A few quick pics

Happened to snap this sweet pic of our girls :)

Weirdest dog ever ... thinks he's so human that he should have a comfortable "chair" just like the rest of the kids!

Bren built a Lego Wall-E :)

We went to the bank, and guess who was there!? "Santa" gave the kids each a little gift bag with the supplies to build a frame magnet for the fridge. They also printed out a picture of the kids with Santa to put in it.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Drum roll please . . .!! We left the kids at home. I know! It only took ten years (okay, nine, but 10 sounds more dramatic! :) While checking the Broncos football schedule, Buck noticed that they were playing the Vikings a manageable drive, well if you don't have to go through a blizzard, which we did . . :) He also noticed they were playing around the time of my birthday. He put two and two together and came up with a mini-vacation, grown ups only! So weird. So weird to greet the babysitter, pass along the instructions, and be ushered out the door. So weird to sit in the car and talk like we used to when it was just us. So weird to drive for hours and hours and not have to stop for bathroom breaks, food runs, or argument settlements, so weird! (But good :)

Because of the length of the drive, we decided to delay our plans to reach our hotel and go straight to the Mall of America for some Christmas shopping . . . we ended up buying See's chocolate (duh! :) and a couple of pairs of jeans for Buck at Old Navy, I know, aren't we just over the top shoppers? We did use a coupon to get the girls some little birthday/Christmas items at Justice (a little girl clothing store that makes you want to wear shaded glasses due to the virtual explosion of color everywhere you look :) The mall was very nicely decorated, so much glitter and sparkle (possible to help distract from the absolute wreck the individual stores were in the wake of holiday shoppers, good grief I could have used a broom in the dressing rooms! :) Oh, I bought a hat, also at Old Navy, to match the red coat I bought last winter. I like hats!

We took a few pics of the giant ornaments and three story Christmas trees for the kids, grabbed noodles as a snack from The Noodle Co., and then slid our way to our hotel in downtown Minneapolis. Wow, what a location (thank you Groupon! :) We were just blocks from stunning churches, delicious restaurants, and the lighted Christmas parade! That first evening, the concierge was able to upgrade our room, and suggest a few dining potentials we might enjoy. So weird to be heading out to eat supper at 9:30 PM!

Just blocks away, through the freshly fallen snow we walked to Brit's Pub. So weird to get carded, ha! The cozy, dark wood adorned pub was filled with cheerfully drunk Broncos fans, patrons wearing Santa hats, and so much greenery sparkling with little white lights! Even a Christmas tree stood shining in just around the corner from our hidden table . . . which was right next to a map of Ireland, I might add :) An older couple came in and sat near us, away from the hubbub. Such a cozy place! We ordered Scotch eggs . . . hard-boiled eggs, wrapped in sausage, then rolled in bread crumbs, and fried . . . oh.so.yummy! (But you can only eat one or two, because they are rich!) We also split a plate of just about as authentic as you can get outside of Ireland/Englad fish and chips. Stuffed, we were stuffed! But the brisk walk back to the hotel was just right, because we had big plans the next day . . . what time is it???

Tebow time! My brother picked us up at the hotel and drove us to the stadium. Despite an injured knee, he led us across the busy lanes of traffic and through the surging crowd like a giant leading his troops into battle! :) We joined the throng inside the stadium (oddly enough, right next to a polka band) and every so often someone would yell out, "What time is it?!" "IT'S TEBOW TIME!" would come the answer, pretty fun :)

Our seats were waaaaay up  high, but we had a good view of the field. Of course, Mr. Tim kept it exciting and helped the Broncos win in an exciting conclusion to the 4th quarter. I might also add, they had some sort of children vs. team mascot event during half time, which featured a giant Peep chicken teamed with the buffallo from BWW and a variety of other interesting characters :)

After the game, my bro treated Buck and I to dinner in a place he never would have selected himself, but was a good sport and let us try it . . . legendary for breakfast and their homemade ketchup, and also for naming their restaurant long before Chef Ramsey came up with his show :) With full bellies, my bro dropped us back at the hotel. We grabbed our warmer gear and headed down to the lighted Christmas parade. It was a sight to see, but a little slow, and a lot cold :) The line for Caribou Coffee was so long, the parade ended before Buck could get our order, ha!

Next (I know! so weird that there can be a next after all that!) we hopped into our car and drove back to the Mall of America to watch a comedian perform at the comedy club inside the mall. I'll give the first guy a "fail," the second guy an "eh," and the headliner a "you got a few laughs out of me." I think on a Sunday night, at the Mall of America, even if they are well-known (the headliner was on Conan a couple days later) they are likely trying out new material to see what sticks with the crowd, because my brother saw him on Conan and reported a lot of the material was what we heard. But, still fun to go out! And because we could sleep in the next morning, we rented Pirates of the Caribbean 27 (or whatever version they are on now :) back at the hotel.

Our original plan was to hightail it home on Monday, but our delays on the way up kind of limited our shopping to a dash through. And I didn't even get to go to Ikea! So we check with our sitter and she was cool with staying a few extra hours (even though the dog was flipping out that we were away for so long, the kids were fine :) . . . and off to Ikea we went! I was able to find a few small gifts (fun stuff in the children's department), a kid-sized hanger (to help solve the never-ending basket full of coats problem), and, this deserves a second drum roll, a new comforter and curtains for our bedroom!

I've been looking for years! In fact, the "curtains" that we had in our room since we bought this house were four toppers that I sewed out of one looooooong one from a window we had two houses ago! The new shiny orange duvet is SOOO warm! Our room is freezing, so this is a huge improvement! And the dark brown fabric of the curtains blocks out so much morning light that Buck can sleep much more comfortably. We snagged a few Ikea chocolate bars (surprisingly tasty) and headed home!

Reentry was more difficult than I imagined. We found it hard to adapt to being parents again, and dog people again. I think Buck sent the kids to bed at 5:30 that night :) It's really a mental jump to go back to kidless (though it was much easier to arrive at that destination than I expected :) and then to reverse the process in a matter of hours. I will say though, that having done it, I am surprised at how possible it seems to go again, and NOT another 9 years from now :)

By the way, the first pic is of the chocolates that Gabby bought me for my birthday. She recited the books of the Bible to her Sunday school teacher, just so she could earn $5 to get me a gift, isn't that sweet?? (Usually we don't pay the kids to learn from the Bible, but her teacher is a good friend of mine, and I think she knew what Gab had in mind :)

Kid Pic Out-takes

Sometimes the pictures that didn't get selected for the Christmas card are the most fun of all :)

Wrapping up November

Amazing how quickly time skips by, it's almost Christmas! I'll rewind a few weeks to pick up where I left off . . . shortly before Thanksgiving, Buck and I debated about what our best Christmas tree pursuit might be given his heightened holiday work schedule. In the end, we opted to head out to a local tree farm and search the greenery for our own special indoor plant :) The kids (and the puppy) had a marvelous time racing through the rows of fragrant firs! What an enormously fun game of hide-and-seek!

The sun was setting, and we still hadn't picked a winner. In a few ways, we like to be "off the beaten pathers" so we headed over to a section no one seemed to be browsing. Oh the soft and beautiful trees! The longer needles made the branches less sturdy for ornament hanging, but it was the kind of tree ANYONE would want to hug :) Graysen, wearing an army hat (you know, because he's four :), stood next to several recent plants declaring, "Not this one mom, it's tooooo small."

Apparently, his words sunk into our subconscious because after the hot chocolate, after the fun of watching the tree get shaken, wrapped, and loaded, we took our tree home .  . . it barely fit in the garage atop the van roof! Oh dear . . .

We'll have to return to the saga of the Christmas tree a bit later, as we packed and planned and prepped for our Thanksgiving drive to see family and celebrate Christmas, we threw in our annual decorating of turkey cookies. If you are a parent, you've seen the look in these children's eyes before . . . not exactly tired, but not exactly right . . .

Within hours, the boys and I were throwing up. Caelan came out of her room a couple of hours later and joined us, the Buck came home from work to help, and Gabby joined in, ugh. We spent the day together, watched the Macy parade, but didn't eat nary a morsel of food on all of turkey-day. Oh what a holiday to remember :)

Feeling a bit better the next day, Buck--who mentally willed himself to not get sick--brought the tree in from the garage. As the twine was cut, it poofed out bigger and bigger and bigger, until it reached nearly to the ceiling and covered half of the girls' bedroom door! I giggled everytime I looked at it for the next two days :) The kids took turns with the decorating. I discovered an effective method last year . . . lay out all the ornaments on the floor. While the other three decide which two they want to put on next, the one who's turn it is puts his or her ornaments on the tree, then switch! It goes so much more smoothly than all of them man-handling the ornaments and elbowing for position :)

To our surpise, other than one glass bulb eating incident, the dog has pretty much left the tree alone. I slowly started adding presents below it, to see if they would offer any temptation, but he seems to have learned his lesson.

And as this is the season of celebration, the kids were more than happy to throw a festive first birthday party for the little guy we watch during the week. The girls made cookies with Buck, the boys helped hang up "balloons" (the air-filled packing pillows from some of the gifts I'd ordered :), and they altogether added streamers and colored pictures. It's fun to see them working hard to bless someone else (even if it is a little someone else who will never remember :)

 

And I think that wraps up our November!

Brennen's Birthday

I have to ask him frequently, "How old are you now?" I'm having trouble making "6" stick. How can he be six? Whoa.

At the last minute, Buck was able to take Brennen's birthday off, very exciting! Maga came down to visit and took us all out to eat at the Mexican restaurant...a place the kids ask almost daily to go to for a munch :) Brennen looked up at just the right moment to have the colorful sombrero popped on his head as our waiter friends burst into song . . . they sounded awesome! My friend Kristin happened to be sitting in a nearby booth and snapped a picture of us all enjoying the moment; it popped up on my phone as a text message and I felt like I was being watched (until I remembered she was there :)

As a big surprise, after school, Brennen's friend Gavin came over to play. The boys have been trying to set up a play date for AGES and either Gavin's parents have to cancel, or we have to bail at the last minute, but FINALLY it worked out! Such happy guys!

Funny though, our play date company is 95% girl. What a contrast! After digging through the dress-up tub, the three boys appeared dressed as hunters, Star Wars something-or-others, and more Star Wars something-or-others :) They immediately went into battle, vanquishing unseen assailants, rounding up the bad guys, and making sure good reigned in the universe. Fun stuff!

I made B BBQ chicken for supper (his favorite only after fried chicken and ribs :) We watched the movie he received for his birthday, ate some . . . you'll never guess (well, from the picture of how it turned out, you actually might not :) . . . STAR WARS cake and just spent the day together. It was nice!

Thank you to everyone who sent him cards and gifts, he really enjoyed opening mail this year (and he could read bits and pieces of his cards by himself, which was even cooler :)

Snow!

Okay, I've been busy this month and the snow in these pictures has LOOOOONG melted away :) But I was impressed with our camera's snow setting (you know those specialized settings that are easy to completely forget about, but actually make pictures turn out a lot better for the person who only has a vague notion of what they are doing in the land of photography :)

The funny thing about the first snow of the season . . . is trying to get the kids dressed for it. Everyone but Caelan was sporting high water snow pants and poor Gabby didn't even have boots to close the gap :) Everyone outgrew everything! But the nice thing (aha, score a point me!) is that I planned ahead and bought neutral colors in the biggest size . . . so that way, the hand-me-downs work for boy or girl. Excellent!

We've since received a shipment from "Gonkers" as Graysen calls it (hee hee :) and Caelan now has a bigger set of boots and pants, everyone below her in line has shifted up, and now WE JUST NEED SOME SNOW! It hasn't snowed, at all, since that first white-out. I'm sure it will be here soon enough, gotta break in those new snowpants sometime, right? :)

The pictures reminded me . . . when I first woke up, Graysen kept saying over and over, "Mom, I'm so sorry! Your why-whacks are broken. The snow broke your why-whacks." I didn't have a clue what he meant, until he went to open the front door and pointed out my lilac bush, which still had leaves on it, pinned to the ground with heavy snow. Ha! My "why-whacks" are just fine, after a bit of snow removal :) Oh and in the backyard, the neighbor's bushes did the same thing, but they bent down to form an arch tunnel ... Brennen immediately claimed this as his hide-out, it was really cool! And it was the puppy's first time in the snow. At first he adopted a, "Oh, me? Have to go potty? Uh . . . nevermind . . . I think I'll just hold it . . ." type-attitude :) Then he saw the kids having fun, and he decided to join in! Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, daddy of the year made hot chocolate from SCRATCH because we didn't have any instant in the house, what a guy!!