It's starting to look a lot like Christmas!

We. Got. Snow! We got snow last night! We got snow last night! Ben suited up and played for awhile, making snow angels and snow balls. Ethan and Jackson joined in the fun...being from California, this is the first time they have seen the snow. Cailey put her new ski suit on is still playing outside with her friend Molly. The little guys couldn't take the cold for that long. Yay, snow ~ now, go away. :o) :o) :o)

Happy Birthday, Rich!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Remember ~ You're getting old :o) and won't recover as well in the morning. Hope you have fun tonight!

Happy Thanksgiving 2008

Scott and I started Thanksgiving day with a 5K run! The race started at 9:00a and we finished in 32 minutes 30 seconds! Yeah! It felt great ~ after the race was over ~ it sucked while we were running! :o) We were going to run it with the kids, but Anna and Geoff surprised us and drove into town Wednesday night. We decided, since it was so, so cold, that the kids could stay home with Anna and Geoff. That worked out best. The best part ~ when we checked in for the race we were presented with these numbers:

As you can see, the Universe has spoken: I (wife) am number one, Scott (husband) is number two. For any successful marriage, that fact must be established ~ and now, the Gods have spoken and showed us the sign...it is declared as truth and it is forever accepted as reality! (HA HA HA) :o) :o) This is good ~ and, yes, I framed them!

While we were running Cailey, Jackson, Ben, and Ethan made this sign and hung it on the door:

Jackson was thankful for Cailey ~ (so cute!)

Cailey was thankful for freedom in our country and her family

Ethan drew an E for "Ethan"

Ben drew a ghost and Abby (the hamster)

The rest of our day was about cooking and eating with good friends and family! Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving.

Time Warp Thursday - Happy Thanksgiving!!!!

Thanksgiving in California - 2004

Thanksgiving in Utah - 2005

Look what I did!

I made drapes for the living room! I sewed them ~ they are even lined! We have lived in this house for six years and I finally got around to buying the fabric and getting them done. I have been putting it off because I kept changing my mind on what I wanted to do...so I finally just settled on something really simple and got 'er done. Yeah, Me!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, ANNA!

Happy Birthday, AnnaMarie. We love you! Hope you have a nice day!!!

Time Warp Thursday

Benjamin and Cailey - October 2005

Did I miss Thanksgiving?

I am wondering if I missed Thanksgiving this year because I see lots of Christmas decorations already going up ~ even the Christmas tree! Several of our neighbors have put up their Christmas lights and decorations, the stores already have all their Christmas items out. When did decorating for Christmas come before Thanksgiving? I clearly remember using Thanksgiving, or rather, the day after as the marker to pull down all the fall/Thanksgiving decorations and put up the Christmas decorations. So, I have to wonder, did I miss Thanksgiving? Is Christmas coming early :o) and that is why everyone is rushing to put up Christmas stuff. Are we skipping Thanksgiving this year?

Cailey's Poetry

With Cailey's permission, I am posting a poem she wrote. You may already know that she has a very deep, very pronounced, creative streak running through her, but did you know that she loves to write poetry/verses/songs in her journal? She won't always share them, but she agreed to share this one ~ as long as I typed it just as she wrote it ~ geesh...what's that about?

I

I am...helpful and special.
I wonder...why the sky is blue.
I hear...the blue birds sing.
I see...the sunset.
I want...everyone to be happy.
I am...helpful and special.

I pretend...to walk on the beach.
I feel...wonderful.
I touch...a kitten's fur.
I worry...about people who don't have friends.
I cry...about all dead things.
I am...helpful and special.

I understand...what some people feel.
I say...everyone needs to have a friend.
I dream...people love me.
I try...to work my hardest.
I hope...you are thankful and caring.
I am...helpful and special.

Time Warp Thursday

My good friend, Terra, has done 'Wordless Wednesday' on her blog to post older pictures. I think that's a great idea so I am stealing...I mean...copying it. I am going to try to do a post every Thursday as "Time Warp Thursday" (because I am not patient enough to wait until next Wednesday to do Wordless Wednesday!) and I will be posting random older pictures of times gone by. Thanks, Terra. Here's our first:

Cailey - Spring 2004

It's a Big Boy Bed!

Ben got a new bed yesterday!  Well, it's new to him ~ Matt and Zach handed down their race car bed to Ben.  Ben's crib converted to a toddler bed ~ using the crib mattress ~ but he has outgrown that bed (actually, a while ago) and is ready for the twin size big boy bed.  He is very excited about the race car bed and he had no problem letting his crib go.  He loved his crib/toddler bed so much and I was a little worried that he wouldn't sleep well in a new bed.  But, he slept in the new bed all night and is now down for a nap in it ~ no problems at all!! YEAH BEN!  I went today to buy a new duvet and found a great duvet at Pottery Barn Kids on SALE!  Love those sales.  I will put the new duvet on the bed tonight after he gets up from his nap.  Thanks, Hol for the bed ~ Ben loves it so much!

It all started with a good idea.

Okay, sometimes I get an idea in my head that I think is so great, so genius, so beyond the realm of good ideas that it is surely going to win me that coveted Super Mom award.  I imagine it will be so much fun and so easy that I get gitty with anticipation to share it with my well-behaved, calm, low-maintenance kids.  I imagine my children crowding around, their smiles, their hugs, and their kind words as they enjoy and bask in the glow of what I have designed (okay, bought) for them with all my love for them in mind. But then reality slaps me in the face, always too late, and I realize how very, very bad the idea really was. 

Cookie decorating may top the list of really bad ideas to do with young kids ~ especially when black frosting is involved.  Yes, I concede it was bad from the start. Yes, I admit I didn't think it all the way through.  Yes, I confess it was not my shining moment for brilliant ideas.  

So, I bought, from the grocery store, a Halloween kit for decorating cookies. The cookies (shaped like pumpkins, bats, and ghosts) were already cooked and the kit came with orange, white, and black frosting.  How much easier could that get, I ask you!  I planned to bring the kit to the Berg's house on Halloween so that all the kids could partake in my purchase of a great Halloween craft. But, I forgot the kit at home on Halloween ~ Holly, you can thank me with a Starbucks gift card ~ and I didn't remember until Thursday night.  Since the cookies were already baked, I had to use it now or never.  Ben was at school on Friday, so I let Cailey decorate three cookies ~ at least I was thinking a little ~ and saved three more for Zachary to decorate when he came over.  

Here's where the plan went very, very wrong.  I picked Ben up from school on my way home with Zach and Cailey.  We left the cookie stuff out knowing Zach was going to decorate his when we got home.  But as soon as Ben saw the cookie stuff ~ well, it was all down hill from there.  I learned quickly that Ben and black frosting DO NOT MIX!  Ben had black frosting all over and the more he tried to lick it, the more it spread all over the place.  Ben wanted to decorate a cookie (duh) but couldn't squeeze the bag so he decided to lick the end of the frosting bag instead, Cailey was yelling (and then crying) because Ben kept touching/messing up the cookies she decorated, Ben wouldn't stop touching the cookies that Cailey decorated because he was "helping", Zach was getting black frosting all over his clothes (does it come out in the wash?), Ben spilled the sprinkles all over the floor and a cookies (yes, frosting side down), Cailey wanted to use some different "tools" to create her masterpiece, Ben wanted to eat a cookie NOW, Cailey stomped up to her room because Ben decorated the pumpkin that she wanted to decorate... and I was so worried about keeping the black frosting contained (and getting those pictures to commemorate the happy time) that I got all stressed out and neurotic and this scene unfolding in front of me was definitely not what I had envisioned for this particular craft!  

And the worst part: after the kids decorated the cookies, the cookies had so much frosting on them that one cookie was more than any of them could handle and now the remaining cookies are sitting on the counter ...calling my name... begging me, I tell you, to devour them... one by one...each yummy pumpkin, each yummy ghost, each yummy bat is disappearing into my belly. Damn those Halloween cookies, damn those good ideas!  

Our vote has been cast.

Busy day. The kids had a dentist appointment this morning AND it's election day! After the dentist appointment, I dropped Ben off at school and then Cailey and I headed over to vote! Cailey was excited to be part of the process and she ended up being the only kid in her class to go to an actual voting location ~ I thought that was a little weird...I thought more parents would want to show their kids how it all works...oh, well. Cailey is excited about the election and has her own ideas about who she wants to win and why ~ apparently, we are raising a Democrat. Scott and I have pretty different political views ~ I'll let you guess which one is mostly Democrat and which one is mostly Republican :o) So, she is not being swayed in any one direction.

Thank you to Brianna Heldt for posting about the free Starbucks and Krispy Kreme available to voters!. Like any true addict, the second (literally) that I read that, I loaded the kids in the car and raced (yes, I raced!) to the nearest Starbucks and Krispy Kreme ~ proudly showing off my "I Voted" sticker! Sure enough, I quickly had a free Starbucks and Krispy Kreme doughnut in my grubby little mits! Yeah! Here are some pictures of our free doughnuts and coffee ~ notice the handmade "We Voted" stickers on Cailey and Ben and our free Starbucks. Scott voted, too, but he wasn't home yet when we took the pictures.

Now, we are popping the cork on the champagne and watching the results come in!

Trick-or-Treat

We had some treats and we even had some tricks. Ben L-O-V-E-D trick-or-treating...candy plopping into his bucket with only a "trick-or-treat" being uttered, running down the side walks, cool weather, meeting new people...it was all he could ask for. We really had a nice time and, for the first time ever, we could wait at the bottom of each driveway ~ no walking up to the door with them, or carrying tired little goblins :o) They are getting so big! Love it! Cailey (pirate) and Zach (The Joker) were having tons of fun and Matt (Indiana Jones) was tolerating the little kids (he's such a sweet boy).

Hands down ~ the best part of the evening was at a house around the corner where they had a real man sitting very, very still in a chair at the end of the front walk. He was dressed as a scare crow with a bowl of candy in his lap ~ the kids couldn't tell if he was real. We weren't really sure, either. All the kids walked passed him and got their candy from the front door. On the way back Zach walked slowly by him, watching the 'man' all the while. Zach's desire for the candy in the bowl was more than his fear that the man was real and could scare him, so he slowly reached over and grabbed a couple of pieces ~ but there was no reaction from the 'man'. Ben, deciding the man was indeed just a prop, walked up and reached into the bowl (Cailey and Matt were standing behind him) ....suddenly the man lurched forward causing Ben to jump at least a good foot back and shaking all over!! Scott starts yelling, "YEAH, YEAH THAT WAS AWESOME!!!" I was laughing...and didn't get a picture of the best part (dang!) Holly and Steve were laughing and even several other adults standing near. Why, you ask, would we think that scaring our three year old was the funniest thing ever ~ well, because we are a little wicked and it was really, really funny...come on, you can see the scene in your head right now and you are smiling! We totally thought the guy was going to scare Zach (thus, the photo), or at least one of the older kids...but no, this evil man chose the youngest, most innocent one of the bunch to scare ~ and it was awesome...that is a funny, funny man...it was so wrong, yet it was so right! HA HA HA HA HA :o) Not to worry ~ Ben was fine...no permanent damage (but, there is always next year). Scott went up the driveway immediately and took his hand. Ben said, "That was weally, weally scary, Dad! I don't like that house!" But, he was already running to the next house. We had a good time and the kids are already asking for candy this morning...and we are giving it to them. Halloween is great! Enjoy the short slide show.