Skiing at Schweitzer

Today Shane and I went skiing with our friends Jen and Jordan at Schweitzer Mountain. We had one run of luck after another. We get there, for Toyota ski free day, so free lift ticket for the driver - Awesome. But the lot was full, so I talked the guy into letting me in to drop the kids off. As we get half way into the packed parking lot, we find a beautiful open spot - Score. Then we unload and run the kids in, when Jen gets offered a free lift ticket, the group had an extra. So Jen and I got to ski for FREE!!!! Kids were dropped off for lessons and Jen and I enjoyed an awesome day of skiing. We kept spying on the kids during their lessons and they were doing so good, such good attitudes and determined to keep going. Shane was not where he was at the end of last season, but he was relearning and doing pretty good on his own. I was a little unhappy about him being neglected by his instructor, but he did not seem to care and just ate snow to pass the time. Yes, my son still eats snow any chance he is given.

Driving tonight

I am a total small town convert, my Houston friends and family would be ashamed, that I have sunk to the level of complaining about Spokane traffic. No need to criticize, I am hanging my head in shame. Normally Brian picks the kids up from preschool, but when he is out of town or working late, I have to get on the highway and drive to get them during rush hour traffic. The way there is no traffic, no issue, but on the way home, we always have to get on the highway for 2 exits and traffic is bad, by Spokane standards. Traffic always comes to a stop within a few hundred feet of entering the highway and then picks up and flows full speed until we exit, one exit later. I know the horror of my 10 minute commute. Anyway, tonight, it came to a sudden stop and cars were swerving to not hit each other, I was prepared as it ALWAYS stops here, I planned ahead and left plenty of room, but annoyed, I said, "Ahhh, you crazy drivers". Myann responds, "Mom don't say that stuff, it is not ok to say crazy." She must have been confusing crazy with the word I usually use, like idiot or bonehead or some even more colorful. I am trying to use better words, so out came crazy. I told Myann that saying they were crazy drivers when they were crazy drivers was acceptable. Shane then comments, "Yes Myann, moms and dads are allowed to yell at bad drivers. " Great, we are teaching our kids wonderful things.

If your baby was named by a 4 year old...

the world would be a much more interesting place. Now I am NOT pregnant, but my children frequently like to discuss the "next" baby. They talk about future babies often, so we assume that means they are on board to have more siblings - correction sibling - singular. Anyway, tonight during dinner Shane announced that he was going to name the "next" baby Wonder Woman. He said after that it would be Super Man, then Hot Shot, and then the last baby would be John. Yes, John. Can you imagine being named John if your siblings were Super Man, Wonder Woman, and Hot Shot? I know, a very odd combination, but I love how his mind works and it really made me laugh. I almost spit out my food when he said John. The superhero names totally make sense. Every 4 year old boy would suggest those names. Hot Shot, no clue where that came from. But John, why John. I was too busy laughing to ask. Maybe it is a tribute to my stepdad John, but the kids only know him as Papa, so I do not even think it came from there.

***Update: Tonight 1/29/10, I asked Shane why John since it was not like the other superhero names. Shane said, "Mom, John is a superhero too." Me, "No John is not" (Yeah, like I am the superhero expert, and then it hits me - John IS a superhero.) In that instant Shane explained and I recalled that John is the Green Lantern from the Justice League series we have been netflixing. Duh - how did I not remember that sooner.***

Donut Parade

Since we had to pick up Dad's truck from the airport today, Tina was over, and I decided it was a perfect day to FINALLY try a famous donut place in Spokane. I love donuts, and have not found any really exceptional places in Spokane. I have heard great things about Donut Parade, but I drove by it one day to only see obvious regulars of an "aged" nature inside, and thought my three might be a bit overwhelming in the place. To the contrary, the place is larger than I thought and the kids were well received. We did get a few sideways glances and we were immediately identified as non-regulars, but the staff was awesome and so patient with us. The kids were amazingly well behaved, especially once fired up with sugar. Between 5 of us, we had at least 6 or 7 donuts and 4 glasses of milk, all for $10. Seriously, a bargain, several of the donuts were HUGE. Myann of course had sprinkles, and only ate the sprinkles and whatever bit of donut was attached to the sprinkle. Shane could not decide, so he ordered 3 and wanted halves of each, and offered that Anders could eat his other halves. Very generous brother, note my sarcasm. Anders did eat some of Shane's and Shane said, "Anders is saying that this is the best day of his life". Shane also said it was the best day of his life. Anders also had chocolate milk for the first time (well officially, I am pretty sure he has had chocolate breast milk a few times :), and he definitely enjoyed that part the most. I think he sucked the milk up for a minute straight without coming up for air. By the time we left, the kids had made several friends and I know for certain made many of the "aged" crowd smile. We will be back and one day I may be brave enough to go by myself, though that may make Tina sad, she liked the donuts too. As we were ordering, I told the lady we would need a bag since I doubted we would eat all the donuts we ordered, let's just say the bag never got used.

Pictures to come, but I am too tired to download them off the camera now.

The rest of the day was running errands, cooking and cleaning, but it was a wonderful day. Shane was my companion for the errands and he spent the entire time telling me how much he loved being with me and that our time alone was his favorite time because he could talk to me the whole time without having to share talk time with Myann. (How can that not make you smile, my kids love to talk.) He helped clean, and he can put away toys like no other, when he wants to.

Oh and not to forget, Anders' eye teeth or pointy teeth, whatever, the sharp teeth are finally coming through. They have been peaking through for a couple weeks, but finally broke the surface during the past couple days, just the top ones. These are his first teeth in like 6-8 months. So weird that it took this long, but I have no doubt that more are on the way.





Obviously Anders liked his chocolate milk.


While getting Myann ready for school yesterday, Anders wanted his hair done too. He tries so hard to put the hair clips in, but Myann had to get them in. He looked so cute that I left them in during all our morning errands. And yes, he was frequently mistaken as a girl, but a cute girl.

Before I forget

There are some things that I just need to have written down so I don't forget.

Shane loves lemon pepper. He wants it on everything. It started with hard-boiled eggs. My kids love their hard-boiled eggs and somehow Shane decided he wanted lemon pepper. I think this transpired with Brian, so he would have to give the full explanation. Now he wants lemon pepper on all his veggies. I am not a huge lemon pepper fan, so it seems odd to me.

Myann is my little baby monkey or in less kind words, my leach. I distinctly remember her not being the most lovey dovey baby. I don't recall her wanting lots of snuggles or being held all the time, but she sure does now. She wants to be held A LOT, thankfully she only weighs 32 lbs. She wants to sit with me constantly and have a hand on me at all times. It started around 2 years old and a little before, aka, when Anders was born. I like it most of the time and try to focus on the fact that one day I will miss her affection towards me. So even when I feel claustrophobic, I try to embrace her affection/clingyness. And Myann is well on her way to potty-trained. We have had some ups and downs, but this seems to finally be the real deal - like she is done with diapers. She goes most days accident free, is usually dry during nap, and has some dry nights. I am very excited about this, as is she. She has been begging to move up to the big kid class where they go to the big kid playground and she wants to do gymnastics, and she knows that potty-trained is a pre-req for both.

Anders became a toddler overnight. He almost runs everywhere and has really begun to put himself out there. Huge for me, since he is playing more independently. He also has picked up a few moves from his siblings. During dinner the other night,he looked exactly like Shane lowering his eyes and being coy. Then smiling because he knew he was being a stinker. Brian and I were totally amazed at how he looked just like Shane. He is still sweet as can be most of the time. He has had a bad cold for almost 2 weeks, and other than the fever and snotty nose, you could hardly tell. He is still his happy self, just playing and not whining.

Praying for Aunt Sunny

Brian's sister Sunny has been plagued with medical problems. So we have been praying for her each night for years. Her latest problem has resulted in having her gall bladder removed on Thursday. We were explaining to Shane about her surgery and that we would need to pray particularly for her surgery and that it helps her overall health.

Shane's response, "It's no big deal. They'll just put a band-aid on it."

Apparently band-aids are the cure-all for my kids. They do love their band-aids.

Aunt Sunny, we are praying for you and the kids now realize that you will need a little more than a band-aid.

Rody Ride on Horse

I have to post about this toy because of the immense joy it brought my kids today. Myann received it as a birthday gift from her Uncle Shane, Aunt Sunny, Aunt Tiff, and Uncle Aaron. However, Shane and Anders absolutely love it too. They started fighting over who got to ride it next. Anders was hysterical the entire time riding it, though he can't do it himself and I had to help him bounce around on it.




Fighting over the horse of course

My Husband, he is an interesting man!

As much as Brian wishes I would add a little political commentary to this blog, I refuse. I love all my friends and family, conservative and not so conservative, so I do not want to ostracize anyone with my blubbering. However, I have to tell you that my husband cracks me up sometimes with how passionate he is about politics.

Last night he came home with champagne. Brian has never bought champagne to my knowledge and he admittedly had no clue what to buy, so he bought the moderate priced one. Why the champagne? Because a conservative was being predicted to win the Massachusetts Senate seat, and this had Brian beyond excited. He said that when the election results came out today, we were drinking champagne.

More examples of Brian's passion, he converted a diehard wind loving environmentalist into a coal believing moderate on one plane ride. Years ago, Brian's childhood pastor said he would make an excellent minister, I have to agree. Over the holidays, Brian discussed global warming with my family from Massachusetts, coincidentally, and gave the argument against global warming from a Christian perspective. It was a pretty convincing argument and got my uncle and cousin really thinking. By the way, Brian has a Christian argument and a scientific one, so take your pick. I really do love this man.

Back on the wagon

Just one of many pictures to come from our holidays in Texas.

Bear with me. I am trying to get back into blogging. Life just got so busy towards the end of 2009 and the more I got behind, the less I wanted to get back to blogging. So I am back and trying to add a few posts per night. Since I plan to print the blog as our family keepsake, I still have a bunch to go back and do for 2009.

What is going on these days...I am cleaning house, trying to get order restored here. Soon as we returned from Texas I got sick and Brian flew home sick, so our adjustment home has been slow coming. The kids are good and seemed to adjust better than we thought.

Anders is my joy. Brian and I have been letting him stay up a little after the other two each night so he can just play and be the center of attention. He REALLY enjoys this time. Last night he just spun in circles and threw himself to the ground, laughing hysterically at himself. He just dances and plays and I love that he gets to be himself. No new teeth. He has not gotten a new tooth in 8 months, that seems odd to me. He had 8 and now no others. He is still nursing, but I think we are nearing the end. I love the snuggle time, and think that is all he uses the time for too.

Myann is still our pistol. Seriously, she is the one I am most anxious to see grown up. Not because I want her to not be my little girl, because I love so much about her at this age, but she is a master manipulator and I am curious to see how this plays out. She has fully embraced talking and just wants to sit in my lap and have full on conversations about whatever is in her head. She still talks in loops and has a hard time telling a complete story, but she has a lot to say. And now she is in to telling fairytales, all begin with "Once upon a time...". I love it, and she is proving to be rather creative.

Shane continues to blow our minds with how his mind works. Though I do not like how much time he spent on video games over the holidays, he really did fine tune his skills. I have been letting him play occasionally and he already mastered one of his new games. He can not read, but he can fully operate the wii, any new game, and master the game. I can't do that and I can read. Also, his sense of comprehension is amazing. After school last week he recited Humpty Dumpty to Daddy and said they talked about it at school that day. Shane said it was ridiculous because Humpty was an egg and eggs can't climb walls, so there was no way he could fall off a wall. He said he would rewrite the story to make sense and that meant all the king's men would have to throw a rope and tie it around him and pull him on to the wall. That would be more realistic. He has said so many things lately, but I can't remember them, so hopefully I can get Brian to write them down.