The amazing part about the whole thing is that the ward members sitting near me took care of things so smoothly that most of the congregation didn't even have a clue anything out of the ordinary had happened! I am grateful for the kind people that surround us.