I'm only posting this because Eric made fun of me. Here are some pictures of our 3rd child's experience with mouth trauma. (If you remember, Annabel at nearly 3 years old knocked out 5 teeth. Andrew had part of his tongue biopsied at nearly 3. Here's Ava... nearly 3... it's her turn!)

This happened as she was climbing into her chair to paint at the kitchen table... something she's done hundreds of times. From the front, you can tell that she darn near bit a hole all the way through!

Please, God. Spare us from more mouth traumas!

On Saturday we went bowling. It was the first time ever taking the kids. They sucked.

Annie managed to have semi-accurate form!

Andrew was the cutest, with his Granny-push. Each time his arms would flail into the air and stay there for about 5 seconds while he watched his ball roll SLOWLY down the lane.



But my favorite part... was the part where I won!

Santa was faithful in fulfilling the children's wish lists this Christmas.

Eric. This one's for you.

Rule #1: Never wait until the night before to complete a school project and expect that I have a glue gun. Because I don't. Well, now I do. But that's just because I went out and bought one after you mocked me for not having one.

Rule #2: Never show Mom up on a school project by going above and beyond reasonable and customary. Because there is NOTHING wrong with reasonable and customary. In fact, normal and average are what schools STRIVE for.

Rule #3: If Rule #2 is violated in any such fashion, you will be required to complete ALL remaining school projects, said and implied, from date of such violation until completion of school year (or longer depending on degree of violation).

Now that that's established, here's Annabel's teddy bear float made from a box. The 1st graders put on a teddy bear parade at school this morning. Grandma Dexter was kind enough to accompany me and the rowdy other two to watch.

And on that note, anyone want a 2.5 year old that likes to run and scream in terror: "HE'S GOING TO GET ME!" whenever someone walks 10 feet behind her? Or how about "Mommy... WAAAAIIIIT!!!!" when I get more than 3 feet away. Only moderately embarassing.

I decided to take advantage of the kids dressing up for Andrew's performance last night, and snapped some Christmas pictures. I'm going to show the picture that captures their true personality and you can decide... are they naughty... or are they nice??!!

But only because they were rude first!

In case you have been checking your mailboxes in eager anticipation of a most wonderfully delightful Christmas card from our little family. . . quit waiting 'cuz it's not coming!

We were all taking turns with the swine flu when we normally capture our fall family portrait in October. And then in late November / early December we were taking turns with coughs and pneumonia so there was no studio portrait of the kids.

And, of course, I just can't bring myself to send out a generic Christmas card (not to mention I didn't buy any in anticipation of photo cards. . . and by the time I realized THAT wasn't happening, all the decent ones were gone).

So, if we've offended you terribly by not sending Christmas love your way in the form of a folded piece of cardstock with some generic wording printed on it, please accept our most sincere appologies. It's not because we don't love you. I'm just cheap!

Much to my own dismay, I realized that I am indeed lazy. Or out of shape. Or both. Besides, I don't love snow or the cold... or hard work.

But enough whining already. The kids have been anxiously awaiting the snowfall so that they could go sledding. Due to a sledding accident the day before (Daddy bruised his tailbone going solo into a dip), I was the only one available to pull them around. And those kids are getting big! Well, that lasted a good five minutes. Especially since I can't just PULL them. It's gotta be "Run, Mommy!" "Faster!" "Spin me around, Mom!" "Pull me over the jump!"

So, along came bright idea #1.

NOT THE DOG!

The camera doesn't really do this one justice. Little Ava was happily coloring her picture in the office. So we thought! Then out comes the dog with marker all over his back. Nice!

Annabel was selected as Star Student of her classroom a couple of weeks ago. In being given that honor, she also received the responsibility of showing Elmer, the class stuffed elephant, a good time (with a photo scrapbook to be returned to school to prove his fun). I thought it might be exciting if Elmer accompanied Annabel to the store to get her ears pierced.

Now, anyone who knows Annabel (and knows me) would realize that me suggesting piercing to Annabel is a common occurance.

Me: "Annabel, are you ready to get your ears pierced?"
Annabel: "No."

Me: "Annabel, what about today, should we go pierce your ears? It will be fun!"
Annabel: "No."

Me: "Hey, Annabel, let's stop in here and pick out some earrings and pierce your ears!"
Annabel: "No."

Then it happened:
Me: "Let's take Elmer and go get your ears pierced! That will be fun for Elmer!"
Annabel: "Okay!"
Me: "What?!"

I was shocked! My little Annabel was going to be brave with Elmer by her side and go embark on her first (probably of many) piercing! She didn't want to go alone though. She needed moral support. We called up as many family members as we could think to invite and ended up with only one taker, Grandma Carlson. She was great encouragement and even took pictures to commemorate the event.

When it was time to pick out the earrings that would be used, Annabel pointed straight to the 6mm princess cut diamond studs. Um, HUGE! We discouraged that kind of bling and she opted instead for the 2mm turquoise December birthstone. Much better!

Annabel was super brave, as Elmer was the only one that did any wincing! She was very proud of herself and insists that it didn't hurt at all.

Those of you that are somewhat involved in our day-to-day lives knows that we have been overcome with illness several times lately. But my question is, what's the deal? Usually we're the ones pointing fingers at others in wonderment asking "how on earth are those people sick, AGAIN?"

Well, apparently it's our turn to be on the wonder-inducing end of that very question. And you know what? I blame public school.

So yes, this post is to announce that we (not all of the family, but at least one of us, more specifically today, the number is 2) are sick yet again. On Thanksgiving no less.

While the rest of you are enjoying your turkey dinners and pumpkin pies, we will be home. Cleaning up puke amongst a chorus of seal-bark coughing.

Whoever said the drummer had to be a boy? Maybe it was just a girl with short hair and they were confused.

Do you ever feel like life is just getting away from you? Like somewhere along the line you missed a very important memo that everyone else got...except you?! That's kind of how I feel right now. Out of the loop.

For instance, today I dropped Andrew off at preschool. It's picture day. Could my son have looked any more terrible than he did today?! I doubt it! He was in a grubby old t-shirt and unmatching sweatpants, with pizza sauce and churro sugar collected in the corners of his mouth from lunch. The bad part was that I DID get the picture order form and I even wrote it down on my calendar!!

But it's actually a much deeper feeling than just wondering what I don't know that everyone else does. It's terribly hard to explain, so I'm just going to change the subject now!

Lately I've decided to get on board with a most wonderful blogger known as The Krazy Coupon Lady (http://thekrazycouponlady.com/). I've been spending time clipping and printing coupons, sorting and collecting. But today I was thinking... is it really worth all the time and printer paper and ink just to get granola bars for 50 cents instead of 2 bucks?

I was actually going to get on here and post about Wall-E... how we have survived so far (most importantly, how HE has survived thus far), and how he's really becoming a great dog. Then as I was tap tapping away I heard some noises coming from upstairs. Upon further investigation I found him digging through the bathroom trash and ripping up toilet paper (the clean roll) and tissues, with q-tips and paper shreds covering my bathroom floor. Baaaaaaad dog.


I like this picture of him because it captures the true nature of how dumb he really is!!

Andrew started preschool! He is so happy to be going to school, but a little mad ("I'm MAD!") that he doesn't get to go everyday. I guess I'm a little mad about that, too, little guy! Next year!

He had a short day on Tuesday and then his first FULL day, a whopping 2.5 hours, on Thursday. He found a gold coin in the sandbox and was in charge of providing treats for everyone, so it was a good day!

Here are some pictures from his first day of school.

I'm a bad mother, I confess!!! I was so distraught and distracted yesterday that I didn't even think to take a picture of Annabel going to her first day of school. Well, that's not entirely true. I remembered as she was walking at the front of the line toward her classroom and out of my day. With blurry eyes and a lump in my throat there was no way I was going to pull out my camera phone to snap a shot of her walking away from me. Looking back, that shot would have summed up my feelings for the day.

But today is a new day! It's her very first SECOND day of school. And I did think to take a few pictures of her before I sent her off!

His name is Andrew. These children are making me realize more and more everyday that I just might not be up to this challenge. They've raised the bar and I'm not sure I will be able to keep up with their potential. After all, if they're already outsmarting me at the ages of 4 and 6, what WILL I do when they are teenagers?!?

So it all started with Andrew and his pull-ups. I HATE paying 50 cents a night for Andrew to use a pull-up and I am really excited about putting that extra money toward something more beneficial than a peed in diaper! We have to buy the expensive ones because the kid can pee! He was waking up in the morning a sopping mess and I was having to wash his bedding every morning. Okay, TMI, back to the point.

Anyway, to nix the use of pull-ups I decided to offer Andrew an incentive. About mid-summer I made up a little chart with 10 little boxes to fill with stickers. I told him that he would get a sticker every morning his pull-up was dry, and that after he covered every number we would take him to.... ROARING SPRINGS!!!! (Which in his mind is as great as Disneyland since we've never been.)

Well, it turned out to be mostly disappointing for Andrew. He would wake up wet nearly every day and would come to me with the most pathetic expression of defeat. Which of course made me realize that he's probably just too deep of a sleeper instead of too lazy to get out of bed to use the toilet. But I was already committed to offering the reward so the promotion continued.

Summer went on. His chart remained less than half-filled. He would earn a sticker about once a week. The pressure intensified for him to have dry pull-ups in the morning, as his sister would constantly remind him that Roaring Springs closed when school started.

Then magic started to happen at the beginning of last week. Andrew had 6 spots left to fill. In the mornings he would come into my bedroom with the most ecstatic expression. "My pull-up is dry!!!" he would boast. Then down would come his pants to show me the proof. And, sure enough, they were!

He quickly went from 4 stickers to 10 stickers. He had finally earned his beloved trip to Roaring Springs!

Of course, that's not the end of the story. Far from it! Yesterday I was rooting in Andrew's closet for empty hangers (usually I leave that task to the kids, but after a long day of dealing with my monsters it was just easier to do it myself) when I smelled a not so pleasant odor emanating from the back. I got down on my hands and knees and peeked under his clothes and spotted nothing less than a pile of peed in pull-ups. 6 of them.

Hmmmm.

"ANNNNNDDDDREEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!" (Done as Dave would yell to Simon the Chipmunk.)

At least he was honest. He admitted to not really having dry pull-ups. He admitted to changing into a dry pull-up every morning so that he could seal the deal.

Needless to say, we will NOT be going to Roaring Springs. But now they've both got me thinking. No more naive, trusting Mommy at this house. My little sneaky children are NOT to be taken at face value any longer! And that's going to make for a LONG road of parenting.

when you go to download your pictures off of the camera and find an extra 60 shots courtesy of your kids?

Andrew has quite the artistic eye when it comes to taking pictures. Here are a few taken mostly by Andrew, but a few from Annabel as well.

This is me after I got baptized...
And that just about sums it up!

One of Eric's co-workers approached him with the offer of hiking to the top of Mt. Borah. Eric was pretty hesitant at first, but after a bunch of prodding from me and internet research (you are a nerd, honey), he finally decided to go.

Mt. Borah?? It's actually the tallest point in Idaho at 12,662 feet. Hikers ascend 5,262 vertical feet in just over 3.5 miles.

His words after arriving safely home: "If I had it to do all over again, I would. But I will never do it again."

Last weekend we went to Ponderosa in McCall. We went up Saturday and came home Tuesday evening. We spent time cabin-hunting with my parents, went to Gold Forks hot springs (will probably never do that again) and did lots of bike riding and hiking around. Oh, and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that you can get wifi in the middle of the forest. Yesss!