Easter

Year of the Tiger

We had a great time at the IFCA Lunar New Year celebration last night. There were lots of fun crafts, we ate yummy Panda Express food and watched an awesome martial
arts demonstration. We also enjoyed the lion dance (although the drums were really loud which set off some of Noelle's anxiety and sensory issues) and the kids popped bubble wrap (aka firecrackers) during the dragon parade. They were absolutely worn out today! We decided to stay home to recuperate especially since they are still getting over a cold.

Happy Chinese New Year! Xīn nián kuài lè!

Life from a Four Year Old's Perspective

A few days before Christmas I let Zach get snap happy with my camera. This is life in our house through his eyes:

Dad and Noelle's Mario Kart Wii tournament

Our Nativity Set

His Really Really Big Present!

His messy room.

His mommy knitting desperately to get done in time for Christmas.

His quickly growing feet.

Self-portrait

His charming personality. ;o)

The Christmas Kitten

Those of you who know us well may be surprised that we have acquired our very own Christmas kitten (well, day-after-Christmas-kitten, close enough). We were surprised too by our forlorn, shivering and very skinny visitor. Such a pathetic little creature as this was bound to find a place in our hearts despite Joel's quite vocal opinions about cats. To be fair, I have not been much of a cat person myself in recent years but this little one captured my heart and I knew with absolute certainty that if I did not bring it inside immediately it was going to die. If not from starvation or the freezing cold, then from the coyotes who have been frequenting the area. After my mom and I attempted to grab the cat it ran and crammed itself into the corner of our trash can enclosure. I ran inside to ask Joel (my hero) to help me get the poor thing out and the rest is history!

Our last cat, Coal, lost his place in our family when in a completely overwhelming period of my life I made the declaration, "If one more living creature demands something from me or causes me to clean up another bodily fluid I am going postal!!! Someone has to go!". I gave Joel the ultimatum, either the dog or the cat must go, so, the cat went. Now before I get hate mail from the cat people out there, I would like to explain that Coal was sent to live with my brother who is the ultimate and most awesome of animal lovers! He could appreciate every nuance of Coal's quirky (to put it mildly) behavior. When my brother had to move, Coal was granted a temporary home with my parents and has quite happily lived there ever since. I was wonderfully granted some measure of peace. In my defense, at that time I had become the mother of a 2 year old and a new born and gone through our 2 year old daughter's open heart surgery within the space of three months. Pets were very low on my priority list.

Anyway, fast-forward to December 26th, 2009. I was in a much better place to take on another cat. In fact, with my children growing up before my very eyes, I am enjoying the chance to nurture another "baby" (he/she--we still have not made a positive identification of the furry nether regions-- is approximately 8 weeks old). Of course the kids are over the moon about our new kitty and there was much celebration when none of our neighbors claimed him/her. So our last few days have been filled with they joys of litter box training, cat/dog/kid introductions and lots of scratches on my hands, ouch! We are trying to come up with names for the cat now. Zach wants to call it Cutie, Noelle wants Butterfly or Sparkles, and I am partial to Socks. Joel's name ideas shall not be mentioned, this is a family friendly blog after all.

I am open to suggestions... any brilliant ideas out there?

Merry Christmas!

Ahhhh, Christmas Vacation

Settling in for a long winter's nap.

It doesn't get much better than this! Joel is baking his famous bread and watching his beloved Cougs play basketball, I'm knitting a new project and the kids are fast asleep after snuggles, Christmas stories and carols. I love nothing more than being home with my family. I feel grateful and content. We are blessed.

Catching up on fall...

I'm a bit behind on my family updates! We've had a lot of fun!

Squash Harvest

Corn Maze (See our fearless leaders! I of course was hopelessly lost!)

Happy Halloween!

Transformers: More Than Meets the Eye!

When we went costume shopping Noelle told me "I'm so tired of fairies and princesses! Can I have a transformers costume like Zach?". How could I say no? ;0) She was so proud of her tough girl costume!

Zach's preschool party! I was so glad to be able to get away from work for a few minutes to surprise Zach at his party. Here he is telling his beloved Miss Robin about his costume!

Preschool Pumpkin Patch (still fun even though he has dozens of pumpkins at home!).

Our fun trick or treating group in the Quinn's neighborhood. We had a great time!

And last, but certainly not least... we had an Elvis sighting! He was a bit shorter than expected.

Pumpkin Time

One of my favorite holiday activities is carving pumpkins with the kids! It makes me feel like a kid again too!

Hmmm, I wonder which pumkin belongs to which child? Pretty tough to guess. ;o)

Scoopin' goop.
We've been slimed!

Now that's what I call pumpkin carving! Bring on the power tools!

BOO!