Motherhood confessional

For some time now Fuller has been complaining that his shoes are too tight and hurting his feet. I've kind of been blowing him off, since I did just buy him new shoes in September and I've been planning on buying him new ones when basketball season starts in January. Today we were going to town to run some other errands, so I decided we'd go get his shoes today too. The shoes I bought him in September were a men's 5. The shoes I bought him today were a men's 8. What a neglectful mother I've been, letting my poor child's feet suffer. It never occurred to me that his feet were growing at the rate of a size a month. Holy Cow! At this rate he'll need new shoes again before Valentine's Day. Needless to say he's been doing lots of "I told you so's" today.

And in other "poor excuse for a mother" news, Buster has sprained his tail. I guess I shouldn't have been letting him romp around like crazy out in the yard. Last night Paul noticed that his tail, which is usually wagging so wildly that it could knock you over, was hanging straight down and totally still. After a little internet research I was convinced that he had either broken it or dislocated it. I took him to the vet this morning and she is pretty sure it's just sprained, but if it isn't better in a few day we'll have to go back in for an x-ray. She said sprained tails are actually fairly common in "large, spastic dogs"(isn't that just the best description of Buster ever?) So, now I have to get him to take it easy for a few days and get him to take some anti-inflamatory pills twice a day. Fun stuff I tell ya!

Mmmmm......mmmmmm....mmmmmm

I think I'm in love. Paul got me this wonderful book:

And on my very first try I made this:

Isn't it pretty? The crust is crisp perfection, and the inside is light, chewy and wonderful. My family quickly inhaled the whole loaf, not a crumb left. The best part is I have enough dough left in my fridge for 3 more loaves. Bring on the butter!

Christmas 2008

This year we had a beautiful(and irritating) white Christmas. There were big fluffy snowflakes and treacherous roads. The kids missed school most of the week before Christmas vacation, and I was unable to get around to get all of the things done that I had wanted to. Class parties were missed. Traditions like going to town to see the big tree were put off until next year. However it did end up being a wonderful Christmas. The kids were able to keep a nice balance between being excited and going crazy. Paul unexpectedly got the whole week off, so that was a big help too. We were so thankful to be together and to be in our nice warm home, and that we only lost power for about an hour on Christmas eve. We tried to have a low key and relaxed holiday.

On Christmas eve we decorated cookies for Santa.

Our kids traditionally get to open new jammies on Christmas eve. This year I just made them some sleep pants, and we gave them each a new book, so that they could read if they were having trouble going to sleep that night.

Paul got the "pleasure" of having his traditional Christmas eve sleep over with the kids, so he could prevent them from getting up too early. They woke him up at 3 and 4 and then they finally convinced him to get up a little before 6. They all got big new lego sets from Santa, and a few things from us.I can't believe how excited Fuller was to get new socks!

Once the presents were all opened everyone cleared themselves a spot and began building with their new legos. Paul cooked us aebelskivers and bacon for breakfast, and then we dragged the kids away from all of their new stuff to go spend the rest of the day at my parent's house. At their house we had lots of relatives to play with, presents to open, and more delicious food than we could possibly eat.

Rowan still thinks the only way to interact with Uncle Jim is to attack him and climb all over him.

Grayson was really trying to out shine all of us. He picked his outfit out the night before and fixed his hair and everything. He really wanted to look nice on Christmas.

Grandma and Grandpa really came through for Fuller this year! It was a dream come true.

I can't believe we got a picture where everyone looks half way decent!

My sister and her family made a last minute decision to come to Oregon on Christmas, we're sure glad they did. It was really fun to have them here, but after the driving conditions they had to deal with I'm not so sure they thought it was a good idea.

Aunt Enid shared one of her family's English Christmas traditions, of poppers. She had to help the kids get their paper crowns right first.

Here's my folks with all of their grandchildren. My poor mom is now almost shorter than most of them.

And since then we've pretty much all just been channeling our inner rock star.
I'm sad to say that the Christmas cards never did get mailed, or written. Maybe I'll work on them on New Years Eve or something. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!

Fantasy VS. Reality

Having spent my entire life in Oregon,I fear I greatly romanticized snow. I spent my childhood dreaming of that elusive, picturesque white Christmas. What snow we did get was always way too little and short lived. I wanted more! Enough to build an igloo and miss school for a month! This last week I have been "treated" to the biggest snowstorm of my life. The kids missed almost a complete week of school, and we have over a foot of the white stuff. Let me just say, snow has almost completely lost it's charm for me. The kids are even tired of it, something I thought would never happen. But, we've been trying to make the most of it.

We've built snow forts.



We've kicked our brother's forts when they wouldn't let us help.

And cried when our brothers pushed us over.

As much as I'm growing to hate snow, it sure is pretty.

The snow became much less fun once there was a layer of ice on it.

Poor Buster has been so bewildered. He just looked pathetic trying to walk around the backyard, and breaking through the ice at every step. It was very hard for him to locate the right spot to do his business.

The icicles have been impressive though.

This weekend we took a very ill fated trek through the snow. Paul had the "brilliant" idea that we should WALK down to return the movies we rented. What is normally a quick, couple minute drive, became a two hour odyssey through very deep snow. Think "Donner party". We very nearly had to leave a kid or two by the side of the road. Poor Paul had it really rough, as he ended up carrying Grayson and Rowan for long stretches of time. They just weren't going to make it. My pep talk about how the pioneers walked all day long through snow, without all of the nice snow clothes that we have, was not appreciated. This was not one of our better ideas, and my muscles are letting me know it.


The only really good thing about the snow is that it makes the kids so tired that they curl up into little cocoons and go to sleep.

An important conversation

ANOTHER snow day

Today.....I could very easily lose my mind.

Winter Wonder Land

Everyone's a winner

What a good day! A 2 hour late start morning, which means I didn't even get out of bed until after 7:30. Both Grayson and Rowan got prizes at school for running the most laps during the fun run. Rowan got a school t-shirt and Grayson got a gumball machine and a big bag of gumballs. Then Fuller came home with his certificate for making the honor roll. He missed getting it at the assembly on Friday since he was home sick that day. And to finish it off we had a really fun project at cub scouts this afternoon.

Let is snow, let it snow, let it snow!

Nothing says fun quite like a snow day! My boys have been DYING for snow ever since our snow-less Thanksgiving trip to Missoula. When the snow started falling Sunday morning they were yelping for joy! The fact that we got them to sit through church that morning is really amazing.



Rowan was all about checking out the taste, feel and throwing ability of the snow.

Fuller and Grayson were more interested in playing hockey, and trying to get some speed on the nearby hill.

Fuller talked Paul into taking the wheels off of an old skateboard so they could use it as a snowboard. They had a great time pulling each other down the neighbors driveway on it.

The boys started celebrating school being closed the minute it was announced last night. Fuller let Grayson and Rowan have a sleep over in his room, and then we all just hung out in our jammies watching Christmas movies this morning. Then more playing on the slippery ice. There's more snow forecast for later this week, so they're keeping their fingers crossed for another day off.

Firsts

Last night while I was brushing Rowan's teeth he reached in his mouth and pulled out what looked like just a bunch of frothy toothpaste. He said "what's this?" I looked closer and realized that his tooth had fallen out! He just seems too little to start losing teeth! He was so excited! He couldn't wait to put it under his pillow. He was just so cute about it.....until he decided to come show me his tooth fairy money at 3:00 in the morning! Not so cute. Now every time I look at him he has this strange look on his face, as he keeps trying to feel the empty space with his tongue.


Grayson has been showing signs of aging too, his memory is so bad he has to make himself "to do" lists. Here's the one he made for today. I'm so glad that he put "be good" on the list, wouldn't want to forget that.

One last thing, I just have to share my best laugh of the week. A few days ago we arrived home after school to find a big box on our front porch. Grayson and Rowan were very excited, figuring it probably had Christmas presents in it. I saw that it was from Texas and knew immediately that it was from my Uncle Bob and Aunt Lady. I could see the little cogs turning in the boys' heads as they imagined all of the possibilities that the box could contain. We brought it inside, opened it up and saw this:

You would not have believed the looks of shock and disbelief on their faces. They just couldn't believe it. Then they got the giggles, and kept saying "someone mailed us a whole turkey!" Once he recovered Grayson said "we need to take a picture of that!" I guess it was just so unbelievable that he wanted photographic evidence. I owe a big thanks to my Aunt and Uncle for the delicious smoked turkey, and the great laugh!

Flashback Friday- The Ghost of Christmas Past

I must have been a REALLY good little girl, because Santa sure seems to have brought me lots of stuff. It's so funny the things we remember. I totally remember that little green striped bear. I think I had it up until I left for college. I also remember the trees of my childhood. For several years (how many was it Dad?) we had a live tree. For most of the year it lived out on the patio in a large pot, and then for Christmas we would put in on one of my brother's skateboards and begin the difficult process of moving the big unwieldy thing in the house. It was kind of an odd shaped tree, but we liked it anyway, and once it was covered in decorations it was harder to tell how ugly it was.


Most years we just spent Christmas at home with our family. I love that we always had a jigsaw puzzle going, and had time to play games as a family. Good Memories!

My kind of place

I've never made a secret of the fact that I don't always like where I live. In my heart I really am a big city girl, and the lack of decent local shopping and dining weigh heavily in my list of complaints. In the last few weeks though, this place has started to grow on me. I've been downright touched by the generosity of this community. Last weekend I spent a VERY cold Saturday morning out with my cub scout group collecting canned food. In just a few hours we were able to collect 648 pounds of food for the local food bank. For an area so recently hit with major job losses, people were so willing to give. One lady even left out cookies for the scouts, to thank them for their hard work. Then there was the letter that Grayson's teacher sent home. At the start of the year Grayson's teacher asked each student for $6 for party money, to cover all of their parties this year. Very few students brought in money, and some parents contacted her saying that times were just too hard for them this year. She had mentioned this to a friend of hers, and her friend's business decided that they would like to sponsor all of the parties for that class this year, but only if they could do so anonymously. Then we have Grayson's basketball coach, who saw a great deal on trophies, so she went ahead and picked them up for the team. She refuses to let us pay her for them, saying she's just so proud of how well the boys are doing, that she wants to be able to reward each of them. And finally, yesterday my sweet neighbor(thanks Paige), who seeing a firetruck by my house called to make sure everything was all right(it was for the house across the street). Yep, this place is really starting to grow on me.

Perfection

I've long ago given up on the "perfectly" decorated tree. I think the fact that Rowan likes to hang six or seven ornaments off of the same branch is charming. With the exception of a few treasured ornaments, which I carefully place near the top, I pretty much just let the boys decorate the tree how they want. When they're happy with how it looks, it's done. I think they did a great job!

Sugar, lots and lots of sugar

This weekend we had a quick but fun visit from Paul's sister and her girls, to make gingerbread houses. We had so much fun doing it together last year that we decided to do it again. There was frosting and candy everywhere, and a good time was had by all.

































I just love how Rowan's tongue is hanging out in this picture, with so much candy around he just couldn't help himself.






























At this point Rowan was mad at me because I wouldn't let him sit and eat all of the candy off his house. I think this may be a problem in days to come.