31.10.08

 
 
 
 i had a great idea once...to buy bags of candy and freeze 48 cupcakes to be decorated on a whim. five weeks and 40 cupcakes later (decorated two at a time, mind you), i've spent too many hours to count on my knees cleaning cupcake crumbs, candy and sprinkles from the floor. a good idea in theory i suppose but can't recommend it!

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28.10.08

 tee hee. so some of you may already know that ryan leans a little to the right and i lean a little to the left. fortunately neither of us is too far left or too far right that we can't occasionally meet in the middle. this meeting in the middle, however, has become increasingly more challenging since the purchase of the king bed and two little ones who always manage to...wait...i was talking about political preferences, wasn't i? anyway...i have a little something to say to dr. laura fleshenbeater. it is entirely possible to change your husband after the nuptials! i did. yep! he voted obama. if you don't believe it...email him, call him...whatever. just ask him and he'll be proud to tell you! that said, ryan still gets a kick out of sending me disparaging emails regarding anything a bit "lefty". i quite enjoyed this one and hope you do too. happy trick-or-treating, all!

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25.10.08

today...

hey mom, guess what! i farted when i was in the bath and it came up through a big bubble and still smelled gross. is that cool, or what?

and just the other day...

mom, let's do sid the science kid, okay? he dances like this. so we're getting our groove on in the grocery line when ryker notices a cute girl about his age smiling at us. mooom! he complains (and loudly). you're embarassing me!

sigh. i fear my time's about up.

we have so much fun, watching our kids have fun! aren't they grand? so thanks to luca, reid, rex, zayne, landon, brant, ryker and emers for making the big kids smile. i am savoring every one of these moments but a part of me is looking forward to the day these kids graduate from the pumpkin patch and move on to the very scary corn maze and "haywire" halloween carnival (not for children under 12). being a bit of an adrenaline junkie, i can't wait to be chased through a dark cornfield by a strangers wielding chainsaws. too many pics...they're just all such cute kids!













just for fun...

 
 
emerson @ 15 months. ryker @ eighteen months. gotta love the digital age!

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23.10.08

want to know what removes permanent marker from wood surfaces?

nothing! it is rare to find a product that does all that it says...


sharpie deserves an award because you see...


when a sharpie product is labeled permanent...


it is just that...permanent.






i should have known better, you say? i suppose but chances are good something like this will happen again and probably soon. i should be crying. and maybe i will just as soon as i stop laughing...

emers has a new word. "nandy?" she asks, over and over and over. "no, emerson. mommy doesn't have any candy." "oo. nama?" she inquires with the sweetest expression of hopefulness. as if mommy might just pick up and head over to grandmas for a piece of candy. i might. em is very persuasive.

ryker is into exercise these days. "mom, I need some excercise. i'm going to razor around the block." which would be great except he doesn't return. this is really just a ploy to find out if either cavan or brock can play. and if not, grandma's house is fun too (she has candy and lots of it). oh dear. mine is the neighborhood nuisance who shows up unexpectedly and stays forever. a bit like the narcotic lawn fungus infecting yards around here. not really! we have one cool and kind kid. it appears he is welcomed everywhere. emerson, on the other hand, is shaping up to be the neighborhood bully. all parenting tips welcome! i remember thinking really people, it's not that hard! then someone sent me emers just to put me in my place. i so deserved it. and i love her soooo much! i think we'll keep them both.

tennessee pics...

those of you who know ryker can imagine the fun he had at rock city! we heard about it for days. he is now asking for a rock polisher for christmas. i think santa (or grandma) might oblige. i am looking forward to making the trip with the whole family. tennessee is obviously an amazing state to explore. thanks to uncle joe, auntie michelle and cousin jaden for taking such good care of our little boy. another thanks to grandma marilyn and grandma good for inviting him!






19.10.08

 A shout out to Jenna! We are picturing you lounging in the living room of your beautiful new townhouse, recovering from the move, sipping tea and enjoying the sound of the crackling fire as it attempts to compete with the pouring rain. Oh wait...fire places these days don't crackle, they hiss. Well that just ruins the image. :-) Thanks so much, for spending some time with us during our visit to Seattle. Especially for good-naturedly enduring Ryan's abuse and for loving on our kids! Come visit!

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18.10.08

 Ryker vacillated for months between a scuba diver and a chef. That was before he found a red-eyed tree frog in one of the many costume catalogs arriving in our mail. He knew immediately that Em would be the frog and he would be a fly. There was no convincing him otherwise! Em already thinks she runs this show and I imagine that next year, Ryker will not get to coordinate the two of them. So this be the two of them. Grandma Marlene's sewing and design is always top notch! Who votes that I should start her a sewing and design blog? I'm sure she would title it Made by ME (Marlene Elizabeth). :-)

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2.10.08

slipping through my fingers...

So our girl's week comes to an end tomorrow. One week of no boys equals ONE load of laundry, ONE load of dishes, NO refereeing, and VERY FEW toys about. All that adds up to ONE very nice vacation. That said, we missed our boys! And I am not advocating single motherhood! While this mother and child were kicking back at home, a very hardworking Daddy was across the nation paying the bills.

Looking at some pictures of Emers today, I was taken aback by how grown up she is. People have been mentioning the changes in her but I suppose I hadn't fully realized them. It has caused me to be a little reflective, which is always good. I just returned from Mamma Mia and while its serious flaws become more evident with each viewing (sorry Pierce), it still makes me smile widely. This time it made me cry a little too. Time! Where does it go? In a hop, skip and a jump, both Ryker and Em will be school-bag-in-hand. So time passes but I am more determined than ever not to let it slip through my fingers. And I don't want to EVER have to ask myself if I could have been a better mother! A few of those pics of our big little girl...

 

 

 
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