Random Facts from the Day

• I conversed with a lady in the park in broken, but intelligible, Spanish
• I currently have 36 (36!) tabs open in Firefox
• The boys dumped their sand filled boots out in their room 3 minutes after I vacuumed
• I mailed the second batch of Christmas gifts.
• I found out there was such a thing as an iron-on transfer pencil. Crafty life as I knew it changed forever.
  

And for enduring my random facts, here is a cute picture of little people:

Sam sitting in a baby car seat, which was way too small for him, eating popcorn and watching Batman

Ben, being a ham.

Don't worry, pictures from beach and S.F. still coming. I promise. Eventually.

The Feast

The Thanksgiving Feast
(and Kimball, who snuck into the photo and who is absolutely adorable)

Here is the feast, my friends. We had turkey (glorious), red-mashed potatoes (insane), bacon wrapped dates (delicious), stuffing (traditional and Mexican - both great), cranberry sauce, cranlillie (wonderful), maple-glazed carrots (yummy), asparagus in a pomegranate sauce (heavenly), and country green beans (mm...mm...good). And then we several pies (pumpkin, mincemeat, and chocolate cream) and a pumpkin cobbler with whipped cream and ice cream for desert. It was fabulous. Fabulous.

Zach and me, in our chef coats that my family gave us. I think the black accents make Zach the head chef and I'm cool with that. Anything that means I don't have to stick my hand inside the dark, echoy, cavern that is the inside of a turkey is a good thing.

Thanks so much to Mom, for being our kitchen lackey (she didn't have a coat, only an apron, so there wasn't really anything we could do about it. A kitchen without rules is chaos.) And thanks to Todd and Betty and Andrew and Kim for coming over and celebrating with us. And bringing food. :) It was wonderful.

It was also great to be able to spend some time with some of my family. My Mom, Dad and younger brother came in for a few days.

Uncle Jonathan hanging out with Batman and Robin.

Grampie and Ben. I'm not 100% sure what is going on here. But they had fun.

It was a great holiday. Pictures of our trip to the beach and San Fransisco forthcoming. Stay tuned!

Welcome, Sophia Joy!

This is my brand, new niece Sophia Joy! Isn't she a cutie? She was born Wednesday, September 19th to Cory and Sarah. Everything went perfectly and everyone is healthy. Congrats, you guys! Welcome to the family, Sophie!

Setting the Record Straight

First, my dear, beautiful wife is a saint.

Yes, the boys made a mess. Here is a video of the initial cleanup:

Yes, I am a slave driver. Standing made me fell sicker, but after a heroic struggle to get most of the mess up with towels we went upstairs to watch Jake Long American Dragon on Netflix. Midway through the second episode I tossed the boys on the bed. rushed for the bathroom, and after leaving my dinner for the fishes, lay prone on the hallway floor. In my vulnerable state the boys attacked. They mercilously jumped on me and tattooed me with ball point pens. Luckily, seeing as I wasn't worthy prey they quickly turned on each other.

I don't remember when Katie got home. I just remember the relief. So here's to her.

it never rains, but it pours...

grape juice.

So, we had another episode involving two people around three feet tall and a mess. Only this time, instead of eggs, it involved a freshly made pitcher of grape juice. I wasn't there for the actual mess making, I was at a Enrichment activity (hurray for Midnight Madness crafts), but was called home early because Zach is violently ill and, well, the boys had destroyed our house.

Luckily, the juice was spilled on the linoleum this time. Unluckily, it seeped under most of our large appliances (i.e. washer, dryer, stove). And this mess only took me about half an hour to clean up! Huzzah for small victories! I did have to move the washer and dryer around though. If I was truly into full disclosure and honesty, I would have taken a picture of exactly what was under the dryer, in addition to the grape juice. But, I'm not. I will tell you that lots of lint, two fridge magnets spelling "HO", and a chicken bone were involved.

Next order of business: Toddler Proof the Fridge. Like, last week.

you can't make an omlette...

Before I delve into the horrors that have transpired under our roof, I'd like to first say, that I had two days in a row last week that where almost perfect. The boys were well behaved (mostly), the house was clean (mostly), and I got some of the things on my to-do list done. It was great. I just wanted to let everyone out there know that it's not always crazy insane at our house.

Now, moving on.

I was upstairs looking for recipes for Thanksgiving. And I heard the boys laughing. And I thought, "ah, they are so cute!" and I continued looking. But the laughing continued. In our house, too much laughter like that needs investigated. Because the boys get a wild thrill out of doing things they are not suppose to. So I head downstairs and see this...


And this...

And a whole lot more. That's right, folks. The boys broke eggs all over our carpet. And then they rubbed them around with their hands and ran through them, leaving little yolky foot prints all over the floor.

I was livid. Absolutely livid.

But, in spite of my almost blind rage, I was in control of myself enough to remember that I loved them and did not sell the boys to the circus, and had the presence of mind to take pictures of this wretched event, even though they don't really do it justice. Because I wanted to share it with everyone. And I want evidence for later.

So, it took me a full hour to clean this mess up, scraping egg goo out of the carpet with a rice paddle and a soup spoon, scrubbing the whole area with Zote soap (which is awesome), rinsing it with water and padding the area dry and then vacuumed up the masses of egg shell. And since I didn't want the boys handling raw egg anymore than they already had, this is what they did the whole time:

They had the longest time-out of their lives. I had to keep reminding them that they were in a time-out and that I was still mad and that this was not the time to play. I think they felt punished.

So, besides piles of books weighing down the towels on the floor, this was all that remained. As I was cleaning it all up, I started thinking about some of the other terror stories I've heard of little kids shenanigans; like dumping out several boxes of cereal onto the floor and pouring milk all over it or pouring honey all over the piano keys, and I thought, this little egg event is right up there. Our egg catastrophe will live on... in infamy.

Stamped and Ready to Go

Here, Ben has prepared himself for shipment. I think he is planning on labeling himself, as well. Terribly efficient, really. I didn't get it out of him where he was going, but it's going to cost him $3.36 to get there. Ya, that's right. And we're cleaned out of stamps. Unless I peel them off the windowsill, which is where they all ended up.

So, what do you think? Would you like to find this little boy outside your door?

Well, sorry, I'm keepin' him.