Davis is 16

Ready or not, here we go!

December 2011

Something happened in December - well, a number of things happened, but something happened to me.  First couple of weeks were busy with college finals, Nathaniel's birthday, a visit from Chris' mom, and a meet for Davis.  During my last final I started to feel shaky - oh no, I thought I was coming down with the flu.  I graded the exams and submitted grades sitting in bed with my laptop.    Well, 5 1/2 weeks later, I don't know what it was, but it wasn't the flu.  The doctor rulled out mono, pneumonia, and a number of other things.  I'd call it a non-mono mono-like viral infection with a respiratory emphasis.  I'm still spending most of my time in bed, and the holiday trip was a total blow-out (the kids both took turns with a fevered stomach flu, and then a whopping head cold.)  So, the many projects that I had planned for my two months between semesters have been forsaken.  I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a little energy, but a trip to the grocery store will wipe me out for the rest of the day.
 
I don't have pictures of me laying around in bed, but I do have some from the other events in December:
Nathaniel's birthday party at the trampoline gym - bouncy fun with dodge ball and a foam pit.

Nathaniel always wants pie - so a boston cream pie was a good birthday cake compromise because pie is too hard to serve at a trampoline gym.

Davis and some of his sophomore running buddies competed in the Footlocker Western Regional Cross Country meet at Mt. SAC with athletes from all over the western states.

Compression socks are the new running fad (and it looks like Davis is wearing Uncle Mark era BYU shorts, if you know what I mean...)

Nathaniel's birthday celebration continued on Sunday with a family party and an actual pie.

Carol came down to help select plants for our front yard and was there for Nathaniel's birthday and Davis' meet too.

Chris discovered that our local spudnut shop makes giant doughnuts.

We made a trip to Utah for Christmas as planned even though I was not feelling well.  I still thought it was the flu and that I'd be getting over it in a few days.  I spent the whole time laying around or sleeping except for a few family gatherings: dinners at Chris' mom's and my parents with all the local family before Christmas, and a trip to temple square with my parents to see the lights after Christmas.  I didn't get any pictures from my parents house because I was feeling pretty bad that night.  But here are some of the others.

Nathaniel and I in the tabernacle.

Angels and shepherds re-enacting the Christmas story.

Angels

Wisemen with gifts.

Angel

Baby cousins sitting on Uncle Jeff's lap.

 Mark and Annie introduced a game where a couple has to stand on a stack of phone books and one of them need to pick up a coin placed on the floor.  I think Chris was disappointed that he didn't get to play because I didn't have the strength to stand very long on my own - let alone balance on phone books.  Every couple had their own strategy; Matt and Karen used the belt loop method.  I think they got up to 12 phone books.

Nathaniel spent most of Christmas eve night throwing up and most of Christmas day sleeping with fevered hallucinations. 

After recovering from the family dinners and Christmas we decided to try a low key trip to see the lights at temple square.

Nathaniel and the life sized nutcracker.

Davis and Nathaniel with Grandma and Grandpa Johansen on Temple Square.

We had dinner in the Joseph Smith Memorial building.  This was the first food Nathaniel had had since his the flu that wasn't plain rice or saltines.  I think he was intimidated by the height of his dinner.

 Well, after this evening Davis came down with the fevered-flu and I was in wiped out for about three days.

We cut our trip short and drove home before New Year's Eve.  So, you wondered why you didn't get a Christmas card this year, its because I had planned to send them right after I was done with finals.  Oh well...

15 Years Old

Davis turned 15 this month.  Soon driving, dating, what else?

 The favored gift had to be the 5-finger running shoes.

They are even good for napping in.

No photos of the cake (don't know why?) but it was fun to go to the beach with friends the day after and sword fight with bamboo for a couple hours.  I guess that's what 15 year olds do.

Birthday presents

All shiny and new

Early and late peaches, apples, a nectarine, and a 4-in-1 grafted plum.



Meyer Lemon and Oro Blanco grapefruit

 Chris and I often get gifts from our parents that are a combo Christmas and Birthday gift. My cookware set was creeping ever-nearer to the end of it's 25 year warrantee (which seemed like a lifetime warrantee when I got married) and our silverware started disappearing about the time the boys started helping scrape the plates.  I think a lot of forks went into the garbage and the spoons into the disposal (we were short on forks, the spoons were gouged up but I think we still had a full set.)  Now we have a shiny new set of pots and pans and silverware.  We feel so fancy now.
  Our yard is getting more and more bare (it's a lot of work and the yard looks worse the more work we do.) But it was really fun to go choose birthday trees at the nursery.  They have been planted close together in groups of the type of fruit they will bear.  The idea is that our family doesn't need a whole mature-tree full of apples at one time.  So, you get a few trees with a different harvest times, plant them close together and prune them so they don't grow very big.  Then you get a more usable amount of fruit over a longer time.  We'll see how it works.
Thanks!

Nathaniel is 11!

Davis Videos

Here are a few videos of Davis I've meant to post. I know you love my videography skills! One is from the Jazz Band performance last Christmas. Watch the girl up behind Davis during the song. She isn't playing an instrument but she is jamming out to the music. She did this the whole set. Then there is one from last week's concert by the advanced band. You can't see Davis but I bet you'll recognize the piece. Then there's a video of kids singing happy birthday to make it a musical video trilogy! You wouldn't guess from this video that most of these kids were cast in the school musical.

Happy Birthday Nathaniel

Nathaniel turned 10 years old. See him grinning over his birthday banana cream pie? What a great kid! When I asked him what his favorite part of our Thanksgiving trip was, he said it was the empty pond at Stanford. He would like to go to Stanford University when he grows up because it would be nice to live by that empty pond.

Boating is still allowed. Look close; he's out there.

We Have a Teenager in the House

May 14 is Davis' birthday and this year he turned 13! He is really showing teen tendencies. He is so much more responsible (he's babysitting to earn money, he walks home from school to be here when Nathaniel is dropped off on the days that I'm not home yet) and way less responsible (he puts off homework until the last minute, he forgets to turn in completed assignments) than he used to be. I'm so proud of him. I'm so frustrated. Here are some pictures from his birthday.
Davis and his new wave board. I tried it out and could just get across the driveway. Chris didn't dare try more than just trying to stand on the board (there are only two wheels that swivel and the board swivels in the middle). Davis just hopped on and started going.

Apparently teenagers don't smile for pictures anymore. And they like dolls, but they have to be Ugly Dolls.

Nathaniel gave him the Ugly Doll. Davis liked it - go figure.

We had chocolate black-out cake which is the cullinary equivalent of mudpies. It's basically layers of cake (very moist) and pudding, covered with cake crumbs.

Davis requested steaks for his birthday dinner, but settled for tri-tip. We ate in the back yard since the weather was so pleasant. In a couple weekends Davis is inviting friends to go to a movie with him to celebrate his birthday. This weekend was Fathers and Sons and next is Memorial Day, so he'll wait until the following when there is slightly less going on.

Nathaniel's Birthday party and Davis' Christmas parade

Nathaniel had his 9th birthday last week and we celebrated with our family on his birthday with a lemon merengue pie.

Then we had a party with his friends tonight at the park. We roasted hot dogs, played team tag, and made smores. The kids had a great time. We worried a bit through the day that we would get rained out, but the weather turned out great. It was cool but stayed dry. Very nice to hang out by the fire. We sang some campfire songs and then Nathaniel and his friends pitched in with their own songs and riddles.

Davis marched with the middle school band in a Christmas parade this morning.
Here he is right on the end playing the clarinet. He had a lot of fun and they sounded great.

Nathaniel found a ladybug while we waited for Davis and the band to get to us during the parade.