Resolutions

I'm not always big on making resolutions because,lets face it, I can't even complete the stuff I'm supposed to do. Why add to my list. But I'm going to anyway. So, for the fun of it, lets recap 2008:
1. Make a quilt - Nope. Didn't happen. Too busy rebuilding an already built house.
2. Be a better wife and mom - Hmm. Ask the fam.
3. Spend time with my favorite friends - I'm doing okay. The move to "the middle of nowhere" has put a damper on that, but I've found a way to fit them in.

Now, for 2009:
1. Make a quilt.
2. Spend more time with the kiddos. Amazing that I can be with them all day and feel like I haven't even seen them.
3. Make Doug feel like a king. I didn't say "make Doug the king." And that's a very important detail. Between you and me, as long as they feel like they're in charge, all is well. We all know who keeps things running around here.
4. I would like to learn another instrument this year. The bass guitar is looking promising, but I don't want to steal Doug's thunder.
5. Adopt a kid. That was on the back burner because of all that was going on, but maybe now we can get the paperwork out. Oh, yeah, and that brings me to #6.
6. Prove my citizenship. Apparently that's an important detail when you want to adopt a kid. I mean, really. Nobody asked me when I had a kid if I was an American citizen. What the heck.

Now I tag Dawn, Pam, Chad, Kristin, The Melissa's, Lisa and Andrea for their resolutions. And none of that crap about losing weight or being a better person.

Not Just a Box of Junk

What do you get when you cross three kids with a hot glue gun and a box of junk?


Robots! And at least an hour of fun. Thanks Grandpa for all the junk. I guess you were right - keep it because you might need it someday. :)

On another note, the kids got CC skis for Christmas and went for their inaguaral ski today. Madelyn lasted about 20 minutes with me picking her up every few feet. Ty was in tears and pissed off because he didn't master it immediately. And Brooklyn has skied all day. In fact, she's asking me right now to go out with her and help her back into her skis....but I'm blogging so she'll have to wait.

Merry Christmas to All.

All I really want for Christmas.....
Watch this.

I've been tagged!

This is a very exciting first. Melissa, who've I've been stalking for some time, has tagged me! So now I'm supposed to go to my sixth photo folder and pick the sixth picture and tell a story about it.
Here's our little Thanksgiving Day photo shoot. I was trying to get the perfect picture of the kids on the bridge above our house. It took awhile....


Now I tag Andrea, Kristin, Chad, Dawn, Pam, Melissa S., and Lisa

Apparently Baby Chloe was born yesterday. It just took her parents a few hours to figure that out.... I think its official that her name is now Chloe Adelyn. She's still cute.

Its hard picking a name for those little ones. You have to think of what kind of horrible nickname the schoolyard children will make up and torture your children with. We had a difficult time picking Cameron's name. We were sure about "Ty" but Doug didn't want that as a first name which is funny because we call him that most of the time now. And he didn't want a long first name because we have a long last name. So how he got the name "Cameron" I still don't know. But I was on drugs.

Baby Chloe did not arrive today. But baby Genevieve Adelyn did. And she's cute. Kind of like her aunty.
She was 7lbs 3oz and I totally want to have my tubes untied.
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And now a word from the torture chamber. Apparently nobody should have a mother who makes them eat tomato soup. You'd think it was poison from the response I got!

Look everyone! I'm a knitter

As if I needed another project to try to complete. I've taken up knitting because "all the girls are doing it." I'm finding I have a lot of little breaks these days between swim practice and dropoff/pick up of kids, and all the errands I have to run but then I arrive too early and have to wait - anyway, little snippets of time that I can fill up with a handy little project I can tote around with me. And speaking of swim practice, there's two sets of bleachers: There's the "athletic, cool-mom bleachers" and then there's the "geeky knitting mom bleachers" and ne'er the two shall meet. I belong to the latter and that's fine. What's important is that I belong somewhere..... But back to the knitting. This was supposed to be a square washcloth. Still trying to figure where I went wrong..... Thanks Melissa for all your advice. Someday I'll knit cool stuff like her fingerless gloves. But that's many swim practices away.

The Eisenhards Go Tree Hunting

This weekend we traveled up the road to a new Christmas Tree farm. It was a small family farm that just opened this year. We rode in on a horse-powered drawn wagon driven by The Son-in-law, complete with hay bales and cuddly fleece blankets that I didn't want to use because they were too nice. When we arrived we were greeted by The Father of the joint and then shown around the 7 acres of trees. It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree but we had to keep exploring so we took a jaunt through the "forest." Being out in the woods apparently induces the need to pee, so Doug found his own perfect tree (tacky, I know. But don't worry because it wasn't a Christmas tree, just a tree in the woods). The kids had a ball knocking snow off of the trees and onto one another. At the end of our adventure, I payed The Daughter in the gift shop full of handmade loot, and we all gathered around the bonfire and roasted marshmallows with Father. Back down the hill to see The Mother and tell her how much we loved the farm and will be back next year.

This is Brooklyn's first attempt at doing her own hair. I know, she's 7, but she's never really taken much interest in doing her own hair other than brushing it. So I was happy to see her with some, um,.... style. She must get that from her mamma.

Let it snow

I was told to pretend the blankets were snow. I guess that's what happens 14 days before Christmas when there's no snow outside. I want to know who gets to shovel that snow up when playtime is over. Hmmmm. I wonder.

My sister has a new blog and today's post is funny. Go check it out.

This past weekend was Brooklyn's one and only swim meet. I decided when we were there that this would be the one and only. It was jammed packed with hundreds of parents cheering on their kids who couldn't hear them because - hello - they're UNDER WATER! Quit yelling, people! Anyway, it was an experience, and one that I could probably do without for another, oh, five or six years. But she really wanted to participate and because we do whatever our kids want to do, we signed her up. ;)
I sound so negative about this event. It wasn't really all that bad, but just not my thing.
So when little Madelyn asked to play "I spy" at this swim meet I did not pick the most difficult thing to spy in order to keep her occupied for a LONG time.
And being that this was quite possibly the only swim meet Brooklyn will ever compete in, Doug, my friend Melissa and I DID NOT totally miss her swim her first race! When she showed up all soaking wet and proud of herself we did not look at each other with a "did-you-see-her-because-I-didn't-see-a-thing" look on our faces. And we did not congratulate her anyway and tell her what a fabulous job she did. And her face did not light up like a Christmas tree with all the pride she had in her little heart for completing the race. (For the record - the mob of people was obstructing our view and no I'm not just throwing that detail in there to make myself look like a better parent)

Just look at those smiles. They loooooove their daddy.

Busted

All was well Saturday night until... the son wore his roller shoes on a jungle gym. The parents of the year (again) let that one slip by their watchful eyes. And yes, he fell off. Broken right arm. To the walk-in clinic we go only to find out on the way that they closed at 4 pm - about three hours too soon. Minor detour. Head to ER. Only have to wait for about 20 minutes but get to see some good "ER waiting room drama" so it was totally worth it. A splint and some Vicodin do wonders for the little one. And today the ortho doc says he doesn't need a cast which means we don't have to pay for casting :). But get this - he says to "make sure he's not too rough. You know, no running, jumping, falling, wrestling, blah, blah, blah." Did I mention he's 6? And a boy?
And now, time for:

When I found out the Walk-In was closed and I had to go to the ER and pay three to four times as much, I did not think in my mind "this arm better be broken." I would never think such things.....