I'm so proud of you Andy :)

Thanksgiving

Yum!

As you can see, I STILL haven't cut his hair!!

Waiting for dinner....

Happy Thanksgiving!

Freedom from Want
Sure wish you could be here to celebrate with us Andy!! We miss you!!

Our New Christmas Ornament

We'd better not have any more kids or it's going to get a lot harder finding an ornament that I can put all of our names on :)

My Little Betty Crocker

Ellie has caught the baking bug.
She begged me all morning long to let her make something and so I gave in - why not?
She ended up making very yummy banana bread - full of walnuts.
She wanted to send it to Andy, but I wasn't sure that we would be able to get it there fresh. It's been taking a long time for packages to get to him.
I'm definitely not going to discourage her from her newest interest...

Jolly Old St. Nick

More pics of Tori

Nobody in the house can seem to get enough of Tori Rose. She is just so cute. Is it her rolls, or her smile? I don't know, but everyone loves taking a turn keeping her entertained :)

Happy Half Birthday and a Day!

We decided that we needed a reason for celebration.

Yesterday, Tori turned 6 months old - the perfect opportunity for a party.

Ellie decided to bake a cake, but she was very distracted by her younger sisters in the kitchen with her and she ended up putting in an extra cup of shortening. Needless to say, the cake didn't turn out. She was very sad, but it was too late at night for another try.

So, today she made a pound cake with chocolate frosting - and she did it all by herself. I wasn't even in the room with her. She used the mixer by herself. She put it in and took it out of the oven. She took it out of the pan and frosted it herself (with her own homemade frosting!). I am so incredibly proud of her!! It was delicious. She has decided that she wants to make everyone's birthday cakes. Sounds good to me. :)

Today we celebrated Tori's half birthday and a day :) She was amused by their singing...

Christmas

Did you know that there are only 33 days until Christmas???? Yikes!
We're going to go shopping today and get some more things for Andy. I need to get his packages sent out soon. Especially since the last one I sent a couple of weeks ago hasn't arrived yet. That worries me....

Tori cuteness

Little Tori Pumpkinhead is such a cutie patootie.
Yes, I love her :)
I love her rolls and her cheeks and her gummy smile :)
I wish she could stay this age forever!

My Dad is the Man!

Yes, he is :)

Nick's Hair Poll

What to do with Nick's hair.
Yes, I have procrastinated and it continues to grow.
I could shave it all off, but he is so blond that he then looks bald.
Do I let him have an "in-style" shaggy mop of a head?
Take the poll in the side bar and let me know what you think....

I Love My Dad!!

Phone Books

North Pole, Alaska isn't exactly a major metropolitan area. Neither is Fairbanks.

One would think that one phone book would be sufficient for such an out-of-the-way place.

Apparently not. In the past few months I have received 4-5 separate phone books for the coming year. Strange. One of them was just a "mini" version of another. I put that one in the car :)

You can only have so many phone books in the house though. I have special Stokke brand chairs, so absolutely no need for the phone books as a booster at the table :) I suppose I will choose the one I like best and chuck the rest. It just seems like such a waste!

Kate is sick :(

Kate woke up (after the sleepwalking) shivering and wheezing.

I took her to the doctor first thing this morning and she said that she thinks she has strep throat (her throat is red with white dots). The culture came back negative, but the dr. said that it was entirely possible that it was just too early for a positive result.

Kate also had 2 ear infections (but no pain in her ears) so she is on an antibiotic that should clear up both the infections and strep (if that is what it is). She is very lethargic today and is in a ball on the couch, watching movies. We're going to be staying home for a few days....

Lazy me

Yes, I am being lazy.

To date, I have only changed one of the clocks in my house.
(I'm sure that this doesn't surprise Andy at all - it's his job!)

If I wait long enough, then we'll hit daylight savings time again and I won't have to do it!!

Sleepwalker

Poor Kate. I'm sure she'll love reading this story someday when she's 40 yrs old.

I was sitting downstairs with Nick asleep in my arms when I heard a commotion upstairs. Someone was out of bed and I assumed had to go to the bathroom pretty badly - there was running involved.

When I got upstairs, I saw Kate sitting on the kitchen stool. With her pants down. She had just left a gallon sized puddle on the kitchen floor.

She appeared to be completely awake - eyes open and she was talking to me. I tried to steer her to the bathroom (I still had Nick in my arms), but she started rifling through the kitchen drawers looking for toilet paper!

I got her into the bathroom and pointed her towards the toilet paper and then went to set Nick down so that I could help clean her up.

When I got back, she had just shut a bathroom drawer and she had toothpaste on her leg. I honestly think she tried wiping herself with her sister's toothpaste! I'm glad I saw it so that I could dispose of it before it was used again....

I finally got her cleaned and dressed and put her back into bed.

During the entire thing she was alert, but just confused and I suppose "sleepwalking". Isn't that strange?

This is not a regular occurence, so it took me completely by surprise. She normally goes straight to the bathroom and straight back. She must have been in a very deep sleep or something.....

Who needs toys?

I often wonder why I even buy them toys. They are much happier with a stack of plastic cups :)

My Brown-Eyed Girl

Out of 5 kids, only one has ended up with brown eyes like Andy.
Lexie is our little brown-eyed girl :)