4. Soothing Repetition

January 29th

It takes a lot of blankets to put dad to sleep.

Brainwashed

I finally got brave enough to try the peanut test on Maison. The peanut test sounds irresponsible, but I'll justify it by the fact that I did tell the doctor (twice) that I was going to do it, and he didn't call social services on me or anything. Just told me to have Claritin on hand. So, I decided to give Maison some peanut butter to see if he's still allergic. He has never had a breathing reaction to it, more of a hive reaction, which is maybe why the doctor didn't seem too worried?

Anyways, I thought I'd make it fun and make PB-chocolate chip cookies with the kids. As soon as the peanut butter went into the dough Maison refused to touch it. Of course he LOVES cookie dough. Would. Not. Touch. It. Tried to get him to eat a cookie. Nope. He started crying when I gave him a chocolate chip with a little cookie on it, so I gave up.

Really, I didn't think I had brainwashed him so well. I would only remind him when I'd put a plate of PBJ sandwiches out when other kids were over. I'll have to think of a new plan now. A sneakier plan. Hmmmm...

3. Shades of Grey

My photo only fits this weeks theme because I changed it to black and white. The sky was actually bright blue and the dirt was, of course, brown. It's been so nice outside that we met my parents for a walk along the railroad trail out along Lake Mead. Then met Susie and Rob for Mexican breakfast on Boulder Highway.

This week Maison had his first dentist appointment. He wouldn't let them look in his mouth. His "cleaning" consisted of him brushing his own teeth with the hygenist's polish stuff. The doctor did get him to open up for a few seconds so she could peek in quickly and say it all looks good.

Madeline is a great dental patient. They said her four top front teeth will all fall out at the same time. They're already loose. For now, I'm not allowing her to eat whole apples. With all these loose teeth I was getting paranoid that all her teeth were going to fall out and no new ones would ever grow back in! I'm a worry wart (eww what an ugly word)...

2. Song title

Smile by Uncle Cracker

Maison, you make me smile...

Today, after Iphone-ing, DS-ing, playing in the backyard and playing with the train sets, and before going to dinner at GG's to see Aunt Susie, Thor got the kid's bikes out of the garage, pumped up the tires and they headed over to the park to ride. Maison was extra excited to ride in dad's truck.

I've been really noticing his scar on his lip lately. Almost like it's getting more noticable as he grows. He tipped over a folding lawn chair when he was barely walking and busted his lip. I can see the scar in this picture.

1. Around the house

In an effort to get this poor neglected blog back on track I'm going to commit (I use commit loosely. More like try-to-commit. Or commit-until-I-stop-committing) to a 52 week project. A picture and post a week. At least. For some extra inspiration that I'm hoping will help me document more than my children and their beautiful faces, I'll be following a weekly theme that gets posted on a website I sometimes read.

This weeks theme is around the house. This is one of my favorite pots (I sort of have a thing for kitchenware). Since it's too big to fit in any cupboards in our itty bitty kitchen, it sits on our counter to hold some of our fruits and veges. The oranges are from my Aunt & Uncles orange tree in their back yard in Phoenix. I didn't know, until last year, that some of the best oranges come from Arizona.

Tooth.

4. Seems too little to be losing teeth. She lost it and lost it at the same time. We thought maybe she ate it, but after a little freak out we decided it was just lost in the carpet. The Tooth Fairy did indeed find it and left payment and a nice tooth pillow for next time.

HOLY FREAK

I'm so far behind on this ol' bloggity blog I don't even know where to begin. How about a quick summer recap: We did lots. Alrighty, moving on.

So, we moved. Into a tiny house. In a not-anywhere-as-nice-as-our-old-neighborhood neighborhood. The kids love it here. They were not affected one bit. They like their bedrooms and the all dirt backyard.

It's a nice little house. Very (VERY) cozy. We have only one TV to share instead of three. We have only one living room instead of two. We spend A LOT more time very close to each other. Thor spends A LOT more time watching Tinkerbell and Avatar (I know...bad parents, it is rated PG13!). My "office" is the kitchen table.

I miss our old neighborhood. I miss being able to leave my trunk open while I bring the groceries in and not have to worry someone will steal my stuff (I may be slightly paranoid... but, only slightly as I have already had my Ipod stolen).

The dusting and general messiness is horrendous. But this is TEMPORARY. We aren't sure how temporary, but we're shooting for May. We hope. But if it doesn't happen, we are perfectly fine right here. Seriously, people live in worse. I have to get over this spoiledness. Ughhh.

Enough spoiled-brattiness. Here's a picture of Madeline helping potty-train Maison:


At least I have cute kids to make my day better. :)

Little known fact

Maison will only sleep on a pink pillowcase. It was all we had the first time he decided to want a pillow and now he cries if I try to replace it with anything else. I sure hope he grows out of that before high school.

1800 miles

Rental motorhome: check
Two kids, dog and husband: check
Lots of cookies: check
DVD player: oops
Car sick meds: check
Iphones: check (thank god)

We left on Friday morning and headed toward the Colorado Rockies. Met my parents and the boys right outside of Cedar City. I think we made it all of the way to Grand Junction that first day. Dad tried to find us a scenic spot to camp, but settled on an Albertson's parking lot instead. Sophie did not understand that, yes, we really expected her to pee in that rock landscaping. And yes, she was going to have to do it while attached to the leash.

From there we went to Thor's parents and stayed the next night parked behind their restaurant. It's a lot like camping, right by the woods, but right by a nice restaurant with a nice flushing toilet too. We almost didn't want to go "rough it" at our campground campsite.

We stayed 3 nights up visiting Thor's parents and his Grandma. Roy and Barb treated us to an awesome BBQ (in the rain) up at their farm/house and lots of breakfasts at the restaurant. Anna looks great and we were able to go visit at her house for a bit one day too. Maison was his grumpier self having missed lots of naps. Ian and Max loved everything- the restaurant, the animals, the woods, and Roy and Barb. And Madeline was THRILLED to see Oma and Grandpa Roy. And their office/car doggy, Tara.

The second half of the trip, we hee-hawed back through Grand Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and Silverton. I have never in my whole life seen mountains so beautiful, ever. If I don't think about wintertime I can move Ouray, and the vicinity, to #2 on my Wish to Live Someday list. (California coast will always be #1, of course.)

Then we broke off from my parents to get home a little quicker and went through Hell with a pretty sunset. I think it was Highway 160, Northern Arizona. There were lots of cars, but we couldn't, for the life of us, figure out where they were coming from or where they were going. We slept on the side of the road. Nastiness. Hope to never have to drive that again.

For more pictures of the wonderfulness that filled our vacation go here!

Ooooo Scaawy Zombieeesss!!!

Ouch, that looks like it hurts! They obviously aren't worried about skin elasticity or saggy eyelids.

Monkey song

ME:
Two little monkeys jumping on the bed
one fell off and bumped his head
mama called the doctor and the doctor said...

MADELINE:
No more monkeys swinging on the couch??

You saw her here first, Folks!

Unless you already read my mom's blog, then you saw her here second.

recessed

This is what happened: one minute we decided it might be time to start looking into selling our house, the next minute it was listed, and about 12 seconds later it was sold.

Oh well. At least we have our health, right?

Maison in nature

Back when the weather was still nice, my mom and I took the kids up to Red Rock for a little hike. Turns out Maison isn't much into nature walks.






Walking on rocks was scary for him. The other kids had fun though. And we we made it to the little waterfall without getting rained on (the weather was kinda crazy that day).

Our Gremlin