I'd have rather had coal

I guess we got put on the "naughty" list this year, but instead of coal, Santa brought us LICE.

Christmas came to a SCREECHING halt mid-way through the day when I found bugs on Em's head (and suspected some on myself as well since we share brushes and hair scrunchies!), and instead of gathering with extended family, we rushed to the grocery store for OTC lice treatments, spent HOURS combing through hair, and spent three solid days running loads of laundry (bedding, pillows, jackets, clothing, throw blankets, towels, stuffed animals, and whatever else would fit), and HOURS vacuuming carpets, mattresses, recliners... Stuff that wouldn't go through the washing machine got bagged up and is currently stored out in the garage (Internet says 14 days; I think we'll wait longer than that just to be safe!).

I have never worked so hard in my life on this house. I was up around 8am each morning, and didn't go to bed until 1am (or later!). The minute an article of clothing came off someone's body (or they we done snuggling under a blanket, etc), it went straight into a laundry basket, and the minute I had enough to warrant a load, I was doing laundry. I vacuumed repeatedly, and washed bedding and pillows daily for several days.

We've done OTC lice treatments, home-remedy treatments (including slathering our heads with mayo and wrapping with a plastic bag overnight--which, by the way, is quite foul smelling by the morning...GAG--also including adding tea tree oil to shampoo, and purchasing expensive OTC "lice repellant" shampoos and leave-in spray), and Dan took the boys outside straight away and buzzed their heads as a quick fix.

The kids had a fantastic time, regardless, because while Dan and I were busting our hinies doing all the laundry and vacuuming, they were stuffing themselves with Christmas candy, watching new movies, and playing new Wii games to their hearts' content. What more could a kid ask for???

Around 9pm Christmas night, as I sat next to my two nearly-bald little boys, and my mayo slathered daughter, sporting some mayo myself, I looked at Dan and suggested we might as well have a little fun with the cards we were dealt by posing us for a picture:


I find it hysterical that one of the nicest pictures we have of us (typically, someone's not smiling, or someone's not looking, or someone's pouting, or someone refuses to pose at all, etc) is where the boys are freshly bald, and Em and I have mayo and plastic bags on our head!! GO FIGURE!!

I wonder how long it takes to stop being freakishly paranoid where I don't feel the need to do so much laundry, so much vacuuming, and I don't panic over every little itch on my head, or over seeing one of the kids scratch??? I feel a little OCD right now. haha!

This year, the kids and I are gonna be extra good, 'cause this time I want PRESENTS!!!!!!!

Happy New Year!

I'm a few days late, but...better late than never, right??

We had a FABULOUS time with my MIL and FIL, both my BILs, and one set of neighbors, celebrating New Year's Eve and "ringing" in the new year. We arrived around 5:30pm to my in-laws' house, and Dan and the kids dug into the shrimp for dinner. We hung out visiting for awhile, and then got started playing Balderdash. Jared and Connor were downstairs playing the Wii, and Emily hung out upstairs with the adults while we played the game.

I think we ended up playing Balderdash for about three hours! I won, by the way... *grin* "Auntie" Adele won second, and then we stopped keeping score, but just kept right on playing. We laughed and laughed!!!

When we ran out of steam for Balderdash, we moved into a non-scoring version of Pictionary, using "Jr." level cards and a large easel my MIL had.




We played a round of Scattergories (playing three lists), and had exactly two minutes left to pour sparkling apple cider and sparkling wine in order to toast the new year.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!










CHEERS!

New Mugs

I ordered the kids personalized mugs from Costco to give them for Christmas. They were a HUGE hit (I know their expressions don't confirm that statement, but you should have seen them first opening the mugs!):


The mugs have each kids' favorite stuffy or stuffies in a picture on the front, and has their name printed on the back. We had to wash and use them almost immediately Christmas morning and have used them once again since then so far! With tax and shipping, it worked out to be about $10 each, which is kind of pricey for a MUG, but making a kid totally and beyond THRILLED is PRICELESS! *grin*

MMM!!!

After walking around a holiday light exhibit in our area about a week ago, the kids were in the mood for hot cocoa once we got home. How could I refuse??


I used this picture for our Christmas cards, and after I sent the cards to print, I noticed this:


PUNK!

At least it's not a visible nipple like happened to Elaine from Seinfeld when she included a picture of herself in the cards she sent out!! hahahaha!

Let the holidays begin!

In our area, snow isn't a for sure event in the winter, so if/when the white stuff starts coming down, we get a little excited! And we don't waste a second of opportunity to get out in it, because what starts out as snow will often turn to rain later in the day.

Last Monday, the snow started coming down about 8:40am, and by 9:10am, Connor was bundled up and heading outside to enjoy it:


He'd have been out there even sooner, except we were struggling to track down pairs of mittens and a hat that would fit! After getting outside, Connor came to the door and asked me if it was Christmas. I told him that we still had about a month to wait. He looked at me for a second and then said, "But it's snowing!"

Later that afternoon, Emily and her cousin, Ali, decorated turkey-shaped sugar cookies


Dan and the boys were outside building a snowman. Dan and Jared were working on the biggest portion


And I got to take the picture of my niece, Eva, out in her first snowfall


Nothing like a little snow, time with family, and frosted cookies to put you in the mood for the holidays!!

Forget the boa constrictor!

Remember that song from your childhood that went:

I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor
I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor
I'm being swallowed by a boa constrictor
And I don't like it very much

Oh no (oh no) he swallowed my toe (he swallowed my toe)

Oh me (oh me) he swallowed my knee (he swallowed my knee)

Oh fiddle (oh fiddle) he's up to my middle (he's up to my middle)

Oh heck (oh heck) he swallowed my neck (he swallowed my neck)

Oh dread, he's up to my (slurp gulp)

So yeah, forget the boa constrictor, these poor kids are getting swallowed by a whale!

(Emily and her BFF Katie on the bottom, Jared and Connor on top)


and that was after their close call with a giant jack-o-lantern that tried to eat them!

Halloween Fun

Halloween festivities started Thursday with the Trunk or Treat event Connor's preschool hosted. Here's our trunk from this year (not bad for about 10-15 minutes worth of work!!)




And our sweet Gracie is part of the co-op this year in the 2's class, so she was at the Trunk or Treat as well


Connor CRASHED on the way home (but notice how he's clutching his bag of candy?? LOL!)


Friday brought classroom parties and an all-school parade.

Here is Em with some friends from her class:


And Jared next to his friend Cecilia (his "girlfriend", as he calls her at home, but won't tell HER that at school! ha!)


Emily in the parade at school:


Jared in the parade at school:


Em's best friend Katie:


We started out Halloween day by carving some pumpkins:


And then we tried for a nice three-kid group picture. Total FAIL.




(Forget Where's Waldo! Where's Mario?)


We had the kids' cousins, Ali and Eva, meet up with us to trick or treat in our neighborhood (Ali and Eva's cousin Elektra came, too, but wouldn't pose for the picture)


Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

S'mores, anyone?

My FIL called up and invited us over for s'mores over Labor Day weekend. Danny was busy, but the kids and I enjoyed a nice evening of s'mores, spooky stories, singing songs, and hanging out by the fire.



The marshmallows were HUGE!


Connor chatting on the phone with his daddy


Grandpa's hungry!


mmm mmm good!






Emily offered to puppy sit Auntie Vicky and Uncle Corey's dogs for a bit


The boys got really into the spooky story telling






It was a great evening!

3 wheeler fun!

The kids talked my dad into getting out the old 3 wheeler and taking them for slow rides around the yard. Connor, especially had a great time!!







Connor would have gone all day long if we'd let him! Em was hesitant at first but enjoyed herself in the end. Jared just wanted to make sure everyone's turns were the same length and amount... LOL

Lincoln City, OR -- Part Four

Day 4:

We spent the morning at the Outlet Stores, and scored AMAZING deals! Carters and Osh Kosh were both having nearly store-wide 40-60% off sales, and THEN, if you spent over a certain amount, you got an extra percentage off! I spent more than $75 and got an extra 30% off (at both stores!!). They show on your receipt what you saved, and we ended up with $26 jeans that cost just shy of $8, and a $34 jean jacket that we got for $15, $32 thick hooded sweatshirts for just shy of $13, etc etc etc. I spent less than $200 and got all three kids TONS of stuff (I think there were only two things I ended up paying more than $10 for!!!!). I wish I could find deals like that everytime I shop!!

We spent the afternoon back at the beach




I have no idea what he's looking at here, but he kept stopping what he was doing and looking up. This was about the 4th time he'd done it when I decided to take his picture. He was hearing voices from above or something... LOL!!


Day 5:

Corey and Vicky had joined us on vacation late evening the night before, so we headed down to the beach fairly early in the day, in order to make the most of the time we had left.

Friday (day 5) was probably the prettiest day we had the entire week. Gorgeous blue sky, not a cloud to be seen in-land, quite warm... But there was this weird misty/foggy stuff right on the beach (not even along where the houses/cabins/hotels were, JUST right on the actual beach), to where you couldn't see very far in any direction! Didn't stop us from enjoying our time, though.

We still flew kites


We played Frisbee






We still played in the water


Jared did magic tricks by pulling a "never-ending" rainbow jump rope out of his pocket (over and over and over again... LOL)


Connor had fun with his sling-shot airplane


But he didn't have much fun when the sand fleas got in his swim trunks
'

He had laid on his belly, facing the waves, to let the water lap up at him at the highest point of the waves. At one point, a slightly larger wave came up and while it didn't go up over his face, it came up high enough that the wave ended back behind him and he got pretty wet along his body. He jumped up super fast and did a weird little scream, and we figured it was just because the water was cold. He paused for a tiny bit, and then started hollering more intensely and grabbing at his crotch. We STILL thought it was just the chill of the water, until he started yelling that there were crabs pinching him. Danny ran down and pulled the swim trunks down in front, and sure enough, there were several sand fleas (we think that's what they were!) climbing around on his boy-parts!! Dan yanked the swim trunks all the way off and started plucking them off Connor. Thankfully, he's none the worse the wear... Apparently the wave was forceful enough when it came up to scoop the waistband of his swim trunks down a bit and toss in a few sand fleas that got stirred up in the churning waves??? Craziest thing ever! Poor kid! I feel bad now for taking his picture while he was standing there screaming, but at the time, we thought it was pretty funny that he was screaming over what we thought was just the cold water!!!

Later that night, we had a fire on the beach and made s'mores. I have no idea why I didn't document this portion of our trip, but I got caught up in having fun around the fire and totally forgot about the camera! I did have Vicky take my picture with Dan as we were getting organized for the s'mores. One of two pictures of me from the whole week...