Happy 2008!!

For Christmas, Andy bought me a new scanner/printer/photo-printer. I have never owned a scanner! (yes I am living in the dark ages!!) anyway, I wanted to test it out so here is a picture of Matthew at I think around 4 months old taken at Picture People. It was the first thing I could quickly find to scan....and it worked. Now I must go find something of Andy....... Happy New Year to everyone!!!

oh and as a side note....this was my 100th post! :)

Happy Birthday Andy

Happy 36th Birthday Andy! I will find more embarrassing photo's later, in the meantime the pics of the new wii will have to work. ;) Love you!

Seeing Santa

We have actually been going to the same "Santa" at Pioneer Place ever since Matthew was a 1. We finally saw Santa about a week before Christmas and let me just say, I was beginning to stress about it since time was flying by! If I could have skipped it, I would have but the kids kept at me so of course we had to go see him! The boys totally loved it (of course) and it was actually good for me too since it forced me to slow down for a short time during such a busy holiday season.

And just as an "after Christmas note"....(and I will still post a few more Christmas pics soon) Mason loves his slippers from Grandma Georgia and Grandpa Tim. See???

Merry (White!) Christmas!!

A very Merry Christmas to everyone!!! Amazingly, it is snowing in Portland right now...and we never have snow on Christmas. Pictures to follow shortly... :)




Very wet snow but still a thrill for the boys anyway!!!

I Love Lucy

2 weeks ago in Mason's preschool class he got to take home a "animal" to care for over the weekend. His turn was with "Lucy" the pig and he thought this was the best experience!! To say that he had a total blast with Lucy is putting it mildly. Lucy got to do all sorts of things with Mason, including staying the night at grandma and grandpa's and helping Mason make Christmas cards. And guess what? Lucy likes french fries....Mason told me so!

Meet Dracula and The Skeleton

The making of Dracula and the Skeleton.......

Louise made the costumes and treat bags (which turned out very cool) and of course the kids loved them. They even got to wear the costumes for a second time after Halloween since Matthew's school's harvest festival was after and the kids got to come in costume.

Poor Mason's skeleton make-up actually made him look more like a puppy dog but oh well.

I think the scariest part was at the end of the night and what the boys looked like after trying to get the make-up and hair color off!

And now we are off to see Santa!!!! :)

Bits and Pieces

ok....so back a holiday or two......the day before Halloween in Mason's preschool class there was plenty of face painting and a bit of pre-Halloween celebration. And at the end of the day, Teacher Amy gave them treats! In other words, a lovely little bag of goodies....Halloween pencils, stickers etc. Mason totally loved it...Thanks Amy!

Of course that day we still needed to carve pumpkins. It was amazing we managed to do anything at all since Matthew and I were both sick. Fevers, chills, and general nastiness. Quite a miserable experience and Matthew missed four days of school. He actually missed Halloween day and there was a party in his class but even that didn't remotely convince him to go. Which was fine since I didn't want to take him because I felt just as awful. So while Andy and Mason started carving pumpkins, Matthew attempted to take part. It didn't last long and he had been wearing shorts earlier because it had gotten hot in the house (the weather was unbelievably beautiful) but just after the carving started, so did the chills again for Matthew!

So the sweatshirt went on and pretty soon there was no more carving for Matthew. I don't think he even picked out a face for the pumpkin. And this is how he spent the rest of his time......

Which by the way, Hi Betsy if you are reading!! :) You should recognize the blanket and it's still his favorite....he sleeps with it every night! ;)

Enough about Halloween! Actually, I will have to do one more post on it to show the costume pics but not tonight. Christmas is coming and I am so not ready. I have not even baked one Christmas goodie. However, I just found a remedy for that! My darling hubby was introduced to these wonderful cookies and now I am addicted too. If you have a Trader Joes near you and you like peppermint, you must go now and buy the Peppermint Joe Joe's. They are basically like a peppermint oreo. But so much better!!! Nice chocolate cookies with creamy oreo like filling that is peppermint flavored with candies in it. Way better than an oreo since the filling doesn't line the roof of your mouth with fat/grease/whatever the hell it is. I love these cookies but it's a good thing you can't eat too many at a time. So good after dinner too, and the very best part is my kids don't like peppermint!!! ;)

It's Time to Celebrate the Upcoming Holiday!

In light of Christmas coming......











I love the vintage photos with the laugh out loud captions!!!! I have been getting quite a collection!!

Z is for "Zipped Up Ziti With Zucchini"

Zipped up Ziti with Zucchini! So the phrase comes from one of my children's favorite books titled

"I Stink" . My kids adore this book! They love it when Andy reads it out loud with plenty of sound effects and there tends to be a lot of hollering during the story. It's about a garbage truck and his job/all that he does but it's done in a very funny way. I was reading a review of it on Amazon.com and somebody compared the garbage truck with Oscar the Grouch. If Oscar were a garbage truck, this would be him and I have to agree. In the middle of the story is a alphabet soup of garbage....It goes something like this:

Apple Cores

Banana Peels

Candy Wrappers

Dirty Diapers

Eggshells

Fish Heads

Gobs and Gobs of Gum

Half-Eaten Hot Dogs

Icky Ice Cream Cartons

Jam Jars

Kitty Litter

Lobster Claws

Moldy Meatballs

Nasty Neckties

Orange Peels

Puppy Poo

Quail Bones

Rotten Radishes

Smelly Sneakers

Toothpaste Tubes

Ugly Underpants

Watermelon Rinds

XL T-Shirts

Year-Old Yams

and Zipped Up Ziti with Zucchini!!

The kids totally yell the alphabet soup and one time (during the summer and the windows were all open!) the neighbor lady across the street could hear my kids screaming this alphabet and I wasn't sure if she was laughing in amusement or fear. Poor gal is pregnant too! Bet she is relieved to be having a girl!!! The really scary part of this alphabet?? I only had to check the book on I, J, and M! I have most of it memorized....along with the rest of the book and it is one of those that we have multiple copies. So Yay!!! I finished the alphabet....I wasn't sure I could/would but now I will be happy to be back to just regular blogging. For the rest of this evening I need to go work on some Christmas Cards.......

Y is for "Yay I am Posting Again"!

So originally this was going to be "Yay for Halloween" but it has been awhile since I have even been willing to post about anything. But today I at least want to wish a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.....


On the left is the turkey Matthew made this year....it has some of the dry ingredients inside its belly for making a thanksgiving casserole. He is very proud of his turkey and I am under strict instructions to bring it to Grandma Leslee's house today! On the right is another turkey but I will show you who made that at the bottom of the post.


Mason at the "Family Feast" at preschool...and Zoe and Grayson play with what looks like a reworking of "Fashion Plates". If you are of a certain age and female you just might remember those fashion plates...loved them as a kid and as I recall they were a Christmas gift one year. If I had a link to give I would but today I just am not putting forth that much effort. Maybe in another post! ;)





This was the scene 2 Saturdays ago for Grandpa Andy's service. It was very lovely and full of tears but smiles as well. Even Matthew wrote in his writing journal at school that "Saturday we had Grandpa Andy's funeral and daddy had lots of tears". That about made me cry as much as I did at the service.






And last but not least....the identity of the artist of the "plate turkey"......

Yes....the artist is Andy...once upon a time! I am not sure how old he was when he made this but probably pretty young since an adult obviously wrote his name. Andy couldn't write that neatly as an adult let alone as a child! ;) Grandma Dee gave it to me last year and I love it!!

We Interrupt This Regularly Scheduled Program....

I will finish this alphabet, I swear!!!! ;) But....... Sunday morning Grandpa Andy died. There, I said it. It's been a bit hard to deal with in this house, my Andy is a wreck and Matthew has been acting out a little bit. I mean for the most part Matthew is fine, just a little sad sometimes. Each morning has been a challenge for Andy however and probably will be for some time. Honestly, I hadn't even realized how our (mine and Andy's) relationship had evolved with Grandma and Grandpa next door. I hadn't realized how very intertwined our daily lives had become. Their house is Matthew's second home and me and Andy think nothing of going next door to get a cup of coffee. (There is always coffee there, Grandma Dee is addicted!) Whenever there is yardwork to be done, Grandpa almost always comes outside, if not to help, to at least give instruction and insight. We know their habits and they know ours.....in fact today is Tuesday and it's a beautiful day out. Grandpa would have had the garbage and recycling out by now and probably would have been raking leaves. It feels a bit like the world has been turned upside down and that's just for us. I can't even imagine what Grandma feels inside. She is doing ok but I think she is have a rough time. And it is going to be tough for awhile. But there is lots of family around and I think that's a comfort for her and she loves seeing the kids too. I just have been trying to find a thoughtful balance between letting the boys go over and giving her a little bit of space as well. She is pretty straightforward though and I suspect she would tell us if it's not a good time for them to be there.

You will be greatly missed Grandpa Andy.....we love you, rest in peace.

X is for "Xocolatl Bar"

The easiest way for me to find an 'X' word was to purchase a food I had seen but hadn't tried yet! At my work (all of one day a week that I am there!), we have sold Dagoba chocolate for awhile. I have tried some and I really have liked what I have tried but the Xocolatl bar was one I was afraid of. I think it was the prospect of trying the chocolate with chili's... I had tried another brand with this combination before and thought it was awful. But you see, the lovely thing about this blog (and my determination to finish this alphabet!) is I felt almost forced into trying the Dagoba version. I knew that I wasn't going to come up with another 'X' word and so I went ahead and purchased the bar. And do you know....I ended up really liking it! It's not something you just sit down and eat a whole bunch of....in fact I almost think of it as a savory chocolate bar. And there is definitely heat to it as well. First you get the bitterness of the dark chocolate (which I love) and then it's almost like when you are drinking a really good beer and you get the aftertaste of the chili's....while you still have the chocolate taste in your mouth. Very tasty indeed!!! ;)