There’s lots of pictures in this post so I’m going to hide most of it, just click here to read/see the rest.

Qade is cautious about new experiences. He wasn’t very interested in participating in all of the group fun, but he did enjoy climbing and exploring on his own during their free time.

Myles went back and forth between participating and observing during group time, but was quite the little monkey when turned loose during free play. Not that there’s a big surprise there! Ha! Stuart commented that our kids do most of this gymnastics stuff in our living room just with not as soft landing spots.

Helen is quite the acrobat and one of the most bendable children I’ve ever met!

I mean, look at this “dance” move!

The boys got more involved when the balls and the bubbles came out.

Love how he totally missed the ball with this high kick, and the Michael Jordan tongue is hilarious too!

It was a fun time! I’ve often wished there was something like this for Myles to participate in since he’s such a monkey-boy, but it’s true that he does most of these things on the trees and logs around our home. Just without the music and the buddies and instructor. The boys had fun, and I was happy to see them loosen up a bit toward the end at least. They let the instructor give them hand sanitizer and a stamp, so that’s progress. Ha ha! Thanks Auntie Joy for letting us tag along on your gym day! Maybe we’ll get to do it again sometime!!

This was the culmination of some grumbly issues the lads had been having about keeping their toys neat and cleaning up the messes that they made.

Their favorite activity at that time was to empty their toy box of all toys cover it with blankets and play IN the toy box. Which is totally fine with me. I love it when they use their imaginations!! But I don’t love it when it came time for clean up and they balked, threw fits, fussed, whined and cried about having to clean up their toys.

Part of the problem came from the fact that they had too many toys out at once. And a lot of those toys were in lots of parts. (think lego) So the clean up did seem like a monstrous task when all 175 train track pieces were scattered all over the floor, not to mention all the matchbox cars, legos, and each and every stuffed animal along with an assortment of McDonalds happy meal type toys. It was overwhelming to ME and I’m not 3 and 4 yrs old.

We tried various tactics including tossing out some of those trinkety toys if they hadn’t made progress on cleaning up in a certain amount of time. It made an impression, especially on one little lad who hates for things to “go to the dump.” But unfortunately it didn’t take care of the above issues with cleaning.

Finally Daddy decided that enough was enough. After dinner one night, he packed up every toy in the boys’ room and took it out to the garage. The reaction was not very positive to be sure, but Qade mellowed a bit when he realized that they were just put away, not thrown away. He looked in his room and said, “I don’t think it looks nice in there.” Then he amended it to say, “Well, I think the floor looks nice, but the toy box doesn’t look nice because there aren’t any toys.”

They were toy-less for a weekend, and were not allowed to play with Ella’s toys. That next week, I brought in one of the boxes of jumbled up toys and told them that if they could help me clean up THAT box of toys, they could put those toys back into the toy box. We got through about 1/2 of the box before the whinies took over. I packed it all back in and out to the garage it went.

I have to say that I was surprised at how well they did without toys. Initially I told Stuart that I was going to be punished as much as the kids because they’d be bored out of their minds and driving me crazy all day. I was happy to discover that this wasn’t the case. They adapted very quickly and made up all kinds of games to play together with no toys!

Eventually, before Christmas Day, I had them help me sort their old toys. We put a LOT of them into a Goodwill pile. Qade was a little more able to cope with them going away if he knew they weren’t going to the dump. Another pile we are donating to my mom who wants more toys for them to destroy her house with when we go visit. And there was the trash pile where broken, and Micky-D’s type toys went. A few got put away into a bin to “rotate” out later. The very slimmed down toy box became much easier to manage, and most of the toys with a zillion pieces got put away to be used in Mom initiated quite time play.

We still get complaints when it’s time to clean up, but it’s NOTHING compared to what it was!! The lads play with their toys just like they did, but they also continue to play their toy-less games much more frequently. All in all I think that the time without toys was good for them, and the time now with fewer toys is also good for us all!

The lads went outside to enjoy the snow, and as they were out there it started to fall! Myles right away stuck out his tongue to catch some of the snow! Ha ha ha! I never did figure out what snow tastes like when I tried this tactic as a kid. Not sure they did either, but I had fun catching a few of the funny moments with my camera.

So into a big sauce pot it went with a good dose of honey and vanilla as well. I stirred and heated and taste tested and added another good dose of SUGAR and stirred some more. Then I poured some into my “I Shoot People” Nikon coffee cup, and added coffee.

BLAH! <—- is an understatement of how it tasted! Ick! It was SO bad that I poured the whole cup of coffee down the drain, and you know that has to be bad!

I’ve come to the conclusion that Almond Milk is just yucky, and I feel very sorry for people who are indeed lactose intolerant and have to seek those alternative solutions for milk. Yuck, yuck, yucky!!!

So the Almond milk joined the first cup of coffee down the drain. Hmmmm… now what’s a girl to do? In a pinch cafe’ au lait will work though it’s not my favorite. I put in the milk and sweetened it with agave nectar. It was fine, just not what my coffee palate really wanted this morning.

Suddenly, I remembered that I did indeed have some sweetened condensed milk and evaporated milk left in the pantry! I stopped nursing the less than satisfactory cup of coffee and took a mad dash to the pantry. Yay!

I tossed them together in the pot, careful to lick the sides of the sweetened condensed milk can as clean as possible, and heated them till combined with a dash or so of vanilla. I sloshed the rest of my cafe’ au lait down the drain to follow the rest of the unworthy coffee creamer attempts. It was like a dream come true when I used my “sweet cream” in the last cup that the coffee pot had to offer. Ahhhhhh, bliss!

I don’t know why it took me so long to think of that solution. Probably because I hadn’t really had any coffee yet. This last cup is SCRUMPTIOUS though, so I wouldn’t be surprised, if I were you, if I make myself another pot of coffee to enjoy it with!

Is it a sign that your Christmas tree is too crispy when your boys start playing a game where they hike their shirts up and “poke” their bellies then fall down while screaming, “OWWWWW!”??

Ella is going to be a lotion lover like her mommy. Every time she sees me rubbing lotion into my hands, she comes right over with her hands held out to “share” some. So I rub a little on her fingers then she walks around rubbing her hands together! SO cute!

Qade eats his cheese in itty bitty pieces. Seriously it can take him 20 min or more to finish one little bit of cheese. He tells me that it makes him “feel like spit up” to take bigger bites. That’s now his new “go-to” phrase when he doesn’t want to eat something, “I feel like spit up.” Said in a pathetically weak voice. So I’ll tell him to go to the bathroom and do it, and he replies that he can’t, so then I tell him to finish eating. Ha!

I’ve got January’s menu done… mostly. There are 3 days where I’m just at a loss for what to do. BUT that’s where repeat performances come in. Ha! It was more challenging this time because I’m “low-carbing it” again for Jan. Yeah, more on that in a future post.

It doesn’t feel like it could possibly be New Year’s Eve!! The weather has been so mild, and I love that! The boys have been playing outside and we’ve gone for several family walks, pulling Ella da Bella in the wagon! It’s awesome. I would be totally thrilled if spring came in January this year!!

I’ve had a few ups and downs lately where I feel like everything I try is a complete failure. I know it’s not true, but ya know how those “blue” moments are… highly irrational. Anyway, I’m trying to refocus as we head into a new year. Hopefully it will look up… even in the blue moments.

After much deliberation, and some fiascos, I have finally come to the conclusions that I will NOT be the next Iron Chef. Not ever. So sad! Ha ha ha!

I was looking at Myles the other day and it struck me what a big boy he is becoming. Sometimes I fall into the habit of forgetting that he really is younger than Qade. They just do so much together, that they practically seem like twins. So I mentally shake myself and remember that he’s 17 months younger and at this age it is a BIG difference. Still, even so, he is getting so big, and so much fun to chat with! He’s a little ball of mischief, but he is a sweetheart too!

Speaking of getting big, Miss De Bella is starting to get to the end of her 12 month jammies. I noticed this week while struggling to zip up her squirmy self in the footie jammies that they are pretty well stretched to their max. I’m not sure I’m ready to move her up to 18 month clothes yet, but it might be necessary pretty soon!! *sigh*

Qade is getting to the point where it embarrasses or bothers him if people are talking about him. Especially if they are laughing about him. I remember having feelings like that myself, so I’m making a very strong effort to NOT chuckle at things that he does or says even if they strike me as funny. To him they are serious, and while I don’t want to take him as seriously as he takes himself, I don’t want him to think that I just make fun of him either. It’s a balancing act, but I know I can relate to where he’s coming from, if I stop to think. He’s as quick as a whip, and he remembers things better than any kid I know. I have to remember that he IS listening, even when I don’t think he is.

Well, that’s all I can think of for now, surprise surprise! Hopefully it’ll tide you over till tomorrow when the resolutions begin. Ha ha! Not that I’m deluding myself into thinking that you’re all that interested in MY resolutions, but it helps me to write them down. Since typing has become oh-so-much faster than writing, this is my way of journaling. Besides, if I know “everyone” is watching, it helps me be more consistent…. I think.

Toodles

My surprise gift, which I was sure wouldn’t end up a surprise because my man is so sneaky that way, was the iPhone 4 S. I engaged the help of my dad-in-law to procure the phone, and then wrapped it up and tucked it under the tree. Fortunately Stuart had no idea that anything was “up” or he would have been pestering people to get the info out. He didn’t have a clue and when he opened it he just stared at it in shock for awhile, so I thought that he had figured it out. BUT he hadn’t, and was just surprised to see it sitting there in the box. Score one for me!!!

As you can imagine he will be playing with it for some time to come. He was asking the classic “Siri questions” earlier, like “Siri, Will you marry me?” and when she answered “We barely know each other” Qade piped up, “Why it said no each other?” ha ha!! Later when he wanted help to build the block castle that Oma gave him, he said to Stuart, “Will you help me build this, Dad. Siri is not there!” Ha ha ha!!! Cracked me up!

I might be a Siri widow for a while, but I’m glad that I was able to surprise Stuart with something that he really wanted, didn’t expect, and will use. It made my Christmas very happy!!!

I got plenty of fun loot as well! A knee length coat from Stu, now I need a red scarf to go with it, and some warm gloves that actually fit my huge hands! Yay for warm stuff!!! He also got me an ergonomic mouse for my computer, and an interval timer so that I can get movin’ again, and get in shape!

Hope you all have enjoyed your Christmas, and made some great memories with your families… even if you didn’t catch it all on camera!

When I was growing up we had a Thanksgiving “tradition” to go around the table and say what we were thankful for. This is a creative and yummy way to do that too. Ya just put a note wrapped in foil between the pieces of dough before baking your rolls and then the person who gets it open the note. Could be personalized notes (though that would be hard to keep track of) or sentences that they have to finish. Fun conversation starters and ways to share thanks.

Me likey!

I finally got a frame for my odd sized photo of the munchkins. This photo is an example of times when I have a certain “look” in my mind and I do everything in my power to make it happen, and of course it doesn’t, but I end up with an image that grows on me so much that I just fall in love with it and wouldn’t have loved my “vision” image any where nearly as much. (how’s that for a runon sentence? Ha!) Point is, I love this photo of my kids! I love all the little “imperfections” about it. The fact that there’s no “extra” space, Myles is trying to escape, Qade is totally entranced by his sis, and Ella has only the littlest smile. It’s my kiddos and it’s so much them!

Now it’s finally on the wall. I got motivated yesterday and started putting holes all over the place. This was just the beginning. I now have quite a few other photos hanging up along with this one. Eventually I’ll post an image of that. I believe it will be a work in progress for a little while. I’m trying to clear out the living room wall space to have places for (hopefully) gallery wraps. I’d like to display some of those as options for my clients who come, but I have to get some good images of our family and kids first. Yeah, work in progress.

Anyway, at least it’s begun. I also managed to get all of my “coffee” stuff up in the new kitchen. I like the effect.

Ta ta for now!

The other day I was breaking up some ice and there was a big chunk I threw in the sink. When I came back a little bit later this was what I saw.

Apparently no one ever informed him that crawling across a big chunk of ice was a bad idea. I think he was kind of frozen here. I don’t know if spideys are what you’d call “cold blooded” (is that goo that makes up their guts, blood?) but I do know that they don’t move so well when it’s cold. This dude eventually took a spin down our garbage disposal.

One down about 500 million to go! Ick!!