We have a vampire in the family

Jared's blood must be like a drug for Connor, because Connor doesn't bite ANYONE in this family except Jared. This latest time was BAD. Jared had on a nice thick sweatshirt and I'm convinced it's the only thing that saved him from losing a good-sized chunk of skin. Even through the sweatshirt, Connor bit so hard that there was IMMEDIATELY a large welted bruise, a bright red blood blister, and broken skin (not actual bleeding, but layers of skin were peeled off). This picture doesn't even do it justice (it was welted up a good half inch high and about a silver dollar-size in width)!!


Connor got a MUCH MUCH MUCH milder taste of his own medicine and hasn't bit Jared again, though I'm not holding my breath. The other thing that's helped is that Jared has FINALLY decided not to take crap from his baby brother any longer, and will happily shove, kick, etc (whatever it takes) to get Connor off of him if he feels threatened. Though Connor's reaction is generally to step up the attack, but at that point, the screams of fury have usually clued me into a problem and I break it up before things get ugly. And just think, they're only 2.5 and 4.5!!

Jared is funny!

I know a lot of what I share about Jared probably doesn't seem all that funny to the random reader, but those of you who KNOW Jared and his expressions, and the general manner of how he speaks (well beyond his years in most cases!), this will come off as extra comical!

Monday was Jared's first day back to school after being out of school for snow days, and Winter break, and the kids in his preschool class were REALLY chatty about everything they'd been up to, and the presents they received, etc. Jared's teacher told me that Jared was just BEYOND excited as he was talking about the metal detector that Santa brought for him, and was animatedly explaining how to turn it on, and describing the sound it makes when you find a metal object, etc. She then asked him if he'd found anything interesting with his metal detector, and he very enthusiastically replied, "Yeah! The fridge, and the stove, and the fish tank!!!" LOL!

In his defense, our weather was less than ideal for heading outdoors to "treasure hunt", so he mostly just stuck to the indoors and was figuring out which things in our house are made of metal and which things aren't. So it wasn't so much that he meant he found our fridge and the stove and the fishtank, but that he discovered that they're made with some metal parts...

Jared and Ryder

Jared seems to be taking after his mommy and likes to get his hands on a baby when he can. He and Emily were invited over to the neighbor's house the other afternoon, and when Dan and Connor and I walked over to pick them up later on, I got to hold Ryder for little bit (Connor hadn't met him yet since he wasn't feeling good the day Emily and I took presents over, so I wanted him to get to see the baby). Jared suddenly appeared at my side and whispered that he hadn't had a turn to hold the baby yet. I settled him on the couch and he sat there and smiled as sweet as could be at the sleeping baby Ryder in his arms. Of course Mr. Shifty-eyes wasn't cooperating for the pictures I was trying to take, so you'll just have to take my word for it that his expression showed that he was clearly pleased to be holding this baby!

Emily's new trinket

Emily LOVES to get to go to Claire's at our mall. I've splurged on her plenty of times in that store, but the last few times, I've had her spend her own money (figuring that it will teach her to appreciate what money she has if she sees how hard it can be to earn it, and that she will take better care of the item she's purchasing it if she has her own money invested in it, etc). She's bought herself a new hair clip, a pretty ring, some earrings, and a little purse so far.

This most recent time, she picked out an adorable little lamb key chain (her stuffed lamb, Lambie, is her most prized possession, so the lamb key chain is very fitting).


wait a minute, something's wrong here! What's with the hole in the back?


Oh geez, this can't be good


Clean up on aisle 9!! Farmer Jed forgot to housetrain this little fella


I take my kid into the girliest store you can come across and she comes home with a pooping lamb key chain??? You should have heard her giggle and giggle the entire drive home. She talked her daddy into putting it on her backback, but I'm pretty positive that's not going to be appropriate for school and is going to have to come off... LOL!!!

Movie Reviews

Well, for a family who RARELY (and I mean RARELY) ever EVER goes to see a movie in a theater, I've managed to see three in the span of about a week (7 or 8 days).

Marley & Me:
CUTE movie (haven't read the book, so I have no clue how well it follows the story-line there). Bring tissues. I felt there was a little more language than I would have expected for a PG movie. There was also a lot of s-e-x talk (use of the actual word, heavy make-out scenes, and implications through squeaky beds and skinny-dipping) that I worried about having to explain on the way home (kids didn't bring it up and NEITHER DID I!!). We covered little eyes two or three times, and then it ended up being that we hadn't needed to, but you just didn't know where things were going and we were being careful. LOL It had enough humor to please my husband who isn't into the romance portion of the movie...

Twilight:
I liked it! Dan and I both thought it followed the book closely enough and although some parts were a bit changed, and a lot of the build-up from the book was left out, the integrity of the story was intact. We would both love for someone who HASN'T yet read the book to go see the movie and then tell us what they thought. I wonder if certain things are very clear to someone who hasn't read the book???

Tales of Despereaux:
My kids loved it. I could do without ever seeing it again. It was cute enough, but the previews REALLY don't give you a good feel for what you're getting into and it wasn't anything like I was expecting it to be. It was what it was, but it didn't gain me as a huge fan. But again, my kids really enjoyed it, and so did my niece-to-be, and since it's a KIDS movie, I guess it's the KIDS' reviews that should really count! ha ha.

And although this isn't currently a theater movie, I just have to add that we also recently saw Wall-E and I totally don't get the hype!!!!!!!!! I felt it was extremely slow-paced and just dragged for a lot of the movie. There's very little dialogue, and while I get why there wasn't, I guess I'm a girl who likes some talking amongst the characters in movies I'm watching. I also STILL have the Wall-E voice saying "wall-e!!" stuck in my head (and my children don't help by repeating it about every 37.5 seconds). Kids love this movie. I DO NOT! However, it does have some pretty powerful messages about conserving our resources and taking care of our planet (and eating right, etc), and if the kids can pick up on the messages while enjoying the rest of the movie, then I'll give it a thumbs up, even if I don't plan to see it ever again!

PS Happy Birthday Daddy!

Introducing...

Red Beard:




and Blue Beard:


And they came to visit because all of the adults in the house stupidly assumed there wasn't anything in the daylight basement the kids could get into at my IL's house on New Years Eve... ha ha!

Happy "Nude" Year!

I hope everyone had a fun time celebrating the end of 2008 and the start of 2009. Seems hard to believe another year has come and gone...

I'll leave you with some pictures of the kids toasting in the New Year (two hours early! ha ha!!) with sparkling cider:









And just to make things a little more interesting, here's a "Happy Nude Year" from Connor!