Max and Cheepers

We had a wonderful quiet Christmas at home, and the boys are pretty happy about how it all worked out. As you probably heard, Riley and Shannon were up at 4:11 AM hollering up the stairs, "Mom, Santa came, he left a computer and a cage with two pets in it!" Corey, who was snuggling with me, fearfully whispered, "Mommy, they're not MONKEYS are they? I don't LIKE monkeys!"

At this point I yelled for the boys to go back to sleep and two hours later we were all up to watch the boys destroy the house, I mean open presents. Here's how that went...

After opening presents, Ken was relieved to see that he only had one thing to assemble. Of course, he also had plenty of toys that required two players, so he kept busy.

Once things calmed down Ken and I took a little nap. (Ken just finished 3rd Shift the morning before, and I had been up all night doing what parents do on Christmas Eve.) We let the kids play and when we awoke, this is what the house looked like:

Well, that's about it. Oh, yeah. I forgot. Max and Cheepers? The two new guinea pigs? BIG HIT! Shannon is holding Max and Riley has Cheepers (who cheeps a lot.)

Christmas Eve

Every year I keep most all of the presents hidden away, but on Christmas Eve I bring a few out. Every year this causes great excitement among the kids, and all day long they beg to open one. Every year I finally give in and give each of the boys a present to open. Every year, the gift they open on Christmas Eve is a new pair of pajamas. Every year they are disappointed.

This year was no different, and even though I warned them not to be disappointed, you could tell they were. Until they saw that Mommy got a pair, too. Now they are thrilled!


Because it's not EVERY YEAR that Mommy gets one-piece pajamas just like theirs!

Ten Loooong Years

So today was our 10th Wedding Anniversary and we celebrated it by, well... saying, "Happy Anniversary, wow, we're really old!" In honor of our anniversary, I'm going to let YOU GUYS give us your memories of us in the 'ol comment section. Yep, all two of you. Get to work.

Easter Pictures

Shannon's haul.
Riley.
Corey.

The boys.

All done.

My Valentines

It's been a pretty good Valentine's Day! It began at 2:30 AM, when Ken got home from work and dropped seven candy bars in my lap and said, "Happy Valentine's Day!" Sadly, this is my idea of a perfect gift; cheap and fattening. So thoughtful!

We went to bed, only to have the boys wake us up a few hours later at 8:00 AM. They came into our room and told us to get ready for a treasure hunt. Apparently Riley and Shannon were up at 6:00 AM making signs and taping them to our walls (they had to stop when they ran out of tape,) which finally led to a homemade valentine card just for their mommy and daddy. It was so sweet!

Later on in the day, I sat the boys down with some pre-assembled gingerbread houses (sloppily pre-assembled by me,) along with a disgusting amount of valentine candy, and we made some sticky masterpieces. They turned out... well, they turned out. It was a mess but it was worth it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas Pictures

Christmas has come and gone, and now I'm left with a house that's been turned upside down and some mediocre pictures to show you how our season went. Here goes:

Margarine is NOT the same thing as butter, and this cookie press is going back. The gingerbread men turned out just fine, though.

Corey being dramatic after being told that the coal he found in his stocking wasn't a good thing after all. (Somebody should lay down and go to sleep at bedtime instead of tormenting their brother and their mother...)

Corey loving his Slinky's. (Oops, he was supposed to get those when he was completely potty trained a LONG LONG time ago.) Better late than never.

The biggest hit of the day - a Batman cave with an actual functioning PORTAL! (Corey is fascinated by portals, courtesy of some internet game.) The older boys loved this toy, too.

Shannon with one of many Hot Wheel toys, Riley with his Bakugon (FINALLY!)

Santa's only gift for the boys, a computer of their own. Unimpressed, this is how much they unwrapped it before walking away. I finally unwrapped it this evening so we could return it for an after-Christmas-sale-upgrade. Maybe I should keep it for myself?

Grammy and Papa. Thrilled. (Actually Papa became very sick later in the day and has yet to recover.)

It WAS a good Christmas, and we now wait it out until school resumes on January 5. January 5... that's a long ways away...

Merry Christmas, Boys...

...your Grammy and Papa got you Guitar Hero for the WII. We know you'll love it someday, but in the meantime the adults sure are having fun with it!

Especially your Daddy, who is truly tone deaf and can't keep rhythm for a standard eight count. Set music to a video game, though, and suddenly he's a musical genius.

Proof that this game has NOTHING to do with musical talent.

A Snow Day in Cookie Land

About five inches of snow, and don't you know it, they declare a snow day. Right before a two week Christmas break. Two observations: One, it is just wrong to force children to stay home from school when parents are trying to prepare for Christmas. And two, our new superintendent must be from Florida or something, what's so bad about a little snow?

Anyhow, I've started my baking, first with the spritz cookies because I need ten dozen by Saturday for a cookie exchange, about five dozen more by Saturday for a girlfriend's birthday gift (I swear, she insists that she loves them...) and then another five dozen or so by Friday because I'm going super cheap-o with the teachers' gifts this year. Oh, yeah, and then I need to make some for US.

One little problem, though. My Wilson Cookie Press has a habit of breaking right when I'm in full cookie mode, and then I have to go buy another one. I'm on my third one now in less than two years. And yes, Wilson will be getting a little hate mail.

My three Cookie Presses, broken part in center.

So far I've made five dozen yellow stars, two dozen gingerbread men (Riley's request,) and about four dozen chocolate crinkles. Umm... chocolate crinkles. Corey immediately recognized the similarity between chocolate crinkles and the yummy brownies at Valentino's. No wonder why we all love them.

Lot's of crinkles (Aunt Jan's recipe.)

My gingerbread man looks just like the AOL symbol, eh? With crinkles and stars.

Where was I? Oh, yeah, cookies. Time to go make the cookies...

Christmas Crafts

We've had a busy day today, starting off with a Christmas shopping spree at the boy's school, where I volunteered and Ken got the honor of carting the boys around, followed by a trip to the library to make Gingerbread Houses. Corey and Shannon insisted they wanted no part of this craft, but they were signed up so there was no getting out of it. Turns out they had the best time ever!

Riley's house featured a ramp and Shannon's featured a smiley face.

Corey's house featured a big old blob of frosting on top, which became squished when Shannon dropped it in the car on the way home...

I was not in the room with the boys as they decorated their gingerbread houses, but both Riley and Shannon ended up adding big red licorice N's to their eaves. When I came back to check on them, I commented on how their Daddy's poor team never gets any love, so Riley added an O to his. Shannon demurred.

More pictures to follow sometime this week in the Kalamazoo Gazette, please let me know if you see them so that I can go out and buy a copy!

Bounceland Wonderland

Bronson Rehab had holiday night at Bounceland, and since Corey is one of their most consistent patients, we were all invited to go and bounce on large inflatable toys for two hours. After a dinner of Happy Meals in the car, we arrived at Bounceland early enough to get a parking spot; a feat which has never happened in all the years we've gone to this event.

Corey and his PT, Becky, in the bouncy.

The boys played hard for an hour, and Corey took the time to antagonize his physical therapist, (payback???) and to just be silly and shy with his former therapist. We stopped a bit for cookies, cake and juice, and even managed to say a quick "Hi!" to Santa. The boys were especially nice to Santa because he had a REAL beard and moustache, which means it was very possible that this was the REAL Santa as opposed to one of his look-a-like helpers. Sadly, though, there was no time for pictures.

The snow was coming down pretty good on our way home, and the boys were open to a little driving-around-so-mommy-can- critique-all-of-the-Christmas-lights. It was just magical the way the lights glowed through the snow covered trees, greens and reds and blues everywhere! The flakes just fell out of the sky like puffs of cotton candy, and the boys were gaily singing Christmas carols in the back of the van, gently at first, then louder as the joy filled our vehicle.

There was Jingle Bells, which went; "Dashing through the snow, in a pair of broken skis, breaking into houses, crashing into trees! The snow is turning red, I think I'm almost dead, and now I'm in the hospital with stitches in my head!" Or the other version that went something like this: "9-1-1, 9-1-1, someone call the cops! Bring me to the hospital and feed me lollipops!" And we can't forget Joy to the World, which went like this (it's BAD,): Joy to the World that Barney's dead, we barbecued his head! Don't worry 'bout his body, we flushed it down the potty..."

Somewhere amidst the singing Shannon yelled out, "My toof, my toof, I dus pulled out my toof!" I guess that darn tooth was loose after all! Being as there was no blood and no pain and Shannon was simply in the holiday spirit, the event remained tear free; in fact, by the time we pulled into the driveway, Shannon once again cried, "This is the BEST DAY EVER!!!" And he hasn't rescinded that statement yet!

Ohio Vacation

We just got back from a great time in Ohio. We spent three days around Youngstown, swimming at the condo and at Uncle Chris' house every day. Shannon, (who doesn't have enough confidence to swim without floaties in deep water,) taught himself how to dive! Riley is close, but not quite there. I'm thrilled to report that both of the boys are getting stronger with their freestyle (when they try,) and float really well. Corey, well, he blows bubbles really well and loves to go down slides as long as someone is there to catch him.

Shannon illustrates a proper dive:

(Yea, Shannon, first time, and off a diving board, no less!)

Riley and Corey doing belly flops in good form:

Shannon going down the slide:

Riley was spoiled rotten (again,) for his birthday. We had pizza and birthday cake at Uncle Chris's house to celebrate. All went well until a thunderstorm rolled in...

Riley turns 8:

Joanne was happy to finally get some family pictures taken, too:

After I've been swimming??? Really, Joanne???

Friday we met Grammie and Papa up at their little cottage on Lake Erie. The water was rough, and after about 1/2 hour of watching Shannon get slammed by waves (fun when you're 5,) Mommy was done with that. Never fear, there was plenty of things for the kids to do around town. The boys drove bumper boats, rode down huge water slides, and played at the arcade a lot. There was a park right across the street from the cottage, and if the boys were still bored, they could always take Riley's new RC Car for a spin around the yard. Luckily Grammie had the energy to keep up with the boys (and Papa had enough energy to hang with Corey,) because Ken and I just wanted to take naps all the time.

Ken and I walked the strip one night and had a few beers. The beers were necessary because some of the local entertainment was a little too extreme, even for us. (Email me if you really want to know...) Yikes! Lucky for you, we forgot to get the camera out once we made it to the cottage, hence, no pictures.

Anyhow, we had thunderstorms both nights that we were up at the lake, so bedtime was a bit rough for the boys but somehow we survived. You would not have thought so, based on the way Riley and Corey were acting every time it thundered.

Today we hurried home so I could mow and get the grocery shopping done, and so that Ken could relax before going back to work. Corey was excited to be getting home to his computer, but then he blew it by misbehaving in the car. (Not Corey.) He's sure to overheat the computer in the morning when he's allowed to play on it again. Maybe he'll even let me use it once or twice, but until then...

Michigan 4th of July

Can't have the 4th of July without the Enduro... and here it is.

Family. Boys.

Boys. Corey's favorite car.

My boys.

Can't have the Enduro without the racetrack's firework display (or Lee Greenwood, apparently...)

Fireworks at the racetrack.

Today the boys had a water-themed birthday party to go to next door...

Kiddie party? Water balloons.

And finally, Ken took Riley and Shannon to see the Thunderbirds at the annual Battle Creek Air Show. They're hoping to be on the 6 o'clock news tonight, after they harassed the news crew.

Thunderbirds.