Christmas Pictures

Here are a few from Christmas morning at home and our annual brunch with my family at the M's:

Public Service Announcement

This mainly applies to women who might embarrass easily. Here is the number one reason you should never bra shop with Evyn, or any five year old for that matter.... They might say quite loudly and dramatically while holding up a bright red bra in your size (or maybe a few sizes bigger) while standing in a small crowd of women, "Whoa Daddy! This is a big one!!"
Although this did not happen directly to me, I was close by. I was busy trying to shop for myself while Reed was trying to run onto the escalator at full speed. Not a very successful trip but at least I (we?) got a good laugh.

In the days and weeks leading up to Christmas....

We have been making festive shaped crayons out of old, broken ones, decking the halls with tons of school-made art. I wonder how many times the North Pole Express made its way around our tree? Lets not even talk about all of the cookies and sweet treats we have made and then there is the gingerbread house, the paper snowflakes, paper chain, the painted ornaments and all of the Christmas coloring book pages that we have all (and I do mean ALL of us, Gary and Ashley) colored on. Did I mention all of the glitter? The glue? Ashley even crafted this Play-Doh Christmas tree, gifts and person. We've been busy. It has been fun and we now have over 300 days to come up with new and different ideas for next year. If Holly continues to channel her inner Martha we might just see her on the Today Show in 2008 giving holiday craft ideas right there with Martha.

A hunting we will go

This is actually the closest thing to hunting I will probably ever experience. We went to a tree farm and cut our own Christmas tree down for the first time ever. Once we got to the farm, they provided a saw and drove us out to the area where we could choose our tree. Here is a slideshow: http://photoshow.comcast.net/watch/CN3ZB4Pw We did this weeks ago, but since this was the theme to our Christmas cards, I was waiting until they were mailed and hopefully received.

You can bet that this is the way we "tree shop" for years to come. Not only was it nice to support our local grower, but the experience was one the kids will hopefully always remember.

Here is the tree after Evyn and Reed decorated it. Some of the ornaments had to be redistributed, but they did most of the work. Notice Reed lying there sucking his thumb waiting for the North Pole Express to come back around.

Holiday Funny

Im sure this has been delivered to many of your emails (thank you, Kelly), but it made me laugh, and I have no time to post any of my own stuff at the moment, so here it is:

* To My Democrat Friends: *
Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than neither any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere. Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wish.

* To My Republican Friends *
Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

The Pre-School Christmas Program

Yes, that is R behind E in this first shot - seconds before he pushed her and a minute before he jumped into a wet leaf pile. sigh!

I really look forward to the little programs that E and R's school put on. Getting a group of young children together on a stage with different attention spans, interests and abilities to stand relatively still and perform is quite funny.

The show started with all of the three year old classes singing together. Below is Reed entering the sanctuary and looking thrilled to be participating in this event. Once he got to the stage, he surprised me though. He sang and moved his arms and acted like he was enjoying himself. I know he loves to sing at home but never would I have expected him to cooperate in this type of setting. He even clapped his little hands and smiled huge smiles when the audience would clap. Yes, he is cute.

Next was all of the four and five year old classes. Evyn's festive little outfit was covered by her angel costume, however, her red furry sleeves made her easy to spot in the crowd. As expected, she sang, smiled and was in the groove, clearly enjoying herself. Until several of the angels, Evyn included, got tired and sat down on stage during the performance. At least she started with a bang. Remember what I said about the varying attention spans? Yeah! :)

Here is her class, the shepards and angels. Evyn assures me that they had a fake baby in the manger but they pretended it was real. You can click on it for a better view. Look for the red sleeves and you will find Evyn.

Channeling Martha

I have to share a Holly story. This is so out of character for her that it could not go unnoticed. I have been sick recently and Holly had to step up to the plate in a big way, taking care of me and the kids and the house while I was out of commission (and make up for the lack of fun they were having with me, the sick grump). With the added responsibilities, she even managed to dig deep, trying to find her inner Martha Stewart.
For those who don't know Holly, she is more of a hammer, drill and duct tape type of girl who likes to ride the kids around on dirt bikes, or throw balls at them as they do laps through the living room, a stark contrast from the ornament painting, paper chain making, candy cane hanging, cookie baking momma that I have been seeing lately. Its not that she engaged the kids in crafts necessarily, but she came up with these ideas all on her own. Even I, the crafty one, have to look around online or in magazines to steal someone else's ideas. She is probably going to kill me after reading this but a step outside of the norm of this magnitude is definitely worth mentioning.

The New Jesus

Yes, that's right. Jesus is in the house, again. Two years ago, Evyn brought the same little Jesus home with the brown clay manger and blue blanket. Although the manger eventually disappeared (into the trash after it became a blob of clay, fuzz and animal hair), Jesus has been with us - until about three weeks ago when one of the senile, elderly dogs ate his legs off. It was sad - two years is a long time to be able to keep up with something this tiny - but Evyn determined that everything would be okay.

Yesterday Reed, who is currently in the same pre-school class E was in two years ago, brought home Jesus. A new Jesus that is "just like the old one." Evyn promptly stepped up to the plate and has been caring for and talking about the new Jesus. This has been quite entertaining, and I wanted to share a few quotes. I really mean no disrespect, but I am just twisted (juvenile?) enough to find these comments funny.

I have been hearing things like:

"Where did you put Jesus?"

"Jesus likes candy canes."

"I hope the dogs don't eat Jesus this time."

"How did Reed find Jesus?"

"My Jesus got chewed on her foot, so Reed let me borrow his Jesus."

"I am going to keep Jesus safe inside my jewelry box."

Duh! I forgot someone.

Lets revisit the 'Elway' post. I was talking about our dogs that have died in the recent past. Well, Holly was pretty horrified that I left out *her* dog, Huck the albino Dane pictured above with Evy. I totally forgot about him, which is pretty funny considering he was such a memorable dog. Deaf and dumb pretty much sums it up. Let's just say that his disabilities (deaf and partially blind) led to his demise. Ultimately he became a safety risk (after biting, or trying to bite three people) - very sad for such a healthy, agile, big dog.

He was only with us a year and a half. We taught him a few signs. We were already semi-pro since we communicated with Evy with signs before she could talk. Poor thing, he was a few brain cells short and earned the name "Duh" which Evyn still calls him if she ever brings him up. For example, Ashley used to play hide-and-seek with him and would start off each session hiding in the exact same place. He never thought to look there first. Ever.

I definitely had a love/hate relationship with him. He was my running partner, used to help me by pulling the stoller up hills if I wrapped his leash around the handle, however, he annoyed the hell out of me 90% of the time. He would finish off each day by being spoiled rotten by Holly and would fall asleep with his head on MY freaking pillow as they spooned. Disgusting. Anyway, that is the Huck story. Holly wanted me to give him a mention. I stand corrected.

Seven random facts about me.....

I've been tagged by A Bug's Life and will post seven random facts about myself. At the end, I will tag seven people and post the rules. Here we go:

1. I love jeans and wear them almost daily - even try to get away with it during the summer time. I am the one usually wearing jeans and earthtone colored shirts - trying to break out of my brown, green, tan, orange, black habits, but on the rare occasion that I shop for myself, I end up choosing the earthtones anyway.

2. When I pleasure read or watch movies, I process it and let it go all within a short time frame. I never remember lines or parts, just that I like or did not like the book/movie. This is not true, however, for the children's books that I can practically recite from repetitive reading.

3. I used to be a major scrooge during the holidays but having the big-ish family I have always wanted has changed that.

4. I love to sew and make things but usually don't have time.

5. I love building train tracks while the kids are in bed. I spend time arranging and rearranging until things are just right with bridges, multiple turns and splits. No, I do not actually play trains - I leave that to Evyn and Reed. They are always super excited to see my creations (and it keeps them really busy).

6. After all of the time I spent in college, I have now been out of the workforce for longer than I was in my career. I feel very discouraged by this since I am planning on getting back out of the house to work when the kids start school. I have a strong desire to do something much more meaningful (but I don't know exactly what) which means, probably, more school and more student loans which is also discouraging. I'm hoping that I can finally decide what I want to do when I grow up and LOVE it.

7. I love to travel. From age 12 to 29(when I was pregnant with Evyn), my mom and I have taken a ski trip every year, sometimes we went twice a year. Although winter is by far my least favorite month, skiing with my mom was always a highlight. Having kids has put a stop to much of my traveling for now. I want E and R to love traveling and flying (holly is still scared and has to self-medicate before she will fly). I want them to see life outside of VA and know that the world is a big place and full of new experiences and different ways of life.

I am supposed to tag 7 people but, honestly, I do not even visit/read seven blogs, but here is what I came up with. I tag:

Teresa at http://wishuwerehere2.blogspot.com/
Bianca at http://biancajpiercephotography.blogspot.com/
Jen at http://www.alexandhadley.blogspot.com/

Here are the meme rules:
1) Link to the person that tagged you, and post the rules on your blog.
2) Share 7 random and/or weird facts about yourself.
3) Tag 7 random people at the end of your post, and include links to their blogs.
4) Let each person know that they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.

Do you hear what I hear?

Evyn informed me the other day that she hears stories in her head. She later clarified, telling me that she can use her imagination to make up/hear stories.
This coincides with the type of play that she has been getting into lately. Although she uses a very soft voice, I have noticed her talking for her toys and to her toys. She has also been telling me that she had a dream about a certain thing and then asks if I would like to hear about it. The dream always starts out about the particular thing she has mentioned, but as I respond with interest to what she is saying, the dream takes a twist, becomes a little more than originally thought and she then concludes it with a "the end." Obviously, she is really into making up stories, which I love.
This afternoon, Evyn started telling me again about hearing stores in her head. She also informed me that when the story in her head ends, she can listen to music (in her head) too. I told her (fighting back laughter) that I thought that was really neat. She then, in an effort to one-up her brother, tells me that Reed has to listen to his radio if he wants to hear music and stories but she can hear it all in her head. Yes, she is entertaining herself (and me) and that is great. I just hope she does not start telling me that *the voices* are telling her to do things.

Elway

We lost a friend today. Might be a strange thing to say about a dog, but believe me - this guy was so much more than a dog. Not only was he our best friends' dog, he was the brother of our beloved Great Dane, Grayson. He was sensitive, funny, sweet and incredibly strong in his prime. He loved to sit on your lap, whether you were on the toilet or comfy on the couch, he wanted to be with you. Unlike Grayson, he loved to snuggle and would groan and moan as he positioned himself on you or next to you, as if to say "I could not be happier right now."

Holly and I picked Elway and Grayson up nine or so years ago while Milly and Robert were out of town and surprised them when they returned. From that point on, he was a regular in the lively household, along with his brother, Malcolm, who passed earlier this spring. When he was too young to be left alone all day, Milly would drop him at our house for doggy daycare. I was in college and had a flexible schedule and Holly's job also offered flexibility so they were never alone for too long. Holly, at some point, nicknamed him 'Rudy,' which actually stuck - everyone called him Rudy. We watched in amazement as Grayson and Elway grew to be these huge, human-like dogs that lived up to the "gentle giant" reputation that Great Danes are known for. They enhanced our friendship with Milly and Robert, and that is basically where the story starts, although Milly, Robert, Holly and I already had a great thing going.

This is officially the end of an era. After the loss of Grayson three years ago followed by Malcolm, Meg and Casey earlier this year, life is different. As sad as all of the dog losses have been, I know that there will be other dogs and more fun memories to make. I lived the first 20 years of my life without a dog (and sort of compensated by getting too many dogs) and now can't imagine life without dogs. As the old ones pass and the new ones come to be, we will be reminded of the circle of life and will feel good knowing that not only have our dogs enhanced our lives, but we have enhanced theirs too. Mans best friend, indeed. Rudy will be missed. :(

Thanksgiving, a few days later..

We had a great Thanksgiving, exhausting but great. We hosted our immediate family, including Grandpa and our new son-in-law, one of Holly's co-workers and one of Holly's brothers and most of his family. Evyn was kind enough to sing the little pre-snack prayer that they recite at school before our meal. We were hoping Reed would chime in but Evyn did it solo and did it well, hehe! Honestly, I was so tired and full that the clean up and things that followed are a blur at this point..... Except for one incident.....

Following dinner, Evyn and Reed were hanging out outside with a group of adults, riding their bikes around the pool which was still uncovered and waiting for us to close it down for the winter. Although we knew better than to let them do it in the first place and had warned them about going too fast around the corners, the madness continued and the speed increased until Evyn took an icy plunge, head first, into the pool. Her bike followed closely behind! Super Gary jumped up and grabbed her out before she turned into ice (and before anyone else had a chance to realized what had happened). After she defrosted, Evyn said that she is *very* thankful for her Gary. Amen to that!!

Baby for sale

Sweet Evyn has been telling me that she wants a baby, "one that will live with us and be the little sister." This is a relatively new topic and a subject with a fairly straightforward answer - NO! or HELL NO! I do admit that sometimes I think that it would be great but then I come to my senses and know that one more being to care for would likely send me over the edge.

With the upcoming Christmas season, Evyn has been spending time lately ooo-ing and aah-ing over the toy sale ads. She has even been cutting and pasting pictures onto her list - a huge green sheet of construction paper with rows and rows of pictures of the toys she has to have for Christmas. Today as I was working at my desk, she approached me with one of my Parents magazines in her arms. She showed me a baby toy that she wanted her stuffed kitten to have (since when do parents have to buy toys *for* toys?). She then turned the page and showed me an adorable newborn baby. She told me that "this baby is for sale. Isn't she cute? She would love to be in our family. I want my scissors so I can cut her picture out. I can put her on your list." If only it was that easy.....

The slippers that made the boy

VERY HAPPY!

My mom is queen L.L. Bean. Knowing this, when the latest copy of the L.L. Bean book came, I found some stuff for the kids and informed Mimi that the kids needed slippers and a few other things. Reed has recently discovered that he loves the color red, so Mimi ordered him some red slippers. I let him in on this little secret, and much to my amazement, he has been chanting "Mimi is sending me red slippers" on a daily basis. They arrived yesterday and Reed was more excited about his red slippers than he has ever been about anything - toys and cars included. He danced and very dramatically voiced how absolutely cool he thought they were.
We had to pry them off of his feet before bed last night. He slept with them on his headboard. He even brought them to our bed last night during his midnight sneak into mommy's bed. Guess what we woke up to sometime during the 5 o'clock hour? Reed holding his slippers in his hands and clapping them together. He put them on when he was finally allowed to get out of the bed. He begged to wear them to Evyn's doctor visit. He is taking them to Sissy's house tonight. I just hope her dog does not eat them.

For the record, Evyn also got a pair. She liked hers too but her reaction is what you would expect from a five year old who just received a pair of slippers - not really interested until her feet got cold.

My boy's work of art

Very unlike Evyn, Reed is not terribly interested in crafts or coloring. His teacher told me that he needed to practice at home with the scissors, so we have been doing that. Ever since then, he has been wanting to color more often and likes to finish off the picture with making little cuts all around the paper - the fringe effect. Once he found the smelly, non-washable (go figure) markers, it was all over - he really has been enjoying art time.

The other day, he came running in, displaying his latest work of art. I knew he was coloring but I did not know he had climbed up a bar stool (that swivels around, of course) to reach the scissors up on the highest shelf in the room. This is what he presented me with:If you look closely, you can see the fringe. I can't even describe how proud he was or how scared I was, thinking what could have happened while he was standing on the swiveling bar stool with the scissors.

Premature Christmas story

Evyn saw a Fisher Price Christmas sale book (probably their best lead-coated selections of the season) on the counter about two weeks ago. It made her remember we had a Christmas Little People set, and she has been asking for it almost daily ever since. I caved today. We packed up the Halloween decorations, put them away and retrieved the Little People Christmas Village. We also discovered a little Christmas train and that has been on and off periodically throughout the day. Evy had this all set up on her table and played for hours, pushing the music button (think Fa-la-la-la-la) no less than 100 times an hour. I think this was payment for being a scrooge for so many years.

By the way, Evyn asked me what the white thing were that moved the train wheels. I did not know, so she informed me they were called "Engine ears."
Evyn warned me to "watch out for the little lady with the candy cane because she is not very nice. Her candy cane is dipped in poison and she is making people sick with it." Then comes the little brother to try to put a damper on Evy's preseason Christmas fun. He first tried to smash the train with his light up Santa toy. Such focus and determination:
Then came the thrill of the hunt (and sister screams):
Reed's train smashing attempts were later followed by the lovely spitting attempts and then one arm table swipes, which cleared the train, the village and the people. Luckily Holly was home at this point to help diffuse the drama and stop the destructive boy behavior. Life is never dull,even when Santa is watching.

Tom, the oldest cat of the bunch.

This is Tom - quite an original name for a tomcat, huh? He found us about eight years ago, probably because we would leave a bowl of cat food on the porch for our other cats. I trapped him, had him neutered and released him back to our front yard fully expecting him to run far, far away. He never left after that. He is a fixture on the front porch unless it is freezing or storming (in which case he finds his way inside). He thinks he is boss, and he might be right. Other than his recent eye infection, this guy is, by far, the most low maintenance cat - give him food and he is grateful. My kind of cat.

The pets of the lively household

Our pets have almost always outnumbered us. Ever since the beginning of my relationship with Holly, pets have been involved. At first, it was just her pets - the poor old little dog 'Sasha' who I think was blind or deaf and had been hit by a car or two, the crazy fool 'Hubert' who was a pup that needed lots of special attention and then the three litters of kittens born within a few days of each other - something like 18 cats in all. This scene was horrifying to me! I had never had a pet other than a fish and here is this person with all of these pets - where am I supposed to sit??

After our relationship was established and we were talking about moving in together, it was decided that we would have only cats - two or three. I'm not sure what happened but I think Holly talked me into getting a dog, but then I wanted another one so the first one could have a friend. Then, there was my arrival home from Texas where I was greeted by a room full of friends and a stray puppy someone brought that I thought needed to stay with us. That makes three dogs in about 9 months. A few months later, Holly and I saw someone we knew at a restaurant who told us the saddest puppy story - the next day, she was living with us too. At this point, I was working for a veterinarian. We had four dogs and maybe three cats. Then the icing on the cake was 'Grayson' the Great Dane. During this time of animal acquisition, we also lost a few cats and then gained a few more. The feline total now is seven and has been holding steady at lucky number seven for years. Did I mention that I am a dog person - don't really *like* cats but tolerate them. It took a while for me to learn this. The canine total is now three and that includes Grandpa's dog, 'Misha.' We used to have six dogs (including 'Misha') and nine cats, so this is an improvement believe it or not.

The years have flown by and we have managed to see all five dogs through their annoying puppy stages where they chewed up anything and everything they could. These were the days when Ashley was a little girl whose Barbies were getting limbs chewed off almost daily. This never phased her a bit. She would just roll with it and tell us that her Barbie "had a disability." We rolled right through doggie midlife and have now started into the senior years. We have all gotten old during this process, although I would hardly call Ashley old at 22. Three of our dogs have died in the recent past, and all that remain are feline and canine senior citizens. It is a damn shame they do not qualify for a senior discount.

Although Evyn and Reed have added a new dimension to the lively household, our pets have always been a HUGE part of us and our lives. Ashley is old enough to remember the dogs as pups and the cats as kittens. Evyn and Reed only know what old and dying animals are like. Our home has been through a huge transformation lately due to the animals and their lifetimes. This will continue as the aging get older and as Evyn and Reed get to experience life with a puppy.

So be prepared. I am going to blog about our three and four legged animals in the upcoming weeks. They are, and always have been, a significant part of what makes our family *our family* and the reason why we have almost been kicked out of a neighborhood, always have to know where the lint/hair roller is, why there are numerous bags and cans of empty pet food in our recycling bin, why we are on a payment plan with our vet, and why we always know when somebody is in our yard.......

Halloween fun!

Last night was the big trick or treating event in the lively neighborhood. In just the past few years, our 'hood has been through a big changeover with the older folks moving out and families moving in. Every year there are more and more kids.

Last night, our friends, Joyce and Cleopatra, came over with their two boys, B and A, who just happen to be E and R's best-est buddies. B and A's Mimi and Papa John joined us dressed as Sandy and Danny from Grease and Marybeth (bat girl who happened to have the exact same wings as Reed) and James and their little landshark, I mean puppy, came too. We were not without a flashlight and a wagon containing beer and wine because we are wild like that. We were not the only ones consuming adult beverages as our children ran from house to house - we just happened to be the only group of adults who bothered to carry ours around in cups. We fit into this neighborhood a little better than we thought. Anyway, the kids had a blast and could barley walk back to the house, the adults had a blast and the photos below are appropriately named before (x2), during and after.

That Evy!

I took the kids to Holly's work last night for their neighborhood kid haunted house/parade around the nursing home. Let me just say that Holly was dressed up as a scarecrow that had seen better days - seriously disturbing for even me. E and R would not come close to her. :) The residents LOVED seeing the kids all dressed up and even judged a little costume contest. As we were leaving, Evyn was presented with third prize for her Ariel costume. She was a little surprised but thrilled to receive her prize - a green Halloween basket with a disguise kit, some festive socks, a spider on a stick and a few other little goodies. All the way home she kept telling me that she was so happy to have won and that she could not believe it. After we arrived home and we were looking through her prize basket, she says "I cannot believe I won. I did not even know that I *wanted* to win."

Here she is with her prize:

Here's Evyn and Holly: Isn't Holly freaky? (click on the picture for the full effect)



HAPPY HALLOWEEN

Costumes and Pumpkins

I had a great idea yesterday. Since Mondays are no-school days for Evyn and Reed, I thought we would stay home, dress up in costumes for pictures and work out the costume kinks since they are wearing the costumes to school on Wednesday and Evyn says hers is itchy and Reed had never even tried his on. Great! That is what we did. Five minutes of cold air and non-cooperative kids led to two muddy costumes and no great pictures. By the way, in case you cannot tell, Evy is Ariel and Reed is a bat.

Since the costumes went over like a tons of bricks, I thought for sure they would get into the pumpkin carving - goo, seeds and sharp objects would surely be a hit. E and R each picked their pumpkins out and quickly disappeared while I gathered the supplies. Evyn hesitantly joined me in the kitchen while Reed flat out refused. I was thinking this would probably be best anyway - Evyn is the crafty holiday lover of the two of them. Well, as you can see from her expression below, she did not give a shit about the pumpkins either. She left me the moment after this picture was snapped.

So, I spent the next 45 minutes or so in the kitchen all alone, carving out the pumpkin face that Reed had picked out. They thought I did a great job, but Evyn was slightly miffed that I did not continue on to cut her spider design out of her pumpkin. Although I did not let them know, I did actually enjoy myself, but it would have been more fun if someone had at least been there to talk to me while I worked the pumpkin over.

This next one is just for fun. Evy and I created this Ms. Potato Head Witch Pumpkin a few weeks ago:

As some of you know, we planted giant pumpkin seeds in the spring. The packet said that the fruit could reach 400 to 600 pounds. I was a little scared when all of the seeds sprouted and the packet said to space the plants out 15 feet. I did not come close to spacing them that far apart, however, we had lots of baby pumpkins starting out. One of them, I know, would have been at least 100 pounds if our elderly, three-legged dog, Misha, had not started chomping away at the pumpkin vines. She saw to it that we had no *great* pumpkins this year. I think one of our beagles' spirits must have inhabited Misha's body - she is usually not the one to do things like that. Although we did end up with two small pumpkins from our garden that are not quite orange, I was hoping to have a huge pumpkin to carve from garden this year, but that did not quite work out either. See a theme here? Maybe next year......