Clingy but cute

Granola is a jealous dog. If I am paying attention to anybody but him, he cocks and attitude and starts to pull my pant leg to let me know he is there. Yesterday, I went upstairs to play with the Gerbils with the boys and locked him downstairs. This is what I saw at the bottom of the steps for about 40 minutes...with some whining to go along with it.


Oh, there is a great Shitzu at the Citizens for Humane Action right NOW if you have found a soft spot for our dog. It simply is adorable and I want it, but know it would be best if we stuck with one dog for now.

Dog food boy

Elliott has a hard time eating people food and will soon have to start thearpy, however, he cant resist Alpo.

Gerbil Babies all grown up!

Meet the baby gerbils!! If you would like one, let me know. Their eyes open and some are eating on their own. They are so sweet and don't require alot money. I know I complain that the mommy and daddy use to get loose, but if I had a chance to break away from being in a cage, I would too. They really can't open doors and only got loose because of our errors. These babies are held often which means they will be nice to your children! Andrew said he heard them say that they would like to be placed in homes with owners named Evan, Elias, Simon, Jude, Conner, Cooper, Carson, Chase, Ethan, Kayla, Ellyn, Sylvie, Addy, Amelia, Anna, Theresa, Harold and Alora. It has been a great experience for the boys to have the babies in our home. So, here is your chance Parents...grab one while you can!

Christmas 2009

My dad came to visit for Christmas! What a great present! It was nice to spend some quality time with him and listen to him tell stories. He told the boys a story of this guy named Mr. Edwards (the Little house Mr. Edwards) and made that story fit into HIS story. He even brought the boys a cup, penny, peppermint stick. he gave me 3 Sweet potatoes. If you know the Little House story, you know what I am talking about. Otherwise, you are most likely very confused. Anyway, Gosh, I wish he lived with us *wink*. The boys couldn't stop talking about him coming to our house. I think Owen told his teacher 10 times last week, just to make sure she knew.

He arrived the 23rd in the late afternoon. Owen's new full mattress came in and we were in the hustle and bustle of getting rid of his old one and picking up the new one. Aaron took the boys out to a movie to pass time and to get the kids off our backs asking "when is he going to get here, when is he going the to get here?" I enjoyed some one on one time with my dad eating cookies and drinking coffee while waiting for the boys to come home.

That evening, we went to Easton. I really dislike going to Easton, but it is so beautiful at Christmastime. I love the lights and all of the pretty decorations. They sure know how to do that place up!


We ate at California Pizza kitchen and enjoyed walking around looking at all of the pretty lights.
Owen Playing dot to dot with Papa...Owen never finished the game because the next move he would have to make would give my dad the rest of the boxes.

My dad and I...

Andrew and Aaron...

Here are some other highlights from the weekend...









We had a super time with My Dad!

Just stuff...

Lately, I have nothing important to say in my blog posts. Nothing deep, nothing meaningful, nothing of much substance. I am ok with that. Mostly journaling about my kids and life. I love my family and all of our weirdness!
This is what I did today...
Made pretzels and Caramel apples. I ate more than what I needed to.



Thank you to my friend Carol for this nice toy for Elliott. Sometimes I forget that babies actually like toys to play with once in a while. I keep the SAME toys in a bin in the living room. Most of the time, he is content playing with aluminum foil balls or watching the boys play guitar hero.

Granola is getting more hair and his personality is shining though. He nips at our ankles when he wants attention. We have rolled up papers in every room of the house now so when he starts to nip, he gets a tender loving swat on the nose. Mean owners.

And our latest saga...Gerbils again. This the first batch that momma gerbil has taken care of. She has had 5 litters (or whatever you call them) and has eaten all of them. Hard to explain to a 7 and 9 year old. Here they are. There will be no more gerbil babies in this household. Our cat Pharaoh took care of that last week when he sat at the top of the steps with Germy the gerbil in his mouth. I am not kidding here. I know it sounds like some kind of soap opera, but this is all true.
Here is a cute picture of momma gerbil "Missy" guarding her babies...



And finally, it is winter break for the boys. Time for extended time with friends from school...Notice Granola dead center between all of the action!

Favorite Christmas song of mine...

And I especially LOVE this version!

House of Heroes "O Come, O Come Emmanuel from Ransom TV on Vimeo.

The things we do.

So, I am part of our kid's PTA. Every year we organize a Holiday Shop where kids get to shop for their family members. IT IS SO FUN!! Some schools have a company that comes in and runs the shop. We choose to do the entire thing...the shopping, the setting up, the selling, the wrapping and the cleaning up. I mean, come on, some of those companies charge like $6.12 for an ink pen that will most likely not work. We choose to pick a night to go and SHOP, SHOP, ShOP for all of the gifts we are going to sell. We purchase all different gifts and it gives the kids a good selection to choose from. We don't make a HUGE profit off this event, but do it because it is fun for the kids...and kind of fun for us too! It is so awesome to have kids shop for their family members while having a smile on their face. We sell all of the items for $2.00 each. This way, we don't have to deal with the making change after their purchases. It is also inexpensive for families. We do put a 5 gift limit on the shop. If there is a family that forgets about the holiday shop or their family isn't able to do this event, the PTA provides "Snow Cash" dollars to all of the teachers. Each teacher is responsible to distribute the snow cash to those who do not have money to shop. Nobody is ever left out! Here is Andrew making sure I don't look at the gift he purchased for me... The decorations are from Walgreens. After each holiday season, I choose a local store and ask for their old decorations. Most of the time, they are happy to give them up. I guess my official job every year is to hang these bad boys from the rafters. It requires alot of patience and a sore arm at the end of the day. :) Two of the many "wrappers", Anne and Angie. Angie and her honey bun shopping for gifts... At the end of the day, we clean up and our kids are usually in the gym "helping" out or something like that...Most of the time it ends up with something like this.

Breakdancing Performance #2

Owen had a break dancing performance last Friday. I am a little slow in getting things up these days. The dance teacher had the kids form groups and come up with their own dance routine for this performance. The name of Owen's group was
(drum roll please)..."Elephant Ghosts". Are you as confused as I am?

Owen is in the kid in the green cap and long sleeved white shirt. What you may not know is that under that cap...is a washcloth. It gives a little padding to his head when he does a head spin. It is our special secret!

Enjoy the video of Owen getting jiggy with it.

Dads video from Santa...even better!

Andrew's Video from Santa

Owen's video From Santa

Christmas memories continued...

With apologies...the spell check is not working on Blogger right now.

Last night, we decorated our Christmas tree. It took a little longer than usual for obvious reasons...


Every year, we watch some type of Christmas movie, make popcorn, and bake cookies while we put our precious ornaments on the tree. Being that our tree is a real tree, we had to leave some of the heavier ornaments off the tree this year. We also had to put non-breakable ornaments on the bottom 1/2 of the tree for obvious reasons....


Owen getting into the spirit...

Ok, Pillsbury Cinnibun Cookies totally rock. If you would like to trick your guests into thinking that you spent the afternoon baking homemade cookies, these are the Cookies to pick. Besides, they are HUGE!


Here are some of our most special ornaments that ALWAYS have to go on the tree.

This is an ornament that was on my mom and dad's first Christmas tree. My mom gave it to me the year we got married. It is very special to me. I am always a nervous wreck because I am afraid I am going to break it...

Our first ornament from the year we got married...broken. I was so sad.


This is the newest ornament that will make it on the Chrismas tree from here on out. It is kind of goofy, but the year my mom passed away, I walked into this ornament store at Easton and looked over and there was this ornament. Ummmm, it looks just like my mom only my mom didn't wear that shade of lipstick. My mom had the best cheeks when she laughed. Last year, Owen asked how I had an ornament made of his MIMI.


The yearly hand made ornaments from the boys...





Silly ballerina slippers from the boys to their dad...

And a snowboarder...

Elliott and his first real cookie. Much better than those Arrowroot Gerber cookies!

All done decorating, time to rest.

Andrew did assist us in decorating the tree, he kept complaining about the camera. So, no pictures for YOU!