A Chapman Christmas

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Letter to Santa

In honor of the Christmas season, I am posting a letter to Santa that I received in an email. I hope it makes you laugh!

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles, and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.

If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet.

Yours Always,

MOM...

P.S. One more thing...you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children young enough to believe in Santa:o)

I've Been Tagged

OH! I've been tagged--thanks to Emily. I've never been tagged before, so this is new for me. I think it's a great idea though, sharing interesting things about one another. Hmmm, what six interesting/crazy things will I share? Why six? I don't know. That's just how many I was challenged to share. So here it goes:

1. When I was a little girl, I wanted to be a boy so badly that I would pee standing up and run around with my shirt off, just like my brothers. My escapade ended when I slipped and fell in the toilet while attempting to pee while standing on the toilet seat. Not my proudest moment, but laughable nonetheless.
2. I once had a stalker. I told a guy that a lot of girls (myself included) thought he was stalker scary and rather than be offended, he said he was more attracted to me because I was the first girl "brave enough" to tell him the truth and that was "admirable". After a summer with no contact with said stalker, I showed up to my new college apartment to find him waiting for me. I still have no idea how he found my apartment before I moved in. After telling him that I was not his girlfriend and that I would never marry him, he finally gave up and found someone else to bother. For those who know me well, I am not a mean person, but I had to be really upfront with this guy because he was kind of...well, psycho.
3. My parents were going to name me Tracy Lynn before I was born. Luckily, they changed their minds, otherwise my name would be Tracy Chapman.
4. I don't mean to brag, but I was a pretty darn good runner in high school. :) Even though I was good, I used to get so nervous about racing that I would wish that I would sprain an ankle or get sick before a race. Unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you look at it, it never happened.
5. Before I met my husband George, I was saving all my money to go on a trip to Europe with one of my best friend's from high school. A few months before my summer trip, George swept me off my feet and asked me to marry him. We decided to get married before the end of the summer and my trip to Europe was postponed indefinitely.
6. I have always wanted to be a mommy and I'm so happy that I am, but there is still part of me fighting to have an identity beyond motherhood. I'd like to go back to school and get my master's, learn to paint, write a book, be an amateur photographer, backpack through Europe, run competitively again (perhaps a marathon), buy an expensive pair of shoes, and so many other things.

Okay, so now I tag Lauren, Nikki, George, and Steve. Just share six things about yourself on your blog that may not be widely known. This is just for fun, so no obligations. But sharing is good! Have fun!

Jaren is 3 Years Old!

Not too shabby for my first attempt at a cake like this!
All of my boys!
Playing with his new toys!

YIKES! We can hardly believe that we have a 3-year old! Jaren turned 3 on Saturday, November 24. In his own words, "I am thwee, thwee, thwee!" When I asked Jaren if he had a great birthday, he said "Yeah" and continued playing with his new trains. Even though we had a low-key birthday (no party or friends due to Thanksgiving), we think Jaren had a great time. He was able to go see Bee Movie with his daddy, play at the McDonald's playground, eat junk food, have a Lightning McQueen birthday cake, open presents (almost as fun as playing with them) and play with them until late at night.

Our Little Family Thanksgiving

Dallin is happy he's about to try mashed potatoes.
Look at that beautiful turkey, my best yet!
Jaren patiently waiting to eat our feast.
A few hours after eating.

This year, we were unable to travel to our families' homes so we stayed here and celebrated Thanksgiving with our own little family. Even though this was our first Thanksgiving without our families, it was laid back (except while I was preparing all the food and cleaning up after, too) and fun. We enjoyed not having to worry about traveling on dangerous winter roads for hours on end or spending over $1000 to fly out of our dinky little airport. So, we slept in, had a nice breakfast, watched part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, talked with family, and then tried to balance taking care of the kids and preparing our feast. The food turned out wonderful (yeah me!) and we had the kids to bed by 7:30. So, since we were not able to spend our holiday with any friends or family, we want to share some photos and say that we're grateful for all of you.

Jaren's Last Birthday

I am experimenting with adding videos to our blog and this is one of my favorite videos, and since Jaren's 3rd birthday is right around the corner, I thought it would be appropriate. My favorite part of the video is when Jaren's Oma and Opa sing a traditional German birthday song to him and lift him up in his chair for as many years old he is. I'm going to learn the song one day so that I can teach it to my children and carry on the tradition. It's awesome!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some pictures of the family during Halloween. Yes, that is Peter Pan and Captain Hook sparring at our church Halloween party. It made for really good entertainment and in my eyes, was probably the highlight of the evening! All in all, Jaren was able to get three pumpkins full of candy between trick-or-treating at the church, the base haunted house and the Colonels' street on base. Funny story, we went to the base haunted house about a half hour before they were closing only to find firetrucks, policemen and bomb-sniffing dogs surrounding the building. Apparently the fog machines triggered a smoke alarm in the building and everyone had to be evacuated causing a half-hour interruption, frozen toes and fond memories. This was a Halloween to remember!

Bathtime Buddies and Dracula

Here are some photos that I wanted to squeeze in of the boys.

Backseat Driver

Well, it's official. Jaren is a backseat driver. I thought this wouldn't happen until he is 25 when he starts driving, but no such luck. Whenever I am driving the kids around, Jaren likes to tell me which way to go, "This way mom". I indulge him and ask "This way Jaren?" to which he replies "Yes mom" or "No, no, no". If the answer is no, I try to explain to him why I am heading a certain direction. Of course he is not interested in my explanation and persists in telling me to head the opposite direction I intend to go. I ignore him. He continues, "No, this way". I ignore him again. He then proceeds to throw a gargantuan fit. Finally after several grueling minutes I calmly turn around and say "I am the driver Jaren, and I go which way I want to go". I then proceed to drive "my way".

Dallin is 6 Months Old!

This is Dallin on his six-month birthday. He's getting so big now. After coming back from the doctor's office, Dallin is more or less the same size as Jaren was when he was nine months old. It's amazing how different each child is. Dallin isn't as mobile as Jaren was at the same age, but he is more sociable and gives this winning smile to just about everyone. He has such a great laugh and is so easy going. Thank goodness for easy children!

Success Story

I am a social butterfly...almost.

So, a bit of advice was given to me to help me with my socializing skills: Just ask people about themselves in socially awkward situations, because most people LOVE to talk to themselves. So I followed this advice recently, and voila, I had a great conversation with someone. Although, the conversation was mostly one-sided (this girl liked to talk more than me!), I had a great time getting to know her better. I just wanted to share that socially stunted people can make friends! Oh, and if anyone has any advice in the social department, I could sure use it. Have a great day!

The Produce Section

The other day, Dallin, Jaren and I were shopping in the commissary and I decided to let Jaren be a free man (he promised to be a good boy). Usually, I push him in the cart, a stroller, or use a monkey harness because it's just too darn hard to keep him from running off, touching things, and running in front of other people's carts. So, we were in the produce section and Jaren was just thrilled to see all of his favorite fruit. He saw the strawberries first and exclaimed "Mom, mom, stwaberries!". He then picked it up and put it in our basket. I was okay with this because strawberries were on sale and I like them. So, I kept shopping. I picked up some grapes and said "Look Jaren, grapes!", to grab his attention and keep him from touching all the produce. We put it in the cart together. I continued on grabbing cucumbers, tomatoes and onions. Then, when my back was turned, I heard Jaren exclaim, "Mmm, apples." Before I knew it, he had picked out a red bell pepper and taken a bite out of it. After a moment, he scrunched up his face, spit it out, and said "Uugh, yucky apple." I couldn't help but laugh, even though I was a bit annoyed that I'd have to buy it. At least he is eating his vegetables!

Absence

Since Dallin was 3 weeks old, we have not had a working digital camera until recently. We had to buy another one, which I love! It's a much improved version of our 4 year old Sony Cybershot camera. Here is photo or two of the kids.

Check that one off the list

George completed his first marathon yesterday in 3 hours 41 minutes. It took a lot out of him, but he finished and now we can say that he has completed a marathon. He has lived a full life; now he can die. Just kidding. He practically did die after that race. After seeing him cross the finish line with lactic acid face (which closely resembles bitter beer face) and limp arms and wobbly legs, I don't know if I want to run a marathon. Afterall, running a marathon is highly overrated, right Steve?

Captain Chapman

Well, it's official... George is now a captain. The long-awaited promotion (pay-raise) was on Friday, May 11. We had lots of family come into town for the promotion and also for blessing Dallin in church. We had family come from five different states to be there for two important events in our lives. We are very lucky to have such a wonderful family. Everything went really well. It was of course a little stressful since Dallin was only 2 1/2 weeks old when everyone arrived. The lack of sleep and nursing 24/7 didn't help being a good hostess, but what can a person do? The promotion went well and we had good food afterwards. George and his mom teamed up to provide a really good meal on Saturday. George makes really, really, I mean really good steak. And his mom made yummy German potato salad and her famous cheesecake. I am still drooling thinking about all of the good food we had. Anyway, back on track...we blessed Dallin on Mother's day, which is kind of special. The only person we were missing for the blessing was Albert, otherwise, all of Dallin's male priesthood bearing relatives were present. It was wonderful to see everyone, but I am glad that life has slowed down and our house is quiet.

Dallin is Home!

Dallin Albert Chapman was brought home yesterday and received a warm welcome from his Grandma Maxine and his big brother, Jaren. Jaren came running out the front door, down the steps and was jumping up and down to see the baby. I (Erin) didn't even get a hug from him. He just wanted to see his little brother. The lovely sign was made by Jaren and his Grandma. Dallin is doing great and so am I. I am having a faster and more pleasant recovery than the first time, thank goodness! I have one more week before my mom leaves to adjust to life with two kids! YIKES! Until then, I'm going to party all night long and get to know our little boy!

Winter is best Forgotten/Happy Easter!

Once again, I have fallen behind and lots has happened. I think that I have tried to block out or simply survive the last few months, as I really do not enjoy winters here. Spring has arrived, though some days it still feels like winter and we are now approaching baby's due date (April 25) and we still have not picked out a name. Big surprise--not really! We do have a list now and have narrowed it down to 20 names. Seriously, this is really good for us! So, hopefully, we'll have a name when our baby is born.

We have been super busy lately. I wouldn't say so much me because I am walking around like a duck and moving like a snail, but George is still up to living his busy lifestyle. He is three classes away from finishing his master's degree. He should finish up in July. He is also training for the Teton Dam Marathon, which means he is now running religiously and is now home much less. The other day, he ran 13 miles! It's a little crazy, but he is very happy to be running again. Jaren is still as active as ever and if it weren't for him, I am sure I would have gained over 50 lbs during this pregnancy. We are nearly done with the basement after 3 years. All George has to do is finish painting, hang some closet doors, put up the trim, finish the bathroom and put the carpet in. Sounds like a lot, but it's really not. Everything should be wrapping up real soon, hopefully!

Spring is in the air here. George took Jaren on two hour walk while I cooked dinner today. I later joined them while our Easter meal was cooking. It turned out pretty good, however, this Easter has been a little different. We have been so busy lately that we weren't fully prepared for our usual Easter traditions. Jaren skipped out on an egg hunt, and we didn't get to dying the eggs, but we did have a basket of stuff (thanks to my mom) for Jaren to enjoy at the end of the day ( I forgot about it until my mom mentioned it--thanks again). Next year, we will definitely be on top of it as we will then have a child who will remember. We hope everyone had a wonderful Easter, and it will probably be a while before I get to blogging again. Hope you all understand! But, I will try to get pictures out as soon as I can! Until then...

Problems Sleeping

Recently, Jaren has decided to launch himself officially into the terrible two's. Although he has been throwing temper tantrums months before he was officially two, he would still listen to me and go to bed for naps and bedtime. Recently however, Jaren has decided to say "no, no, no" to everything, become physical with George, Eddie and I, kick and scream when I put on shoes or clothes on that he doesn't want to wear, and will fight sleep with all of his toddler will power, until he's passed out on the floor either next to the shut door or in the middle of the room. Here's a picture of Jaren in early January. Although it has been a bit of challenge to deal with a testy toddler, he does have his sweet moments. Tonight as I was putting him to sleep, I laid my head on his pillow and he began singing to me and stroking my face to help me fall asleep (things that I have recently resorted to in order to get him to sleep). It was a tender moment!

Christmas 2006 Slide Show

We didn't get very good pictures, so these are some of the best. Enjoy!