November and December

Here is November and a little of December.

I didn't get pictures of Logan's birthday, unfortunately. His brother, Ben, was in town for a few days around his birthday, and he was generous enough to take us to Tucano's for dinner. It was a fun night and delicious food.

Sometime in November I added chocolate chips to their pancakes, and the girls couldn't be happier (or messier).

We got to celebrate Carli's birthday with our extended family again this year. She is so lucky that her birthday is so near/on a holiday. She was a little disappointed because we didn't have birthday cake, just lots of pie. I can't believe how big she is getting! And what a sweet, smart, vivacious girl. We couldn't ask for more fun little people in our house.

The girls in their jammies, reading with Grammie. They really had a good time together. We stayed in a beautiful place, had good food, had hot dogs and s'mores around the fire, visited lots of family, and received generous amounts of gifts for Carli's birthday and for Christmas. All in all, it was perfect.
I was asked to head up the Christmas party committee in our ward this year. It turned out pretty well, I think. We had more people come then we expected, which is both good and bad. There was breakfast, Santa, entertainment and a pinata (we had a foreign theme) and I think everyone enjoyed it. These two have no fear of Santa, and Carli went to him a few times. She was worried after the fact because she hadn't told him the right thing she wanted for Christmas. Now she's changed her mind a few times. Good luck figuring that out, Santa...
We were excited to decorate this year and love the feeling our little home has with the Spirit of Christmas. We are so blessed with wonderful gifts this year and every year.
Plenty of other things go on that aren't photographically documented, but this is a pretty good summary. You may notice a couple of things about the pictures: Logan is in very few, and Carli is always wearing an eye-patch.

Well, Logan is staying very busy with school, and is, as always, very successful. He's my husband, so I can brag a bit. He has one more final tomorrow and is doing great. He has a couple of "easily publishable" papers (according to his professors), which he will find out about soon. He has some great opportunities coming up next semester to do research with a professor in Virginia, attend a conference with a group in Florida, present a paper with a group before the State board of something for public health (sorry, can't remember the name) and TA a class as well. He has made several contacts and is just generally good at what he is doing. I have no doubt that he will be incredibly successful, whether we choose to take a job after his Masters or go on to get a PhD. And not only that, but I have always been amazed at his ability to balance his life with work, church, recreation and above all, his family. He gets up early, works like crazy, plays racquetball and tennis with buddies on his lunch hour, works hard until dinnertime when he spends quality time with his girls, fulfills his calling in the Elder's Quorum presidency, makes sure I can do my time-consuming calling in the Relief Society presidency, and still makes me feel like he doesn't think about anything but me all day long. Yeah, he's incredible, and he's mine! (As a side note, he recently took a psychological assessment and the professional giving him his results told him, "You got the lowest score I've ever seen, which means you are the least stressed person I've met. In other words, you have a real knack for handling stressful situations." To which, Logan replied, "I have a lot of advantages" and explained what he meant. She was impressed at Logan's humility, but made it clear that Logan is in control of the choices that made those advantages happen. Yep, everyone thinks he's cool!)

About Carli's eye, we went to the ophthalmologist right after we moved here, and had a not-so-great experience. I won't go into details, suffice it to say that I felt somewhat belittled by the doctor who didn't know me, my child, my experience, our past, or our past efforts. All I can say is that an ophthalmologist who tells a mother "It's just a patch", has neither children, nor a clue. Anyway, he "suggested" (with the words "no arguments") that Carli speed up her progress by wearing the patch full time. Yes, that means we put it on when she gets up in the morning and take it off when she goes to bed at night. After having had 3 pediatric ophthalmologists (2 of which we really liked) before him and not-a-one had asked this of us, I was very put off. I have discussed this with him, and his opinion seems to be (I say "seems" because he clearly prefers to communicate only with experts of his own stature - all who seem to adore him) the quicker the improved eyesight, the better. I would have argued this, because I feel that he focuses solely on the eye and not the patient, but I have watched Carli's strength in many areas in her life. And, because she is fully capable of completing this difficult task, I agree with him that the longer her eye is stronger, the better. (I don't, however, believe every kid is up for full-time patching.) Her eye has made great improvement over the past couple of months, and when we return to the doctor in January he is hoping to schedule surgery. I can only hope that it will be the last one and that it will mean we don't have to patch full time ever again. (I also hope that they never find that the practice of patching is as useless as bleeding someone with leaches and that I am just torturing my child for a good portion of her formative years.) She is such a good girl, and even though she hates the patch and is getting old enough to notice that it is not normal, she keeps it on without complaint for the most part. She is another great blessing in my life.

Well, you're more than caught up on at least a few parts of our lives. I hope the holidays are wonderful and you remember how blessed we all are.