Wednesday, January 30, 2008

quote for the day...

I'm so far behind ...
I thought I was in first!


i guess it's all how you look at it so therefore, this year i am going to find victory in the small things like:

• ONLY 3 more loads of laundry to go (as opposed to 7)

• 2 out of 4 beds are made (half full ... not half empty)

• it's a GOOD thing we have old carpet since we're getting a puppy

• that green bathroom tile is ALMOST old enough to be "retro cool"

• it's getting warmer so we don't NEED to park in the garage anyway




and you know me, i can't post without at least one picture.

i've been cleaning closets and ben "helped". we found caleb's old baseball tie. ben was so proud to "clip it on" for church last sunday.

Saturday, January 26, 2008

whew!


i'm no sports photographer so excuse the blurry shots - it wasn't mean to be artistic, i just had the camera on the wrong setting - and i was trying to keep ben off the court.

today was a BIG game - several boys from school were split on these 2 teams so it was a little bit of a 4th grade rivalry...thankfully it ended in a tie (21-21). everyone is happy, especially mom. i gave the "be a good sport" lecture...considering these boys all live in our neighborhood, within blocks of each other!

if you can't tell, caleb is #11. this is his first season to play and actually likes it (other than the running......ha).

Friday, January 25, 2008

introducing mini martha stewart...

minus the court case and money laundering...

today's the big day....100th day of school. the first graders really get into this day. they have to read 100 books by today, everyone does a project with 100 things and they eat trail mix with 100 ingredients (well, 10 pretzels, 10 peanuts, 10 marshmallows.....)

this is sarah's project....100 buttons (with LOTS of fabric glue). totally her idea. i was hoping for something easy, like 100 pennies or 100 legos (OR a list of 100 things mommy needs to do around the house).

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

boys only...




it's like a sleep over with david and goliath. (i'll let you figure out who's who). ben could not have been more excited. at first i thought he didn't want to stay in caleb's bed, then rob interpreted his toddler mumbling and realized he wanted his own pillow. oh great...he's picky. wonder who he takes after...

Monday, January 21, 2008

it's a girl!

Well, here "she" is....not sure which one just yet but "she" will be part of our chaos some time in February. Her name has been the biggest debate in our house (even bigger than the on-going U.T. standing for Texas...not Tennessee). We visited Timshell Farm in Texas when we were home last fall. (I posted their website link if you are ever interested in a dog...they are great breeders and have been REALLY nice to communicate with us long distance.)

We miss Mozie and Maggie...(but we don't miss Maggie's vet bills). I found this old picture and I'm pretty sure Sarah had something to do with this.

Sunday, January 20, 2008

three amigos

elmo anything and everything......shirt, shoes, stuffed animal, dvd and now underwear. i feel like we live in "elmo's world." let's see.......we definitely have a cookie monster in the family....and, come to think of it, a grouch too! (give you one guess who that is.......)

Thursday, January 17, 2008

hole in one...



you would think we'd be used to this kind of thing by now with a 9 year old in the house....but of the 8 teeth caleb has lost...a dentist pulled 7 of them. SO...this was a big deal for us. sarah FINALLY lost a tooth. lots of wiggling...a little screaming and more screaming once she saw the blood. ben is determined to lose one of his own...he keeps pulling and pulling.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

closer look...

sorry, they weren't deer after all. i enlarged the picture only to find this...

Tuesday, January 15, 2008

oh deer....


excuse the corny title but i couldn't resist. i was driving home with ben and sarah and as we were turning onto our street we were stopped by this herd in our neighborhood. we counted at least 15. of course i had my camera with me (not sure if i had any real necessities in my purse, like diapers or wallet). we live pretty close to a park and have deer almost weekly in our yard but never this many! i'm just glad they didn't trip over the workbench in our neighbor's yard.....i guess they are used to it by now (after 2 months......cough cough).

Sunday, January 13, 2008

veggies....








thanks to friends (and the fact that BIG IDEA is based here in nashville) we went to the red carpet premiere of THE PIRATES WHO DON'T DO ANYTHING! the kids loved it.....and, yes, they did have a real red carpet.

ben was THRILLED. he loves larrybob (one word in ben-speak, not a typo). they had the characters there for a meet and greet. only one problem...the real characters "moved". ben has now said for 3 days straight..."not supposed to move mommy! not supposed to move!" notice his death grip on the beloved blankie during the family picture. oh well. we're already saving for therapy anyway.

Monday, January 7, 2008

you know you're a redneck if....



your snowman comes with an extension cord.

no need to rush to the grocery store and buy all the milk - this is the highlight of our nashville winter. it was almost 70 degrees today - notice no shoes. and in case you were wondering, our Christmas lights are not still up (they are all piled in the garage with the rest of our junk) i'm just behind on downloading pictures. (i would fire my personal assistant - but how do you break it to a 29 month old that he's just not cutting it?)

Saturday, January 5, 2008

ahhh, the game of....




like it's really this easy. the game of life...spin, (feel like spinning out of control), get married (all the pegs 'look' alike so no big decisions there - but really, in today's world you'd think they'd put some curves on those pink pegs), spin again...get kids (hmmm...there's a joke there somewhere)...go around the board (get bored), spin til you are out of places to go (yep, sounds right) get to the end and that's the game of LIFE.

the kids played LIFE over Christmas break with their cousins...they debated whether to go the college route (which was longer...) or just go straight to the workforce. i actually told my kids they didn't have a choice...they had to go the college direction. i stopped the game....wow. that was a scary parental moment.

they flipped through the career cards like it was a "game".... ha. "doctor? no, too gross," "artist...cool, you get to be messy" (um, too close to home for me), "marketing analyst...mom, what's that?" like i know...our kids kept asking what the "real jobs" were....accountant? banker? research assistant?.... but musician, artist, pan handler....they got those.

game over and LIFE was packed up neatly in a box and put away. i found a $500 bill under the couch. too bad it was light blue with a cartoon on it. i could have used it now after Christmas.

my LIFE doesn't pack up that easily...i can't fit all my laundry in the hall closet much less in a neat little box and store it on the shelf. but i guess that's why it's so fun to play...next time i think i'll choose the looong college route, marry a musician and have kids!

oh yeh, i already did that. no wonder why i like LIFE. (and yes, that's a ROMO jersey here in nashville...don't tell the neighbors.)

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

alvin, sarah and theodore



so, we went to see the chipmunk movie. can you tell? this is sarah's version of simon.....ben won't stop listening to the cd.....the first 3 days were cute....now it's just driving me nuts. of course ben LOVED seeing the movie...we've finally figured it out...popcorn, benadryl and his blanket (the magic formula).