busybee

Tis the Season...

 

We were driving across town the other day, the little kids and I, when we passed a car dealership that had a BIG sign that displayed the temperature.  Alyza, decided to show off her smarts and said...

"Mom!  It's twenty-seven degrees Fahrenheit right now!"

"That's right, it is!"

"The F stands for Fahrenheit!"  she noted.

I decided to test her knowledge a bit, so I asked...

"Do you know what it stands for when there's a C instead of an F?"

There was a moment of silence, as she thought through her answer, and finally she responded...

"The C stands for COLD, Mom."

Of course it does!!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree...

Over the weekend, we got our TIMBER on, and went off in search of the perfect Christmas tree...  This was my first time ever cutting down a live tree to have in my home for the holidays.  So we suited all up like little sausages in our winter gear, and trekked off to Rossview Farm to find that perfect tree...

 
 
 

And after braving the elements with two kids who were not listening, one kid who absolutely refused to walk in the snow, and one kid who's "leeeeegggggssssssss huuuuuuurrrrttttt."  And after dragging the HEAVY tree up the hill in a sled, strapping it to the car, lugging it into the house, setting it all up and then realizing that the tree looked MUCH smaller in the field than it did in our living room (HOLY CRAP IT'S FREAKEN HUGE).....  Jeff turned to me and said:  "Wasn't that fun?"

 

Yup...  It certainly was.
 
 
 

today in pictures...

Today was an awesome day!!  We took all of the kids to a holiday parade...

 
 
 
 
 
The kids had a great time, and it was a nice mild day - perfect!

 
Spent the afternoon at Jeff's parent's house, the kids got to play outside...

The Lewis boys climbed a tree...
  

We came home and decorated the house for Christmas...  We set up one of the two Christmas trees we will have this year...  We had just one casualty this year...

 

Ended the day with a batch PB chocolate cupcakes (Jeff's favorite) and about to settle in and watch the Project Runway season finale on DVR...

Life is good today... 

 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

Where I prove to you how immature I still am.

Remember these guys?

Well, they were a hit last christmas.  They've been floating around the kids playroom ever since, most recently were part of an impromptu puppet show that all 6 of us in the Lewis/Johnson house took part in...Yesterday, that little yellow guy ended up in the livingroom, where Jeff's kids were playing volleyball with him.  No, internet, I do not know why.  That is just what boys do.

Later in the evening, as I was cooking dinner, I heard a ruckus in the livingroom and I peeked around the wall to see what was going on...

Jeff was pretending to pull the yellow monster out of the little kids' ears and they were in absolute hysterics about it.  Often times, what will happen is that Jeff will spend about 10 minutes doing something ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS to rile the kids all up and then he'll wander off and leave them pinging off the walls like little pin-balls.  This was no exception.

Alyza was so amused by the "monster in your ear trick" that she decided to try it for herself.  So she grabbed the little yellow monster and ran after Jeff.  Being that Jeff is approximately 47,000 feet taller than anyone in this house, she targeted the only thing within her reach, and SQUEALED...

"THERE'S A MONSTER IN YOUR PANTS!!!!!"

She then turned to me and said "MOMMY THERE'S A MONSTER IN JEFF'S PANTS!!  LOOK!!!"

I looked over at Jeff, who was looking at me, and I am pretty sure both of us were thinking:

"That's what she said."

rake rake rake...

That is what I did today.

Holy.

Crap.

You have never seen so many leaves in your freaken LIFE!  Thank you man-kind for the creation of leaf-blowers, and thank you Dad for saving the day!  My blistered hands are grateful!

A couple shots from Halloween.  We got a bit rained on, but still managed to have a great time.  This year we had a froggy and a butterfly...

Happy November!

 

irrational fear, as depicted by a 1st-grader.

1st graders are BUSY PEOPLE.  Let me just tell you about the pile of papers that has accumulated in my kitchen.  Every day, I pull a stack out of Alyza's backpack that is the size of Mt. Washington, I kid you not.

Every so often, as time allows, I rummage through the pile, seeing what she is learning, and how she is doing.  The other day, I discovered that Alyza has been learning about spiders.

I had to pause for a moment, when I saw the following worksheet...

I thought it rather interesting that although the instructions clearly say to draw just a spider in the box, she also included a person screaming, so I asked her about it.

Her response...

"Oh, That's YOU Mom.  I made you screaming..."

 

The Growing Little Peanut...

Just wanted to talk about my Peanut.  She is a big girl now.  She is a first-grader and she does things like recess, and gym class, and "hanging out" with friends.  She is too cool to wear her backpack the correct way, but too little to carry all of the weight on one shoulder.  She rolls her eyes at me when I tell her to eat her sandwich before her cookies, yet she runs to hug me good-bye as I turn to walk away from the school yard...

The day she discovered she was going to have art class, she was BESIDE HERSELF.  I love that so much.  She came home with this lovely painting, which we hung on the fridge.

On the first day of school, I stuck a heart-shaped love note in her lunchbox.  The other day when I went to use my laptop I found the following note stuck to the front...

My favorite part is:  Love=Alyza.

(That picture makes the note look HUGE, when actually I was just holding it close to the webcam.)

Anyway...  Love my peanut.  Love watching her take off and soar.  Love the excitement in her little peanut eyes. 

I am unbelievably lucky to know her... 

Amused.

When I saw this picture earlier today, I laughed so hard I cried.

At first, I giggled at the image of Jeff driving down the street in this truck.  Because, let's face it, a grown man towing a robotic pony - that's pretty funny.  But it's when you start to think about the innocent bystander who will witness this debacle pass him by, well that's when it really starts to be funny.  Because you know he's going to stop in his tracks, do a double-take, and try to make sense of the situation.

And no matter how hard he tries, unless he's got a 6-year-old daughter at home, it will just never make sense.

And that is what's funny about it.

His spirit is strong, his arm - not so much.

My son.

The most uncooperative photograph subject to ever exist.

Just wanted a couple shots to document the busted arm...

What he lacks in photogenic qualities, he makes up for with his spirit - that is for sure.  This boy has not ONCE complained about this heavy, clunky cast or the pain of the broken arm within it.  Amazed by him, I am.  Yoda, I am not.

In other news...  My house is a disgusting display of complete disarray. (No, I am not Dr. Seuss either.)  I'm trying very hard to hold it together.  But chaos, and piles, and boxes, and empty walls, and not knowing where any of my stuff is = SHORT TEMPER AND TWITCHY.

Alyza announced to me that she was going to help me pack, and later I noticed this addition to the pile...

 

We may not know where our toothbrushes are...  But winter boots and backscratchers??  CHECK!!

well, shoot.

Had some technical difficulties there...  But now appear to be back in business.

WHAT. THE. HECK. IS. GOING. ON. WITH. ME?  WHERE AM I?  WHY AM I NOT POSTING ANYMORE?

I wish I had some super-amazing explanation, like:  Aliens landed their spaceship on my patio and took me hostage, leaving in my place a slightly less amusing version of myself who did not have the password to my computer, and therefore did not keep the blog updated.

But I have no explanation.  Not even for myself.  I just feel myself changing.  Everything about me seems to go through some sort of major renovation every 3-5 years...  It's that time again, apparently.

I am being forced to find a new home, and with that change is a renovation so grandiose that it will blow your mind...  More on that soon.

PAINTINGS!!!

Tonight, I discovered that Keegan will GOBBLE UP his dinosaur shaped chicken nuggets if I make them talk to him in funny voices...  I started to be excited about that until I really thought about how weird - and slightly creepy - that actually is...

Be patient with me.  I will come back around...