Dec 24, 2010

And THEN he said...

We always sings songs during Family Home Evening.  And while Harrison loves it, he never sings along or does the actions.  He just happily watches.

Last night after fhe he was sitty on the toilet and I caught him singing the wise man and the foolish man to himself.  "Rain down.  Flood uh up. Rain down.  Flood uh up.  Sand wash away."  It made my chest constrict.  Truly, the love for a child is unlike any other love I've ever known.  Then he told me  "House broken.  Foolish man died." 

Yep, I bet he did.  Poor, foolish man.

Dec 23, 2010

December Things

Once upon a time, we were bored.  But I had a couple of empty spice shakers, so I filled them with flour and the fun commenced.







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Later, Harrison learned that it only takes a blanket to be a Super Hero


Dec 14, 2010

I Think Twinkies are Delicious

Seriously. I'm eating one right now. And it is goood. Thank you twinkie, for your gift of cream.

oh, poo. Everytime I set it down to type it leaves twinkie droppings on my desk. I'm gonna have to lick those off.


Is cleanliness really next to Godliness?  Or is that just one of those things people say, like "All's fair in love and war" or "I don't have time to watch T.V."

If, hypothetically speaking, I haven't done my dishes all week, am I really more evil?



Whatever. Let's move on.  I'm bored of writing about that.  We went to our ward Christmas party tonight.  And the food was good.  Which was a nice change.  Not to complain.  I am not complaining.  A free dinner, not cooked by me, is always worth it, no matter what.  But tonight we had some sort of beef brisket, which was pretty awesome.  The POINT is, we also had baked potatoes.  Which is just fine.  Baked potatoes are like the plain white shirt of the vegetable world.  SO BORING, until you accessorize and then they are great to have around.  I dated a guy in college who was that way too.

What I am trying to say is that I realized that baked potatoes are one of those foods I would rather eat in private.  I put a nice slice of butter on and mixed its melty goodness into the hot recesses of my potato, but it wasn't enough and I wanted more.  Only problem was, we were sitting right next to the line of people still waiting to get their food and I could feel all their eyes on me.  Watching me.  Watching my potato.  All ready to be shocked at my exorbitant butter use.  I could almost hear the talk on Sunday: "She seems so nice.  But did you see how much butter she used on her potato?  What kind of a woman uses that much butter?  I won't be calling HER to babysit again!"

So I didn't do it.  I had a healthy, low-fat baked potato for dinner, and my intense love of butter is still my closely guarded secret.  And those gossiping High Priests have nothing to gab about.  But the joke is on them because what they don't know is that I snuck a 2nd brownie for dessert.  Ha!

Nov 14, 2010

Cat Scratch Fever

I do not have a cat.  I do not want a cat.   Not that I have anything against cats.  My problem is with pets.  I don't want one.  And I wish the cat mafia would stop trying to give me one.

A couple months ago someone left a kitten, complete with litter and food in the back of my husbands truck one night.  Who DOES something like that?  If I wanted a cat, I would have one.  I don't want one forced on me by someone who doesn't have the nerve to take responsiblity for it.  The kitten stayed with us for about a week until we found somewhere else for it to go.   Harrison LOVED it and followed it everywhere but it frustrated him to no end because he just wanted to play with it, and kittens aren't puppies.  I don't know if you knew that.

So we got rid of the cat and told Harrison it went home.  He was sad but mostly got over it, though he still talked about it whenever he saw a cat.

B) Our backyard always has its fair share of cats.  I don't know if they are strays or belong to the neighbors and just like to hang out in our yard cuz the hunting is so good.  Either way I usually just ignore them, and they run away from me.  But in the last few days one of them has gotten increasingly friendly, until one night I came home to find him sitting on the door mat.  Harrison got all excited and said "My Cat!  My cat came home!"   which made me feel very sad.

If I go outside that cat starts rubbing against my legs like it is in love with me and it spent all night pacing back and forth outside the back door.  Scratching and trying to get in.  Where does it think it is?  Does it know that it doesn't live here?



I think the Feline underground has had some wires crossed somewhere along the lines.  Cuz when they are leaving their little hobo-cat markings on the fence posts, the ones outside our house seem to be saying "This is a good place to get food."   And it's not true!  Just ask my husband.

Now, 5 days later, the cat is STILL sitting on the back porch.  Sometimes he paces back and forth in a frenzy, but mostly he just sits there, unmoving.  Watching me with those wide, staring eyes. That seem to be saying "Wait till Martin comes."

5 Months


5 months.  How is it possible, you ask?  Well, let me tell you.  Time just keeps plodding on.  Minutes pass, and that in turn causes the hours and days to pass and from there it just cycles on up until before we realize it, 5 whole months have passed.  It happens like that all over the world.  It isn't just some isolated incident happening here.

Ok, so, here he is.  Can you believe how cute he is?  He was very, very unhappy about the picture taking, and the fact that he isn't crying just shows how good those photographers are.  We went to FotoFly and they were great.  Colin was still unhappy though.


Oh, sweet Colin, you are so good at sharing your feelings.

This 5 month old has just started reaching for and grabbing things like crazy.  Everything he manages to grab goes directly into his mouth.  He can roll back and forth like a rolling machine.  And he loves to laugh.  He especially seems to like the letter Z.  Can't blame him.  It is a funny, funny letter.


Nov 12, 2010

If Steampunk is Nerdy, I don't want to be Cool

If you, like me, have done as many steampunk google searches as I have (steampunk fashion, steampunk gun, steampunk shirt, steampunk jacket, steampunk goggles, yackity schmackity, etc.) then this just seems like one more blog post about one more nerd who wanted to be steampunk for a day.  But it's not.  It isn't like that at all.  This is a story about two hearts, 3 bags of potato chips, 7 mismatched socks, and a dream that just wouldn't die.

This Halloween we went Steampunk, and it was fun.




The End.

It isn't a very long story.

Nov 11, 2010

Crap I found While Shopping

Not literal crap.  I don't shop at those kinds of stores anymore.  I mostly just shop at the grocery store.  And now and then a thrift store or two.  Which is where I found these beauties:


It may not be entirely clear in the picture, but those pants are touching the floor.  They go all the way from the floor to my armpits.  I could not stop giggling. Those pants are almost 5 feet tall all by their lonesome.  Which is apparently all it takes to crack me up.   5 FOOT TALL PANTS!!


Speaking of the grocery store, mine has a "Toy Section", though I avoid that isle at all cost.  Harrison is onto me though, and usually manages to convince me to stop there for at least a few minutes. One day, Harrison handed me this:


Which is a really a beautiful bunch of plastic. Let's take a closer look:


Yep.  You may not know this about me, but I was a cheerleader for about 2 weeks once, and let me tell you, these pom poms have hit the nail on the head.  "Drink for them, colourfulfor them" are the basic tenets they teach at cheer camp.


And clearly THESE pom poms are of the highest quality.  That says they are perfect, and I don't think they would lie.  Skillful manufacture indeed.  These beauties would turn anyone into a first rate Encourage Leader.   "GO! CLAP!!"  Repeat that mantra hourly and you will be peppier, and encouragier in No Time!  And Hygiene!

Some October Stuff

ok, a little catching up to do.

Colin no longer likes his bath.  See?


But when he noticed that I had the camera on him it basically wiped the frown right off his face.  It usually wipes the smiles off his face too, so now we know it works on all emotions.



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And then we have this.


And I just don't know what to tell you about it.  Truly, there are no words.


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Sometime in October we got together with my sister Fae to let our kids decorate Halloween houses.  We made them out of sugar cookies again, but this year I just cooked the dough in giant, thick sheets and then cut out the shapes we wanted.  The cookies were so thick the walls just about stood up on their own, so they worked great.  

Sydney wore goggles, to protect herself from flying candy.  Safety First!






It was fun, and delicious, which are my only two requirements for a good time.

Nov 9, 2010

Halloween 2010

A few months before Halloween I started thinking about what Harrison could dress up as.  I wanted to have him and Colin have coordinating costumes, because that is twice as fun. I gave it a fair amount of thought.  We could go easy and have him be Sheriff Woody, since we have most of the parts of that costume anyway.  Then Colin could dress up as Bullseye, ,the horse.  But one of Harrison's very favorite shows is Curious George, so then I thought of dressing Colin up like George the monkey, and Harrison up like the man in the yellow hat.  I thought he would like that.

Finally I decided to ask Harrison what he wanted to be.  I'm not sure why I didn't before.  Maybe I thought he might not understand?  I don't know, but one day I asked him what he wanted to dress up like for Halloween and his answer was:

"Hot Cocoa!"

Which I should have expected. He loves hot cocoa.  Wants to drink it in place of every meal, wants to carry it around in a bottle like a baby.  Asks for stories about it and wants me to sing him songs about it.  Of COURSE he wants to dress up like hot cocoa for Halloween.  But just to be sure I said "Do you want to be Woody, or the Man in the Yellow hat, or Hot Cocoa?"  And he said "Hot Cocoa!"  So I said OK.  Why not?

We got some foam at Joann's, wrapped it in felt, made a little handle the same way and voila.


The cutest little cup of hot cocoa you've ever seen.
Then he walked around saying "Drink me!  Drink me!"  So I did.



I decided Colin would make a pretty cute Captain Kirk.

the detailing on those sleeves is very futuristic.

So I bought a shirt pattern and yellow material and gold ric rac.



 When I showed Richard the ric rac and said "Do you know what this is for?"  He said "Of Course!"

But then things went wrong.  The pattern was too big, which I knew when I bought it, but I thought I could pretty simply adjust it to make it fit Colin.  I had some problems though and ran out of material and would have had to buy new material and do more adjusting and I just ran out of desire.   So then I thought, "What could Colin be that would require almost no work on my part, that he has most of the stuff for already?"

And that led to this:


I made him a teeny tiny name tag and stuck it to his shirt and there you have it.  Who wouldn't want to hear the discussions from him?  He is irresistible!

Nov 8, 2010

This Just In

In a shocking turn of events, today, Sheriff Woody was taken captive and tortured for information.  We received  these disturbing photos just minutes ago.





Stay Tuned.

Oct 30, 2010

Jack-O-Lanterrrrrn

On October 7th Richard and Harrison killed a pumpkin and tore out its gooey innards!


And then we carved it up and made it our newest friend.  I'm pretty sure Colin wanted to eat it.


Harrison loved it.  Made us light the candle over and over again and wouldn't let us leave it out on the porch and wanted to play with it all the time.


I think the pumpkin loved him back.

Oct 29, 2010

Hee Haw!

On Oct. 4th we spent our Family Night at Hee Haw farms.  Fun times abounded.  Herein lies the photographic documentation of said fun.

First was the petting farm.  Harrison had those goats eating right out of his hands.



and Colin had them eating right out of his face


Harrison tried for a good 5 minutes to feed this pig, but he would have none of it.


So now we know: Goats are better than pigs.  It is nice to have THAT debate finally settled.


I had Colin in the baby carrier and tried to take a picture of the two of us together, but it really wasn't working out.


Darn these stubby arms of mine.  I finally gave up, and using my mind I levitated the camera out in front of me to get the shot.


There!  Don't know why I didn't do that in the first place.

Later on, Colin turned into a farmer.  That can happen sometimes.  



We did a  little of this:


and a little of that:


and then to top it all off we went on a hay ride and snapped this family picture,


which just proves that the children were having a swell time.  If you are wondering why Harrison is wearing shorts when it was clearly so cold outside, it is simply because he had TWO accidents while we were there, and the shorts were the only thing we had left. So, pretty standard evening. The end!

Oct 18, 2010

Camera Man

Harrison wanted to hold Colin, and they sat still for one picture,


but that was it for Harrison so I showed HIM how to take pictures.  Which he thought was WAY more fun, and he was really pretty good at.


love the expression on Colin's face.



But what he wanted to take pictures of was not us, but the carpet and the window and his toys.  So then I showed him how to take video, cuz I figured hearing him look at stuff through the camera would be lots more interesting than looking at the pictures.  

So now he is a camera man, and I think it is very cute.
So here is a video, by Harrison.