Connor, Connor, and MORE Connor

Connor wandered off the other night while I was getting dinner ready, so I sent Emily off on a Connor hunt to make sure he wasn't back there playing with the toilet brush (a favorite past-time of his lately...EW!). I heard her start giggling like crazy, and then she came running out to say he was playing in the saucer, in my bedroom, with the lights turned off.



He hasn't been in this saucer since March when I had my appendix out and wasn't supposed to be lifting him very much and we just got used to NOT using it. It's just been stored in my bedroom. I'm amazed he got in there on his own without tipping it over!

Here, he was deciding he was about done, but didn't know how to get back out!


THEN, Mr. Man thought he was all that and then some when he put on his sister's boots and went tromping through the house in them (NO shoes are safe from Connor these days!)


And lastly, (poor Connor), Emily decided Connor was a willing enough participant and had a little fun with him.

First she did his hair:




Then, she put him in her new robe: (I have to say, I laughed hysterically about the robe, because Connor had that same shuffle/waddle ET did when he was wearing the too-big robe and it completely cracked me up!)


Then, she did his make-up (she wanted him to be a Steelers girl, so she gave him some eyeshadow and lipgloss, and then drew on the black lines which are supposed to be like football players wear on their cheekbones.):




Connor was happy as a clam his big sister was paying attention to him, and both of them were having so much fun, that Dan went ahead and let Emily continue (I would have thought he'd stop her after she sent him out in a pink headband and a pink hairclip!). She wanted to paint his fingernails, too, but I put my foot down on that one. That would have been really messy (on her part, AND Connor's!)

Jared Says...

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow...

We took the kids to the mountains to sled yesterday. Overall, we had a really nice time, but it was kind of a long, wild day!

As soon as we paid our $15 entrance fee for the National Park, we needed to chain up. The roads leading up to the National Park entrance were bare/wet, but IMMEDIATELY upon entering the park, they were covered in ice. GORGEOUS drive, and the van with chains did FANTASTICALLY!!


We got about 2/3 of the way there and came across a temporary road closure because they were plowing (WHY OH WHY didn't I think to take a picture!?! LOL). When we rounded the corner and saw the gate closed with flashing lights all over it, my heart sunk and I thought our sledding attempts had been foiled for the second year in a row, but then we saw a sign saying it was for road clearing and I was happy. Everyone lined up in a long line, and when the line got too long, the ranger had us all pull up into the parking lot of the Inn nearby, and when the parking lot got full, cars started lining up again. We waited for about an hour and a half, after already being in the car for almost two hours. We'd packed lunch and snacks and drinks, so entertained ourselves with food and a DVD (thank goodness for DVD players built into vehicles, that's all I have to say!!)

Here's the boys waiting while Daddy's off checking to see if the road was truly opening at noon or not.


And here's Emily and Uncle Corey (and Connor!) waiting


And here are some of the MILLIONS of ice cicles hanging off the Inn we were parked near. Being as we live in a place where it really doesn't get snowy, or even very icy, I was really impressed with how PRETTY all those ice cicles looked!


After the road opened, it took about another hour of driving before we got up to the sledding area. It was just starting to REALLY be snowy and windy as we were unloading from the car and getting all bundled up. Jared walked right over and climbed up a snow drift off to the side, and then sunk down up to his thighs. LOL


This is what Connor thought of the snow being blown into his face (felt more like hail than snow, but WASN'T hail...weirdest snow I've ever seen, though I haven't seen much, truthfully!)


We knew we were "in trouble" as soon as we walked across the parking lot and saw what the sledding area looked like. First, you had to climb up about a four foot high SLIGHTLY sloped "cliff" to get up to the more main area (no stairs, no rope railing to help pull yourself along with). So immediately we were struggling to get the three kids UP. THEN, we saw there were only two sled runs and the lines were getting longer by the second. We were about 2/3 through the line when I took this picture


Dan's blocking the whipping winds and snow from Connor's face while they wait in line, so he's temporarily not screaming his head off


Uncle Corey and Jared standing in line to sled


Emily and I both squinting to keep our eyes from being sandblasted by snow (snowblasted?) and wind


Uncle Corey took Jared down, then Emily and I went down, and then Dan and Connor came down, so I only have a pic of Dan and Connor


The snow got even thicker and the windy was really circling around (so you couldn't turn your back to it because it was kind of just coming from everywhere). Low clouds rolled through and it got really dark and hazy




Dan opted not to stand in line again with Connor, and Jared decided to stay with Dan, so Corey and Emily and I went to stand in line one more time. Emily and I went down together again and Corey came down after us.

Dan informed me that Connor had been screaming the entire time we'd been in line the second time (probably about 20 minutes), and there was NO soothing him (if anyone can soothe Connor, it's Dan!). I thought maybe he was mad because his hat was down over his eyes, but when I pulled it up a bit, he reached right up and yanked it back down again!


I said I'd take him to the car and hang out with him there. I took off all our snow clothes, moved Jared's carseat out of the way, and Connor and I sat there watching a DVD and eating a snack and having a drink. Dan brought Jared to us about 15 minutes later, so the boys and I hung out in the car while Dan and Corey played with Emily in the snow (they didn't bother with the sledding lines again). They all came to the car about a half hour later, we tossed all the wet stuff in the back of the van and headed for home.

Emily and Jared did FANTASTICALLY the entire time. Connor hated the blowing snow in his face, but did really really well on the drive. They had a great time snacking and watching movies, and the older two enjoyed the amount of snow time they got between two and three hours, depending on which kid we're talking about). It was an experience!

Next year (or later on this winter), we'll try to plan for a day where it's not supposed to be snowing, and we'd leave even earlier in the morning (we left at 8:45am this year), and I'd potentially leave Connor behind next time (if we go again this year), but we'll see.

sledding today

We took the kids sledding in the mountains today. Details and pictures tomorrow! It's been a long day and I'm exhausted, so I'm going to head over to finish watching Hook with the kids, while we sip at some hot cocoa!

Dancing Girl

One of Em's gifts from us was a new leotard and tutu for ballet. Isn't she ADORABLE!?!?! I had the hardest time not just giving her the outfit as soon as it arrived in the mail.

Gift from Santa

After MUCH nagging from Mrs. Claus, Santa finally got his tush in gear over the weekend and worked on the puppet stage he wanted to give my children for Christmas. Mrs. Claus had wanted plenty of time to sew up curtains for the stage, but couldn't do a darn thing without measurements for the stage window and so had to wait on Santa. Mrs. Claus was THRILLED to be at JoAnn Fabrics the weekend before Christmas where she stood in line for 40 minutes to get the material cut, and another 25 minutes in line to pay for it. Mrs. Claus was even more thrilled when the base color of paint wasn't dry until almost midnight Sunday, so that she had to be out in the cold "workshop" in the middle of the night stenciling on the gold paint... And in case you're interested, Mrs. Claus created her own stencils using cardstock and her Cricut machine! LOL Santa and Mrs. Claus did a pretty fabulous job, wouldn't you agree?





The flash did something funny to the colors in this one, but I'm showing it anyway so you can see the depth of the stage (and the awesome stencil job Mrs. Claus did!!!)

Christmas Card Photo

I mentioned a few days ago that I would post, and discuss, the Christmas card photo we sent out this year, after enough time had passed that everyone receiving one in the mail, actually received it! I think today would be a good day for that...

This is the picture we sent:


And NO, we don't love Connor more than Emily and Jared, it just so happened that as I was taking the picture, Connor got up out of the little rocking chair and was taking off, so the flash focused entirely on him and left the other two in the dark shadowy corners of the picture. But if you peer into the darkness you see they're smiling nicely, and so is Connor, and it's the ONLY picture where all three of them look happy.

I almost sent out this one:


But Jared's a little more "fake" in that one, and Connor is obviously less than pleased with my insistance he sit still for TWO SECONDS and let me take a picture, and Em's all scrunched down...

Or I could have sent this one:


But Emily looks a little drugged up, Jared's not even looking at all, and I kind of felt like sending out a picture of my baby standing up on a rocking chair (with my blessing at this point, because, gosh darnit, he's SMILING!) was only going to create conversations about my parenting abilities ("Oh my goodness! Look at this! She let her baby stand up on a ROCKING CHAIR!").

The other pictures were of Emily and Jared, smiling nicely, with Connor's blurry arm (as he completely just ran off), or of the back of Connor's head as he'd roll over and slide down out of the chair, or of Emily and Jared looking at Connor as he was crying and fighting against my left hand pressing his body into the chair...LOL, etc etc etc.

SO, you see, the intent was not to showcase Connor in the picture we sent out, we love all three children equally, but it was the only picture that showed off their beautiful smiles within the same picture, so I ran with it (straight to the post office!)

Merry Christmas!!

Hey! Who turned out the lights?

Some little person in our house recently discovered the joy of turning on and off the lights in our house, and he does it A LOT. If you turn your back for just the smallest of seconds, he'll push one of the many kid sized chairs, or a foot stool, or even more dangerous things (like ride-on toys with WHEELS) over and climbs up in order to reach the light switch. Suddenly, it's a dance party with strobe light action! I found him messing around with the lights in the kitchen yesterday and took a picture. He really started hamming it up and posing for me at that point. ha ha!

Gingerbread House

Emily and Jared and I sat down and put the together the Gingerbread House kit we'd bought a few weeks ago. I was in charge of the frosting and they were in charge of attaching all the candies. I'd offer input/assistance when requested/needed, but mostly, they were free to stick whatever they wanted, wherever they wanted to. It was fun! Oh, and we all totally licked fingers and sampled candies as we went, so don't come over and decide to take a little taste because our germs are ALL OVER IT! ha ha!







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Christmas Cookies!

Emily invited a few friends over yesterday to decorate Christmas cookies with her. I had visions of little girls sitting nicely at the table decorating cookies (with sprinkles all over the table and the floor and whatnot!), then working on the activity packets I put together of Christmas themed mazes, connect the dots, coloring pages, word searches, and word finds while I prepared lunch. What I did NOT envision was a pack of screaming wild maniacs tearing through my house at top volume and top speed, leaving a trail of dress-up clothes in their wake, all the while bickering over who had what dress-up dress, who had which dress-up shoes, who was "allowed" to wear gloves and who wasn't, etc etc etc. They were loud, rude (to each other), yet overall worked out their own problems and jumped quickly from one issue to the other with very little drama in the end. I hid in the corner and sucked my thumb. ha ha. Not really, but I did keep clear for the most part as they were working things out on their own and having a great time. No one was asking to go home, no one was tattling, no one was being left out... Em's already asking when she can have another cookie party. I think maybe she can have another cookie party after I have a little Vodka party! ha ha ha! Just kidding. It was really really loud and chaotic,but the girls, overall, had a fantastic time and they all put up a fuss about leaving, so that made me feel good! Em hardly stopped talking about it alllll day!

Here's the table I set up. The activity packets are set out underneath their plates of cookies and there are fresh packs of crayons and colored pencils, and plenty of snacks, and they ALL have their own little cups of frosting so they could lick knives and fingers to their hearts content and I didn't have to worry about the spreading of germs... Am I good, or what? ha!


Here's the pack of screaming wild maniacs (minus Lilly, she hadn't arrived yet)


Here's the cookie decorators! Top: Emily, Jared, Lilly Bottom: Rachel, Sydney, Taylor


Here's the finished cookies (same order as the above pictures)


They were all dressed up, pretending to be the dancing girls in the Nutcracker, dancing around the Christmas tree (the little one Emily and Jared still need to decorate!!)


Lilly and Taylor: (I couldn't get anyone to stand still long enough so I don't have many dress-up pictures)


Emily and Sydney:


And Jared refused to be left out of the fun, and got on his pirate costume. And after the fiasco over who got which dress-up shoes, Jared figured it must be a pretty big to-do to have some on, so when he found a discarded pair, he helped himself!! (can we say "blackmail picture?!?!")


Rachel's grandma and Uncle Lenny came to witness the fun, and the little girls decided at some point that Uncle Lenny's attire was a little too bland


He's such a good sport


And Grandma got right into the fun as well!