Cookie Monsters

My boys and I like cookies. And cookie dough. And playing with the mixer.

Jake at 20 months
Hayden at 18 months

Grandma Ruth

(Four Generations last year)

(Hayden with GG)
Early morning on New Year's Day, my grandma passed away.

My aunt Donna talks about her mother on her website. She sums up her mother's life beautifully so I won't even try to compare.

She was a great example of how to live life well.

Love you Grandma. Tell Grandpa hi for me.

My Poor Washing Machine

I've been frazzled lately trying to keep up with my house since Santa came with all these new toys. Lego's are on my dining room table, we cleared two shelves of our bookcase in the living room off to fit Jake's stuff, an entire bookcase has been taken over in the family room etc etc.. It also does not help that Jake is into everything. He drew on our computer monitor with a pencil, drew on his auntie's iPod with a permanent marker, drew on my tile with a crayon and picks stuffing out of the hole in my recliner. I tried to come up with strategies to handle it all. So far the 'I'm going to stand in the kitchen and stare' strategy is not working. Then I read an article in 'Shape' magazine (it was only five dollars with another subscription, I have no intention of getting into any kind of shape) telling me how to sanitize my home. Boy oh boy, that was a scary article. There are more germs on my bathroom floor than on the toilet seat apparently. Oh and you have to wash your hands after you place wet laundry in the dryer because the high temp in the dryer kills the germs that just washed all over your clothes. Anyway, feeling more than overwhelmed (because how am I supposed to sanitize a floor I cannot find under all those toys?), I just accepted the fact that the toys have taken over and I am going to have to stop caring.

Then it happened.

Living in a multi-level home, I often find myself throwing things down the stairs instead of carrying them. This morning I got Jake out of bed, changed his diaper, threw it downstairs, took all the bedding off both his crib and Hayden's bed and threw them down the stairs. After getting Jake's breakfast I scooped up the laundry and put it in my precious red front loading washer. Now I did all of this early so it would be dry before Jake's nap. Blanket, the beloved blanket, was also in this load. And apparently the diaper was in this load as well. I opened the door after the wash cycle ended to see tiny pieces of liquid absorbing gel all over everything. The door, the bedding, blanket. I was traumatized. The part of the diaper that makes them so absorbent was all over Jake's blanket. You want germs 'Shape' magazine? I'll give you germs.

Two hours and three wash cycles later, I had removed all of the gel I could see and felt comfortable putting them in the dryer. Now I just stare at the washer, remembering a time when it wasn't infested with urine, gel and blankets. That was a good time, a very good time indeed.

Moral of the story-My house wants to be dirty. I shouldn't even think about sanitizing it, or it will make me pay. And even though it would help to not throw things down the stairs, I'm not going to. So if you're ever in my house, don't stand at the bottom of the stairs.

UPDATE: I guess I don't know the names of my magazines. It was 'Health' magazine, not 'Shape'. Thank you for your time.

Best Invention Ever

I love cafeteria style trays for Jake. He likes to put things on the tray in their little squares. It's like a place mat and plate in one!

Christmas

Every year, Christmas celebrations start the evening before the big event-the boys get to open two presents each on Christmas eve. One gift is always pajamas, and the other is something the whole family can enjoy. Jake is still a tiny bit too little for some of the family activities so he opened a book, while Hayden opened Sorry Sliders. After Jake went to sleep we all played our game (pretty darn fun, by the way) and watched "The Polar Express". Hayden had a VERY hard time getting to sleep this year. He ended up sleeping in bed with Mommy and Dad was kicked out to Hayden's bed. We all fell asleep around one in the morning. It was very stressful because he was concerned that not being asleep by midnight meant that Santa would pass us by, but luckily it all worked out.

The next morning the kids got to open the rest of their gifts. Boy oh boy did they get a lot of stuff. I'm not sure what Santa was thinking. Jake's favorite things were the snowman sippy cup and Elmo Chatters toy.

Jake thought that maybe Elmo would enjoy some of his jelly beans.

Hayden's favorites were this plasma ball (his favorite place right now is the Planetarium and he saw one there-Santa really paid attention) and the game 'Mind Flex'.

Notice the shock and glee on his face. I love that face.

We are so lucky to have such beautiful (sorry, I mean handsome) boys. Now we are in a month long off track period with Hayden. That's good and bad. Jake loves Hayden and spends much of his time following him around. I love not driving him to and from school. But Hayden misses his class and gets bored a lot. A lot. All day long. He even tells me he's bored while he's actively engaged in a game. It's nice of him to alert me that he's going to be bored, in case I got too comfortable with the idea that he wasn't bored. Wish me luck!

Playing is Hard Work

They are tired after ten minutes of playing in the snow. It took longer than that to get them dressed to play in the snow.

German Man

This week in class Hayden chose Germany as the country he would like to learn about. He was supposed to learn some of their Christmas traditions and decorate a paper doll to represent that country. He chose Germany because there are a lot of people speaking German in the online game he plays. He wants to communicate with them. Daddy thought it would be a better plan to say that he wanted to learn about Germany because it seemed interesting. We found shots of lederhose (I have no clue if that's spelled correctly or used in the correct tense) and created his clothes. Didn't he do a good job? My favorite parts are the H on his chest and the lovely sock/shoe combo. We are so proud of how hard he works in class. It's hard to live in a house with such a smart boy. He makes us all feel inferior. Love ya Hayden!