Tree Trimming 2009

We finally got around to buying a tree this week.  Each year we contemplate buying a fake one but always end up with the real thing.  Here the kids are putting on our hodge-podge collection of ornaments.  Some of them are from my childhood, my mom made a lot of them.  It always brings back special memories for me and is part of the reason why I can't bring myself to buy fancy matching ornaments that actually look nice.

During December we trade night-time reading in bedrooms for Christmas books by the tree.  Jim can be a very entertaining narrator.

This little horn has haunted me for years.  My brother used to torture me with this thing, it actually works, it almost sounds like a duck, but worse.  Now, the horn lives on through my kids, especially Crew, he loves blowing it in his sisters ears and listening to them shriek.  It still gets on my nerves after a while but I think I've developed special "mommy ears" that can handle annoying noises for longer periods of time.  In a weird way, I actually like it now.

Another reason why we don't have fancy ornaments:  Crew is constantly playing with them, throwing them, feeding them to the dog.  He's broken so many already.  He brought this one to me today along with his Handy Manny tools, thinking he could fix them.  I wish he could!  We've got to stock up on the super glue for the next little while.

Boise Thanksgiving Continued...

We stayed in a great hotel in downtown Boise for Thanksgiving weekend.  The kids had a great time at the pool (I forgot to take pictures) and I had a great time shopping at all the fun, nearby shops.  The day after Thanksgiving we told the kids we were going to see Santa on the Polar Express, they were so excited.  Here they are as we are leaving the hotel.

We are all on the train! We went with Anneliese & Zach and their kids.

Looking for the North Pole!

Anneliese and me!

There was one car of the train that was open to the outside.  It was pitch black and freezing!

Finally we made it to the North Pole and Santa!

Ty and Paige with Santa.

Santa rode the train back with us. Paige and Crew really had fun with him.

A magical night!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thanksgiving weekend in Boise at had dinner at Anneliese's & Zach's house (Jim's sister).  Red & Marianna (Jim's parents), Bryn and Luke (Jim's other sister and Zach's brother) and Josh (Jim's brother) all came as well.

The beautiful table with 24 karat gold trim plates and crystal classes.  The traditional shrimp cocktail was served for the first course.

Preparation...Marianna and Bryn did a lot of work, thanks!!!

Jim watching football...he was quickly removed and put it the kitchen to help.

Hailey playing Hungry Hippos with her cousin Bryton.  She was great at keeping the little kids occupied.

Me enjoying some tapenade that I made along with my 44 oz. diet coke, so classy, I know.

Finally sitting down to dinner, this is the kids table.

Papa after dinner, he's not being grumpy, he had terrible back and shoulder pain.

Ty and Paige, both 5 years old and in Kindergarten. More like twins than cousins.

It was a fun weekend and nice to spend it with so much family.  Thanks Anneliese and Zach for hosting it at your house!
 

A Bad Case of Phobia

Paige had a rough week last week.  The book fair was going on at the kids' school and a certain book that Paige has a full-blown phobia of kept popping up and sending her into fits of pure terror filled with screaming, running and covering of ears and eyes (her poor kindergarten teacher!).  You can't even mention the book without triggering these reactions.

I think it all started a couple of years ago when I bought the book and audio CD for the kids.  Paige listened to it with Hailey and I remember her telling me she thought it was a scary book and that she didn't want to read it again. I put it away thinking that I could pull it out again once she was a little older and she was more able to differentiate reality and fantasy.  She has mentioned it periodically over the last couple of years but I never really realized how serious she was until she came home from school last week in tears because they had read the book in her class that day.  I thought I'd pull out the book again and read it and show her that now that she is 5, she could look at it and not be afraid like she was when she was 3. She clutched my neck and was shaking, hiding her face and almost in tears.  I realized at this point that she was not being a "drama queen" (which she can be a lot of the time) and that she had a real fear of the book.  I let her throw the book in the trash and told her she never had to look at it again if she didn't want to.  I looked the book up on Amazon and saw that there were probably 20 reviews that said their kids had had the same reaction to the book.  But, there were probably 80 or so reviews that said their kids loved the book. 

I had volunteered to work at the book fair one afternoon last week so I took Paige, her friend Sofi and Crew with me.  Paige saw the book and seriously hid under the table (even after I took the book down and put it away where she couldn't see it) the entire time she was there with me...a good 90 minutes.  Then on Thursday a little girl in her class pulled it out of her backpack and Paige's teacher said she had a melt-down, and was screaming and running trying to get out of the classroom.  We are not sure what to do about this. I went into Paige's class this morning to read with the kids and stayed to talk with her teacher afterward.  She said she would talk to the school counselor to see if she had any suggestions. 

By the way, the book is called "A Bad Case of Stripes." 

On a lighter note, Paige's teacher said the kids were going through magazines cutting out pictures that started with the letter "N" and Paige cut out a picture of a man's nipple.  At least she still has her sense of humor!

Halloween 2009

This was Halloween Night before trick-or-treating.  This was Paige's 3rd costume.  For her school party she was a butterfly fairy, for her friend's party she was Snow White and Halloween night she opted for a witch (a nice witch).  Hailey was a vampiress, Crew a pirate.

Crew trying to keep up with the other kids.  It's not that hard when you have Gene Simmons chasing you.  I bought that mask for Jim as a joke and he actually wore it all evening, scaring all the little kids without even trying.  Let me tell you he stuck out a like a sore thumb in this perfect little neighborhood with all the other nice wholesome looking parents.

We took Paige's friend Sofi with us...she was a witch too.

The loot.  The kids are actually already sick of the candy and don't even care to eat it anymore.  I guess that's one benefit of having parents who keep candy in the house all year long...it's not that big of a deal so they never gorge themselves.

Paige Quote of the Day

Paige was pulling arm-length stretches of gum out of her mouth and I said, "Paige, if I see that gum outside of your mouth again I'm going to take it away" (we've had too many gum-in-hair/clothes/furniture incidents).  Without missing a beat she said, "Well, what if I'm at a limbo party and we don't have a limbo stick?  Can I use my gum as the limbo stick?"  How does a 5 year-old come up with this stuff?

Pumkin Picking & Carving

Pumkin Picking