Monopoly

I won, I won!! I didn't even know it was possible to win Monopoly!London and Aspen wanted to play Monopoly one Sunday afternoon. I was beat to the world but played anyway because they wanted too so badly. We play a fun way where every time you buy something, or pay taxes or anything you put it in the middle of the board instead of back to the bank. Then if a person lands on "Free Parking" it's like winning the Lottery and they get all the cash in the middle. Well, I won that twice. So every property I owned had a Castle (Hotel in Disney Monopoly) on it. So when they landed on my property they'd owe me something crazy like $1,500. It was awesome, the game was over in about an hour.

This was the only property on the entire board that I didn't own by the end. London and Aspen both went bankrupt, it was a sad day for them. But they will always be able to say they've actually played a game of Monopoly where somebody won. I'm 31, and this is the first time I've ever seen it happen.

Lucky for me, it was Me! :)

Ice Ice Baby, It's Cold!!

I don't know about your fridge, but mine freezes everything if it's in the back of the fridge for too long. I don't actually know what was in the container, but Sicily was happy to discover a huge circle of ice to play with. Though she found out really quick that "playing" with ice is not as fun as you think it's going to be.

"It's cold!!"

Jared 2 Birthday's

Jared turned 35 on Feb 13th. He randomly decided he wanted to invite a few friends over on his Birthday for some cake. So we had a good time, with 2 little families and lots of cake and ice cream.He was happy to blow out just 2 candles that said 35!But then it was time for the real party. I'd been planning a surprise party for weeks, and he had no idea. So 2 parties in a row was a lot of fun. First came the decorations.Then came all the guests. We had some 30 adults and 75+ kids.

25 Little Ceasar's Pizzas and an entire sheet cake later, we were ready to get the carpets cleaned.

It was a big important Birthday. And he was officially surprised, had no idea at all. :) YEAH!! Happy 35th Baby, we love you!

Broken Piano

We've had this piano for over 6 years. It's been shipped to Australia, over to New Mexico then not too gently stuffed in and shipped to Texas. We're lucky it's made it this far. But apparently the roughest thing we could do to it is play it. London's been taking lessons now for about 4 years and Aspen's going on 2. The key just broke off one day, slowly worked it's way loose mind, but eventually just broke off.Don't worry, Jared, of course, was able to fix it. Just glued the key back on. The 3 white keys were all stuck together for a time but it's all good now. :)

Chocolate Snakes Book Report

This was the funnest book report I've every helped with. London had to make a box of cereal that went along with his book. He read "Series of Unfortunate Events, The Reptile Room."

The name of the cereal had to do something with the book, but also describe the shape and color of the cereal inside. The Ingredients were the Characters and a sentence or two describing them.

The opposite side listed beginning, middle and end of the story. Things to strike your interest in the book.

And of course a game, gotta have a game.

When they all turned in their reports they were displayed in the school library. London was one of the few that was smart enough to do it on the computer. Made it look a little more professional, and it was easier I might add. Just imagine 200 + boxes of cereal on display amongst the books. Such a good idea, and a lot of fun too.

An Apple A Day

Keeps the Doctor away! But which apple should I choose? Aren't they all so beautiful. I was sad when I went to the store and realised I had no green apples in this picture. The bright yellow one is my favorite. I only bought it because it was so pretty, so I was happy to see it was tasty too.

Squish Me Daddy

Notice the little feet poking out on the sides.

"Squish me Daddy, Squish me! Hee, Hee, Hee, Hee!!!"

Pinkalicious

Sicily is all into the PINK at the moment. So with PINK comes "PINKALICIOUS." If you have not had the opportunity to read this book, please track it down from your local library and have a little read. It is adorable and super cute for a little PINK 3 year old girlie girl.

In this book it is raining, so little daughter and Mommy decided to make PINK Cupcakes. But the little girl eats too many and in the morning she is pink.
Sicily tried and tried to convince me to let her have multiple cupcakes. "But I want to be Pink, Mama." She did not understand why I would not let her turn pink. :)

Cooking Mishap

And this is why 2 people should never cook in the same kitchen at the same time. Jared wanted to make rolls for dinner while I was in charge of the main course. Well, rolls come first of course because they have to rise. So while I took a Sunday nap Jared made a start on the rolls, then left to go Home Teaching. I then came downstairs and turned on the oven to get it warmed up for the Roast, or whatever I was making.

It takes a good 10 mins or so to prep the food so by then the oven was up to 350-400. I opened to door to put in my stuff and found the roll dough in this melted/melting mixing bowl. AUGH!!! Put my food down, quickly got this out, wasn't sure what to do about the melted plastic on the bottom of the oven, so I just stuck my food in anyway.

Luckily the rolls had not cooked all the way through. The nice warm (warmer than Jared had meant it to be) oven had really made them rise, and the outside was only just starting to crust. I quickly shaped them out into 3 little pans and let the very hot dough rest for a minute.

In the end, dinner was great, the little loaves of bread were tasty and there was only a slight hint of melted wax in the air. Next time Jared said he'll leave a note on the oven to let me know the dough is in there rising.

Jared's "Work"

Jared has been every so busy at work doing all sorts of things. But the latest and greatest was designing this conference table. Isn't it the coolest. The metal things in the middle are plugs that flip up and down so everyone can plug in their lap tops, it also has 13 Internet cables and a VGA cable that makes the projector function.

Painting Ceramics

We found a fun family activity to do on a slow Saturday. This store up the road has about any ceramic you would want to paint. From dragons to honeypots. It was such a fun afternoon that the kids want to go back every Saturday.

London took such a long time picking out his wizard that he didn't get to finish, so he and I will go back another day. Aspen wanted a hot chocolate cup. She put her name on it and everything.

Phoenix, of course, needed something boyish. An alligator apparently fit the bill.

I was so happy with what Sicily picked. I was actually going to get it for her the week earlier when I was in there myself. Though I must admit I wouldn't have painted the sheep as cute as she did.

So when you're all done painting your piece you give it to the owner for a week. He glazes and fires it and viola, you have a beautiful shiny nick knack for your shelf.

Playing Dr.

Sicily and her friend Kayla have started to play Doctor while at Playgroup. I'm ok with this because they mostly do it on their baby dolls. But Sicily told me today that she tried to give Kayla some "medicine."

"Kayla not like medsin in her eyeballs...she too wiggly."

Well, I'd be a bit wiggly too if Sicily tried to put medicine in my eyeballs.

I Can See!

After weeks of complaining about practicing piano I finally sat down with Aspen to ask what was up. "I can't see the notes, they're fuzzy and I always get a headache when I practice." Come to find out she also sits in the front row at school and can't see the board very well either.

So off to the Eye Dr we went, and she most definitely needed glasses. Aspen picked them out herself. They have a red tint to them, wavy sides and a little heart on the side too. Super cute and she LOVES them.

My Dad, Grandpa Kenison, always used to ask, "Do the trees have leaves again?" When I asked this to Aspen she looked at the trees and said, "Yes! They used to be just green blobs on sticks and now I can see branches and little leaves."

As we walked through Target, "Mom! I can read that sign, it says vacuum. If I take them off it's all fuzzy, but when I put them on I can read it." All day long she said stuff like this. It was so cute and I'm so happy our Aspen can finally see.

Cooking Mishap

This is why 2 people should not cook in one kitchen at the same time.

Jared was making rolls and put the dough in the warmed up oven to rise. He left to go Home Teaching when I started making baked potatoes.

As I washed the potatoes I turned on the oven to 400 degrees, so it'd be ready when the potatoes were clean and in tin foil. Sure enough, 10 mins later when the oven was ready and the potatoes were too I opened the oven to find this, melted all over.

Amazingly enough the dough was ok, came away from the bowl just fine. I put it in 3 little bread pans, it actually rouse some and we had some tasty little loafs of bread.

We could have had a serious fire on my hands, but luckily we just ended up with bread and one melted mixing bowl.

Hot Chocolate and Star Wars

Look who dropped by for Hot Chocolate! Yes, that is Annikan Skywalker. And man, my hot chocolate must be pretty good, check out his double chin. Collin and Chole Jones warming up with us after some ice jumping.

No Snow Yet

But we do have ICE!!! Check out those icicles. They're HUGE!!! :) Totally kidding of course. But this is pretty cool for Texas. And even cooler is the Trampoline.

Bet you've never jumped in an ice pile before.

Look, NO SNOW!!!!

And NO SCHOOL too!!!Texans crack me up. It's been below freezing at night this week and they are all in a panic. I know, the roads do freeze straight away. But it cracks me up when we get early release from school because it's GOING to snow, it hasn't yet, but it's GOING to.

We'll find out tonight at 8:00 if there's No School tomorrow too. I sure hope it does snow. Because it's too cold outside for there to not be any snow.

Sisters Part II

There are times when being a Mom is just awesome. When you have those moments that you realize you're doing things right. Times of quiet and rest and love.

This was one of those times.

Pine Wood Derby 2011

"Most Futuristic," we were voted this year. Jared and London had a grand ol' time researching yet another new design of Pine Wood Derby cars. And this is what we got. I helped with the paint job, of course, but it wouldn't look half as cool if those boys didn't do such a good job with the wood working part of it. And here's all the competition. Crazy eh? The cute little pink crayon in the back row actually won. Apparently the crayon design is a fast one, we'll see if it shows up at NASCAR, but for Pinewood Derby it's great.

3rd Place this go around. We've discovered over the years that the key to a fast car is to get the weight right before you get there. Taped on quarters really cut down on wind resistance.

London and the other Cubs having a good time. They really didn't care what place they came in, as long as they could just hang out together. Left - Right on the Cubs: Carson Obourke, Liam Moss, Kent Mohr, London, Ty Kennington and the full head on the bottom is Sam Strathearn.

Valentines Playgroup

Aren't they so stinking cute! We made little Valentine Headbands ("Crowns Mommy, they're Crowns") at Playgroup today. They turned out so good, and the kids looked so cute I had to snap this shot.

But poor Xander on the right has a teeny little head and that band just slipped right down. I tried to get everyone to smile a second time, but that was not going to happen. This was 1 of at least 8 shots. Best you can get from five 3 year olds. But a much more favorite time of the day was our make shift slide. Due to our bedroom change around we have 2 extra mattresses that make the most perfect indoor slide ever. Safe and soft! I just had to remind them to take turns and not run over each other one the way down. :)

Colonial Confectionary

London's 5th Grade class is learning about Colonial Times. They were all assigned a certain career to research. They had to make a store front sign, write 1 page about what their job would have been, and do an oral presentation.

Of course the project was handed out before Christmas but we didn't get down to work on it till about 3 days ahead of time.

But I must say it turned out quite nicely. A friend of our, Allison Bowman, has a boy in 5th grade too. They'd made their sign out of wood and just painted it and she had some leftover. So we made this beautiful sign, wrote the 1 page (handwritten mind you, typed would have been MUCH longer), practiced out the Oral Presentation about 10 times, and even made some home made Caramels to hand out to his class. As a Confectioner is a Candy Maker after all.
He got 100%, way to go London!

Man! Not Again!

Sometimes you just don't want anymore help around the house. I swear as soon as the older 3 get home from school all heck breaks loose.

Today Sicily wanted to drink the rest of Phoenix's Gatorade that he didn't finish out of his lunch box.

Mom, "Sure Sici that's fine."
Sicily "Glug, Glug, Glug...Oops!"
Bang!
Roll, Roll, Roll!
Those are 12 inch tiles! I didn't know a bottle could roll that far, that fast.

And this of course is all happening while I'm trying to make dinner, (strongly) encourage piano practice, helping with homework and I think the dryer buzzer just beeped to tell me it was done.

Welcome to my house. :)

Crazy Dog

Our new little puppy is really great. He only barks when there's a stranger at the door, he doesn't dig, jump on people, or lick you to death. He really doesn't have that bad of breath. And when you send him out front to play with the kids he never takes off down the street. The only problem is...
he won't come back in. London and 3 other 10 year old boys chased that dog around for a good 15 mins and could not catch him. It's just a game. And man is he quick!

Relapse

Phoenix had a relapse in his Flu late last week. Poor little guy just could not stop coughing. The nebulizer was the only thing that worked. And even then he still missed another day of school and church on Sunday. But I am happy to say we are ALL now healthy. And what's better, for once, Mom never got sick....Knock on Wood! Thank Goodness. Because even Jared caught it and I don't know what we would have done.

Sisters Sisters

My girls have recently decided that they love each other unconditionally. Last week we did a room change, the boys now have separate rooms and not only are the girls in the same room, they are also in the same bed. I knew if we gave them 2 Twins Sicily would end up in Aspens bed every night anyway. So they are in a Full bed together and they love it. Sicily can no longer fall asleep with out Aspen being there by her side. And when Aspen gets up for school, at 6:15, Sicily bounces out of bed with her. Last night as I tucked Sicily back into bed, after her going potty, I gave her a kiss good night. "Momma, kiss Aspen too." And though Aspen was dead asleep I gave her a kiss too. Sicily is so concerned for her Aspen.

This morning at breakfast I asked Aspen, "Do you want to sit by Phoenix or Sicily?"
"Sicily!" Aspen said.
To which Sicily responded, "Because you love me. And I love you!"

I love that they love each other.

State Report

Aspen picked Alaska. We had a lot of fun yesterday drawing, coloring, and glittering our poster about Alaska. We thought it turned out pretty well. I never knew Alaska was that large in comparison to the rest of the USA. It's 2 x's the size of Texas.

In her oral presentation she had to give 2 reasons why she'd want to live in Alaska:

# 1. In Barrow, Alaska it's light for 87 days straight, so you don't have to go to bed for 87 days. "But Mom it's not even dark outside."

# 2. In Alaska you have Moose and Bear come right up to your door step.

Funny what they find amazing about a place.

3 Little Sickies

I should say 4 little sickies really. Aspen was out of school Thursday and Friday of last week with a spiking temperature and nasty croupy cough.

Well apparently it has a waiting list, because it hit London in force Monday night, so he's now missed Tues and Weds of school.

It then quickly moved to Phoenix who made it to school on Tues but not Weds.
And now Sicily has it too.

Of course Jared is out of town this week with work, New York no less. He gets back tonight though, thank goodness. But to be honest it's been the easiest sick house we've had in a long time.

They have NO energy and don't even care if there's a movie on or not. All they want to do is sit and stare at the wall. It's so sad really. But it only lasts about 2 days. London should be up for school tomorrow, and Phoenix and Sicily will be good by Friday I'm sure.

Pretty sure it's the Flu! So if I were you I'd stay clear of our house till the weekend at least.

Scrambled Eggs

Sicily was finished with her breakfast this morning, but took one more huge bite before she got down from the table. It was too big of course, so she spit it back on her plate amongst the plate full of eggs.

Sicily - "Daddy I done."
Dad - "Can I eat the rest of your eggs?"
Sicily - "Yes, but don't eat that part...it has my germs on it."

The After Nap Event

The after nap time is not always filled with smiles. She did not want Daddy playing with her, so she was hiding under the blanket so he'd leave her alone. Much to her dismay that didn't work.

Little Troll

We found a little Troll hiding in our bag of mini carrots. Isn't he cute.

New Years Eve

I was too busy having fun to take any pictures so I'll just record what we did in words this time around. Our awesome friends the Allred's offered to Host the 10:00 New Years Eve Party this year. There was plenty of really good food, drinks and friends. We set up 2 Wii's and the kids ran crazy.

In the end we kicked them off one Wii and plugged in "Just Dance 2." As married, family adults we just don't get the chance to dance all that often. It's funny what people are willing to do when everyone else is doing it. :) And when your kids are forcing you out of your chair and pushing a Wii remote in your hand you really don't have much choice (every Dad there).

We left around 10:30 and the kids were still buzzing when we got home. Some neighbors were shooting off firework so we hopped on our bikes, put glow stick bracelets on all the kids and went to the park at 11:00 at night to watch the show.

There were 2 separate homes in the neighborhood shooting them off. And we had a good laugh at the cop that kept going back and forth between the 2 trying to catch them in the act. Fireworks are not allowed in our neighborhood.

We headed home at 11:45, watched the Ball Drop in Times Square, banged pots and pans (which Sicily and Beaux were not fans of) then forced the kids into bed.

It was a good New Years Eve!

Just Dance 2

We found the best Wii game known to man. It is so stinking fun, really gets you moving and gets everyone involved, even those not playing along. Mostly because they're just laughing at you while you think you can dance.

Lassie and Beaux

I don't know how she found it but "Lassie" was on TV one Christmas afternoon and Marlene, the kids and dog loved it. Poor Beaux. Every time Lassie would whine or bark his ears would prick up, he'd start looking around the room, eventually looked out the window cause he could NOT figure out where that dog was. :)