Allison is three! 

We celebrated by inviting three little princesses into our home for a Rapunzel party...

The cake

(Can you guess what the tower is made of?)

(Rice Krispy treats covered in fondant)

Disney sells an expensive Rapunzel hair tiara for little girls to wear. But when I saw a yarn braid online (used as a party decoration), I thought that might be the way to go. I just added a dollar store hat and elastic under the chin, and helped the girls glue in their choice of artificial flowers. It worked pretty well (and hopefully it's more durable than the Disney alternative).

                                                                     Four little Rapunzels!

We read the Tangled story...

played "Don't Eat Pete" with cereal...

... and played "find Pascal."

The girls made necklaces and let their hair over the edge of the "tower" (our bannister), 

then played with floating lanterns (yellow balloons).

After the party, Allison wore her Rapunzel outfit all afternoon. Happy 3rd birthday, Allison!

   

We're Moving!

Today Adam officially accepted a job offer...
with...
(are you ready?)
... Eli Lilly pharmaceutical company
in...
(are you really ready?)
... Indianapolis, Indiana!

It's a great job and we've heard lots of good things about living in Indy. We're really excited to move. Luckily for us, we won't have to wait long to move forward with our plans; we're going to move at the beginning of April.


Some reasons we're excited about this job:

-Adam likes the job & benefits
-The neighborhoods north of the city have good schools
-We'll be next to a major airport (hooray!)
-It's in the Midwest, which we've come to enjoy after 4 years in Champaign, Illinois.
-And we'll be close to a temple! That is, after they build it. A temple has been announced and ground purchased in Carmel (the city just north of Indy, where we're hoping to live). Wouldn't it be cool to watch a temple get built right in your own town, and then live just a couple minutes away from it? After having to drive 3+ hours to visit the temple, we're excited for a closer commute.

The only negatives we can foresee are that Adam's commute will likely be 20-25 minutes (which really isn't so bad), and, mostly, that we won't be any closer to family in the West. But I feel like good things will come of living in Indianapolis... and at least we'll be close to an airport so we can more easily visit family and friends.

Now it's time to make some moving plans!

Surprise Visit to Utah

It was 3:50pm in Provo, Utah. All seven of my siblings siblings, my dad, and my family crouched quietly in my parents' front room, awaiting my mom's return. "Here she comes!" The doorknob turned, my mom stepped in, the bucket of confetti dumped, and we all shouted, "SURPRISE!"

Last month my mom turned 50, and my dad decided to celebrate by flying me and Lori and our families out to Utah to surprise my mom. She sure was surprised! We spent the week visiting, playing games, driving up the canyon, seeing the Bean Museum, and just enjoying being together. On the weekend we had a surprise party for her at the church with her mom and siblings and my dad's parents and siblings. And at the end of the week we got to help Paul and Melissa move into their first home! It was a great visit.

Just minutes after the surprise!

We took a family drive up the canyon. Jared and Allison were in awe of the mountains.

Adam learning to ride Matthew's unicycle (Matthew can ride and juggle simultaneously!)

The kids did LOTS of fun activities with Grandma, one of which was cracking open glittering geodes that the Dicksons had unearthed on a recent excursion through Southern Utah.

Extended family party! Everyone from both my mom's and my dad's families were there, save one person! Quite the miracle! We took photos, had dinner and a program, and enjoyed talking with everyone (and the kids enjoyed running wild in the church gym).

The Dickson family--now 18 strong!

Playing games on a Sunday afternoon

Matt & Lori looking cute together (In case you didn't know, Lori is expecting and due in June--just a day before Jared's birthday!)

Mom, Nathan (12), and Amy (9)

My mom made a construction cake for Jared

                                              

...and played dress-up with Allison

Allison and Amy were quite a pair

I finally got to hold my niece Rachel! She's such a cutie.

Paul and Melissa in their brand-new house in Salem! We got to help move them in.

Steven and Kristel gave us a tour of the construction site near their home (new BYU housing complexes)

Happy Birthday, Thomas!

Today Tommy turned one! It's hard to believe it's been a year since our little guy surprised us by arriving two weeks early. Tommy must have been very anxious to make his earthly debut: He was born just five days after we arrived home from our Christmas vacation in Chicago and just one night after Adam had a violent flu. Not only that, but he made his appearance a slim thirty minutes after we made it to the hospital. That's a lot of corners to cut, but it was worth it to have him here that much earlier.

Some things we have come to love about Tommy:

5. His new tricks: waving bye-bye, clapping, signing "more" at mealtimes, and saying "cracker."

4. His love of water. He goes wild in the bath, thumping his arms and legs like there's no tomorrow. The last time we took him to a pool he was in heaven. I think we'll take him swimming for a birthday activity.

3. His love of soft things. He attacks stuffed animals and pillows with glee, shrieking and burying his face in them.

2. His long-standing method of transportation, tummy scooting. My favorite was at Halloween when he scooted (or "swam") across the Church gym floor in his crocodile costume.

1. His sweet Tommy smile! From day one he has been charming family and strangers alike with his ready grin and adorable dimples.

*Thanks to Adam's sister, Jenny Stevens, for the first three photos!

"Christmas is What We Make of It"

It’s the week before Christmas. The tree is up, the house is decorated, the kids are anxiously awaiting snow and gingerbread houses and Christmas morning.

In the past, we have switched off going to Adam’s parents’ house and then mine for Christmas. This year, we are spending Christmas Day at home. There are some traditions from our growing-up years that we know we have to keep—like making a gingerbread village, acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve, and filling the room with balloons on Christmas morning. But we know that this is also a chance to make up new traditions.

Another of our favorite traditions is watching the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, usually held on the second Sunday in December. Hearing messages about Christ is a great way for us to start off the holiday season. At this year’s devotional, President Monson shared these this thought:

“I, with you, have witnessed during the past few days and weeks what has become over the years the annual commercialization of Christmas. I’m saddened to see Christmas becoming less and less about Christ and more and more about marketing, sales, parties, and presents. And yet—Christmas is what we make of it.”

We’ve thought a lot about what we could do to keep our family’s Christmas centered around Christ this year. And though we’re all pretty excited about gift-opening on Christmas morning, we’ve come up with a few additional activities that we hope will help keep us focused on Christ and serving others.

Stories of Christ Advent Calendar
I finally finished this advent calendar just seven days before Christmas (better late than never, I guess). To make it, you paint three yard sticks with gold acrylic paint. Then connect them with two mini hinges. Screw some mini eye hooks along the bottom rim. Then hang your scripture cards (I took clip art from the internet to use on the front and then copied relevant scripture verses on the back). It turned out to be a lengthy project, but it will be nice to use in the future.

The Kindness Manger
One tradition from my family is to fill a manger with hay. Each person puts in one piece whenever they do something kind for someone else. Then on Christmas Day we put “Baby Jesus” (a doll) in the soft manger. Our manger is much smaller than the one I used growing up, but the kids love putting in the “hay” (raffia).

Family Caroling
For this week’s Family Home Evening we took the kids caroling at a nearby rest home. To get ready, we practiced singing “Silent Night,” “Up on the Housetop,” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” with them the previous couple of weeks. The residents were so happy to see children, and they each sang along to “Silent Night.” Jared and Allison were really patient while we visited the different rooms, and afterward, they seemed happy that they could cheer up so many people. It was a great family activity that we’ll be sure to do again next year.

Those are some of our new family traditions. What traditions help your family focus on Christ during the Christmas season?

Doctoral Celebration

In keeping with lab tradition, Adam's adviser had a congratulatory cake waiting in his office after the defense, along with sparkling cider (the previous grads got champagne). The kids got to come for the fun.

Adam, just moments before defending

The happy family

Dr. Washburn and his adviser, Ryan Bailey

Adam and the Bailey group

On Wednesday and Thursday we took a little family trip to St. Louis to see some sights. Usually when we travel to St. Louis it's to attend the temple, so this time we did family activities instead.

The Magic House
This is the most elaborate children's science museum I've ever seen. We spent four hours there and there was still more to see. From creating giant bubbles to freezing shadows on a fluorescent backdrop, we had a good dose of "science time" together. And the kids loved playing in the imaginary village with its lifelike grocery store, baby hospital, restaurant, and library. No matter how much we explored, there always seemed to be more to discover.

City Museum
We dedicated our second day in St. Louis to exploring the City Museum. We had heard a little about it from one of Adam's lab mates, but we had no idea how amazing it would be. I didn't take as many pictures as I would have liked for fear of losing my camera down a chasm.

If you visit the City Museum, you can look forward to:

-Climbing up caged-in stairways and metal catwalks suspended six stories in the air.
-Crawling through four-foot-wide wire tunnels.
-Sliding down old, restructured air ducts.
-Marching up a 172-step spiral staircase to get to the top of the museum's famed 10-story slide--and then take the 30-second ride down.
-Hopping aboard the Tiny Train express (if you're under 48"), and meeting the tiny man who runs it (he himself is no taller than Jared).
-Trying not to get dizzy as you watch the 30+ bobbins on an 1800s shoelace machine weaving wildly around each other as they create a colorful shoelace.
-Watching magic shows and circus acts in the small circus room located on the third floor.
-Jumping into a giant outdoor ball pit.
-Squeezing through a two-foot opening in the floor and go spelunking in the cement passageways that lurk below museum's floor.
-Wondering at the intricate tile mosaics that bring schools of fish and glittering octopi to life.
-Holding your breath on the museum's rooftop as a circa 1940 ferris wheel lurches forward and swoops to its full height, bringing you towering 13 stories over the city.

We explored Monstro City, an outdoor labyrinth of suspended walkways, giant slinkies, and soldered industrial parts. It takes its climbers six stories into the air (not for those afraid of heights), and sometimes with no more to support you than a soldered web of wires or metal caging. Adam and Jared explored it first, while I did tamer activities with Allison and Thomas. When we switched kids, Jared became my tour guide through Monstro City. He is so small and so fast, it's hard to keep up. He led me to a fire truck about 5 stories up, and showed me his favorite slide. It was made of a ten-foot-wide sheet of metal, and it seemed to form an impossible parabola that dropped straight down fifteen feet before leveling out. "Did you and Dad do this?" I asked Jared. "Yes!" He replied, and without further ado plopped down on the edge of the slide and pushed off. At the bottom he stood up, turned around, put his hands on his hips and called up to me, "Mom, are you scared?" Well, to be honest, I was. But I slid down anyway. It was actually pretty fun.

The only part I didn't like was the school bus on the roof. (You can see it in the picture above.) The front third of it is overhanging the corner of the building. When we got to the roof, we discovered that you can actually go inside the bus, up to the driver's seat... and open the front door! Of course there is a cage around the opening so you can't fall out. But nevertheless, I made sure we didn't linger in that bus for long!

My favorite was the ocean room. Strips of white silk dangle from the ceiling, making it appear as though you are in an underwater cove. You can walk up a ramp into the mouth of a large white plaster whale, which leads to more exotic oceanic statues hidden among twisted tree roots and metal climbing bars. Or, if you like climbing, you can ascend a giant slinkie and disappear into the ceiling (then get around via McDonalds-playground-like tunnels). By the end of the day, everyone's jeans had noticeable wear around the knees, and we were happily exhausted from nonstop climbing and exploring.

(For more photos and some Quicktime panoramic tours of the museum, you can visit their site: http://www.citymuseum.org/site/)


What a great family vacation. It always takes a bit of doing to plan, pack for, and go on trips with young children (and to get them back on a normal sleep schedule afterward), but it was worth it. Now I think I want to move near a metropolis like St. Louis so we can enjoy more big-city attractions!