Miscellaneous Week

This is Ellie up-side down... Glenn says she's a wheelbarrow, and James told me she was a Jedi in training (there's a part in Star Wars where Luke is balancing on his hands, moving objects)... she was laughing and giggling the entire time! James was quite gentle with her, so don't worry! :-)




And next, is Ellie right-side up! She is growing up so fast! She now crawls everywhere she is capable, and with faster speed every day! No more inchworm crawl for her... it's on all four from now on! And she loves to pull herself up to the train table and play with whatever is on the table!

Is this not the cutest little jean dress? Emily gave this to us, and I LOVE it! The thing I love most about blogging, is the distance gap that is closed. Emily lives over on the East coast, but I feel I'm a part of her life by reading her blog. And I know she is a fantastic little mom! I wish she lived closer, though, as I'm sure her parents do too :-)


Todd's parents sent us a video of their family vacation back in '85 was it? Many of their stops were our stops on our trip out this past summer, so it was great to see the sights again, and the kids LOVED seeing their Papa at these sights when he was only 10 years old. And they LOVED the picture of Papa with a buffalo hat on! Todd instantly asked his mom if she still had that had... guess what... she did! So, here is Alex in full glory with the same Buffalo Hat that Papa wore when he was 10. And if you know Alex... he is our hat fanatic! And wears this hat around everywhere!

We've been working hard in school to finish our final project to wrap up Ancient Egypt with the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom, and everything in between! It took quite a while, but wow, did they have fabulous ideas! So, this is our final timeline complete with flip pages, sliders, pyramids, heiroglyphs, Valley of the Kings, info on the Nile, the Hyksos, the different Pharaohs... and finally, their personal seals that they made for their name.

This is a picture of me trying to melt beeswax. I ignorantly thought that I could just add food coloring to the wax to color it... well, you can't. Food coloring and wax mix like oil and water! So, the seals ended up being tan! It was a hilarious process that we had to do a couple of times to refine, and it wasn't more than 2 days later that my mother-in-law sent us a 'sealing kit'. And let me tell you, it looked by FAR easier that the process that we went through! And, hers was already colored :-) Oh well. We had fun trying!

That's it for us! We enjoyed a beautifully sunny day yesterday... not a cloud in the sky! But the rain has come back today! But I can't tell my in-laws... they're supposed to think it never rains here :-) We miss you all!

Happy Inauguration Day!

Well, my mother-in-law asked if we were going to have an Inauguration Party. I said emphatically, "No." They are full of promises that they can't keep, etc, etc. Well, we woke up that morning, and I had an e-mail with a lesson plan on the history of the Inauguration... so I first started watching the events over the internet. I was so awe-struck at the history behind this all, that we dropped the Phoenicians today, and studied the Inauguration.

Well, if you know my boys, they LOVE history, and jumped right into my idea. We had a great lesson and learned about some of the different speeches, different presidents, the history behind the Inauguration, and all the changes it has forgone over the years. It was fabulous. Well, we talked about the events for the day, and talked about the conclusion of the Inauguration Ball. My boys thought this was quite cool. And they wanted to dress up....

You never quite know what is going to come about with James... but, I let him run with it. And after asking for a black suit coat of Papa's.... he came up with this costume all on his own... no help except for tucking in the white shirt for him, and getting the black coat. He made me disappear, and came up with this... can you guess who he is?... Theodore Roosevelt, complete with taped on mustache, pillow for a belly, and pipe cleaner glasses. "My favorite president!" he says emphatically. Glenn and Alex dressed up as mushers... I guess if Sarah Palin were in, Lace Mackey may have been invited... so great thinking boys!

So, when Papa got home, we served blue water, pink jello and pink sour cream with chicken enchiladas for our dinner, and ended our evening with a toast to the new President in hopes that he will be able to fulfill SOME of what he promises! Although I do not aspire to become President, nor want my children too, it truly is a beautiful ceremony that does make becoming a President very special! We enjoyed watching the events all day, and especially enjoyed the cake and sparkling cider at night! So, here's to a New President... Happy Inauguration Day!

A few projects...

Ever wonder what to do with those little pumpkins from Halloween? I've wondered every year. Well, when I asked my mom, she simply said, "Just cook them up and eat them." Could you really do that? So, good ol' Internet came in handy, and I looked up instructions, and voila, here are the results. I made 3 with a rice and veggie mix, and 3 with an apple/raisin/cinnamon mix.

We even scooped out the seeds, and cooked those up... it was a FANTASTIC meal and best of all... the kids LOVED helping. They thought it was so cool that we were going to eat these little suckers... and I was right there with them.. was it REALLY going to work? So, I highly suggest trying this next year! Or this year if you haven't gotten rid of your mini pumpkins yet :-)

And I wanted to throw in a post about 3-D puzzles. This was a 1512 piece 3-D puzzle of San Fransisco. It took us a good 3 days to complete during the Christmas break, and that was with James and me being obsessed until 11PM a couple of nights! The one tool I will never do a 3-D puzzle without, is a nut picker! It was the absolute handiest tool to push and pull all those pieces together! So, if you get an in cling to do a puzzle, make sure you have a pointed object to push and pull!

But I have to say James and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! It was a fantastic project to work on together. We had great conversations ranging from Star Wars to jelly beans, and even learned a little about retaining walls... the city truly is at a slant!!

Yes, it was very hard, but yes, it was very rewarding as well! So, if you get a chance to try a 3-D puzzle, try it! It was a lot harder than I originally expected, but turned out to be worth it! And if you want to do San Fransisco, we won't be doing it till next year, so let me know!

Other than that, it was a very busy school week last week, but I got hit with a cold, so we may be slowing down a little. But the Iditarod is kicking into gear, so we'll be surrounded by stuffed dogs again! Oh what fun! Sorry for the sideways picture!

Anyway, enjoy!

As I told my mother in law, I almost feel guilty not wanting to buy some form of dieting book this year. It surrounds us! I can't believe how many ads there are for weight machines, diet books, looking good programs... yadiyadiyadi. As she kindly pointed out, most Americans are obese. I've read (in the ads of course) that 60% Americans are overweight, and of that 60, 40% are obese. So, I see the concern for unhealthy Americans, and the detriment that can have on our already 'hanging on a thread' economy.

But I don't want to be one of those people this year that focuses entirely on losing weight, and forget about the important things. Getting to my pre-Ellie weight will hopefully happen with effort, and I know I need to give more effort, but that is NOT going to be my main New Year's resolution. I'll save that as a side goal :-)

After reading The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch, I want my New Years Resolution to be going to bed every night without doubts. I wish I hadn't read my friend's blog first, because I feel like I'm copying, but she put it perfectly! (Thanks Robyn!) I want to live each moment IN the moment, and not be worrying about superfluous things. As Robyn put it, if I'm doing dishes, I don't want to be worrying about playing with the kids, and if I'm playing with the kids, I don't want to be worrying about doing the dishes. Exactly! Men do a wonderful job compartmentalizing life... women do a wonderful job of connecting dots and wiring everything together. Both have their place, both are important... I just recognize I need to do more compartmentalizing, less wiring... if that makes any sense :-)

I want to go to bed every night, happy with what I accomplished... not complaining about what I didn't, and happy with the time I spent with the kids... not wishing I had spent more. We haven't had school these past 2 weeks, and we've had so much fun hanging out. We've done 3-D puzzles... that'll be another post :-), played games up the whazoo, played with friends, snuggled, read, read some more, and read some more. When the kids had some friends over to play on New Years Eve, we played a game where they had to say what their favorite event was for 2008. James wholeheartedly said, "Our vacation!" I want moments like those ingrained in my kids minds. Not the moments of me stressed because I'm not doing what I want to, and not getting done what I want to. I want to just be happy to be here, in the moment, with a warm house, a loving husband, smiling kids, and yes, I would be lying if I didn't say with a clean kitchen. That does make my moment happier!

In Randy's book, he knows he's dying. He has a head's up. Many of us don't get that. So, I'm going to count on a head's down, and live life in the moment, and not "I wished I would have....!" If I screwed up something, oh well... moving on.

If you get a chance, read Randy's Book... a worthwhile read that helped me become a little better, and will hopefully help my kids become a little better... but I will admit, that if you don't want to cry, don't read the last chapter! But the anecdotes you gain are well worth the cry at the end!

So, Happy New Year everyone! Here are some cute pictures of the kids. I took Glenn's first, and Alex tried his hardest to get his hands in his pockets (which can be quite difficult to do while sitting down, but of course he managed it!)... Alex so wants to be JUST like his older brothers! May we all have a healthy and happy 2009!