Weekend update - 1/26-27 edition

My parents descended from the mountain to get my dad to the dentist for a crown replacement and take care of few other things. They decided to come on down to our neck of the woods for the weekend.
They brought our ski clothes back to us - Elena had fun trying on the hats & gloves they brought back.
This was just cute - Mom's on the phone and Laney is making a call.
And I post this, simply because I find it funny. He said something about a resemblence?

On another note, the grades are up. Kathryn is officially allowed to go to the UIL Solo & Ensemble contest (she has one of each) and she is unofficially un-grounded. I have to say grounding made some good changes in our house - less tv, more family time. Hope it sticks.

Blocks Rock!

Rob's dad has been cleaning house and off and on we get a shipment of Rob's old stuff that he thinks we might like. I have to say this last package was probably the biggest hit - Rob's old blocks. Elena pounced on them as soon as she saw them. Kathryn came out of her room to play blocks with the family - do you know what that means with a teenager?
One of Kathryn's many towers.
Unfortunately, Laney is already picking up some bad habits - here she is bonking me in the head with a block
And knocking over Kathryn's towers.
Even Rory got involved - see how the ham bone wormed her way into the photos.

Weekend Update

We did a few things this weekend, nothing too terribly special though. We took advantage of the gorgeous weather and took the bikes out on Saturday morning.

We also became the proud owners of a bouncing baby open holed flute. Kathryn needed an upgrade for competition season and high school concert season. We'll probably own two by the end of January - we've only got a little over $100 left on the beginner flute and it's been recommended we keep it for Kathryn to play when she's marching outdoors.
And, we said good bye to the sleeping bags! To explain, I have to tell you we own a water bed. Yup pure 70s kitsch - actually it's a really nice semi-motionless with a poster canopy frame and my favorite feature, the heater. So nice to climb into a warm bed on a cold winters night. Well, my favorite feature has been slowly going out on us for over a year and was completely dead when we go home from our vacation. An entire queen sized matress full of water can get VERY cold. In order to have a place to sleep while we waited for the new heater to be shipped, we've been sleeping in sleeping bags on top of the bed. But no more, the heater's here, it's installed and its lov-e-ly.


Sunday in a nut shell - uncomfortable conversations in Sunday School, we nearly got suckered into a new ministry we don't really want to do & don't have the time for, Laney took a 4 hour nap & I got a 2 hour one, and we went and played Mexican Train with our church small group.

Toddler vs. Teenager

Okay, I know God had a reason for the spacing between my kids, but lately it's a little riduculous. Laney seems to be determined to be advanced in everything, including the terrible twos which she is hitting at 16 months. Kathryn is THIRTEEN and it's starting to show. Yesterday for example:

Morning: Near argument with Kat about the fact that she decided a nearly sleeveless shirt and a light weight sweatshirt was enough in the 40 degree morning. Apparently, it's not cool to dress for the weather.

Elena screams for her binkie in the car. Then throws it somewhere I can't reach and keeps screaming.

Afternoon: I get news about a less than stellar report card from Kat.
Laney, who is being weaned from the binkie (we're down to bedtime & the trip to day care, not the trip home) screams for her binkie about half the way home.

Evening: More fallout from the report card and what I have lovingly come to refer to as the dinner wars. Elena is almost always starving by the time we eat and then alternates shoving food in her face and crying during dinner.

Middle of the night: Luckily, just the toddler - ah, molars, aren't they fun. Luckily after Motrin & 30 minutes of quiet time in Dad's chair I got her back in bed.

I'm pooped. Thanks for the vent.

And some funny for your trouble - a lady in Iowa has declared herself the meanest mom ever via the classified in the Des Moines Register:

"OLDS 1999 Intrigue. Totally uncool parents who obviously don’t love teenage son, selling his car. Only driven for three weeks before snoopy mom who needs to get a life found booze under front seat. $3,700/offer. Call meanest mom on the planet."

Random Bits O' Fun

Bored yet? A few more Christmas vacation pics - less Christmas, more vacation. Here's Kat, Dad & me at the ski area on Christmas Eve.
Gotta love this - I wore my brother's snow board helmet at the ski area:
If you can't read it, it says, "Ride Naked: It'll add color to your cheeks" HA!

Here we are at Turkey Creek on 12/26. Crazy me carried Laney out a ways on a pair of cross country skis. The extra 25+ pounds make an easy trek a bit more difficult.Dad carried her back for me.
Rob & Kat spent most of their time going up and down the sled hill. Unfortunately, none of the video was digital - they were catching serious air. (And unfortunately, Rob almost caught a barb wire fence once)
We got Kat & Rob out on the skis for a bit too.
These are on the porch on 12/27 before we went to ski on Lake Pagosa. Rory got to go on that one - she loves cold weather and snow, but wasn't feeling well the day we went to Turkey Creek. Apparently, frozen water is WAY better than the non-frozen kind.

Rob opted to snow shoe instead of ski. This ski was not a pleasant as the previous days, we had wind & snow. I think the high that day was 17.

We're not too sure how Elena felt about snow - she seemed a little dazed everytime we went out. This last trip around the lake she was actually starting to throw the snow that had landed in the sled with her and seemed to be having fun.

12/28 we visited some family friends. This is the view from their front yard. Jealous?
Here's the girls in front of the apartments.
My future snow boarder gets some practice. We're still in discussions as to wether or not she will be allowed to "Ride Naked".
Oh, and one more little gem from the ride home. We stopped at Applebees in Amarillo for dinner and of course the pooch had to stay in the car. When we get back, what do we find?

There's just no explaining to this dog that she doesn't weigh enough to ride in a forward facing car seat!

Unfortunately, I have no way of showing you what Elena did when she saw this. She sat in Rob's arms and shook her finger at the dog, saying, "No no! No no!" A funny ending to a great trip.

On the 12th day of Christmas . . .

A little Epiphany humor for tomorrow:



moar funny pictures

Then I have at least 1 more vacation-related post. Can you stand it? Then it'll be back to our regularly scheduled goofiness.

White Christmas

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We spent our Christmas week in Colorado with my folks. They rent an apartment for several months in the winter, which makes our trips up there easier.



Here's most of us "dressed up" for Christmas Eve mass. The little Episcopal church we went to is very laid back. It was a sweet little service including an adorable pagent.

Our Christmas tree, complete with loot. The stockings were hung by the TV with care . . . (No chimney in the apartment)
Kathryn doing a typical Christmas morning faceRob doing a typical Christmas morning face

My cutie-patootie parents.

Our girls in front of the tree

Laney checks out her new farm animal truck from Kathryn

Kathryn's new MP3 player from Dad. It snowed on us Christmas day - so we played in the backyard. Here's Laney getting pulled in the sled by my dad. That's my old snow suit, I wore it in 1978.
Kathryn is working on her snow girl - unfortunately, she wasn't all that successful - the snow was too dry for a decent snow man, er, woman.

Mom and Elena on the stairs at the back of the apartment. They were trying to stage a similar pictures to one that was taken of my grandmother and Ronny wearing the snow suit. This thing's been around a bit.And finally, Rob makes his first snow angel.

Happy 2008!

Happy New Year to my Blogger buddies. Last night 0ur house was the scene for our semi-annual fireworks, hamburgers, and birthday cake festival. Rob's birthday is the 30th, but we typically celebrate on the 31st. But this year hamburger was spelled "P-I-Z-Z-A". We just got home from our vacation on Sunday evening and I had to work yesterday, so there was nothing in the house to even make something as simple as a burger.

Here's Rob on his birthday with his present from me, the girls, & my parents. A new stereo with CD, radio, cassette & turntable. It is soooo cool these things are coming back - at least for those of use who still have LPs. Rob spent some time explaining the mechanics to Kathryn who had never really seen a record before. On to New Years Eve. Our two best friends - Stina & Neil - came over for a late Christmas and the afore mention pizza, fireworks, and birthday cake. Here's Laney sitting on her new rocking duck (her big Christmas present from Mommy & Daddy) opening her gift from Neil.
Neil opening one his presents - a shirt that reads "What I really Need is Minions".

Stina with her totally cool gift card holder. (Okay, I'm partial, I bought it)
Kathryn getting the shock (and excitement) of a lifetime - Guitar Hero from Neil & Stina.
On to the fireworks! This was taken in our front yard and shot off by one of us. I can't tell you who - I was asleep inside. I can no longer make it to midnight without a nap!
And finally birthday cake - we had this with our champagne/sparkling cider after midnight.
We're spreading this birthday out a bit. Tonight we had Rob's birthday dinner - steak, crab legs and the obligatory black eyed peas.

And hey, we're ringing in the new year with some seasonal temperatures - it's actually supposed to freeze here tonight! I'll start posting vacation pictures soon, I want to split them up a bit - there's quite a few. HAPPY NEW YEAR! We're wishing a prosperous and wonderful 2008!