The children were nestled all snug in their beds.

Underneath that quilt in the corner is the mini-trampoline Mark WRESTLED for an hour and a half.

Mark explaining the meaning of Christmas symbols taught to him by St. Nick (his dad's tradition).

Some of the homemade goodness, finally unveiled:

And the barricade against kids who go pee in the night:MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Our folksy Christmas performance.

Here the girls and I do our living room chamber music thing last Sunday.
This is mostly for the grandparents.

Don't know why Mary Tessa's video isn't working--but I put in two places just in case it decides to come on board.

Exposed.

I thought one of the kids got out of bed and I was going to be discovered, with all my last minute elf-workshop items out. I went in to the kitchen to see what was making noises. No kid. But a cockroach BIG enough to make enough noise that I thought there was a kid in there.


UGH.

!!!!

AND MARK'S ALREADY IN BED WITH THE WORST COLD EVER.

HELP!






update, 5 minutes later:
i have slayed the beast.

between making all the homemade present goodness and defeating that Creature by myself, my family sure is lucky to have me.

For lack of a better word. or two.

I want to make this cake. Even after an entire month, that's all I'm saying. Lack of better words.

Short cut

We're getting mighty impulsive with this girl's hair lately. She is almost four, after all.

I like it.

And I didn't even think about crying.

Lounge lizards

In case you've been wondering what the coolest cat is up to, it's just a whole lot of lounging--

**she was comfortable moments before i took this**
And, forgive my horrific expression in this one; I either: was reacting to being told that cat was nuzzling in my hair, really need reading glasses, or could faintly smell that sandwich.

Anyway, Nimbus has been lounging around--just like the rest of us.

If and Remember

If you finally convince your son to start having "school lunch," (I personally loved it as a kid)

you should remember that you used to make him a sandwich everyday and hide it away in that nifty little tupperware pouch at the bottom of his lunch pack.
Where it's been lurking for a week and a half.

Man of her dreams

Allianna made this confession to me the other day while we were swinging:

Allianna: Mom, I have a husband.

Me: Oh, really? Does he look kind of like your dad?

Alli: No. He has orange hair.

[swing, swing]

Alli: And a black body.

[swing]

Alli: And a white face.

Alli: And he's sixty-nine. But I'm seventy-nine.

Trick or Ten

Our Halloweenie Top Ten List

10. When we went to get some carving pumpkins the night before from a local church's pumpkin patch, we arrived to find out they weren't selling pumpkins any more. However, we could take any that we found that weren't rotten (my reason for waiting til the night before to purchase in the first place--aah, TX). So our grand total was about 54 gourds, mini pumpkins, and a large white, green, and orange squash. FREE. This has brought untold rapture and joy around the house as pumpkin patches sprout up in all the rooms; it will probably continue through to December.


9. At our third stop, Mark and Simon find a lone carve-worthy pumpkin. They bring it home and are appeased; we have to appease Jack with two slices of bread, apparently.
8. Dorothy
7. the Bat. Not "bat man, bat boy" or any variation thereof. Trying out his new kindergarten playground vocabulary Simon tells me that his face paint is "sooo hilarious" but means something closer to "horrendous" or "humiliating" and wants me to wipe it right off.

6. A shout out to Grape Street. It had one of the few blocks that managed to have consecutive porches offering treats--back in the day when tricks were expected our neighborhood wouldn't have fared well.



5. Alli's cold medicine had her pursuing treats like this for 75% of the night.
Until she could finally be persuaded to take a pack of Skittles.4. The little (repurposed) Mermaid.
I faced my personal sewing machine el Guapo and (thanks Melissa!) came out victorious.

3. Mary Tessa caught on quick to what the trick-or-treating gig was all about. She wouldn't let go of her bag for anything and wanted to eat most of it immediately. It's the first thing in her life that she's taken personal responsibility for. Couldn't be prouder. She wouldn't entrust it to any of us for fear that we'd pull a fast one on her hard earned booty.2. All's well that ends well. This was the pace: Mary downs three suckers and a pack of M&Ms, Alli packs in an entire pack of Rolos (plus some various ?) and her cheeks stick out like Jack Nicholson before I notice, Simon DEE-LIIBERATES for a full 45 minutes before gingerly choosing ONE piece to try. He kept chastising me for tempting him to eat some while we were walking. Firstborn. Please notice how Simon's clutching his bag and won't pour his bag out because doesn't trust his sisters to STAY BACK even though they've got plenty of their own.

1. In an effort to regain balance, this morning Mary Tessa poured and poured and poured salt all over her cereal. Savory, sweet, savory (Chinese take-out), sweet (Trick or Treating), savory (her breakfast). Looks like it was okay for me to follow the pattern and serve candy for Sunday lunch.

Wish us well til Mark returns from his La Jolla trip.

Down by the bay

We made it to Kemah for the first time post-Ike. The 70 degree weather lured us out of our air-conditioned cocoon. Ahhh, sea breezes!

Don't worry, they're not firing, just telescoping.



In other weather-related news, it POURED all night, which floods our backyard and Nimbus' chamber/bathroom. She's been definitely earning her keep today; she's currently back there hunting waterlogged cockroaches who think they can escape the weather by coming into her room. She's just hovering and purring with delight as she lurks waiting for the next victim.

Friday Night faves.

It's always nice to arrive at the end of the week. We took the kids to a park during dinner time, then came home and made them eat oatmeal and pesto noodles (as per their different requests) sitting around the couch. It's fun to try new things--like being a 50s family huddled around the TV, eating dinner at 8pm. Then it was time to swiftly toss them into bed and dart out of their room with an enormous "AAAAAAAHhHHHHh."

We were excited to find out that one of our good good old friends Ryan Weed was involved in some athletic competition tonight, and that we'd get to see him compete. We knew that this was a big season for him, the culmination of these years of training--we just thought all along he was training to be a chiropractor.

But, you want to fly on over to Paris and give it all you've got on the ice?
Ryan, we're behind you 110%!

Here's a wee bit of video:




I'm only regretting that we didn't get a photo of tonight's costume--what with its low cut purple shirt and red neck scarf. Wow!






Guess we should have known he had it in him back when we saw this:

Getting out of the city

We're Oil Ranching today!

Vote: what do you think about the ethics of leaving Simon in school today versus taking him with us?

Barack Obama wins the Nobel Peace Prize!

What a wonderful thing!

Read more here.

Mark tells me that Morgan Tsvangarai of Zimbabwe was thought to be a front-runner. He also is very deserving. Next year, perhaps.

An unrelated thing

*** First off, props to the one who can name the group I got my title from.

A few weeks ago, in a burst of supreme motherhood, I took Allianna to Hobby Lobby and bought yards of shimmery fabric to make her a Modest Ariel costume. I haven't sewn for ten years, and even then, it wasn't very successful (mostly quickly jamming up the machine with a skirt that I wanted to wear in half an hour.) Anyway, I had really got down to business and had cut out the pattern and 1/8 of the fabric. This was to be the start of a whole new seamstress me. Tonight, our neighbors brought over a bag of hand-me-downs. At the bottom of the bag was an Ariel costume. Seriously??? (The pattern has lots of tinkerbell and princess options, if anyone local wants to use it)

Luckily, Simon has finally handed down the decision that he wants to be a bat. And in a radical break from tradition, I will be crafting his out of cloth instead of cardboard.

Another of Simon's great ideas was to have "coral polyp" cupcakes. I grinned for days.

Part of the birthday gang "beachcombing" for shells in our backyard.
We also made sand art in little bottles.

Completely unrelated, but still exciting, was the announcement during General Conference that a temple will be built in Fortaleza, Brasil where Mark served his mission 10 (!) years ago.
We loved Conference--it's such a homey weekend. For me, some highlights were:
President Eyring's talk on joy in families and other talks from Sunday morning about teaching children truth so they can clearly choose and seeking personal revelation (many times over!). When I was telling Simon and Allianna that Sister Ann Dibb is the Prophet's daughter, Alli said "Well, then, she's not nervous, because her dad's right there!"
The pumpkin coffee cake was a smash hit as well.
Who wants to join me in the challenge of reading a Conference talk a day?

Wasn't the choir's singing of "O Divine Redeemer" terrific?!!

Um. -- Revised once again

We're all doing just fine around here. Promise.







In other news, I was racking my brain for a post as I watched the days rack up since my last one. To quote an old roommate: "What HAVE happened?!"
OOOOOOoooooh, yeah, a boy turned six, a boy lost his front tooth after two months of dangling, and I started working out for the first time in motherhood (I decided walking and occasional biking are sooo last season). I'm having fun!

Aimee and Lindsay--I was just dabbling in some world news this morning and heard about the latest hijinks of Libya's famed leader. And I'm smiling game-ly about the way his name is spelled.
As I was rushing to add this this morning I forgot to say that his name is Arabic and has to be transliterated, so I've seen it spelled with a G, a Q, and a Kh--gotta love those gutterals! We all win!

The Development

Ten years ago, when Mark and I were dating, we talked about what we dreamed of for our future. One topic kept coming back up. It was really important to both of us.






About 2 years ago, we talked about the time being right to add to our little group.

So we asked the landlord if it would be okay.

And here she is!

Meet Nimbus!!!!!

Mark and I are thrilled to own a cat together--we are a pair of cat lovers! Simon is thrilled also and so ready; the week before we got her Simon was spending 2+ hours a day monitoring his snails' activities, habits, and needs. Now he delights to have her wake him up for school--what a smile every morning when she rubs her cheek on his head. Allianna wins the prize for most attempts to carry and snuggle the cat. Mary Tessa is happy to finally have some seniority around here; she relishes telling Nimbus "No no no!" when she's breaking some family rule (or even when she's not). Nimbus got quite a lecture when she climbed onto the dishwasher door--even though her hypocritical accuser had been doing the same thing the week before. :)

And, in answer to your questions:

Nimbus--the name. Mark thought she had markings like a clouded leopard. But she's not a white cloud, she's dark, so that leads us to Nimbus. For nicknames she's already acquired Nims and Nimbecile (when she repeatedly moved to follow the chicken into the oven).

She's about 7 months old, litter-box trained, all vaccinated and spayed and all that good stuff. So we just get to enjoy her playfulness and avoid all that grief.

Grandma's Birthday for All

The kids were entertaining themselves well at Grandpa and Grandma's last month:

making fairy wings,

and making sushi (according to Zazel).

But when Allianna found out that Zazel had a birthday in Brooklyn and she couldn't go, we found a way to solve the dilemma. Hold a birthday party for Zazel once she got to Grandma's! And make it Allianna's birthday too! (Bet you can't guess who's idea that was?!) Make it a birthday party for all of the grandkids, since they never get to have their birthday at Grandpa and Grandma's (and they were all going to be there together for the first time)!

So we baked a cake:

pinned some tails:

got fancy with hula hoops:

while Amy and Abigaelle cheered us on.

All in all, it was a splendid celebration of Abigaelle, Mary Tessa, Zazel, Allianna, and Simon. We celebrated Jack too--we just didn't know what color candle to put for him or when his big debut would soon be!

I'd rather be in Idaho than any other place I know

. . . I'm tired of eating grits and I'm sick of stewed tomatoes,
I'd rather be in Idaho eatin baked potatoes!!!
Soooooooooooo
if I had my fare today I'd pack my bags, be on my way, to
Ida-ida-HO! IDA-IDA-HO!

***taught that little ditty to my kids as we landed in Boise. After 7 hours of flying (~4 sacrament meetings), it was so good to be there!

And I'd rather make folk music with my dad and hike Castle Rock than do almost anything else.

I've hiked to Castle Rock dozens of times, but it was Simon who found crystals there on his first visit. Hey Houstonians, how ideal is it to be able to go hiking within 4 blocks of your house? That's what we had in Boise. Fresh air, land that goes UP, and space without buildings everywhere (for now . . . ).

One more Idaho installment to come, and then it's on to the the present.

Oh, boy, do we have an exciting development!