Christmas: Chipmunks & the Gingerbread Family

With four sets of parents living in different locations, holidays are tricky. We have been on a four year rotation. This was our year to stay home. It worked out for the best as the stress of preparing for my Zumba evaluation crippled my immune system and left me defenseless against the seasonal cold. By Christmas Eve, my voice was completely gone, allowing me to experience a truly "silent night." Thanks Rich for making all the holiday calls for us.

The morning of Christmas Eve, we accompanied Uncle Mort, Aunt Lacie and the cousins to the matinee showing of The Chipmunks II: the Squeakquel. Good recommendation Molly! It did not disappoint. It was a blissful moment listening to Rocky's constant giggles and seeing Jack mesmerized by his first big-screen movie. I've never seen him so still, only moving every 10 minutes or so to rotate between Aunt Lacie's lap and mine. We completed the experience with a trip to the theatre arcade to pretend to play the games. How long can we make this last until the kids will actually require quarters to be entertained?

Then we spent a quiet Christmas Eve at home with just the kids, for the first time. Unsure of how to proceed during this precedent event, we were relieved when my friend Jennifer showed up with a family of gingerbread cookies that bore a striking resemblance to us. An hour of playing ensued as we danced and marched our tiny Sorensons around the table, dipped them in milk and utilized every movie quote that could apply such as, "It's just a flesh wound"..."I'll bite your legs off".. and "Not my gumdrop buttons!" David threw in a few of his own and Jack growled and gave a commendable impersonation of the Cookie Monster as he devoured tiny ginger Jack. David, disturbingly, insisted on dismembering and consuming the Momma cookie.... maybe it's just because it had the most frosting... yeah... I'll go with that. Like the family parades we are known for, this will be another Sorenson tradition from now on.

The kids opened their matching Spiderman jammies, pranced and hopped in a spider-like fashion around the living room then were herded to bed... early! Merry Christmas us!

Christmas morning was perfect! Their reactions to Santa's deliveries were priceless! Jack headed straight for the miniature drum-set ($20 at Walmart!), sat and began drumming like a little dilettante. Our family band is on its way! Every gift that Rocky received was followed by exclamations of gratitude and, "This is EXACTLY what I wanted! This is the best Christmas ever!" Jack reacted to his gifts with giant grins, exuberant pointing, unintelligible excited babbling and a chorus of "Ooooh's!" Rich and I couldn't have been more pleased with our kids. They really made Christmas special this year. I wish we could freeze their current ages forever. I love this stage! Jack's favorite gift was his puppy Scout that was programmed to say, "Hi Jack," play music and teach him things. By far the most amazing toy I've seen and only $15 from Amazon! Santa found amazing deals this year. I recommend this for any puppy-loving toddler. Jack immediately embraced it with unparalleled joy, rolling around the floor with him and saying, "Ahhh..." lovingly. He takes his puppy everywhere. Scout sings lullaby's to him every night, and we know when Jack is up in the morning when we hear his puppy barking and laughing with him. What an incredible toy.

We joined Grandma Pam and Grandpa Rick on Christmas morning for their traditional fried mush and bacon. Then we returned that evening for a Sorenson family Christmas dinner. Then I collapsed in illness for the remainder of the weekend grateful that the kids had new toys to keep them occupied. David made sure Froggy was included in the festivities and helped him open the toy bins he had placed under the tree for him. David expressed confusion as to why no one else gave anything to Froggy but was placated by our assurance that his contributions were enough to make Froggy very happy.

Happy New Year everybody!!!

Chico's Newest Zumba Instructor

David took this picture of me last Wednesday, moments before I tossed my early lunch (you all know what I mean by that) from nerves and headed to In-Motion Fitness, my favorite and most frequented place in Chico and the spot where the fate of my dance fitness instructing aspirations would finally be decided. I can't remember when I've ever been so scared in my life, though I can think of a few near contenders... I conspired to hide my lack of confidence behind these bright red snake-skin print sequin pants. Would my evaluator be fooled by the ruse? She sat in the back for the hour-long Zumba class busily taking notes. I planned my competition strategy with the other instructor-hopefuls vying for the open position by bringing something different to the usual Zumba routine repertoire. I added to the latin-based mix a little "So You Think You Can Dance" inspired Bollywood, Beyonce, Michael Jackson and a cool-down to the "Day-O Banana Boat" song resembling the crowd-pleasing table dance scene from Beetlejuice. The risks paid off! By the end, my voice was gone, but the class was exhausted and entertained (which is what you essentially desire from a workout, right?), and I was offered the job!! I will learn more after the new year what classes or sub opportunities my job will entail, but regardless, I get a free membership! Yea!! All the hard work (man, it was a LOT of work) paid off. I'm so glad I've found a way to retain my beloved gym membership... and yet still shocked that I ended up here?! Who would have thought?

Christmas Card

Merry Christmas friends and family!! We really wanted to send you all Christmas cards... really. Unfortunately we've been crazy busy lately (my fault mostly). We did make an attempt at a Christmas card but not a single picture turned out card-worthy. How do you parents take pictures of your kids? What are your magical methods? You can see the progression of our picture attempts above. We wish you all a happy holidays!!!

Our new addition to the family....

Presenting... Froggy Pumpernicker Sorenson (named by David). When David and Froggy's eyes first met at the discount grocery store, they knew they were brothers from another mother. When they embraced and the chorus of "ahhhh's" from the fellow shoppers arose, I knew something special had happened. With Christmas money from his Grandma, we were able to take him home, with David insisting that we buckle him in the cart, so he wouldn't hop out due to sheer excitement. Since then, David has taken on the role of Froggy caretaker, dressing him by himself, getting him ready for bed, tucking him in, making sure he is fed equal portions at mealtime. David carries him everywhere on his shoulders. Last night, while driving around looking at Christmas lights, he "shhhh'ed" Jack because Froggy was sleeping peacefully in his lap. He takes Froggy's needs very seriously. I can't help but be impressed.

Don't worry Grandparents.... additional Christmas gifts for Froggy will not be necessary. David has assured that he will not be left out. He added bows to several of his toy bins and placed them under the tree for Froggy.

Jack is unsure of this new development, since the new brother is bigger than him and has already joined the family at the dinner table, while he remains confined to his high chair. There may be some sibling rivalry developing as David seems to have no problem playing with and sharing his toys with the new brother. We may need to adopt another furry buddy for Jack to play with.

Decorating the Tree

It was all very confusing for Jack at first, but soon he and David were meticulously hanging the ornaments with impressive care for such tiny hands. Of course, all of the bows and soft ornaments were chucked at the tree, but that is sort of a family tradition.

Who's Your Mommy?

Confusing times... When Nyla's mom came to pick her up from preschool, she turned to me and said, "Mommy, can I have some milk?" I'm sure her real mommy didn't appreciate this, especially since 2 year old Nyla calls her mom Jeni. She shouldn't feel bad though because Jack insists on calling me "Jodi." His dad is "Daddy" but with me, it is always Jodi. He only says about 5 words total and one of those is Jodi. Why?! I think he knows what he is doing because when I'm not around, Rich claims he calls for mom, but he continues to tease me, repeating it continuously with a clever smirk. He says it so clearly that other people always ask in shock, "Did he just call you Jodi?" Ha ha. He is so independent and disturbingly smart that I often wonder if he is mine at all. He seems like a completely separate little adult trapped in a tiny body and deriving simple pleasure out of life by getting into mischief you're not sure if he's old enough to comprehend and be disciplined for and relentlessly teasing his mother. So my preschool kids calls me mommy and my kid calls me Jodi... go figure.

Don't worry... he actually loves this. He was giggling and yelling "Weeeee...!"

Oh, and in other news, I passed the state exam for my real estate license! Boo yeah! Who's your mommy!

Thanksgiving Food and Giving Food Thanks

Nice play on words, eh? I mean, it IS all about the food isn't it? Thanksgiving is a day to thank those you love by giving them what they love... food. And this year, for the first time, WE were dishing the "food thanks" instead of just receiving it. It was a daunting task to host the holiday but would have proved impossible had it not been for my mom, who swooped in by train (from Utah) to rescue us from culinary disaster. Rich and I didn't know the first thing about turkey cooking (the first thing being it must be bought and thawed in advance... also that there is a goody bag of organs and entrails hidden within the turkey which must be removed and that Stovetop stuffing does not get cooked inside the turkey... among other things). Of all things this Thanksgiving, I was most thankful for my mom, who took the reins as head chef and guided us through the process resulting in a most delectable blend of home-cooked holiday dishes that even the kids were willing to sample. Our guest list grew from 6 to 13 in the final hours (most likely after they discovered the mastermind behind the meal was my experienced mama). We somehow found room for all, though no more than two chairs were alike but the meal was a success! Now I would like to give thanks to the following foods for being so delicious:

1. Our $4 turkey from WINCO that fed us all for a week
2. My mom's candied yam's with pineapple and marshmallows... pure genious.
3. Our mashed potatoes made without the help of a mixer (which we don't own... and you wonder why I don't bake?) which only brother Rob was strong enough to mash.
4. Mixed vegetables with so much butter and cheese they were tastier than cheese fries.
5. Stovetop stuffing and Road's rolls... why make your own when these are SO good?
6. Strawberry spinach salad that makes you feel like you're eating something healthy but with such a sugary dressing that you are definitely not.
7. Deviled eggs
8. Giant home-made apple and pumpkin pies made by our friend Jeni... what a difference home-made makes.

(Unfortunately, this is the only picture we took of the event... too busy I guess).

We had such a great week with Momma K. When I told Rocky she was coming to visit, he said, "Mom... Guess what it makes me feel when you tell me Grandma K is coming? .... Happy!" When Jack spotted her at the train station, he happy-skipped all the way to her, and I thought he would never let go of her.

Lil' Thug

Check out my cute little thug in his new Star Wars apparel. He also insisted on weapons for his Jedi utility belt and discovered my gym lock and the fireplace key (not near as dangerous as it looks). He really just wants to show the "bad guys" (aka Sith Lords) his new gear, not destroy them. He was inspired by Darth Vader's final turn-around from the dark side to the light and now maintains the hope that all "bad guys" can be "turned" if motivated by the proper tools, or in other words, cool weapons.

                                                 

Oh, and the lines on David's face aren't cuts from his last gang fight... just chocolate from an ice-cream sundae. They sure add to the look though. When David overheard me complaining to Rich about the mean girls, he said, "Mom... come here for a minute. I need to talk to you." I knelt down next to him and he maturely took my hands in his and said in a serious voice, "Mom, that girl is bologna and you need to fight her." Well said my young Jedi.

Halloween Wedding Trip

                                        

My little brother Daren has met his match... in a good way. He and Noel got married last Friday, sealing the deal with a warm exchange of vows among a few friends and family, followed by a chilling reception Halloween night that proved there is no limit to what two morbid minds in love can create.

                                      


 It was, by far, the most gruesome and ingenious wedding reception in Halloween history. I'm convinced these two should be making horror movies in Hollywood. There were giant spiders, severed and bleeding corpses, a blood-sucking baby and a foggy laser tunnel Daren designed himself.

                                     

Rich and I joined the party as Aristocratic/Victorian style vampires. Due to a quick make-up job and adhesively-challenged teeth, I named us Dusty and Lone Fang. The favorite costumes of the night were Aunt Karen and Uncle Wayne as Adam & Eve.

                                                 

                                     

Lone Fang was pleased to find the wedding cake dripping with blood. The food tasted much better than it looked, and I eagerly wolfed down my tapeworm sandwich. Congratulations Daren and Noel!! I'm so glad these two found each other and added two adorable kids Jessica and Joshua to our fun family.

Before the reception party, we took the kids trick-or treating with their Sorenson cousins who just bought an awesome home in Bountiful. Rocky adores his cousins and its easy to see why. Jeffery helped the kids put on their costumes, then Gabriel had his arm around Rocky's shoulders nearly the entire trick-or-treating route. Once, while the other kids hurried to grab candy from a neighbor's bowl, I caught Gabe patiently putting Rocky's fallen shoe back on before claiming his treat. It was ironic that Rocky chose to be Dash from the Incredibles, since speed running is definitely not his forte. Jack, caught up in all the excitement covered the terrain quickly with his one leg happy skip. He impressed us all by consuming 4 lolli-pops in mere seconds. He has yet to learn the art of savoring.

                                                

Beyond the wedding, a highlight of our short trek to Utah was our date night on Friday. My high school buddy Julie and her husband Spence joined us with Rich's high school buddy Clint and his girlfriend Bethany. We had dinner at the Skybox at the Gateway Mall, then hit the arcade for some competitive air hockey and other games. It was the most fun we've had in ages with some of our favorite people.

                                                  

                                        

                                        

We're so grateful for Momma C, who watched the kids during all the festivities, and enjoyed every minute of it.

                                                        

Jack-O-Lantern

There are two reasons that there is such a large time gap between the last few posts.
#1 - All the pics I took the last month got erased from my camera. No pics, no posts. You don't want to hear about Jack's toothy grin, you want to see it. And the chance of capturing it twice is unlikely. I'm no photographer. It requires yanking that binky out of his mouth and trying to get him to smile, instead of screaming for it back. No easy task.

#2 - We have been crazy busy. Between teaching preschool, Real Estate classes, and livin' it up this October, there has been little time left for blogging. But I will do my best to catch you up with the pics I attempted to take yesterday.

Since his surgery this summer, David has morphed into an active, reasonably daring boy. He announced one day, after seeing a clip of it on Playhouse Disney, that he wanted to "do gymnastics." This is perhaps the last thing on earth we ever thought he would want to do seeing as until recently he was still crawling up playground equipment steps and deathly afraid of the "playcenter" at McDonald's. He begged us daily for two weeks until we consented to sign him up. We were elated to discover his best friend Silas in the same class. It's been a month and he is LOVING it! He refuses to participate in half of it but has mastered the somersault, which he proudly demonstrates every opportunity he gets.

Jack clutching his beloved blankey that my brilliant friend Jaime gave him and reaching for his binky that I popped out of his mouth momentarily in attempts to catch a photo of his toothy pumpkin grin. This is as close as I got. Wait... I found one taken a while ago, I will post it at the top!

Jack often imitates his brother's gymnastic skills, already being an equally fast runner and nearly as physically agile as David. He spends the time during Dave's gymnastic lessons yelling "DAVID!" and attempting to break his way into the class. Jack is nearly always dancing, swaying back and forth as he walks and giggling. He is a silly one. Unless it's nighttime, then he is screaming. The kid has never been much of a sleeper. He now has 4 teeth, which he is quite proud of, touching them often and attempting to bite you with. All he wants to eat is cheese and his favorite phrase is "All done!"Yesterday he started saying "Hot dog!" He is always mumbling something seemingly serious and important with great hand gestures, though we are yet to decipher any one these messages. If he wants something he gets it himself. He has the strength of Bam-Bam from the Flinstones (which happens to be one of his nicknames), opening the fridge and hoisting out 2 gallon cartons of milk. The other day, he brought me an entire unopened box of Capri-Suns. His little arms were shaking! I was shocked. Those things are heavy.

Rich is awesome. He continues estimating with accuracy with Sorenson Moving & Storage and has become quite efficient at eliminating the enemy on his XBox games. He supportively cares for the kids and home while I am out on my "Bucket List" adventures and inventively solves every mechanical problem we face as well as cleaning up the messes of my frequent Amelia Bedelia moments, like last week when we ran out of dishwashing tablets, so I poured in a hefty amount of dishwashing soap and watched as piles and piles of bubbles oozed out of the dishwasher onto our lovely rented kitchen carpet.

Jodi completed another item on her "Bucket List" a couple Saturdays ago when she got certified as a Zumba aerobics/dance instructor. If you haven't heard of it, it is the latest craze in fitness, combining latin-based and international dance with aerobic moves to create the ultimate body shaping work-out. I discussed it in greater detail in an earlier post. I'm addicted to it and have gone to so many classes this past year, my gym instructors have encouraged me to start teaching my own. Maybe they were being sarcastic (I've never been good at catching that) or it was a collaborated joke, but I took them seriously and traveled to Redding for the day to get certified. It was intimating, since most of my classmates were fitness instructors, dancers or both. I am neither. But I passed! Now I can start putting together choreography for my first class... I plan to integrate my high school group's signature moves: the Russian, the Skankin' Step, the Floppy Arms and The Lumber. If LuAnne Preston could see me now!

(I had some pretty funny pictures of this endeavor as I never miss an opportunity to dress up silly, but unfortunately, they got erased with the rest. You'll have to use your imagination).

Thrillin' the World

For 23,000+ people around the world, it started with a love of Michael Jackson's craft and a desire to honor his work this Halloween by re-creating his famous dance of the un-dead that became an 80's phenomenon, when his album stopped selling as a leisure item and started selling like a household staple. It consequently became the best -selling album of all time. Groups of participants around the globe joined "Thrill the World" last Saturday to dance their way into the Guinness Book of World Records with the largest simultaneous dance.



My journey to the Underworld began with a 30 year bucket list. Not that turning 30 is death, but I thought I might make a list of things I wanted to accomplish in order to ease my transition from the beloved 20's. One of these list items was learn and dance the "Thriller." A week ago, I was still unsure as to how to complete this lofty goal until I heard about "Thrill the World" and discovered that Chico was participating. Not knowing anyone else in this MJ fan club, I sought them out via internet, apprehensively crashed their next practice and was pleased to discover ANYONE, including inflexible, uncoordinated, non-dancers like myself could join the fun. On Saturday, the boys and I visited the Salvation Army in search of some attire that we could dirty, destroy and bloody-up. Rich expertly painted my face, turning me into the fearsome zombie that had to relentlessly reassure David that she was not dead, nor evil and had absolutely no interest in consuming his brains. Jack was skeptical.

My face turned out to be the darkest green-grey of the zombie bunch. The next day, I ended up in nearly half the pictures on Chico's online news site proving that the longer you look like you've been decomposing, the more attention you get. I won't be modest and pretend like I didn't love all the attention. Having perfect strangers ask to take my picture was exhilarating, to say the least. I may just continue to wear my make-up like this. If you would like to see the pictures, visit: Chico ER. Here's the video of Chico's Thriller. You will find me in the first official row, directly behind the mentally challenged guy. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

End of Summer

The air is crisp and cool, the yard is strewn with autumn leaves and the Sorensons all have runny noses (except for me.. I am in bed with the full-blown seasonal flu).  Sweatshirts and pants have been dug out of the winter clothes bins and the neighbor's kittens are clawing at the back door begging to be let into our heated home, which they usually are. (More on that to come). Bidwell Park is vacant except for the occasional sweatsuit-clad jogger and from one day to the next, the forced air system is switched from "cool" to "heat." Summer in Chico ended as abruptly as it began, and I find myself feeling extreme relief and gratitude that the debilitating illness I've felt this October weekend is not from pregnancy (though it feels so much like it... so much so that I had to take a pregnancy test just to be sure). Two Octobers in the past HAVE commenced that way. I'm so relieved this feeling won't last more than days. Life feels bright and hopeful again, and I can't wait to watch the metamorphosis of nature this fall nausea-free, chase my boys through piles of leaves at the park and enjoy David's favorite time of year with him (Halloween). We're really going to live it up and enjoy each healthy moment we have. While reflecting on Summer's end, I realized I still haven't blogged about the Sorenson's final summer event, the Moulton Family Reunion. 

Our extended Moulton family has always been close. I've always seen my cousins more as siblings. With the frequent moves growing up, extended family members were our consistent friends and confidants and Logan, UT our place of refuge, where our relatives gathered and became one loving family. Even though our family has grown to over 70 members, all were present at the reunion except one cousin-in-law. We all had an incredible time, renewing those bonds and watching our children form new ones. There was a potluck dinner at the park, a pancake breakfast, and a day of swimming and games at the Campbells. The highlight for the kids was a four-wheeler driven train the Campbells had put together. It was so fun that the adults including Grandma and Grandpa had to take a ride too. 

Thanks to our talented cousin Gina, we got some great family pictures taken too.

Momma K's grandboys

Here is the Kathi Petersen family. We're happy to announce that my little (though not so little any more) bro Daren is getting married Oct. 30th to his girlfriend Noel! Woohoo! She has two kids (in the pic above) Jessica and Joshua. Our little family is growing!