Holiday Spirit

Ignore the ugly plastic in the background of this photo... Our neighborhood is having a new water system put in (which has been going on for what feels like FOREVER now!), and someone decided that the shoulder where the school bus picks up the kids would be a fantastic place to leave giant piles of dirt covered in plastic (which still manages to make a really disgusting muddy mess in the rain!).

That said, here are the kids sporting their holiday hats! Connor's is a knit Christmas tree hat I made back when he was just a baby (one of my very first projects, and obviously I wasn't too clear on how to adjust patterns properly! LOL! This tree hat will fit him forever, I think!). Em's is a crochet hat I whipped up for her this month (she wants me to make sure and point out that the white stripes and the white flower are sparkly), and Jared's elf hat is a crochet hat I actually used a PAID pattern for.






Jared likes his hat so much, he's even been sleeping with it on!

More Elvis sightings!

Elvis Elf thought it would be pretty fun/funny for the kids to wake up with stickers all over them, but it was sort of a failed attempt. When he was trying to stick some on Connor (who sleeps through anything!), Connor woke up NOT HAPPY to discover a sticker on his hand and one on his foot. Elvis tried Jared, who swiped them off in his sleep without ever opening his eyes. Elvis then tried Emily, who sat straight up in bed and asked if it was time to wake up. Elvis thought he'd wait another hour or so and try again. An hour later, he put a couple on Connor and Jared and left the room to try and get Emily, when suddenly mommy was woken up by Connor shouting. When mommy went into his room, Connor was laying stick straight in his bed with the biggest scowl on his face, and was shouting, "WHO KEEPS DOING THIS TO ME???" :( Like I said, failed attempt...

Here's Elvis sitting with the evidence! By the way, once the kids were awake the next morning, they thought it was pretty hilarious! (even Connor!)


That night, Elvis also left a "fill in the blanks" style letters for each of the kids to write to Santa, and then also filled one out himself:

Notice how he says he's sorry for the time he put stickers on Emily, Jared, and Connor? :)


Another day Elvis hid under a drinking glass in the cupboard. Took the kids awhile to find him that day! I couldn't figure out why I kept finding the cupboard door open and I kept shutting it. At some point, I overheard Connor yelling from the kitchen, "Who keeps shutting the cupboard?? Elvis can't see anything with the door closed!!!!!!!" LOL!!


Elvis hung out on a giant snowflake one day


He sat and read The Nutcracker, which prompted Connor to want to read it once Elvis was finished


The kids all sing goofy versions of Jingle Bells, so Elvis wanted to as well.


Look! It's Spiderman!




He took a bubble bath with a penguin (couldn't find a rubber ducky). Connor said it was an ICE bath, not a bubble bath...


Elvis thought the kids should enjoy a nice cup of hot cocoa with their breakfast, so he set out all the stuff (even filled up the tea kettle!)


Elvis really wanted to use the mug Dan won at work for "Movember" (more on the "Movember" story later!)

Quote of the Week

As we were driving home from swim team one night last week, Connor started telling me about how he'd taken too long writing in his journal that morning, so didn't get to play the math game with his class. I asked why it took him so long to work in his journal, and he said it was because he was supposed to write about someone special to him, and why that person was special. He said he had too many special people and too many reasons, and so he couldn't think of what to write. I asked him who he finally decided on, and he said, (in a very "DUH!" tone of voice) "YOU! Wanna know why? Because you helped me get born!" Then he quickly added, "Well, Daddy helped too. (pause) A LOT!" I had to fight to keep from laughing, and then had a moment of "panic" that Jared or Emily had shared the birds/bees info with Connor (despite being told NOT to!), but then Connor added, "Well, he did help! He married you so you could have me." TOO FUNNY, and TOO CUTE!

Seattle outing

We bought tickets for our family to see Trans-Siberian Orchesta at Key Arena this year. It was our first full-family concert, and the kids were REALLY excited to get to go. The concert wasn't until 3pm, but we headed up earlier in the day with plans to spend the morning at the Seattle Science Center.

While we were having lunch in Center House, we ended up at a table right next to the guy doing characatures of people, and we were very impressed with how much the drawings still resembled the actual person. We've seen plenty that look NOTHING like the person. The kids loved watching the guy draw while they were eating, so we decided to have drawings of the kids done as well. I don't really see Emily in hers, but I totally see the boys in theirs!



The drawings were bigger than my scanner screen so the signature at the bottom is cut off, and some of Em's hair




(love the missing front teeth!)


After paying for the drawings, we went straight over to Key Arena and found our seats, WAY up in the nosebleed section!


There were TONS of lazers, and pyrotechnics, etc during the show. Dan said it was the best visual effects for any concert he's ever attended (and he's attended A LOT).
This picture doesn't even come close to showing it off!


There were some parts that were a little too slow and "foreign" (not songs we knew) for our tastes, but for the most part, we LOVED the concert and had a great time. Connor must have said at least 20 times "THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!!!", while he rocked out to the music and the lights.

The concert lasted 2.5 hours (without an opening band!) and it was dark when we came out. The Space Needle looked really neat all lit up, with the light tree on top



We tried to take a self-shot family photo, which didn't work out very well... LOL

Two Front Teeth

Look who's missing his two front teeth!


He doesn't have a single lisp despite missing those two teeth! I remember the other two both having a bit of trouble from time to time when they were missing their front two teeth. I can't get enough of that toothless grin! There are several kids in his class missing their front teeth as well. I think it would be awfully cute to line them up and take a picture!!!

Check out Connor's rendition of "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth"  *grin*

RIP Riley boy

13.5 years ago, Dan's family (at that point, Dan and I were still just dating) brought Riley into their family. He was the sweetest little fluff ball and I was actually the one that suggested the name Riley. He was obsessed with having a tennis ball (or 3-4 tennis balls) in his mouth at any given point in time, and if he couldn't find a tennis ball, he'd settle for a good-sized rock. He was buddies with several of the neighbors, and was always waiting to greet you when you came over to visit. Riley was about as good as they come.

He's been declining in health for the last couple of years, and rapidly declining the last couple of months. He had a wonderful spirit, but his body was just too weak to support it any longer, and it was finally his time to go. We took the kids to say their final goodbye's. Riley was so happy to see them and perked up for the first time in over 24 hours, trying to greet them. He ended up managing to get up, use the bathroom, eat and drink a bit, then he made his rounds to each one of us around the room before collapsing again. My MIL and BIL took him to the vet soon afterwards and had him put down so he'd no longer be suffering.

The kids were very sad, but had really enjoyed how happy he was to see them, so were smiling for his picture (no, he's not dead in this photo, but he'd exhausted himself trying to say "hello" to them)


There was laughter in telling funny Riley stories, and tears as we mourned his passing. We haven't been back to the house since he was put down, and it's going to be very weird not seeing Riley in the driveway, waiting to greet us. *cry*

Elvis Elf

Elvis Elf arrived with a bang (or rather a zipline!) the morning after Thanksgiving. The kids were excited to see him!


Emily Grace made a little Lego chair for him, which he happily sat in for the next day




He made a big mess making us a couple of snowflakes!


He sat up on the mantle (not pictured because I forgot!)

Then he sat in the kids's tree with his own little book of jokes and left out a few pages for the kids to see (they're dying to see what the rest of the jokes in his book are!)