A Loader, an Apron & the Fire House

Christmas 2013 was amazing, perfect and wonderful ... thanks to family. Though we weren't able to spend this Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Renoud (those happy snowbirds were enjoying the warmth of Arizona), a few days before Christmas, Grandpa Winston stopped by with homemade peanut brittle (Jamisen has not quit asking for it for breakfast every morning). He also brought wonderful outfits for the kiddos.

For the actual Christmas Day, we were happy to have Grandma and Grandpa Faiola  and Auntie Sharon. Uncle Erik and Auntie Cheriss came over for dinner a couple nights before but spent the actual day in California with Cheriss's family. We are so blessed to have a loving, and close family.

Jamisen had never experienced the magic of a Christmas stocking before. His excitement was literally over the top crazy happy. His happy energy could have powered a spaceship. His stocking was full of juice (yeah, the kid never gets juice so therefore, juice is considered stocking-worthy material), tangerine oranges, a Pez dispenser + candy and Smarties candies). He was so so so excited. We could have stopped the presents there and he would have been thrilled.

But, of course we didn't stop there. Jamisen asked Santa for very specific things (a loader, a fire truck, and a puzzle). Santa was a good listener and delivered. It was quite a packaging debacle for a happy set of children.

Lily loves paper - any paper - and enjoys that almost as much as the gifts though her Auntie Sharon got her several soft crinkly things to play with. The soft book and the crinkly noisy toy have a place of honor in her crib. I'm sure the "noisy crinkly toys in the crib thing" may turn out to be a mistake at some 2 a.m. point in the future but she loves them.

Jamisen loves his fire house and fire truck. He does have firemen waiting for him ... but he has to sit on the toilet without his diaper in order to get his merry band of firefighters and so far, he's been proclaiming "NO!" at the top of his lungs.

Baby Lily didn't get so much in the way of big gifts - primarily because her main needs are baby food purees, formula and a bigger clothing budget than I (diapers cost a lot of money). She laughs easily and everywhere we go, people stop us to tell us how cute she is. They did that for Jamisen too (don't feel left out Little Buddy).

Auntie Sharon got Jamisen a wonderful apron for his Chef aspirations. He hasn't taken it off for four days yet. He wears it proudly everywhere and loves to cook with it on. His favorite creation is Cheese Ice Cream. He might be onto something there. Take note, Wolfgang Puck.

The biggest gift of all was from Santa with a little help from Grandpa Faiola.  The rideable digger was a highlight and I know when the weather clears up that we won't be able to keep him off of it. We'll have to get Lily a helmet so her brother can drag her around in the back. We have already confirmed that the front loader won't hold her weight. But, the back trailer could easily hold her ... with a helmet on only.

 

Chris deserves a Husband of the Year medal for trying to help me with a work project - making lye from wood ash. It turns out that there is absolutely no way to make enough ash in one fireplace to actually make lye. We've taken to asking places around town that have fireplaces to donate their ashes to the project. After multiple weeks of collecting, we may have enough ashes to make enough lye for one bar of soap. Phew... so much work! 

More Beach Photos

Just a few more photos of our family weekend at the beach. The kids loved the brief time that they spent on the coast. Amazingly, the beach was entirely protected from the wind because of the steep bluffs surrounding the beach.

Jamisen fell more deeply in love with his betrothed, Ava. With a sweet face like that, who could blame him? Also, a sock monkey hat? It's the ultimate fashion accessory for trendy toddlers in the know.

 

Here the kids are coloring stockings. Notice we've covered the entire (white!) table with garbage bags in case anyone got a little too artistic with their bag coloring.

Jamisen absolutely loved hugging Ava and holding her hand. He has asked about her so many times since we returned home. He says adorable things like, "I want to go to Ava's house." and "Does Ava's house have candy? I think it does."  Please dear God, do not let "candy" be a euphamism for anything.

All the kiddos together, bundled up within an inch of their little lives ... and for all of our hard work, only Kylie (Ava's sister) will remember this. For the rest of them, there are photos.

Santa's Naughty List

"While I relish our warm months, winter forms our character and brings out our best." - Tom Allen

We had a lovely time on the coast last weekend, all 4 seconds (okay, twenty minutes) that we managed to stay outside with teensy yet adorable children. We also took Jamisen and Lily to visit Santa. Obviously, that went exceedingly well.

Lily tried valiantly to save her big brother from the stranger in the red suit by punching Santa's Elf in the face. Thankfully she's cute or else she may have been put on Santa's Naughty List for the rest of her life. As is, she got off with just a simple warning.

To keep the warm fuzzy Christmas feelings alive, we went Christmas Tree Hunting. We managed to get the occasion documented and all look remarkably sane, happy and like the cohesive, joyful family unit I picture in my head when I dream. 

 

 Of course, it took 471 of these photos below to get the one Dreamy Happy Family Photo above.

  

We'll be putting up our festive tree tomorrow. Here's to pine needles all over the living room, no breakable ornaments on the bottom 3 branches and "helpful" toddlers. Wish us luck! =)

 Thank you dear Aunty Cheriss for coming over for French Toast (with yummy Pear Compote) and then helping wrangle the kiddos. 

Seabrook Brr Adventures

"It's the middle of December! Let's go visit a beach on the Washington coast!" said no one, ever.

 Well, it turns out ... those no one, ever people were totally wrong. Because the beach at Seabrook in December is rad!

We spent a long weekend at Seabrook and enjoyed everything that the beach had to offer ... in seven minute bursts. Lily was perfect the entire time we were out but when we got back to the house, poor little dear was frozen. Her hands and her little ears were ice cubes.

We had her in wool long johns and shirt underneath her snow suit but apparently we should have considered a giant bubble. Preferably with heated air. Judging from that smile, she was no worse for the wear, errr, the cold.

Jamisen was NOT a Viking. He begged to go home after like 22 seconds out on the beach (though in subsequent blog posts, you will see him looking like he is enjoying the beach. All you should read into those photos is that I took a lot of photos in 22 seconds).

Big thank you to Grandma Faiola for cooking an amazing lunch for us to stop by on the way down. It was a spread to remember!

Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for - our healthy family, interesting jobs, a lovely home with a backyard for hyper kids, and much to look forward to.

One of the things this Thanksgiving really made me thankful for is the modern convenience we like to call 'The Dishwasher'. Our lovely dishwasher chose to break a couple days before Thanksgiving and the new dishwasher (sadly, ours was DOA) will not be in until next week.

Grandma Faiola to the rescue! She hand washed all the dishes lovingly. We can all say that Thanksgiving would not have gone off without her.

Clearly, it's Lily's turn to be terrorized by Grandfather/Mother photo skills (one of us was Anne Geddes in a former life, clearly). She was the perfect model and SO happy to be dumped in wet leaves and dressed like a little Fall Princess. The perfect Fall dress is from our dear friend, David Syre, who had no way to know that it was the most ideal dress for the season (ever!). Thank you David!

 Every year, we usually go all out with our Thanksgiving Blessings discussion at the table - the Thank You Table Cloth, the Blessings Rolls and going around the table to say what we are thankful for. But, between the baby, the toddler, the broken dishwasher and two exhausted parents, I forgot to invite or encourage or plan any of those things.

I feel so guilty (as does Grandma) and we vow to never let another Thanksgiving go by without the most sappy, the most saccharine, and the most over-the-top Thankfulness ceremony. Next year, I may even find a sacrificial fatted calf to sacrifice; that's how serious I am about not forgetting the reason for the season.

Jamisen was so bummed when he woke up from his nap and his Uncle Erik and Aunt Cheriss were gone. It's the first thing he said when he woke up: "Where is Uncle Erik?" Awwww ... so sweet. 

Lily has started sleeping 6 and even 7 hours in a row now. This is exciting for many, many reasons and both Chris and I are beyond thrilled. She loves her solid foods, attacking the spoon with speed not commonly seen in drooling infants. Her breastfeeding days are officially over as of Sunday but I'm delighted we made it a full six months and feel good about her nutritional start for the marathon of life.

Chris and I actually got away for an overnight (our first) since Jamisen was born. It was SO luxurious to sleep for 10 hours without getting up for toddlers, babies or any random thing. I also read for a good 3 straight hours while eating 4 different kinds of cheese and truffle crackers. Basically, it was pure heaven and we have Grandma and Grandpa Faiola to thank for that wonderful respite.

Here Jamisen is helping me with the traditional FSE company Christmas party soaps. He loves soapmaking and asks to help stir, add fragrance and pour the soap. He is such a big helper.

Speaking of soap, it was Bramble Berry's long-time COO's birthday this last week and we brought in an entertainer to sing 'Happy Birthday' and lead the warehouse in a 'Norm!' cheer, complete with cheesy flowers, balloons, cheap chocolate and goofy headpieces.

It's been a busy week - and as always, we are thankful, blessed, and beyond tired. We are so grateful for the support of our family this last week - and the opportunity to rest, and reconnect.

First Day of Ski Season

Life goes on in the Faiola-Renoud household, despite fact that 50% of the household (unfortunately, the people in the house that are responsible for keeping the other 50% alive) are deliriously tired. Said adults have taken to going to sleep around 8 p.m. to try to get 6 hours of sleep before morning.

Jamisen has taken to getting up multiple times in a night and yelling at the top of his lungs "Blanket! I need my blanket put back on! Da-aaaaaaad! Blanket!" until someone stumbles into his room and tucks the blanket in just so. This is a new and exciting way to torture the humans above 3 feet tall in the house.

Interestingly enough, Jamisen slept through the first 2 nights of Lily's sleep training. Go figure. Kid wakes up if his blanket falls off but when there is shrieking and screaming in the bedroom next to his, he sleeps right through it.

Lily's sleep training is obviously going well. Day One versus Day Two shows clear improvement. And, I think Day Two would have been even better had she not been outgrowing her little bassinet and accidentally kicked it really hard when she was flailing about. The light blue lines are "restless" - this means I've gotten up but quickly made it back to bed. The pink lines are "awake! awake! awake" and mean that I will not make it to bed quickly or fall asleep easily. They correlate to having to comfort should-be-sleeping infants.

Chris is fully post-cold, post-headache and is on the upswing. It has been a wonderful thing to have him back in the swing of things. The entire family was proud of him for going skiing and taking some much needed solitude time to workout and get some fresh air.

I'm good, barely hanging in there. November is our busiest season for work and though we had projected growth, we got hit with a tsunami of awesome customer love this year with so many orders. We are a full week behind for shipping (despite hiring so many staff members that we needed to add a shift just to fit everyone in the building) and customer love has not been all that forthcoming. In fact, they're so irritated with us that they're doing little internet memes (see below).

That just inspired me to create one for them right back to answer them. Givember, for the non-soap-fanatics among us, is our version of 25 Days of Christmas with free tutorials, special coupons, gifts with purchase etc.... Customers LOVE it and crave it and this year, supported us fully by swamping us with orders.

It's been difficult to have a non-sleeping baby because normally, I'd be able to help out more in the evenings but this year, just keeping my own workload in check has been more than enough to keep me maxed for all the waking hours I can devote to work. These are all champagne and caviar problems though; how lucky and blessed are we that we are swamped with orders?

Jamisen has been fighting a little face rash due to excessive drooling (yes, 14 year old Jamisen reading this; we could not keep you from drooling all over yourself as a 2 year old) coupled with the cold outdoors.

This is Jamisen's reaction to Tic Tac Toe. Whoops ... only 2 and I've already broken his spirit.

Lily had her first play date this week, 9 week old Ewan AKA "Perfecto", the son of my former Assistant Kristen. Jamisen is clearly enamored by the little one and treated him so well - very gently and sweetly.

 We continue to grow into our family of four and love our children more and more every single day.