A White Chirstmas

Yay snow!! I love snow. I'm so glad I live in a place that actually gets snow in the winter, well except for last year. I love how pretty it is, I love how having snow on the ground makes me think it feels warmer outside. I love that it doesn't rain, it snows! This is my third Christmas living in the west and the first time I've been promised snow. The first year I was living in Idaho I went to Utah with Michael's family and it didn't snow there. Last year I went home for Christmas and of course there wasn't any snow. This year I decided to spend Christmas with Michael's parents in his home town, Aberdeen, ID, instead of home alone since Michael had to work all of Christmas. The weather called for a couple inches of snow in Rexburg and in Aberdeen. Thank goodness, it was finally going to happen for me! Since the weather was calling for a pretty good storm, I left Rexburg a day early to ensure the roads were good. I wanted Ivan to have a good nap before we left and kept debating if I should just have him sleep in the car or take a nap before we go. I compromised and woke him up halfway through his nap thinking he would just sleep again in the car. Nope. No more sleep for him. He was good for the hour and fifteen minute drive though. Now that we only give him one bottle a day, bribing him with a bottle in the middle of the day definitely does the trick to make a happy baby. I'm always really nervous about driving without Michael. He's a really good driver and frankly, I like having a chauffeur. (Man that word is spelled a lot differently than I thought.) Plus, what happens when Ivan gets fussy? I can't reach him to give him anything. So I set the diaper bag in the front seat and practiced my aim a little. I got pretty good at tossing things to him where he could still reach. It was frustrating throwing something towards him and it being just out of reach though. That little boy just grunts and grunts until he can get it and if he can't, the grunting just keeps on! Don't know who he got that from... The drive actually went a lot faster than it normally does. It wouldn't be a bad drive if it was all interstate, but about halfway there you get off the interstate and drive on the highway with a bunch of little towns that slow you down. Plus interstate speeds are 75 out here, not just 65 like back east. I did get to talk to my dad a bunch, that was really nice. There was already a little bit of snow on the ground when I got there. That's enough to count for a white Christmas for me! We had the chance to have the missionaries over for dinner. One of the guys thought that Ivan was only 10 months though. Crazy. I know he looks small, being 20th percentile and all, but he sure gets around well for a 10 month old. That guy doesn't have kids so I'll cut him a break. While we were there I drank a lot of water. There's just something about tap water in Aberdeen that tastes so amazing. Best water I've ever had, and I've been to a lot of places. Now I understand why Michael hates TN water so much, it's really just not the same. We played lots of games and it snowed on Monday! Woo-hoo! I even got Craig, Ivan's grandpa, to play in the snow with Ivan. Ivan was more interested in Princess the cat, but it was still fun.

Trying to get the cat.

Making a snow angel!

Snow angel

Poor kid, he's so bundled he couldn't really walk or crawl without assistance. 

We played with Brenda's wedding dress, which is gorgeous! And had a really tasty Christmas Eve dinner. After dinner we sang Christmas hymns with Brenda playing Janet's new piano. Ivan really liked the piano. He started out just playing a few bass notes. Then he had to be on the bench with Brenda. Then it wasn't enough to just be on the bench, he had to be on Brenda's lap, playing the same keys she needed to play. I laughed during the entire song! Then we played lots and lots more games. Pretty sure I stayed up til 1 or 2 that night playing games.

That's Craig (Grandpa) on the floor. From near to far on the couch is Gavin (Brenda's fiance), Janet (Grandma), and Heather (Michael's youngest sister).

The Piano Fiasco of 2012

Ivan's favorite place to be in the living room. On the other side of the railing is the stairs.  He only made one leap from the couch to the other side of the railing. Thank goodness I was there and able to stop him!

My cutie boy. This is his new outfit from Grandma. 

The pig (pink thing) he's holding on to is a slingshot that oinks when it lands. So anytime it hits the ground it oinks and Ivan loves it!

And of course, Ivan decided he didn't want to sleep well when I came to bed. He did fine the first night with just a bottle, but Christmas Eve he needed to be sleeping on me to go back to sleep. It really didn't help that it was pretty cold in there and we normally keep his room toasty at night. And we were up at 5 for Christmas morning. I think he knew he was getting some really good toys. Craig and Michael, with all their technology smarts, did a video chat on the computer so Michael could be there for opening presents. Ivan got pretty good at opening the gifts by himself and even did fairly well at wanting to open all the gifts and not just play with what he had opened. I think his favorite gift so far has been this computer that my sister Heidi got him. He played with all his toys though, nothing got overlooked. It's really exciting getting presents for someone and them being so dang excited to open and play with them. I'm really looking forward to Christmases in the future where the kids get really excited and all hyped up about opening presents and all that. We had cinnamon rolls for breakfast, yum, and French bread pizzas for dinner, double yum. It was a good day.

That cookbook that Heather is holding has a recipe in it that calls for MSG, for serious!

Talking to his dad. 

Janet got these fake snowballs for Craig. They were pretty fun to play with. Random snowball fights and Ivan really liked putting them all back in the bucket. He also liked playing with the Mr Potato Head stuff. At one point he dumped the whole container out and got all the arms and stacked them on the lid to the container. He would take the arms off the lid and put them all back on and take them all off. Then he took them to the kitchen, brought them all back to the living room, then brought them all back to the kitchen, over and over again. Then he figured he could carry them better if he put them in the snowball bucket. I'm impressed that he sorted through the whole container to get all of the arms, he didn't miss one.

The white things at his feet are the snowballs. That's his "oh" face. The one word he's excellent at saying, oh, like an excited "oh that's cool!" kinda thing. 

Trying to squish all the arms into the bottom of the bucket. 

All the arms!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Wampler Style

My sister-in-law Laura, Michael's brother Christopher's wife, has this really cool tradition that any time she goes camping she keeps a log of random funny comments. It's extra hilarious if you were there to hear it in context, but still fun to try and figure out who said what and how that could have been said to make sense. Chris and Laura just moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the beginning of the month so we missed them on Christmas. As a tribute to her, we recorded our own funny comments. Here they are.

"I date lots of 'girls.'"

"Bring him here and I'll take his arms off for you."

"What can we do to him? He just needs to snap out of it."

"She has 2 cats and 1 dog... How do you survive?"

"How do you have that conversation? Put more chapstick on and you'll know."

"Brenda's nickname is the body snatcher."

"It's not exactly her name, it's what she does."

"He knew we would have a bucket for all of his arms."

"I'm sorry I missed that, Gavin's face was hurting."

"I don't want your cup. You're pregnant and I don't want to catch it."

"She doesn't have a uterus. Neither does your dad."

"I hate sties. I used to live in one."

"When the delirium begins to set in the card games become the funnest."

"Your telepathy is going this way so she didn't hear a thing."

"Stink you."

"I was totally touching you during a large portion of last night."

"Your mucous doesn't seem to be coming out yet. We've got a booger sucker."

"Mucous kinda like attracts you. Well she likes to pick my nose."

"If you're gonna suck, suck good."

"Did your braces do that to you? No, I've always been that way."

"And they pee when you plug their nose."

"That's the first time I've had a sheep in that area."

"Do you need me to touch your leg to equalize your temperature?"

"She called herself a mule. Do you know what else a mule is called?"

"He was climbing me like I was a mountain. That didn't do anything to help my self-esteem."

"We can't do fish faces if we smile."

"Where did your bottom lip go?"

"My face is twitching."

"I really like your reindeer... You can have it... I really like your computer too."

"You popped its head off and it's just not the same."

"I'm so excited. Is that what that face says? Looks more like you're constipated."

"No one even says that part. Who even knows that's a part?"

"I should write that down too... or we should just record it."

"Your stench has lingered... maybe it's just your BO."

"How could you not help it? Have you been doing your Kegels?"

"So that's what you do those for!?"

"I can't believe I chose you."

"You're coming home with me dismembered reindeer."

The Birds!

A bald eagle

Michael went on a school field trip with the Wildlife Society. They went to Camas wildlife viewing area to see birds in migration. All of the ponds/ lakes at this place were dried up. No water means no birds. They did get out and walk around for a bit. While they were walking, Michael made his bird noise, you know, the one that sounds like an eagle? Yea, it was epic. A whole bunch of bird nerds and you make a noise like that? There were several people that stopped and were looking all through the sky for what made the noise and a bunch of people that just tried to name what bird it was without even looking, I guess they were trying to sound smart... Michael never told anyone that it was him and I doubt anyone actually thought it was him. So after his disappointing trip, he came home and convinced me we should still make the day a good one. Without further ado we headed up to Harriman State Park.

same bald eagle

The big white ones are swans and the little black ones are coot. Coot can swim but don't have webbed feet, they kinda wiggle their whole body to move on the water.

Giant turkey vulture

We bought this national parks pass last February that gets us into any national or state park in the country. That really came in handy for Glacier and a billion trips to Yellowstone. We also use it when we go to Harriman, since it's a state park, it's included. But there's that stop when you first enter the park where you're supposed to get out and pay and write down your license plate number and all that and we always feel like we're stealing or sneaking in when we just drive right past it. Still makes me nervous even with the pass with us.

Teton Mountains

I couldn't decide if these are 2 different kinds of swans or if some of them are just really dirty. Maybe the whiter ones are girls. 

 Great Grey Owl

My mom got us this super awesome baby backpack thing for Christmas last year so we could include Ivan in our hiking adventures. Boy have we used the life outta that! The frame is aluminum, so lightweight, and it expands to let the kid have more room. Ivan doesn't exactly need more room, since he hasn't really grown at all, but with his winter coat in, it's pretty difficult to squish him into the smaller seat. The only bad thing about making the seat bigger is that it loses the restraints... That sounds weird calling them restraints.

Not quite sure what my face is doing here...
Looks like an angry smile.

The seat belts? We'll use seat belts. I thought that might be an issue at first, but he was pretty well contained with the fluffiness of his coat. So we hiked a couple miles and saw a bunch of birds, mainly swans, geese, ducks, and coot (coots, ceet, cootsen?). At one point we were away from the water and in the woods, so we couldn't even see the water and we heard this strange noise. To me it sounded like hooves running. I thought, sweet maybe we'll see some elk! Michael thought it was antlers either against trees or other antlers. He thought, sweet maybe we'll see some elk! We kept hearing this noise over and over. Now I'm thinking it's the horses in the corral, but we were too far from it to hear them. We get back to the lake and find out how stupid we were. It was just birds flying really close to the water! The weather was pretty nice and we had a lot of fun. Ivan was good, and boy that sure makes all the difference. The height of that backpack puts his mouth right by your ear. You can't just let him cry or you'll go deaf! Thank goodness for graham crackers.

Pelicans

Muskrat! Look at his cute little foot!

Swans, geese, coot. 

Our trip Saturday was so good we went back on Wednesday. We brought Ivan again and hiked a lot farther than before. We hoped to see more of the four legged creatures and only lucked out with a couple creatures. We did have an issue with Ivan's shoes though. He has these really super cute cowboy boots that are my absolute favorite. They zip up the side (easy to put on) and keeps his little legs warmer because his pants get pulled up at the ends in the backpack. He wasn't quite as happy as the last trip and kept rubbing his boots against whoever was carrying him. Rubbing enough to get the boots off his feet. This was kinda annoying, but ok as long as whoever had Ivan was walking in front. I should have just taken his boots off and called it good, he had socks on and it really wasn't that cold. On our last half mile of the trail I decided to walk beside Michael and Ivan. Ivan thought it was hilarious if he could see me. We played peek a boo and I tried everything I could to keep that boy entertained. Then Michael, with his eagle vision, spotted an animal in the field beside us. The animal was quite camouflaged and I was really impressed he saw the animal at all. We still haven't quite decided if it was a wolf or a coyote. He was huge - leaning more towards wolf, alone - could be either animal, his coloring was gray with some red - more coyotes that color but could still be a wolf, and his conformation was more like a wolf - like his ears being a little smaller and snout not pointing up at the end, big thick body.

A beaver bit me!

Beaver dam. We waited around for a bit to see if the little guy would come back. No such luck.

Just after getting a picture of that guy, we heard a chorus of coyote calls. It was amazing! I haven't heard anything like that since moving out here. In Tennessee coyotes are as common as dogs and just as brave as one, they'll almost walk right up to ya. We used to hear them all the time at my parents house. That's also why you have to get your dog's rabies shot every year there but only every 3 years here. There must have been 8 or 10 coyotes though. Oh, and that wolf thing we saw didn't respond to the coyote calls so we really think it was a wolf. Just another 50 feet up the trail, Michael spotted a fox!

Don't look too hard, it's real blurry. The red stuff is the fox. You can see his head in the middle and tail towards the bottom left. 

This little guy was super hard to see because of the wooden fence and the barn and stuff. He looked right at us then ran into the barn. I think foxes are so cute. Ivan dropped his shoe again, and again I put it back on him. We veered off the trail to get to the car sooner and the second we got to the parking lot I noticed Ivan was missing a shoe. It was just getting to the point of dusk and getting harder to see. Ivan was tired of being in the backpack and Michael and I were both tired of walking. So being the manly man he is, Michael ran back a half mile or so (back to where we saw the wolf and even a little farther) looking for the shoe. Did I mention his boots were brown with some camouflage on them? Yea, super hard to see on the ground. I even took Ivan's other shoe and put it on the ground just to see what it would look like. Part of the reason we went back to Harriman that day was because the weather was calling for a good bit of snow the next day and throughout the weekend. Wednesday was out last chance to be there. So if we didn't find the shoe right then before we left, we probably weren't going to find it. I parked the car facing the part of the woods we came out, turned the lights on and searched all over the woods for the shoe. We left the trail, remember? So I couldn't remember where we walked and where we didn't. 20 minutes later Michael comes huffing and puffing out of the woods with no luck of finding the shoe. By then it was too dark to see and we didn't have any flashlights. The last time we left the trail we lost out binoculars. Now I have one cute cowboy boot and one cute little boy with 2 feet.

See the cuteness of the boots?!

We did go back on Friday to try and find the shoe, but it had snowed and there was no finding it then. Guess we'll just go back in the spring and hope and pray it's there. I would just replace the shoes, but I can't find them anywhere and I bought them for a dollar at a yardsale. They cost 20 bucks easy from a shoe store. But at least we saw some animals!

Silver Lake

We're Fighting

I really really really really love my husband. I could not have found a better match for me in the whole world. Every day I spend with him I'm still surprised by the likeness of our thought processes and personalities. He is absolutely amazing. He makes me laugh every single day. He gives the best foot rubs ever. He's considerate and kind. He's a very generous and giving. He even surprises me a little with just how generous he is. He's ready and eager to serve others. I don't even know how many times he's plowed the neighbors' driveways or walkways. He's a great dad. He knows and anticipates the right thing to say at the right time. Did I mention how funny he is? When he moved out to TN to be with me, he would often say "we're fighting." Now to the average relationship this might sound a little weird and probably even offensive. Michael and I don't work like that. When he says "we're fighting" it usually brings on the response to make him laugh or something like that. So we tickle each other or start saying random off the wall things and it makes things fun. Michael would like to think he's not sentimental, but I know how he really is. He won't ever say it, but he's sentimental about the trips we take together, our adventures, because that's what really matters. The memories, the fun times we've shared together, and all the laughs we've had along the way. It's not about the stuff with him, it's really really not about the stuff. I mean, we live in a trailer, obviously not about the stuff. I really love that guy. He's so good to me and most of the time it's just second nature for him to treat me like that. It's inborn, innate, automatic. There have been many times that I act like a woman, you know, dropping hints and subtly saying I want something without ever actually saying I want it. I hate that. I hate it when I do that, it's poor communication and most of the time you don't get what you want in the long run anyway. Why waste all that extra effort? But Michael picks up on those hints and responds the way I want him to. So much for getting rid of that habit with all that positive reinforcement. I'm so stoked to spend the rest of eternity with him. I'm excited for how and where our lives have brought us to this point. I'm happy. I'm genuinely, absolutely, positively happy. I can't think of many times in my life that I've been able to say that. We've been through some rough times, like last year when we were both working and going to school and taking care of an infant. And I know without a doubt that I can always turn to Michael for support any time I need it. I love how readily he comes to me when he needs encouragement and how well he lets me do my job as his wife. I love how he directs our family to the things that are right and what we should be doing and teaching in our home. I love the beautiful babies he makes, well I helped too. I love how he smells, is that weird? I think we should all be chemically attracted to our spouses and Michael sure makes that easy. I love how being with him makes me a better person. I absolutely love the crazy things he does. I love sharing my life with him. Michael Wampler, you are my favorite. Happy Birthday!