Love Buckets

We have lots of traditions in our family, and one of my favorites is our "Love Buckets".
Every Valentine's Day, we decorate "mailboxes" to leave each other love notes and treasures for the two weeks before. We had glitter, glue, and plastic gems everywhere, but the kids had lots of fun, and yes, my Christmas garland is still up. I'm not too lazy to take it down, I'm claiming it as a Valentine's decoration, and maybe 4th of July too, depending on how my life goes.

The Fork Incident. . .

Last night at dinner, out of the blue, Lucy inexplicably stabbed herself between the eyes with a fork. Hard. She might have thought she was a pork chop, that her brain had been taken over by aliens and she was trying to dig them out, or she simply had had enough of my lousy cooking and decided to end it all, but it was no accident. There was no coherent explanation, and we were all left, bewildered, to stare in horror as she clutched her face and screamed. She was left with two little holes on the bridge of her nose, about which she is very worried. Now here's a little tidbit of parenting wisdom which I will share with any reader who has a little girl, plans on having a little girl, or ever might be in the same room as a little girl. (I usually like to keep these to myself so as to allow other parents to discover the parenting pearls of wisdom on there own, and so as not to seem overly confident in my abilities as a parent. In this, however, I am certain to be right.) When a little girl is inquiring as to the severity of an injury she has sustained, always, always, always, in every case, DOWNPLAY! Do not do as Lucy's daddy did.
Lu: (tearfully, and with a look of great sadness and fear) "Daddy, how long will I have to have these holes in my skin?"
Daddy: "Only a week."
Lu: (wailing as if sentenced to a dungeon prison) "A WEEK!?! Oh no! I don't want holes in me for a week! Sob. . . Sob. . . Sob"
Luckily, Mom stepped in and told her she could fix it right after bath.
We all laughed so hard last night, that her feelings were hurt and no one was allowed to mention the "forking" again, but in the ensuing 24 hours, each of us bystanders continues to break into giggles at the memory.

Gordon B. Hinckley

President Hinckley passed away this evening. We don't know much about what happened,but there is an article here.

He was a wonderful prophet, a great inspiration, and we will miss hearing his voice.

Chocolate chips are making me fat. . .

Not because I'm eating them, but chocolate chips (that may be a tiny overgeneralization) are the reason I can't fit into my pants.
I was trying my hardest to get some exercise. I had done the two hardest steps: stretchy pants and shoes, and was starting to warm up when I realized this was not going to work. My two flying monkeys were "helping" me as I tried using the stairs to workout, pushing me off the giant ball, crawling under me as I was on all fours and trying to knock my arms out from under me so my head would hit the floor (again), sitting on me as I did sit-ups, and crawling over me as I did leg lifts. If yelling is exercise, I was getting a great workout. "Get off!" "Look outside~! I think I heard a big truck!" "Go look under the couch cushions and see what you can find." "Get OFF!" (The t.v. broke two days ago or I would have put in a movie.)
Finally, as I'm standing up, running in place (too cold to go outside), Lucy brings me the chocolate chip container. She didn't tell me the lid wasn't screwed on, and I grabbed it. Have you ever seen 5 pounds of chocolate chips evenly distributed over a dining room, living room and toy room? As I scrambled to grab the broom, I hear, "yay!" and when I came back, this is what I found.

He was using both hands to hold in the chips because his mouth was so full. He'd go hide, chew them all, and run back for more as I yelled, "Hey! Knock it off! No more!"

Bronx Zoo Last week

What do you do when your 50+ lb. kid gets tired of walking?

Turning lemons into lemonade

Tate_roll
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When you have no snow at your favorite sledding park, you learn to make your own fun.

Al_roll
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Why it's so important to clean under your fridge more than once every two years. . .

Quote of the day

Lucy: Daddy, look! I have a ponytail. Why is it called a ponytail?

Jake: Because you smell like a horse.

(Disclaimer: Jake was in bed, 83% asleep at the time.)

I'm giving up

For years I've been trying to keep the dirt and germs OUT of the house. I give up.


At least we don't live in Arizona. She'd have a pet cockroach.
Here's the live version:

LucysFly
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We're still here

I know I didn't follow up right away with updates on Lucy or anything else. I've been mustering the energy to think about it all at once.
Lucy is okay. She has. . . (how do I say this without all the details that will humiliate her later in life when her brothers get a hold of the family journal?). . . problems. She has reflux into one of her kidneys, some scar tissue there that's permanent, problems with her. . . digestion, and recurring infections that have us (myself and several doctors) stumped as to how to fix them. She's on antibiotics for now, as well as several courses of treatment for her other various ailments. We go back in a month to see if it has helped, and if not, they are talking about a minor surgery that would (maybe) temporarily stop the reflux until she maybe grows out of it. So, basically, maybe surgery in a month, maybe in a year and a half, or maybe never. I vote never, but we'll see. Also, she has two cavities (grrr!) and most likely has to get her front tooth pulled because of when she whacked it on Christmas Eve (more grrrr!) I don't think I can put one four year old girl through all of that, so I've been in hiding and denial.
Meanwhile, everyone else is fine. We're all still here, we're safe,we're happy, and on occasion, wildly unattractive:

Miley's ABCs

Milesabc
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Lucy update

For those of you who know what's going on with our sweet little Lu, and are wondering how it went, we just got done with the VCUG this morning (it was in my top 10 horrible experiences ever). She was very brave, and she's doing alright now. We find out results tomorrow afternoon.

We miss you, Grandma!

Happy New Year

I know it's late, but here's our NYE party:

He was missing his nap time and thought about getting cranky, but luckily the magic of bowling pulled him out of it. (Reid, not Miles)

A couple of people nearly died when it was Miley's turn, but we all learned to keep our distance.

Lucy and Tate seem to have inherited this tongue-hanging-out-while-concentrating trait from me.

We all struggled with how to hold these balls since there were no holes, but I think Lucy mastered it best.

Reid stepped in to share some of his bowling expertise.

Miley heard horror stories of my bowling experiences, and offered to show me how it's done:

Overall, it was a great trip and well worth the scary drive over the TapanZee bridge!

Look what I made!

JoAnn's had a going-out of business sale so I stocked up. I made this blanket for somebody who just had a baby boy and it only cost me 97 cents! (I hope she doesn't read my blog!) The stripey is flannel and the dots are regular cotton quilting fabric.

My Buddy

Miles and I have a new favorite show. I like to watch "Pushing Daisies" on the computer and he loves to sit on my lap! He almost always prefers Jake over me, so I'm happy to have his company.

Oh, how I love my friends!

I've been trying for some time to encourage Tate to find good friends. Not friends who really like him, but friends who will encourage him to do good and be good.
I was out with two wonderful girlfriends tonight on one of our spontaneous "let's go see a movie right now" adventures. We picked a movie that sounded like a real feel-good flick. It looked cute and harmless and we didn't know that much about it.
By the middle, I was horribly uncomfortable and trying to think up a way to tell these two women that I wanted to leave. I hate to say how much I underestimated them, but I was afraid they would think me a "nerd" for lack of a better word. Just when I couldn't stand it anymore, Laura leaned over to me and said, "I'm ready to go if you are." I LOVE her! So we climbed over people and blocked their view, but we all ran out and felt much better. I don't know about them, but I'm so happy to have friends who are brave enough to say "when". We laughed all the way home and somewhere along the way, somebody said, "You just have to think: How much is it worth, not to have that horrible feeling inside?"
I just wanted to remember in our family "journal" why it's important to find good friends and stick to them!

It's really really really really really really . . .

Cold outside!!!

What you don't see are the wool sweaters underneath the wool coats.
Reid's pant leg is pulled up to show off the long underwear and knee-high cable knit socks. We're freezing!

In an effort to fit more fiber into our diets. . .

Aaarrrrggh!

Christmas pictures at long last

Due to the extreme mental distress I'm experiencing, I've decided to post some Christmas pictures. (the mental distress comes directly from my family badgering me about lack of posting.)
Click here to take you to a multitude, yea even a plethora of Christmas morning photos.