You know you're an adult when.....

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....all you really want for your birthday is not having to do any dishes.

Are you an adult yet?

Ben says...

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While playing with alphabet blocks....

"Mom, I'm going to make a squillion towers! Do you know what squillion means? Squillion means lots and lots!"

How's that for a vocabulary word.


Update: Apparently squillion is an actual word, meaning "a very large, unspecified number"

How's that for a smart kid!

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Girly Girly

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Presenting....

Missy Lou (a.k.a. Emma)

Queen Girly Girly

Yes that is not one, but two tutu's on top of maymoos (Emma speak for pajamas)

Now I'm not sure which is more adorable...

...Emma's outfit or...

...the fact that she calls her princesses "mommies"...
(if only all us really mommies could look that nice)

...or the fact that she makes her "mommies" dance...

Who am I kidding it's all adorable!

Spring and sadness

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Today the weather was FINALLY nice enough to spend more than thirty seconds outside so the kids and I...

...went for a drive

...stopped to discuss our vehicles...

...shared a few smiles...

...had a little snack, before...

...going back to play...

...and then took a nap.

It was a good day.

Except for the sad part...

...my camera lens is broken...

sniff...sniff..

makes me want to cry.

Thrifty Finds

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Thrift stores can be so darn fun sometimes. You never know what you're going to find. The kids and I went to Goodwill the other day in search of some ugly ties to send my brother for his birthday, while he's on his mission. We came home with these beauties.

I actually like the pinkish one, and almost decided to keep it for some unknown reason, even to myself, and Tyson was particularly drawn to the brown paisley one. So I guess maybe they aren't so ugly, especially considering there's an old Jerry Garcia thrown in there, well except for the brown clip on, that one is really and truly ugly. So at least Will will get one ugly tie.

But these aren't the treasure of the day.

These are!

Now don't roll your eyes, I've always wanted to learn how to Rollerblade, but never wanted or could spend the $70 it would take to buy even the lowest end model, especially since I'm not even sure I'll take to it. But Tyson has a pair and as been wanting me to get a pair for a couple years now so at a sweet $9 I couldn't resist. I'm sure they'll be many misadventures while these are on my feet.

Child Prodigy

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We have a child prodigy in our home, did you know that?

Yup we do.

It's Emma...

She reads.

Did you just faint from the cuteness?

I sure did.

Questions

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Last night I was cordially invited to give a talk this coming Sunday. Despite my best efforts to wiggle out of it, well...let's just say I'm giving a talk this Sunday. So I could use your help, dear readers, the topic I've been given is "Fortify your family against evil". So I have a couple questions for you. If you would be willing to answer them, either by e-mail or by leaving a comment below, that would be wonderful.

1) What does "fortify your family/home" mean to you?

2) How do you fortify your family/home?

3) How did your parents fortify their family/home while you were growing up?

Thank you, thank you, thank you, for your help!

Appreciation

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Last night we had tacos, which is not altogether unusual, tacos are one of my favorite meals. What was unusual is that I made homemade tortillas. Tacos with homemade tortillas was often my requested birthday meal. I'd never made them before so I thought I'd give it a shot.

Well I have a whole new appreciation for my mom. Rolling out those darn tortillas is hard work, or maybe I'm just weak, but either way I'm pretty sure I was using some arm muscles that haven't been used in awhile. After all that effort I couldn't even get the darn things remotely round.

See...

...and that was the the cream of the crop.

They still tasted good, but it made for some interesting tacos. Most of the tortillas were so skiwampus that you really could only fit about a teaspoon of meat, a shred of lettuce and cheese, and about one small chunk of whatever else you wanted on it without it turning into a huge mess; and you could just forget about any sour cream or salsa. So thanks mom for making rather round tortillas from scratch just because I asked you too.

By the way do you have any tips on how to get them round?
I'd even settle of roundish.

Ben says...

The other day Ben, Emma, and I were watching some kid's show on TV, what it was I don't remember, (I normally am doing about 30 other things while the TV is on) but I do remember a commercial.

Why, you ask?

Well, it was a commercial for whole grain cheerios, which I wasn't paying any attention to until, Ben said...

"Mom, we need to get some whole grain!"

Excuse me? Need?


Man, they're good!

I should write to General Mills and tell them their commercials work.

Maybe I'll get a couple boxes of free cheerios.

That would be pretty sweet.

Sneak peek...

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So remember when need vs. want went head to head, well, they actually both lost and I ended up doing something completely different, namely chatting it up with some friends. But I did finally get around to both the need and the want. I'm pretty sure you're not all that interested in seeing a picture of me sleeping, especially because I've been known to drool upon occasion, but here's a sneak peek of what I needed to work on. It's still not quite finished, but it's getting there.

What do you think?

Friday

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You know, for most of my life Friday was that magical day. The day that signified the end of the work week and the beginning of two days of freedom. Pictures like this seem appropriate for that.

Then (cue the dun, dun, dun, music) we turned into grad students and Ben started school, and Friday turned sinister. Now it's the day that Ben's home all day, and the day that is before the day that Tyson works another 12-13 hour day instead of a weekend. Of course I love Ben, but it throws the routine when he's home all day and can occasionally result in some major meltdowns from everyone (including me). Sigh....I keep telling myself it's just for now, but frankly that doesn't help. How do you guys feel about Fridays? Is it still magical like it was when you were younger?
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Conversations

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I had a conversation with Andrew today. It went something like this...

Me: Do you know what today is little mister?

Drew: No.....

Me: Why don't you guess, twenty questions.

Drew: Don't you do that to me! You know I hate that game!

Me: Okay fine. Today you are 3 months old!! You're ancient!

Drew: No way!

Me: Way!

Drew: Does that mean I can drive the car?

Me: hmm....maybe later.


Wow, three months. Can you believe it?
Apparently Drew couldn't.

Need vs. Want

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Right now I really, really want to be doing this...

(i.e. sleeping, though I don't look even have as cute when I sleep)

But I really, really need to be doing something involving this...

And this...

Hmmm, we'll see which one wins out.

Bureaucracy Stinks!

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Dear Readers,

We're students. Did I tell you that? I'm sure you already knew. So obviously we don't make a whole heck of a lot of dough. So, like most students, we're on food stamps. For those of your who are looking down you nose at us, don't worry, as soon as we get a job we'll be paying back in taxes whatever the government's giving us now ten times over. Anyway...every six months we have a review to see if we're still eligible for help, and every six months it seems, even when there aren't any changes, there are more hoops to jump through. Well this time around, there was a small change (a whoppin' $35 dollars more a month), and now we are almost literally drowning in red tape and paperwork. Apparently there was a mistake made way back in August of 2010 with Tyson and his grant, which came to light when the change was being input. Well it's way to complicated to even try to explain, especially because I don't really understand it myself, but the upshot of everything is that in order to keep our benefits I have to print out a year and a half worth of bank statements and then go through each one and mark whether it was Tyson or I who made each transaction. Oh and I have to take my name off any account that is associated with any of the grant money.

Yup, you read that right. For the first time since Tyson and I were engaged we will not have a joint account. But that's not even the worst part. I not only can not have my name on any account with Tyson, but I also can not have any of the grant money transferred into any account with my name on it. Which means for the first time since my parents took me to open my first bank account when I was, I don't know... 13 maybe, I don't have a bank account. Which means, besides my credit card, which is for emergencies only, I have no access to any money, at all. Did you follow all that?

Now the really strange part about all this is how it's effected me emotionally. Yeah, I'm frustrated but that comes with the territory, when do you tangle with bureaucracy without getting frustrated? But this time around the process has left me feeling different. Now Tyson is about the farthest you can get from chauvinistic, but knowing that now I can't even purchase a roll of toilet paper without Tyson's "permission" somehow makes me feel smaller, downgraded, almost second class. I don't really know why. I can't really explain it. Even going back and re-reading these words they don't really communicate the strange mix of emotions that I have about this ridiculous loss of a bank account. It's just a bank account, right? What we buy isn't going to change, right? Just now Tyson has to do the buying, right? Nothing is really different, right? And yet somehow everything is different.

Well thanks for listening. I needed to vent. Wish me luck with the bank statements, I'm sure they'll take awhile. Love you all.

A slightly smaller, slightly emotionally confused,

-ME

Nastalgia

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I've been wanting to do this for a couple years now, but I never seem to remember when the needed conditions are around. Well we got a couple inches of snow last night, so I finally did it!

What am I talking about?

MAPLE SNOWBALL SMILES!

Yup you read that right. Maple snowball smiles. I remember my mom making these for my sister and I when we lived in Boston.

Want the recipe?

Here it is....

Step #1: Gather ingredients
(yes it really must be Pure Canadian Maple Syrup, unless you're a heathen, then you have my permission to use that Eggo syrup junk)




Step #2: Find some snow
(good, clean, fresh snow is definitely preferable)





Step #3: Make a snowball
(Be careful not to over snowball, yes there really is such a thing, but make sure you pack it nice because it does actually make a difference)




Step #4: Go back inside
(sorry no picture for this one)



Step #5: Heat up the syrup
(I know, I know, seems like you shouldn't, but really you should)





Step #6: Poor it over the snowball
(yup, it'll melt a but, and look kinda funny, but looks aren't everything)




Step #7: Place on table
(preferably where your 5 year old can see it, why?, they'll get curious)





Step #8: Watch them take that very first bite
(trust me it's worth it)





Step #9: Wait for that "oh my what is this fabulous stuff" face
(trust me, it'll come)

Step #10: The smile

(which is usually followed by a "you're the greatest mom in the world" hug)

There you have it. Maple snowball smiles! Wonderful, wonderful stuff, worth the slightly frost bitten hands don't ya think?

Oh, FYI, it doesn't work as well with fruity syrups, don't really know why...

..and it DEFINITELY doesn't work with molasses.

Ya know, in case you thought that might be a good idea.

Not like I did or anything...cough, cough....

Ben says...

So this past week Ben has had a tricky time keeping his bed dry at night. Which translates into lots and lots and lots of laundry for me.

Sigh.

Anyway...

On Friday I was once again gathering up sodden bedding and PJ's when Ben said, in regards to his pajamas...


"Mom, why are you washing those? They're dry!"


hmm...it makes me wonder what other things in his closet are "dry".

Out of the house

Whooo hooo we did something fun today!

At least Ben thought it was fun....

Emma...well Emma wasn't so sure about the fun part...

It's a good thing you can't hear her screams of protest. I'm pretty sure they'd damage your hearing.

Andrew slept through it all, and Tyson inched along behind Ben all night, so maybe just Ben and I thought it was fun.

Oh well.

It was Emma's first time out on the ice after all. Maybe someday her screams won't be so loud.

Or maybe we'll all just lose our hearing.

Bumbo

I love our Bumbo...

...apparently so does Drew.

How does this happen...

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So Drew has gown so quickly that it's already time to pull out the 3-6 month and 6 month sized clothes. Well apparently after sitting in storage and/or being lent out for 5 years organization disappears. So I got it in my crazy little head to pull out all of Ben's out grown clothes and do a major organize and sort session.

Seven bins later this is what our living room looked like...

I swear there's a floor under there somewhere.

PS. If you know someone who needs some boy clothes I have a few to spare. Just a few.

Winds-day

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Hum, dum, dum, dee, dee, dum
Hum, dum, dum
Oh the wind is lashing lusterly
And the trees are thrashing thrusterly
And the leaves are rustling gusterly
So it's rather safe to say
That it seems that it may turn out to be
It feels that it will undoubteadly
Looks like a rather blustery day today
It seems that it may turn out to be
Feels that it will undoubteadly

Looks like a rather blustery day today


You wanna know how windy it was today?

It blew our front door open.

Several times.

Crazy!

Poor little Emma

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So Ben's back at school, which means that Emma, Drew, and I get to pick him up from the bus every afternoon. Well today, while we were waiting Emma decided to do a little dance, which for her means standing on her tip toes and doing knee bends, very cute. However apparently when you try and do that on a slight decline, and you're almost two, you lose you balance and forehead plant on the cement. Then because you're almost two you recover quickly and decide to do it again. Ending in the same result.

Poor baby girl.

Home Invasion

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Our house is swarming with germs at the moment. It's like a petri dish in here. I've had to cancel two play dates, reschedule another, and it looks like I'll have to reschedule that one again. I guess it's Murphy Law, since I had just finally gotten my act together enough to start doing play dates again, since Andrew came along.
The germs started their invasion with Ben, last week, with croup. Did you know that 5 year olds could get croup? I didn't. I thought it was an infant sickness. But apparently you can actually get croup till you're about 15! Granted it is most common between 6 months and 3 years. Well Ben got it and now the other two have it. It's kinda funny that of our three kids, only one is actually in that "most common" age range, and she's had the easiest time of it. Ben's still struggling with a cough, though it's not very croupy sounding any more, and poor little Andrew sounds horrible, poor guy, and just wants to be held. I think our kids may be broken or something, because unless they have a fever of 104 the only way they act any different when they're sick is they are super duper, over the top, cranky. I spent the first few hours of my days with two screaming children and the other winning because he couldn't hear his movie. I'm pretty sure our neighbors hate us. Then to add insult to injury I'm sporting a glorious cold sore on my lip. Sigh. Basically the only person who isn't crawling with germs at the moment is Tyson, who spends all day working with germs. Ironic. Hopefully soon all these friendly germs will find somewhere else to go and we'll be able to reenter society.
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Ben Says.....

The other day we were driving past a couple of these...

when Ben asked...

“Mom what are those big poles doing in the middle of that garden?”

Yup, we're big football fans. Can you tell?

Miracles Happen

Miracles do happen you know.

Ya know how I know?

This is why...

Yup. ALL THREE OF THEM! AT THE SAME TIME! See...

That sure made our day trip up to Spokane a smidge easier.

Okay, that just made our day trip a smidge funnier.

How can you sleep like that?

Love

Last week I fell in love. Head over heels, loose my head, in love.


With this....

Ain't it bee-u-tiful!!

You know what I love about it...

besides everything...

it's a camera bag!

Can you tell?

No?

Ain't it great.
It even fits other stuff, like keys, a wallet, maybe even an extra diaper or two. I've been wanting a camera bag like this for awhile now. Sure I have a couple other camera bags, one is a holster bag, which is great when I'm just going to take pictures and nothing else, but all it fits is my camera, it doesn't even fit my keys. The other is a backpack type bag that can hold extra lenses and stuff, but once again has no place for everyday stuff, like keys. I've been looking for a bag that is built to protect a camera, but is meant for everyday use so it has room for every day stuff too. You know, a toss the camera in and go type thing. This is it.

Camera protection...check.

Multiple pockets...check.

Cell phone pocket...check.

Key pocket...check.

Outstandingly gorgeous...check.

Super expensive...check, check.

Drat.

Sigh, goodbye my love. I guess it was never meant to be...


Unless I become rich and famous...


...or win the lottery.

Chunky Monkey Cutie Pie!

Oh my, our boy is HUGE!

Today was Drew-ber's 2 month doctor's visit. He weighed in at a whopping 14.7 lbs and 24.5 inches, which puts him in the 95% and 91% respectively. Considering we took him home from the hospital at 6.9 lbs and 19.1 inches this boy has exploded! Neither of the other two kids approached this level of massiveness till at least 4 months, if not later. I think the doctor felt like he had to reassure me or something because he said that his weight to length ratio is "only" 63%. Which means that 37% of babies are fatter than Andrew. That made me chuckle. We think his fattiness is adorable and wouldn't have him any other way.


We love our little Heffalump, every last roll.

Success!

We got it! One of Andrew's speeches is now saved for posterity.





Rather eloquent don't ya think?

Valentine's Day

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

from...




PS. He'll be available for dates December 2027

Hate

Hate is a really strong word, which describes a very strong emotion. I don't use that word very often. I usually say something along these lines "dislike" "not a fan" "prefer something else" etc. etc. Mostly because there really are few things that my feelings of dislike are strong enough to warrant the word "hate". That being said, I hate baseboard heaters. I know, I know, kind of a weird thing to feel so strongly about, but I do. I hate baseboard heaters. Our current apartment has them. I hate that they render a whole wall of space almost useless because you can put anything close to them. But I really, really, really, hate what they do to my kids...

Yup, that's Emma's knee. Yup, that's a burn. Yup, it was bad enough to turn red, blister, scab, the whole scha-bang. Yup, the heat was only on high enough to prevent her from freezing in her bed. Yup, she touched it for less than 15 seconds. Yup, we had stuff in front of it as close as possible without being a fire hazard. Nope, I have no idea how to make them safer.


Did I tell you that I hate Baseboard heaters?

Andrew finds the camera

Andrew's had a lot to say recently, which is adorable; of course there's little that he does that isn't, but we're his parents so we're supposed to think that. Anyway we attempted to catch one of his speeches on camera. It didn't really work, but what we got was fun anyway.

100th Post

So 100 posts is supposed to be a big deal or something. Ignore the fact that it took me 3 years to get there. Which is not even 3 posts a month, in case you were wondering.

Yes I did the math.

Anyway, I knew this was coming and thought I'd do something different. My thought was that I could go out and get 100 pictures of people smiling and make a totally awesome video montage. Something fun, something different.

Why not?

Well I got to number 31 before I was yelled at by a Walmart manager for taking pictures.

What?

I thought it was a good idea. It's the most populated place in town that wouldn't require me to push a stroller and wear a parka.

Anyway, after the chastisement I got a little bitter and thought "who wants to see a video of a bunch of people they don't know anyway!" I went home and sulked.


Then in those almost falling asleep moments of brilliance, I got a brain wave.



Here it is...



...I bet you'll know a person or two in this version...



...and I bet you'll be smiling before it's done.

And yes there are 100 pictures.

Wedding Ninjas

Some of you may recall that Tyson, Ben and Emma took off to become wedding ninjas at the end of December. Well they brought back a wedding ninja outfit for little Andrew too, which of course resulted in an attack of wedding ninja-ness last Sunday.

At first Ben thought he was just way too spiffy of a ninja to deign to have his photo taken...

...he finally decided that he looked way too spiffy to NOT have his picture taken.

Emma, well Emma was annoyed about just about everything at the moment.

Ben was very pleased to show Andrew the ropes...

...while Andrew was just please to be involved.

Ten minutes later the boys continued to show off their ninja-ness, while Emma was anxious to move on to the next event of the day, lunch...

...eventually Andrew started wondering how he ending up in the middle of all this.

I told him I didn't really know. It just happened.

Choices

Sometimes I hate choices...

...No I take that back...

...I almost always hate choices...

...No I take that back too...

...I hate MAKING choices, having choices is great, making them is hard. Particularly when the choice is whether to shower or take a nap with the 30 minutes that naps and quiet time all line up. What's with that? Why do I have to choose between two such good things? I really like showers. But I really like naps too. Sadly, for my husbands over sensitive nose, naps usually win out; until about day three or four. That's about when I start scaring people away, or my husband will very tactfully ask "did you want to shower today?", which is code for "hit the showers sticky pot!" Then the shower will prevail. Of course if my shower looked something like this...


...it probably would be less of a contest.

Of course if my shower looked like that then my bed would look something like this...


...and we'd be back to square one.


Which would you choose. Shower? Nap?