I Got a Niece for Christmas! Merry Christmas!! Now Go Have Some Cold Milk!

My youngest brother, Dave, and his wife, Logan, got new titles for Christmas. They are daddy and mommy to this beautiful baby girl! YAY FOR BABIES!

Feliz Navidad, indeed!

Ben's dad took this in November when we were visiting.

Our dog, Petey, and Ben's parents' house are in the background.

There is no green grass today.

It looks like the last few days of 2010 will be covered with a foot of snow. Brrr!

I suppose I can't spend my entire winter pining away for the beach and 80 degree weather, so I'll say this: when it's cold outside, I can buy all the milk I need and it stays cold. Yay!

I usually buy milk four gallons at a time, but last week I brought home six gallons of milk from Costco (not a fan of their new gallon containers, by the way). I knew we'd need it with the kids home from school. Our fridge was already full of Christmas feast ingredients like 15 pounds of pork, 2 pounds of spinach leaves, you know, the usual. *!* So I decided to put the milk into the empty storage closet on the deck. And I may never store milk in the fridge (in the winter) again.

Mmmm, mmmm, good. We've enjoyed wonderfully ice-cold milk this week!

I won't be getting back to my blog before Saturday, so have a Happy New Year!

2011 is coming, ready or not.

Not.

He was a WHAT?

A Port-a-Potty. Specifically a Honey Bucket.

(notice the flies and TP roll? A nice touch, I think.)

And this guy was an assassin.

(Yes, I can appreciate a cheap costume if used with enthusiasm.)

A clock

(10 bonus points for originality, am I right? She was looking around the house, saw a clock and said "I want to be a clock for Halloween." That's how the Halloween magic happens. Eyeliner numbers, the hands are game spinners we stuck on with goop, and we stole the pendulum from the clock that inspired it all. )

and

A Purple Toothfairy

(bought the fabric, sewed the dress, made the tutu)

(watched turn-a-headband-into-a-tiara tutorial on YouTube and made one)

(threaded the "teeth and pliers" necklace and added googlie eyes to a felt tooth)

(and JO added the bag of cash, also a nice touch.)

Costumes are fun. Hope your Halloween was Happy!

Caught the Bug

I've heard it can be addictive, and it's true. Once you've done it once you want another one. Yesterday ended with a few more google searches. He's done two and is looking for more.

Our triathlete, Ben.

Pre-race pic. Cheese?

(time for a race day diversion!)

(another diversion?!?)

It's kid-athlon time. Go, sis!

A Tisket a Tasket. . .

. . . a "baby" in a basket

CO was so pleased when she saw these pictures.

"Awww, that's me! Why I'm sweeping in that basket?"

I have no idea why, but I'm glad someone took her picture while she slept!

Silly Sisters

Dag Blast It All!

I remember often hearing my mother's words; "FOR THE LOVE OF PETE!"

I have a vivid memory of running around the basement laughing hysterically with my brother, Andrew, as we I chimed back; "Pete has love. But he's dead." We thought we were so clever.

It turns out I have my own goofy (yet motherly) saying:"DAG BLAST IT ALL!" Proof that I'm just like my mother.

Today my almost six year-old, laughed hysterically and said; "Dag Blasketball is fun to say." Proof that she's just like her mother.

Guess Who Else is Allergic to Weeds, Grass, and Trees?

(It itches. A lot.)

He Could Easily Be an Only Child

My second oldest child spent the morning as happy as a clam playing soccer alone. It was JO versus the invisible team. At half time, I overheard this bit of commentary; ". . . score 3 to 5, the invisible team's winning." I didn't have a lot of time to worry about the self esteem issues of a child who was losing to an invisible team because he ended up winning 14 to 12. Whew, what a game!

JUNE??

How did the end of June get here so fast? All in favor of year-round summer, say aye!

JUNE!!

Six days away from a weekend of GRANDPARENTS!

In anticipation, we are busy getting this-and-that done around the house. (We got the hinges flipped around on the laundry room door, Ben put shelves up in the bathroom, and my two Bear Scouts helped install a working light fixture.) I know the grandparents care more about seeing their grandchildren, but I think the basement will get its share of "oohs" and "aahs."

So next week is also a big week because it's my last week of employment. I've spent the past six months tending some adorable twins. I will miss having babies around, but I am ready to be done. It has been hard to get anything done while I'm on the clock. This week I uploaded photos for the first time in six months! I'm burning a CD of photos to give the twins' mom.

Like this one? Poor quality but, hey, I have sleeping babies on my lap:

sleeping babies are the BEST kinds of babies

My own babies have two weeks to go before before summer vacation but they're ready. They have been perfecting their Otter Pops-eating skills. CO prefers the pronunciation "Ottow Pops" She says; "I like Otter Pops. They're pretty cold. We drink them. We bite them. SO likes Otter Pops. And I like Otter Pops. And JO and RO? They like Otter Pops. I love Otter Pops days."

Otter Pops AND chalk-covered sidewalks. Yup, we're ready!

Soccer

My blurry boys won't stand still on the field!

RO is a forward and the youngest person on his team. He scored six of seven goals on Saturday.

JO has spent most of his time as a defender and goalie. The coach changed things up in the second half and put JO in as a forward. He scored a goal, his first in three seasons.

Five K Friday

My two nine year-olds ran a 1.5 mile race at school today. Their school allows 3rd - 5th graders to run, so this year was JO's first run. He was very proud that he ran the whole way. He even passed up a classmate about ten feet from the finish line. And it looks like RO will get the bronze medal for his grade again. Impressive!

To better appreciate their efforts, I decided to run a 5K on the treadmill this morning.

I've decided that every Friday will be a "5K Friday." Who's with me?

When You "Can Burp at the Table"

As parents we make up rules and consequences we never thought we'd have to establish. Our latest rule is: You owe us 50 cents if you burp at the dinner table.

Last night, our first night of the 50 cent rule enforcement, JO lost a dollar. Since he was the child the rule was primarily targeting, I was pleased to have a zero loss dinner tonight. But what I wasn't expecting was CO, our not-quite three year-old, who announced tonight:

"I don't have money. So I burp."

We're in trouble with that one!

An Uploaded Picture For Your Viewing Pleasure

I haven't taken very many pictures lately. And I clearly haven't been uploading or taking proper care of my blog. Arah, who is a photography maven, emailed Halloween 2009 pictures she'd taken. I'm aware that it's April, but I stand firmly behind the old adage: "BETTER LATE THAN NEVER."

Themed Halloweens are my favorite kinds. 2009 was The Year of the Critter. I made a big list of creeping things I had patterns for and we each picked a bug or creeping thing from the list:

CO was a SNAIL

(Old Navy jammies, a rolled up beach towel, and thrift store eyeballs)

SO was a BUTTERFLY PRINCESS

(one of her princess dresses, pipe cleaner antennae, and Auntie Kiki's wings--thanks, Steve!)

JO was a ROACH

(butcher paper-covered cardboard shell, hands and feet sewn from brown fabric)

RO was a SPIDER

(googley eyes glued to a winter cap and, you can't his costume very well, it but his black sweater was edged with stuffed black socks on fishing line that moved whenever his arms moved)

I was a FIREFLY

(sequins glued to painted foam ball for the eyes, wings borrowed from SO's fairy dress-up dress, and a flashlight attached to the bottom of the wings)

BEN was a PRAYING MANTIS

(foam egg painted and glued to mask with both mask and claws sewn from felt pieces)

and

the dog was a BUMBLEBEE. . . for about two and a half seconds.

(not pictured)

A Post for March

Blogging isn't holding my interest lately, so I'm not promising more than this for March. But thank you for your love and concern for JO. He is feeling much better. In a few hours he can say that he's been home from the hospital for exactly one week. JO took his last dose of antibiotics this morning and tossed the empty bottle into the garbage with a "YES!" before heading out the door to school.

Well, I knew it would happen eventually, but I thought it would happen in middle school. Is fourth grade the new middle school? RO spends a lot of time combing his hair and looking in the mirror. Up until a few weeks ago he never wanted to get a hair cut, but now he has a faux-hawk (but not for church). ~I interrupt this paragraph about faux-hawks to bring you some cuteness. CO is dancing around the house singing "Mah moo moo moo mee, let's call the whole thing off, laaaaah dee dee dee da dah."~ Okay, where was I? When RO was a baby his hair grew in as a perfect mohawk. His baby mohawk was in full swing when Mrs. Kammerer told the Kahuku football team "If you beat St. Louis, you can shave my head into a mohawk." And Ben's students asked us if RO's mohawk was part of the celebration. This is where digitizing my old photos would have come in handy. He was a chubby one, that RO. Too bad babies grow out of super-adorable stage while their parents are too sleep deprived to properly enjoy it.

Band Nerds Unite

My son, the cello player, told his dad that he was going to switch to the saxophone. I think he said it more because the sax is what daddy plays (er, played). His dad told him to stick to the cello for a few years. He seemed satisfied with this advice until this morning's conversation over breakfast about good and bad bus behavior. I told the boys that Uncle Andrew got to open the back emergency door of the bus ALL THE TIME to fetch his tuba before football games. I saw a glimmer in RO's eye. Now he either wants to switch to the tuba or be a bus driver when he grows up.

Oh, and in case you were wondering, no. They didn't approve of my answer when they asked if I ever opened the back door to get my instrument. Flutes are small. Sorry, kids. Hindsight is twenty twenty. On the first day of beginning band, I should have made sure I would earn open-the-emergency-door-on-the-bus privileges with my instrument selection.

Would I switch instruments, given the chance? I don't know if I'm as easily swayed as my fourth grader. Is my instrument too tied to my identity in high school? I never wanted to switch to tuba, especially during marching season. I have no upper body strength (Carrying a baby in a car seat is too big a struggle for me). The largest instrument I ever wanted to switch to would be the trombone. Hey kids, trombones are wiggly AND spit-filled! When you put it like that, they're waaaaaay better than flutes.

But still not a tuba.