So, what's this?!

Nick's latest artistic endeavor. Any guesses?













Mind out of the gutter people! It's a crayfish. Couldn't you tell?! Or Crawdad as they apparently say out here in Colorado.

Superstar!

OMG, what have I done?!

This is the question of the day.

Nick went to a birthday party last night at The Hop. It's one of those inflatable play areas, the kids love it there. Anyway, the party ran from 7-9pm on a Friday night. That's really late for my kids, considering I strive to have all three bathed, in PJs and out of my hair by 7:30pm. 8pm at the latest for Nick, and only if I have no other choice (ie. lots of homework to finish).

Anyway, I arrived at 9pm to pick him up just as they were eating cake and they hadn't even started opening gifts yet. In hindsight, I should have taken him home then and there. But I decided since it was a Friday night, I wouldn't humiliate the lad by pulling him out of a group of his peers to put him to bed. By the time the festivities were completed, it was 9:35pm. Yikes!

The hosts started to hand out the goody bags as the kids filed out of the party room. And Nick was the last in line. Any guesses as to what happened?! Yep, they "ran out" of gift bags, the boy themed ones anyway. And the hosts would not let him have a "girl" bag. Poor Nick. The tears started flowing almost instantly and I had that sick feeling in my stomach that this is not going to go well.

I managed to get him into the car before it degenerated into hysteria. Boy, that was the longest ride home ever. Luckily for all concerned, Paul was actually at home before 10pm on a Friday! I left Nick with him and headed out into the snow. In search of some sort of consolation for my little guy.

The only thing open was King Soopers (Kroger) and I dove into the toy aisle and prayed they had something small and less than $10 to replace the goodie bag that wasn't. The only thing that was remotely age appropriate and not ridiculously priced was a battery operated Whoopee cushion. *Sigh* Yes, I actually bought it for him. And he was thrilled when I took it in to him, Paul had him in bed by that time, and he was still crying.

While I am very thankful that I was able to alleviate my my son's mental distress with $2.99, I am seriously regretting this purchase. As I type right now, Ellie is in tears on the floor next to me. She has been repeating over and over again "Mommy, I just can't listen to anymore tooting around here"! I know the feeling. I had a long talk with her about boys in general, and their incomprehensible obsession with all things gaseous. Sadly, this will go on for years and some of them never grow out of it. This is one (of many) reasons why we have girlfriends. Today the house sounds like a truck stop restroom when bean burritos are the special of the day. As Nick just reminded me, "at least you don't have to smell it too Mom". Thank god for small favors.

Gosh, working tonight is sounding better and better! And then of course I will have to sleep tomorrow... Good luck Paul! A friendly word of advice for you: find some ear plugs.

Now, how long until the batteries run out?!

Happy (Chocolatey) Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day!!

A fairly uneventful day around here. Paul and I decided to have fondue for dinner in honor of the holiday.

Dinnertime confirmed our suspicions that the children are not old enough to appreciate this form of food preparation. Nick was horrified by the entire proceeding and refused to even approach the counter for bread dipped in the cheese fondue. Ellie loved the dipping part, but wouldn't eat anything. And William is still suffering GI upset from last weeks' virus and now has an ear infection to boot so he was disinterested to say the least. (And of course, he wasn't allowed anywhere near the flaming fondue pots.) The only part of fondue that they enjoyed was getting to "spear" food with the poky forks. We decided to call it quits and make them something else before that segued into them spearing each other.

Dessert however was a different story! Thumbs up by the youngsters on the marshmallows dipped in dark chocolate! Nick, being a true chocoholic, loved this part. Ellie decided that she wasn't able to get enough chocolate on her marshmallow just by dipping, and resorted to using a spoon to shovel even more into her mouth and all over her clothing. William took one bite of a marshmallow and then promptly threw it across the kitchen.

Happy Valentine's Day to you all. Hope you had a wonderful, chocolatey, romantic holiday!

Nick

Eleanor

In this photo, Ellie is telling you a story about a Valentine's party. She is very excited for her party tomorrow at school. And is greatly anticipating lots of treats and cards from her friends. And she made a special card for her teacher Mrs. McDonald with a heart shaped doilie and everything. And she knows a Valentine's song to the tune of "Twinkle twinkle little star". And she would like to give her "boyfriend" Jonah a special card, but her teacher said "no, we are all friends equally in school" so no special cards. But there will be cookies there at the party, she is quite sure.

And here she is sick of the sun. Story over.

Monkey see..... Monkey do!

If Nick did it first, it must be a good idea?

While Nick chose to "sled" on dirt, poor little William decided to slide down the hill on top of a pile of pine needles.
Ouch! Thank god for diapers.

February Update

Well, this is just sad. Think the kids are missing the snow?!

Although it is winter according to the calendar, today is sunny and fairly warm. Here they are "sledding" down the hill from the previous post, in the dirt, on their bums.

I have been told that this is fun.

And so much more fun to come for me.... in the form of laundry.

Sorry for the dearth of pictures lately, it has been a month of so of non-stop viruses around here. We have enjoyed several respiratory ones, and had a virtual symphony of coughs going amongst the clan. And this last week, we had the extreme pleasure of gastroenteritis for 5. You really haven't lived until you have experienced a mobile, climbing toddler who is vomiting but doesn't recognize that feeling in advance. A true joy for those who must clean it up! Especially when the adults are sick too.

We do hope that you are all well at your end.

We're just longing for Spring to come.... and stay!

And now there is snow....

Last week was reminiscent of summer, this week it is the arctic. I can't keep up!

Today's high was 8 degrees with about 5 inches of snow accumulation. The kids came out to help me shovel this afternoon. It was a short lived expedition due to the cold.

William especially was thrilled to be outside. I would say he spent his time running around, but it would be more accurate to say that he was mostly horizontal. The poor guy still hasn't gotten the hang of walking/running on snow and ice.

(sorry about the runny nose!)

Eleanor and her friend Kylie from next door.

Nick sledding down the hill next to our house.

I think he is done.

After this last slip and fall William just stayed down with a look of utter resignation on his face. (Of course I do take a picture before picking up my poor little man.)

(Thanks for the boots and snowsuit Holly :o) We are using it this winter after all!)

Yep, this is January in Denver!

65 degrees and sunny today:o)
I had to rummage through the storage bins to find everyone short sleeves.

The kids had a blast playing outside. Yeah, no coats!


And I went to the store in a t-shirt and flip flops. Too weird!

Apparently it's going to be a warm week- 60s and sunny. I'll have to keep those storage bins handy for a few days longer.

We do hope some of this sun is heading your way Michigan friends and family....

But we'll pay for this lack of precipitation over the summer I'm sure. There have already been wild fires north of Boulder, which is unheard of in January. It'll be one dry summer here with some very unattractive brown grass!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sorry for the delay in posting Christmas photos. As you can see, we have a little "helper" in the house who has discovered a love of playing with our computer. Somehow he managed to interfere with the way the photos are uploaded from our camera. But we are at last back in business! For now anyway.....

Some of the favorite gifts...

Clone Trooper Helmet with voice changer

Air Hogs Zero Gravity Remote Control Car

Fur Real Cat and Baby Chou Chou "Make Me Better" Doll

William at this point was still only interested in the banana. And then he took a nap. He'll get around to the toys later...

Merry Christmas!!

Santa came to our house, hope he stopped at yours too!!

Santa was very kind to our kiddos this year! They had a blast opening their gifts. Thank you to all of our family for the wonderful presents. We loved everything!

Ellie got up first and turned on every light in the upstairs trying to peek down into the living room and see if there were any gifts. The result of this was that she woke up her brothers. Nick was fine with being awake, William not so much. He was a major grouch, with no interest in gifts. All he wanted was a banana. Seriously. (Wish Santa had known that in advance, it would have been much cheaper and easier on the "elves"!)

The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,

in the hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.



Can you tell Nick was really hopped up on excitement and Christmas cookies?! Off to bed with you kiddos!

Waiting for Santa....

William is tucked safely in bed awaiting the Christmas festivities. The big kids enjoyed reading The Night Before Christmas with Daddy.

Waiting to see Santa...

Boy, it was a really long wait to see Santa today. We went after church, along with everyone else in the metropolitan Denver area! The line was literally to the far end of the mall. In hindsight, I should have sent Paul to the food court to grab the kids some lunch. But the "elves" kept telling us it would move really fast, and to stay in line. "Fast" is a rather subjective term, the kids didn't seem to think it applied here. And after trying to keep them entertained and calm, with no food in a hot mall, while wearing church clothes for 40 minutes; Paul and I weren't feeling the speed either!

Nick posing with a reindeer.

Eleanor rehearsing the gifts that she is going to ask for when she sees Santa.

One of the faux reindeer. Apparently very important that I include it's photo here.

Almost their turn!

William was not interested in posing for photographs.

Our Visit with Santa!

No one cried, yeah! The couple of groups just ahead of us had at least one child in hysterics. Ellie was looking a little nervous as we rounded the bend, like she was wondering what on earth Santa was doing to those little kids ahead of her. But no worries, all three did great :O)

And the "elves" were not as rushed this year, they let the kids spend a little time with Santa listing off their requests. Ellie asked for just what she has been wanting for a month (phew!), but Nick pulled one out of left field. We'll have to see if "Santa" can pull that off at this late date. And William was oblivious to the entire proceeding. I'm sure he will be thrilled by whatever Santa brings for him.

Merry Christmas!

Just thought this was cute! William passed out in the car after church this morning. He reminds us of a Christmas elf. (Please excuse the cracker crumbs and generally messy car seat. I really need to clean it. Will wait for positive digit temps first though!)

William Update...

At last! We finally did it, William hit 20 pounds at 20 months. WooHoo! Forward facing car seat here we come!

Not sure how as he has been sick almost non-stop since the first week of November, and currently he has Rotovirus (yes, you can still catch this after having the vaccine. Who knew?!). I am amazed, but where food and calories don't work, prayer does!

He is still very small for his age. And we are scheduled to go to Denver Children's in February to see if they have any answers for us.

But this was a big hurdle and we made it for Christmas!