Have a Holly Jolly Christmas

It's the best time of the year! And we spend it with the best people. One of our favorites is the Hartman's Ugly Sweater Party. We are never the ugliest or the sweater-iest but this year we brought Snoop Dog's from Crook to Cook book and Crap Taxidermy so we may have won best gifts. That is - until someone unwrapped the Peoples of Walmart coloring book and that was that. 

We ended up with a target gift card and a toilet fishing game that Clark loved for two whole days and I'm sure someone else will love next year when I regift it:)

Ah, the Santa photo. You never know with our kiddos. Last year Charlotte screamed and Clark grinned. This year, with everyone under the weather, we had meltdowns outside the door so Mom and Dad jumped into the photo and it turned into a rather subdued affair.

School programs. Yes, we have entered a new and exciting stage of life where we brave a blizzard to arrive 30 minutes early to stand in a sweltering gymnasium all so we can watch our kid not sing or look at us for the entire performance. Oh, Mr. Clark. We love you so. He did sneak some sideways glances at us and did mouth some words and the reindeer hat was pretty darn adorable so wins all around!

Sunday Christmas I attempted my traditional photo shoot and it went about as good as could be expected with a wiggly toddler and a 5 year old being bribed with candy. But please just note I finally dressed Charlotte in the outfit Ben and Robyn bought for her years ago. It's too pretty to put on a baby that's for sure but my baby pulls it off!

Clark and Dana did a puzzle while Charlotte napped. And Mom didn't even put in the last piece.

And that afternoon, they all napped. Dana loved it. We watched the Toys Stories backwards (3...2...1) which made sense to some of us but sort of confused Clark.

Christmas Eve we got out of the house and jumped around. Let the record show: Dana fell off this tightrope exactly .2 seconds after this photo.

That night, we tried to put Clark's track together only to discover it required SIX D batteries! Oh the horror. We had 5 D batteries so we borrowed some from Britteny, only to discover the 5 we had were old and wouldn't hold a charge. So alas, no cool track jumping but Clark didn't seem to mind when he discovered the monstrosity in the toy room Christmas morning.

Charlotte made out well with an Elsa blanket, animal puzzle, marble run (g. Tina), llama (g. Tina), and a bunch of books including an untearable copy of Room on the Broom from Santa.

Not to be outdone, Clark got a Mack truck, giant track (g. Tina), mouthwash (thanks Santa), activity books, and a poster of Number 15 Patrick Mahomes (Santa!)

We spent the day playing, eating delicious ham, and watching basketball.  We even squeezed in Elf which Clark thought was hilarious.

Thursday we did a quick Gailan Christmas in Pasco. Lots of noise and delicious food and fun with these crazy Gailan cousins. BTW - Clark and Stella are maybe the funniest.

A very Merry Christmas to us all!

Christmas Spirit (or is that Phlegm?) in the house

Just a funny memory I want to keep alive. Clark and Charlotte have always been fans of YouTube music videos, mostly Trolls and Lion King. Lately, however, they have discovered Christmas music and it has changed everything. They sing. Loudly. And pretty on key. The use their seats for drums and do funny dances and request their favorites. It's pretty amusing and proves to me that someday...SOMEDAY Mom will get her family singing group together. Now we just have to teach Dana an instrument:) 

In other news, we are sick. And by "we", I literally mean all of Moxee. Seriously, we had 160 kids out of the school last week. It's strep and influenza B and something that gives hives. Lovely. I got a small dose in the middle of the month and then Clark spiked a fever at school and got booted from school. He rebounded quickly but poor miss Char Char spent a Friday night hacking and sobbing and refusing to be more than 2 inches away from my face. After several doses of medicine, Dana ended up on the couch, while Charlotte ended up sleeping in the crook of my neck for a few hours.

To distract her, we watched a lot of Frozen and let her play with Clark's cars. Shhh. Don't tell him.

Here's hoping this sickness will run it's course soon and that no other Gailans become victims!

Kiddo Update

Our little bits are growing like weeds so time for a quick life update:

Clark (5.5) took school pictures and seriously (depressingly?) looks like a man now. He's so grown up!! School is this kid's favorite. All weekend he will ask me if he gets to go back to school the next day. His favorite subject is, you guessed it, PE. Thats pretty much the only class he will talk about other than who he sat by at lunch or who he chased at the playground. He is currently studying kickball in gym which is one of those life skills I always hoped he'd pick up:) He is truly a rough and tumble boy and has already put holes in ALL of his school pants and his church pants (WHAT?!!).  One funny thing he's obsessed with lately is having Christmas YouTube videos up (like Transiberion Orchestra's Canon in D) and he will mimic the singers and pick the one he wants to be and sign softly under his breath. I keep trying to catch it on camera but he stops when he sees me. Oh my shy guy. He's started taking more responsibility at home with nightly vacumming chores and cleaning his own bedroom. We love our Clark the Shark. 

Charlotte (2.5) is all things girl with the little fist of fury thrown in for good measure. She truly runs the house. Her hair refuses to be tamed and she loves her pink boots. She too has picked up some chores like putting away her books and placing the scriptures back on their perch each night. She just completed the 11 week speech therapy program at Children's Village and WOW has it changed her speaking. Chatty is for sure a word you could use to describe her:) We finally got her to be excited about nursery (HALLELUJAH!) and pretty much all she wants to do is be outside picking up leaves and dirty snow. Oh and lately she has become obsessed with "dada". I predict they will be forever friends.

2019 Christmas Card

Another year – and what a wild one it was! We added a deck and shed onto the house, hosted a 4^th of July Kitchen family reunion, said bon voyage to the Colorado Washburns and now find ourselves sprinting to the end of this amazing year.

Dana was basically superman in 2019: crushing his responsibilities at work and church and still somehow finding time to become a super runner. After finishing his first half marathon up on Rocky Top, he signed up for a 50k next April so he may or may not be alive for the 2020 newsletter. The minimal free time he has left each day is quickly filled up as the kids designated horsey/mountain/man servant.

Kelli’s life got extra busy in February when she was asked to serve as President of the women’s organization at church. It’s exhausting but has allowed her to work with some amazing women. She’s loving book club, re-reading the Harry Potter series, and amazing adventures with friends. She also rode her first Segway at a sister’s trip in Portland. Everyone should try it!  

Clark (5) started Kindergarten this fall and loves being a big ‘ol grownup, even if his backpack is 2/3^rds his size. He’s already reading beginner books and his favorite subject is PE because he gets to throw and kick balls and jump in the bounce house. He has turned into such a little man this last year and loves making little sis laugh.

Charlotte (2) basically rules our lives. After a few months of speech therapy she is now talking non stop and we understand about 30% of it. She is verrrrry dramatic and throws some pretty cute tantrums. But she is also the smiliest, silliest, most beautiful little thing to ever waltz into our lives.  

Thankful? You bet we are!

Ahhh, Thanksgiving. One of those weird holidays where you don't really have specific plans and end up with 4 full pies in the fridge. Still...we love can't help but love it. This year took a weird turn, starting with my favorite son becoming fascinated with the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. As the only one in the family to ever be deeply in love with this tradition, I was only a little ecstatic and dubbed him my favorite kid of the day. He's pretending to be Olaf if you couldn't tell.

The rest of Thankgiving day can be summed up in one word: meh. We didn't have any family coming until Saturday because of work schedules so we hung out and then tried to do a fancy restaurant dinner only to discover at 4PM that everything closes in Yakima; yes, even the Dominos pizza was closed. So dinner was a cobbled together pasta, chicken nuggets and quesadillas. In other words: normal dinner. A bit depressing to be sure but we livened it up with Christmas music and some pumpkin pie.

Friday I have no pictures cause you can't take picture of swimming fun. We tried out the new Rec center and found out that 1) it rocks and 2) our toddler is braver than our Kindergartner when it comes to waterslides.

Saturday was the real Thanksgiving with all the Gailans and it rocked.

Cousin time!

Oh yes, we literally had a "kids table" that almost every kid sat at. 

We truly have so much to be Thankful for this year, including awesome family so close by.

Little House, Little House of Gailans

It's officially freezing cold and cloudy! Which means we are nearing cabin fever levels over here in Gailanville. To beat those blues away we are:

Riding lots of Dad ponies and reading lots of books

Setting up that flashy Christmas tree crazy early (Nov 16th ya'll). PS Charlotte says "Woooww" each day when we turn it on and it melts my heart.

So far the fights over who gets to press the Angel on top of the nativity is really the main source of contention in our house. Let's just say the nativity gets a time out most days:)

We went mall walking one Saturday before the crowds showed up and Charlotte got to ride the roller. She was not impressed.

We broke out the winter gear! While Aunt Kristina and Grandma and Grandpa Kitchen were having feet and feet of snow, we got a lovely half in dusting so naturally Clark wanted to try out his new HUGE snowboots at school. Also, don't you just love his face:) Charlotte meanwhile inherited the cutest hat and gloves from Rachel Reiersen and is now the hit of school pickup.

Sometimes we sit in the boxes that bring our Christmas presents. How is it that every year we make a vow to simplify the presents and yet every year 27 or so boxes make their way to my house in one weekend? Ah well..next year for sure.

Aaaannd sleep. Man the gray weather is really taking it out of us. Mom was sick all last week and Dad's marathon+ training is really making laying on the couch a dangerous game. One morning even Charlotte was feeling the dozies so she slept with Dad for a good 10 minutes. Probably the happiest of his life:)

Oh and just randomly Mom's life is full of RS and workouts and grocery shopping and not a whole lot else. Three days a week I schlep Char to the church to do ludicrous workouts like these with a group of hilarious ladies and two crazy Katies/Katys.

And the rest of the time I am deep into RS. This is the RS service auction just so I can remember some of my favorite ladies.