You Couldn't Pay Me To Do This Again. Ever.

All I am going to say is that Nate and I will never buy a old house and experience the joys of fixing it up.

'Fixing it up' is not a joy for us.

Here is where our books and bookshelves started...

The carpet is gone!

Then the books ended up here... (the shelves are crammed in our bedroom)

It wouldn't have been too bad if it stayed in those neat piles. But, of course, they are all messed up by now.

Here is where we are trying to live...

Luckily the kids are adaptable. They went from tumbling all over the carpet, to running and jumping all over the plywood, to dancing and sliding all over the laminate flooring. Everything is a toy to them.

Socks have never played such a prominent role in floor related recreation. But there has also been butt sliding, blanket sliding, back sliding, and belly sliding. It's been great fun. I think they all have a head start if they ever need to learn how to slide into home.

Nonspecific

Playing cars.

The picture I took of G at Lowe's when he was saying "forklift" in his own special way.

I had to take a picture of this. You don't see B.A. cuddling anyone very often. Unless it is a dog.

We made chocolate chip muffins on the best Saturday morning I have had in a long time.

It's Curling!

We "curled" today. The rules were a little different. For example...

There is no ice.

We don't slide heavy rocks.

There was no bumping of other people's rocks.

There were no teams either.

Or scoring.

There weren't any big painted circles on our board. Just squares made out of painter's tape. (Squares were much easier.)

And there was no sweeping of ice. Or strategy.

But other than that, it was pretty much the same game.

If we would have had a winner, Dare would have been it.

Mads' technique was jumping as he threw. Gorgeous, but not very effective.

G was the biggest cheater. We gave him a DSQ several times.

**********

P.S. If you ever get bored in the car, G has lots of ideas you can do to keep yourself entertained.

#1 Claiming the Crayons

More to come...

Mighty

I don't really know how to introduce this. Just watch...

Come on! It's not that long!

Don't you love how he tells Nate he wants to do it by himself TWICE? Story of my life with this kid. I'm not sure what he said a lot of the time, but he managed to bless food a couple times and our house. Oh, and he prayed for Grammy's house, and Mark. But of course my favorite parts are the long, drawn out aaaaaannnnddds.

Oh, and I had to reel him in there at the end. We might have kneeled there all night. I just got lucky that he let me help him that time. It was hilarious after that, how he gave Nate the I-told-you-so look. I'm not sure why.

Right Past the Fireflies That Sleep in My Heart

Last week B.A. was Star of the Week in her class. She made a poster about herself and got to do special things at school. On Friday she was able to bring a visitor to join her at lunch, and talk to the class about her poster and answer questions. Since she was sick on Friday, we did this yesterday. When I got there she was already eating her lunch. This didn't stop her from running up and giving me a big hug. She was sitting on the very end of the table. I just kicked a couple of girls off the bench and sat across from her. Just kidding. I didn't kick them off. It was pretty funny how they kept looking at me though. She did a lot of talking to her friend, Savannah. We played a story game while I watched her put her bell peppers on her ham sandwich before she ate it. I joined her for recess. She wanted to run. I just watched. Then we walked around talking to all her friends and seeing what they were up to. I learned that B.A. doesn't like doing the monkey bars in the winter because her hands get too cold, and she doesn't like playing soccer because of all the weird boys. We joined some girls doing cartwheels, and I even showed off my handstand skills.

Her presentation was outstanding. She wasn't nervous to speak in front of her class at all. She told the class all about her favorites, what she wants to be when she grows up, her vacations, and her family. Then the class asked questions. One kid asked what continent she would like to visit the most, and she said Asia. Another question was would she rather drown in freezing water or hot lava. B.A. said she would rather not drown at all.

B.A. is such a cool kid. Sometimes I forget because of all the drama, but she is awesome. I love that she laughs so easily. I just have to get her to stop worrying so much and she might laugh even more.

Thanks, B.A., for letting me hang out with you.

Cerulean

Rhon and Dare dressed up G the other day...

He seems oddly pleased with himself. Is it the pink skirt with no back? He probably likes the naked bum feel.

Maybe it's the bangs.

Nice Skull

Mads' first ever buzz cut. I love it.

Dueling

Last night I had to carry two kids to bed. Well, Nate carried one and I carried the other, but two kids had to be carried to bed. I was up late with my boyfriend, Mario, and at two separate times during the night one of my children came to join me. See if you can guess which two.

This is Rhon's bed. This was taken several months ago, but it is like this every night. I am not exaggerating. Every single night. It doesn't matter what I say to Dare. It doesn't matter how a threaten her. She will not stay in her own bed all night. EVER.

Now you are probably thinking one of the kids was probably Dare, right? Because she can't stay in her own bed. Nope. It was Rhon. Dare has a way of making Rhon the uncomfortable one. She always manages to take all the pillow and most of the space. Poor Rhon. And yes, I had to move Dare back into her own bed before I could put Rhon where she belonged.

I bet you can guess who the other kid was this time. Yup, Mads. He came out telling me that G was taking all his space. This picture was taken a couple nights before, so I guess this will be a nightly thing for the boys too. I'm not too surprised. Dare and G are alike in every other possible way, I don't know why this would be any different.

I guess I should be glad he choses Mads' bed instead of mine. But that hasn't stopped him from coming into my room at 5 every morning for his daily sitting-on-my-head routine. And, just for clarification, he isn't wearing pajamas because he takes them off. I don't know why. He just likes nakedness.

Art Nouveau

Fortunately in our house, we have a budding interior decorator. He takes plain, boring colors and designs around the house, and makes them better. He makes them POP! if you will...

Sheets generally have no texture. Not in this house! Not only did he give us a print, but it has a delicious sticky texture too.

Hand fluffed toilet paper. It is much more comfortable this way. And attractive. You'll never go back to boring old rolled-tight toilet paper again.

Plain green soooo boring. Here he favored us with a limited edition abstract design. Much more interesting.

Mood lighting inspired by Louis Tiffany perhaps?

Here is a detail of one of the mood lights. If you look closely, you can see not only the blue design but a brown substance that I hope is chocolate.

I bet crabs in the wild wish they had this shiny green top coat.

The beauty is everywhere!

More.

And more.

He wanted to do frescos but had to settle for murals.

Thanks G. Our house is the most interesting one on the block.

Proverbial Wilderness

I wanted to give a shout out to the things that have been giving me a little bit of joy lately. Sometimes it is the little things that keep me going.

Pepsi Throwback. I think I might like it better than Dr. Pepper. Maybe.

Gummy candy and Sees lollipops. Anything gummy has been so wonderful to me lately. And these suckers have always been one of my favorite things.

My new black hoodie that I got at Target for 5 bucks. It's so warm and cozy. Plus it goes with my black hair, black nail polish, black eyeliner, black eye shadow, and black mascara.

The line up of snow clothes. I feel so happy when this stuff gets some use. Especially because they can mostly put all of it on by themselves.

So good. Can't wait until the 13th.

So so good.

Here comes some cheese...

All of these things are great, but I would throw it all away a million times just to see my family happy. That makes me the happiest of all. And it is a real happy. A happy that can't be replaced.

My family gives me more joy than I could ever deserve. Even though sometimes they are the ones who are making me crazy, they are always the ones who make me the happiest. Especially when I concentrate on their needs and not my own. They all become manageable and wonderful. I wonder how I ever get mad at any of them in the first place. Or how I can be sad with them around. I love feeling like I live with the 6 most perfect people in the world. I just need to remember that more often...

Decending

It is hard for me not to imagine snowboarding every time I see this mountain. And I see this mountain at least 3 times a day, everyday. It hurts me. {sniff sniff}

Isn't it beautiful? We love the snow. The kids can't get enough of it this week. They are spending hours in the front yard. Every night I have to put their snow clothes in the dryer so they will be ready for the next day. I accidentally dried the hoods of their jackets when I wasn't supposed to. The fur doesn't look quite the same. Bummer. I suck. Laundry is my sucking specialty.

The snow was too heavy for them to lift one ball on top of the other to make a snowman, so they just put the balls in a row and made a caterpillar...

It's not done yet. But I love it.

Trophies

I think I have mentioned before that G is the biggest contrarian I have had. And I have some bad ones. He started early, and he has just gotten worse. I have almost given up trying to tell him what things are. He never believes me. It's not just me. He does it with everyone. It cracked me up the other day when I overheard this exchange...

Mads: Hey Dad, do you want to play cars with me?

Nate: Sure.

Mads: You can me this car, and I'll be the jet.

Nate: Do you know what kind of jet that is, Mads?

Mads: No. What kind?

Nate: It's an F-15.

G: No! Eighteen!

I didn't even know he knew the number 18. I guess being stinky brings out the best in him.

Singing in 2010

We spent New Year's Eve with the Wests. I'm going to be honest, I was a little worried about spending 6 straight hours with them. Turns out, I was right to be worried. It was torture!

Just kidding. We had an awesome time. First we had dinner. Then we listened to music. Then we got out there karaoke machine, of course. That is clearly the next step to create an awesome New Year's Eve party.

G loves microphones! And singing! Anyone who has ever sat by us at church knows that when we sing, G is always the loudest and most enthusiastic. He pretty much just made noise constantly in the microphone. It didn't get irritating at all.

Eew. I look tired.

Suzy was by far my favorite person that night. She did a beautiful rendition of 'Love is Strange'. I tried to be her duet, but I was laughing too hard. Luckily one of the boys saved us and turned the song off.

Then we played a bunch of New Super Mario Bros. Wii. We learned that Cody is not a team player. And we ate lots of snacks. Our new hot chocolate maker was a big hit.

G and G (Gavs) were the only two who didn't make it to midnight. Luckily Suze provided plenty of pots and spoons.

These kids were doing this while Ethan was riding his bike around. Crazy kid. It was freezing and there was ice everywhere.

Even though we were the Wests 6th choice of company, we were glad they invited us over.

Plaid

The girls got Christmas/Winter dresses from Grammy. She made them, and they are gorgeous. The girls loved them, of course. They got mad at me for making them take them off right away after church. I was informed by my mother that they are "DRY CLEAN ONLY!" They are lucky I let them wear them long enough to take this picture.

*****

This was the night after my family Christmas party. We went to Tom and Theresa's for dinner. My parents were there, and Monica and her family were in town also. It was a really great time. We played a game with white elephant-type gifts that no one wanted to end.

Christmas Morning

We didn't buy a lot of presents this year because Wesley was their Christmas present. And although I love buying gifts for my kids, it felt much less stressful not having to worry about presents. They still had a blast on Christmas morning opening a few gifts from us, and all the ones from family.

Mads got a flashlight. Seriously made him so happy. He carries (carriED, since he lost it recently) it everywhere and is very resourceful.