12 of 12 December

1. Sent these two birds to school with Chris to see the life-sized gingerbread house and huge tree in the Purdue Memorial Union. (Please note all the girlie-patterns Millie is working.) I was able to get some Christmas prep done.
2. This is the best picture my photographer provided.
3. Cute boy on the ride home.
4. Opening our Christmas book from Aunt Ann.
5. Sometimes it's hard to be the one home in December. It took a lot of will power to leave this box containing Chatbooks of all our Instagram pictures intact to be wrapped up.
6. Connor came to play. Millie and Truman love Connor. Connor's dad has a hard time when Connor plays with our "My Little Pony" figures, so this picture had me cracking up all day long.
7. A lot of hand sewing on the ottoman I recovered to trade for our family pictures.
8. Truman immersed in a library book.
9. Chris lost his other dress glove last weekend in Chicago. I suggested taking it as our white elephant gift. Nikkala suggested naming it this and it was a done deal. (It made a four-year-old girl cry when she opened it.)
10. The spread of food at Chris's department Christmas party. My fruit platter was so impressive (if I do say so myself) that everyone just assumed it was store-bought. Psh.
11. Millie, Collis and Jared at the party. Jared is Chris's classmate, office mate and an all-around class act.
12. When Chris's professor sent out the invite he said he is known to put up "a few Christmas lights." The kids thought the Dineen's house was amazing.

Truman's Blessing Day

Truman was blessed while we were in Idaho. Chris wanted to bless him at church, but after our plane tickets were purchased we realized our parents both had stake conference that weekend (a regional broadcast conference). So Truman was blessed at Chris's parents' home on April 21.

We neglected to get a picture of all the men who stood in the circle, but Truman was supported and surrounded by good men. Chris, Grandpa Hartwell, Uncle Jeremy, Grandpa Parish, Uncles Chod, Brent and Ty, Chris's Uncle Paul and cousin Josh, and Bishop Kelly Anthon.

I'm sure Chris gave Truman a beautiful blessing, but I was too anxious and busy trying (semi-successfully) to keep Millie quiet that I wasn't able to soak it in. Let me explain.

In our family there is a history of mishaps during priesthood ordinances. With one being forgetting to state the authority of the Melchizedek priesthood, and having to go back and restate that authority after the fact.

When I don't hear Chris stating the authority, I start to get a little bit nervous. I look at my mom who is giving me wide eyes. Then I catch the eye of my brother-in-law Brent, in the circle, and silently urge him to help the situation. He whispers "Melchizedek priesthood," and Chris states that authority, then restates Truman's name and goes on with the blessing. Whew!

Chris blessed Truman that he would be a comfort to those around him. Truman was blessed that he would marry someone in the temple and start a family of his own. He was admonished to look to family. His nuclear and extended family love him and made sacrifices to be there that day and will continue to be there for him throughout his life. Truman was blessed that he would have a desire and conviction to serve a mission (eliciting a "He serve a mission!!" from Millie), and that he would have great joy and success in serving other. He was blessed that he would have challenges, but that he would be strong to overcome. And lastly he was blessed that he might stay true to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As Chris says amen, Millie shouted with glee. "Daddy did it!" She had learned about the priesthood just a few weeks previous in nursery, and the part that really stuck with her was baby blessings. She was so proud of her dad.

Karisa and I secluded ourselves in the "mother's lounge" (aka the China room), while everyone else started in on lunch. Chris's mom and Aunt Judy had prepared a beautiful lunch, with my sisters and mom putting out a super yummy dessert spread. It was all so nice.

As everyone was sitting around chatting after finishing lunch, my dad asked me what I noticed about the blessing and if I had gotten nervous. I mentioned how I was grateful Brent had been able to remind Chris of the authority. "So you didn't notice that Chris gave him the wrong name?!"

Apparently, in all my anxiety, I had not noticed that Chris had first given Truman the name of Truman Reading Madsen! Oops! After he had stated the power of the priesthood, he restated Truman's name correctly, so all was well. Several people thought maybe we were just giving him an extra middle name.

I've often wondered what I would think if my husband took it upon himself to give our child a new/different name in his baby blessing. Turns out, I wouldn't even notice!

My mom started a tradition of matching outfits for the grand kids for each blessing. It has grown and grown, and she keeps threatening that it will end, but she keeps at it. With a grand kid count of ten, she has stopped making them though. (It started out as using up the left-over fabric from the baby of honor's baby quilts, but she'd need to buy extra yardage, nowadays.)

The best I captured of this group of crazies! They are a fun group. Millie had a blast with them and asks frequently when her "friends" are coming to play.

Grace, Ruby, Dalanie, Delsie and Millie

Bentley, Tuff, Hudson, Truman and Lincoln (we were glad the Stephens boys were no longer acting like chickens for one shot!)

Not to be left out, Chris and Chod coincidentally wore their matching suits and coordinating ties. Cute!

Millie Funnies

Miss Chatty Cathy talks nearly nonstop. It makes for some good entertainment.

About a week before I was due we drove past the hospital. I told Millie that's where Baby Truman would be born ("born means coming out of Mom's tummy") and I told her that she was born there, too. We happened to see a mail truck at the intersection of the hospital. Millie is kind of obsessed with mail, and "mail busses." Something got confused in her head and today she told me how "Millie born, mail bus."

We (Grandma, Millie, me) were going somewhere, Millie was sitting in the backseat. She said, "Millie a ganinla." I asked, "What's a ganinla?" "Ganinla means 'ah ah ah ah' (as she pounded her chest)." Gorilla.

She is obsessed with things "shmell good." She will sniff her milk, a wrapper, flowers, blankets, whatever. But the one that really got me was the restroom at Meijer. She sniffed the toilet and declared, "shmell good."

Yesterday Millie was loving on Baby Truman, giving him kiss after kiss. I picked him up and she ran out of his room yelling, "I love Baby Toomey!"

Every night she chooses if she wants to rock with either Chris or myself. Then she tells that person a message for the other. Usually her message is hair, Sophie, Rachel or Emily (three little girls at church). So random.

She will talk to herself in her crib for quite a while before falling asleep and before getting up. The other day I stuck my phone under her door to record her. She was chatting away. "Hymn book. Hymn book green. Hymn book big. Hymn book lots pages. Hymn book singinging." She has the most random things on her mind.

Nose Checker

I've been MIA. First, Google's blogger upload limits, then a belly-up hard drive on our iMac. (We have everything backed up, thankfully.) And with all that time between posts, this is how I break the silence:

My parents built us an awesome bookshelf door while they were here. The tissues got moved down a shelf when the Valentine decorations went up, and now Millie can reach them. Yesterday she looked up my nose, declared first "ewww" and then "shisshue!" She went to fetch me a tissue. As I wiped and dabbed, she'd peek up and declare "ewww" each time. It had me a little self-conscious.

And then this morning, Chris brought her into our bed to snuggle with us. It was dark, but that didn't stop her from pointing to my nose, looking at it and exclaimed "ewww" again.

It was at this point I completely stopped believing her and figured it's just a ploy to be able to pull a tissue out of the box. Little stink.