I have some photos I need to share, but I'm trying to come up with some embarrassing stories that will top those in the Trombone Trio post! I think I might just give up soon. Until then...
We hope you all had a wonderful year and we want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!!
I call 2015 "the year of Rainbows!" Can you see why? This doesn't include all the various rainbow toys we collected, our fish "Rainbow Dash" (RIP), or the gazillion rainbows that the girls colored this year. Basically - they LOVE rainbows!!!
Here's a slideshow I made to Mary, Did You Know for my YW lesson. I love this song - I think it captures the spirit of Christmas. I'm so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. I'm thankful that He came to this earth, atoned for our sins, and broke the bands of death. I love the Christmas season and the chance it gives us to reflect on His life and His role in our own lives. I hope that this season will bring us all closer to Christ.
Jake and I walked into the ultrasound place - Maternal Fetal Medicine. That's where I went for all my high-risk ultrasounds with the twirls every two weeks. When the tech came to get us (I recognized her from my many visits there) she asked how our twins and older daughter were doing. I told her I was so impressed that she remembered me - two and a half years later! She told us that our baby announcement is famous in their office. It's one of the ones that they get the most comments on. I told her I was surprised that they still have it - then she took us down the hall to their wall of announcements - there they are, smack in the middle!
We started our ultrasound. I get so nervous that we're going to hear bad news... we waited while she took a bunch of measurements. We have a healthy baby!!!!! Whewph! When she got down to the crotch she asked if we could tell. I could tell immediately that it was a GIRL!!!
Here is a photo of her feet (you can see little scratch lines where the girls were tickling her feet), her spine twice, and one of the front of her face. Then she snuggled into my placenta and wouldn't move so we didn't get a good front face picture. But I can tell she has my little pointy chin! Dang I've got some dominant genes!
We are THRILLED to have another sweet little girl. I bet you can imagine what she looks like too! :-) We are just soooo excited to meet her! Jake grew up with 4 sisters, so he's used to being outnumbered! The only bad thing is that now there's a lot of pressure on Jake's cousin Walter to have baby boys to keep the Glauser name going!
My cousin Jennifer Seaver (the one who stole my name, haha!) has 4 boys. So really there is great harmony that the Jennifer Seavers would balance each other out!
The girls are excited for a sister. But mostly they are excited that we brought home balloons. We've already had one ceiling fan incident and one balloon fatality. Lots of tears were shed.
We can't wait to meet our sweet little baby this spring!
So over the course of our friendship, Laura and I learned that we shared a common hidden talent: playing the trombone. We both played in it Junior high, we both used our dad's old trombones at one point, and both our dad's had bright orange vintage trombone cases. Laura also learned that another one of our friends, Joanne, played the trombone in high school as well. We thought it was funny that these three improbable gals played such a masculine instrument. A bit of useless trivia that would hopefully stay in the past....
Well, our Ward Christmas party was coming up and they announced that they wanted to have a mini-talent show featuring all sorts of Christmas performances after our big holiday dinner. Laura texted me and said it would be fun if we played a little trombone trio that night. Mind you this was TEN DAYS before the dinner, neither one of us had access to a trombone, and we hadn't played in over 15 years!!! I thought it might be fun, but really unlikely that it would ever come together - so there was no harm in going along with the idea. Jake on the other hand loved the idea! He was all on board. I think deep down he wanted to see me sweat, cause I don't easily get embarrassed. haha! I mentioned our plan to one of the RS presidency (Janice), and honestly I thought she would tell me that it was too loud for the night. Then she would be the "bad" guy and I wouldn't have to perform. She LOVED the idea!? I totally forgot that her son is in marching band and she is a huge supporter of his music. Plus she just thought it would be fun to see the 3 of us perform.
Snap. Well, we still didn't have instruments. The Sunday before our party - 7 days to go - Janice announced in RS that there might be a surprise trombone performance by some of our sisters!? haha! Oh man, this was starting to get out of control! One of the sisters in our ward heard her announcement and offered her husband's old trombone if we needed one. That, plus Joanne's spare, we were set with our instruments. Finally on Wednesday - 4 days to go - I finally got my hands on a trombone. It was so weird opening it up. The memories came flooding back. The little slide oil, the spit valve, even the smell of the metal, it was all so familiar! It brought back memories of my Jazz band quartet performances, practices in the band room, all the nasty spit, and lugging around that huge case a over a mile to school every day.
It even reminded me of a very embarrassing moment to little 7th grade Jenni.... Our band teacher, Mr. Winters, started learning to play music on the trombone. So he loved the instrument. We had a special practice just for trombones before school one day (I think they did this with all the instruments). But it was basically all the 7th grade trombonists in one room. Just me and a dozen 12-13 year old boys. Mr. Winters was in his office getting some papers and we were all just goofing around waiting for him. I remember feeling so awkward and wanting to be "cool" around the boys. I don't know what led up to me saying this, but I remember saying: "look at us - we are just a bunch of boners!" Now, mind you, I was a twelve year old girl with no older brothers and a very innocent outlook on life. I had no idea that word meant anything besides, in my head, someone who plays the trombone. But I knew I said something embarrassing by the reaction of the boys. I remember feeling bright red and flustered - especially cause I didn't know what I did wrong. But looking back, those boys were so kind to me. Yes they snickered, but I don't remember them teasing me or ever bringing it up again. I also remember going home and telling my mom what happened. I was MORTIFIED when I discovered what a blunder I had made! (probably equally as bad as the time I went to this anti-tobacco youth conference in Park City and they made us make up rhymes to introduce ourselves and I said "My name is Jenni Seaver and I am not a beaver!" having no idea that it was a crude slang word - those kids were not as kind as my junior high guy friends).
Back to the story - so I assembled the trombone and started practicing. I think the sheer volume of the instrument combine with it's weird design was just too much for the twirls. They started crying every time I practiced. I only really got to practice 3 times before our performance and one of those times was with the trio. As things kept falling into place for our performance I would think over and over "I can't believe this is coming together!" When I agreed to this I honestly thought it would never happen!
The night of the performance came and I couldn't believe how nervous I was. I think I just felt so unprepared. But the main point was to have fun and surprise everyone with our secret hidden talent. We weren't hoping for perfection, just for entertainment. Next to the stage they had the line up. I bought these light up tree necklaces for the girls, they were loving them!
The trio met in the nursery room to warm up together. We planned to play Jingle Bells through one time, wait 4 beats while our kids ran on the stage, then play it again while the girls jingled some bells and we added a few "embellishments."
Well half way through, the girls were nervous, the crowd thought we were done and started clapping, and it was just a little chaotic, so I ended up playing after 4 beats, but no one else did. *awkward* But we were able to start up together and finish strong. Scarlett was wearing this sequin hat that has little bells sewn on the side of it. She wouldn't hold a bell, instead she decided to just shake her head like crazy to jingle the bells on her hat! haha!
Here's the video evidence for your viewing pleasure for some holiday entertainment for a good laugh: (and yes, I'm the loudest one. Don't ask me how this severe asthmatic accomplished that. But I never had a problem playing loudly in school. I'm just a loud person. Even my normal talking voice is loud. Loud loud loud. Loud.)
I'm grateful that Laura gently encouraged me to do this. :-) It was a fun experience and something I never thought I would do. Afterward several people came up to us and said how shocked they were when we all walked on stage. We were the last people they would guess played the trombone! I doubt that I'll keep practicing, well, at least not til next year's Ward Christmas party!
Now I want to vent about something that happened that same day. Hours before the Christmas party, I went to Kohl's to buy a gift for the giving tree that night. The checkout line was long so I went and stood at the end. These two women - maybe late 20s - and their mom and boyfriend came in line behind me. I wasn't paying much attention to them, but after a few min I realized they were talking about me. They were talking loud enough so that I could hear, cause the wanted me to. They were saying mean things about my hair, my face, and my overall appearance. At first I was just so shocked that they were being so mean and I had literally done nothing to them, in fact I wasn't even facing them. So many things went through my head during the next 10 minutes of standing in line. I heard my mom's voice telling me that girls are mean when they are jealous (I felt like I looked pretty cute that day and they were wearing sweats without makeup). I could hear my dad's voice telling me that some people are just broken and they don't know how to be kind. I remembered all the times that I said something snotty as a teenager in front of my mom and she made me apologize. I remembered when my dad taught me that other's people happiness/beauty/talents/success doesn't diminish my own - that we can be truly happy for someone and it doesn't take away from our own joy. I remembered all growing up if we would tell my mom "I really like her hair" she would say "go tell her that!" and how as grown ups we often hear the negative things, but we rarely hear the positive things - that we should share those warm fuzzies with others.
Then my mind shifted, I went away from trying to understand them to how I was going to demolish them. I thought about how I was going to comment on their appearance. Or say something to their boyfriend like "how do you date such a biotch?" I wanted to ask them if this was junior high, or if they were actually adults just acting like kids. I thought of looking their mom straight in the eye and saying, "wow if my girls were to ever talk like that in front of me I would turn them over my knee and give them a good spanking." I thought that I could start asking how they contribute to society and make them feel insignificant for not adding value to our world but just sucking it away. I thought about laying on the Christmas guilt, talking about religion. I thought how I could tell them I don't really take much stock in criticism from people that reek of stale cigarette smoke. I thought of looking them up and down and then saying (in a condescending way) how I was fine that they thought that, then turning around. I thought about just turning around and saying super nice things to them and being really sweet.
I used to think it was a talent of mine that I could think of comebacks in the heat of the moment - but I now realize that while yes, sometimes that has its place, that's not the person I want to be. I try so hard to spread joy. I try to ask meaningful questions, and really listen. I like to smile at everyone. I pray to find ways to do little acts of service through my day. I often say the words "What Would Jesus Do?" in my head. In that moment, in the checkout line at Kohl's, I couldn't think of a single phrase I could say to those girls that would make a difference in their lives and make me proud of myself. So I chose to "turn the other cheek." I just pretended that I didn't hear them and smiled when I saw them looking at me. I don't always make the right choice, but I felt like in that moment I did. Then why did I fell so awful?! I already feel like a huge pregnant whale, my skin is out of control, none of my clothes fit right, and my self-esteem is just not where it usually is... so these comments really seemed to hit me hard. I didn't think they did, but their words were in the back of my mind all weekend.
The next day, Sunday, we had a special combine RS lesson 3rd hour and they invited all the women from the other auxiliaries to join. (Jake ended up subbing in nursery) The lesson was centered around Visiting Teaching and "The errand of angels is given to women." At the beginning of the meeting they told the sisters that they will be using a new google form to do the reporting every month (my idea that I made for them) so the RS President thanked me. I was feeling a bit all over the place. I played the piano in Sacrament meeting last week, the trombone the night before, now this. I don't know sometimes I just feel like I'm too hyper. GSD! After the lesson on VTing they had 2 different sisters come share their personal experiences with the blessings of the VTing program. The second sister the share was my friend Sara. She told how she's always liked the VTing program, but due to her health and crazy grad school schedule she hadn't seen her VTers in many years. Well she had a very difficult pregnancy this past year. She met with her medical team to discuss all her options. They told her there was a chance that she would need to go on medical bed rest for several months. They asked if she had a support network to help her and before she had a chance to reply her midwife (who's worked with several members of the church) piped up and said "oh don't worry, her church takes very good care of it's members!" haha!
On her way home that day Sara called her mom to tell her that funny story. Her mom immediately asked her "who are your visiting teachers?" Sara admitted that she didn't know and her mom told her she needed "Proactive VTers." Her mom gave Sara one week to call the RS before she was going to call them herself. Sara mentioned how she felt silly asking for new VTers, but she knew her mom meant business so she better call. She called the presidency and told them a little bit of the story and mentioned she might need new VTers. They told her that they actually assigned her new VTers two days ago! (the Lord is so mindful of us) and that her new VTers were Julianna and Jenni (me). Sara then said "And if you know these two, they embody the word proactive." :-) GSD! She went on to say some lovely things about the VTing program and the some of our experiences together.
All weekend I had been thinking about those awful comments from Kohl's but in that moment at church I knew that Heavenly Father loved me. It was like her words were His way of helping me realize the things in my life that really matter. I felt so peaceful and loved. Since that meeting I can think back to my experience at Kohl's and it doesn't turn my stomach like it did before. Sara's words were so kind and I really felt the comforting influence of the Holy Ghost. I know that our Heavenly Father loves each one of us and if we pay attention, He sends His angels to help lift us up. I hope that I can follow promptings and be that angel for others, but I am thankful for all you, my friends and family, who heed those promptings and reach out to serve me and my family. xoxo!!!
I was technically caught up... now I'm not. I blame pregnancy ('cause I can). So you now get a HUGE long post to review the month of November.
One morning I was holding Jaide (who was just in her diaper), I looked down at my phone and the next thing I knew I was holding Siena (who was wearing her jammies still). When did that happen?!?!
Top Row: How we spend many of my sick prego mornings: Siena in my arms, Jaide on my hip bone, and Scarlett in my knee nest. | One morning when Scarlett wanted to by my stylist. She did my hair, put a star on my nose then told me "You are beautiful now. You can go on the dance floor by yourself." haha!? Siena thought my hair made me look like a kitty cat. After I took a shower she pointed to my head and asked "kitty cat broke?" | That same morning Scarlett asked for "10 ponytails"
Bottom Row: Sometimes when you rock the twirls they want to both sit on the same leg. | "maked" girls
Cool chickas!
Scarlett has a stuffed Rainbow Dash pony that she was throwing around the room yelling "Sonic Rainbow!" which is from the show. But for whatever reason it sounded like she kept yelling "Masonic Rainbow!"
Scarlett talking to her sisters: "Goodbye twirls, I'm going to miss you. I'm going on a mission." Me: "Where?" Scarlett: "To the playground, of course."
Scarlett asked me one day "how come you call me a deer so much?" I had to explain the difference between deer and dear.
Left Column: These raincoats are from LL. Siena wouldn't wear her yellow one for a photo. But the girls just LOVE their "name colors"
Middle and Left Column: Just playing
Video of Jaide showing me her butterfly wiiiiings:
Oh sweet hugs!
The twirls love to hide under a blanket and say "g-g-g-ghost!" (thanks for teaching them that Jake!) Here's a video of Jaide being a ghost:
Sometimes they like to be a g-g-g-ghost who can see where they're going. In fact, lately they've asked me to wrap them up like this a lot. Guess who also liked to walk around like this as a toddler? That's right, this girl! Photos: me, Siena, & Jaide.
Scarlett is really into typing on the computer these days. She is even learning to change the font size. One morning she somehow pulled up motorcycle videos on youtube and was watching them!?! She is her father's daughter.
Sometimes we get so messy that mom just puts us in the sink and makes us scrub ourselves off...
Lately the twirls want to sit in big kid chairs instead of the high chairs. Which is fine, except now they can run around instead of just finishing their food - which drives me crazy! So now we are forced to bride them to eat dinner every night with dessert. Often Scarlett will get her dessert so the twirls will get jealous and scarf their dinner so they can join her.
One night Siena was being particularly difficult and not eating. She was screaming, 'cause her sisters were eating their treats but she wasn't. So I lined up her food in a long line on the table with the dessert at the end. She totally understood the concept and she ate the whole line to get to her treat instead of trying to grab her dessert before she was done with her food! Win!
These girls like to lounge and eat like puppies:
Jake came in the room and found all three girls having a melt down *tender moment*:
Scarlett keeps asking if we can make a paper chain for her bday. Silly girl. She also keeps asking if she can make the invitations to give to her friends so they can come to her "Peacock rainbow with a pot of gold, clouds, and leprechaun - and Uranus party!" That sounds complicated! I better get planning!
Fun with friends....
Enjoying the fall days outside...
The twirls loved running through the leaves:
Look at all these birds on our front lawn! We have sooooo many birds that fly over our house. It's so fun to see them migrate. Not fun when our patio has poop all over it though!
Jake and I were watching this youtube video on my phone while the girls were all in the shower. We usually "lock" them in so they can't get water everywhere, but we must have forgotten that night. While we were laying on our tummies watching the video Jaide came up on the bed and stood next to us. It took us like a full 20 seconds before we realized that she was completely naked and dripping wet! Hahaha!
One night I saw Jake working on a spreadsheet on his laptop. I asked him what he was up to "Oh, just trying to calculate the torque of a control moment gyroscope." Duh. Of course. Just a normal night.
Top Row: Siena fixing dad's hair. | The girls doing back stretches with dad.
Bottom Row: Jake rolled the twirls into a double burrito. | Salvaging 2 broken dream lights to make a working one - and he did it! My girls love those things! | Dad's impressive youtube-balloon animal skills!
While in the double burrito the girls told me they wanted "Halloween Blaze!" They love that episode of Blaze and the Monster Machines. I have no idea why.
The air museum at Willow Run had a free day a few weeks ago. So we went and checked it out. Pretty fun place. We even got our family photo in front of an old Pratt & Whitney engine! Start 'em young! They were selling these old little model planes for $1, so we bought one for each of the girls. The fell apart like they were made from glass. Even now, weeks later, I still find random propellers or landing gear strewn throughout our house.
I read this random article that said 1 in 50 women have a third nipple, and 1 in 18 men do!!! I had no idea they were so common! I thought Chandler Bing was the only one. It said some people will grow their third nipple on their legs, back, or even the bottom of their foot! I was telling Jami this on a phone call one day and Scarlett overheard me. Then she went around singing "Shake that nipple off! Shake that nipple off!" haha! No idea where she came up with those lyrics. I have to assume she's always listening... that girl... she's got hawk ears!
Thanksgiving this year felt anti-climatic. We had no plans, no family, and no motivation. Neither Jake nor I are into Thanksgiving, so without anyone driving it there was danger that it wouldn't happen at all. Finally we decided that wasn't fair to our girls, and we needed to make an effort - even if it was weak. So I bought a lot of premade things. Scarlett went to the store with me to get the food earlier that week. While we were there, she picked out a new beta fish. Her [his] name is Twilight Sparkle. Yes, we're continuing with our My Little Pony theme.
On Thanksgiving morning I put these boneless, skinless turkey breast pieces I found at the store into the crockpot. Easy! The only thing we really spent time putting together were homemade mashed potatoes (because, yum). The dinner was actually delicious and the girls ate a almost everything! During dinner we asked the girls what they were thankful for. The twirls replied in a long string of twirlese (ugh!) but Scarlett told us "I'm thankful for my fish." Me: "Ok, what else are you thankful for?" "Nothing, just my fish." Nice.
We thought about inviting other family-less friends over for dinner but I really didn't want to cook for everyone. Laura came up with the idea of just getting together for pie. So we asked our friends - the Heatons - and they invited us to their home for pie that evening. Yum! Marie Calendars for the win! I wanted to try all the pies! So tasty! The girls enjoyed playing with their kids while the adults chatted and ate. Great evening. They even sent me home with a sample pack of more zofran (they owned a clinic). That medicine is like gold to me these days. The only less-than-perfect moments were when Jake found the twirls in the kids' bathroom, using their toothbrushes. Oh and Jenni (my friend) found Siena in their half bath scooping water out of the toilet with her hand and drinking it!?!?!? What?!? That's new. Luckily the Heatons have 7 yr old twin boys and a 4 yr old girl, so they weren't phased. Oh and by the time we left they were all covered in marker. So besides our kids, we had a relaxing holiday evening. Scarlett drew a picture at their house (below). She told me "This is Aunt Jami with no legs.? I asked her why she didn't have legs "cause she's in a swimming pool." Oh! Not what I thought she meant haha!
A week before Thanksgiving we were surprised with a big snow storm (like 6 inches). It's weird looking at these photos as I type this (on Dec 10) cause it was almost 60degF today and all the snow's gone. Michigan is so moody! Back to the snow: the girls absolutely loved playing outside - for like 20 min before they were too cold. I think I spent more time digging out snow coats and gloves than we actually spent in the snow!
The girls loved coming inside and having hot chocolate and popcorn by the fire. When the twirls were napping Scarlett convinced Jake to build a snowman with her. She's an animal. She didn't mind the cold and just wanted to be out there forever! I love this picture of Jake watching her from inside the house after he was out there for an hour with her. Silly girl!
Here's a video of the girls enjoying the snow:
My SIL, Christy, asked if we could help out one of her friends. Their little boy has cancer and they were trying to get a photo of people giving "Thumbs up for Lucas" in all 50 states. Well we couldn't just do a normal thumbs up to represent MI - so Jake and Scarlett built a snow thumbs up. Go Lucas!!! #thumbsupforLucas
I had a few tomatoes on the counter and one day I came in and the twirls were holding one and saying "stinky apple!" haha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They tried to get a little snack but were quite surprised when they bit into them. So later that night I had Jake take this video so I could get their "stinky apple" on film:
A few weeks before our primary program the kids practiced in the chapel. My parents were in town visiting for Halloween and my mom took this video. Scarlett just barely got her part before this, so we were still working on it at that time. But I love the little girl in line behind her....
At: 1:15 "we have unicorns and rainbows" haha!
The day of the actual program came and Scarlett knew her part cold. Well when she got up to the stand one of the leaders tried to whisper in her ear and she said - very clearly in the microphone "I can do it by myself." Everyone chuckled. Then she said "The Savior is the central role in Heavenly Father's plan." The best part was Sister Jones came up after and said she remembered last week when I totally called that very sassy comment!
The rest of the program was darling. Scarlett was a very animated singer, doing little dances. At one point her teacher let her come down so I could take her to the potty. But everything else went smoothly. Our Primary Presidency was awesome! The program was fantastic.
Scarlett saying her part:
One Sunday I played the piano while the Young Women sang "I know that my Heavenly Father Loves Me" in Sacrament Meeting. I was so nervous - it's been several years since I've playing in Sacrament Meeting. Well when we were getting out of the van, Scarlett's head got caught in the van's automatic sliding door. It senses things and opens back up, so I don't think it hurt her (no bruising or anything) but I think it really scared her. So the rest of the day she was just all out of sorts. So before we got to the YW's song we ended up taking all the girls into the primary room. Jake said that Scarlett and Siena cried the entire time I was gone. Oh my goodness. Little stinkers.
One morning I got a call from the sister missionaries. They were on their way to an appointment - and hour away - and they got rear-ended. It totaled their car! Poor girls! Anyways, the sister's from that area picked them up then I met them half way. We met at Wendy's and I bought all the girls some lunch. What a crazy day. Glad Jake was home so I didn't have to drag the girls up north.
We were driving home and the girls wanted the windows down (sorry the sound is super annoying):
Scarlett likes to pray for everyone at the table. She used to say "thank you for the babies - I mean Siena and Jaide." But now she just says their names. I guess they're not babies any more.
The twirls love to pray now. Most of the time they all want to pray. Scarlett, Siena, and Jaide. Three prayers. Every night. Sometimes 4 prayers cause after dad helps them they want me to take a turn.
We went to the church one afternoon with McDonalds and our cars. I wanted to practice the piano in the chapel before playing in front of everyone. But we had so much fun in the gym!!! Jake and I played Nerf football and basketball. It was a blast!
When we got our new toilet seat (see our fave things), Scarlett didn't want Jake to throw away the old one. Jake asked her why. She said "I want to give it to someone." Jake asked "who?" Scarlett replied "Jesus, I don't think he has one." I appreciate that she cares. But I'm not sure regifting broken and used toilet seats is the best gift for anyone.
I love getting random phone calls from my in-laws in Russia. It's so fun to talk to them and crazy that we can communicate across the world. They often call for tech questions - the Michigan/Russia times zones line up where I can help them a lot easier than the UT techies. We love hearing their stories and seeing the amazing pictures of all the places they've got to travel. I know very little about that corner of the world, so I have learned so much through their letters. We are so proud of them, but look forward to seeing them this summer!
Last random story: I came across this scripture the other day Proverbs 31:21 "She is not afraid of the snow for her household: for all her household are clothed with scarlet." I love it cause most of the time the word "scarlet" is used it's associated with sin. But this verse talks about a virtuous woman and how she prepares her family against storms with fine scarlet colored clothing.
"The term ‘Scarlet’ refers to a type of very fine and high quality wool cloth which as such preserves warmth, and when colored, also appears dignified and rich. The cloth was given a scarlet color by dipping it twice in a lotion made from the eggs of the coccus ilicis – a small insect found on the leaves of the oaks in Spain, and in countries east of the Mediterranean. This particular type of cloth was rare and probably pretty expensive as well! The virtuous woman has no fear for the coming winters because her family was covered in fine, expensive clothing suitable for winter. Her household was well stocked for times of need." (http://www.clothedinscarlet.org/why-clothed-in-scarlet/)
