I love Pres. Faust

Once again, one of those rare times I will post a video here... but this one speaks volumes to the message of the Saviour's gospel. What a beautiful last message to leave as a beloved leader of the LDS faith.

(don't forget to turn of my music player on the right hand side of the blog before playing the video)

Holiday Letter 2008

Alright, this might be kind of long... but I thought since I Didn't manage to get our family Holiday letter out this year I would post it on my blog.... Sorry for the length, posting it here kind of makes it long and narrow.

Dearest Family and Friends,

It seems so hard to believe that a year has already flown by, yet here we are with the Holidays upon us and me scratching my head wondering what has happened over the last twelve months. People often laugh when I tell them that I always find writing Christmas letters hard; you’d think with the newsletters I send via email and my regularly updated blog I would be able to just whip one of these out. I think my problem tends to lie in the desire to keep it fairly short (since we are all reading at least 500 of these a Christmas) and not bogged down with little things. So, that being said; with not further ado: The 2008 Mighty C’s Family Christmas Letter.

To get things started we dive in with Frog Prince. I can hardly believe that I am the mother of a five year old already and yet the boy has quickly grown from a preschooler to a full on, ‘boy.’ Since his birthday falls after the cut off for entering Kindergarten, The great FP got to attend one more year of Preschool this year. He LOVES it. His best friend in the world also falls into the same boat of late birthdays, so instead of being a year ahead of this boy in school, the two will end up in the same grade. He is steadily moving along with learning all of his pre-reading skills and has even mastered sounding out some basic words (as well as the unbelievably hard, ‘cried’). If I had to name the three great loves of Frog Prince’s life they would be, in order: frogs, Disney’s Cars, and Peter Pan. While FP is naturally a rather timid and reserved boy when it comes to adventure, at any given point during the day I can find him zoom around the house with Sheepie pretending he is Lightening McQueen (the hero of the Cars movie) or battling to the death as Peter Pan. One of Frog Prince’s great adventures of this last year was getting to ride on an airplane. He’d been once as a very very young baby, but this time it was without mommy or daddy. In March he got to fly out with his Nana to visit his cousins in Chicago for two weeks. It was quite a step in independence for him, and he and his little stuff froggie took it in stride. On December 4^th FP officially left the world of preschoolerhood and turned five. He got to have all of his friends, from school and church, go out to eat with him and have a big birthday party. He now reminds us everyday about how great it is to be a ‘big five year old.’ With his birthday, he got to begin piano lessons and has shown great attention and dedication to learning how to play. He has also taken a great interest lately in competitive running and sledding in the several feet of snow we’ve received this winter.

If there was ever a child that marches to his own drum beat it would be Sheepie. I am not sure if we set ourselves up when we named our child ---and then handed him a stuffed tiger named, ‘Hobbes,’ but in all regards our sweet boy is living up to his namesake. Sheepie’s biggest accomplishment this last year was becoming fully potty trained. It’s funny to think that this only happened about a year ago, since he has done so well with it, but about this time last year we began the process and by the time the second term of preschool started (before he was even three) he was completely potty trained and ready. Over the summer Sheepie celebrated his third birthday with his, ‘first big boy party,’ (which means he finally got to invite friends to his birthday). The theme was –as it seems to be in his life in general—Finding Nemo. Sheepie LOVES Disney’s Finding Nemo, and it has been fun to watch his life; including things like daily head to toe dressing, dolls, and even the way his room is decorated revolve around this particular movie. He has also developed a strong love for WALL*E, as well (which is another Disney movie). He, too, is thriving in preschool, and I can hardly get in and out of the building without a handful of his teachers telling me how much they love Sheepie and that he is the cutest kid ever. He is steadily learning all of his pre reading skills as well and I wouldn’t be surprised if he is reading well before entering Kindergarten. Beyond his affection for Disney movies, some of Sheepie’s current favourites this year are: Hobbes (his best friend/ stuffed tiger), his blue blankie, Star wars and lightsabers, and riding the monorail ( a lingering bit from our trip to Disneyland this spring). Finally, Sheepie has recently declared that when he grows up he wants to be a Fireman.

In March, we were very excited—albeit a bit surprised—to welcome Boy into our family. Boy wasn’t due until the end of April, however he decided that he knew better than the rest of us, and arriving five weeks early, was born on March 22^nd, 2008. He was a healthy 6 lbs. 6 oz. and 20 inches long, and besides mildly underdeveloped lungs and digestive systems completely healthy—not bad for being a preemie! The truly fun part of his early arrival is that he was born on his father’s 28^th birthday; and since we’d already picked out the name (he has the same name as his Dad) it was an even more fitting arrival. From the time he was born to when I now write this nine months have already passed and the time seems like it’s flown. I can hardly believe that the round little butterball I see crawling around my house is the same tiny baby that was hooked up to all the monitors in the NICU. His is up and crawling and standing when holding on to things, and has already learned how to say ‘Daddy’ and ‘Hi’ and use them correctly. He also has an amazing ability to parrot people’s worlds; although he doesn’t know what he is saying and can’t use them again later, he often will repeat words that people have just said and do so extremely clearly. It’s quite amazing and I’ve never seen another baby do it. All and all he is a gem and I find myself being able to cuddle and snuggle him more than I ever imagined I would for my third child. I think that since he got off to a kind of bumpy start, he’s been making up for it by being extra cute and cuddly.

As for Hubby and me, we’ve had a few adventures this year as well. After years and years of lobbying, I finally got my wish and we bought a motorcycle—the irony was at the time I was pregnant, so I had to just sit and watch while Hubby zoomed around. With the rising gas prices and his longer commute Hubby decided that the 70 mpg the motorcycle would get sounded pretty good. Now I think he can’t imagine not having a bike (and I am pretty happy too!). Our family also took our first really big family vacation this year: Disneyland! About a month after Boy was born, we all headed down to Southern California with the kids and our quasi-Nanny/babysitter extraordinaire Kaitlyn. Along the way we stopped in Sacramento and toured the capitol and the train museum, the Hollywood district, and then stopped briefly in San Francisco to spend a bit of the afternoon with a friend of mine, riding the cable cars to the wharf and such. It was a lovely vacation and went very smoothly since we had an extra set of hands to help out and allow Hubby and me to go out in the evenings and enjoy the more grown up places like Downtown Disney. The major adventure of the year for us was Hubby’s eight weeks business trip to India toward the end of the summer. He had to go and work with a team from his company that is located in two parts of India and so I got to play the role of single parent for a few months and learn just how much I love having him around! He had a great time and was even able to have his dad come out and sight see with him for the last week of his trip. He also brought back amazing presents!!!

As we come to a close on this year, we find our family happy and healthy and glad to have one another. We hope that you are all doing well and that you might find joy in the season. May the Lord bless you all and keep you safe and happy in the coming year.

Love,
The Mighty C’s

Still Alive

Alright, I know I seem to have fallen off the face of the earth lately. We have been SOOOO extremely busy and it seems like the more I get behind posting harder it seems to get caught up. So in an attempt to not cry over the sad state of my blog I am going to post this meme that several of my friends have posted. Then I will have something new and pretty up and I will feel inspired to post something else soon (like our family holiday letter).

20 YEARS AGO (1988):
1. I was 6 years old and in Kindergarten. Mrs. Cohen was my teacher and AMAZING!
2. I lived in Orange, California and was way too spoiled for my own good.
3. My little brother Doug was born
4. I am pretty sure it was when I learnt to ride a two wheeler.

10 YEARS AGO (1998):
1. I was a Sophomore in high school.
2. I had just moved to Keizer, OR.
3. I got my drivers license.
4. I worked in a pharmacy.
5. I visited NYC for the first time.

5 YEARS AGO (2003):
1. I celebrated my first wedding anniversary.
2. My first son (Frog Prince) was born
3. I took my finals that year with a three day old baby.
4. My brother came to live with us when he was 15.
5. I was in Godspell at a local theatre.
6. I spent the summer doing some white water rafting and camping (two of the greatest things around).
7. We moved three times.

1 YEAR AGO (2007):
1. I celebrated my 5th wedding anniversary.
2. I was celebrating my middle child (Sheepie's) 2nd birthday
3. We celebrated owning our house for two whole years.
4. I learnt that we could live without TV happily
5. My dog Wriggley had to be put to sleep.

THIS YEAR (2008):
1. My third son (Boy) was born.
2. I learnt that there is power (and I look amazing) in skirts, high heels, and angel red lipstick!
3. We took our first real family holiday: Disneyland!!!!
4. Frog Prince turned 5 and sheepie turned 3.
5. My husband went to India for 2 months/ I learnt the lesson of single parenting.
6. We read the entire Book of Mormon as a Family.

NEXT YEAR:
1. Celebrate our 7th anniversary.
2. Celebrated Boy's first birthday
3. Frog Prince will start Kindergarten.
4. We will take a summer vacation (hopefully to take the kids hiking around Crater Lake).
5. I will turn 27.
6. Be on step closer to adopting a baby.
7. Read the entire Old Testament.
8. Have yet another year of awesome Halloween costumes.

The cleaning so far

*I got the kitchen entirely cleaned (including a good hands and knees scrubbing of the floor).

*Dining room put back together and floors mopped. 

*Dining room walls washed down (for some strange reason my dogs love picking the most conspicuous places in my house to rub their oily fur all over).

*Kids clothes all folded.

*Out grown clothes all folded/packed away; ready to return to storage.

*Living room put back together.

THING TO DO STILL:

*Dust entire house

*Vacuum entire house

*clean out book case/reading corner

* clean boys bedroom

*clean bathroom/scrub floor

*scrub entry way floor

* consider (okay, actually) cleaning our room... we shall see if this actually happens.

*DECORATE FOR CHRISTMAS

I also have to manage squeezing in the shuttling back and forth from school, Boys doctors appointment to check out the mysterious rash he's developed all over his boy, taking the kids to see Santa at the great historic movie theatre down town, our ward Christmas party and working on the quilt somewhere in there.

This weekend I need to find time to bake Christmas tree cookies and prep for our Nursery class Christmas party, as well as figure out what I am going to wear and how I am going to do my hair for Hubby's annual Company Christmas Ball.

All and all, a jam packed; fun filled couple of days ahead of me!!!

(( Taking a quick break from cleaning the kitchen to dance with Sheepie))

JOY

Every time I listen to Pachebel's Cannon I clearly hear these words in my mind;

"Joy must never diminish; it's light will continue to flicker and grow until it burns brightly in the hearts of all who believe."

It is so easy at this time in our world to forget to believe... Christmas aside; holidays put away; I hope all who read this will take a moment to listen for that the laughter; look for the flickering light, and most importantly feel the joy....

It is real... if we believe.

Blogging Black Hole

Gosh it seems like it's been forever since I've blogged. There has been so much that I need to blog about (Frog Prince's fifth birthday, the creche exhibit, the progress of the amazing frog quilt) but it just seems like I never get around to it. Even now it is driving me crazy to think that I don't have time to sit down and post about them.

Today's post mostly though is to try and remind myself why I like putting up Christmas decorations. Since I was busy all last week with the Stake Creche, I just let my house go.. and now it's gone; trashed, capoot! I have managed to catch up on washing all of the kids clothes, but I haven't fold them yet... and the dishes are done; but the house isn't even close to clean.... You'd likely pass out of you saw the present state of my dining room (let's just say dogs+pizza box= badness!)

But still I want to put up my Christmas stuff. It's almost half way through December and they aren't up..... so this is my little time to just aimlessly ramble for a few minutes in hopes that it inspires me enough to go push through the cleaning and get the boxes out of the garage.

I don't know if it will actually snow here this weekend (snow in Corvallis is always such a joke) but I have decided that I will never forgive myself if it's snowing and I don't have Christmas up... you could just hand me a name tag that says 'hi my name is... Grinch.'

I guess there is always the driving factor that all my in laws are coming for supper on Sunday. ( of course I will have to clean the house again between now and then, but it'd be much quicker if I wasn't wading through 'lakekidshavewaytoomanyclothes' in my family room.)

Alright... /end pointless rambling (god bless the person who created blogs)

Time to roll up my sleeves, pull up my sister in laws blog mix; as she has the best Christmas music mix, and start a sweepin' and a moppin'.... Maybe then I will feel inspired enough to update on something a bit more fun that my mindless ramble.

Toodles

Locks of Love

Today, I did the craziest thing I've done in a long time.


BEFORE........

AFTER......

I believe the last time I really cut my hair was about 4 or so months after Sheepie was born. Today I had 12 inches cut off and I donated it to locks of love.

The woman at the salon said that I had enough hair on my head to contribute to up to four wigs. It makes me really happy to know that my hair will be able to help some children feel a bit better about their medical situations.

It's so different from what I am used to, but over all I am really happy with how it turned out and think that I will probably do it again in another three years or so.

It's been a while

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted.... I will try to get something real up in the next few days. But to tide you all over until then. I present to you the some of the family pictures I took of us on Thanksgiving day.

Happy Holidays from our family to yours!

Nativity in Black

Yesterday, I was bored. Really bored. Since it was raining-- which I love, but tends to limit activities-- I decided to do something I'd not done in quite a while. I pulled out my paints and played around. I wasn't really sure what I wanted to paint... so I just started playing for a while and this is what I ended up with.

Nativity In Black

Nothing fancy, but it was fun to make.  I used my acrylics and painted the background and the silhouettes, along with the stars; this way they would lay on the canvas smoothly. Then what I did that I had a lot of fun with was experiment with the swirls. They are not paint.

I took matte finish Modge Podge, and mixed in different colours of food colouring. I then brushed one colour at at time all over the canvas in swirling designs. Blow dry it and then add another layer. Some are really faint and as you can see I added heavier swipes too. When those were all dry, I took a mini roller brush and rolled a thick layer of normal modge podge over the entire thing (so that the whole canvas had at least one coat of it) and then took a #8 sized brush and did swirling strokes in it across the whole canvas-- originating at the star. 

Simple, but a fun way to spend an evening/this morning. And now I have a nativity to display at this year's community creche. 

Mist and Shadow

This much I know

*Nothing tastes better than a birthday truffle from a friend.

*Autumn will always be my favourite season.

* No matter how mad I am at Frog Prince, my heart will always hurt when his little froggie is missing.

* When a best friend is lost it's a mother's job to drop everything she's doing until he can be safely restored to his little boys arms.

* We all must choose our own paths.

*Nothing saddens me more than to see the empty hole where a stone is missing from my wedding ring.

*Doing dishes always makes me happy.

*I would be rich if I could make a candle that smelt like freshly baked bread.

*My bedroom will never be clean.

*SMILE

         *All we need is....

A Rare Happening

Now, I had decided that this blog was not going to be infused with my personal feelings or views of what is happening around the world-- I have a whole different blog where I talk about current events and my personal life... however, I was so profoundly struck by a recent youtube video I saw, that I feel compelled to post it.

I love Elder Maxwell (he was an apostle for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, and has passed away). He was always one of my favourites. It is so nice to hear the worlds of some years ago still ring loud and true in today's society.

(( If you don't normally turn the blog music off, don't forget to before listening to this video.)



Thank you Elder Maxwell for reminding us of truths that are being rapidly forgotten.

Thoughts on Motherhood Part Three

And then there is my sweet Boy. When I look at this angel on earth I am remind of the some of the lyrics to one of my favourite songs. "There's something in your eyes; make me want to lose myself, makes me want to lose myself in your arms. There's something in your voice; makes my heart beat fast." later it says,"if you knew how happy you are making me, I never thought that I'd love anyone so much...it feels like home to me. It feels like I'm all the way back where I belong."

It seems almost strange that with my third child this would be the case, but in my Boy, I have this ability to just look into his eyes and know that were I am right now, at this very moment in my life, is right. In so many ways, already in his short life, he has been my child who is teaching me to over come the challenges in my life. From his premature arrival to his inability to nurse, to his recently budding skill of sitting up, I am learning from him that it's okay to let go of things. I have always said that having my kids be 'on track' and hitting their milestones with other kids their ages wasn't important, and when your kids are as advanced as Frog Prince and Sheepie, I guess that'd be easy to say. Want to know a secret-- I think I lied. But guess what... last night, after months and weeks and days of me worrying and fretting, and his struggling and fighting, at 8 months old Boy sat up for 15 mins. And you know what... it's okay-- in fact, it's better than that, because it taught me to let go.

I do not need to spend my time worrying over why he isn't doing something the 'other kids' are doing, because it only take away from my noticing what he is doing. And now that I know that piece of my journey in motherhood ... it's a whole new ball game.

Boy, thank you for putting up with a mother who worries too much. From now on, I will no longer make excuses for you, 'because you were premature'; I will try not to expect too much, and I will learn to find the joy in the journey.

Thoughts on Motherhood Part Two

Frog Prince may be my first born, but there
never has been, nor will there ever be another little boy like my Sheepie!

I don't even know where to begin with this little boy, all he has to do is look at me and my heart melts! With Sheepie, I get the pleasure of learning that motherhood really is about teaching. Each day Sheepie and I are constantly teaching each other how to relate to one another; and for every knock down drag out battle that we have, there is an equally powerful and tender moment were we can cuddle up together and grow.

This is especially true because in addition to being Sheepie's mother, I get to be his actual teacher as well. This last Sunday, I took my nursery class into the primary for the first. They only have a handful of weeks left before they are officially in the primary program at church, and we are prepping them for what it will be like. I will admit that I got a little teary eyed seeing my sweet Sheepie sitting so reverently and happily, surrounded by all the older children in our ward. As a nursery teacher you really have two choices-- use the two hours as a glorified babysitting for parents, or use the special time you have with these children to give them their first exposure to the truth that Jesus loves them, that they can learn to make good choices, and if you're lucky help them start to feel the sweetness of the Holy Ghost. Sheepie has made this opportunity all the sweeter for me, as he is constantly a ray of happiness and willingness in class. It never gets old hearing him remember the things that he is learning and doing at home, and sharing them days/weeks/even months later in class.

Thank you Sheepie, for teaching me that the faith of a little boy is real-- I will miss having you in my class!

Thoughts on motherhood Part One

The other day I was sitting down to write out my newsletter for my family. It seemed to morph into my recent thoughts on motherhood and my children. It's not like it was anything amazing but I thought I would share them anyway. Sorry if you happen to get my newsletter and this is a repeat. Also, it might read a bit strange since when I originally wrote it, I used the kids real names.

Lately, I have found myself reflecting heavily on my life as a mother. Frog Prince is only a few weeks away from turning five years old. I hardly seems to me that the time has flown by this quickly. My niece just celebrated her birthday, and my sister in law was commenting in her blog that even though, as parent, we love all of our children, there is just something about that eldest child that tugs at your heart strings in a special way. I couldn't agree more.

Frog Prince has always been my special boy; he is the child that made me a mother. He is the 'experimental child' -- as we are often experimenting new ideas of parenting on him. He is the eldest child, and has always taken his job as the 'protector' of his brothers very seriously. Over the last five years he has blossomed into such a vibrant little man full of compassion; giggles; spunk; endless amounts of energy, and the AMAZING imagination to match. He's giving, helpful, shockingly mature and insightful for his age; and has an insatiable desire to learn and know everything!

Already, at his young age he has such a strong testimony of the Saviour's love for him, personally. He is endlessly forgiving to me when I am short with him, or as I bumble my way through keeping up with his daily life. Yesterday, he told me that his favourite part of each day was getting to hug me. Thank you F.P.-- that's my favourite part of the day, too!

I do believe in Magic

Dear Sheepie and Frog Prince,

Today on the drive home from Nana and Papa's house, I have to admit I was spying on your conversation. You see, sometimes I do this. I can't help but listen to the interesting and funny little things that you say to one another. I hope you don't mind.

I just wanted to let you know that you are right. Christmas is full of magic.

And no, Sheepie, Santa will not come until you've fallen asleep. It's the law. But yes, Hobbsies can stay up to talk to him for you.

But most importantly, I want to you know that no matter what those, "big kids" tell you; there is still magic everywhere.

Santa is real and I hear his sleigh bells every Christmas.

Sometimes, if you're lucky and you wish hard enough that 'magical' first snow will happen on Christmas eve.

Yes, Frog Prince, my sweet heart, I do BELIEVE in faeries.

All you need to fly is a little faith, hope, and some pixie dust.

Yes, I DO still believe in Peter Pan. I promise that if he ever comes to our house I will neatly iron his shadow, and sew it back on for him, before you all fly off to Neverland.

And No, you never have to grow up.

Love,
Mommy

Magical Mondays

~ It didn't rain!

~ Boy sat up for 15 minutes straight; without falling.

~ My spinach quiche was amazingly good! (I'm having more for breakfast this morning.)

~ Family Home Evening was perfect.
Frog Prince conducted the meeting for the first time.
Sheepie 'played' the piano for us during the songs.
I decided to use my new nursery manual to do the lesson and it went GREAT.
The kids kept coming up with one activity after another.

~ Where we were in the scriptures that night actually talked perfectly about what our FHE lesson covered; without trying.


***

As a side note, does it seem normal for my son, who is only a CTR5 to have spoken three times already in Primary this year? We have a decent sized junior Primary, but he just came home with another slip saying he has to give a talk next Sunday.

I mean, yes, FP does rock. He can stand up there and deliver his own talk, which he wrote by himself, ( I can sit in the back and watch) at only 4 years old...but 4 talks in a year seems like it'd be a lot. Maybe I just don't know how primary works.

Either way, FP you are a rock star... and give the best talks in junior primary!

Super Saturday

Super Saturday was great! I taught my class.... which went well, since really I just had to supply the stuff and be there to troubleshoot.

I got caught up on several projects that had fallen by the way side.

I didn't get the froggie quilt worked on at all, but that's okay because my sewing machine was being EVIL today.

And I found out that the fabric store will have it's flannels on sale for 99c a yard the day after thanksgiving ( I have a lady from my church who works there and was teasing me because she hadn't seen me come into the store for almost a week).


I made a super cute demi apron out of some old sweet dinner napkins and lace that I found at Goodwill.

I did, however, really burn my finger on a hot glue gun. It makes typing a bit tricky, but now I can call it my war wound for a day of productive crafting.

Oh yeah, and the Wassail (from the Apple Lady) and the soups were fantastic. This year there was finally something that was vegetarian-- two actually-- that I didn't have to bring!

Long Winded

Gosh it feels like I haven't posted in several days. Oh wait, I haven't! Well, I have always said that I'd rather be too busy living to write about it than to write all the time about a whole bunch of nothing.! So here are some cute pictures of the kids. Boy has been growing in leaps and bounds lately. He is FINALLY starting to really sit up, although he still gets a bit unstable when he is trying to see things that are above him (the girth of his head causes him to tumble backwards). Now we just have to get the crawling going. I, personally, think he'd like to just skip crawling and move straight on to walking. He already loves to hold onto the side of things-- like his crib--and stand.

He is also eating like a small monster these days. Last night, I made Ratatouille for supper, and much to my surprise he at an entire portions worth. I have teased Hubby that I am going to raise him in the dark ways (vegetarianism) like me, but right now I think I am just happy to see him eating healthy, large portions of his food. I, thankfully, have always been blessed with good eaters.It really seems hard to believe that in just a few weeks he will be 8 months old. Time sure did fly by; I found myself startled the other day to see such a large and grown looking baby staring at me from his crib .

These two hams never cease to make me smile. This is just an example of the daily clothing choices around our house. People think, when we go out dressed like this (Yes, I do let my kids leave the house dressed like faerie tale characters and super heroes) that it's because of Halloween. I have learnt that the best answer is just a knowing smile and nod of the head.

Frog Prince is over the moon this week because Saturday is his best friend's fifth birthday. Every day he gets up and asks me if it's "Chad's birthday party day".

I also realised how quickly he is growing up. In less than a month, he, too, will be five years old. The time seems to have flown by and I can't believe what an amazing; respectful; bright; joyous; adventurous; loving; funny; smart kid my baby has become. Yesterday he wrote his first letter to Santa, and did so all by himself! As I was making supper, he sat down at the kitchen table and had me write out the words he needed help with, so that he could copy them out, and then he went to town writing Santa for a new blue frog doll, a frog quilt, and a frog video game. (any guesses why I chose the alias for him that I did?). May Santa make all your dreams come true, my sweet Frog Prince. (and may he also get to the fabric store quickly is he's going to knock out a frog quilt before Christmas!!!)

Sheepie is truly my squishy boy!!! In this picture you can see him helping stir the whole wheat batter for pancakes the other morning. This was done in conjunction with the 'pancake dance'. I wish I could get videos of such things, because they literally make me have to bite my lip to keep from laughing.

He is his little brother's biggest fan these days. He will hold him, kiss him, feed him, read him books, and always, always, always has to give him kisses before naps and bed time. It's amazing what tender mercies we are granted in life. I recall being so concerned over how Sheepie would handle not being the 'baby' anymore, and now he is the first to make sure his baby brother is being taken care of and included in all we do. Sheepie, you are my hero!

He has also give me a new nickname that makes me laugh! I have been dubbed 'icky-pie'. My mom calls people, 'sweetie-pie'; she called me that, she called my brothers that, and now she calls my children, 'sweetie-pie'. This tickles the kids to no end, and they proudly tell me all the time that their grandma calls them such. Now, add to this that Sheepie loves to be contrary for the sake of silliness. One day I told him, "I love you, Boogoo (a silly word/name we made up around here). His first response to me was, "Love you, Sweetie Pie". This elicited quite a laugh from me... cue Sheepie antics. No longer was sweetie=-pie good enough, it had to be something sillier. The next time I called out that, "I Love you Boogoo." I was returned with a, "Love you, icky"-pie. Why? Because Icky is the opposite of sweet, apparently. Long story, probably more than you wanted to know, but I found it quite cute and funny, and now laugh anytime I hear the word icky-pie being flung my way by passing three year olds!

And lastly, I will wrap up with what just about every other person in the world has blogged about too-- the election! All I can say is that I couldn't be happier (sorry Dad). I will save you all the political debate and reasoning, but let's just say that I voted for and quite heavily supported Obama. In him I see quite a bright hope for our country's future. And it makes me proud to live at a time, in our country, when the idea of a minority citizen being president is finally something other than the fodder for science fiction movies. (And that's not at all why I voted for him, but come on, you know it's true... Look at most sci fi movies.... I can count a dozen where the president is either a woman, black, Asian, or in some amazingly rare and completely improbably case all three!<-- okay not so much on that last one.)

Hope everyone's been having a good week. I'll catch ya on the flip side... The babe's calling me and I still need to make tortillas for tonight's dinner....although now that I think about it, I don't, because I forgot to set out the pinto beans to soak and cook this morning. I guess we can have burritos another night. Sorry, honey!

Halloween Treat

Happy Halloween from The Super Mario Gang!


Can you tell we took this at the end of a LONG day. Sticky faces, rumpled costumes, and really tired parents.
(and my poor broach got smashed.)


Boy's hood on his Koopa outfit kept covering his face, so this morning I quickly made him a
Toad (he's the mushroom sidekick) hat, and he was cute as can be. Wore it all day!

The Super Mario Team, to save the day!

When Mom is Sick

Not to say that my family doesn't have fun when I'm around!

I love this! Sheepie has only ever seen Count Dooku on the Lego Star Wars game for our Wii... He now loves to pretend he is Dooku in light saber fights. Last night he surprised us by, out of no where, using his 'electric hands' on Hubby. (If you've not seen the newer movies,I'm also talking about the electric beams the Emperor shoots out of his hands in Return of the Jedi.)

The Day Mommy stayed in Bed

After the kids were in bed Tuesday night, I remembered exactly how much I hate throwing up.

That's right, I caught the flu. Hopefully, this means I will get through the rest of the season without getting sick again?

I promptly crawled into the shower and slept (yes, I know it's not safe to sleep in the shower, but hey! it seriously is the only way I get any sleep when I'm sick, because I get so cold I can't really regulate my body temp.) Anyway, like I said, I crawled into the shower and stayed there for about two hours. Hubby, who was also sick, crawled into bed and was asleep by the time I got out.

Around 10 pm I decided that action needed to be taken. I called my little brother, Doug, (Doug, you are a rock star by the way!) who happens to be a rock star, in case anyone didn't know that, and asked him if he'd not only buy me 7-UP and saltine crackers, but then drive them all the way out to my house. He did, and when I woke up again around midnight, I had 'sick food' waiting for me. He even threw in some Gatoraide to sweeten the deal.. THANKS Dougie!

Wednesday, Hubby worked from home so that he could do things like pick the kids up from school, and play with them. Me-- I stayed in bed.... well not the whole time, but I have done nothing for the last two days. If you look around my house you can tell. I figure Friday I might actually care enough to clean up again (sorry, Hubby, your amazing wife is 'out of the office' for a few days!).

However, Wednesday the kids had their Halloween party at school. They get to dress up and then go trick or treating around all the different High school classrooms. All the kids looked so cute in their little costumes. I have to admit though, I am extremely partial to a pair of really good looking plumbers though!

Okay, and that baby koopa is pretty sweet too!

Pumpkin Cravin'

Tuesday the kids were still sick, and as such had to stay home from school... NO FUN!

Well, okay, I think the kids had fun; I made them lay on the sofa all day watching movies. This way they were calm and quiet. It lasted for about a half a day until they went crazy and wanted to run around and play. That is when all the train sets came out and took over my living room.

That night when Hubby got home and we'd had supper it was pumpkin carving time.

















Sadly, by the time all the pumpkins were carved and done, Hubby and I were both feeling sick as well...

Peach Pie with fresh whipped cream

This was one of my adventures for monday.

It was supposed to be the snack for FHE.

We decided to move FHE to Tuesday night this week though, so that we'd have enough time to carve pumpkins for the activity.


The Pie still was good!

I get to wake up to this!

Don't be jealous!

It's a Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood

It's a beautiful day in the Neighbourhood, and I love Autumn! Something about the changing colours, misty mornings, warm sweaters and hot apple cider and pies that make me remember that living in Oregon truly is as close as a person can get to heaven on earth.








































I can't think of another place on earth where I'd rather live. There is just something about the smell of smoke curling out of chimney's; the luscious mix of evergreens and fire coloured leaves; watching kids in their coats and hats standing waiting for the big Yellow Buses; the way you can see your breath in the mornings, and the amazing stars in the clear autumn nights!

Saturday is a Special Day

It's the Day....



















...Captain Hook finally caught Peter Pan!

It's the Day...

... we explore the local Historical Society....

















... just because it looks like a fun place to go.




It's the Day...

















... I wonder why...





















...Women ever stopped dressing so feminine and beautiful.

It's the Day...

We continued living...

Happily Ever After.