December 19, 2010

Dear Family,

Happy December! What a fun month this is—we've been enjoying it SO much, I can barely keep up! We've had lots of concerts, programs, dinners, and even a FHE to see Christmas lights. The children are now out of school for the next 2 weeks, so hopefully we can cozy up and enjoy the last few days before Christmas now.

walking through the Layton lights

Lucy excited to try her first ice cream cone at Emily's party

 We started off with Emily's birthday celebration.  She finally got to have a party this year, and we had a blast w/ her friends:  making lipgloss (out of KoolAid and Vaseline) and decorating jars, playing the "foil game" to see who could come up w/ the best aluminum foil outfit, painting nails, and having pizza rolls and ice cream cones! That was Friday, for Saturday (her actual birthday), she got to get her ears pierced!! So exciting!!

painting nails

Foil Game: Kaylee, Emily, Paige, Paige, McCartney, Hailey, and Ashton

lipgloss jars (had to use up those babyfood jars somehow!)

brave Emily!--and lucky she got both ears at once!

all done, but "It still hurts!"

Birthday cake time (German chocolate seems to be a favorite around here!) she wanted pesto sauce and bruschetta for dinner

Then came school choir concert:

and First Grade Christmas program (Miss Hellewell is the BEST--every child had a speaking part and they all sang and did actions for many Christmas songs PERFECTLY while she played the piano--I don't know if she's a hypnotist or what, but she's good!)

Spencer takes his singing VERY seriously--as he puts it, "Singing loud is one of my best talents!"

I love this pic, b/c all but the boy in the middle are children in our ward!!--can  you imagine how fun?!Spencer, Kylie, Sara, and Todd

Maddie's Orchestra Concert:

We could even put up w/ a few screeching strings, b/c cute Lucy has learned to join in the applause!

In other accomplishments, our very own BRENT DUNCAN won the entire school Geography Bee!! He won a great Kid's Atlas to help him study for the state competition coming up in a few months!!--I guess all those hours on "Google Earth" are worth something! And Emily finally got to sell her finger puppets at the "Economics Fair"  She did sell out (as did most everyone by day end), and I only wish we'd kept more!!

In other concerts, Brian and I went w/ some friends to a "Simulcast"  of the Annual Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert w/ David Archuletta.  While it wasn't nearly the same as being live, we did get the benefit of the huge screen of the "Legacy Theater" over in the Joseph Smith bldg, and really enjoyed it--AMAZING quality the church pulls together for this! David's singing was great, and guest narrator Michael York told the precious story of the beginnings of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and its first leader (from Wales) John Perry, ending w/ the entire cast/choir singing "Angels from the Realms of Glory" with such breadth and depth and thrilling power of Christ's coming and Second Coming and Reign--it was stunning!, and a warm celebration of Christmas.

Now, as to our hurdles this month, Anne's skin is still as afflicted as ever, but I AM learning a little bit,

1-to completely appreciate in a whole new way, how healthy everyone else is--esp. delicious little Lucy!!

 2-I'm learning (by force) to be better at cutting out non-essentials--some I don't mind letting go of so much, and others I find I'm quite fond of. I like leaving everything finished, and I enjoy making things as cute as I can, but there are other things that matter more than getting Anne's hair done every day, or having every dish for dinner I wanted to make, or even getting all of the laundry folded in one day

Anne's favorite snack: oatmeal

a day w/o brushing (and there are many!)

3-I'm also learning to appreciate the happy moments, instead of just waiting for this trial to be over.  Anne can be SO happy--her music melts us all as she picks up songs so quickly, and loves them! She recently caught on to Spencer singing the new Primary song, "I Know that My Savior Loves Me" and asked me to sing it to her.  She happily said afterward, "That MY song Mom!" I was so happy the other day, while rubbing cream on her feet, to be able to the the Toe Rhyme of "Old Tom Bubble" w/ her.  I had thought a few months ago how much she'd love that one, and how unfair it is that her toes hurt too much to touch, but we DID get to do it, and she did love it.  Here she is dancing around to her own solo of "Ring Around the Rosies"

 

 Then, to keep me from worrying too much about Anne, I had to cut Lucy's "Toe Tourniquet" the other day (a somewhat common occurrence, where a strand of loose hair gets tangled around a baby's toe).  I noticed it in Wal-Mart, and thought I could just break it right off, but after 3 minutes of SCREAMING and her toe getting more and more swollen around the disappearing strand, I figured I could deal w/ it more easily at home or in the car--which I did, thanks to a new nailtrimming kit Anne found in the glovebox for me, and a lot of Purel to keep it clean.  It was HORRENDOUS cutting into my baby's flesh, esp. since the indentation didn't go right away!!--her circulation getting better was the clue, but it was SO wretched!! I just knew my only other option was having someone else do the same thing in the ER, and did my best! She was a GREAT sport, and recovered quickly.  She's also NOW crawling (up on her knees) AND cut her first tooth! Here's her toe the next day-yuck!

And as if I hadn't witnessed enough suffering for one month, I backed over our poor Cosmo kitty last week!!! My poor heart can only be wrenched so much!!! She did survive, but can you imagine the agony of watching her cry in pain and drag her back leg around.  I was such a wreck, not sure of what to do, but finally took her to the vet, had her x-rayed, and found she had a cracked pelvis on one side, and a broken femur (right at the hip joint) on the other, not to mention who knew what internal damage?! The Dr. was VERY good and kind and reasonable though (said to be grateful it wasn't a child!), and sent us home w/ pain med's and some time to make up our minds.  We couldn't justify surgery for $1000s, but the Dr. did say cats can be amazing w/ healing bones (even talked about the story at Haun's Mill of the boy whose hip got shot out :)), so we decided to wait and see for a bit how she'd do.  The Dr. was impressed the next day when I called and told  him she was eating and using her litter box all right, but soon after that, she got SO listless and had such shallow breathing, I was sure she wouldn't make it through the night.  She did though, and living on her bed in our kitchen, she's gotten better and better already! By Thursday night, she was purring and purring while I held her, and today she was even bold enough to move around the kitchen a bit.  I'm beginning to understand where the "9 Lives" idea comes from! From drowning to impoundment, to being run over!! If this cat makes it to her first year, it'll be amazing!! Poor dear--I still have nightmares w/ her in them every night! (the children were sad of course, and Brian's called often to check on her, but no one's cried like I have!--oh these pets!!!)

finished curtains!

Never a dull moment! Somehow, I finally managed to finish the family room curtains, AND complete the arduous task of all the paint touchup before Nate and Stacey's family joined us for a little Christmas dinner.  I even got the Christmas cards ordered, and most of our shopping (and wrapping!) is done.  We've enjoyed doing "The 12 Days of Christmas" w/ some neighbors, had a good ward breakfast, a nice work dinner, and lots of fun getting packages and Christmas greetings.  Brian and I got to sing in our Ward Choir today for the Christmas program, and then hear from our Stake President, who urged us to simplify things so that we can enjoy the sweet Spirit this time of year.  I DO love Christmas time, and while I used to think it was a little corny (and impossible) to always say, "We should keep the Spirit of Christmas all year long"--I know enough now of the relief and the sweetness and the gentle surrounding of the Lord's love to realize this great "Christmas Spirit" really is that same pure love of Christ that we can receive personally, any time of year, but which is in SUCH great abundance as we all focus more on Him.  We are SO blessed! Merry Christmas!
Love, The Duncan's

Anne sitting w/ Santa--I don't know if it was the free candy cane or what, but she begged to go see the Santa at the mall too!

Emily after her ears pierced--an Asian Santa w/ visible scotch tape holding up his beard!

Nov 28, 2010

Dear Family, Happy Thanksgiving!! I almost feel like the writing has gone out of me!--maybe my brain has just hit overload. We've had fun around here--I painted!!! (a hard decision, as I had REALLY wanted a change (though the old paint was fine), but I didn't want to neglect my little treasures).

new front room and rug!

It felt amazingly good to be creative for a bit, but Anne's health has been gradually declining again since this summer when she did so well, and it hit rock bottom about the time I realized the front room I had just painted needed a whole new color. It came together, AND I was able to piece together odds and ends for the top of my kitchen cabinets. I have left them empty all along, SO intimidated by having to fill that space between them and the ceiling, but the lighter color seemed to DOUBLE the emptiness there, and a few things I had ended up looking better with the new background, so I finally conquered it! We also celebrated w/ a new rug in the front room we've had our eyes on since we got here (it helps to muffle our piano playing a bit too)! 

finally filled kitchen cabinet tops--such a silly worry!

 

We had a great visit up to Idaho for Thanksgiving!  It was FREEZING and icy and snowy, but SO warm and fun to be w/ so much family.  ALL the Duncan family was there (at one point or another) and we even got some nice family shots taken. We had a nice visit w/ G&G Stewart, and Aunt Kenda who was there, on Friday, and enjoyed lots of good cousin and family time.

Anne, Lucy, Makaela, Spencer

Brent, Tyler, Masina, and Maddie playing games at Stewart's

Duncan grandchildren w/ Great G&G Stewart:  Makaela, Emily, Maken, Maddie, Lucy, Anne, Spencer, (row2)Brent, Masina, Tyler

Grandma Stewart w/ her boys

 We also went to a little Fun Center to celebrate cousin Aiden's birthday.  The dads and older kids had fun w/ laser tag and a rock climbing wall, while the younger ones stayed busy with a fun ball playground

Anne in the balls

Brent on climbing wall

Maddie on top of "hard" course

Emily and Anne on slide

Spencer on monkey rings

Spencer teaching EVERYone to play "Magician Ratslap" (he held those cards all weekend!)

Poor Anne was fairly miserable, which made traveling a bit more hectic.  Brian and his Dad were able to give her a nice blessing Thursday morning, and she survived, but Oh, how I hate seeing her suffer! We have restarted her elimination diet since that is the last time she was doing well. After talking to Robert (and many other helpful people), it seems fairly certain that her eczema is from food allergies of some kind, made tricky by the fact that the tests are not always accurate in children. There are just a few basic allergies that are the most common (milk, eggs, soy, wheat, nuts, seafood), so we are taking her off of all of that for a while again to see if it will help. The hardest part is that nothing is instantaneous for her, so it's hard to see what is causing problems, AND hard to see improvement sometimes. I worry constantly that I'm wasting all this time and energy with all the wrong ideas!, but I have had COUNTLESS advice and input, and I DO feel like the Spirit has nudged me in the right directions w/ bits of right information, so I can only keep pursuing it for now. When things don't improve, I just feel THAT much worse about my decision making, but my only consolation is thinking, "What WOULD anyone else do? Who could I turn her over to, to do a better job??" Meanwhile, I'm getting better at learning to manage stress, w/ my poor family as the guinea pigs! I am so impatient when under stress, so this is good practice to get over that!

She is still a sweetie in between her long bouts of crying and scratching. She has recently taken to even MORE girly things-ballet dancing and daily lipstick wearing to name a few. She found our old ballet video, ballet shoes, and a tutu in the dressup tub (I finally fit a dressup tub into the toy closet after Halloween!), and has to wear them w/ her princess crown nearly every day, and her singing repertoire still grows w/ "Jingle Bells" and "I am A Child of God." We'll make it through, but I am not a huge fan of these line upon line blessings!!

In other news, Emily's busy planning her birthday party for later this week, I have new curtains to make for the new paint, we've all had a taste of colds, we finally replaced our bed for the first time since we were married w/ a “Memory Foam” style that we are so far happy with. Brian and I are nearly DONE w/ our Christmas shopping!!!!!, we went to Brent's “Priesthood Preveiw” (is it possible?!), and Lucy is scooting ALL over the place! Doesn't home seem so much cozier and delicious as these cold days and storms move in? It almost makes the snow worth all the trouble! We're putting up Christmas decorations today w/ music in the background, so it really does feel like everything will work out! Love, the Duncan's

November 7, 2010
Happy Halloweening time! Here are the kiddos right before trunk or treat AND trick or treating.  Anne would barely wear a costume for more than 5 minutes, and she went through almost a dozen, but Maddie appealed to 2yr-old vanity to get her to stay in this Cinderella dress long enough to get some candy.  Brent was Frankenstein (I even broke down and let him wear the fake blood he was "dying to wear," once I realized it was his last trick-or-treating year.  He went with 2 great boys in the ward dressed as the KISS singers--he told me later they had asked him to dress up like them, but he was SURE I wouldn't let him--I told him I would've, but I'm not so sure he believed me :).  Emily was Hermione Granger from Harry Potter (her FAVORITE costume she's ever had!!!-thanks to a brilliant find of a $2 tie at DI, my bathrobe and gray sweater, and a brother's shirt--she even spoke w/ a British accent the whole time she was wearing this!), Spencer was a ninja (just like last year--but since he's a ninja in "real life" it's a shoe-in), and Maddie did great handing out candy, and enjoying her own collection trick-or-treat free.

 Here are the elementary children (plus Anne) before school the day of the school parade and parties--I made wonderful bolts for Brent's neck, if you look closely out of rolled up duct tape, but he quickly "lost" them after the parade--can you see we even sprayed his hair black?--that is a big step for fuddydud Mom!

Lucy has this new negative response she gives us when she's frustrated that CRACKS us up.  It's so hard to get a picture of her doing it though, since she's happy if we're giving her attention.  This is almost of shot of her doing it though:  she scrunches her nose up and sniffs really loud through her nose--if we start to leave her, or if she's been in her crib too long, or tonight when Anne started to reach for a sweet potato on her high chair--it is hilariously cute!

Otherwise, we're pretty fine.  We started Anne on Zyrtec to see if it would help her itching, etc., so we'll keep our fingers crossed.  We also had a good family fast for her today--as better as she is in many ways, her skin is still giving us trouble.  The girls and I were able to enjoy a Young Ambassadors concert last night at our very own high school, Brian and I found a yummy little Peruvian restaurant here in town, and Brian's been eating up all of the election coverage all week like it's his personal Superbowl or something.  Happy Fall! Love, The Duncan's