A Contest...

No, no prize.

Just the pride an joy of winning, which in my competitive family is plenty.

The question is.....

What is going on in this picture???

I was going to post this picture before, but didn't get a chance to write out the explanation. In just looking at the picture, I figure it needed one. Then, I wondered what you all might think is going on. So, lets hear it before I tell you the real story. I'm really curious as to whether any of you can guess.

More Christmas Bits...

Ok, this video didn't go as I planned at all. But, I had to post it anyway.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Charlie loves animated singing toys/decorations. When we go shopping, we always have to stop to visit all of the singing "friends" in the seasonal decoration department of Target, or Jewel, or Hallmark, or wherever we are.

When we pulled our our Christmas decorations out this year, Charlie fell in love with this Jingle Bell-ing Santa that we received from Spencer's mom a couple of years ago. After we took it out of the box this year, Charlie played it CONSTANTLY...he played it so much that the crazy song was stuck in my head all of the time. It was kind of driving me crazy.

But, then Charlie started singing with Santa and it was so cute. I went from hating that toy to loving it. Charlie has such a sweet, little singing voice and I love hearing him sing along with the big man.

So, that is why I had to post the video. Even though Charlie was much more interested in his toes(?) than the Santa on this particular night, I still had to get him on video with the singing Santa. I'm thinking with the amount of play and abuse this Santa took this year, he won't be around for too many more Christmases and I just had to capture him in action with Charlie.

There is one more quick, funny story about Charlie and his Santa... One day, Charlie had the Santa on the coffee table. He was playing with the Santa and watching a show on tv at the same time. So, he would push the button on Santa and then turn around to watch his show. When Santa finished, Charlie would turn to push the button again and then turn around again to finish watching his show. I was making dinner in the kitchen and not paying too much attention to what he was doing. But, then I heard him saying "ow, ow, ow, ow" the whole time that Santa was singing. Then when Santa was finished singing, the "ow-ing" stopped. Of course, Charlie would push the button again and then I would hear him saying "ow, ow, ow" again. I went to see what was going on. It was so funny....if you notice in the video, Santa is swinging jingle bells. Well, Charlie was standing too close to Santa and kept getting whacked in the back of the head with Santa's jingle bells. It was so funny because he kept doing it....*he* kept pushing that button and *he* kept standing in the same place getting whacked in the head.

He made me laugh so hard!!

I loved this...

WHO IS YOUR ROLE MODEL???

Try it without looking at the answers......Please don't look down until you do it, you'll love it I promise.

GET A CALCULATOR (YOUR COMPUTER HAS ONE ON IT)

1) Pick your favorite number between 1-9

2) Multiply by 3

3) Then add 3, then again multiply by 3 (I'll wait while you get the calculator....)

4) You'll get a 2 or 3 digit number

5) Add those digits together Now Scroll down .............. Now with that number see who your ROLE MODEL is from the list below:

1. Einstein

2. Nelson Mandela

3. Abraham Lincoln

4. Helen Keller

5. Bill Gates

6. Gandhi

7. George Bush

8. Thomas Edison

9. Me....Kelly!!!

10. Barack Obama

P.S.: Stop picking different numbers. I am your idol, just deal with it!!!!

Miscellaneous Nippy Antics

We thoroughly enjoyed our visit with Nippy. I already posted about some of the fun things that he did while he was here. I thought I would do one final Nippy post and include other miscellaneous pictures of his antics.



Nippy liked to leave treats for the boys and even mom and dad some times. We found him one morning hanging out in the freezer. I guess he didn't think Chicago was cold enough?!?! Later that afternoon, we found some green ice cream with red sprinkles for everyone.





One afternoon, he left the boys a plate of cookies.

They were well received. These kids LOVE cookies!!

He enjoyed playing and hiding in some of our Christmas decorations. The boys really enjoyed searching for him every morning and after school. This was one of the hiding places that gave the boys a difficult time. Charlie actually found him first. Whenever Charlie found Nippy, he would yell "Nippy...YAY!!!" over and over again.

He took a ride on the train...his note said that he was wondering if the train went to the North Pole.
It took us several days to finish putting out all of our Christmas decorations....or maybe a week, or 2. While we were "in process", we had put all of the Christmas figurines and stuff on a coffee table. Nippy apparently made friends with all of the Christmas guys and they all had a snow ball fight in the middle of the night. The boys thought that was too cool!!

And finally, Nippy got a little homesick for the North Pole and decided that we did not have enough snow. So, he made a "winter wonderland" in the boys' bedroom with toilet paper. The boys were definitely surprised when they woke up the next morning.

The other day, Jack and Drew were talking about how Nippy would be leaving us on Christmas Eve. Jack said that he hopes that Santa sends an elf again next year. Drew said that he really hopes that Santa sends Nippy back to our house next year. Jack asked him what difference did it make if Santa sent Nippy, or a different elf. Drew was appalled, he said that he wants Nippy to come back to our house because he loves NIPPY!! So sweet! I hope Santa sends Nippy back too.

Thanks Santa!!

To all of my favorite...

...family members, friends and perfect strangers:

We hope that you had a wonderful Christmas!!!

We did!!!

Us, with Grandmom Adelaide

My mom and dad with all of their GrandSONS!

The Cousins

Sisters...can you tell?

And, yes, I did get the 4th of July stuff put away...

Charlie's favorite gift. Unfortunately, it wasn't for him. But, FORTUNATELY, it doesn't seem like his cousin minds that he's borrowing it...we'll see how his cousin feels when he is done eating the dvd.

Lots of presents...

A singing Yo Gabba Gabba...Fabulous! ;) Busy babies equals a thirsty mommy.
What a great gift....I'm glad you thought so. :)

Merry Christmas from our family to yours...

In case you were wondering....

...how the Chicago Bears managed to pull off that win last night against Green Bay.

We found the answer when we got up this morning...

Nippy

With this note....

It did seem like the Bears got a little "extra" help last night. Maybe Nippy was able to sneak out one of the links when they measured for that 1st down at the end of the game. Or maybe he had a hand in that blocked field goal kick by Green Bay.

Jack was pretty excited this morning when he found out that the Bears won. He was very, very sad to go to bed at 1/2 time with the Bears losing 14-3. I guess Nippy felt sorry for him.

I'm just sorry that Nippy is not going to stick around for next week, or dare we say the playoffs!!?!

A feel good post...

This is a "feel good" post for you...not me.....it actually makes me feel kinda lousy. But, I'm posting it because I am sure that it will make *you all* feel just great. Well, "all, you all"except for my mom. She's too nice. She'll feel sorry for me that I've been so busy (lazy). My mom is awesome.

So, here it is. Today is "Christmas Eve, Eve", as my children has been saying. Here is a picture, that I took today, of my dining room table.

Did you notice the nice 4th of July decorations on them? Actually, I did not put them on the table for the 4th of July, I put them on the table for Memorial Day. ouch!

I appreciate that none of you felt that you needed to comment about my patriotic decorations when I posted this picture from Spencer's mom's birthday.

But, her birthday was the same week as that disastrous election so, I probably could have made some connection to that.

Unfortunately, those stinkin' decorations were still there for my dad's birthday, which was the same week as Thanksgiving....a little harder to explain.

I guess that I have some work to do before everyone comes for Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow. At least I have some little elves to help me. ;)
I hope you are more prepared than me. ;)

Must be a triplet thing....

How comfortable can this be to watch tv while basically sitting on eachother? I guess they have been used to getting elbowed and knee'ed since before they were born and it doesn't bother them at all. It would drive me nuts. :)

A funny Nippy story...

I've got a lot of Nippy updates that I was going to put all in one post, but this story was kind of long so, I thought it deserved it's own post. Stay tuned for the rest of the updates, they are coming.

One day, Drew came home from school with only one shoe. It is not as bad as it sounds.... he was WEARING his boots and his shoes were supposed to be in his backback. Unfortunately, he did not zip his backpack so, by the time he got home, he only had one shoe. You may find it surprising that a child can lose a shoe in school but, I actually find it surprising that most days, 6 shoes, 6 boots, 6 mittens, 3 backpacks, 3 pairs of snowpants and 3 hats *do* come home from school. 1st grade teachers are miracle workers!!! Kindergarten and preschool teachers too!! ;)

Anyway, we don't have extra gym shoes. So, I sent him to school the next day with instructions to search lost & found for his shoe. After searching lost & found, he came home the next day and reported that he did not find it. There was not time that night to go buy another pair of shoes because we had homework, dinner and RE. Drew was a bit disappointed that he was going to miss PE the next day, but was handling it pretty well.

The next day, when Drew got home from school, he told me that he was able to go to PE because Nippy brought him shoes at school. Ben then jumped in and said that he had forgotten his gym shoes at home and Nippy had also brought him shoes....but, they were not his shoes, and they were a bit too small. Apparently, our silly elf accidentally switched the new gym shoes that he got for Drew, and brought them to Ben's class, and then brought Ben's shoes to Drew's class. But, regardless, both Ben and Drew lucked out that Nippy is with us becaues he brought their gym shoes to them, at school, and they know that their mom would NEVER have done that!!!

One final thing to add to this story..... Every night at dinner, Spencer asks the boys to tell him something about school. The fact that an ELF! brought their shoes to school didn't come up. It took A LOT of hints from me before they FINALLY remembered that a friggin' magical elf brought their shoes to school!!! Then it was "Oh yeah, Nippy brought our shoes to school, ummmm...can I have dessert now?" . I think we've got many years of Christmas magic left. :)

Flashback Friday

I'm not late. ;)

December 2002

I know, I know....

...and I'm so sorry that I have been neglecting my blog. Remember, I'm a procrastinator. In case you didn't know, the week before Christmas is an extra very busy week for procrastinators. All of you non-procrastinators have been preparing for the last month or two, but those of us that are true procrastinators just can't do that. I think we need to feel the pressure in order to be effective. So, my days and evenings have been filled with planning Christmas stuff, buying presents, and sending cards. Notice that I did not say "wrapping presents"...remember I'm a procrastinator, it's not Christmas yet! So, if you add all of the Christmas stuff to an un-planned school snow day, a "date night" that I could not pass up(thanks Jen!!), a Cub Scout outing and we'll just say "other stuff", the poor blog just had to take a back seat for a few days.

But, the bottom line is that I love my blog and have so much in my head to blog about. I'm getting there. I may be blogging Christmas stuff until February, but I'm working on it. ;)

Broken!

Last week, when we were leaving for church, our garage door opener broke. It made a horrible noise and then the motor continued to make noise, but nothing was moving. So, Spencer released the garage door, backed the van out and then got out to close the garage door again.

Of course, the boys were all in the van and were all very concerned about our broken garage door. Well, Charlie was just concerned that Daddy got out of the car...like I was going to jump into the drivers seat and leave Spencer on the driveway. But, besides Charlie, to everyone else, this broken garage door opener was a big deal. Everyone was shouting, "Where's Daddy going?", "What's Daddy doing?", "What is the matter with the garage door?", "Who's going to fix it?", "When are they going to fix it?", and my personal favorite "How are we going to keep living in THAT house?". Seriously?!?! I don't even know who said that, but they were serious...like the whole house was broken because we could no longer push a button to open the garage door.

I was cracking up inside, but then explained to them that when I was growing up, we did not have a button to open the garage door and my mom or dad always had to get out of the car to open and close the garage door AND! our garage was not even attached to our house so, we had to go outside to get to the garage. There was SILENCE in my car until Jack said "Are you JOKING?!?!?!" I wish my writing could capture the tone that he used when he said it. But, you'll just have to take my word that he was beyond shocked!

Whenever something breaks, Spencer and I debate about whether to call a repair man or just replace what is broken. We *always* make the wrong choice. We are pretty clueless about what to do when something breaks. Of course, we don't want to pay a repair man to come out to tell us that he can't fix it, but we also don't want to pay to replace something that can be fixed relatively easily.

So, I called the garage door repair person on Monday morning. Of course, it was the wrong choice. The guy pushed the button, said the the motor was broken and that he couldn't fix it. Nice. By this time, it is about 10 degrees outside and I was totally at this guy's mercy. I already owed him $90 for telling me that the garage door opener was broken. Whatever garage door opener he had to sell in his truck was mine. I called Spencer at work to confirm it was ok and then bought the nicest darn garage door opener that you have ever seen.

It not only opens the garage door...very, very quietly, I might add, but it also tells you the time...

And, the temperature of the garage!!! Which I guess will be very handy when deciding how long I can leave the groceries in the trunk of the car???


And, do you wonder what my kids thought of our brand new garage door opener?

Jack looked at it and said "cool. It is just like the Lord!!!"

Me: "Ummmm....what?"

Jack: "THE LORD!!! You know, the garage door opener is 3 in 1, the temperature, the time and opens the door. Just like the Lord is 3 in 1, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit".

Ummm, yeah. I'll take that as a compliment and assume that he approves of our new garage door opener. I hope so considering how much it cost. ;)

Sad news....

I had my 3rd blood test yesterday and we found out yesterday afternoon that my beta number went down. This essentially means that the pregnancy will not progress.

With starting this process a few months ago, we knew that the chance of us having baby number 5 was very low. However, after our amazing successes (4 tries/4 kids) with our other attempts, it was hard for us to not believe that it was going to happen. Then, when we got the positive pregnancy test and 2nd blood test indicated that things were going as expected, we did begin to believe and get excited about the fact that we were going to be blessed with 5 kids.

Life will definitely be much easier for us over especially the next year without all of the work and stresses that come with being pregnant and having a new baby, but we've spent so much time thinking and praying about this potential little person over the last few years and especially, the last couple of months, and really, especially, the last week that I am feeling very sad that we are not going to meet him.

We have a beautiful family thanks to modern medicine and especially God. 7.5 years ago, we never imagined that we would have the family that we do now. Our doctor told us that we had a 0% chance of getting pregnant on our own and a 16% chance of ever having a baby. Now look at us! At the moment, we are definitely disappointed and feeling sad, but God answered all of our prayers and has truly blessed us.

Thank you for all of support and love that you have given to us. Last week was definitely fun sharing this with all of you. I very much appreciated all of the phone calls and emails...thank you.

Flashback Friday

I opted for a "Warm Weather Flashback".

The boys got BigWheels for their 4th birthday.

They LOVED them!!

June 2006

And for a "SUPER Flashback Friday"

Oak Street, Summer 1976 (about)

Jen, Michael, Dominick, Jeff, Karen & Me (I think)