half price happy meal night tradition #1

Look at Carter's face.  Right at the exact moment that I snapped this picture, Ryan stuck a french fry in his ice cream and he exlaimed:

"HAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!"

And he didn't like it one bit.

Our tradition is sticking french fries into ice cream and then eating it.  Now Carter's a HUGE fan:

Look at how PROUD Carter is of his creation! He shows it off.  I love the picture of everyone.

And continues to get it all over himself, the table, the chairs and the rest of us.  At least he's consistent! I think that's why we call it a tradition.

will the real Carter please stand up?

Hi! I'm Carter. I am a mess-making, nail-polish painting, always-causing-trouble kinda guy.  While my Mom was sick a few days ago with the stomach flu, we also had some company stay at our house from out of town.  Mom was sick and Dad was busy doing lawyer stuff, I wasn't getting attention that I needed.  I decided to do something about it.

I waltzed upstairs and got into my Mom's fingernail polish.  My favorite is purple, since this isn't the FIRST time I've found it.  I decided to paint the dresser, Dad's suit, Mom's shirts, the carpet, the t.v. screen, and the floor and the wall.

Not to mention I painted MYSELF.

While Mom was basically having a heart attack (the most awful pictures are NOT being posted...), I went downstairs after getting into trouble with the fingernail polish. 

I guess I was bored while all the attention was upstairs so naturally I decided to get into the fridge and take out a half-dozen eggs and proceed to lay them around the house.

I laid 2 in the living room, 2 in the dining room, and 2 in the kitchen. See what happens when you STEP on them?! They BREAK!

Mom sure didn't find it as funny as I did! I got into a little trouble, but because I was so cute and because the mess was so HUGE, she could only sit and laugh.  I then got into the sock basket and spread those all over the rest of downstairs while the egg mess was getting cleaned up. 

All this in a matter of 15 minutes! I got more work done than most adults do all day.  Whew! No wonder I slept so well that night!

what are YOU thankful for?

In the wintertime, things are gloomy. 

The sun hardly comes out, the kids are stuck indoors therefore driving eachother (and me) crazy, the house starts smelling musty no matter HOW well and how often you clean it, etc. 

It's cold, dreary and gloomy out.  I ACHE for springtime, I even planted an herb garden and it's starting to grow.  I know it's a bit premature, but at least my oregano has little teeny leaves on it!

I find myself being grouchy.  I'm irritated that the kids are out of school for the second day this week...seriously are they EVER in school?? I'm irritated it's raining/snowing outside and my head seriously hurts.  Rather than complain, I wanted to share 5 things that I'm grateful for today...

1) Nick Jr.--it makes it possible for me to BLOG this morning!

2) Good friends--they pick me up when I need it most while simultaneously answering a prayer.

3) My super-huge green chair--Otherwise I'd have NO place to put all the clean laundry that needs to be folded and put away. 

4) My FRIENDS episodes on DVD-- I always have one playing to keep me company.  Could I BE any more obsessed?


5) Bon Jovi CDs-- Upbeat, uplifting and always inspires me.  Thanks be to Josh Hobbs back in 11th grade for starting my collection.

Okay, not so gloomy anymore.
What are YOU thankful for?

the pellet with the poison...

Mystery person revealed...

Danny Kaye!

He could say tongue-twisters faster and better than anyone I've ever heard and had a beautiful singing voice.  I love all of his movies and grew up reciting "The Pellet with the Poison" routine.  He's amazing!

I'll gladly lend my Court Jester or The Secret Life of Walter Mitty for those of you who haven't seen his work! Better yet, come over this weekend and we'll do a movie night!

your challenge, if you chose to accept...

Identify the mystery person!

Here are the stipulations:
-No GOOGLING, NO BINGING, NO looking up the facts.
-Give me your honest-to-goodness guesses of who my mystery person is.

Here are 10 clues:
1) He was one of the original owners of the Seattle Mariners baseball team

2) He would have been 97 on his birthday, which is this week

3) He is a talented singer, actor, pilot and chef

4) He is one of my favorite people, although I've never met him

5) He was married to his wife for 47 years and had one child

6) He was told early in his career that his nose was too big and he'd NEED to have plastic surgery.  He refused so to take the focus off of his nose, his hair was always dyed lighter.  He has blonde/redish hair in all of his roles.

7) The musical "The Kid From Brooklyn" chronicles his life

8) He served as a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF and is known for his charity work

9) He conducted the Philharmonic Orchestra with his FEET at Carnegie Hall

10) He never used understudies

(Here's a bonus hint...his birthname is David Daniel Kaminski)

Okay...can you guess it? I'll reveal the mystery guest tomorrow...GOOD LUCK! And please, NO PEEKING! Give it your BEST shot!!

all about ryanna

From the mouth of Ryanna:

Favorite color-- "Um, purple, pink, red and blue."

Favorite food-- "Um, vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup and add a strawberry on top just for fun!"

Favorite song-- "Momma Mia by that beautiful singer named Abba." (yep, haven't mentioned to her that it's actually a GROUP!)

(Ryanna performing at half-time after her Sweet Liberty Dance camp!)

Favorite book-- "I have too many.  I'm spoiled! Junie B. Jones series, The Classroom at the End of the Hall is a good one right now."

Favorite friend-- "Mitchell.  You already knew that, Mom!"

Favorite memory-- "Having Carter in our family when he was born up in Moscow."

Favorite stuffed animal-- "Peppermint.  My big furry polar bear from Grandmother Velta and Papa."

Favorite dinner food-- "Pizza with JUST cheese on it."

Favorite school activity-- "Drawing time.  Because you get to draw whatever you want and afterwards you get to color it."

Favorite after-school activity-- "Chess Club.  If I still had dance, I'd say dance, but I can't so I won't."

(this is at Ryanna's chess tournament last week! Her first one!)

If you could go anywhere in the world, where would it be? 

"CHINA because Grammie went there and I want to learn Chinese."

What are you going to be when you grow up?

"A teacher because I love learning and I love teaching."

Where do you want to live when you grow up?

"In a mansion that owns a hotel; that has an indoor swimming with two billion rooms in the hotel."

(her ribbon she brought home from her tournament!)

What famous person would you like to meet?

"Taylor Swift because he's a beautiful singer and I love to sing."

What instrument do you wish you could play?

"Violin."

Which book are you reading right now?

"Harry Potter... the second book."

Love you RYANNERS!!! You're a great kid!

book time

Take one: Nope.  Not quite.

Take two: Getting closer!

Take three: Whew! They actually held still long enough for me to snap this! Good thing it's such a large chair.

dimpled bottom and dead tree

Random pictures from the last week.  Warning: naked, dimpled baby bottom below!
Carter is still going through his NAKE PHASE and refuses to wear his diaper and clothes. This is just one of the outfits that I caught him in:

Awesone Dawson

Sweet Ryanna

THE TREE COMES DOWN!!!

Aaron and Dawson spent an hour trying to get the EIGHT STRANDS of lights off this brittle horribly DEAD tree! It was hilarious.  The branches and needles were falling off right and left and by the time they were done...

The tree looked like THIS!

Mind you, this is the BEFORE picture of the tree.  Lush and full and beautiful.  POOR TREE!!

Aaron, thanks so much for your help! I couldn't have done it without you!! I love that you're so close and you can come over and play when you're not working.  Love you!!

if you give a boy a dart gun

If you give a boy a dart gun for Christmas,

He's going to want a dart to go with it.  If you give him a dart, the boy shoots everything he sees.

When the boy shoots everything he sees, the adults see that it is fun!

Since the adults see that it's fun,

they join in.

When the adults join in, it's all out WAR!

Since it's all out war, they have a lot of fun shooting others.  The adults take it very seriously!

Since the adults take it very seriously, there are darts flying from all directions.

Because there are darts flying from all directions, there may be some casualties.

When there are too many casualties, the war is over and peace is delared.

Now that peace is declared, the darts are all gathered up.

When the darts are gathered up,

the boy will want a dart gun to go with them!

christmas fun

It's all about CHRISTMAS!!

These pictures are in random order, but it shows that we have fun regardless.  It was a low-key and I we all enjoyed it very much.  My sister was up from Utah visiting so we had ALL the kids home! Since Holdaway's were visiting North Carolina, we didn't even get to see them for Christmas.  Good thing we partied before!

(Carter claims that my PURSES are his BACKPACKS and they often go missing...)

And of COURSE Ryanna loves her new books! She is a fan of Ramona Quimby and loves these books.

I thought this was darling.  Uncle Donny playing with Ryanna.

Aimee and Ashley

Me and Aaron

Two good looking dudes!

My sweet friend, Becca, made a cape for Dawson's birthday back in September and she made one for Carter for Christmas!!! He loves it.  It's so cute, because of the reverse side, there's a Superman emblem/colors with a GIANT C!!! Super CARTER!

Eating Grammie's delicious rolls, yummmmmy!

Santa dropped by to deliver some candy canes to us! Dawson and Ryanna went along with it, but CARTER FLIPPED OUT!!!! HE was so excited and was just beside himself trying to tell Santa all about his stuffed animal.  It was so cute.  The picture depicts him not being happy, but HE SURELY WAS!!!!