Ethan's Guitar Solo (with Libby on backup)

The lyrics:
Oh I love my family!
I like Christmas!
And so excited that (Libby: "I so 'cited!") Santa came when we were asleeeeeep!

Ethan's Story

The kids wrote books this morning inside empty cereal boxes. Then Ethan "read" me the story he wrote. "Once upon a time an alligator and a shark lived in a river. They jumped out and grabbed someone. Then they ate him...alive. And I love everyone except Grandma and Heidi and Grandma and Grandpa and Great Grandma."

Grocery Shopping with Kids

There are joys of parenting no one tells you about. One of them is going grocery shopping with a almost four year old boy and a two year old girl the week before Christmas. They don't tell you this because no one would have children if they did. It goes like thus:

Before even leaving the house it begins. "Mom I want a toy at Winco (the grocery store)" from the boy child. "No, we are not getting a toy at Winco." He responds "Write toy on the list, T-O-Y, toy." "No, we are not getting a toy" They manage to get out the door and get everyone buckled into the car. Half way to the store the boy starts kicking and screaming because he has to go potty. NOW! Understand that the store is scarcely over a mile from the house. In the two minutes between the house and the store he is going to explode, and he is letting everyone know in a very loud speech the situation. They park the car and rush to unbuckle everyone because there is no time for wet pants right now. And then a miracle happens, the minute the boy child is unbuckled it isn't quite so urgent that he use the potty. They dash into the store through a pouring rain. Of course all of the giant double seater shopping carts are dripping wet. Off they troop to the bathroom, letting the boy do his business and trying to use the cheap brown paper towels to at least dry where the kids bums will sit.

Then the shopping begins. "I want apples" from the girl. "We have some at home" from the Mom. Pouting ensues. Further into the store "I want candy" from the girl. "No we don't need candy" from mom. The girl with a quizzical look "It no dood for mine body?" Well at least they listen sometimes. The boy child: "It is a special treat". Mom swells with pride. It is her one brief moment of grandeur. It was brief. If someone had taken the time to count the girl would of said "I want...." a total of 825 times and the boy 463 times. Then a fight ensued over who got to hold the marshmallows for the boy's birthday cake. That was a battle that all parties lost and many bitter tears were shed over. The same battle was then fought over the chocolate chips with the same results. Then the same battle over the peanuts, same results. Then the same battle...well you get the picture.

The checkout counter was finally spotted. An end was in sight. The children helped put the groceries on the belt. Another battle started over who got to put the eggs on the belt. Mom won that round and thankfully there were no casualties. Then the children spotted the curly Santa straws. By this time they are both out of the cart so they can "help". The boy grabs one off the display. "I want this" The mother says through an exhausted haze "No, but maybe Santa will bring it to you." The girl child grabs a handful of straws "Santa bing tis to me." "Maybe, but right now you need to put it back." Then they must bag the groceries. They love Winco because it is cheap, but bagging your own groceries is the trade off. Of course the children want to help with this. The boy child keeps pushing the button to move the belt, coming perilously close to crushing the once-rescued eggs. The girl child keeps trying to push the giant cart out of the store and running over poor unsuspecting shoppers. Then they spot the marshmallows. Exact repeat of original fight, only now it is over who gets to put them in the bag. Mom finally lets the girl child bag them, retrieve them and let the boy child re-bag them. Peace, such as it is, is momentarily restored. The mom manages to remember to pay for the groceries and make it back out into the pouring rain. The boy child and her both realize the boy isn't wearing his coat, it is under forty pounds of groceries. The coat gets dug out the the boy partially covered with it. Everything and everyone gets loaded into the car and head home. The dad is home by the time they return. "How was the store?" Mom responds, "Oh, about normal."

Ethan-Soon to be World Famous Photographer

Winter Wonderland

We got several inches of snow about a week ago. The kids were in heaven. So much white cold joy had been dumped in their very own backyard. After we made the snowman we had a rousing snowball fight. It is so fun that the kids are finally old enough to enjoy things like this. The poor snowman toppled within hours and was completely melted by the end of the day.

Christmas Tree

We are so excited for Christmas. Alright to be honest right now only the kids and I are excited. Michael is to bogged down with finals to find his Christmas spirit. Only three more days though and then he can celebrate too. The kids are loving redecorating the trees fourteen times a day, thankfully we don't have very many breakable ornaments. The pictures are a little weird because I had the camera on the wrong setting.

Our new pets

It's kind of hard to see them in the picture but I have about 500 red wiggly worms that live in a bin in my laundry room right now. We can't have a compost pile and being the hippy that I am, I just couldn't keep throwing out our food scraps. That is where the worms come in. As long as I keep their bedding moist they are more then happy to eat most of our food scraps.
The kids love to look at and feed the worms. Ethan will touch them but Libby just squeals and scoots away when I pull one out.