Reading Goals for the Year

On a website I frequently read (welltrainedmind.com), I saw a challenge to read a book a week in 2009. I think that I will try to do this and have my kids do it as well. We'll keep track of our books on the side of this blog. See how we do.

Countdown to School: 8 Days

This one is for my kids... Only 8 days until school starts up again. YIPPEE! I've already started my lesson plans. It's a good thing...I think their little gray cells are beginning to die from the movies and computer games they've been viewing. Although I must say I am pleased with Nan's response when I help the camera up and said "React to this: School in 8 days."

Scenes for Christmas Eve and Morn

Rocking three babies at once.

Christmas Eve dinner of Clam Chowder. Our friend Stacie feeding Cente.
Finishing our Advent reading.
Christmas Morning in front of the tree (which is so scrawny you cannot even see it).

Dinner Out

I was exhaust last night and asked Todd if we could go out for dinner. We went to our favorite Thai restaurant. It was our first restaurant experience with Vincente. (His name is spelled several ways on different documents...Vicente/Vincente... so if I change my spelling, that's why.) I forgot what it is like to take a 22 month old out to eat. He did okay but I was busy... not the relaxing outing I was hoping for. Next time, we'll hire Nan to babysit.

Much enjoyed gifts..

We had a wonderful Christmas time at Grandpa and Grandma's house last night and today. The kids reaped the reward of being the grandchildren of very generous and loving grandparents and Aunt Susan.

I haven't posted much in the past couple days... due (as you might guess) to a 22 month old sweet guest of our family. But more on that later.

For now, here are photos of the boys enjoying one of their gifts from Aunt Susan...

Cente in the Snow

Excited to go out with Nan.

Cold Snow!

Has to come back in...

Crazy Snowy Day

Having fun with Cente

Ethan the great snow shoveler

Ethan has been fantastic at shoveling our driveway. His muscles are getting bigger from all this snow.

Snowed In

Cente helped me make cinnamon rolls. He wasn't too interested until I gave him a taste of the brown sugar and he became my best buddy.

I went shopping for PJs for Cente and being the baragain shopper, found him a pair on clearance. They happened to be the same pajamas I bought for the boys several months ago.

Nan turns 14

Two cookbooks!

Beautiful 14 year old girl.

Downtown for the Nutcracker.

Where is the storm?

We are ready for the storm...but where is it? We are hoping it will snow a ton...but it hasn't dipped below freezing yet. The weather man said he staked his reputation on the fact this storm will hit...hmmmm. What station was that?

A special visitor

We have a special visitor at our home. His name is Vicente. About a month ago, Todd and I decided to explore the possibility of doing foster care. We know there is a tremendous need, especially in our neighborhood. So I went to an informational meeting a little over a week ago and Todd and I submitted fingerprints. We thought that we'd have about 2 months of classes and then might be selected to care for a child. We got a call last week saying there was a need for a quick placement and would we be willing to have a 20 month old little boy join us for a while. Yesterday, the local office did a quick certification of our home and we picked up this little boy at 8:00 pm.

Our friends are having a baby...

Our friends are having a baby and they just had an ultrasound today to find out whether it is a boy or a girl. They had the ultrasound tech write down the sex of the baby and put it in a sealed envelope which they gave to us with some $$. We (Nan and I) opened the envelope and now get to go purchase an outfit for the baby which will reveal his/her gender. We'll wrap it up and give it to Trent and Christianne to put under their tree and open Christmas morning. Great fun for us. Nan and I will ride the Max to the mall today to make our special purchase.

Band and Violin Recital Cancelled

I wish I'd had my camera ready when I announced the band recital was canceled for tonight due to the weather. You could hear the "Hallelujah Chorus" being sung... and I don't think it was just the kids.

Another round of Iron Chef

The kids played another round of "Iron Chef". Here are the dishes Nan prepared. Each cook had to prepare an appetizer, a main dish, and a dessert using ingredients we have on hand that I don't have set aside for a meal. These three dished were great: a salad with Nan's homemade balsamic vinaigrette, fried rice, and a peanut butter Chex treat.

Ethan's appetizer was Cheese Nachos; his main dish was a scrambled egg concoction; and his dessert was a cookie with an original caramel sauce.

Natalie won this round but Ethan skills are sharpening and I predict a new Iron Chef in the next round.

Christmas Wreath

Today our friend, Jaci, dropped by a wreath she made us. It is beautiful and smells great. Jaci, though a Duck fan, embellished ours with orange flowers in honor of OSU. Thank you Jaci!

Tuesday Snacks

Nan made these goodies from Chex cereal, peanut butter, and chocolate which she then coated with powdered sugar. They are delicious.
We made another batch of Chex Mix. With all these snacks around and with the weather too cold to go outside and exercise, we are going to get chubby.

How to spend a snow day

Chocolate chip pancakes and bacon for breakfast.
A fun game of Clue Mystery.

Miscellaneous

This is the end of Levi's bed. I think he believes his pets and stuffed animals needed Christmas stockings. Now I know why the boys have trouble finding socks to wear. Notice the lights wrapped around the bed. All three kids have their own string of lights with which they have decorated their beds.

The script for a movie the kids filmed...Evil Santa... where do they get these ideas?

What we ate..

We were stuck at home all day because of the icy roads so we decided to smoke some meat which is a lengthy process and requires lots of attention. Here is one of the three racks of pork shoulder we made. I forgot to take an after shot but it was delicious.

Tomorrow I think we will do some holiday baking. Band and violin lessons have been canceled. The kids are hoping their concert on Tuesday will be canceled as well.

Hannah

The kids have a special friend, Hannah, whom they have known for 10 years...Natalie met her when they were 3. Hannah was even at the hospital when Levi was born. She rode the MAX to our house today and is spending the night. Her school is closed tomorrow due to this crazy weather.

Snow Days

Church was cancelled today due to icy road conditions. A cold spell hit and is supposed to stay around for a few days. The wind is blowing like crazy. The weather people say it is currently 23 degrees but because of the wind-chill factor it feels like 3 degrees. Burrrrr!

Wizard of Oz

The kids and I attended the Northwest Children Theater's production of "The Wizard of Oz" yesterday. A friend from church had the lead as Dorthy and she was great.

Afterward we went to a retirement center and watched another friend from church dance with her ballet troupe.

Creativity abounds...

I received a video camera for my birthday and my kids are absolutely thrilled. They have been in and out of costumes this morning, creating their own films. I have to figure out how to download the footage to the computer and edit... actually, I will probably let them figure it out and teach me.

Prepare for the Miles Mini-Film Festival.

Great Birthday Gifts

I received several nice gifts for my birthday. My kids are excited about all of them...they see the benefit to themselves in the types of gifts I get. (Ever since I got a trampoline for Mother's Day, they are pretty certain that any gift for me, will be shared and enjoyed by them.) And they are mostly right.

Scratched

Levi was scratched by the cat near his eye last night. It scared him as it bled a lot. We are thankful he didn't get scratched in the eye.

Fieldtrip to OMSI

I took the kids to OMSI yesterday. They enjoyed all the science hands-on activities, but we had a bad experience with the planetarium. We went in to view a show called "Cosmic Collisions" which was described as a demonstration of space collisions. Sounds good, right? Wrong.

For us it was a "Cosmic Collision" of worldviews. We were informed that billions of years ago the earth in its molten form collided with an asteroid that sent debris swirling into orbit around the earth and, amazingly, in only one month's time, the moon was formed.

(Putting aside the complete rejection of God as creator, how ridiculous is it to speak in terms of events billions of years ago and then to say with absolute authority, an event (formation of the moon) took 30 days.)

We also learned that the dinosaurs which roamed the earth for millions of years were destroyed by an asteroid whose impact threw the earth into chaos, but, fortunately for us, set up just the right environment for mankind to evolve.

We learned that should the earth in in the near future be threatened by an asteroid, it could definitely be diverted by sending up a space craft to fly by it to slightly alter the gravitational pull and change its path.

Also, in the future (billions of years again) the Milky Way will definitely collide with another galaxy, but we are not to worry. It will not effect the planets in our solar system.

I cannot believe any self-respecting scientist would defend these as "facts" but yet they are spewed to school children daily. The word theory was not even used that I recall. I heard a family leaving the planetarium saying "Wow, that was really neat." Ar!