Avril should call us!

I'm sure thanks to my household, Avril Lavigne's Girlfriend was On Demand's Most Requested video, followed by Fergie's Big Girls Don't Cry. I personally believe Avril should call Addie herself to thank her for making this achievement come true!




Onkteb and Aunt Gail have officially moved up to Providence now. They plan on coming back once a month to visit. Here are the pictures from Onkteb saying goodbye the other night.











Ben has become a daredevil. His latest feat:




Note the self-confidence as he claps for himself each time he stands on something dangerous!


Finally, a message to Muddy and Guppy, who are busy enjoying the weather in southern California.

Stories of Christmas gone bye-bye

So some of the stories of Christmas, with our special visitors Aunt Amanda and Uncle Jeremy from New Hampshire, along with the usual suspects:





On Saturday we went to dinner at the Charcoal Pit with Amanda, Jeremy, Muddy, Guppy, Onkteb and Aunt Gail. Addie of course had to sit in between Amanda and Jeremy. While engaging in mind-blowing conversations, such as how to pull one's hair around to her face and make a mustache with it, Jeremy's tattoos came up. My brother's arms are basically big tattoos. He was showing Addie all of the different pictures, and talking to her about them. Both Muddy and I were interjecting things like, "Addie, you'll never get a tattoo, right?" and "Only Uncle Jeremy can have them." Well the conversation died down and we went on to talk about something else. At that point, Addie looks at Uncle Jeremy, sticks her index finger out, shakes it at him and says very sternly, "Not nice. We only draw on paper!" OMG, if only someone had been recording that, it was priceless.

Evidence #1

Evidence #2

And it wouldn't be Christmas with our family unless something totally inappropriate happened. See below. I don't think words can justify this cruel occurrence. So I'll say nothing. (Do know, however, that he had NO idea he was walking around like this. Poor kid! Where were his parents?)


Ok, so it's not from Christmas, but close enough. Below is a picture of Ben after demolishing my ice cream cake birthday cake. It looks as if he's trying the very popular camo look for 2008?

The playhouse serves multiple purposes. Most recently it was a bakery for Pastry Chef Addie.


Brian and I went to the movies on Saturday night. We saw The Great Debaters with Denzel Washington. You MUST see this movie. It should be mandatory in every high school in America too!

Lots o pictures!

On the train, with Aunt Amanda in the background

How many people can you cram into a Little Tikes Town Playhouse?

Showing off their matching Elmo slippers

This was after playing in the parachute that Muddy and Guppy gave the kids! Look at that static!

Merry Christmas to all!

Pictures of late

Quick updates

Ben is asleep on my right arm, so some quick one-handed updates:

• Addie did convince her class to sing "Happy Birthday" to her at her holiday part.


• When she saw the whole tree decorated yesterday, she said "Hey! I don't remember this one...or this one..."


• She saw the angel on top & said, "The angel doesn't have a face." It's a translucent shell-type thing. "We need to go buy her a face."


• Uncle Jeremy & Aunt Amanda are here now! When telling Addie last night that they were coming, she said, "I'm gonna say 'uncle jeremy!' and run to him." She did the arm motions like she was running.

Here's the tree:

Something about a tree lit pic makes my heart melt

Special Hello to Louise! Thanks for letting us borrow J & A this Christmas. A is having a blast w/ the kids!

Look at how amazing this is!

Not far from our house, this is what we found tonight. In one word: AMAZING! It's one guy's house!

Almost time!

Well, the holidays are rapidly approaching and there's still so much to do. I sent the kids to daycare yesterday, just so I could stay home to wrap presents and bake cookies. Their final "big" present arrived yesterday as well. The box is bigger than I am! I had to manage it down the stairs into the basement. Let me just say, Christmas Eve assembling is going to be f-u-n.

We had Winter pasta last night for dinner. Ben was covered in spaghetti sauce, better than ever before. I'll try to upload those pictures tonight.

Guess what? The tree still isn't fully decorated! Ben is really quick at taking instruments off too. Between the two of them, I think we'll have a tree with glass ornaments from about 4 feet up, and that'll be it.

Today is the daycare holiday party at 3pm. Addie was excited because we have to bring in cookies for the party. Unfortunately, she's convinced it her birthday party. The whole ride there this morning she sang "Happy Birthday to Addie." I can only wait til the party starts; she'll probably convince the whole class to sing to her. That's my little leader.

Back to life as usual

Try to catch you all up to what's been going on in our lives...

Our weekend days are spent with fires roaring in the fireplace. Addie and Ben are big helps in getting the fire going...

Ben has been enjoying being pulled around in the MegaBlocks cart.

How they sat watching "The Grinch"

The tree with Addie's "instruments" just moments after it was brought in the house

Our Christmas card display & our cookie tins filled with delicious cookies

Last night I started putting the lights on the tree and found that Ben is concerned that the tree eats me. As soon as I go behind the tree, he starts FREAKING out. I did many trials of this (sorry Miss Nay, I know you think it's mean) and I'm convinced this is definitely what he's thinking.

We're decorating it tonight!! Hallelujah!

Final Disney pictures

"Things to do in Disney that have nothing to do with being in Disney"


Apparently the broom and dustpan in Disney are much more interesting than the ones at our house!









Also, the curtain in the hotel room is much more interesting here than at home



Almost our Christmas card picture, but my eyes are too squinty.

Too bad Ben (and Santa) is looking down

Addie and her best friend Pluto

Cute!

I had crazy hair here.

Christmas things

Last night Brian and Addie bought our Christmas tree. We'll be decorating it tonight. However, not 30 seconds after we got the tree standing up, Addie said, "Come on. Let's put on the instruments." Isn't that cute? She has a bunch of "instruments" that we've bought recently, so she's really excited.

* I have a picture of it that I'll upload tonight*

Here's an attempt at taking a picture of our mantel decorated.

Here's Ben yesterday. If I didn't already have the Christmas cards done and sent, I would've used this one!

Finally, Muddy and Guppy's house outfront. Doesn't that look awesome!!?? Of course she made it all.

Addie's actually smiling in that bottom picture.