jolly happy merry

santa, dad, & uncle curtis 1950ish

i just wanted to thank all of you for sharing this year with me and wish you a jolly, happy, merry holiday from my favorite christmas picture of all time.

how my sisters saved me: part one

tweece & tiff
i completed my last final friday morning, headed to chelsea’s to pick up my poor, neglected babies, and then to target for a last minute christmas gift for mia’s a-mazing teacher. while approaching the automatic opening doors, i caught our reflection in the glass. we were quite the sight! i had on cloths i wouldn’t normally wear in public, but they were the only ones clean. there was no make-up covering my nervous breakdown from the day before, my red puffy eyes were obviously rimmed in black. the babies were equally as disheveled with their frizzy hair and high-waters.

then i spotted someone that made me smile- a happy toddler with down syndrome shopping the dollar bins with her beautiful, very put-together, young mom. whenever i see people that have downs, i feel compelled to stop, talk to them, and tell their caregiver about my special little sis. i don’t know what folks usually think about this compulsion of mine, but this young mother was apparently glad i stopped. she had questions about katrice, questions about her own family’s future. what does she enjoy doing? where does she live? do you feel burdened because you will eventually need to care for her?

i enthusiastically answered her questions (whishing we didn’t look so homeless!). ‘wow,’ the mom responded, ‘she must really light up your life.’ ‘yes!’, i thought, that is the power of sisterhood. from 700 miles away, on the darkest of days, katrice can still make everything glow.

and she smiled when she did it!

the babies can't sneeze without mia informing me of it. yesterday, i was trying to do research for my 20 page shakespeare paper when i heard her familiar sing songy call, stretching the word 'mom' across two very long syllables. i didn't respond, so she stomped herself into my room and said,'mom, miley stole my purse. (dramatic pause) and she smiled when she did it!'

i laughed out loud at the perfect image mia's words drew of that mischievous middle monkey.

leaves of thanks

like last year, this thanksgiving found my great grandmother's yummies in my oven and utah license plates in my driveway. mia was grandma's happy helper: prepping the turkey, peeling hard boiled eggs, and mixing the cornbread dressing. miley spent the day being grumptastic, while levi enjoyed sipping on 'apple spider'. of course, auntie tweece was on potato duty.

katrice's love for potatoes is only rivaled by her love for the cell phone grandma gloria gave her for her 21st birthday. after we feasted, brian and i paid the redbox a visit. on our way back to the house, he received the following text message from katrice: you smell like farts. i nearly wet myself with laughter. i love my sisters!

this year also found the return of the gratitude tree. there are a couple smart asses in my family who like to bu humbug on my sentimental traditions. if they write it down, they are less likely to say they are grateful for something like 'diet coke'. tiff made us cry with her contribution to the tree: dr. zebrack (katrice's cardiologist).

late breaking news

mia dancing for her reflection in the tv

a very somber mia recently informed me that she 'fell out of love' with her boyfriend. she makes it incredibly difficult to keep from laughing in the face of such tragedy.

our happy halloween

davy crockett 2, witch 4, genie 6

we enjoyed a mellow halloween at home, a welcome relief from the crazy week that preceded it. the girls shinned in the sparkly costumes that they picked out all by themselves. mia's genie even won the costume contest at her school festival, but i think that had less to do with her costume and more to do with the fact that her beloved kindergarten teacher was the judge ;).

little davy crockett and his coon skin hat kept us smiling all night long. he would have made you smile too had you opened your door to him using jack-o-lanterns for target practice. and you would have probably chucked at hearing him exclaim 'i love chocolate!' after dropping candy in his sack.

trick-or-treat!

like last year, the sisters took as much pleasure in passing out the treats as they did collecting them.
hoping you had a very happy halloween!

pre-halloween festivities

we have completed the first round of halloween festivities. miley had her class party monday, followed by her pumpkin patch field trip today. she walked through the pumpkin patch hand in hand with her besties. it warms my heart to see her attached to such sweet girls. mr. trouble pants was able to tag along. he enjoyed hay riding and pumpkin picking with the big kids. next year it will be his field trip i'm chaperoning. i am so not ready for that.

when the tour guild started talking to the kids about outhouses, miley turned back to me laughing :)

miss miley is fortunate to be part of such a great group of kids!

program interruption

we interrupt our regular scheduled programming to bring you information about an important initiative. john marcotte authored the 2010 california marriage protection act that moves to 'safeguard marriage from the evils of divorce'. he only needs one million signatures to get this act on the ballot. that shouldn't be difficult to achieve considering 51% of california marched to the poles in defense of traditional family values last november. i fully expect to see the moral soldiers return to their street corners brandishing banners in favor of this act. after all, what is more threatening to the family unit: ellen & portia exchanging vows, or john & kate destroying 8?

if you've read this and believe me to be anti-divorce, please watch these public service announcements. i am anti something else entirely.

mandatory metallica

mia, levi, and miley 5/2009
this picture doesn't really have anything to do with this post, other than the fact that it was taken at a race.
it might be my favorite race pic ever. it was so windy. the babies were hot, of course dirty, & very tired.

every night at 10:00 brian runs for the radio. it's mandatory metallica time. so when tickets went on sale just before brian's birthday last year, i knew just what to get him. around his birthday this year, stone temple pilots were playing at a local casino. unfortunately, there was no budget for concert tickets, so instead of seeing one of his favorite bands, brian got an ice cream maker for his birthday. which he was totally happy with. this is why i love him.

pan to this latest race weekend. crazy grandma and aunt katrice are at my house having hannah montana sleepovers with the girls. brian and i are enjoying some one on one time with mr. trouble pants at the drags in stateline. when grandpa jim and grandma tish checked their race team (present company included) into the hotel thursday, they were given a set of concert tickets as a thank you. concert tickets that made them scrunch their noses, squint their eyes, and ask 'who is s.t.p?' they handed the tickets over at the first sound of excitement in my voice. concert tickets & childcare- grandparents rock!

i am more of a jack johnson kind of girl, but live s.t.p and metallica blow my mind! a few things about scott weiland- he sang all their greatest hits, he has super groovy dance moves, he wore very tight pants, and the strangest looking pirate shoes. the highlight of the night was the encore. after the band made their first exit, we sat trying to come up with a song they hadn't already played. we didn't have an answer when scott weiland stepped into the spotlight and scrame into his megaphone: i am smellin' like the rose that somebody gave me on my birthday deathbed. rad.

happy birthday baby, sand drags & s.t.p- does it get any better!?

self incrimination

miley had to use the restroom at costco last night. i made her give me her purse while she took care of business. she handed it over and sternly said, "do not look in that." as it turns out, she'd been packing a pocket knife in her ariel purse. another proud parenting moment to add to my growing list.

a hiking we will go

we took an afternoon drive up to mt. baldy sunday. the monkeys love the outdoors. mia climbed rocks, miley collected bugs, and levi wacked brian in the face with a gigantic stick. it was fun!

he also wacked mia in the leg with a rock

unbreakable plans

chelz and i are always doing fun stuff with the kids, yet we don't ever follow through on our plans to do a girls night. when i read that ingrid michalson was coming to orange county, i knew i'd found the perfect, unbreakable, plan.

we arrived at the venue absolutely certain we were in the right place. there wasn't a dude in sight, just a crowd full of giggly girly girls. we fit in perfectly. right down to our light weight old navy scarves. the concert was great. her music sounded even better live! she was just this cute girl from stanton island singing about love and strumming her ukulele. we waited anxiously between songs listening for the opening cords of our favorites. both of us doing the happy clap upon hearing familiar notes. to my delight, she played everything on my wish list. if you'd like a copy of any of these happy tunes, just let me know....

my ingrid michaelson favorites
you and i
mountain and the sea
far away
everybody
be ok
the way i am

thanks chelz, i love you girl!

after bedtime last night

the babies were up hunting ducks and eating brownies. their parents were up collecting p-wings, rescuing princesses, and killing king koopa's. it was early morning before we turned off the nintentdo, abandoning poor mario and luigi in the flying battle ship of world 5.

i'm glad we both enjoy such silly things.

omg

my biggest concern when mia started school was the outside influences she would be exposed to. she escaped kinder with minimal damage, just that unfortunate swimsuit situation. first grade has been another story. she came home a few weeks ago asking if brian and i knew what 'omg' meant. then, she dropped this bombshell after school yesterday-

mia: i didn't eat any of my lunch today.
me: what were you so busy doing that you didn't eat your lunch?
mia: talking to zacharia.
me: you should be eating your lunch.
mia: but i have a crush on him. do you know what 'crush' means?
miley: (mockingly) it means you loooove him!
mia: exactly! we'll have lunch together every day until we brake up.
me: omg.

a laundry basket full of sentiment

7/2009, our 1 year anniversary in the house

saturday night brian and i sat on the front porch swing watching flames devour the mountain adjacent to our house. the fire was burning at the creek a few miles away. our home was never threatened, but with unpredictable 50 mile an hour winds, that could have changed at any moment. i quickly packed an 'in case of evacuation' basket and set it next to the front door.

i keep looking at that basket. it keeps reminding me how much time, effort, and energy we waste on stuff. to think that we could (easily) fill a gigantic moving van with all of our stuff, when all that matters is a laundry basket full of sentiment.

brian's belated birthday list

waiting at the restaurant last night with the blue-eyed shadow atop his lap

a few things about brian thirty-three years and 1 day after his much celebrated birth-

1. he still loves jim more than me.
2. he makes breakfast and packs lunches.
3. he will periodically lick my face because i think it's disgusting.
4. he's a big man with a cute little blue-eyed shadow.

brian welding the rv gate

5. 'i didn't know i was pregnant' is his favorite tv show.
6. he was born an entire month after he was due. an entire month!

7. he has more gray hair than george clooney.
8. he wants for nothing, not because he has everything, but because he's content.
9. his childhood nickname was 'pooper.' it's also his adult nickname.

messing with my bangs while i'm trying to take a pic

10. he's an amazing husband, father, and best friend who fills our home with laughter!

the pot, the kettle, & their new daisy scout

i'd been on the look out for a fun activity for miss mia to get involved in when i heard a radio interview with a 16 year old gold star (eagle equivalent) girl scout. she had done research and reports on a dangerous intersection in her city. she had presented all of her data and a proposed solution to the city council. unfortunately, the city counsel didn't heed her warnings, and a fatal car accident in the intersection she'd worked to fix followed a few month later.

i was blown away by this young girl. her empathy was off the charts. she could have passed for an expert in the field of transportation safety with the way she articulated the facts. the reporter complimented her on her maturity and intelligence. she gave credit to girl scouts. while other kids her age weren't even aware of a world outside themselves, she was working hard to make her community a safer place. that, is the kind of teenager i dream of having. lets hope that my mother's 'you are going to have one just like you' curse lifts before mia hits the double digits.

that interview sent me to the computer in search of a girl scout troop for miss mia. i was linked to the local council's website where the following jumped out at me: "girl scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place." that quote sums up what i want for my daughters. as it turns out, we don't have a local daisy troop (K-1st). the local brownie (2nd-3rd) leader asked me to lead a new daisy troop. this is what it sounded like when i excitedly relayed this to brian-

kettle: i'm going to start a girl scout troop and mia's going to be a rad teenager!
pot: you're biting off more than you can chew.
kettle: what-ev.

as usual, the pot was right. just getting the troop established has required way more effort than i'd anticipated, but i have no doubt that the reward will be worth all the effort.

a swimming victory

katrice and her buddy wade

after katrice's pace maker was put in, her cardiologist told us that she could require oxygen indefinitely. that news brought my sister in law to tears. the thought of katrice never being able to swim was more than liz could bear. these experiences made katrice's latest special olympics victory even sweeter. her bus driver, favorite cousin, favorite sister, and mom turned out to watch her win the bronze. as usual, tiff provided me with awesome pictures that made not being there to cheer her on in person suck a little less.

goooooo tweece!

katy, katrice, favorite cousin (see- she can't take her eyes off him), mom

katrice & her favorite sister

sometimes happiness comes in plastic

levi: where are we going?
me: to see dr. liu, so he can fix the ouchies in your ear.
levi: can dr. liu fix my big wheel?

while i believe our pediatrician can heal almost anything that ails my kiddos, i'm afraid the broken big wheel is a hopeless case.

the day after the aforementioned conversation, i found change in all of levi's shorts pockets. when i asked him what was up, he replied with great inflection 'for my new big wheel!'. we've all been busy scrounging change and scouring stores. there seems to be some sort of cross country big wheel shortage. i feel like the tickle me elmo crazy mom.

team lucky visit the lake

there are disadvantages to stay at home motherhood, dawning a swimsuit and sunscreen while your husband is suiting up for work is not one them! we (chelsea & marisa) are lucky enough to have time for impromptu trips to the lake. lucky enough to lazy in the cool water while absorbing the hot sun. lucky enough to snap countless pictures of beaming faces without having to request a single smile. we knew how lucky we were that day at the lake. as we shooed the laughing children away from our raspberries, we reveled in it!

blogger won't let me resize chelsea's pretty pictures. they look a thousand times better on her blog! santa, can i get a fancy blog for christmas?
did you see my new haircut? short hair makes me so very happy. boring blog, but happy hair!

to toil

before

during

toil (noun)
1. hard and continuous work; exhausting labor or effort.
2. how brian spends his spare time.

please direct your attention away from the patchy/weedy lawn and toward the beautiful fence/rv gate that brian just finished. we still have a lot of planting to do in the front, but it will have to wait until spring. the winds are a commin! i noticed that this space has been unusually void of cute little kid pictures. i'll have to do something about that soon.

not now though. must................................read.............................beowulf.

front porch before & after

a front porch was on my 'wish list' when we started looking at houses. a swing has been on my wish list for as long as i could remember. i told brian about my desire to swing. he responded with an uncharacteristic amount of complaints. apparently, hanging a porch swing is more complicated than the couple of concrete anchors i'd envisioned. it takes reinforcements, mathematics, two able bodied men, and a few hours spent in the oven-like crawl space of the attic. the swing has, arguably, been the most valuable upgrade we've done to the house. we're all spending so much more time outside. the front porch is the official home of after school otter pops, bike ride supervising, and sleepy time stories.

the pillow was handmade with materials i had around the house: an old set of canvas drapes, leftover paint from the front door, and some needle and thread. i really need to get over my fear of the sewing machine- it took longer than i care to admit.

big thanks to the able bodied men in my life!

sunshine sleep

my intact keyboard posing with a crafty mess

the other night i quickly published my cute crocs/awesome sister post and then began writing about a super fun playdate and the benefits of stay at home motherhood. the sound of my girls attacking one another from the other room interrupted my happy flow. they were both wielding weapons and cursing one another through clenched teeth. i escorted their screaming bodies to bed and tucked them in for the night.

i returned to my computer to find levi prying keys from my keyboard with a tea set knife. and that is how all of my children ended up asleep before the summer sun had a chance to set in the smoky california sky.

just because i love you.

 

sometimes i think my sister lays awake at night thinking of new ways to make me cry. the package came first, containing nothing but these addorable silver crocs. the e-mail came next, containing a picture of the note she forgot to put in the package. two different surprises, followed by two different episodes of gratitude tears.

a farm for the family

the older i get, the more desire i have to live in wide open spaces. this is no doubt brian's influence, this and skynard, but we don't need to bring that up again. like me, he was born and raised in the congested cities of southern california, but its the slow country life that suits him best. i've imagined brian happily doing some type of work requiring a tractor and ride on mower. a souped up mower that he would race on a hay bale track with the neighbors. it was the trip to wheeler farms that convinced me that this little fairy tale of mine can't include animals.

the kids got to milk a cow for 50 cents. cool, right? a little brunette about mia's age took her turn before us and we watched as she concentrated on the task at hand. as she milked, the cow did a major number one and had the brunette's mom not grabbed her off the stool she would have taken a very disgusting shower. i immediately turned to my brother and asked him to help the kids. there was no way i could do it. he obliged, but not without continuous laughter and the intentional overuse of the word 'teat' to annoy me.

we took a hay ride, played in a lake, fed ducks, squawked at turkeys, and milked cows for a grand total of maybe $10. the best part was roaming around the property with miley and her map as our guide.