Blood, sweat, and tears

After lots of hard work (always more than you imagine)...we are nearly finished with our kitchen...minus a little caulking.  I love it.  

Its been a while but sometimes I like to revisit what our condo looked like before we moved in.  

Hardly comparable in my book.  Helps me realize that anything is possible.  Good on ya Beau!

Superboy

...named by the other superhero in our family

Child labor

with enthusiasm!

No worries, popscicles are in the house!

I vividly remember talking on the phone...with Oshyn on my lap as a toddler. He was dancing around on the seat and rocking back and forth between the desk & I (doing the little munchkin I-can't-sit-still-for-one-minute groove.) Suddenly Preston, I mean Oshyn, missed placing his hands on the desk and hit it with his chin instead. Chomp! Down went his teeth, taking a chunk (literally) out of his tounge. He was bleeding so much I thought maybe he needed stitches, so I called Stephanie and we got in the car--and called Kaiser's advice nurses on the way to ?who knows where--I don't even know if we knew where--the ER or the Dr.? Just feeling sad and anxious for him. Lucky for me I had a friend that thought quick and brought a popscicle to distract Oshyn and the blood. Yadda yadda yadda, turns out that saliva makes it look like more blood than it really is, tounges heal on their own--no stitches needed, and just give him popscicles, sherbert--cold stuff to keep the swelling down. Done. Oshyn had so many cold sweets that day that for dinner when I put a bowl of orange sherbert down in front of him he cried for broccoli.
Cruz jumped onto the couch and rolled off landing face first today. Later on, down the stairs...bloody mouth again...and I'm sure a few more mishaps that I haven't committed to memory. Bad luck today Bay! After the first fall I thought he might have lost his front teeth the way they moved and with all of the blood, but they are still there--might be black, but luckily we have Uncle Don.
This isn't Cruz's first bloody fall, but for some reason today brought me to thinking about Oshyn's incident. Funny how the worrying lasted much shorter this time around, we went straight to the popscicles, and the day went on.

4 in 1

Biker, Conductor, Popeye and what you can't see under the clothes...the infamous Superman pj's. Funny guy.

Because I like ribbons

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Why are these so funny?

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7 steps to Delicious

Snow ice cream
introduced by Chas Clawson
Step one: Go outside (in the freezing weather) with a bowl
Step two: Scoop some fresh, white powder snow into your bowl
Step three: Come inside before you turn into a snowman
Step four: Add milk/cream, sugar and vanilla--just the right amount--must be determined by the individual
Step five: Stir
Step six: More sugar
Step seven: Enjoy!

Wow! I never knew homemade snow cream could be so easy and SOOO good!! Thanks for the enlightenment Chas.
If you have snow, try it!

Weekend Warrior Wanna-be's

We decided (in Nov) that we needed to do more things on the weekend because so quickly Saturday slips away and then months are flying by. We want to do more hikes and mini adventures outside--supposedly there is a ton to do here all within 2 hours.

Our first stop was a close one: CASWELL MEMORIAL NATIONAL PARK::11/15/08
and this is what was heard from the #1 adventure enthusiast...
If there is a crocodile there I am going to WaCk them with my sword!
Don't be frightened Mom.
If there is any vines in our way, I am going to WaCk them with my sword!
They're called Tadacules (talking about tadpoles :)
I had a long day so I need to sleep.
We also realized Oshyn was capable of going to the bathroom pretty much anywhere, but wiping with a leaf (his choice) left for an itchy bum later.

A good start and we've done well pretty much every other weekend since.
Here's to keeping it alive in 2009!

Cru-lania

This is what happens when your cute little girl cousie has all of the warm snow gear.

What a difference a year makes!

Christmas Cruzisms

Ho Ho Ho Ho Santa (to the tune of 'Yo Ho Yo Ho...A Pirate's Life for Me')

Missmiss lights! (Everytime he see lights on houses)

Whatchew doing sock? (said after his sock was half way off just hangin'--not anything to do with Christmas, I just like it :)

He now calls our neighbor, Chris, "Chris-mas"

The Christmas Story

by Oshyn's preschool class

All the people came to worship God and see baby Jesus.

The angels were flying and blowing horns.

There was a new bright star.

The Wiseman and Shepherd's came, they rode on their camels.

They brought gold Frankensteins, silver and perfume called myrrh.

There was no room for them in the inn, so they went to the stables.

Jesus was there and the animals, donkeys, doggies, a mouse, a piggy, kitty, sheep, camels, goats, sheep, rabbits, an owl and the drummer mouse, a snowman and Santa Clause.

The End

Dear Santa

I wanna be like Aunt Judy

Growing up we ALWAYS made sugar cookies for Christmas. Pressed in shaped cookie cutters with just the right amount of flour and dough. I swear we made hundreds of these delicious cookies. Aunt Judy made it look easy.
Ever since I've been a mom I've tried to replicate these cookies. When my nephews lived close I tried to make sugar cookies a tradition for the next generation. I wanted (and still want) to be the "Aunt Judy". Since they moved away this past year I wasn't going to give up making the cookies, but there is just something about making cookies with more than just 2 people (Oshyn and I).
Last week I decided it was time to make some sugar cookies. I use her recipe tweaked a little to make it GF. I haven't quite figured out how to make them GF and roll able, so they aren't in the famous and wonderful Christmas tree, reindeer, star or candy cane shapes that I dream of from my youth :) ...they are all round--I like to think of them as Christmas balls on the tree or even Rudolph's nose. Well anyway, when it came time to decorate, the neighborhood boys (aka Oshyn's football buddies) had just knocked on our door and one by one we invited Fabian, Joel and Anthony in to decorate with us. I wanted more people right?
I am still amazed at how Aunt Judy just gave us tubs of frosting, all the decorating sprinkles and just let us go at it. She never got mad at us for putting too much frosting or too many sprinkles or for licking our fingers. We just had a good 'ol time. I don't know any AZ cousin of mine that doesn't have fond memories of this glorious tradition.
So back to me. I set a big bowl of green frosting in front of the boys and all of the sprinkles we own in front of them on the table and let them have at it. This is what became of it...












Kind of funny to me. Looks just like the creativity my brother (the only younger boy cousin) had when decorating cookies.
The idea was to have them all decorate 4 or so (we didn't have hundreds...only about 2 dozen), take one to eat and then just have the decorated leftovers for later. Well, its one thing to see your own kid (or nieces and nephew) lick his knife and then keep dipping, but the dirty sweaty neighborhood buddies licking?! Couldn't do it. I told them to just eat ALL of the cookies they decorated and then sent them on their way. Nothing to show for the day except a smiling Oshyn walking out to play football saying, "Thanks Mom". Totally worth it.

Easy to please

The excitement of putting 6 ornaments on an 18 in. tree was fabulous.  As we went upstairs to bed last night Oshyn commented "Doesn't it look wonderful down here?"  I love little reminders of how simple life can be and still so highly enjoyed.  Thank you little men.

I love him

and sometimes want to lick him--mmm! chocolate toddler.

Dadee!!!!!! (Friday night and Mommy's flying solo)

Maybe its because he...

gives them "bathshowers",

makes the best swedish pancakes,

likes to wrestle,

shares his ice cream,

dotes over both of them,

drives a red truck,

is just himself...

i've stopped trying to figure it out, but all i know is that when friday evening comes the boys are over mommy and will not even hold my hand.  they both want daddy all day-all weekend and i become the 4th wheel (i guess i balance us out right?)  you are the best daddy around mr. 'human jungle jim' and we love you.

Safari West, Reno, and the Easterners

Africa was booked up, so we went to Safari West for next best thing.  We jumped in a double decker jeep and went into what reminded me a little too much of Jurassic Park.  Thanks to Jim (Sue's brother-in-law), our family saw some animals--and parts, closer than I could have ever imagined.  A real Safari.  I think I am caught up on making zoo trips until 2020 after this goodie.

Dad and Sue bought a new view in Reno (and got a house to go with it--what a deal!)  We hung out for the weekend and got some nice Grandpa and Tutu time. 

Chad and Marcy traveled to the left coast all the way from PA to spend Thanksgiving and some bonus days with us all.  They took off on Tues. night and by Wed. Oshyn had already written them a letter saying, "I really really am happy that I just got to see you at our house.  We love you and hope you would come to our house again."  They are definitely a prize to be had.  And WE had them. 

The Turkeys keep Trotting

We started the tradition 3 years ago, to run (or walk...or strut) a race on Thanksgiving no matter where we are.  Just figure its a good way to start out the glutinous day and fun to start our own family traditions.  

1st Stockton,

 

then Redding, 

and this year Novato, got these turkeys trotting.   Oshyn has always been pumped to do races--the kids portion was a mile this year and he worked it.  I apologize for thinking it must have been shorter because he didn't even cry or want a piggie back ride.  Cruz was just ready to "det owwt" of the stroller...sorry kiddo, you will have your chance guido. 

Beau, Nicole, and I did the big kids 2.8 mi run.  Very cool through the back trails--good company too.  I hope everyone gets to have fabulous sister-in-laws like me.  Beau decided it wasn't hard enough, so he scooped up both kids (Oshyn isn't two headed, that's Cruz's dome in the middle) and 'iron-man'ned it the last loop.

Sorry Nikki, I couldn't let that guy beat me... (don't worry all, he didn't :) 

The Wall

I have been lagging in posts lately, but as most, we have been out of town and been having much family time.  I will probably overload soon, but until then, here's Oshyn climbing the wall at the gym.  

Can I get one of these walls to-go?  So so fun.  

(Oh wait...I already have one of those, except its called the outside of the stair railing, silly me.)