Ski the Beav

Have you ever wondered how difficult it would be to keep moving on a cat track if you only weighed 30 pounds? This is Lachlan coming down Easy Street/Gentle Ben at Beaver Mountain. She calls it "pumping". There are a select few of you who will certainly appreciate her choice of terminology.

Jack would also like me to post this picture of him.

The Door

My favorite part of the holiday is checking the mail. I can't wait to get out to the mailbox to see who has sent us a Christmas card. I really miss the days of getting messages in the mail--there is something so special about opening up an envelope! Much love to all of you--I know that it's a little late but we are so lucky to have all of you in our lives.

Judd Party

Sara gave me the "Bible Cats" 2011 calendar...cause nobody loves the bible OR cats more than me.
Amen to that.
We gifted to the Miners, but next year I'm going to find the perfect gift for you Sara--
I'm going to look for your gift all year...cause nobody loves a Bargain OR Twilight more than you.

Holiday Cheer

Jack likes to stand on his chair to show me "how bigger, biggest" he is getting. It is usually after a meal--especially if he has consumed enough of something he doesn't like so that I will be convinced that he really doesn't need further nourishment.
And by the way...I made these for Christmas. I saw them in the Family Fun e-newsletter. I generally put those ideas in the "Sara Sargent has time to kill" category--but for whatever reason I got sucked into it with my holiday spirit. I have to admit they turned out so cute. The kids had a ball putting the antlers on the reindeer.

I put half of them on a platter and decided to take them around to some friends. On the way to the car I tripped on two cases of Diet Cherry Pepsi and they flew off the platter and went in a thousand directions. They were covered with oil, grease, cat hair, dirt...I was so sick that I had to sit on the back step and take some deep breaths.

It was so disgusting that I actually left them sitting there on the garage floor. I didn't even bother to pick them up until Jeff said "Well, don't just run over them with the car!!" For the record, I wanted to run over them with the car.

Curse you Diet Pepsi and your low-profile box!

We each ate one or two of the remaining deer and the rest got delivered with Jeff's help. I made him carry all of them to the car.

I'm not one to tempt fate twice.

Faces

I Love These Faces.

The Ugly Sandwich

One of my favorite moments over the last few months happened during lunch. I made the kids a ham sandwich with "real" ham. I've been trying hard to keep our regular meals super healthy because the kids eat so, so, so much crap everywhere else. I will save my tirade on food rewards for another day.

Anyway, so Jack sits up to the table and eats everything else on his plate. He takes a few bites of the sandwich and declares that he just can't eat this sandwich because it is too big. I told him to just open it up and eat the ham out of the center first. He agreed.

I went about doing something else....probably preparing dinner...honestly, meal preparation takes all $#%@ day!

I hear him sigh. I hear him sigh and moan. I don't turn around. I do not want to have this conversation about the sandwich.

Then I hear him say in the most exasperated voice--EVER--

"This is the ugliest sandwich I have ever seen! It's all open and twisted...(insert loud sigh) I just can't take it anymore!!"

Oh, holy. I was laughing so hard. I'm still laughing. I laughed until I cried. But I didn't dare turn around because I didn't want him to know that he was off the hook-- I had to choke out the words to tell him that he could be finished with lunch.

Of course I took a picture of the sandwich once he left the table....how in the world can you resist a picture of the ugliest sandwich of all time?

Sugar Rush

We were invited to make gingerbread houses with the Palmer Family this year. It was so fun to watch the kids put their houses together. I was surprised how serious they both were about getting everything in the right place. Lachlan eventually called it good because she just can't stand to put good candy on a house rather than in her mouth. Jack didn't want to leave any space of the house uncovered. He even layered some string licorice over the roof at the last minute just to make sure that all the bases were covered. It was so fun that Jack "forgot to go to the bathroom" and peed his pants and had to go home in some teenager boxer shorts. He thought that they were very cool. Oi-vey.

On the couch at Welfare Square--I just wanted to be in at least one picture. As usual, Jack can't look at the camera...

Welfare Square

Over the holidays we visited Welfare Square to do some service projects. The kids had so much fun stocking the shelves at the grocery store. Lachlan was obsessed with using the plastic knife to break down the boxes. She was sweating and breathing hard because she wanted to do more than anyone else. She is such an intense child--sometimes I don't know whether I should laugh or be alarmed! Jack loved to open the boxes and say, "Oh, no...it's more cans of ...(insert canned food item)!" We love our neighborhood church friends so much--I had such a fun night just watching everyone contribute together.