picture post

Here are a couple more from the new camera. It helps that I have cute subjects.

Also, had a "Parent of the Year" moment earlier this week. So, we have been stuck inside a lot for the last 4 weeks, and at times it had made us all a little stir crazy. In order to lighten the mood sometimes, when the boys are driving me insane, I have taken to threatening them that I am going to sell them all to a farm. This is usually met with a good deal of laughter and some animal noises. Will even seemed to get into it by threatening to sell Dan to a farm one when he was napping and Will wanted him to wake up and play.

It appears, however, that I was wrong my thinking. Yesterday Will told Dan on the car ride home that he would not like us to tease him about the farm anymore. It makes him nervous.
So, that made me feel awesome. Maybe it would go over better if I threatened to sell him into the Jedi order?

post-christmas post

Such a wonderful, wonderful trip. Too short though and a few important people did not get seen and a couple strongly desired things did not get done. We need to get back more than every two years. We were thinking maybe for the Fair this summer... I love the 'Great Minnesota Get Together!". But sooner rather than later.
Here are a couple of pictures from the Holiday season. Since I got my new camera I am having SO much fun. My hope is to put a few on here often throughout the month as I get them edited and at the end of the month have an album on Flickr.

Going...going...

gone? hopefully?

We are scheduled to make a trip back to the frozen tundra tomorrow - but we have had our own "Arctic Blast!" going on right here in town. Seriously, if I have to hear/see the phrase "Arctic Blast!" one more time I may throw something at the TV. What an event it has been. The "news" or weather coverage has been on almost 24-7 since last week. Each day predicting more dire circumstances than they day before. I suppose I should take some comfort in that...they are predicting a bad storm for tomorrow. But if they predict it, it can't come true...right?

It's been interesting, working from home the last week and a half and having the whole family here. When the public schools are closed, Dan's work and the boys day-cares are closed. And since the public schools were closed almost all of last week, that meant we were all home together. And for the last five days, we have only been able to leave the vicinity of our house once. We have been literally snowed in.

It was fun, the first couple of days. And then I realized that while I love my family very much and am very grateful for them, I am not cut out to be a stay at home mom. I do not have what it takes to do what they do. I told Will last night that I was ready to sell them to a farm. And I might have if someone had offered to buy them...for a dollar. Part of it, I think, is the size of our house. We have a wonderfully cozy, but small, house. And while Dan says that I am just attempting to lay the groundwork for a basement remodel (maybe), I really do think a little extra breathing room may have made things a little less...intense.

So, hopefully we will get a small reprieve in the weather and our flight departs. I am so excited to see our family and friends...most of whom I have not seen in at least two years and haven't even gotten to meet Henry. So many of the people there were an amazing support to us this last year even from such a great distance. I hope to be able to share in some merriment with them as well.

Also, got a fantastic Christmas present this year. We bought a shiny new camera and I love it. So, hopefully over the holiday I will be able to dig through some of the backlog of pictures I have and start getting them up again.

I hope you all travel safely and find joy and peace this Holiday Season!

John Williams is the Man

So, we let Will watch Star Wars (the 1977 one) when he turned 4. Empire and Return of the Jedi followed soon after and now we have a full blown obsession in our house. I was telling a friend about it and she sent me this:




I especially like the "Luke whiny voice" at about the 3:02 mark. Ah how I wish 4-year-olds understood things like this, cause I was laughing so hard I was almost in tears.

Costumes

Halloween this year was quite the success. In past years Will has flat out refused to get involved with dressing up, so when he took an interest in his costume this year we were pretty excited for him. He was a Dragon and Henry was...well, in some Halloween pajamas with a weird pumpkin beret my mother put on him. Will went Trick-or-treating at exactly 3 houses...and frankly he was done at 2. I made a tactical error in picking our first house. I thought, ooh cool, decorations. We did decorating, he will like that. However, the decorations were a little more PG/PG-13 then a four-year-old can really handle. Lots of screaming sounds and chainsaw sounds and fake blood...yeah, that didn't go over really well for my shy dragon. But he loved giving out the candy, so ended up having a good night after all.

My mom also brought a NASA jumpsuit costume for Will that she brought out the day after Halloween with a bunch of other dress up clothes. While he did really, really like the Dragon...the orange jumpsuit has barely come off for two days. He thinks it looks like Luke Skywalker's fighter suit from Empire strikes back and refuses to let us call it a costume.

Here are the boys prior to Trick-or treating:


Henry, getting his first taste of sugar (I was in the other room):


And Will (at the carousel) as Jedi fighter pilot extraordinaire: