Have a Holly Jolly Christmas in a quesadilla year !

Today I'm playing rock band with my kids and being IN the moment.   This is a fun year, they all get it and are so excited.  :)  I love my life.

An oldy...but always a goody !   Syd was 3 years old here (sigh)  How the time flies. 

I hope you all have a holly jolly Christmas and a quesadilla year. ;-)

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fuuuuuh ! la la la la la la la la

Tis the season to eat chocolate fa la la la la la la la la
Eat and rub some in the carpet fa la la la la la la la la
Darn our mom came in and caught us fa la la la la la la la la
She yelled real loud and threatened to slap us fa la la la la la la la la
fuh la la la laaaa laa la laaaaaaaaaa

and because I've had to clean so many floors over the last 2 years.  my steam cleaner is out of order right now.   Carpet guy coming on Monday.  (sigh)

They put themselves in time out while I cleaned up.   Together.   They were wrestling when I finished taking pictures of the floor.    I told them to say guilty instead of cheese.  :)   Little shits.

In a side note.  I STILL haven't taken Christmas card pictures this year.....I'll just use this one and call it 1/2 way done.

Let it shnow let it shnow let it shnow

I hold absolutely no responsibility in their being outside, in the snow, in short sleeves, jumping on the trampoline (and Ryan without socks on)   They refused to come in when I found them outside.   I left them, thinking that they would come in soon, as it was....snowing.....and FREEZING.
They didn't....so instead of putting my coat, hat, gloves, snow pants and boots on to go out and fetch them....I fetched the camera instead :)
By the time they did come in....Ryan's hands were in the early stages of frost bite :) and he started crying that he was in fact freezing.
They took a bath and are now warm and dressed....and quietly watching Word World so's that I can type this.
Ryan has since repeatedly reminded me that you wear coats, gloves and boots in the snow.  :)

Update on Want Read Wear and Need !
We've decided on the Want coming from Santa.   The rest will come from us.   We've already talked about them getting one thing from Santa, so they're already prepared.  
We'll explain the Read Wear and Need on Christmas eve.
As for sibling gifts....we drew names.    They will each have a small amount to purchase a small gift for the person that they drew.
I still think it's going to be a LOT.   We'll see.

It's starting to feel like Christmas.   The snow helps.

Now....PLEASE let there be snow for Christmas.
12 more days.

Sinterklaas kapoentje

Gooi wat in mijn schoentje
Gooi wat mijn laarsje
Dank je Sinterflaasje
Which is the sweetest and most pivotal part in Miracle on 34th street that even today makes me believe :)
It translates to Dear Santa Claus, put something in my shoe, put something in my stocking, Thank you Santa Claus.

We finally went to see the big guy in the red suit.
It was mid afternoon on a Saturday at the mall.      Kinda explains the 1 1/2 hr wait.   geesh.
Thankfully.....I was able to stand in line for an hour of it, while J took the kids to the play area.    They would have NEVER made it the whole time.   I was very much impressed by all of the kids who did.
As we made our way to the holding spot just before seeing him.  ie.  the place behind the red velvet rope that holds us back from running to Santa before the childs turn ahead of us was over.....Santa's helper gave the kids high fives.   Asked them what they were going to ask from Santa for Christmas.
It went like this :
Helper :  What are you going to ask Santa for ?
Syd smiled shyly
Cam :  A star wars ship
Nathan :  A sword
Helper :  Do you want a sword or a light saber ?   Light saber's are by far the best.
Nathan :  and I'll kill bad guys.
Helper :  Oh wow.   and what do you want ?
Ryan : a sword.   and I won't kill Santa.
but because of the noise level and that he's only 3 I can understand how it may have sounded like I want to kill Santa.
Helper : OH NO !  You Can't kill Santa.   We can't allow that.   Who would bring you presents.
Spencer :  I want a chainsaw gun.  (ie. some chainsaw leaf blower tool toy he saw a Toys R Us...but after the I want to kill santa thing a chainsaw gun seemed appropriate)
Me : umm, it's our turn.   Santa is gesturing that it's our turn.
Helper :  (mouth open slightly with a  dumb founded look on his face clearly a little shaken by all of the death and destruction we just filled his mind with) oh yeah, ok, do you want a picture ?

Whildst sitting on Santa's lap after the photo was taken, each child asked for what they wanted.
Syd piped in with her request.   A white board with every color of the rainbow markers.     I'm sure this goes with the school and speech classes she's written on my calendar that she's apparently conducting with Cameron and Spencer.  :)   Hey  AT LEAST SHE ASKED FOR SOMETHING !
They all started spouting off what they wanted.    There were 5 of them.   Santa looked tired and had bad hearing.   Maybe it was all of the background noise.    You want a "word" ?   I would correct him, "no, a sword" and then held my breath hoping killing bad guys and Santa didn't come up again.    As his head turned back and forth trying to listen to each child Nathan tried to take his hat off and then pulled on his very real beard.    Ryan then put Santa's hand sweetly in his hand and asked him, "Santa do you want a drink ?"
I kid you not.    I couldn't have written the comedic timing on that.   Santa said that he just had a drink of water.  He told them to leave him Milk, Cookies and Carrots.   We grabbed our little candy canes and it was over.
Nobody was afraid of him.  (I know it doesn't look like it from the picture above..but they were just being pills for the picture) you know...unlike last year when Cam didn't want to be by him and Ryan cried. :)

Oh the memories !!!

Back to the drawrring board !

So we have been doing the chart thing.  And it's great.
The problem.   They don't care if they brush their teeth and get dressed so that they can have some TV time. TV time has been forgotten.  and please god please go down and watch TV.  oh how I miss you TV time.    They could care less.    So I let the consequence be that they don't get dressed and earn their star.
Thing is.  they don't really care about earning the star because the end of the month thing is so far beyond their concept of time.  ie.  is Christmas tomorrow mom ?  is Christmas tomorrow ?  nope it's at the end of the month in just a few weeks.  so is it in 2 days mom ? is it in 2 more days ?  (sigh)
We still have our family game night on Monday and movie night Fridays.    I hate to make them earn that time...because family time isn't something that I want to threaten them with.   Like reading.   I KNOW it's something that they love to do with me and threatening it would get results.  sometimes.  but it's not something I want to use as a punishment.  you know ?  that whole follow through crap.
Any ways.   I think we are going to have to work on some kind of weekly reward.  or even bi weekly.
Maybe do something fun twice a month.   I mean.   We're fun people.   We were doing that before any ways.
Some pictures of our star chart successes.

Making his bed

I have actually been able to appreciate and love the imperfections 

It makes me smile picturing his little body making this by himself.

It makes him smile too.   

and what I've learned about all of this bed making is.

Practice (and age) makes perfect.
oh.  and.   I'm not doing it :)

They get themselves dressed

Sometimes backwards and inside out.  :)

And they brush their teeth.

And that makes for a clean smile and a happy mom

Hip to the Hop to the hippity hop !

The boys started learning their routine last night.
As promised.......I present Spence and Cam....and class.  (Cam's the blond wearing the blue shirt up front and for some punk cool reason...Spencer's wearing his blue coat)



Cam can do the worm and they are both pretty good at the windmill.
Mostly it's just fun....but they seem to pick up on stuff fast....so maybe there's a future in hip hop for them.

This roles for you !

I've taken on a new role lately.    The butch role.   Now I know this is confusing and you are saying to yourselves..."but you've always been super butch".   Please don't confuse ability and strength with actually being the butch one.  
There can apparently only be one butch per relationship.   Or so my wife has informed me.  
I hate that she tries to put me in a stayathomemomdaintygirliegirlmakeupapplyingoccassionalskirtwearingnailspolished box.   DON'T PUT ME IN A BOX.  
(now I'm just laughing because the word box sounds funny and appropriate in that I'm a girl with a box kind of way)
moving along.

My wife has been extremely busy at work.  busy at work = stress at home.   Stress = headaches   headaches = foul mood.      
In an attempt to help relieve some of the extra stress.....I've taken on her honey-do-list.  
Plus.   My honey-do-list had a bunch of things that my wife has repeatedly said no to.    So you see how this is working out for me, right ?   Because, stress, headaches, honey-do-list be damned....it's always about me.

After a couple of trips to homo depot I replaced the hardware on our bedroom doors.  Changed 2 strands of lights out on the roof and mudded holes on my bathroom walls.

It didn't seem to relieve any of her mental anguish.   I thought the surprise of it all being done when she got home....without her having to do any of it...would override her not wanting to do it in the first place.

I made another trip to homo and this time I bought a new faucet for the kids bathroom sink (much needed).  (and also 2 new faucets for our bathroom because that god awful gold has GOT to go and now that our door hardware is brushed oil bronze I think the sinks should match ?? don't you agree ?? and that means that the ugly gold light fixture above the vanity goes too.   this isn't brain surgery people.   matchy matchy is good)
The wife.   Not happy.    Even when I tried to comfort her over and over by telling her that I would be doing it all.   Not to worry honey....you just sit back and relax....I've got this.   Still.   Not making her feel warm and fuzzy.

So yesterday.....I put my butch pants on (they looked more like red PJ's covered in flying deer) and started taking the faucet off.    Everything was going GREAT !   Until I had to turn the water off.    Hot water.....hard to turn because of the hard water build up....successfully turned off.    Cold water....even HARDER to turn off....and....SNAP !
This is when I regretted using my super human strength.    I called my wife to let her know how things were going.    AGAIN, letting her know things were fine.   I really do have this.    I'll just turn the main water off until I can get the water hooked up to the faucet.   It's all good.
And it was.
And she came home any ways.

J said that I wasn't going to need her anymore.   Which is TOTALLY not true.   Who would pay for all of this stuff.
I told her that and it just put the sting of my spending money back on the table and "seriously...we don't have the money for this Karen.   Don't buy anymore."  blah blah blah.   What I need is for her to be more supportive and get another job.  :) ha ha ha  kidding kidding kidding.

I did get the faucet on.    I also got my bathroom painted.     I might have mentioned to my wife that I was going to put the light up in our bathroom this morning.  It could have just been a dream when she desperately pleaded for me to wait until she gets home.    I'm not sure, I was really sleepy.
I'm wearing my red pants with the flying reindeer again.  (ok STILL)  and I'm feeling super butch.

This is the body art she allowed me to do.   I'll have to work on getting her cooperation for more.   I am envisioning a  beach scene with coconuts and palm trees :)  

I love you baby.    You'll always be the most handy of all the wives.   And it is still the ultimate turn on when you slap on that tool belt of yours and drill stuff.    If I had markers and you were ONLY wearing a tool belt.   That would be SUPER cool.  (wink wink)