How Mason (and Andy) Have Spent The Afternoon

Waiting For Santa To Arrive...

There are anxious boys tonight....but luckily they are now sleeping!

Quick! Get Out While You Can!

Since our weather has been just sooo fun *cough, ahem*, last Thursday the kids did have school. (They actually got to go to school on Tuesday as well, woo hoo!) That day, there seemed to be a break in the weather and so about 4 pm we decided we better make a run for it to go see the big man. Yep, Santa!! The kids had been asking when we were going and for awhile I was beginning to think the only way they were going to see Santa was via email. But lucky for us, Thursday night we went downtown to Pioneer Place and had absolutely no line and the boys got right on Santa's lap. My pictures aren't all that great since I didn't really have time to prepare and as you will notice, Matthew is pretty much all business. Mason spent most of his time with his fingers in his mouth and I am not sure he said more than two words to Santa. Matthew, on the other hand, brought the big guns....he brought The List! ;)

After Santa, we were a little hungry for dinner so we went across the street to Macaroni Grill, which thrilled the kids. They love coloring on the table (they put paper and crayons down!) and having a sundae for dessert. The best part, we were home by 6:30 pm. Just in time to have Matthew finish his homework!! ;)

Old Man Winter Has Arrived

Although, clearly, Old Man Winter has lost his marbles and didn't realize winter wasn't supposed to start until today!!! Somewhere, there must have been a little miscommunication because we have had just nasty weather for the last week. (And quite frankly, while I'm crabbin', he kinda forgot to let up last June. It was freezing on the last day of school!!) Anyway, the weather outside may be a bit frightful and downright frigid, but there is always a little entertainment to be had.

These two pics are of my back deck this morning....just a few drifts you see.

This is looking NE off my front porch. I'm amazed my ornaments in the foreground survived the wind from the night before. I was sure I was going to find at least one broken one this morning! My kids are rather wimpy and strange and weren't really interested in going out in the snow much. The first 2 days they wanted to go out but now they are more interested in finding entertainment inside the house. So first was a little "Rad Daddles" time:

So do you like Matthew's drum set? And how about Mason's microphone as he is the 'singer'?! After all that work, lunch was in order:
Followed by Andy's realization that he just simply needed more beer. I also think it was an excuse to go check up on Grandma Dee and her cookie selection while he went over there to see if she needed anything. So off he trekked to the store and I managed a shot of him when he came home with his success: ;)

I was almost embarrassed by his beer selection, I think I would have chose differently but, whatever. He did end up giving two of his beers away to some lady with a grocery cart that wouldn't quite following him while he was trying to walk home. Apparently, she kept trying to get his attention to point out the fact that he had some beer. Gotta love SE Portland! ;)

I spent the afternoon baking....

I made some fabulous blue cheese crackers too but I forgot to take a picture of them. They are rather dangerous because I could see getting into those by far more often than the cookies!

Oh and I should mention the cats, or mainly Geusseppe. There has been evil lurking in his mind. There is evil lurking in my mind too. I haven't shown Matthew these pictures and I might just print out a copy for him and leave it in his room. Because I'm sure he doesn't want Geusseppe messing with his Webkinz! ;)

'O' Christmas Tree

The boys have their trees up in their rooms! We decided this year that Mason is old enough for a tree in his room (Matthew has had his for two years now) and he adores his tree. (and lucky me, I was lazy about getting ornaments for it, about a week ago finally bought them at Micheal's for 60% off!!) Both boys go to sleep at night with the tree lights on and when I check on them before I go to bed, I turn the lights off. (It's physically impossible for me to go to bed without checking on them first!)

I also made them Christmas cd's but of course the music is off of my Christmas selection on my ipod.

1) Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms (the most requested and played!)

2) Santa Claus is Comin' to Town - The Judds

3) Twelve Days Of Christmas - John Denver and The Muppets Christmas (songs 3-7)

4) Deck the Halls -

5) Little Saint Nick

6) We Wish You a Merry Christmas

7) The Christmas Wish

8) Sleigh Ride - Amy Grant

9) I Believe In Santa Clause - Dolly Parton

10) Greensleeves - A Charlie Brown Christmas (songs 10-14)

11) Christmas Time is Here

12) Linus & Lucy

13) O Tannenbaum

14) Christmas is Coming

15) It's Beginning to look like Christmas - Perry Como

16) God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen - Bare Naked Ladies with Sarah McLachlan

17) I Saw Three Ships - Sting

I've Been Grumpy....

I have been grumpy and my grumpiness doesn't seem to be letting up anytime soon. In the meantime, I found something interest. The Cyborg Name Decoder!!

http://cyborg.namedecoder

So maybe I am just ready for battle, yearly assassination, and masterful yelling!!! I am sure my hubby would agree!

Ghost Badge

Mason often talks of ghosts. In his mind, ghosts are not scary things, they exist more to just really annoy you by moving your stuff around when you weren't looking! ;) But in the world according to Mason, sometimes you have to fight ghostes in the middle of the night. And tonight he informed me that you have to have a "Ghost Badge" to fight them. Because it's just not possible to fight them without one! ;) Mason told me that he has two ghost badges, so now he was going to give me one so that mommy can fight ghostes. (and yes, that's how he says it, ghostes!) His badge never runs out of power but apparently mine will !?! Oh, and he might have one for daddy (but no mention of Matthew because I think the theory is that Matthew would have his own badge). So I guess the question is, where are your ghost badges??

Recent Purchases

Yeah....the economy may be bad. But I have still found a few things to entertain me!

What can I say....it's a great combination and one I haven't had in ages! ;)

So I had seen this lovely British logo on another blog and I really kind of liked the look. So just the other day I was at New Season's and saw it in coaster form. And I couldn't resist....

And now for my favorite purchase...but just a warning, if there are children or anyone else who may be offended by a bit of crass language, you might want to turn away now.

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Yes...my newest stamp! I couldn't resist...there is some little paper/card shop on NW 23rd whose name completely escapes me at the moment that had this. Originally, I was out with my girlfriends and we were headed over to Papa Hayden (of course!) and this particular shop happened to be open until 8 pm. I found the stamp there and immediately had to have it. I don't have immediate plans on what exactly I am going to stamp this on yet....but I am tempted to label some of Andy's things with it! ;) Now if only they had an F-bomb I would make some real special cards!! ;)

The Living Dead

They do look rather dead, don't they?? The living dead, or the un-dead, is how I was trying to explain the concept of a zombie to Matthew. I'm not sure that he really got it, but he was insistent that he would be a zombie for Halloween this year. I need to take a picture of his inspiration for this idea. It's about a 2 inch little rubber figure...I have no idea were he got it from but that was what he wanted to be. So my friend, Louise, copied it almost exactly and that's how he became a zombie. Oh, and the most important part? The Brains!!! Yes, that's what is on top of his head. Brains. Those brains originally had hair around them, (which I thought looked cool) but it wasn't how Matthew envisioned it so off they went.

Mason got to be a mummy. Not that he had much choice! ;) Louise had a bunch of gauze hanging around and asked if one of the kids would like to be a mummy and I told that to Mason and he said yes. He was happy, and warm! These costumes were perfect for keeping the kids toasty....not that they needed it on Halloween night. The weather was perfect! Thank you Louise for making such fabulous costumes for my kids!! Spoiled rotten I tell ya.......

Fall Days

The weather here has been Fabulous lately!! All field trips for children have been rain free and not real cold either....soccer games have been rain free, soccer practice has been pleasant, it's been a pretty amazing October. Busy too....hence the lack of posts. But here are recent events in pictures:

We had one weekend that was soccer-free so amongst the other things we wanted to get done, we figured a quick trip to the pumpkin patch was in order. Again, it was a gorgeous day and warm and the kids got fresh donuts too!Both boys had field trips to the Apple Festival but I only went with Mason's class. Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures while the kids were sampling apples/pears as I was too busy making sure Mason wasn't "double dipping"! Of course, after watching preschoolers sampling apples, I was questioning if I would ever touch a public sample again! ;) It still is a very cool festival, the hay displays were very cute (check out Oscar below!) and the kids enjoy the puppet show by Penny.

And then there was Mason's field trip to the Pumpkin Patch at Sauvie Island Farms. It went really great and talk about amazing weather. If it hadn't been for the fact that I needed to hang some art work at Matthew's school (and actually pick Matthew up from school!) we could have stayed all day! The day was fabulous, Mason wore shorts(!), and the kids had a great time.

The kids got a barn tour and Mason spent part of his time hanging out with on particular girl in his class. Those two are a hoot to watch!! ;) The little girl in the red sweater above was very entertained by the heifer that was sure that here hand was pacifier! That baby cow would have sucked on her hand and arm all morning. The funny part, later this same girl went to pet the pig and the pig wasn't so thrilled with her hand and actually nipped her! She promptly decided she wasn't fond of the pig and went back to petting the baby cow.

Mason and his friend again....who knew I was going to have to start chaperoning?? They hung out together for awhile in the hay maze!