Wendy, I lied.

I do have pictures from the Christmas Extravaganza 2008! A few, anyway. Dada had a great idea: wrap up the new hutch and the bookshelf to look like presents!

Last year, we even had a ton of people mill through the garage. This year, not so many =( So we are still eating some of the party meats. The pies are gone and so are most of the cookies. The kids are still plowing through the cheese and crackers. We'll never starve, that's for sure ;) I even made potato soup out of some of the cheese that was left over. Mmm.... nice, especially since it's 18 degrees here tonight!

Hin, do you see anyone you recognize? And I don't mean Johnny Walker or Jim Bean or anything like that. I mean the Leons! ;)

Care Bear and the Teddy Bear, bosom friends.

Carrie "helped" Jeremy play cards. He'd ask if they should fold or stay in, and then he'd take her advice. Needless to say, he didn't win ;)

Who invited this guy?

Notice where the tablecloth is supposed to be... heh. Pap and Noj, just hanging out & watching the game.

Some of our friends stopped over on their way to the fancy work formal. Thanks, Bob & Avril! =)

Some of the crew from Ohio State, even though we all live everywhere else nowadays...

and sweetie Bing, who was teething on the entire Sprite bottle. So cute!

When what should my wondering eyes should appear...

Sunday morning I came downstairs to find Liam awake. He's laying sideways in the rocking armchair, talking to the ceiling fan that he'd turned on. I lean over to kiss him good morning and discover he has a handful of lollipops and one in his mouth. It's 8:30 in the morning. I confiscate his loot and proceed to the kitchen where I'm greeted by this sight:

The black tupperware is Carrie's Halloween candy. The clear tub is Liam's. And yes, that's a brand new jar of honey. He'd been holding that in the grocery store. The following picture is of the sugar sprinkles that he found on my baking shelf. He proceeded to pry off all the lids and help himself. I was surprised that I didn't find any paw prints throughout. Triskal apparently had the good sense to steer clear of the forbidden this time, though she does enjoy chewing on any small wooden item she can find. We've lost a few blocks, pencils, and Christmas tree ornaments this way. Oh, and the nesting penguins I bought for the kids last Christmas now that I think about it...

The moral of the story is that baby proofing is not for babies. It is, indeed, for three year olds. AND this is why I get up at 6 AM every day to do my quiet time. Otherwise the little stinker is up and into trouble before me! At least at 6 I can have some coffee and prayer in peace. Can't you tell I need it!?

These are the ones I confiscated from his hot little hand. The eaten one was obviously in his mouth, and as I asked him to relinquish it, the little bugger started chomping it as fast as he could!

Then as I threw the wrappers away, I noticed more in the trash can. He'd even disposed of the evidence!

The face, and the evidence all over it, says it all. Stinkerbug!

Pigpiles and dressup

Looks like everyone is excited to be together, wouldn't you say?

Carrie in her Kindergarten Thanksgiving getup...

Silly boy

Towelheads

Nothing quite like fresh, clean kids...

Flat Stanley sighting!

Apparently Flat Stanley does what everyone else does at Thanksgiving: goes shopping and goes out to eat!

Cutieheads

This is Liam and his version of a wink. =D

And this is my first niece, Elizabeth. She is so much fun! The cousins really had a good time playing together this year.

Oh the lengths ... er, heights we will go to...

...to ensure a good time at the Christmas Extravaganza 2008:

Come one, come all! Just be sure to let us know you're coming ;) I'd like to be able to be done baking cookies sometime! =D See you December 5-7! You all know how to get in touch w/ us. Same location as last year. We have a big, fuzzy dog; if you have allergies, bring your meds. Yippieeeeeeeee!

Big boy

Liam had his 3 year old appointment today w/ Dr. Jon. I forgot the camera, naturally, but he cracked Dr. Jon up because he was wearing his "Give Peas a Chance" shirt from Grandmama. He said that was the best shirt he'd seen in a long, long time and wished he had one like it! It really is cute. Mama Rita's already claimed it for Bing...

Anyway, he weighed in at 30.5 pounds which is 40th percentile (for those of you who're keeping track of these things) and he's 37.5 inches tall (45th percentile) and his BP was 80/60 because he was trying to squirm away from the nurse. Hehe. Didn't like getting his BP taken, just like his uncle Hinrew. By the way, HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HINREW TODAY! =D Grandmama had hers last week (and she thought she would get away w/ no mention of it, heh heh, silly girl).

Other than the horrible hacking cough that Liam has and shared with Dee and myself, Dr. Jon declared him to be in good shape. He told Liam to work on eating his meats (poor kid has a horrible meat gag relfex; good thing he likes peanut butter) and his veggies. And he told him he's see him next year and that he oughta be peeing on the potty all the time by then. And to have fun in soccer. Good visit! =)

Gotta run- have a great week!

Last picnic of the year

The kids love to have picnics on the slide. I think it's safe to say this will have been the last one of the year...

... and a leaf floated over to be beside Carrie. Definitely fall! She was really tickled that it blew that close to her.

Liam and lilies

My boys <3

These crazy lilies decided to bloom the first week of November! Methinks they're a liiiiiiiiiiittle bit late...