We've been busy having fun....

I've been taking a little blog break to enjoy Christmas, and everyone being home...
but before we ring in the new year, I thought maybe some photos were in order...
(some of which were taken by my sister-in-law Erin)

Christmas Eve 2008: card games, cookies, soup, pajamas, Christmas stories...

looks delicious, huh? (they actually are)...

our beautiful tree....

Christmas morning:

Jared's team here calls him "Ohio"...Jack worked for hours (literally) on the coffee mugs for his Gaga, and his Uncle Pete. He was super proud of them. (it was very sweet)...he was also very happy Santa brought him some new colored pencils...his were getting really small...the Cubs, Bears, Badgers and Titans were well represented this Christmas....
Jared sipping his favorite breakfast tradition, hot apple cider...
Jack wanted a guitar so badly...
and a keyboard. (it was a very musical Christmas for the Jack)...

opening their "letter" presents from Gaga. Jared and Jack found out they're getting guitar lessons. (something they've been asking for for years)....and Colten and his Daddy are going to see the Cavs play the Grizzlies in a few weeks....and they're sitting close enough that LeBron might just drip a little sweat on Coley....Christmas day/evening looked something like this:

now we're getting ready to celebrate the New Year...
just our little family... very low key...
making fondue... or "FUN-do" as the boys would say.
Photos next year...

Dress You Up in my Love...

So I sent out an email yesterday requesting mailing addresses from some of my favorite friends,
who clearly I need to talk to more, because I don't even have their addresses...
Inevitably half reply back with something along the lines of...
"so how many kids do you have now? harharhar...."
"any new family members we should know about?" smiley face, smiley face, smiley face....
I don't know if this is normal?!?...
or if people just think Colin and I only have one pastime?
not sure...
anyway...
One friend wrote back with "what are you up to now….6 or 7 kids?"
So, being me...I replied with "yes, we actually have 8 kids now. it's been rough having to drive the 15 passenger van, but now that gas prices are better things are looking up."
because, well, that's the kind of friend I am.
He...
believed
me.
Now. how he thought I had 5 kids in the maybe 2 years since we last spoke? I have no idea.
but he did. thankfully his wife (and my good friend) explained that I was obviously messing with him.
I was laughing so hard this morning when I realized that he probably spent the night explaining to his wife that Colin and I now had eight kids... I'm sure arguing it to be truth. the look on her face I'm sure was priceless...
Classic.
So I probably shouldn't be so sarcastic via email....it's hard to read sarcasm. Unfortunately.

today was 80s day for Colten at school.
80s day.
what in the world happened to like 60s day?
80s? that just makes me feel old. not cool.
So, Colten comes home yesterday and unfolds a piece of paper...
"I took notes... I need to wear a polo shirt with the collar up, florescent colors, a skinny tie, Coke clothes, and cocky pants....no...wait....thats khaki pants."
"So, I need a skinny tie and something florescent"
well, that's awesome news at 4pm on thursday...I'm sure we have plenty of skinny ties around here somewhere....
no not really.
we went with what we had, involving nothing florescent or skinny....
a black polo shirt, and cockypants....
poor Cole. Don Johnson he was not.
he said the girls were "way done up"...
it would have been much easier to do 80s day with a girl I think.
I base this on the fact that I was a girl. in the 80s.

Cheers...

Is it wrong that I was really proud that my kid was the only one in the class that knew
what the best way to spread Christmas cheer was?
"singing loud for all to hear..."
of course...
got to love Elf....

Something everyone should do?
frame your kids artwork.
and then hang it in the living room.
or dining room.
somewhere everyone will see it.
it's seriously priceless their pride from this simple little act...
don't get me wrong, I have their art everywhere....
taped on my cabinets in the kitchen,
and under magnets on the fridge....

but framed.
framed is different.
and you can see it on their faces.

examples of some art by a few of my favorite artists.
here is Jack's take on Grant Wood's American Gothic:
and an old one from Coley, but one of my favorites....I'm going through their art boxes now, and I think I'm going to do a whole wall with just their work.
I think a wall of happy will be perfect...

Outtakes.

Just in case you parents with small children and babies thought for one second that once your kids were older the annual Christmas card photo would be a breeze....
think again my friends.... actually, not so easy.
also, take my advice and don't let your kids help pick out their outfit.
I knew I was in big trouble when the first words out of Colten's mouth were...
"well, I know I want to wear my suit coat"....
awesome.
cracks me up though...

Deck the halls with boughs of horry, ra ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.
No, no, not 'ra ra ra ra', 'la la la la'! Try again.
Deck the halls with boughs of horry, ra ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra.
No, no! Sing something else.
Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sreigh!

love this...

(be sure to pause the music on the right)...

TALK. EAT. SLED. BAKE. BIKE. READ. PLAY. CREATE. CRAFT. SING.

TOGETHER.

Aunt Bethany, does your cat eat jello?

(totally) random friday-

Jack Banana yesterday:
the homework assignment involved picking out two items on the sheet.
(example- the apple is 24cents, the sandwich is 56cents, etc.) that were between 80 and 90 cents... then he was suppose to estimate the cost, and then add and write the actual cost.
so Jack starts and picks out two things and says, now what do I do?
I explain he is suppose to estimate what he thinks they will cost....
he says "oh. well I estimate they will cost 87 cents"
"no Jack, that's what they will cost, you were suppose to estimate before adding"
"why would I do that when in my head I know they will cost 87cents? that doesn't make any sense mom"....

love that kid. he makes homework so much fun.
he then explained he'd just "make something up" for the estimation.
thanks Jack, way to amuse your teacher, and make light of the "advanced math" sheets she's been nice enough to give you.... Bethany: Is your house on fire, Clark?
Clark: No, Aunt Bethany, those are the Christmas lights.

the tiny tree forest has been totally displaced this year by the annoying tv-hidey-hole which completely renders the mantel useless...
they've made the corner of the suppose-to-be-a-dining-room-currently-posing-as-a-catch-all-slash-computer-room home for now....
it's kind of like they're in time out. only I'm not sure what they've done wrong.
bad bad little trees....my favorite the preschool Jack-tree....I think more crafts should involve pinecones and sequins.... oooh, and cotton balls. Gab, I'm formulating next years holiday craft as I type this....Clark: Burn some dust here. Eat my rubber.
Rusty: Dad, I think you mean burn rubber and eat my dust.
Clark: Whatever, Russ. Whatever.

and because some of you asked exactly what happened to the truck....
here is the slightly condensed version. and yes, God was definitely with us the whole time. I felt him...
oh, and I apologize in advance for how boring this story will be..
we left Wednesday at 6am. once we got into the mountains in TN, we realized the truck was "hesitating" going up hill. we made the decision to stop and get it looked at before attempting the mountains from knoxville to asheville....
the mechanics there replaced fuel coils, and spark plugs (I think, Colin might correct this later)...
however, like doctors, apparently they were just treating the symptoms and not actually fixing the underlying problem.
In any case we got to Cary at 2am. on the way there we noticed a "noise" a few times that hadn't been there before.
we left monday late, maybe 3pmish.....noticed the noise a few more times.
knew we just need to get the truck home.
stayed overnight in a hotel.....the next morning, the truck turned on a made the noise.
(the noise that makes you go "Oh crap. that's bad")
we obviously were still in the mountains. the truck was now having trouble going down hill....
and was making the odd noise intermittently....
so, snowy, cold....and mountains. in a truck that clearly wasn't running right.
Not the best combination.
finally the noise became constant, at the same time we saw a sign for a rest area 1/2 mile ahead.
we pulled in,
and the truck died.
we had it towed to the nearest ford dealer, and they said at the very least it needed a new motor. unfortunately the truck wasn't really worth the 4thousand dollars the new motor would cost....
so, we debated buying a new truck, or renting a car and just coming home.
after a lot of debating, and pacing on the part of my husband, we rented a car and we made it home tuesday afternoon.

I loved that truck. which is crazy because it wasn't special by any means, or new....and I'm not one to really feel significant sentimental attachment to objects.

in a fire after my family was safe my only concern would be my photos....
and Banana's old baby. I think I loved it because it was the first vehicle that "fit" us. everyone had room....
and it always started, and made trips so much more comfortable.... (ironic now, eh)
I really don't know. like I said, it defied logic my love for that truck. so it made me sad to leave it.... I know, I'm a nut.....whatever. get over it....

so that's the long, boring, blown way out of proportion story of the truck's last trip, otherwise known as our trip to NC. and now we will not speakth of it anymore...please.

the big downside to having one car is that I'm home in a house with nooooo food.
other than a whole lot of german candy.
and coffee.
so I've had almost a pot of coffee and something called "erdbeer joghurt", which I'm hoping loosely translates to something along the lines of "tastes like really yummy chocolate covered strawberry goodness but contains no calories or fat"....
we also have something called "pickerd glasur" in "haselnuss, vollmilch, and zitrone",
I'm too scared to eat that, because I'm not sure what it is....
sounds like something out of harry potter to me.
essie?!?!?
btw, I'm sending you this in your next box. (which should be leaving AR tomorrow) love it when I use my blog as informal email... you'll have that when the blog writer is jacked up on caffeine and sugar.

Because babies are way better than trees...

it rained pretty much the entire time we were there....
however,
Evan's facial expressions more than make up for the bad light, and my crappy photo taking skills...
so.
here are a whole bunch of random cute baby shots.....

"First we'll make snow angels for a two hours, then we'll go ice skating, then we'll eat a whole roll of Tollhouse Cookiedough as fast as we can, and then we'll snuggle." -BuddyI like to call this series "what the hell do you mean my aunt's truck broke down again in Tennessee?"
"are you kidding me?"...
"ok, enough of that already"....this one just makes me smile....my boys with some whoa bad hair, and a cute-tastical babe.....Jared after telling him he looked like he was posing for a teen pregnancy poster...
Ev was totally not scared by Uncle Colin this time....making for a very happy Col...
ooooh, I love seeing my husband with babies.
you hear that honey? I love seeing you with babies. hint...hint. Gabby wanted a photo next to Jared to show how tall he is.
of course Col pointed out it looks like a brother/sister shot.
just as long as I don't look old enough to be mom to both of them.....
aren't they cute? and isn't he tall?!?Colten was just completely enamored with the baby...
"Francisco! That's fun to say! Francisco... Frannncisco... Franciscooo" -Buddy the elf, and Colten the not elf....
and I just love this one, because Jack looks so happy. hard to handle all the cuteness, huh? I understand...