gingerbread

"I love our gingerbread houses!"

-Quinny 9:15am

 Mimi and Uncle Bob worked on this house.  Mimi was the mastermind behind the large gingerbread man standing guard.  He is decorated on both sides - you could say he is two-faced.  He must have gotten tired in the night, because he was leaning against the house this morning.

 Robert and I worked on this house.

Haley and Robyn made the Christmas-tree forest.

art by mimi

This snowman is smiling because he is a teacher.
He is so happy that he doesn't know he is melting.
-Mia

 Mimi brought home some Christmas art the other day.

She is always very generous with what she makes.

It is usually labelled to a loved one.

As I was admiring these pieces, she asked if she could staple them.

I said sure, if you want to.

She told me she was having trouble with the stapler, however, in true mothering mode, I pretty much ignored her comment until I heard a clunk-clunk, clunk-clunk from the other room.

Upon investigation, I found her stapling her creation to my wall.

She had already stapled the snowman in her room.

I started laughing;  it was not received well.

 On a completely unrelated note, can you tell what this is?

We are not sure how this happened, but somehow Robert managed to get half of an eggshell in the dishwasher.

He has no recollection of this, but he was the last one to do the dishes.

He thinks it stuck to something in his mad rush to get the dishes done.

Robyn found the shell, nicely cleaned, the next day.

Who knew an eggshell could make it through a dishwashing?

We do now.

little jack horner

This poor kid gets made fun of all the time for how she talks, 

even strangers comment on it.

She tries so hard to talk.  

The best part is how many syllables she adds to one-syllable words.

I love it!

a date with mimi

Mimi cashed in her November Buck for bowling!

We had a wonderful time in our floresscennnnnnt shoeees.

WWWWWWe ended uppppppppppppppppppppp   at   Amazing Jakes ffffooor      thhe evening.       (Thereeeee      wwwwwweeeeeerrrrrrrrrree leeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaggues practicinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnng at ttttttttttttttthe eeee other bowiiinglllliiiiiing    allllley.)

Creamy Mimi is a great date.  She was patient when things didn't go exactly as planned, and she was flexible.  I should take lessons from her!  After we were done bowling, Mims helped herself to second dinner (mac & cheese and breadstick).  Then we had ice-cream cones.  I think I ate five of them.  I like to just barely fill them up.  About halfway gives it the best cone to ice cream ratio.  The cone is the best part after all.  After the ice cream, we went to Target and did a little shopping.  Mimi was fantastic at picking out her secret sibling gift - her sib is going to love it!  Thanks for a fun and memorable night, Mimi!

You might be wondering about the crazy typing at the top.  Well, I am pretty sure I have a ghost messing with my electronics.  While talking to Shelle on the phone the other day, we were interrupted by some weird noises that sounded like breathing and strange unintelligible talking.  And among some other strange events that I won't detail here, the keyboard just freaked out on me.  It started adding letters and deleting.  Okay, so it was probably time to change the battery in the keyboard, but I am sticking with my ghost theory;  it seems much more likely, right!?!  I thought I would keep the crazy typing as proof.

bob's b-day

Bob turned 33 the other day.

We all gathered to wish him well.

You've come a long way, baby brother.

Mimi, Bob, Grammy, Haley, & Robyn's foot

Grandpa

Robynie, Robert, & Eric

Bob, Quinn, Haley, Robyn, & Robert's knee

Kelsey, Thomas, Keegan, Rod, and Grammy

Glowing Grammy & Mimi

Robert (I don't know why he is flying the bird.) & Ricky

Eric, Thomas, Haley, Rod, Shana, Aunt Wanda, Grammy, & Grandpa

sunrise

This is our neighbor's house.

It was the best spot to see the sunrise the other day.

Because I do so much transporting of kids at crazy hours, I often get to see the sun rise and set.

At a time when things don't seem familiar, but they should, the sky makes me feel like I am home.

I missed these moment living away for so many years, and I welcome them back.

Simply breathtaking.

ornaments

We made ornaments the other day to give to Grammy for her birthday.

I wonder if she ever gets tired of getting Christmasy presents....

Whether or not she liked them, we had a great time making them.

I am not a very crafty person, but these were really hard to mess up.

We all made at least one ornament, and then we picked out our favorites to give away.

I am typically not a klutz, but while walking into Karen's house I found the step on her front pathway.

In the process, the ornament Robert had crafted found its way to the sidewalk.

Sorry, Robert.

Grammy only got six ornaments that day, and my knees got some black and blue ornaments.

no worries, she's in the dog house

 Total panic followed by complete relief in .5 seconds.

That is how I felt when I walked into Mimi and Quinn's room.

Shocked and worried, I saw that there was no Quinny in the bed.

It was dark, but it didn't take me too long to find her on the floor at the foot of her bed.

She was sound asleep next to the cardboard dog house.

(The little girls have taken a liking to constructing dog houses out of old boxes.  

Then they tie up their stuffed animals with rope, ribbon, sashes, etc. and drag them around the house.

Sometimes they tie up each other and pretend they are the dogs.

They want a real dog.)

Anyway.

I thought she had gotten up and played in her room.

She does that a lot, but she always gets back in bed.

Not this time.

I asked her why she slept on the floor.

She said she got hot.

Interesting way to cool off.

grammy turns 74

 She's 74 and fabulous!!

 Shelle, Robyn, and Robert

 Quinny, Grammy, Bekah, Alexa, and Allison

 Quinny looks like she forgot to blow the candles.  

The other four seem to know what's going on.

 Uncle Bob

 Eric said, "No, don't take my picture!"  

Shutting your eyes doesn't stop me.

 Shelle

 Bekah and Ricky

 Keegan

 Robyn and Mimi

 Shelle and Allison

 Classic Alexa face.

 Me with the birthday girl.

 The soon-to-be married couple - Kelsey and Thomas.

The sick and pregnant Shana with Karina.

Luckily Robyn stole my phone and started taking random shots of people when they weren't looking and didn't know.

This is the only picture of Grandpa.

The rest of the pictures are courtesy of Robyn.  I will go ahead and say thanks from all of us.  Thanks, Robyn.

 What?  You have a crooked nose.

 I see you in there, Robyn.