Spots of Time

More videos

Our raccoon friend has decided it's not worth the effort to wait until the sun goes down to scope out the local garbage can scene.  In this video, he's staring at MJ who is oogling him from the dining room window.  I keep telling my girls that he's a dirty scavenging varmint who may or may not have rabies, and therefore doesn't deserve the title of cute.  Apparently they don't listen to me, because I keep catching them trying to leave "gifts" for him on our porch.  We're now in the market for stronger garbage cans:

As for the second video, well this is what happens when you give four girls the run of the house all night long.  We'd been promising the girls they could have a sleepover for weeks, and somehow we thought that inviting two friends at the same time would be easier than planning two separate events. When I first heard all the screaming coming from MJ's bedroom, I thought somebody must have lost a limb or something.  Once I realized nobody was actually hurt I decided I better document the occasion, just so I'll have something to show the girls next time they tell me I never let them do anything fun. 

And finally, we were thrilled to be able to spend some time this weekend with my brother and his adorable family who are visiting from Oklahoma.  Their little guy is growing up fast, but is still as cute as ever:

Nana!!

I haven't posted for a few days because I've been busy catching up and chatting with my Mom, aka Nana.  She had a conference in Boston this past weekend, but was able to stay with us and spend time playing with the girls.  Because MJ was sick we were stuck in the house for the majority of the time, but we still managed to find ways to occupy ourselves. 

The girls love having a nana who is a scientist, and save all their big questions for when she calls or comes to visit.  As an example, during Sunday dinner MJ asked the loaded question "what's a molecule made of?"  Even though I took plenty of science classes in college I still get tripped up answering questions like this one, especially when I try to explain things in kid friendly language.  Nana, on the other hand, is an expert in scientific kidspeak and was able to turn the question into a fun conversation starter.  MJ even came up with nicknames for our family: KR is proton, I'm neutron, MJ is electron, and Wonderkid is quark. 

It's nice being able to field all those tough questions over to my Mom, and what really amazes me is that she always manages to pull additional tidbits of information right off the top of her head (seriously, who else knows all the details about how earthworm babies get here?).  To think I thought I would only need to utilize her expertise while I was in college...

The last of the Easter pictures

On Sunday we journeyed up to Boston for a little Easter celebration.  KR’s brother and his wife invited us to spend the day with them and their adorable little girl.  They set up a little Easter egg hunt for the girls, organized a egg dying party, and even did all the cooking-we did donate some plastic eggs and ghetto sugar cookies though. 

Anyway, I made this little video for the girls’ enjoyment, and thought I would post it on the blog in lieu of pictures.  I just thought I would warn you however, this video is not exciting, funny, or even all that interesting, it’s really for my more “hardcore” readers (meaning those who are most likely related to my kids and just like looking at pictures of them).  If you are wondering where I am in all of those pictures, I’m the one holding the camera.  I promise I really was there.  In fact, if you look closely you can catch a quick glimpse of me on one of the Easter egg hunt videos, it's like the Mom version of Where's Waldo.

Happy St. Joseph's Day!!!

Apparently, if you don't go out and buy yourself an authentic Zeppole on St. Joseph's day you aren't a real Rhode Islander (at least this is what I was told by some of my students today).  Imagine their shock and horror when they realized I had never even heard of St. Joseph, much less a Zeppole.  Fortunately my class is held in the Federal Hill area of Providence, and I was able to redeem myself with a stop by the legendary Palmieri's Bakery (thankfully preventing myself from being labeled a "fake" Rhode Islander--whatever that is).  I am sure my fellow Oklahoma raised blog readers are wondering, as I did, just what in tarnation is a Zeppole, so I took a picture:

Don't ask me what happened to the two other pastries that were in the box, because I have no idea.  It wasn't me.

Okay, so I might have eaten one...or two, but in my defense, these things are pretty darn good.  Even babies like them:

Don't worry Diane, I'm only kidding, I made sure he didn't actually get any in his mouth.  As for the rest of the kiddos, well, lets just say there was some major St. Joseph's day partying going on in our house tonight. 

   

Yellow!

It might still be cozy footed jammies weather around here, but at least our walls are looking like spring.  The girls can't stand to watch KR and I do home improvement projects without 'lending a hand' of their own.  Supergirl was actually pretty helpful, but as KR says, give Wonderkid a roller soaked in wet paint and she instantly becomes a bull in a china shop.

If you need a place to stay...

Me to KR (in a frazzled voice) just before leaving for my weekly trip to boston yesterday:  "Don't forget to get all the ski gear and clothes out of the storage closet for our trip tomorrow, remember that supergirl has soccer practice at 5, and don't let the girls make a big mess in the kitchen, since I have to make and decorate 50 cupcakes after I get home at 10:00.

KR to me (with a mouthful of frosted sugar cookie): "Don't worry, I've got it all under control."

I came home later that night to an empty house (and a destroyed kitchen, but who's complaining).  I was about to start worrying when I heard my five year old squealing in the back yard.  I was surprised to find what seemed to be an attempt to turn our backyard into a refuge for estranged Eskimos:

I must admit, I was impressed.  I tried to be annoyed, because it was ten o'clock at night, and it was obvious that nobody even made an attempt to gather the ski equipment, and the house was a mess, and Supergirl went to soccer practice without shinguards or a ponytail holder, but I was too distracted by the ginormous construction project in our backyard.  It looks like we are going to be doing a lot of "last minute" packing for both our ski trip and our trip to Oklahoma two days later.  Oh well, it's not everyday that you get to construct an igloo that's bigger than your bedroom.

Christmas Party

Last night KR and I went out for a night out on the town sans children.  We didn't think to take our picture before we left, when I was still wearing lipstick and our faces didn't give the impression that we had just spent 20 minutes walking in sub freezing temperatures.  We rarely take pictures with just the two of us though, so I'll take what I can get.

Thank you

Here are a few more pictures of our action packed weekend. Somehow my mom managed to escape the camera's lens around the house, but she did make it into some of the baptism pictures.  We didn't do much besides sit around, chat, eat, and play games, but what else is there to do anyway? 

 

Just a few more halloween pictures

KR was a good sport about this headband.  I couldn't come up with a costume idea that included the whole family, so KR and I went as a sheriff and a damsel in distress.  I tried to get him to do a girly pose for one of the pictures, but he kept confusing girly behavior with gangster poses.  At least he tried.  Maybe I should be glad he hasn't mastered the art of feminine behavior:

This next picture is of wonderkid rocking out at her school dance.  She danced non-stop almost the whole time.  I knew she liked to dance around at home, but who knew she would have no qualms about busting a move in front of hundreds of people?

   

As for the next picture, well, the kids always wonder what we do at night after they go to sleep.  The truth is, we dig out all of their halloween candy and pick out the good stuff to eat for ourselves.  We're only doing it for them (and their dental health).

We're still trying to figure out what to do with the abundant amounts of candy we have hidden around our house.  KR nixed my idea of mixing it up into casseroles (to get the kids to eat of course), but seemed okay with the thought of giving it out as Christmas presents to our neighbors.  Who doesn't love a holiday gift basket stuffed with mellow creme pumkins and jack-o-lantern chocolates?    

Has it really been 9 years

since KR and I decided to jump in and take the plunge toward an eternity of marital bliss?  I have to admit the years have gone by so much faster than I had expected them too.  It really does feel like we were just married.  Some things have changed: we are no longer starving college students (meaning we were able to get rid of our second hand recycled college dorm furniture), and since we have our own offspring to care for we don't spend our vacations sleeping in the back of a corolla, eating top ramen out of old 7-11 hot chocolate cups.  On the other hand, there are so many things that have stayed the same.  KR still leaves the top of the toothpaste tube looking like it was involved in some sort of nuclear explosion, and I still pull apart my Oreo cookies, eat the half with the filling stuck to it, and put the other half back in the package.  We also haven't managed to break our habit of staying up until midnight every night, even though we have promised ourselves at least once a week since we were married that we will start going to bed earlier.

     The past nine years have been crazy with us moving from Utah to California to South Carolina, to Rhode Island.  We've endured hurricanes, tornadoes, rock falls, pregnancies (okay, that was mostly just me), military training, multiple cross-country road trips, and, most recently, a little fluffy white dog. We’ve certainly had our challenges but the good days have always outnumbered the bad by a wide margin.  I guess what I am trying to say is that KR is still the man as far as I am concerned, even though he does crazy things like hide diamond earrings underneath an old sand bucket in our backyard all night long (fortunately there were no late night prowlers last night, because they certainly would have noticed the trail of chocolate and rose petals leading up to the upturned pail).  Seriously though, how could I really be upset about something like that?

Here is a picture of us hiking in Hawaii shortly after our wedding (I still haven't gotten over the fact that I actually wore overalls in Hawaii):

This one was taken last week in Pennsylvania: