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Wednesday, December 29, 2010

Cousins


 So, I am a wee bit behind on sharing photos.  BUT in my defense, I am always a wee bit behind - so no suruprises.  There photos are in SLC with some  of the cousins.  There were dancing cousins...

And sleeping cousins...(I love this photo of the girls sleeping on a bike rack.  humm.)


And there were smily happy-people cousins.  ooo.  And cousins swarming aunts looking for pens to write on the papered table with....The table at a yummy middle eastern restaurant.  oh how I love yummy chickpeas.

And, there were road-tripping cousins. Keeping each other company in the backseat.

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

To the North Pole and back, in 4 hours.

Grandma Deb-Deb just left Boise after a whirlwind of holiday fun!  We went on the North Pole Express train ride.  Elliot has spent the last month looking forward to this trip.  She was not disappointed. 
HOWEVER.  I would like to take a minute of your time to complain about fake bearded Santas. (if anyone else wants to pipe in on this one, I'd love to hear it) Even a three year old is not fooled by this farce.  It's going to kill the Christmas magic before she is four.  The first f-b-s had to adjust his beard to drink water.  Elliot saw and noted.  The second f-b-s had a beard such that you could not see his mouth very well.  Elliot thought that Santa's beard looked like a mask.  Thank goodness that the mall Santa is a real bearded one.   Elliot is sure that he is legit.


Here we are, loading onto the train...getting cozy.  Do you like Izaak's Christmas moustache?  Personally, I can't wait until the 26th when it gets shaved.  But then that is just me.



And here are my beautiful babies with Mr and Mrs Claus.  Do you think that Santa's beard looks like a mask?  Can you tell that Elliot is not buying it?  Nope, she is a trifle weirded out that she can't see his mouth when he is talking to her.  I am not even sure if Henry is impressed, or maybe he is.  Can't tell.


And here we all are at the North Pole.  The North Pole is just over an hour from Boise by train.  Apparently.  And, yes.  I agree. The blow up snowmen look a bit cheesy.  But you know what?  Elliot loved it.  She ate up that North Pole, devouring it for the fun thing that it was.  She hasn't stopped mentioning that she got to really see Santa's house and workshop.   Somethings are magical.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

PreChristmas 2010: the run down

Gingerbread Houses, 1st Annual event.


Izaak makes Elliot's house.  She takes over to start the decorating.  Izaak starts on the next house. 



 And JJ is diligently working on her own masterpiece.  And what is up with the random banana in these photos? 

Elliot dismantles house and takes a bite out of each candy and cookie. 



Big mess.  Lots of fun. 



Another PreChristmas event was when JJ and I went thrift storing...searching for bad Christmas sweaters. I know it's the new cliche.  But it is so terribly funny. I don't want to give too much away...but let me say this much.  Izaak has been growing a moustache.  There are some bad sweaters ready and waiting. 


Here is the pre show.

Monday, December 20, 2010

when suddenly it dawned on the mother, this would not be a good year to send Christmas cards.

Well, I am sorry to say that on the 20th of December I am giving up and acknowledging that this is not a good year for Christmas cards, photo cards, letters or anything of the sort. 

My reasons number as many as the stars...shall I count them? 
  1. Law school applications/paperwork/form chaos is just cleaned up and both of our hands have prema-cramp. 
  2. Henry themed birth announcements are still eeking thier way out of our mailbox at a snail's pace. (Elliot's were much easier to send because there was no 3 year old trying to help me:) 
  3. We're a wee bit tired after this last semester
  4. The Christmas spirit is trying hard to raly through the bah-humbug crappy stuff that keeps happening...a tenant skipped out mid-lease on Dec 1st, It was brought to my attention (Kristen) that the bit of discomfort I have been having may require surgery (test results pending).  If the rule of three's applies we don't want to know what else could happen. 
  5. Has anyone tried to snap a picture of small children that was worthy of a photocard?  Sit still?  Henry can't at all, Elliot won't even bother.  The lurching, the falling, the sheer boredom after 1 minute. 


I thought about just sending out new year's cards, so that I could have a few more weeks.  But you know what?  I think we're just going to call it good for this year and scrub the whole thing.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Need a last minute lego-gift idea?

Thought I'd pass this along.  Tagged this as a things you can buy but shouldn't because...?
Well, a lego lunchbox is cool enough (right, JJ?) but it doesn't have a handle.  How do you carry this to work?  It's really a Danish bento box...if that is a real thing.

The cooler and creepier option for your last minute gift giving is the lego head storage box.  Not sure what to think about this.  Might startle me if I head to the kitchen for a midnight snack.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

Izaak in the kitchen

Izaak makes the pizza.


and applesauce- lots of applesauce. (in a sad tiny food processor)




with apples from the neighbor's tree.  Here is what was left AFTER a day of making cannable/freezable apple stuffs. 

Izaak also does the biscuits and the pancakes.  He's the family kneader. Very useful person to have around for breakfast time. 

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Online shopping

While searching for the perfect Christmas gifts this year...I stumbled upon one that is not perfect.  Not perfect for anyone on my list.  But I thought I would pass it along...just in case. Tumbleweed, really?

Friday, December 10, 2010

Wednesday, December 08, 2010

Our Local Epidemic


An epidemic in Boise.  If you turn your back even for a second SPRINKLES HAPPEN. 
sometimes to biscuits.

Monday, December 06, 2010

pink cuckoo clocks

Pink cuckoo clocks must be a HOT item around the world.  Holla' to the recent visitors from Paris and Pakistan who googled Pink Cuckoo Clock and found this website.  I sure hope you weren't disappointed  with what you found.  (cause you probably were.)

Friday, December 03, 2010

Dear Santa...please disregard the letter from my daughter.

Elliot made her list for Santa.  I am not even sure if we should sent it to the jolly ol'man.  For starters, she does not wear a size 5 shoe.  And secondly, what would we do with a pig?  I mean, seriously a pig?

Grandpa Airplane and 6 month old Elliot.  3 years ago this week.  (btw, 3 month old Henry has those same overalls well filled out already)

 And, in this season of giving and receiving...while Elliot works diligently on her handmade gifts for others...she also makes a few simple requests.  Requests that we beg Santa to disregard.  Though at the same time we want it fully acknowledged how sweet her list is.   Sweet, right?


Elliot's 1st snow in Fairfield, December 2007
And I bring to you, as verbetem as possible...the letter.

Mama:  Elliot, what do you want Santa to bring you for Christmas? 
Elliot: I want Santa to bring me a very big size 10 hat or bonnet, size 5 boots, and my very own computer and a pig in a long box.  But not a cooked pig.
Mama: [dead silence, cause what do you say to that?]


Santa and Elliot, December 2007...happy little thing.


Saturday, November 27, 2010

Sleeping babies who suck (thumbs & pacifiers, mostly)

Not to make any one jealous but...I would just like to take this moment to brag comment. I am a sucker for watching sleeping babies.



Izaak and I sleep VERY WELL.  We rarely have gotten less then 8 hours. AND if we do get less then than  8 hours, it almost NEVER has to do with a certain 3 year old and 3 month old. It's us, not them.

I love pictures of zombie-fashion models-cousins holding my children

 Can you tell from this picture that I have a thumb sucker and a pacifier baby?  I think that it is a nature thing that little ones like to suck (clearly nature, as a matter of survival).  But how is it that Elliot was born with a thumb in her mouth, and Henry scoffs at his thumb in favor of a pacifier.  He is even brand specific.  MAM.  Can't find one? Go ahead and try to sneak a Soothie or NUK into his wide open mouth.  No chance that will satisfy.  MAM's the word around her.


I still remember Henry's 1st two nights with us.  He slept fitfully, and only if held upright.  So I slept, sitting up on the couch.  For two nights, I had bad sleep.  At three nights old, he tucked in nicely to me and slept away. Content to cuddle until morning. 
 
I also love pictures of Thing 2 -Uncles partying Halloween style with Skeleton-Henrys


What?  Do some of you envy us?  Do some wonder why?  Nurture, nature?  I don't know.  BUT it seems that lately there has been an onslaught of questions from people - Is Henry sleeping through the night yet?  Are you guys catching up on sleep yet?  Two little kids, you must never sleep.
 
Isn't that a pretty lady?  She is a very lovely person indeed.
 Sleep sleep sleep.  Why do some people get so preoccupied with babies and sleep?


Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Thoughts on housekeeping

Housekeeping is a funny thing to do.  Especially with a 3 year old whirling dervish that loves to help with chores.  Sometimes I wonder if I shouldn’t just hold off a couple of years and give it a go then.
popcorn is never a tidy snack.

I really like the articles by Leila that talk about a reasonably clean house. Hum.  That phrase reasonably clean has rung through my head since I first read it.  A perfectly clean house is not practical.  More so, I think, because our house is negative 600 square feet big. 

Thought I would randomly pepper this post with pictures of some projects that Izaak & Elliot have worked on - a castle

There is no space that is child-toy free.  I do not have a dedicated playroom to help manage her things.  I do not have a formal living room to keep perfectly clean as a refuge from all the living that we do.  In cleaning and tidying the house, Elliot follows behind me playing duplos and getting out markers and…before you know it I need to start all over again.  

A dog chasing its own tail. 

A perfectly clean house (with little ones, and small spaces) is not attainable.  So, I like the idea of a reasonably clean house.   I have a dear aunt who said to me once that clean doesn’t have a  smell.  Yah, that stuck with me too.  Clean doesn’t smell like expensive scented candles, plug-ins, or chemical pine.  Clean is just fresh air.
Elliot can do awesome things with glitter glue and wiggly eyes, right?

As an aside, I have for over three years now, made all my own cleaners.  I got this book from the library about the time that Elliot was born.  Changed my pine-sol-bleaching-409 housekeeping to a something else entirely.  (And thankfully, because this was before we were fully aware of her skin issues...she, as it turns out, is super chemical sensitive)  That all to say that sometimes there are whiffs of tea tree, clove, or mint in the air.  All from essential oils . (not just perfumes.  Eo's have antibacterial properties, ya'know.)


Why I am talking about all this now?  Well, I was pondering how much calmer I am when my house was clean and tidy...and how being reasonably clean might just mean different things to everyone else.   That to me, it feels nice and calm with a little tidying and vacuuming.  I am also and perhaps foremost a fan of a place for everything, and everything in its place.  That if I had one housekeeping rule that would be it.  No matter how messy life gets, there is always the possibility that everything can be put away somewhere.  (And, if company is expected, it can be put away very quickly.)


So. Ramble ramble ramble.  Happy pre-thanksgiving



Sunday, November 21, 2010

I thought I had posted these pictures already.  But I was looking back and realized that I hadn't
well, here you go... (my apologizes if I did already post these.  Please bear with me again.)

The Pumpkin Festival-Corn Maze-thingy

Elliot picked out her pumpkin


 And posed with it


A few times. 



We jumped on a huge blow up pillow


Elliot, ever the Pioneer, forged her own way through a maze - with little regard for rules and pathways.

A hayride  

Saturday, November 20, 2010

To my loving husband who mockingly pointed out my obvious misspelling in the last post, I retort with the authority of Mark Twain:

"I don't give a damn for a man that can only spell a word one way."

and Henry Louis Mencken:

"Correct spelling, indeed, is one of the arts that are far more esteemed by schoolma'ams than by practical men, neck-deep in the heat and agony of the world."

Thank you, I thinke I porved mi point.

A vision of thier future.

Elliot said today that when she is my age, or maybe just 5, she is going to marry Henry and sew all of his clothes.  His jackets and pants and zippies and underwear, everything.

As a mother I cringed (on the inside).  My children, married to each other, wearing awkward home-sewn clothes.  Great.

But I'd hate to be the one to crush her dreams...so I just let it roll.

Friday, November 19, 2010

The Friday night pizza night that almost wasn't

the setup:
   we relocate Friday night pizza night to another house. We have everything.  fun talks, beer, pineapple chunks.  Everything is in its place.  And then...oh crap!  No recipe.  We left it at home.

The debate begins. was it 1 3/4c flour or 2 1/4?  Soy Flour?  I don't remember? 

And then...we are rescued.  By my knight in shining librari-armour.  (ha) The new saviour of pizza night.  Who bravely set aside her hard cider to rescue the lost-at-sea-pizza makers in a far away land.  Who courageously faced the wilds of google to find the truth recipe - and with a call to Boise SAVED at least 5 people from a dinner of beer and pineapple chucks. 

And that folks is a good friend.  And an excellent pizza. 
Cheers!

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

Thoughts and leaves falling falling

Wow have I really not written anything here in 3 weeks?  My faithful few are perhaps a bit upset.  (I am speaking for you, since y'all keep so quiet on the comments).  Lots of fall pictures are awaiting their chance to dismount off the camera and make a new home on the computer...perhaps another day.  I do have some pictures to share.  Have you seen these?





Elliot is not feeling well today.  She told her dad that it was all because she ate a dog.  Oh boy.

We have been better this fall about not turning the heat on.  Most years I turn it on high in October and leave it that way until March.  Power bill can suck.  And that is not the soundest environmental plan.  So this year I am trying to acclimate to the weather as it changes. That seems the more natural approach. Proud to say that we have only turned the heat on on a few occasions so far.  It is amazing how much you don't need to heat a house when you are appropriately dressed for the season.  My guess is that the same is true for the summer and a/c.  But I didn't have benefit of central air this summer...

I love baby stretches.  When a baby puts his two fists behind his head and arches his back and then puts puckering mushed face and then wiggles just a bit.  That is perhaps my favorite thing to watch - aside from sleeping children. 

Prince William got engaged.  That's good.  Every webpage I went on today was saturated with the breaking news coverage.  This to shall pass, I hope.

I was also going to share a quick story about Elliot and her new duplo guns and another about the letter I am helping her compose to Santa.  But I will save those for another evening. 




Tuesday, October 26, 2010

caramel popcorn recipe

I love caramel corn.   And thanks to Ms. Martha Stewart, I have an excellent recipe. It's is excellent, simple, and I usually have all the ingredients at home - so I can make it on a whim.

You need:
1/2 c popcorn kernels, 1 1/4c white sugar, 3-6 T butter, 3/4t salt, and 1-2 cups whatevers (optional) (peanuts, cashews, raisens, almonds)

I make my popcorn in a sauce pan.  I don't have a fancy air popper :) ya'll know how?  Well, 1/2c kernels, and a little bit of oil, medium heat and a lidded sauce pan.  You can figure it out.

And the caramel.

add 1/2c water to 1 1/4c sugar in a saucepan. medium heat. stir until sugar is dissolved and syrup is clear. Then cook, without stirring, until syrup boils.  let it boil and gently swirl pan until it is a medium amber color  - remove from heat.  With a clean wooden spoon, stir in butter and salt.  (it will foam and bubble). stir until smooth. 

Pour this over the popcorn & whatevers.   sitr to coat, until cool.

It will store for a week.  Yet, it will only last a night. 


Monday, October 25, 2010

the great anti-cell phone experiment comes crashing to an end

I got a cell phone this weekend. 
I caved.  After almost (not quite) a year of ditching the leash phone.  I caved in.
Because of texting. 
Because when I give out my number and say that it is a home phone...people get confused.  They try and sent me text messages.  Texts with important information.  Texts that I never receive because they sent it to a landline.  A landline that doesn't give them a error message.  And then I get in trouble because I never replied to the important information they texted to my landline.  Because a landline can't text back.  This confuses A LOT of people.  (too many people, really)
Are our collective memories of life-before-cell-phones so short?  How did everyone communicate before text message?  Come on people?! 
Therefore, in keeping with the herd and because I am a member of this society and because I get left out of a lot of things because I didn't get the text..well, because of all that - I got a cell phone. 

I am still making my stand about facebook.  I never log in to that (never).  So, no.  I did not get the invitation you sent to me on facebook...I guess you should have texted it to my landline. humph.

I am not putting my new number on here.  'cause that isn't safe.  Because sometimes this blog gets randomly googled from people in Pakistan who were searching for pink cuckoo clocks (NOT making that up). 
BUT the 703# is a landline.  I will try to send out my new number soon...but you could always text Izaak if you need it sooner. 

ok?  rant over.

Friday, October 22, 2010

New Videos!!!

Our Youtube channel has been much updated.  You can lookie-see if you'd like
HERE

If you are feeling it, you can let us know.  We love emails, and comments :)

Thursday, October 21, 2010

Halloween Matchiness

Thank goodness for matching Halloween pjs.  They make me happy.  Even more so because they glow in the dark.

put your tongue away baby.


one happy girl, showing off pink pjs


one un-happy Henry - showing off black pjs.



Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Funny Baby Henry

Here are some older photos of Henry... it's all relative right?  They are from a couple of weeks ago.  He is a month old. 

I love this picture: a sneaky little nose picker



Happy little one: 1 month old.  And happy he is...so long as his diaper is dry, he has a pacifier and you are paying 100% attention to him.


Mid-sneeze photo. 


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