Me? Annoying? What?

Here's the scene: Me and Logan are in the kitchen and I'm making dinner as a dutiful mom should, right? I'm singing "down by the banks" broadway style of course!

Then Logan says, "you're annoying". I'm thinking, did a 9 YEAR OLD BOY really just tell me that I'M ANNOYING? I'm pretty sure the definition looks something like this:

an.noy.ing [uh-noi-ing] - adjective: causing annoyance; 9 YEAR OLD BOY; irritatingly bothersome.

So I say, "you're annoying".

And Logan says, "you sing all the time...that's annoying"

I say, "rude".

Then a few minutes go by (I keep singing), and he asks if he can have a noodle.

Me, being the grudge holder that I am, say "no way, you just told me I'm annoying".

Being the desperate child who wants something, he says, "It's not annoying when you sing it once, but you sing it like 10 times".

Another few minutes pass, and he starts inadvertently singing the theme song to "Scooby Doo".

I'm pleased as punch because I get to come back with, "you're annoying".

And he says, "I made up my own words".

And I say, "that's annoying" ;)

My baby's not my baby anymore...

The funny thing is I feel a little closer to him now...kinda like I did with my siblings. This may be a little disfunctional, right? What can I say...the only grown up in this house has been gone for three days....Frank will be home tonight :)

By the way, It's the highlight of my morning to torture the whole family with this awesome morning song. I love to turn it up real loud when I make breakfast....YOU'LL LOVE IT!

Cuttin Back...

I just put Carly to bed, and in her prayer she said, "bless us that we'll save a lot of money, and that we can look at a lot of toys and not buy any". Bless her little HEART! {We've been trying to teach the kids the value of saving and not spending - while trying to learn the concept ourselves!}

Neighborhood Party

Our cul-de-sac has a Christmas Party every year, and everyone takes turn hosting. There are 14 houses involved, so we haven't ever had to host it before, but this was THE year! It was our turn. I wish I would have taken pictures of the tables, cuz they were awesome....I'm not even going to try to explain it - you just with you were there!

ANYWAY....

After dinner, we usually do a white elephant gift exchange, but this year Frank and I decided it would be fun to do some "Minute to Win it" games. It was really fun - and I, of course kicked some trash ;)

UNTIL....

Frank and I had to do the "face the cookie" challenge. You put a cookie on your forehead, then get it into your mouth without using hands. I felt pretty confident as we both placed the cookies on our foreheads, and mine was shimmying evenly down my face. Immediately I hear everyone cheering. Turns out I'm not the ONLY show off under this roof! As soon as Frank put his on his forehead, he flung it into the air and caught it in his mouth. Look at that smug little face (mine is still on my eye)!

Christmas 2010

TWO O'CLOCK IN THE AM.....we hear the kids in the front room - all 3! We told them to go back to bed but we knew it was going to be a looooooong night. They already saw that Santa had come, stockings were filled, and they had to go back to bed! Torture :) At 6:45 we hear them in there again (don't actually know when they went in there). They were just sitting on the heater, looking at the tree, and waiting for us to wake up...poor kids! Here's the summary...

Carly fell in love with her American Girl Doll (look alike), and quickly named her Vanessa??? She also loved her perfume, and stationary.

Logan wanted a DSI, so despite our better judgement (since he already has the DS), we bought it anyway. He's been enjoying that, but we were surprised how much he like the 12 game set (namely, chess). He takes it everywhere with him!

Chase wanted the Dragonoid Colossus, and had fun putting it together the first 15 minutes, but I don't think he's touched it since. He loves his new wallet, and his apples to apples game.

As you can see in the picture, I like to fully participate in the gift opening...that means putting everything on layer by layer. I have my work out shirt, snowboarding pants, watch, scarf, and plaid shirt. Frank also suprised me with an awesome ski coat. I love the home made calendar Chase gave me - it was the first gift opened on Christmas morning - he INSISTED :)

Frank bought most of his Christmas, but I managed to surprise him with a purification water bottle. He's been way into emergency preparedness, so I also put together a 90-day food storage menu with a shopping list of ingredients we need (we'll have to wait til we recover from Christmas to actually PURCHASE the items ;)) He bought himself some speakers and a propane tank - BORING!

T'was the night before Christmas....

This was Anitas first Christmas since Vaughn passed away, so we invited her and Franks brother Randy to join us for our Christmas Eve festivities. We kept it all at home this year. We had a candle-lit lasagna dinner, then we made sugar cone christmas trees instead of cookies...even caught grandma licking frosting off her fingers....naughty, naughty!

Grandma Lancaster shared a little story, gave the kids their gifts, then they gave grandma hers. Logan was so excited to give her the calendar he made at school!

We didn't forget Randy (well, ok...almost forgot. Had to send Frank out to get something while they were on their way). Frank and Randy channeled their inner "hunter" while the rest of us made treats!

The Elves DID NOT dissapoint, leaving wrapped pj's on the front porch...

Read a Christams book (or 2, or 3, or 4, or I think it was 5). We try to do the 12 days of Christmas with books, but we're usually so busy that we end up playing catch up on Christmas Eve. Still just as fun though! The kids feel so lucky when I cry on the book they picked. After every page, they take a quick glance to see if I'm getting emotional yet. Frank doesn't get it. We finish reading "The Giving Tree", and he closes it and says, "well that was stupid - what the heck does that have to do with Christmas - we're not reading this one next year". My response? "sniffle, sniffle, sniffle,... but the tree gave EVERYTHING, and even when he had nothing left to give...he gave himself!" I do the same thing with "Touch of the Master's Hand", and "The Giving Chest". I hate to say it, but sound like an awful lot like CHERI! Who knew I'd be as big a baby as my mom!

Got the kids to bed, and watched a movie with Frank...actually got the wrapping done early this year! Pretty sweet :)