That Magical Time of Year

When it looks as though a toy spewing bomb exploded in my house. I am offering $50 to ANYONE, I don't really care if we have actually met, who will come and assist me in organizing this disaster of a building we call home.

As you can see from the photo, Christmas at the S house was enjoyed by all. We have had a lovely few days chock full of exhausting yet utterly delightful activities.

Merry Christmas and love to all! May your days be merry and bright!

It was a day like any other day....

...in Christmas Town.


That is, until Boots the Terrible arrived.



The town folk never knew what hit them.

And now for Anna's music show:

Etu

This evening we visited one of our many local Starbucks in order to secure provisions for a Christmas light viewing drive around the neighborhood.

You will be glad to know, dear Etu, that Anna enthusiastically regaled the lengthy line of waiting customers with a detailed description of the baby ogre that eats pickles and says, "Wah! Wah! Wah!"

I believe my favorite comment was something along the lines of, "My goodness! You sure to have a lot to say for a two year old! I bet your mommy has really big ears!"

Are my ears too big for my head? Go on, you can tell me.

Dear Anna,

My little Lulu,
There is no possible way I can find words eloquent or descriptive enough to express how much your presence lights up my life. I may grouse and complain about your non-stop steam of consciousness chatter and tendency to stick closer to me than my own shadow, but the truth is that no day in my life will ever be complete unless there is at least one moment during the day when I cannot identify the thoughts in my own head because all I can hear is your chirping little voice. I cannot imagine a day without tripping over you at least once.

My little sunshine,
Just before this picture was taken, you marched your diaper clad behind into the room and proudly announced your readiness to go out and play in the freshly fallen snow because you had your boots on. At that moment you warmed my heart enough to keep us both cozy in any weather.

Dear Readers,
The last few weeks have been oh so busy. I've posted several pictures from the last few weeks below. I particularly like the picture of the boys at the local Christmas parade. Isaac tried desperately to act like he was WAY too cool for Christmas parades, but NO ONE can contain their excitement when Santa makes that first
appearance.

I would also like to assure you, dear readers, that the pictures of Anna with the kitties, though they may appear as if she is in the process of strangling the poor things, are actually photographic evidence of some super sweet moments between them. They are awfully tolerant and affectionate little guys. I love that they sleep under the Christmas tree; our childhood cats slept under the tree every year.

Of course, I WOULD prefer that they not actually CLIMB the tree. This evening as we drove away, Jesse noticed a large block of tree lights, right at the top on the tree, that were not lit. Just as he commented on the fact that the lights were out, Boots' little head popped out of the tree, less than a foot from the top. This tree is over 7 feet tall! Little stinker. He's going to end up with coal in his stocking if he doesn't behave.

Love to all!

Merry December!

No, Isaac has not grown a mustache. He has taken to obsessively licking his lips which has resulted in a lovely red ring around his entire mouth. The stash you see in this picture is actually a line of red, raw skin from the constant licking. I am open to suggestions.

Yes, that is my sweet little Nathan with that, "I'm too cute for this picture; yeah you know what I mean." look on his face.

Anna's just thrilled to be Anna as, after all, it's pretty awesome to be two.

Love to all!

Isaac's Letter to Santa

(Transcribed exactly as written by Isaac.)

Dear Santa

I want legos

and

The Lego

Batman game

and a

cemickle set.

Translation: Dear Santa, I want legos and the lego batman game (Wii, I think) and a chemical set.

FYI: Isaac LOVES legos and I am sure will be happy no matter how many sets he receives. He is already receiving several video games and his mother would prefer that he not receive anymore. But his daddy might have different thoughts on that issue. Ugh, chemistry sets! They usually gather dust for a few months, get a day or two of use, then gather more dust until we end up throwing them away.

Nathan's Letter to Santa

(Transcribed exactly as written by Nathan.)

Tal
satu
I
wut
a
pawraagr megusord
and
I
wut
A
soron
and
I
wut
a
suenl red rnejr.

Translation: Tell Santa I want a power ranger megazord and I want a sauron and I want a sentinel red ranger.

FYI: Sauron is actually a power ranger bad guy that Isaac long ago dubbed Sauron. Nana has claimed the ranger megazord. Sentinel red rangers are, sadly, no longer in production and can be acquired only on e-bay.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Yes, I am a tad late I know. The S family has been enjoying a lovely week of fun and freedom. Freedom from work, that is.

We celebrated a lovely Thanksgiving at Aunt Ray Ray's house. Etu, Ray Ray and I decided to brave the 11 pm opening of the local outlet mall later that night. It was crowded but fun; we shopped until 2 am and then flopped all over Ray Ray's house for the night. As you can see from the pic below, Anna was VERY pleased with her not quite Black Friday haul.
























We've spent the remainder of our weekend recuperating, decorating, shopping and romping in the pitiful 2-ish inches of snow that fell last night. November is SUPPOSED to be our snowiest month! The weather this month has been pathetic, just pathetic.

The kids' tree is up and it looks fabulous. MY tree will hopefully go up tomorrow and I am also planning to shimmy up the tree in the front yard, snow or no snow, and wrap it from top to bottom in shiny white lights. I can't wait!

The S family adores this time of year.

I posted a slide show of kids' tree decorating and the family snowball fight using what little snow DID fall below. But first, a picture of the cats that just tickled me to pieces. They are watching our neighbors play hockey in the street.

Love to all!

Watching Dora

Cheri-Bot

Some of you may not be aware of my childhood family nickname, Cheri (cherry). I tend to go by Cherith these days, but the fam still calls me Cheri. Honestly, if one of them ever ever dared call me Cherith I probably wouldn't have a clue who they were talking to. Conversely, if Jesse called me Cheri I would probably have some sort of mental breakdown.

All of the above is nearly irrelevant to the actual point of this post. But I don't feel good and don't have anything else to do right now.

Esther joined us for a viewing of Wall-E yesterday. The bot you see here is the movie's resident cleaning bot. He follows the characters around beeping, "foreign contaminant" and frantically scrubbing them down whenever he senses uncleanliness.

Shortly after his first appearance on the screen Esther choked hysterically on whatever it was she was eating at the time and announced, "Look! A Cheri-Bot!"

Because I am a kind hearted soul I am NOT going to reciprocate this ribbing by telling you how many boxes of a hard-to-find Kashi cereal she bought at the store yesterday after shrieking in glee when she spotted it on the grocery store shelf.

Which reminds me, she left one box HERE. I believe this is what we call leverage.

PS Isaac and Nathan found and caught a black widow in the garage. Isaac is ECSTATIC. Apparently the cute little fuzzy kittens were not enough to help him get over the loss of his previous black widow.

Boots, Daisey and $$$

Soooooo.....

Many of you are already aware of Boots' late night ER trip from a few weeks ago.

This weekend Daisey had her turn!

Apparently during one of their many sibling hair pulling fights Boots managed to scratch Daisey in the neck. It must have been a pretty minor scratch as neither we nor the vet can find any evidence of such a scratch. However, there MUST have been one at some time. According to the vet, their baby skin heals super fast and traps any potential infection inside. In Daisey's case, this infection went to town and resulted in an enormous abscess jutting from the side of her neck.

EW

We nicknamed her goiter and scheduled an appointment with the vet. She had to go under anesthesia and now sports the OH SO FABULOUS yet not quite Elizabethan collar you see in the picture below. They don't actually make collars small enough for our not quite 2 pound Daisey so the vet fashioned one out of a small Styrofoam coffee cup.

Poor Daisey!

She is also on a two week round of antibiotics.

They are sweet, darling little kittens but they sure are getting pricey! Fortunately the vet is cutting us a nice deal on all of their immunizations and so forth.

So now, among other things, I spend my days teaching both my bio children and my fur children the art of sibling relations.

Oh the joys of motherhood! Daisy is permitted contact with her brother only under close super vision until her wound heals. We have the joyous task of cleaning it and making sure it is open and draining several times a day.

Again I say, EW.

Don't laugh at her picture, she's very sensitive about her appearance right now.

Come on lady! This is humiliating!

File em down good mom!

Whatcha doin dad???

LOVE TO ALL

Words Heard Around the World

"Honey, do you smell acetone?"

I'm not sure there's really anything else to say.




Just in case you are wondering, yes that is nail polish. Yes, she reapplied her Sharpie eye liner and yes, that is how our bedroom carpet now looks.

Also, in an effort to curb these oh so amusing photo opportunities, I have purged my bathroom of anything and everything cosmetic. The next time you see me it will be sans makeup, nail polish, moisturizer etc. It's going to be a long winter.

Love to all!

Words Just Fail Me Updated

I am totally used to the scene below. Doesn't bother me so much anymore. They find a pair of scissors, they cut their hair. Oh well, it grows back. Right?





Right.


But THIS? This is a new one on me? In case you are wondering that is permanent, Sharpie. SIGH



I took this picture this weekend and think it is so accurately Anna that I just had to throw it in here.



Love to all!

* Had to come back and tell you that tonight while I was getting her ready for bed and scrubbing away, yet again, at the marker on her head, Anna launched into an explanation of WHY her head was covered in marker.

"Mamma I put makeup on my eyebows and den I cut my hair so then I could be so pretty!"

She is so flipping cute it is painful! Do you like her glowering, supermodel face?

Happy Birthday!! (Posted by Jesse)

Just wanted to take a moment to wish my darling wife a very happy birthday today! I hope you have a great day, honey! You do so much for our family, and I'm so grateful for all of it!

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween!!! Scroll down and view these pics from the bottom up as they are in reverse chronological order. I am too tired to change that. We killed off most of our day at the zoo, feeding the birds.

Love to all!

New Arrivals

Meet Boots and Daisy. The boys are in LOVE. Anna has inquired at least 345 times as to the location of HER kitty so we pacified her with a cookie.


Love to all!

Dear Genius....

I don't know what brilliant mind invented these things...but I would REALLY like to shake that person's hand.

These odd looking little seats on a stick will spin a willing child in circles for hours with no help at all from any parental unit. If you have ever taken more than one child to a playground and/or the words, "Push me!" strike terror in your heart then you know of what I speak.

Pure genius. If you ever meet him/her, point him/her in my direction.

This is an awesome new playground recently built near us. LOADS of fun.





Am I the only who thinks this picture would be near perfect were it not for the big old wad of goose poo on Anna's shoe?


Love to all!

Um....

This evening we engaged in a rather frank discussion with our beloved boys regarding family unity, life choices and the resulting consequences.

It was one of those parenting moments you wish you did not have to experience but at the same time a moment that was warranted.

The boys went to bed subdued yet thoughtful.

Jesse and I felt rather good about our discussion.

That is until I put Anna to bed. Anna and I have a nightly routine of cuddling in her rocking chair before she moves to her crib. Every night as I move her to her bed she reminds me not to mess up her blanky. She is VERY particular about the arrangement of her beloved blanky. It must cover her toes JUST SO or she insists that it be removed and rearranged.

And usually this little quirk is a-ok with me. I enjoy her little personality immensely.

Tonight, however, instead of gently reminding me not to mess up her blanky she furrowed her brow, shook her finger and me and stated firmly, "I yam sick and tioued of you messing up my bwanky mommmy."

We might have succeeded in curbing the boys' behavior but we have, apparently, simultaneously created a monster in our little Anna.

CAN'T A PARENT CATCH A BREAK!!?!?!??!?!?!

Because I can't POSSIBLY leave a post that is about nothing other than my children's' questionable behavior, I have included a few pictures from our recent trip to our favorite local pumpkin patch. This is actually a farmer's market/nursery but they have such awesome, fun, FREE activities every fall. Unfortunately my camera batteries died long before we wrapped up our visit but I was able to take a few cute pictures first.