Late to the Party

Ashlee came into the kitchen today and said "40 days until spring"  and left.  Good news or bad?  Winter blahs have set in.   Ashlee also convinced us to put up the 4 man tent the other night.  Our living room is not quite 10 feet wide and the tent is 9x9.  We were working on putting it up when Christopher got home from work, he just shook his head over and over and said how dangerous it was.  But, we got it put up and let them keep it up for 2 nights.  That was enough.  It took up the whole back of our living room.  There it is - they got to sleep in it one night.  I'll admit that I did say to myself a few times "See, I am a good mom.  See, I'm fun."  Some days you just need a mom boost.  This gave me one.  Plus,  I would love to have a play room for them to put stuff like this up and leave it if they wanted.  One day we will live in more than 1200 square feet.

The girls have had a few tea parties in the living room.  I am really bad at picture taking - I keep thinking a shiny new SLR would help - I wish I could capture the joy on Paige's face at being included with the big girls for a tea party.  She loves it.  I love that Maggie is still willing to participate and talk in her tea party voice about imaginary things.

I have a birthday coming up, and I have been feeling oldish.  All day today I have been mentally making a list about ways that I am late for the party and oldish.

1.  I-pods - Maggie has one, so does Chris, I don't.  I am just now beginning to see the beauty of it.  This morning I used Chris's to work out with and I loved it!  Podcasts seem like such a dreamy thing also.  I'm going to get one soon - or just hi-jack Chris's.  I just need to figure out how to download stuff without deleting everything else already there. (Because of that, Maggie won't let me touch hers)

2.  Coldplay - right?  2 years ago we were riding in the car at a family reunion and my brother asked if I knew who the band that was playing was.  Nope - but it was Coldplay.  We bought the Viva la vida on disc and lost it.  But just Saturday when we were cleaning the house, Chris played the previous album from his I-pod - I   So good.

3.  There is a fairly young, hip (do people still say that?) band that I kind of love.  As I was driving today, I remembered that they had a new album that was supposed to be released at the beginning of the year, so I came home to see if they were going on tour and maybe see if we could get tickets.  Guess what?  The album released almost a month ago.  And most of their U.S. dates, including the ones closest to us are sold out.  SOLD OUT! (Long before I ever thought of it.) Oh well, the thought of attending that concert and figuring out what to wear made me squirm a little bit.  Go to their website HERE.

4.  The fact that I just put a hyperlink in the above paragraph made me feel "hip".

There are other things (like the fact that I have said hip twice, and I'm not referring to my actualy hip.  I can't think of a better word!)...but the list is long enough.   Happy winter!  Only 40 more days till spring!

Breakfast

Does she look like she could melt a hole in your head?  Because she can...

Here's a rundown of breakfast at our house this morning:

Paige, after being offered milk, her usual preference:  (Screaming) "I said a juice box," throwing herself onto the counter,all woe and misery.  For the record, she never said anything about a juice box, just came into the kitchen and sat down, ready to eat.  Me, ignoring the tantrum, juice box delivered, "What would you like for breakfast?"  Blank stare.  "Pancakes?" More staring.  "Oatmeal?" More staring.  "Cereal?"  More staring.  "Eggs?"  Yelling "I want popcorn!  I. don't. like. that. cereal!"

So, for breakfast she had: A juice box (the flavored water kind - is that bad?  Don't answer)  Popcorn (that she WILL NOT share).  And cereal (I'm not saying what kind - it has sugar as the second ingredient).   I'm not going to go into what happened when I was helping her get dressed, but it's worth noting that she was out of her favorite dresses and the leggings were "too dark."

Sometimes the only thing that keeps me from yelling at her is repeating these words over and over in my head "she's two, she's two..."  Not that we aren't trying to teach her to use her words, to speak politely, that the world doesn't revolve around her.  But, she's two.  And it won't last forever.  And it helps that Chris is home now and he always helps me see the humor. And she's cute, and we love her to pieces.

Experiment

I'm just experimenting with picture sizes.

This little girl woke up sick @3:00 am on Sunday - so far 4 of us have gotten it.  I hope we are all close enough together on the sick-time continuum that it doesn't cycle through again. 

Those cookies are her favorite (the rest of us love them too.)

On an unrelated note - last week Maggie and I went to our local chain hair cutting store for updates.  (If you live in Utah, go to Heather's girl -worth every penny).  I think my girl maybe used to not be a girl.  Here's why - have you seen Star Trek?  The new movie?  You know that scene where James Kirk has an allergice reaction to the shots his friend is randomly injecting into him and his hands get really big?  Well,  when we watched that movie this week,we watched that 20 seconds of the movie 4 times - just so Chris could have a visual of what my hairdresser's hands looked like.  Not kidding - Mr. Kirk's were a little bit larger,but it was the same idea.   I keep wondering if that meant anything or if I was just being judgemental, or maybe just mental.  Maybe I'll take Ashlee back to verify.  I didn't get that movie - even if they went through the wormhole how, HOW, How are there 2 Spocks?  It's still bugging me.  Have a good Friday.

Christmas Re-cap

The picture below was taken the morning after Christmas - notice the rain falling on the windows. It started raining on Christmas afternoon and rained for nearly 48 hours. And melted all 2 feet of snow. The only remaining evidence we have are a few snow banks that were piled in parking lots. So sad, but much easier to drive in. Also notice how everyone has their hands up by their mouths, the reason that I took the picture to begin with. (Harry Potter was playing) Photographic evidence that what Aunt Heather predicted did in fact happen. Hello Kitty wall decals being placed on the living room wall. Thankfully, Ashlee took all the decals and the little sister into her bedroom and helped her hang them up all around the crib. Much better, but no picture.

In this picture, Paige is playing with: Little People gifts from Santa and a tiny doll, blanket, and pillow that came in a little box from my mother. She loves this doll. We are on the fence. Several times a day, Paige will say something like: "Where's my doll, where's my box, where's my pillow....." She's not such a great looker for things, in fact she's pretty awful at it. We are learning that the first place to look is right around her - usually she has just set it down and forgotten that she did so.

Maggie woke up at 5 something on Christmas morning, she waited until 6 something to wake Ashlee and 7 something to wake Paige and us. We love her.

Finally, some notes to myself at Christmas time:

• The Christmas holidays - especially Christmas day - are not the time to give up Diet Coke. Next year, go ahead and buy some when you are doing the big grocery trip (unless you have been living without it for several months). Because there is no possible excuse to leave the house and get one on Christmas day and you will REALLY want one, and it is Christmas after all. Consider a gift to yourself.
• Maggie has fewer Christmases yet to spend living at home than the ones she has already spent with you - be with her and all three girls more.
• Nobody but you will be excited about home-made marshmallows. Yes, everyone will be a year older, but they still won't think they are that great. And honestly, they aren't. Better than the grocery store? Yes. Enough better to make them at home? Not really.
• If you want to make home-made gifts, have them planned and done by Thanksgiving - or at least planned and prepped by Thanksgiving, otherwise you will not get to it.
• Ditto with any additional advent calendar activities you want to try.
• Ditto with the Christmas cards.
• Ditto with the advent wreath.
• Sugar cookies and gingerbread houses are fun for the girls. Don't take all the fun out of them by freaking out about the mess or the sloppiness of it all. Let it go.
• Remember how much better things are when the Mom decides to be happy and have fun - try to have a little more fun be a little more silly. Also remember how much more festive you FELT when you were dressed, with your hair and make-up done.
• Having Chris take the girls somewhere for a few hours on Christmas Eve or the day before Christmas Eve is a great idea and should be a tradition. Having the house to yourself is kind-of heavenly for a few hours.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas! For the first time since we have lived here, we will have a white Christmas! The big Nor'easter came through and we got about 20 inches. Church was cancelled, school on Monday was cancelled and we spent our 3 days playing in the snow and spending time together. It was so nice! Here are some pics - sledding in the driving snow. Paige lasted 2 trips down the mountain and then waited in the car.

Building a snowman the next day - she doesn't look happy, but she was having fun - she even sang the Frosty song to her snowman.

The girls made some sledding "runs" from the snow mounds in the front yard. They named them: Long Lecture, Partly Painful, Deadly Dangerous and one other one I can't remember.

More sledding in the blizzard. It has been really fun and has made our last Christmas in New Jersey extra special!

Engineering

My dad used to sing a little ditty when he was doing work around the house - "It's so nice to have a man around the house...." I didn't always appreciate the truth behind those words, but it is really nice to have a man around the house.

They do things like: hang the Christmas lights, get all the Christmas boxes out and then put them all away again, eat the food you cook, help with the dishes, give two year olds a bath, play with the kids, clean out the garage, and make you laugh. It is nice - extraordinarily nice.

We made gingerbread houses again this year - here is our engineer putting the braces in the houses before we decorated. See? Nice.

Decorating the houses. . . they are all still standing - I hope they hang on 'till Christmas.I forgot to edit out the red eyes, but I LOVE this picture of Paige. She is such a character.
Anyway, probably the next 5o posts or so will be about how great it is to have Christopher home. It's just so great.

HOME

Anticipation as we load up the car - Watching for his plane to land...The plane that carried him safely home to us...Reunion.

Happy

Not a lot of words - this homecoming has been very similar to the arrival of a new baby, I have been wanting to bottle it all up to pull out some future day. We are so so so so happy to have him home!