Merry Christmas!

Dear friends and family, while we love sending Christmas cards, we didn't get around to it this year. We took the picture and wrote the letter, but the labeling, stuffing, and stamping didn't happen. Still, it's a fabulous picture, and a riveting Christmas letter, so we are sure you won't mind the change in format (and it will save you a trip to the trash can.)

We have not taken a breath since last Christmas. If I stop to breathe now you’ll never get this Christmas letter, so I’ll just keep going. We have had another eventful year with an accomplishment almost huge enough to compare with bringing two children into the world, but not quite. We bought a house in July. We’ve been talking about doing it since we moved to California 7 years ago and the timing, although questionable to many outsiders, was finally right for our family. The economy might prove us absolute fools, but so far we are secure in our decision and it is an exciting and overwhelming feeling to be homeowners, finally.



At the end of May a good friend told me a house on her street was for sale. I drove by and the agent happened to be inside, so I looked around. Mark looked at it the next day. I called my parents and they came to see it the day after that – my dad gave his stamp of approval and pronounced all its defects to be purely cosmetic. By then we were pre-approved and had a realtor. After a month of confusing negotiations and secret hopes that the whole deal would collapse and we would be spared the reality of a major mortgage, our offer was accepted, our contingencies met, and the house was ours.

We spent every weekend in July fixing up and when we moved in it was almost habitable, but not quite. After two weeks we had doors, a fridge, oven and microwave, and a clear path (outlined by boxes) from room to room. We are so grateful to our parents – Mark’s and mine – for all the ways they helped us get into our house. We also owe a lot of favors to the generous friends in our ward at church who helped us paint and move.



The house is much more habitable now, although still in need of towel racks, several key light fixtures, and a lawn in the backyard, and we recently hosted my parents and brother Adam, with his wife, Joli, for Thanksgiving. It was a fantastic holiday with beloved family members and weather so warm we were able to eat our turkey and trimmings on the patio.



As for the rest of the year we spent January and February nursing colds - somebody was always sick. The kids were regular booger fountains, and I had a sinus infection that took three rounds of antibiotics to cure. Mark got so sick he actually missed work. He slept for three days and took another week to get back to normal.

In March we celebrated Miss Claire’s first birthday with a family party at one of our favorite Italian restaurants. She thoroughly enjoyed the attention and smashed her cake to bits. Audrey commandeered all Claire’s presents. Spring and summer were utterly consumed by our new house (new to us!). Early fall saw us settling in, attempting to spend weekends doing enjoyable things as a family.



We have been to Disneyland and the beach quite a bit. I took the girls to Hemet for a long visit and hours of swimming at Audrey’s favorite place to stay – the Hampton Inn.



In October we went “camping” at a county park in San Diego that offers heated cabins. We cooked outside and trekked to the bathroom so that counts as camping for me.



Mark was quite the pyromaniac and master campfire chef (bacon, eggs, onions, hash browns, wow) and the kids had an outstanding time despite their matted hair, sticky faces and filthy clothes.



As for the individual members of our family, Audrey is in preschool. Her December birthday means she doesn’t start Kindergarten until next year.



I am happy to have this extra time with her and am trying to make the most of it taking her to dance classes, teaching her to write her letters, and forcing her to entertain her sister. Audrey is very loving, has a talent for pouting, and is always full of energy, but often uncoordinated (not the safest combination).



Claire is still a wild card.



She seems to have a strong will, but moderate requirements for happiness. She is learning to talk, loves the word ‘NO’ and says many words in Spanish thanks to our El Salvadorian baby sitter, Noemi.



Audrey and her toys and activities are very interesting to Claire. I am frequently called upon to negotiate peace when they want the same toy at the same time. Claire screams bloody murder and that, understandably, scares the stuffing out of Audrey, who starts to cry even if she has the prior claim. They usually get along well and my heart just about bursts when I hear them laughing together at some antic they have put together all by themselves – like sweeping each other’s hair with the broom or putting Claire in the laundry basket and pushing her down the two steps to the living room.

Mark works very hard for Samsung and spends all his spare time keeping three females happy. He’s also a young men’s advisor at church.



I tripled my freelance clientele this year and find I am always occupied feeding the kids, doing laundry, running errands and squeezing in time to work whenever possible.



There was a tiny earthquake as I sat trying to write this letter. The house is still standing. We are still standing. Even though I like the metaphor, I have to say we are doing more than just standing. We are running at full speed. We have so much to do and so much to enjoy. Our kids are growing and changing every day.



Sometimes it feels like our responsibilities are unmanageable. But I know at the end of our lives we will bless these years of intensity and thank God we were allowed to experience the joy and aggravation of being parents and the privilege of having formed our own family. We might stop to breathe sometime next year.

Love, Mark, Melissa, Audrey, Claire
Christmas 2008

our new address: 4706 Laurette St. Torrance CA 90503 / our website: www.beansandtaters.blogspot.com

Audrey is 5!

Our baby is 5 and we can't believe it! Audrey had a weeklong birthday celebration with cupcakes at school on Tuesday, Grandma on Wednesday, Disneyland on Thursday, Nanie and Papa on Friday, and a small birthday party on Saturday. Her actual birthday was Thursday. She opened one gift (a new sweatshirt and Cinderella toothpaste) and named her breakfast: Spaghetti. Then we were off to the Big D where we hit Small World, the Tea Cups, Jungle Cruise, cotton candy stand, Autopia, Starship Pizza, etc, etc. We had so much fun Claire actually threw up, and Audrey, in the bathroom on our way out, said: "Mom, I'm just......... so......... tired." It was a great day at the Magic Kingdom. Audrey opened the rest of her gifts sometime Friday (here she is very generously allowing Claire to tear into one of them).



We are so proud of Audrey. She is a smart, funny, energetic, and loving child. It is her lot in life to be the first - the one who benefits from and bears the brunt of our mistakes as we learn to be parents. Every new stage for her is a new stage for us. One of her first words was "cooperate." I fed her baby food until she was 2 - oops - she still doesn't like crunchy food. And while I was pregnant with Claire she lived on cheese sticks and juice boxes. These last 5 years have not gone by fast. We spent her first 6 weeks visiting her in the hospital waiting for her to get big enough and strong enough to come home. She actually spent her first Christmas in the NICU. Her first year was a long adjustment as we became accustomed to the sacrifices and delights of parenthood. Since then she's been a wonderful and challenging part of our daily efforts to make a living, fulfill our resposibilities to each other and the world around us, and provide her with a younger sister, who we hope will enrich her life in many beautiful ways. Despite our blunders, she's developing normally, has good manners, does well in preschool, and seems to love us. We love her more than we can say.

Our new address

We want those Christmas cards! Here's our new address:
4706 Laurette St. Torrance CA 90503
same phone, same email

It was a happy Halloween!

We had a great Halloween - it was so much fun to have two kids to dress up and a house to fill with candy and friends and pumpkins and grandparents. Audrey had a pinata at school, we made pumpkin chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies to decorate, we carved pumpkins and ate hot dogs with the Guillens and the Goldsteins, we went trick or treating and gorged ourselves on chocolate - it was a blast. This year Audrey was a butterfly, Claire was a dragon, mommy dressed up in '80s attire (complete with bushy eyebrows and more hairspray than I've ever worn in my life not even excepting my wedding day) and daddy came as himself.

Claire's latest adventures

Our baby has been saying "mama" since she was 9 months old and for a long time it was the word she used to convey any and all of her needs. Then came Dah-deee, buy (bike), uh (up), sue (shoe), bay-bay (baby) and the usual uh-oh, yee-haw, and ohhhhh.

Her latest words include: no, duh (done), dow (dowm), pi-teee (pretty), din (again), moe (more), moo (move - directed exclusively at Audrey, the person who taught her that word!), hhhiiiii, and by-eeeee (two words she says loudly to no one in particular whenever she finds herself in the doorway) and tonight Mark says she said meh (amen) after their bedtime prayer.

Claire has always been very expressive, so it's easy to guess what she wants. She also knows the sign language for sleep, bath and poopy diaper and will reliably agree with you whenever one of those signs corresponds with her particular need or desire.

And she knows the sign for "I want yogurt!" I'll describe: she stands in the door of the refrigerator and will not budge until she has found a container of yogurt and then she points to her high chair with her free hand. Then she pulls at the lid determinedly until we open it for her. If you try to feed it to her she cries huge bitter tears because smearing it all over her face, clothes and tray are part of the attraction, never mind the sweet creamy taste and fun of eating what big sister eats.

She wanted yogurt tonight, but we put her to bed instead, where she protested our neglect by throwing all her blankets and her stuffed dog on the floor and yelping for 40 minutes after which we decided she might really be hungry after all and - just this once - got her out of bed and gave her the yogurt. I know, we probably aren't sending the right message, but this is our second child and our need to assert our authority has been somewhat blunted by her older sister. Still, I fed it to her and she was extremely angry about that - but I already changed her clothes three times today and I was not going to do it again.

That said, she really is a sweet, sweet baby, very loving and happy, laughs a lot. Gives slobbery kisses. She still puts everything she finds in her mouth - that means spare change, yesterday's toast crust, seaweed, and the strange seedpods on the neighbor's shrubs, so we have to watch her and the floor closely. The good news is she will eat anything - that means radishes, pickles, beef stew, teriyaki chicken, Brie and she once stole a small tomato from a vendor at the farmer's market (just reached up from the stroller and grabbed) and ate it in its entirety (I tried to pay, but he thought it was so funny he gave us three more). She's only met one fruit she didn't absolutely love - papaya. Today she discovered the joy of being dragged across our wood floors (din?). She appreciates a good belch - from anyone - and likes the TV. She desperately wants to use Audrey's markers. Claire knows where her shoes are and when she is not trying on my shoes, abandoning them all over the house, she is picking out her own and actually putting them on herself.



She also has a thing for wearing Audrey's underwear on top of her clothes. Sometimes two pairs. Since she was very tiny she has shown her happiness by growling - weird, I know - and not just growling like a small dog - we're talking prehistoric saber-tooth tiger growl. So Claire is going to be a dragon for Halloween.

Claire had her 18-month well-check last week and is in the 97th percentile for height, weight and head circumference - not bad at all for a preemie. She had two shots - took them with a pout and a tear - and the nurse said Claire was the bravest 18 month old she'd had for as long as she could remember. I'd like to credit myself and my excellent parenting, but it was probably the lollipop.

Lastly, the day before her doctor's appointment Claire fell face first into the gigantic rosebush that came with the house. She screamed and cried, I cried and cried, Audrey asked what was the matter and I sent her to her room. It was highly traumatic. Our wonderful pediatrician asked what kind of vicious cat had been attacking our family. When I told her the story she said Claire needed a T-shirt that said "I fought the rosebush and the rosebush won." My answer to that was, no the rosebush LOST, because MOMMY cut that rosebush to a stump and then dug it out of the ground! Don't mess with mommy! Claire looks to be healing well and my fears of permanent disfigurement are subsiding, but I'm still glad I demolished that rosebush, it was very cathartic.

I just can't get enough of Claire - she is truly adored and adorable. I am sure she is going to offer us a lot of fun, love and opportunities for growth (meaning challenges). I look forward to it. MBS

P.S. This is what Claire will do if you aren't looking.

Quote of the day

Audrey attends Good Shephered Lutheran preschool where she does crafts, gets dirty, has a snack and attends chapel every week. She learns lots of songs and stories about Jesus and they have inspired her to include Jesus in her make-believe play. We came home after school today and while I was making lunch I heard shrieking and grunting coming from Audrey's room. The commotion escalated to a fit of screaming and tears and I finally intervened:
"Audrey! What is the problem?"
Her aggravated reply:
"I'M LOOKING FOR JESUS!"


Editor's note: For those who wonder how I replied, I could only mutter, under my breath, "Aren't we all, Audrey? Aren't we all?" Then I laughed hysterically. Then I told her to quit the screaming or she was going to get a time out. MBS

Ready for church

It's never easy to get to church. We want to sleep in, the kids want to play, and we just don't get dressed fast enough. But here they are on a day we actually made it. Cute cute. (note: Everything Claire is wearing - except her diaper - was once Audrey's)

More conversations...

Audrey: (from the backseat of the car) OOOOUUUUUCH!!!
Melissa: Claire! Let go of Audrey's hair!
Audrey: It's OK, it didn't hurt that much, only a little. Why does she have to pull my hair?
Melissa: I don't know. You used to pull my hair when you were a baby. One time you pulled it out of my head.
Audrey: Did you look bald?
Melissa: No, Audrey, you didn't pull out ALL of my hair, just a little.
Audrey: Oh.

Conversations with a 4 year old

Audrey: Mom, what color is your tummy inside?
Mom: Pink
Audrey: What's inside the pink?
Mom: More pink.
Audrey: What's in YOUR tummy?
Mom: Food.
Audrey: What else?
Mom: Uh, muscles and cells.
Audrey: What are those?
Mom: Oh, the muscles are made of muscle cells and the cells are made up of mitochondria and ribosomes... blah, blah, high school human physiology class memories...
Audrey: I wish I could be inside your tummy again so I could see what it's like.
Mom: !!! Oh, really? You're too big to fit in my tummy.
Audrey: Well, I could fold up my knees.
Mom: No, you're too big. That would hurt mommy.
Audrey: I wouldn't do anything, I'd just look...
Mom: Oh, OK then (with irony). How would you get in there?
Audrey: I don't know, maybe I could crawl in your mouth.
Mom: (Once again) I think that would hurt mommy!
Audrey: Why?

Oh, Dora, I know just how you feel...

After a long day I put my girls to bed and entered the kitchen to survey the damage. There under the high chair I found Dora, face down, her explorations momentarily abandoned, looking as pathetic, exhausted and bedraggled as I felt. Probably the first time I've ever felt any kind of kinship with Dora. It was a very amusing moment. MBS

Claire's sense of style

Beach day

Audrey's haircut

We've moved in

We're in our new house and just spent the last 10 days with no stove, refrigerator, phone, cable or internet. Anyone have a straitjacket? Because I am losing it. I have pioneer blood on one side and Mexican outlaw on the other so you'd think my survival skills would be better, but I am not much for roughing it.

Anyway, when we get done working on the house, which most people say is something that will never happen, (thanks for the encouragement), (we all know how patient and long-suffering I am), we'll be pretty pleased with ourselves. For now we are just pleased to have TV again. Wish us luck! MBS

Poop happens

Some of you know me better than others and if you knew me way back when, you know I used to have quite a potty mouth. The swearing peaked in middle school, tapered off in junior high and high school (I didn’t want to be THAT girl) and stopped almost completely at BYU (swearing not being the thing to do in Provo, obviously). Now that I am a mother I do my absolute best never to swear in front of my children, because nobody wants to hear a four year old saying “Oh, crap!” But I still occasionally swear when under severe distress.

So here I am bathing my two daughters, sweet things, and my little Claire gets a funny look on her face and lifts up one tiny bottom cheek. I think: “She’s not going to poop in the bathtub. She’s NOT going to poop in the bathtub! Oh, my gosh! She’s going to poop in the bathtub! Oh, bleep!”

And it was just like one of my favorite jokes from elementary school: three guys meet a genie and she promises change them into whatever they wish if they will only jump off a cliff and shout their wish out loud. The first guy runs off the cliff and yells “eagle” and flies away. The second guy jumps off the cliff and shouts "hawk" and flies away. The third guy, an individual of low intelligence, obviously, runs toward the cliff and trips at the edge. He yells, “Oh, bleep!” and plops to the ground in a smelly heap.

Just as I say “Bleep!” out loud two little poops float up behind Claire and head straight toward Audrey who exits the bathtub with superhuman speed (the instinct to avoid touching poop runs deep, and my screaming might have been some motivation).

I was briefly paralyzed by my revulsion. Audrey was safe on the bathmat, but Claire was watching the poops bob along and reached out to grab one. She stopped – my screaming might have been some motivation – and I grabbed her and threw both girls into the shower to wash them off. And then I did something that will probably haunt me for the rest of my life. I guess you aren’t really a supermom until you are fishing poop out of the bathtub with your bare hands. And then what do you do after your baby poops in the bath and you have to clean it up with YOUR BARE HANDS? Burn down the house, seal off the bathroom forever, chop off your hand? (Obviously not a good idea, no hand to spare, but I’m typing this so, relax, I didn’t do it).

Of all the magical abilities out there, making poop appear just by saying it out loud is not the one I would choose. But I will never forget Audrey’s lightning-fast reaction (my toys! my toys!) or Claire’s strategic cheek lift. And I have always loved that joke. I’d like to sum up this story by vowing I'll never to say that word again, but that would be a lie.

Claire's walking

Not the best video, but you can see she's really doing it.

We bought a house!

We still aren't sure how it happened and I may never know what "escrow" actually means, but we finally did it and we are pretty excited. Obviously, it needs some work (ex: ugly bush in front), but it has a lot of good points: 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, two family rooms, new wiring and plumbing, a relatively new roof, backyard with a lemon tree, and a great location in Torrance (CA) only 3 miles from where we live now. We get the keys June 26. Anyone want to help us move?

Happy Mother's Day!

With love from, Audrey and Claire (who can't be convinced to pose for a picture together)

Mark does Italy

Mark just got back from a week in Italy - two days flying, three days in Milan for work, and two days to see the sites of Rome. We exchanged many cryptic text messages about his cheap lodgings and my long nights with teething Claire. In the end, we all had a great time. He spent hours and hours in museums I would have considered torturous, walked 800 miles, saw the Vatican, the Coliseum and the Trevi fountains, had some terrible manicotti, and shared a bathroom at his "hotel." My parents came to stay which means that, more or less, I had a live-in cook, chaffeur, and 24-hour babysitting for 4 whole days. We hope to see Italy as a family some day in the future - minus the budget hotel and bad pasta. He took a picture of his murky manicotti, but I decided to post the coliseum instead - much more beautiful.

Another great quote from Audrey

On our way to do a little browsing at a local resale shop:
"What do you buy at a sucking-hand store?

Mommy at 6 pm

Here's what I look like at the end of a long day in mommyland. Notice the scraggly hair and dazed expression. What you can't see is the jumble of toys, crackers, cheerios, books, and rejected clothing that's piled knee-high all around me. I hear these are the best times of my life - but that's only from people whose children are all grown and wiping their own bottoms, as well is living on their own and holding down jobs, etc. But, yes, it's true, these are good times, despite my being in charge of the bowel movements of two people other than myself. No, really, these are the good times, but being a mom is hard! I love my kids like crazy - and I go a little crazy trying to keep up with them. Melissa

A few good laughs...

Audrey has delivered some killer lines this week. Hope you enjoy them, too.

On trying on swimwear:
In the dressing room at the mall today, shopping for a swimming suit, Audrey said something NO female has ever said before:
"Oh, I LOVE trying on bathing suits!"

On being nutty:
Audrey: "I'm a peanut."
Mark: "What kind of nut is Claire? A walnut?
Audrey: "Yeah."
Mark: "What kind of nut is Daddy? A pine nut?
Audrey: "Yeah."
Mark: "What kind of nut is mommy?"
Audrey: "A donut!"
(note from Melissa: Mark's back was turned to me during this funny little exchange. However, I could almost see his brain go into overdrive trying to come up with a nut that would characterize me appropriately. He could not have been prouder than when Audrey said it for him.)

On daddy's "anatomy":
"His front looks like a turkey."

Claire is 1

Our baby is a year old! We can't believe it. She spent the day playing and napping and then had dinner at a nice restaurant (lasagna). She didn't like the taste of her cake, but the frosting was great fun. Her sister has taken possession of all her gifts, but she doesn't really care. Just a great birthday all around.

Sink or swim

Audrey took swimming lessons last summer and had three "refresher" classes this month. She insists that she knows how to swim because she can put her head under water. I wish I had a picture of her AFTER class when we were leaving. Lately, she swims better than she walks. She was all wrapped up in her towel, staring at the birds flying overhead and just when I turned around to tell her to watch where she was going she walked right back into the pool. As usual, I thought it was pretty funny and a dozen onlookers thought it was a traumatic incident. She was fine. Today at the park she walked right into a stone drinking fountain (poor kid, dumb birds). I might get that picture yet if she keeps it up.

Disneyland!

We got our season passes and spent the day at Disneyland. Audrey loves the teacups and was afraid of the Nemo submarine. Mark and Melissa actually got on a few rides - alone or with Audrey. Claire could only go on one ride - if you don't count the entire day in a stroller as a ride. We all enjoyed ourselves.

Happy Valentine's Day

I tried to get my girls to pose for a sweet little Valentine's Day photo - as usual, it's all fun and games until Claire gets ahold of Audrey's hair.

Sometimes it gets cold here...

Here's Claire seriously bundled up for a walk. Just in case my last blog seemed like bragging...we do get a little chilly once in awhile.

California winter

Our housing costs are astronomical, but so is our weather. It's January and we can still go to the park and even leave our doors open some days. Here is Claire in the doorway just seconds before she toppled over head first and landed on the doormat. One afternoon last week we had rain and sunshine at the same time. I sent Audrey out to see for herself. We love California.

Check us out

If you got our Christmas card and wondered what we look like nowadays, here's our most recent family picture. I send a letter because I don't mind if you read my letter and throw it away. However, I would feel very unhappy if you threw away my picture. I'm just superstitious that way.

Mark asked for a short disclaimer on the facial hair. I encouraged him to grow a beard while we were on vacation in September and he still had it when we took our portrait in November. He wanted to shave it, but I liked it so much I asked him not to. Thus, the red beard. It only lasted a few more weeks and then it started to make kissing him really unpleasant.

Here we are - don't we look festive?

Beans and Taters

It's funny how our ancestors' (mine Mexican, Mark's Idahoan) favorite foods typify our personalities. I am full of gas, he likes to sit on the couch. I'm bubbly, he's hardy. Beans and potatoes. French fries and frijoles. Alone we are pretty starchy, together we are good with eggs.

Some 17 years ago Mark and I met on our first day at BYU. We were both absolutely adorable then and when we finally managed a real conversation we were absolutely smitten. We have been married for 10 years now and show signs of wear, but we have two adorable daughters. Let the adorable-ness continue!

We've started this blog so we can share a bit of our daily lives with our loved ones. We'd like to maintain some privacy so we are not going to be specific about our specifics and we hope you will support that. MMAC