Our Best Pics of 2016 (January-April)

I am starting to go back through our pictures from the year, and trying to get rid of at least half of them (because we have WAY WAY TOO MANY, and most of them are duplicates, and it's hard for me to be ruthless at getting rid of them). But there are some that just make me so happy as I go back through them. Some are really good photos, and some are just from happy days that are sweet to remember, and some just make me laugh. It's nice to look back over the year and think of what a wonderful year we have had and how we are blessed. I wanted to just look at a few that are the best, happiest pictures from this year. (It will probably take me a few more weeks to go through all the rest of them, so this is just for the first few months of the year.)

January: 

February: 

March: 

April: 

The Election

I don't know if I will actually post this. I have a hard time writing anything too personal on this blog any more--which sounds dumb since this is supposedly my personal blog. But it is one thing to write about what we've been up to lately and another thing to write about the real things I am struggling with lately. But I have a feeling that writing it all out will help me in the end.

This election has left me feeling numb. I truly never believed it would come to this. A year ago, I was just waiting for Donald Trump to lose interest and remove himself from the race, or for people to become so disgusted with him and the uprising against his horrible rhetoric to make that decision for him. I watched as scandal after scandal about his opinions somehow failed to lower his ratings--scandals that would normally have been fatal to any normal political candidate. Remember when Mitt Romney got in serious trouble because he had his dog on the top of the car on a family road trip? Remember how that was actually something people cared about? And yet, not enough people cared about Trump's dangerous rhetoric about actual people in this country to stop him?

I studied rhetoric while in grad school. "Rhetoric" basically is a big fancy word which really just means meaningful language, or language being used to persuade or influence an audience to do something--which really is any kind of language at all. And really, I'm not an expert, but I can say--language does matter. The way you talk about something matters. The words that you choose to say affects the way people think about you and about the subject, and that changes the way everyone acts. And Trump's language--it makes me scared. It makes me feel ill. I have an actual visceral reaction to his words and how much hate his words hide. He talks in a way that is insensitive and belittling and mocking and outright, obviously, intentionally exclusive. It is intentionally inciting his audience to be actively exclusive of and antagonistic towards others; the way he has talked about Muslims, and immigrants, and his opponents, and oh my goodness, how he talked about women--these words do not show that he understands or values these people. I won't write out any specifics, because I have spent so much time in the last year actively trying to avoid him and to block out all of the news stories about him, and I don't want to think about all of the things. So, so, so many things. We all know what they are.

And yet so many people voted for him, and show that they don't care about his horrible words or his rhetoric, and that they essentially feel the same way as him.

I feel so sad. I feel so worried. I keep reminding myself that the President, in the end, doesn't actually affect my life all that much. But the thing that truly scares me is that this man, whom I associate with so much hatred and ill-will and stupidity and absolute bull-headed ignorance, has followers who truly don't see those qualities in him. I know that many people voted for him with a sick feeling in their mouths, but they voted for him still the same. And that legitimizes all of the horrible things he has said, all of the ridiculous scandals he has created, over the last year-plus, and makes it look like WE AGREE WITH HIM. It makes America look like we are like him. Like we too speak without thinking, without understanding what is appropriate to say in public, without caring about hurting huge swaths of the public by making harmful generalizations or using nasty nicknames for people. Like we hate those who aren't like us--people who are wearing hijabs or who are gay or who have dark skin--and cover it up with our own self-interest.

I don't have any feelings towards Hillary Clinton compared to my horror and disgust for his man. I really don't. I have no opinion on the email server issue. That seems so low on the totem pole of things I care about when compared with the collected sins of Donald Trump. I think she was a billion times more qualified for this job than he will be (because I don't see that he is at all qualified), but that doesn't matter now. And I do kind of wish our daughter could have been born after the first female President was elected. I don't want to think about this, but I can't help wondering--how many people who were so anti-Hillary were actually being influenced by inherent sexism? How much did her gender actually play a role in her being beaten so surprisingly? How much was the email server issue a scapegoat for this hidden sexism that people were unwilling to talk about openly? Regardless, this election for me wasn't hoping that Clinton would win--it was hoping that Donald Trump, and all of his "nasty" rhetoric, would be rejected by the reasonably thinking populace of America. And I watched in total shock last night as it was clear that he was winning all over the country and that too many people weren't as turned off by his words as I had been.

I like the quote that is floating around Facebook from Barbara Bush: "Your success as a family... Our success as a nation... depends not on what happens inside the White House, but on what happens inside your own house." I do believe that is true and I do intend to spend ever-more time strengthening my own family, particularly because of the venom and evil I have felt during this whole election. I can use my own rhetoric to counteract his evil-spreading rhetoric within my own family. I can teach my children to be respectful of people of all races and religions and genders and orientations, and teach them what is appropriate to say about and to any other human being. I tried to start that today. I tried to respond to an obnoxious Trump comment on Facebook respectfully but firmly (when I was tempted to be sarcastic and angry). And I talked to Dane today about how I was very sad that Donald Trump was elected, but that now we have to pray that he will make good choices, and maybe he will. Maybe he will make better choices than his rhetoric thus far gives us reason to believe. Maybe his exaggerated stance on everything will have to take a backseat once he is actually making decisions. That is very small consolation, but it is all we can do now that it is all over.

And thank goodness, it is all over.

Halloween

So a few weeks ago when I asked Dane what he wanted to be for Halloween he said he wanted to be a dinosaur. I spent a while perusing Amazon looking at dinosaur costumes and this was the best one I could find that wasn't $60. (I mean, who spends that much on a costume for their kid???) He was thrilled about it and didn't seem to notice that the head was ridiculously oversized, hahaha. He loved that there was a tail and said he was a very scary T-Rex. I have to say that I was happy that he didn't think about being a superhero like every other boy in the world--although I am positive that he will want to do that next year. He was very happy with his costume.

We had a lot of Halloween festivities this year. First off was the Joy School Halloween program--which involved a parade with the four of them and their costumes, and then them singing two Halloween songs. They were so cute. We love Joy School! This was Dane's first day back after a two-week break while he was sick and in the hospital. So happy to be back in our normal routines.

We finally found a time to go to the pumpkin patch and buy a couple of pumpkins to carve. It's funny--the first year we lived here I took Dane to the pumpkin patch at least five times--because it was free, and they have a bounce house and a hay ride and a hay maze and he loved it. This year we barely made it at all. Life gets busier.

We went on the hayride together and got a semi-decent family picture! Just don't look too closely at Tommy's pinkeye, haha.

And miracle of miracles--a cute picture of the boys with some pumpkins. Good thing too--because I didn't get any good pictures of their costumes. They didn't want to pose at all.

SO cute.

The Saturday before Halloween was super-Halloween-y. We went to the Dallas Arboretum to use our family pass one last time before it expired, and after playing in the children's garden for a while, we discovered that they had a little trick-or-treating going on through the main gardens. Once the boys realized what was going on we had no choice. Graham got one bite of candy and literally IMPLODED into a puddle of tears and snot as he begged for more and more. We thought he was choking on something or hurt himself--but the minute we gave him another piece of candy the tears stopped.

Post-tantrum sucker. See the tears still running down his cheeks.

The arboretum had their pumpkin area set up again with thousands of pumpkins. We probably were there on their busiest day of the season, right before Halloween, so it was crazy crowded. 

Graham refused to get off this pumpkin. He sat on it like a throne sucking on his prize.

 Later that day, we finally carved our pumpkins. Dane wanted to do a scary pumpkin and a bat.

And as soon as we finished the pumpkins we went over to the church for our trunk-or-treat. Graham knocked over the cart that had all of the cookies on it for the kids' cookie walk and threw my bowl of chili all over the grass. We probably should have just gone home.

This was how Dane felt about having to take a picture before the trunk or treat. Ha!

But he was pretty excited about it afterwards. Graham was shell-shocked.

Halloween morning I wanted to make it slightly fun and we made pumpkin waffles and cut them out with pumpkin and spider cookie cutters. They were a huge hit. And SUPER delicious.

And in the morning we were invited to a friend's house for a cute little Halloween party for all the preschoolers in the ward. They had a parade for the kids in their costumes.

And a pinata filled with candy, and lots of cute little games. It was really fun for both boys. Of course they both got their costumes dirty and I wasn't about to take the time to wash them for trick-or-treating, so oh well.

And then our HOA actually had an activity--the very first since we ever moved into this neighborhood! And it involved free pizza at our park before trick-or-treating! So naturally we went, got the free pizza, and talked to the two neighbors we already know.

This was the best pic we got of us on Halloween. HAHA. If I crop it, it probably isn't actually that bad. But the boys really didn't want to be in any more pictures.

Graham got SOOOOO many comments on how cute he was trick-or-treating. It was adorable. He would toddle up to every door and very seriously choose a piece of candy and place it carefully in his bucket. I LOVED it. He was so sweet. I was so glad he wore his costume too. The first time I put it on him he screamed and screamed and writhed until I pulled it off--but he eventually got used to it and didn't mind it at all. 

Our super-scary T-Rex roared at everyone while trick-or-treating.

And Uncle Kurt drove up just for the evening to go trick-or-treating with us! It was so nice of him and the boys LOVED it. They were so excited and both wanted him to hold them the rest of the time, haha. Graham wouldn't go up to any more doors without Kurt holding his hand. These boys are so spoiled to have such nice aunts and uncles.

It was certainly a fun Halloween--but kind of an exhausting week! We are gearing up for the holidays though!