blackmail photo

This is what happens when your children get bored on a Sunday afternoon. The boys thought it would be fun to dress up like girls. I'm not quite sure what the white cotton balls over their ears are...but it was pretty funny.

Question...please help

Okay so about six months ago we took away Claire's pacifier. It seemed to be going well,
then I notice that every once in awhile she has her thumb in her mouth. Now it seems that she is sucking her thumb more and more. Last night we went to check on her before we went to bed and there she was sucking her thumb. So, do we give her, her pacifier back? I have two boys that suck their thumbs/fingers and to this day we are struggling to get them to stop. Not quite sure what to do here?? Any suggestions.

Fun in the snow

Last Saturday, REI was having a free snowshoe day up by Mt. Hood. You could rent snowshoes for free, plus they had hot chocolate and bagels. My sister called and wanted to try and go up, since she was interested in purchasing some snowshoes. So we decided to make a fun day out of it and bring the whole family. I had a friend who was nice enough to lend me some snow pants and coats for some of the kids. It ended up being pretty warm and most of the kids ended up taking their jackets off and playing in their t-shirts. We started off on the "bunny hill", letting the kids go down that a few times and then informed them that we were headed off to a real hill. They grumbled, but ended up flying down the steep, long hill and loving it. Claire was the first one to decide she was done, I think the rest of us could have stayed another hour or so, but when a 2 year old is done, we're all done. On the way home we stopped at Calamity Jane's. This is the same little restaurant that Brent and I ate at on our honeymoon 10 years ago. We had the best burgers and the worst dessert ever! I think the hot fudge sauce was rancid, (That's probably why it was on the daily special board) but it's the first time i've ever sent back a brownie sundae!
Brent and the kids spent a good portion of our time there playing "I spy" with the dollar bills stapled all over the ceiling of the place (see pic below). It felt good to get out and be active and we all had a great time.

Jacob's "snowman"

This is how Claire was transported to and from the car, and the way back to the car, she was DONE and yelled and cried all the way back to the car, we were getting quite a few stares. I think people thought she was injured, Nope she's just 2.

A Spokane Christmas

As usual we had a great time in Spokane for our Christmas break. The only downside would be that the kids were expecting snow for Christmas, being Spokane and all...but Santa did not deliver. Luckily our trip was filled with so many other fun things, that we really didn't notice the lack of snow.
I have no pics of Christmas morning, but just imagine it being AWESOME! We only took video this year. Jacob got a lego set, Malia got a koaroke machine, Cole got some Legos after we took "santa's" gift back to costco. (Jacob asked me why I had the receipt if santa gave it to Cole...oops) and Claire got a radio flyer bike. She can't reach the pedals yet, but hopefully by summer. :) It was a great day just relaxing and playing with cousins.
The day after Christmas was Brent's 35th! During the day we went bowling, which was
CU-RAZY with 21 children and a smattering of adults. Luckily that night we got a few babysitters and headed out on the town, adults only. And we needed it after that bowling trip. We went to a little place called "scratch" in downtown Spokane. It was great, we pretty much had the place to ourselves and we all ordered yummy desserts. These are the times that I look forward to the most on our trips.

On the 28th, Malia and I celebrated our birthdays, and where else but the happiest place on earth, none other than Chuck-e-Cheese. Somehow I managed to escape this trip without one of those sensory overload headaches that I usually get at this place. It really wasn't too bad. The most important thing is that Malia had a great time. Here she is sporting her new snow white pillow from Grannie, check Claire out in the picture. She's pretty sure that pillow was really for her, and she thought that for quite awhile!

Claire...right where she belongs. She is princess after all.

and what other things did we do to entertain ourselves?
We had a how long can you hold a handstand contest. I opted to sit this one out. (Brent won!)

The kids had so much fun with their cousins. Claire and her cousin Jane were so cute together

We played "make-up artist" with Grannie. She was a great sport.

We had a few minutes of quiet time amongst many minutes of loud, craziness.

Many games of rook, went to see Sherlock Holmes and ate at Chili's, Brent went to see Avatar with his brother, went after Christmas shopping and scored some deals at downeast basics,
and had many great conversations with family I love. Thanks guys, we had a great time.

ghosts of girlfriends....gross!

Last night Brent and I watched "The ghosts of girlfriends past." It was yet another movie in which Hollywood has taken a very cute storyline and ruined it. The first half of the movie was so crude and raunchy. I think the word sex was mentioned every 10 seconds, and not in a good way. We finally looked at each other and decided to fast forward to the end. The end of the movie was great, I have to say it even brought a tear to my eye. But afterwards I was left thinking "that COULD have been a great movie." I hate when they take a great story and ruin it with dirty-ness (is that a word?) and crudeness.
On another note I'm still working on our Christmas post...one of these days!

Beauty and the Beast

My good friend Amy Jo was performing as Mrs. Potts in Beauty and the Beast. Brent and I decided to take Malia for an early birthday present. The show was amazing! The set was elaborate, the singing beautiful...we all loved it. Here is a picture with Gaston after the show:

The family with Amy Jo, she was amazing!

Brent insisted on getting a picture with the feather duster lady...you know the very demure, flirty one. I'm thinking that ms. feather duster lady is trying hard to force a smile here. I think she was ready to go home.

Belle and the Beast. It was a great day. Thanks mom for staying with the rest of the kiddo's.

Out of the mouth of babes

Today in my 5yr old sunday school class, a little boy said to me, "you have big lips, they look weird." I tried to explain to him in 5 year old language, that some ladies pay a lot of money to make their lips bigger. That big lips are beautiful." His reply...."they still look weird." 10 minutes later he told me my hair looked like snakes. Gotta love 5 year olds!