Twelve Years Ago...

This was us, December 31, 1999...

This is us, April 30, 2011.

(Please note the: film canister, scrunchy, phone with antenna, in the foreground of the first picture. These are the things that prove we are old.)

This coming year, 2012, will mark our 10th anniversary as a wedded couple. I love you more than I ever have. Every time I look at the faces of our children, I love you more than I did a second ago. Thank you for asking me to marry you, all those years ago.

You're the best...AROUND! And no one's ever gonna bring you down!

Freddie Fridays: 2011 Wrap Up

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Looking forward to 2012

This has been a lovely, busy holiday season. We still have unopened presents, uneaten cookies, unfolded laundry and unrested children. But we're happy. I wouldn't have changed a thing. A lot like 2011. Little Fred up there has made this one of the best years in history. I know that his smiling face, along with those other three kids I love more than my luggage, will make 2012 just as great, if not better.

Happy New Year!

Christmas Carols, Kid Style

This pretty much sums up what being a kid at christmas is all about.

Drum Roll, Please

Our party on Friday night was, by all accounts, a huge success. Everyone had fun, but no one had too much fun. Everyone stayed late, but no one stayed too late. No one drunkenly made out in one of our bedrooms. No one puked in a corner. Someone did pee off of my deck, but only after getting the ok from me.

During the days leading up to the party, several people asked SOB for directions to our house. After giving them the rights and lefts, he simply said, 'Just look for the house with the crazy christmas lights. That's ours.'

Now, there are many others out there who have seriously insane christmas lights. We're not quite there...yet. However, compared to our neighbors, our display is pretty wild. For some background, let me give you a little tour of our cul-de-sac.

Here is one of our neighborhood houses. Lovely, tasteful, but still festive.

Here is another. Again, simple, elegant. Although it's hard to tell from the photo, these folks have jazzed things up a bit with some color changing fiber optic lights. Very cool.

And here is our house:

TAAAA! DAAAA!

Oh, wait. Let me pan out a bit...

That's better! Let's see, we have about 100 lighted candy canes, two trees wrapped entirely in colorful lights, one tree that is full of the hodgepodge lights we only have one strand of, two lighted deer (one of which is snacking on a candy cane light) a moose with a mechanical head, an igloo and polar bear, also with mechanical head, a snowman and about a gillion tiny, twinkling lights blanketing everything in the yard that can't get up and walk away.

It took SOB several days to get this all up and working, and we can't turn our dining room lights on while these suckers are glowing. And my windows are covered with face and hand prints at about Sam, Lucy and Maggie height. But it's so worth it to hear Maggie run gleefully through the house telling everyone, 'THE DECORATION LIGHTS ARE BACK ON AGAIN!' night after night.

Plus, everyone was able to find the place the night of the party.

The Winter of My Discontent

Oh, the things. Not awful, life changing things, but insanely annoying things.

Like, say, PINK EYE. Yeah. That was a fun week., during which Maggie and Freddie also had fevers.

Also during that week we discovered that we had a huge leak in our water main that was dumping literally hundreds of gallons of water into our storm drain EVERY HOUR. After investigating we found out that we had gone through 55,000 gallons of water in ten days. That's like filling five swimming pools and then dumping them into the street. By the grace of something good, the leak wasn't located under our concrete driveway but in a soft garden area, so repairing it was easier and (much) less expensive than it could have been.

Which makes it almost laughable that the very next day our washing machine broke. It was supposed to be getting fixed today. BUT! Despite telling the service scheduler exactly what was very obviously wrong and having her say, 'Oh yeah, that's the drum gasket. Happens all the time. Try not to put clothing with zippers in the wash.' (sidebar: WTF?!?!!??!?), when she sent the message to the repair man, all that she noted was that the washing machine wasn't working. Therefore, he never ordered said drum gasket. And he won't get it until Friday at the earliest. So I may have to leave the house hot pink velour pants one day this week. You have been warned.

Oh, and you know what else is going on on Friday? We're having a party for 65 of SOB's co-workers. Of which I know approximately 2. And I need to bake about 300 dozen cookies before then, but while I bake I can't get my clothes dirty because I can't wash them.

UNCLE!

Freddie: Month Nine

Dear Freddie-Fred -

Oh, my sweet, sweet baby. This is going to be short and words and heavy on photos because you have become the latest (and hopefully last) member of our family afflicted with the fever virus. So let's get down to it, shall we?

You've been getting to spend more quality time with the Yan lately, and that is a good thing. You kinda like her.

You also like this lady. A lot.

And this brother. In fact, he was among the first people to receive a sweet, slobbery kiss from you.

For the record, I will take one million of those kisses, please, all wrapped up under the christmas tree.

Besides kisses, you want everything else in your mouth, please. It's pretty cute, really.

This is the obligatory 'you know you're a fourth kid' photo, because there is no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks I would have ever let Sam gnaw on a hairbrush. Also, what in H-E-double-hockey-sticks is a hairbrush doing in my foyer?

Know what you don't like? Besides fevers? Being kept out of somewhere. Anywhere, really. Baby gates are your enemy. Sadly for you, they are going to be a pretty permanent fixture in your life for a while.

Aside from the current weepy/snugly thing you've got going on, you are still, by FAR, the most pleasant kid I've ever had the pleasure of birthing. Or knowing, for that matter.

I tell you this at least a dozen times a day, but you are my most favorite person in the whole wide world. You make every day more fun that it ever could have been without you. Every time I hold you in my arms, I feel at peace. So if you could just hang out there for another fifty or sixty years, that would be great, ok?

Love, Mama

Happy Birthday Pappy-O!

I Heart Faces: On Your Feet

This photo was entered into the I Heart Faces photo challenge – www.iheartfaces.com

The Secret to Santa

Late yesterday morning we went to see Santa at the local mall. We went to the same place last year as well, and just like last year we had absolutely no trouble seeing the big man. There was no line, and in fact he was waiting for us, as we had come in two cars and didn't arrive at the same time. After our visit to Santa's village and a ride on the train, we headed out to get our tree. As we were leaving, there were droves of families coming in, presumably to see the jolly old elf himself. And they were all dressed nicely, as though there were coming from somewhere. That's when I had my light bulb moment. We've never had any delays when we make our annual visit to Santa because everyone else in the greater Mo-town area is at church! Being a non-believer in the bible belt has more than its fair share of challenges, so it's nice to get an occasional WIN!

The Net Minder

A few weeks ago, early in the morning...

Sam had a hockey game, BIG SURPRISE. But we got up and headed over to the rink with smiles on our faces. I think we were smiling, anyway. Like I said, it was reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeealy early.

In the past few games and practices, Sam has shown a lot of interest in playing goalie. Now, I have nothing against goalies in general, but I'd rather not stick him in the net just yet. First of all, he needs to learn to skate better, and being in the net the whole game isn't going to help that. Second off, goalie pads are crazy expensive. Especially for a lefty. So, yeah, we aren't super enthusiastic. But Sam is, and if we want to be good parents we should at least let him try, right? Plus, at the age and skill level where he's playing, none of the kids wear goalie pads, so we don't have to worry about that one yet.

So early in the morning, my son got himself a big stick and headed to the net. And guess what? He was actually kind of good at it.

Good enough that other parents from the team commented about his skills. Good enough that he ended up playing goalie several times since then. Part of the reason he likes it, according to him, is that he gets to be on the ice the whole game instead of playing shifts. And he also likes that he gets to grab the puck with his hands and the other players don't. I'm not entirely sure those are good enough reasons to be the net minder, but since he still gets to rotate through the other positions, we'll let him try it out for a while.

But he looks so cute as a little winger!