Bacon Detox

Katie R.

We're back from a jam packed holiday trip to Ohio and Indiana. After 10 days and over 30 hours on the road the kids are tired and pretty content to play on their own with their 4,000 new toys.  The only problem we are having is that Andrew (and Wes usually follows his cue) is going through bacon withdraw.  Andrew loves bacon, like could eat it for every meal loves it, and I'm pretty sure he ate it almost everyday for 10 days.  We have been home for 2 days and both mornings we were treated to Andrew whining about bacon.

So as we start 2014 here are the resolutions for myself and the kids.  I would give Joe some resolutions but pretty sure he would be less than thrilled with that.

Katie:  Lose 20 lbs and work out (yeah right)

Andrew:  Detox from bacon

Wes:  Stop saying stupid (there is probably a better chance of me losing 40 lbs then this happening)

So from our stupid, 20 lb overweight, bacon addicted family to yours have a great 2014!

All Filled Up

No need at this point to remind you that I love Christmastime! We do it up big and the boys have really gotten into the spirit with me.  Sometimes I think they are just humoring me by singing and dancing with me to the holiday music.  They clearly feed off my excitement to bake cookies, make ornaments and see what's in the next pocket of the Advent calendar. (Reminder of the Advent calendar here)

This past weekend we were all in the car traveling to family and looking at the lights and Colby simply says, "Mom, I'm just so filled with the Christmas spirit!" Tom and I look at each other, smile and tell him how awesome that is. How sweet is he? I can't imagine where he gets it from.

From my family to yours, Merry Christmas! I hope you are filled with the Christmas spirit too!

p.s. And always, thanks for reading! xo

Life Imitating Art

Colby always comes home from his preschool program with lots of arts and crafts. I always ogle over them and ask him to tell me his thought process behind them.  Sometimes I get answers and sometimes I don't.  I love what he comes up with...

exhibit A

This piece of work came home last week.  They traced the cat but the rest of it is all Colby.  He tells me that this is (of course) Isis Kitty with her big green eyes.  Colby is in blue and Lincoln is in green.  He then tells me that I'm the red person with my mouth open telling them (what I always tell them) to not give her (Isis Kitty) a reason to scratch them!  The orange line around the cat is the barrier we should give her so she won't scratch anyone. I love the artwork and I hang it on the refrigerator for all to see.  It cracks me up because we have this discussion everyday about the cat and I thought that maybe this drawing proved that he finally learned his lesson.

Well not a few hours after he got home from school that day and he gave her a reason.

I don't get mad at the cat even though Colby thinks she deserves a timeout! She  really does let them do whatever they want to her but sometimes the boys just can't control themselves. Eventually he will learn or at least continue to draw pictures of her! 

The Santa Who Wears Nike

Katie R.  

It was time to make our annual trip to see Santa.  Like everything we do we should assume it would be a bit of a train wreck although this time, for once, it was not our fault.

We decided to go to our local "mall" which is really a LL Bean with a few local stores but Santa sits on a sleigh so it makes for cool pictures and more importantly it's never crowded.  

We walk in and are greeted by two sweet girls giving out candy cane.  Andrew is shy at first but when I say "this is your only chance to have one" he quickly takes one and thanks the girl.  Next Wes comes running through the doors and and tries to grab 3 candy canes and is pissed when I tell him he can only have one.  I say "what do you say" and he looks at the girl and says "happy Halloween."

Andrew sits on Santa's lap and tell him what he wants.  He takes his photo and although he is a little shy answers all his questions.  

Next tough guy Wes walks up the sleigh and refuses to talk to Santa, in fact he actually refused to even look at Santa.  So this was as close as he got.

So you may say, where was the fail in all of this.  Seems pretty much like a typical Santa visit.  If you look closely with the picture of Andrew you will see that he is wearing Nikes.  There was a cover on the suit that was supposed to cover the tops but didn't cover the side.  Wouldn't have been a big deal except Andrew noticed.

We were 3 steps away and Andrew says "That wasn't the real Santa"  What ?!?  He went on to discuss his shoes and how the real Santa wore boots.  I tried to make up so me lame story and I could tell he really didn't believe me, so later it was determined that this was one of Santa's helpers.

The good news is at no point did he questions the existence of Santa... just his choice of footwear. 

The Advent Calender

The holiday season is all around.  If you don't know me that well then let me tell you...I FREAKING LOVE CHRISTMASTIME!!!! And quiet frankly everything to with it, the music, the decorations, wrapping and giving gifts, decorating cookies and gingerbread houses! Every year since I was little I always had a paper advent calendar and this year I decided to step up my game and go big.  I ordered a beautiful large advent calendar to hang with 25 pockets for messages. All of my messages make note of a treat they will receive or activity they get to do on the given day. I hit the ground running on December first...

The boys got to pick candy canes off of the tree so they thought that was pretty special too.  And yes the chocolate milk was served in Maine Brewfest glasses!

I didn't want to make the calendar about gifts so sprinkled in are things that needed to get done to get ready for the holiday season.  One day was to go to the store and pick out gingerbread houses. It had to get done and the boys loved picking out their own houses! Big surprise that in another couple of days the message will be to put them together and decorate it.

And then on the day the message was to help make cookies we had so much going on we didn't get to make them until late. But a promise is a promise!

Lincoln showing off the message

The boys being oh so helpful
making cookies

It's also handy and nice to have a few up your sleeve that you can reuse!

This is one of my favorites! Their is always something special about watching a holiday movie in your parents bed.  This was a Very Special Muppet Christmas!

And then you have the days when you feel like you have cheated a bit and go lame...

An assortment of different types of Hersey Kisses in a Santa Ziploc bag did make them just as happy as any other message but it seemed a little lazy on my part.

Today gave the boys some good old excitement; they each got a dollar and got to pick something out at the local dollar store. Oh what fun to pick out a blow-up sword and hammer!


We still have 2 weeks left to go and I'm trying not to repeat myself to often.  Let's hope my Christmas spirit will carry my through to keep my creativity high because this has become quite the undertaking!

A Day for Legos and Not Each Other

Some mornings are best spent recharging.  Even though Colby, Lincoln and I spent the morning together we actually spent very little of it interacting with one another. After a couple of crazy days a lazy day was well overdue.  Even though a lazy day was in order it seemed the boys and I needed a little space from each other too. That's when you look for a classic, go-to toy...

Ah, legos!  Thank you for the hours you provide me that are spent quiet and happy. Thank you for the joy you give my boys while I play on my phone  get things done around the house.Thank you for the millions of pieces spread across the floor that I'm bound to step on and find later in places I never knew.

 

 

Lincoln just zoned out and changed the height of the cars over and over and over again!

 

 

And really, could Colby look any happier? I don't think so. On this day if I had asked him to read a book with him he would have bit my head off.

 

 

Thanks again Legos! You're the best!



We Survived... Although not sure those in Virginia can say the same

Katie R.

We will did it.  We survived.  I would even venture to say that it was a good trip; however, I don't want to be too cocky as I'm not sure what those in Virginia are saying right now.  Here are the highlights:

To Virginia:  The kids, who are pretty good travelers, managed to have no problem getting up at 3:30 when the alarm went off.  We made it to our 4:15am shuttle and to the airport in plenty of time.  The deal was Wes would sit with Joe and I would sit with Andrew but after the take off and hearing "I want my mommy" we switched (over the seats) and I got Wes the remainder of the trip. Lucky me. The only reason we made it through was the nice man, complete with dreadlocks, who switched seats with another family so they could all sit together and unfortunately he got stuck with us.  He was a good sport Wes put his bare feet on him, had him put his tray table up and down 20 times and finally would only let that gentlemen unbuckle his seat belt.  There is a special place in heaven for that guy.  Then on the way to our final destination we stopped at the air and space museum to see a real space shuttle and even better for my kids... a Mars rover.

 

 

 

During our Visit:  We stayed with Joe's cousin, her husband and their two kids.  They were the most amazing hosts as we are less than ideal guests.  First Wes called everyone stupid every 30 seconds so he spent a good deal of his holiday in timeout.   Andrew and his cousin instantly became "best friend cousins" and they had a good time playing together.  Joe's cousin even hosted Thanksgiving at her house which consisted of 25 adults and 4 kids.   We even got a night out for awhile but had to come home early as Wes was causing Nana and PawPaw all kinds of problems.  Yep he hates us.  C if you are reading this thanks again for having us. I know you said come back sometime in the summer, but I promise we won't take you up on that offer. 

 

The kids had a coloring contest with donations.  I think they raised about $30 to put in the Salvation Army bucket.

25 adults, 4 kids and 11 desserts.  Sounds about right (only a small portion shown here)

Playing in the best friend cousin's room

Jamestown on a pirate ship. 

 

 

And we're done

We're from NH.  We definitely make sand castles when it's 50 degrees.

Don't let the smile fool you.  Feel asleep when we got in the parking lot.  Beach day was a gigantic fail.

 

 

Traveling Home:  We left the cousins at 8:30 in the morning to get out of their hair and to visit the National Aquarium in Baltimore.  After a 3 hour drive we arrived and enjoyed the aquarium.  The kids were done after about an hour but it was $91 for admission (Wes was free) and we had 4 hours until our flight so we forced them to look at more fish.  Finally we arrived and had 2 hours until our 7:40 flight which was perfect for checking in, dinner and boarding.  The minute we arrived I got a text saying our flight was delayed until 8:30.  No problem, we'll get dinner.  Joe and the boys decide the want Chipotle.  2 kids with giant burritos on the seats in the airport.  Absolutely the worst idea ever.  Rice freakin everywhere.  After trying to clean in up without success I decided our best plan of action was to choose different seats and pretend the mess never happened.  Finally we boarded.  Here we are on our return flight.  See anything wrong with these pictures? 

 



 

 

The lucky mommy I am both kids wanted to sit with me.  And at 8:30 after already traveling for 12 hours we decided it was best.  Luckily Wes fell asleep before the fasten seat belts sign went off and Andrew played games on my phone so it was an easy flight, I even read SkyMall.  After a shuttle to our car and the car trip home it was midnight and we all fell asleep in our own beds.

 

I have to say that it was a really good trip.  My better then I expected; however, I may already be blocking parts out of my mind. 



Selfie

As we all know the word selfie has left it's stamp on the world  this year.  I've already blogged about Colby's new found joy for picture taking and his artistic point of view...

 

 

 

Like I said, an artistic eye. But upon further inspection of all the pictures Colby took over our Thanksgiving holiday two more caught my eye. This one...

 

 

 

I love this one so much because we have all done this before. The classic "did I hit the button" and "what's taking this thing so long" and as you turn the camera to your face you get the flash and the picture is taken when you least expect it.

 

 

Would such an encounter deter Colby, the new budding photographer? Oh no! The following picture proves the opposite.

 

 

 

It seemed to become a conscience decision to try to capture himself after the upside down shot.  A full length mirror at my fathers house satisfied the next 10 photos or so until he finally captured my favorite shot of him over the Thanksgiving holiday.

 

 

 

Alas, the classic selfie. It shows off his freckles on his nose and his sweet face.  I love this little man! I can't wait to see how he captures the world next!







The View From Here

Thanksgiving has come and gone. We traveled early due to the weather, visited with family and friends, participated in a turkey trot and celebrated a birthday. I have many stories to share but they are for another day. On Thanksgiving day I let Colby have the camera (yes, I was very nervous) and he loved capturing the day from his own viewpoint.  At that height the angles are goofy, the faces are funny and the randomness of some of his pictures are hilarious. 

A great shot of Colby's Aunt Jeanne!
Just look at that smile!

And Grampy was a little shocked at how close
Colby got for this one!

And Colby followed this cat around until
he cornered her in the bathroom!

 

And I got captured too by the
budding photographer

And the sweet boy didn't leave
out the plant life either!

And he told Mamie to
"put em up!"

It's not much of a story but it's always fun to share the view from the best 4 year old around! I hope you all had wonderful Thanksgivings too!