what a year!

2007 is just about over and as i looked back through our year of pictures (4,721 of them to be precise) it made me smile to think of how much has happened - but sad to think of how fast it went!

enjoy an edited version of my trip through our 2007!

stepping up

back in february, i was reading a book that encouraged me to show interest in the things that matter to my boys and to meet them on their level. at the time, my dance dance revolution skills were the best i could offer.

WELL ... stacey and i have both stepped up our game. for christmas "the boys" got a wii. along with the wii, they received guitar hero and high school musical sing it (which is basically karaoke/sing along to high school musical songs-but it rates you). stacey's getting guitar hero down ... and i'm becoming a pro at unlocking songs on high school musical. (i bet you didn't know i had that hidden talent, did you?! HA HA HA)

we spent a lot of time this weekend with all of us just sitting around and playing both of these games. it's hard for me to put aside the things that i feel like i NEED to get done. but, once i do ... i am so glad i did. not only did i unlock BET ON IT for ben, (which has been my #1 goal for the past week) ... not only did we unlock fabulous (for when olivia comes to visit) ... i got to spend time with the boys doing something that they love to do. and when it comes down to it ... that is a successful weekend.

p.s. drew updated his blog ;)

my dream house

fun fun fun

this morning we decided to spend a few hours at the children's museum.

it made me realize that i don't take alex there nearly enough.
when drew and ben were little we went to the zoo and to the museum ALL of the time.
now, we go MAYBE once a month.
we have the memberships - so i don't even have an excuse!
this led me to 2008 new years resolution #1 :)

make it a point to let alex have a little fun ;)

christmas 2007 thoughts

we have returned from snowy wisconsin and as i was sitting here and looking through the tons of pictures that i took, i was thinking about some of the things that i learned this year...

**when 2 one year olds are in the house, sleeping patterns are very unpredictible. boys that normally go to sleep around 8pm find 11pm and 3 am to be acceptable "christmas bedtimes".

**it is actually possible to poop white. (yes i know that is disgusting ... but it really did happen to alex and i need to remember this year as the year of the festive poop).

**i actually can sit through 2 movies in one day! (AND ... take note ... if you complain after the first movie because you had to wear your mittens on your feet for the entire movie because it is SO cold in their theatre ... they'll give you your money back ;) AND they'll turn up the heat so that it is bearable for your 2nd movie.)

**it is possible for the mall to be absolutely dead on december 23rd. all it takes is about 10 inches of snow.

**10 inches of snow does not stop me from wanting, and getting, a starbucks.

and finally ...

**it is always fun to be back "home" for christmas and to spend time with our families. but ... at the end of the visit ... pulling into MY driveway and realizing that bedtime AT MY HOUSE is only 4 hours away is a REALLY good feeling!!

merry christmas

well ... it's an hour and a half before christmas ...

and i just wanted to say merry christmas ...

from me, my crazies, and don ho himself :)

enjoy your time with family and friends ...

and if you get a second ... say a prayer for little maisie and her family.

keepin it simple

so far this christmas, alex has done a great job of reminding us to keep it simple.


of the presents he's gotten, and the fun that has surrounded him, the 2 things that have brought him the most entertainment ...


a 98 cent hot wheel car



a 99 cent box of goldfish



now ... if we could just get it so that everybody else could be that easy to please ;)

take a second ...

... it doesn't take long to be reminded of what this season is really about.

whether or not you watch the video - i don't care. just listen to the words of this song by Go Fish. REALLY listen.

that's it :)

my kind of lesson

today i got to help in drew's classroom for his "wintercelebration".

because everything needs to be somehow built into the curriculum, they used today to teach the kids about liquids turning into solids.

WE MADE ICE CREAM!!!

each kid shook ... and shook ... and shook ... and shook their ziploc bags until they had successfully created ice cream.

YUM!!

now that is my kind of curriculum!

can you believe ...

there are only 6 days until christmas ?!?!?!

the same, yet different

they may wear some of the same clothes ...

but, they are three very different little boys!

it's official

i am officially one of THOSE shoppers.

i got up and went to target this morning at 5 to wait in line to get a wii.

was it that bad?? no, not really.

would i do it again?? probably.

will it be worth it come christmas morning? MOST DEFINITELY!

ALVINNNNNNNNN!

we just got back from taking the boys to see alvin and the chipmunks.

what a CUTE (and funny) movie!! they loved it.

(and most importantly, i got a kick out of it too:) )

it brought back memories of watching alvin, simon, and theodore on saturday morning tv :)

saturday morning tv ... man ... am i old!

creative quarters

every now and then we have a 4 year old who has stayed up a little too late ...

and needs a nap ...

but doesn't really think that taking a nap sounds very fun ...

that's when we are forced to get creative ...

SO ... i give you ...

fort barnett

how much is that doggie in the window?

i bet you're saying ... oh good they finally broke down and decided to buy those poor boys a puppy.

nope. sorry.

i have, however, been giving them extra time at the pet store - more time to enjoy the cute little things. (and get it out of their systems)

so it's not THAT bad, right ;)

happy birthday!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

i hope that your day turned out to be fabulous!
i wish i could've been there ... or that we could be somewhere else ... together!! (maybe someplace warm:) ha ha)
but ... since i can't ..

know that i thought of you lots today and miss you!!

to everybody else ... STOP BY Elizabeth's blog and wish her a happy birthday!!! .... pleeeeez :)

treats for santa

this morning at breakfast we discovered that our opinions of what santa would like us to leave out for him vary greatly:

ben thinks santa would like bananas and tea (have i mentioned how much i dislike the new, and healthy, cookie monster?????)

drew thinks hot chocolate and cookies would be good.

stacey thinks santa would really enjoy a nonfat white chocolate mocha with whipped cream.

i of course jumped on that band wagon and decided a toffee nut latte sounded good ... and some fresh chocolate chip cookies ... and a chocolate shake ... and maybe a few oreos ... would be a good late night snack for santa when he comes to our house :)

i DO love you!

on mondays i help out drew and 8 other first graders in an advanced reading type program. (with my friend robin's help of course)

today we read the book koala lou. it's about a little koala who's mom told him all of the time "koala lou, i do love you!" well, as koala lou gained more and more brothers and sisters, koala lou didn't hear that as much. so koala lou decided to be in the olympics, because he was sure then his mom would love him. so ... turns out he doesn't win, but his mom comes through at the end of the story to say that she always has loved him .. always will.

after reading the story we talked about our families. we talked about if the kids had ever felt as though their parents are too busy with their siblings ... and about how we always love them. then we talked about what special things they've done with adults in their lives.

this made me think. as much as i want us to function as a family - i also want my boys to feel like they are each special ... AND most importantly ... i want them to hear me say it. today was a good reminder for me. i want them to know each and every day that there is not an ounce of me that isn't head over heels in love with them. that things may get crazy with 3 of them ... but that doesn't change how i feel. i was reminded that i need to take the time to show them individually how i feel!

i'm not sure where it was, but i read somewhere that a good idea was on the day of the month that your child was born on ... to make that their day. to take them for a meal, or to do something special, on that 1 day of the month. so for example, ben is the 8th. so every month on the 8th, either stacey or i would take him out one on one ... for a meal, or even just a starbucks :) i thought it was a good idea at the time, but never actually DID it. well, i'm thinking now might be a good time to start.

afterall, the olympics seem like a far stretch - and doing something special with each of them once a month seems like a lot less work.

YUM YUM ????

alex's new favorite food --

pico de gallo ... straight up. no chips. just fingers (or a fork).

have i mentioned that his eating habits are a little odd?

if not.

let it be said. they are.

uh oh

the following conversation took place the other night at the dinner table.

stacey: "so ben, what did you learn about at school today?"

ben: "just kissing girls."

YIKES :)

ring around the christmas tree

it's not every day that santa, his reindeer, baby Jesus, and his donkey all get together to take in the beauty of the Christmas tree.

yet ... it happened today at our house :)

my defenders

tonight on the way home i hurried through a YELLOW light.

being the rule following citizens that they are, drew and ben both gave me a hard time ... telling me that i had gone through a red light. (I DIDN'T ... I PROMISE!!)

i told them that it was fine and not to worry.

ben, however, was still concerned and informed me of his plan.

"ok, so, if the police come after us ... mommy you go REALLY fast. and then when we get home, drew you run downstairs and grab the light sabers. mommy, you go to the laundry room. drew and i will fight them off. i will use my blue light saber and cut off their legs. got it drew?"

drew then informed ben that we had just gone on a tour of city hall with his school and the police know me now. they know that i am safe and don't want to hurt them, so they will leave us alone. AND .. he informed ben that the police are nice people and we don't really want to cut off their legs.

thankfully the police did leave us alone.

i, however, am still left with one question ... of all of the fun places i could've hid, why does ben's plan have me hanging out in the laundry room?

addicted at 4

is it a bad sign when your 4 year old walks up to the starbucks counter and says

"well, i'll just have my regular drink please."

my very own personal trainer

last night drew and i were snuggling on the couch.

it was one of those warm fuzzy moments where the christmas lights were on next to us, and the house was actually kind of peaceful.

it was at that moment that drew hugged me tighter and said, "mommy ... do you have another baby in your tummy? because it kind of looks that way :) "

maybe it was the way i was sitting.
maybe it was because i was wearing one of his size M boys t-shirts.
maybe it's the chocolate shakes that we make every night are catching up with me and it just really does look that way :) ha ha.

whatever the reason ...

no, i do not have another baby in my tummy :) ha ha.

but thanks drew. you've challenged me.

the one and only reason ...

... that every few weeks i like to stop into cub foods and kill some time.

2 cookies + 1 car cart = 3 very happy people :)

o christmas tree

today we set out on a hike to get our christmas tree.

now ... i bet you're thinking to yourselves ... last sunday was 40 degrees and sunny, sarah. why in the world did you decide to wait and go get your tree today?!

my official answer ... that is a very good question and i have absolutely no idea :)

nevertheless, it was fun and really pretty;) drew and ben were sure they could do it themselves. so we gave them a "little" bit of help ... and they got us a tree. (alex hung out in the car and pretended to drive the entire time. he wanted nothing to do with the snow.)

the big dilemma this year was how do we get the tree home without having the explorer. the cx-9 doesn't have a rack on the top. SO ... we decided to just throw the tree in with us :)

that, my friends, is cargo space.

freezing funny

BEN today after school:

"we didn't go outside today because the windshield said 6"

(the windchill was minus 6)

it's all my fault

 

 

20 years from now ... when ben and alex are both seeing someone wondering why they are not normal ...

i accept full responsibility.

today they had to follow me to:

*anchor paper (a paper supply store)
*archivers (a scrapbook store)
*3 different michaels stores (a craft store)
and
*pretty in ink (another scrapbook store)

i think they'll be glad once i have our christmas card figured out :)

copy cat

 

 

alex's favorite game right now involves copying us.

if i put up my arms ... he does the same.
if i pat my head ... he pats his.
if i blow a kiss ... i get one back :)

even more entertaining (for him) .. is when we repeat his actions.

it's become the perfect distraction ...
in the car ...
in line at target ...

while waiting for our turn at the bowling alley :)

mind powering turkeys

our family has a tradition of going bowling on thanksgiving night.

this year was no different.

HOWEVER... there were two things that were new and different.

1. alex got to try bowling. (this gave me a good reason to use bumpers ... te he he)

2. drew and ben suddenly discovered they had "mind powers". drew could control anybody's ball and make it do whatever he wanted. thankfully he helped me out and allowed me to get a few strikes :) ben, on the other hand, was a bit selfish and only used his powers to better his own score. anytime you'd look out at ben he'd have his arms outstretched, pointing his ball in the direction he had mind powered it to go.

everyone did really well, and had a lot of fun.

while there, i discovered that the kids lane is a great place for me. even with the bumpers, my score was barely what the loser had in the lanes next to us ;)

for now i think i'm going to stick to bowling on the wii :)

T-E-A-S-E

in case there is any question -
it is possible to be a tease when you're only 16 months old :)
and alex has it figured out ;)

on each of the car trips we've taken lately, drew has tried to lay his head in the middle to sleep, only to have alex pull his hair.

because of this, drew formulated a plan. on the way to wausau, he thought he had outsmarted alex by wrapping his head with his blanket.

as you can see, it didn't take alex long to figure it out.

time to start formulating your back up plan little drew. and until then ... just know that you are a great big brother - AND that alex won't always be so annoying.

whew!

wow ... the end of a busy weekend has come.

we had a GREAT thanksgiving. i have SO much to be thankful for.

topping my list -- the three crazies in the picture above - and the crazy guy behind the camera as well :)

this weekend we got the opportunity to be surrounded by a lot of the others on my list - and for that i am even more grateful!!

our time in wisconsin was a blast - but we are all ready for a good night's sleep :)

so ... more details later ;)