very sick computer

My computer totally crashed this afternoon while helping Emily research butterflies for a school project. They weren't able to fix it in-store, but tomorrow we will be getting a call from the fancier computer tech who does house calls, and hopefully he will be able to come over sooner than later, and HOPEFULLY he can fix it!!! I'm currently at my mom's house, typing out this post, to let you know I'll be computerless for an unknown amount of time. Keep your fingers crossed the computer is fixable!

Guess who's knitting??

And it isn't me!! EMILY!!

She doesn't want me to show her project until she's further into it, so you'll have to visualize it in your head for the time being... She's about 24 rows into a light pink scarf made out of chunky yarn and it's looking quite good! She has been wanting to learn for a long time and I kept pushing it off thinking she was too young and was just going to get very frustrated, but finally sat down with her over Winter Break and got her started. She picked it up pretty quickly! I sat next to her the first day and quided her through each stitch, but after that, have pretty much just left her on her own. She comes and shows me at the end of each row so if there are any mistakes, I can help her correct them before she gets too far past the mistake. She's pretty good at seeing when something doesn't look right and will come ask for help. Knitting is a slow process, especially when you're in school all day, plus have homework and activities, so I'm not imagining this scarf will be complete any time soon, but it will be fun for her to get to use next year!

Doubly exciting is that one of the Girl Scout Try It badges you can earn talks about setting a goal for yourself and learning something new, etc, so she'll be able to put this knitting project towards a badge for Girl Scouts! She's very pleased.

I know it's a tease to talk about it and not share pictures, but I couldn't resist "bragging" that my 7 year old has taken up knitting and is doing rather well! GO EM!!

A ghost at gymnastics!

I was not allowed to use my flash at Connor's gymnastics class, but without the flash, all I was getting was BLUR. Looks like a ghost! ha ha!

Meet Olivia!

I went to the pet store with Connor and Emily the other day to get a box turtle. The pet store did not have any box turtles in stock, so we decided to look at some frogs. After looking at the frogs, Connor wanted to check out all the fish tanks just for fun, and while doing THAT, he discovered the SWIMMING turtles. The rest, as they say, is history...

I can probably count on one hand (maybe two hands, between the three kids?) the number of times I've given into one of my kids' tears, and it has always been that they pleaded a reasonable enough case, or I realized I was picking my battles all wrong. This time, it was pure heartbreak; how could I possibly walk out of that store with Connor's chin quivering and his lip stuck out a mile, while he tearfully said, "Please don't leave Olivia here (yes, he named her before we'd even left the store!) or else I'll never see her again!"

It's a bigger responsibility and expense than I had intended, but the kids have REALLY taken a strong interest in their new pet. We worried after the first day when she wasn't eating or basking, so headed back to the pet store to make sure we were doing everything correctly. Turns out, it can take up to three days before they start up with their normal routine after being moved. Sure enough, slightly over 24 hours after bringing her home, she was basking and eating.

Speaking of eating, the kids think it's hilarious to watch her eat. She swims slowly up to the little food pellets and then SNAP, eats them up. I should try to get her on video doing it.

I know, I know, enough with the chatter, get on with sharing a picture, right?

Let there be light!

On a recent trip the local Children's Museum, we got the opportunity to make candles! I was skeptical that they would actually burn, because it just seemed WAY too simple to roll the sheets of wax around a wick and have a true candle, but sure enough, they worked! They kids REALLY got a kick out of seeing their candles actually light and burn down to nothing.

Pathetic

Charlie is still limited to the kitchen and family rooms (non-carpeted areas of the house...) because he's not 100% house-trained yet. For the most part, someone is generally in those rooms with him, so he'll either hang out in his little doggy bed, or he'll lay on someone's lap. But during meal-time, we're in the diningroom where he's not allowed (the diningroom is non-carpeted, but leads into the livingroom, which IS carpeted, and there's no way to block it off), so he lays by the baby gate and peeks at us from underneath, looking entirely pathetic.

Puppet Show

The kids LOVE when their daddy puts on a puppet show for them. Dan is really good at coming up with dialogue on the spot, and keeps things fast paced and fun. The other night, Dan put on a show for the boys (Emily was at a sleepover). When I heard the hysterical giggles coming from their bedroom, I grabbed the camera and ran back to see what was going on.

See how rivited they are?


Something's funny!!


Connor laughed so hard at one point, he fell over and then got back up and started jumping up and down and giggling. LOL

Need a haircut?

Hire Jared!





He really started getting into it about halfway through! LOL


I had to go back and get all the spots he missed, but he sure had a great time, and I suspect he will get better with practice!

It's about darn time!!

Jared has had a VISIBLY wiggly tooth since back in JULY. It FINALLY fell out. WHAT IS IT WITH MY KIDS AND THEIR TEETH THAT REFUSE TO FALL OUT???? Emily's baby teeth were the same way, being wiggly for months before falling out, and they take forever to grow back in again, too. Her front teeth still don't look fully grown in and she lost the baby ones 16 months ago!!!

Jared could have lost this tooth a good week or two sooner, but he REFUSED to let me take it out. At the point it was flapping around in nearly every direction, and he was CONSTANTLY complaining about how much it was hurting him, I finally pinned him down and pulled it out. It pretty much just fell right out into my hand! He was shrieking and screaming and thrashing like I was trying to kill him, and the second he realized it was out, he started laughing and dancing around. Weird-o.



This was his first tooth that came out naturally (instead of with the help of his little brother's head...).

OUCH!!!

I wasn't outside to witness it, and Connor's explanation doesn't make much sense, but the end result was this:



and this (be warned!):



A LOT of layers of skin came off that poor little finger pad. BLECK! 2.5 days later, it's looking MUCH better, but still pretty gross. He REALLY did not enjoy me cleaning that up (he'd been outside digging in the mud, so his hands were FILTHY), but overall handled it pretty well! He's a trooper!

J's wish list

I was going through Jared's "Thursday Folder" last night (each week, on Thursdays, teachers send home all the work from that week in a special folder. Parents go through it and sign the front, and return it to school the following day. It's to make sure parents are getting the work, while also teaching the kids to be responsible about taking it home and showing their parents, etc) and came across some stuff that Jared had done before the break (his teacher forget to send home the folders that last Thursday before the holiday break). One of the items was a wish list.

1. invisible bed
2. spy kit
3. 33 hat (The Children's Place had ball caps with the number 33 on the front, which he had one awhile ago and lost, so was hoping for a replacement)
4. new bike
5. bakugan (look them up online, I don't really understand them!)

his list totally cracked me up (invisible bed???) in it's content and his spelling. I LOVE LOVE LOVE little kid phonetic spelling. I think it's adorable.



And apparently we haven't taught the kid how to spell his last name, because he phonetically spelled that out, too. I wish I wasn't so paranoid about online safety where I could show you his attempts and how he did a really good job, but alas, I AM paranoid, so it's blacked out...

Postcards from Yo Momma

My friend Laura turned me onto the website "Postcards from Yo Momma" a few months ago. Besically, it's a site where people post funny things their moms have either emailed or texted, and sometimes there are typed up conversations they've had with their moms. Some of them are really lame, and some of them are hysterical! I try to get on once or twice a month and skim through.

Tuesday night, I went to the site and this was the first one on the page. It struck my funny bone (call me "lame" if you must, but it did). Then I got to thinking, would I share my cupcake with Dan? Cake (or cupcakes) fall high on my list of favorite treats, and Dan's not very into frosting anyway, so I would have say NO, I would no share my cupcake with him, but that doesn't mean he's not "The One." Or, maybe it does, and our days are numbered? ha ha ha! Share my cupcake... SHEESH!

Sharp Dressed Man

Somewhere I used that blog post title before, because when I started typing it in, it popped up. I'm too lazy to dig up the post to see which one, but it applies HERE as well, so I'm using a repeat title! ha!

Connor picked out this outfit at Costco totally on his own. We were walking by the piles of clothes and Connor ran over, grabbed the top one, and yelled, "HANDSOME BOY CLOTHES!!!!!!!!!! I want to wear this to preschool!" It was a good deal for a 3-piece outfit, plus, was totally adorable, so how could I turn him down???



I LOVE when my little boys are dressed in their "handsome boy" clothes. They melt my heart! Gotta take advantage of it while I can, because I'm sure it won't last. Jared still cracks me up with the little shirt and tie he wears to Kindergarten. LOL! SOO CUTE, these boys of mine...

Emily sings karaoke

Emily got a karaoke machine for Christmas and she's been having a BLAST with it. On Christmas day, she didn't have any karaoke CD's yet, so she was singing along with her regular CD's instead. Didn't curb her enthusiasm any, and I couldn't resist taking some video of her sporting her flashy new hat, singing along with The Beatles. Unfortunately, no matter what I've tried, I can't get the video to upload! It was "uploading video" alllllllllllllllll NIGHT, and still isn't finished. Not sure what's wrong. I'll try again later today and see what I can do. SHEESH!

Oldies but goodies

I was originally just going to share THIS picture of Jared (one year old), posing with the baby doll. The expression on his face still cracks me up! It's like he's saying, "Get your leg off me, you crazy doll!"


But then I figured a lot of you would wonder why he was posed with the doll in the first place! When Jared was born, "he" gave his big sister Emily a boy doll (which she so creatively named "Boy Baby") so she would have a baby boy to take care while I was taking care of Jared. I wanted to pose her holding her new baby brother along with the doll "he'd" given her.


And then I realized that the doll seemed even bigger than he was, so posed them side by side for comparison (he's 20 days old in this pic)


A year later, I posed them again to show just how much he'd grown, and we're back to THIS picture:


I SAID, GET YOUR LEG OFF ME!!

PS Happy Happy Birthday to my daddy today!!

BAM! POW! SMACK!

Connor got a punching man for Christmas from Uncle Corey and Auntie Vicky, and Dan was having fun taking pics using the "continuous" mode on my camera, so I strung some of them together into a video. Pretty funny!