Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
We're calling your bluff. Mama and Dad have been making us be good for weeks now, saying you won't come if we're not. Well, we're done! We woke up looking for a fight today and we know you're too busy loading the sleigh to back out now, so we're done being good. We're fighting, yelling, being sassy and whiny, throwing toys, and causing mass havoc. What are you gonna do about it? Mama said she was about to be done with us by 8:30 this morning, and she's still here, so we know you won't bail out either. It sure does feel good to get all this pent up naughtiness out!
Love Much-
Hunter and Henry

Merry Christmas Grandma and Grandpa!

This year we've decided to send Christmas to the Grandparents via our blog. The boys have been practicing for weeks. We miss you, love you, and wish you a Merry Christmas!

The Big 4!

Hunter turned four last week; an event he has been waiting for and planning since December of last year. I promise he hadn't been three for a day when he started talking about when he would turn 4. This year he got to have his first friends party, and that too he has been planning for over a year. Since Disney's Cars is still his favorite movie (and the only movie he's not scared of), Hunter had a Cars Party. It was a great day- Hunter says it was a "Super-Dee-Duper Fun Party". No, those are not eggs on the cupcakes, they're tires. Or at least they were supposed to be tires. Hunter didn't blow out the candles, he blew off the cupcake! Luckily, Jordan picked it up really quick and nothing caught on fire.Hunter after eating his whole cupcake. None of the other kids managed to eat a whole one. (I made them from scratch, and those cupcakes were solid! Even though is was a seriously yummy little cake, it was just that- a mini cake.) Hunter is in love with his remote control dump truck. Every morning he sneaks into our room and tells me we just have to go downstairs because he's hungry. But then as soon as we get downstairs, all he wants to do is drive his truck. Hunter knows I'll jump and run if I think he needs food; he's a crafty little 4 year old!

Hunter and I made him a real cake on his actual birthday. Daddy also took Hunter out to breakfast and Hunter got to see Santa at Pre-school on his big day too. It was a busy day, but worth it, because Hunter loves being 4!

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

I've never been this ahead of the game before. Usually I don't start acknowledging the Christmas season until mid-December. This year I got my stuff together early, and now our tree is cut and decorated, our gingerbread is baked and decorated, and our shopping is done. It's nice to not be hurried up until the night before.

I find that trees are always better at night with the lights on, but my camera seems to only like it in the daylight hours.This year's house turned out to be a little more than I expected, but it was fun. It was harder and at the same time easier to assemble than last years graham crackers. Again, the boys loved every step; baking the gingerbread, picking out the candy, and of course decorating/eating.

We weren't on top of everything this year. Again we missed the boat on Christmas cards. I have an utmost respect for those families who can get everyone to look decent at the same moment for the camera. I know I could send out a card without a picture, but who wants that? So Merry Christmas to all.

An Update

She's home! Baby Kesa is two weeks old today, home, and doing great. My sister says she loves to eat and is a very good little girl. Her brothers (especially the 20 month old) love her and always check to make sure she's still there. My sister is healing- she's tired and sore, but she's healing. I love having such a great sister and niece to be thankful for at this time of year. I've posted some "edited" details of the scary birth story at the end, so if you don't want to know- stop reading after the second picture.Seriously- how cute is this little girl's grinner!

My sister, Jen, went into labor what they thought was 2-3 weeks early. She labors quick, so she's never used an epidural and didn't this time either. With her first push, the cord prolapsed (shot out before baby). At the same time, baby flipped into a transverse position (on her side) and pinched off the cord. The doctor held 8-10 inches of non-pulsating cord in his hands as he tried to push baby off the cord to relieve some pressure. Blood and oxygen were still flowing out of baby, but the pathway back was what was shut off. Baby was too stuck to move either way- she wasn't coming out and wasn't going back in- still no pulsations in cord. They flipped my sister onto her head and tried to vacuum baby out. After three unsuccessful attempts, doctor used his hands to open my sister up and go in after baby. (Yes, his hands- not surgical tools) Baby rushed to NIC-U and given lots of NIC-U attention for just over a week. Due to size and developmental stages, Baby determined to be closer to 5 weeks early. Sister received two units of blood and a little extra time in hospital. Now both are home and doing well. Thank heavens for happy endings!

Things I Am Thankful For...

1- Cell Phones to keep me connected to my sister

2- Hospitals with trained doctors and medical technology

3- Said doctors who know how to act quickly and trust gut instincts

4- Tender mercies from our Heavenly Father

5- The lives of my sister and her first little girl!

My sister, whom I adore, just gave birth to her first little girl- Keasa Keara Jo. It was a very scary and unusual delivery. My sister said I could share her story, but I know at least a couple of our friends that are pregnant or just about to deliver, and the story is not something those people should be reading. Instead, I will focus on the good. Keasa is almost a week old and still in the NIC-U, but her brain activity is fine, she's breathing on her own, and they have now removed all IV lines. Now the doctors are just watching her temperature and jaundice levels. Her awesome black eye will heal, as will the bruises on her head.

Keasa has 5 big brothers who are very excited to welcome her and a daddy that is already so in love with her that it's adorable. My sister is a wonder to all who know her and even though she's in untold amounts of physical pain, she's at home and slowly returning to the duties of a mom of 6. I'm very sad to not be there helping, but thankful for unlimited cell phone minutes and e-mails to receive pictures.

The Family

I don't usually watch regular t.v. (save for my favorite addictions). I prefer to stick with The Food Network. Now I know why. I like Barbra Walters; I like a good interview, but tonight I feel a little ill about what I spent an hour of my time watching. In a moment of channel surfing, I stumbled upon tonight's Special Report- something about a pregnant man. I'd never even heard of this craziness and now the baby is 4 months old. As flabbergasted as I was at the idea of this outta control story, I could not stop watching. And over and over again as the idea of what makes a family was contested, I could not stop reciting "The Family A Proclamation to the World". Where has common sense gone? My boys are at a stage where they fear being laughed at by other kids. I'll tell you what, nothing in their little lives will ever cause them to be mocked like the unfortunate children of these selfish people. I just don't get it and I guess that's a good thing.

The Animals at the Zoo

The last few days have been unbelievably beautiful. We're talking high 60's -low 70's, sunny and calm. Amazing! So this morning in the midst of piles of laundry, dishes, and dust, we said "Blah, let's go to the zoo". Just because we bailed on chores, doesn't mean the zookeepers get to take a break. They must have been doing some serious deep cleaning- the entire zoo reeked! I'm not talking a little stink, I'm talking the kind of stink that makes one gag. Thankfully most of the animals were outside and we didn't have to spend much time at the inside exhibits. Despite the stench, the boys loved seeing all the animals. And it was a great day to be outside. Our zoo isn't the most up to date, but they're working on it. Hence all the fence pictures. "Roar, we're Tigers"

Hunter- king of the mountain.

Still a few fall colors left.

The wolves were very cool. The one in the back would howl, and the one in front would howl in response. Or at least it would try- you know how your voice cracks when you try to hit a high note, but are a little sick? That's what happened to the front wolf every time it tried to respond. It was one of those things that should not have been so captivating, but we couldn't turn away. We watched and listened for almost 20 minutes. That poor wolf just wouldn't give up; it just kept singing.

Tonight before prayers, when Jordan and I asked the boys what they were thankful for today, Hunter answered "That we got to see the animals at the zoo". It was a good lesson for me; he may not always notice that I wash his clothes, cook his food, or pick up his toys- that's just everyday stuff. What he'll remember is that one day I didn't. Instead, I took him and his brother to see the animals at the zoo.

Happy? Halloween

Some enthusiasm please. Halloween was a great day- start to finish- for our family, but you'd never know it by the pictures I got. This is our friend Perrin, the three boys together are "The Guys". They had a great time trick or treating, but not so excited to be taking pictures before getting candy. I may have to post a Halloween II after I get the pictures from Perrin's mom- surely her pictures are happier than ours. Why do we carve pumpkins? No body wants to touch pumpkin guts, the little guys want to hold the sharp tools (not the pretend tools), someone ends up crying, someone ends up yelling, and the grown ups want to just toss the idea all together, but we persist and the end results are worth the effort. Of course I didn't get a picture of Hunter's pumpkin (the one that caused the most yelling and crying). It was really small, but Jordan managed to carve a bat in it. The boys loved them once they were done. So we'll continue to carve pumpkins at Halloween.A week before Halloween, our church hosted a little carnival. Hunter really wanted to participate in the pie eating contest. Does he know what a pie eating contest is? No, but he knows he likes pie and he now likes to eat, so a pie eating contest had to be a good thing. Never to be left out, Henry jumped up to the table at the last second. My two little guys went head to head against a bunch of 6-10 year olds. Somehow eating pie fast made no sense to either the boys, so after the contest was over, I moved them to another table to finish eating their pies. They may have lost the contest, but all they cared about was getting to eat an entire pie. And they left the table with much cleaner faces than the big kids.
Perhaps the best part of Halloween was getting to spend a hour at Daddy's work and riding the bus home with him in his super cool Shrek costume. (Note to self- Don't take on sewing projects when I don't know how to sew!) Jordan got mobbed by the Asian families in our neighborhood. He took a million pictures with kids he doesn't know- He finally understands what it would be like to work in Disney Land. Hunter was a UW Football Player. Henry was a Hunter.Or maybe all Henry needed was some serious sugar intake and his good friend Halle to make his Halloween Happy!

Hacked and Hijacked

This past week Jordan's e-mail account was "hacked and hijacked". Hotmail actually calls it that- sounds so scary! Someone broke into his account and changed his password. Every time we'd try to access the e-mail account, hotmail would tell us our new password information would be sent to Jordan's account- wait, you mean the account that is being controlled by some unknown scam? The scammer then proceeded to sent fictitious e-mails to everyone on Jordan's contact list, asking for a large sum of money. And while we'd never turn down money... just kidding. Jordan had to answer a million questions from hotmail- they asked him to list everyone on his contact list with their e-mail address and all possible "Subject" headings in his InBox. Seriously, can anyone list all that without looking at their e-mail? So anyway, Jordan finally got his account back (now with a new password), but all his contacts have been erased. The whole situation is annoying, but that's it. We're thankful that it was e-mail, not bank accounts or other forms of identity. Halloween post soon to come!

Fuel Cell Festival

We are lucky enough to have a cousin of Jordan's living about 30 minutes away. Several times in the past year we have found ourselves at Tiffany's house for various fun and creative activities. This woman is seriously one of the most creative party planners I've come across. Kent, Tiffany's husband, works for GM; he designs and builds fuel cells. What is a fuel cell you ask? A fuel cell converts the chemicals hydrogen and oxygen into water. That's the most basic description I could find. It's all way above my head. Their web site does a pretty good job of dumbing it down for my less than chemistry minded mind, but anyway, fuel cells power the new Chevrolet Equinox Fuel Cell vehicle. The really important thing is we got to drive a car that isn't even for sale yet. Just a little something to brighten my night.
Just a side note: Yes, Jordan is wearing short sleeves, shorts, and flip-flops. It's still a little like summer here. Not bragging, just being thankful for global warming while testing out a Green vehicle.While we waited to drive this bad boy; we got to build these bad boys!
The boys loved building gourd people and frosting sugar cookies. It was a great evening. I even felt inspired to look up fall crafts today. Not inspired enough to actually make anything- I'm building up to that.

An Autumn To Remember

Fall in the Northeast is truely amazing. We'll be back west next year by this time, so we are trying to take full advantage of the time we have left here. This last weekend found us camping in The Finger Lakes Region- a bit south of us. Die hard campers may argue that because we stayed in a structure with four walls and a roof, we were not really camping. We still had to take all our own blankets, pillows, water, utinsils, blah, blah, blah. We were camping! The sun was shining, the colors were astounding, and my boys (all three of them) were in a little bit of heaven. It was a great weekend.

The view out our kitchen window before we left home

The cabins around our little cabin Our cabin (basically four walls, a roof, and a floor) The view out the front of our cabin- Cayuga Lake Taughannock Falls- Highest free falling waterfall in the eastern U.S.A lovely walk along the very dried up river lead us to the base of the Falls. The boys loved playing in the leaves and walking up the dry river bed. Hunter was very brave and attempted to cross the river on his own. I fully expected him to tip over, but his balance was better than the tippy rocks. He didn't even get wet.Hot dogs and s'mores are the extent of my campfire cooking experience, so when I actually succeeded in pancakes, I was pretty proud of myself. Watkins Glen. Cayuga Lake

I'm so thankful that we had such beautiful weather for our fall camping trip. I love the fall colors and I love warm sunshine, so it was the best of both worlds for me.