Back your bags Ha!

I'll post some Christmas pictures and more as soon as I dig myself out of the Christmas mess. Oh and tear myself away from Rockband!

Hailey is using her newly discovered ability to almost write to leave mean notes on my bed after she gets in trouble. They are always delivered on pink, letter sized paper and written in marker. Her hand writing is a little like deciphering hieroglyphics since she has yet to decide its worth sitting still to learn. So yesterday after another fun filled day of raising hell and me screaming, her activities finally resulted in a wild chasing game through Target with Greg and breaking stuff at the store. Not a happy mommy. They were both sent to bed early, only made worse by Kenzie's sleepover and rockband going till 10 (which they really wanted to play.) When I went to hop in bed there was my hate mail for the evening. All it said was "tomorrow I am moving to Mississippi" That's it. I laughed so hard I almost had an accident. I'm still kind of laughig about it now.

Santa's little helper

Greg has been a religous Santa visitor this year. Everytime we are at a mall (which is more often than I'd like to admit) he makes a point of visiting Santa to "tell him one more thing I want." He doesn't actually talk to Santa, he sits on his lap and whispers to me so I can relay the message for him. The other day he very thoughtfully told me "Mom, I think when I grow up I want to be Santa's helper instead of a Nascar driver." Since then he has contantly been thinking of new issues and working them out in his head. We'll be in the car and he'll say "Mom are you going to visit me when I'm at the North Pole?" "How am I going to get there?" He's figured out what we're going to eat when we visit each other, what I'm going to wear so I'm not too cold, where we'll sleep and how much I'll miss him. It's really quite sweet how much he believes its all going to work for him.

Another quick story from the life of Greg. He discovered a while ago that if he sticks his butt forward just right when he pees, he can go without touching his penis, which in his mind means he doesn't have to wash his hands (if he doesn't get caught.) His technique is usually pretty successful, we haven't had too many bad misses. Yesterday while he's in the bathroom I hear "Auugh penis!" I ran in and he throws his hands in the air out of frustration like it was totally out of his control, "mom my penis missed!" I've been trying to explain to him the necessity of aiming, but what do mom's know. Funnily enough later in the day I hear him yelling at his penis again like an out of control child. I just don't know what to do with little boys.

Late to School

My chronic lateness is either genetic or contagious. The girls have taken on a very relaxed attitude about getting ready for school. Nine o clock usually arrives to me on the stairs screaming at the girls to get some clothes on we are leaving. If even I can beat them ready, with the boys, that is pretty bad. I admit that sometimes it is my fault we don't leave on time but there is an awful lot of people in their underwear wondering what to wear at 8:55. The school has this very lax policy of "talking things out" (even fights on the playground) with no real consequences or phone calls home. So when I saw the principal at the Halloween party, I made sure he knew who I was and who my kids were and that I would like phone calls home to be made and I'm ok with consequences for tardiness. I get the feeling there is a lot of "now Jimmy don't punch Sam in the face, run along now" at the school. That being said, I now have to make extra sure I am not the reason for their tardiness just in case there ever is a consequence.

So now our mornings look like this. Celeste and I throw the strollers over the gate (ok its mostly Celeste) and as soon as the girls turn up we tell them to run! and we'll keep up. Bad weather or extreme lateness means I drive. Our school has this policy that we all wait in a tidy little line and wait for the lady to open the door and let your kid out. While I appreciate the reasons for this idea, when kids are making it by the very skin of their teeth, they need to get out now, not in 5 minutes when its our turn. So I fly into the parking lot, slam the brakes at the beginning so as not to disrupt the line or run over a kid. The girls are ready for "catapult" as we call it, then I yell GO! GO! GO! like a Navy Seals mission leader as they throw open the door. They chuck their backpacks on the grass then jump after them like their parachuting. Between my yells of GOGOGO, I hear the sound of slews of empty Diet Pepsi's hitting the ground, as the girls jump for it. I'd love to know what the door opening lady thinks of me as I fly around the line leaving the door openers in my path. One more day of promptness under our belts.

Halloweeen

We had a really fun Halloween. The girls had their class parties on Friday and I got to go and make a craft with McKenzie's class. We went to our ward party Friday night for a chili cook off and trick or treating. (Go Celeste, ward chili champ!) Our ward uses the stake cener for trick or treating instead of trunk or treating outside. You can sign your family up for a room and decorate it all up or donate candy to a room. Its kind of fun to go around the building from room to room. Some people went all out with haunted rooms, one couple made Peter Pan's Never Never land in theirs. And its a whole lot warmer than trunk or treating. Here's some more of our fun holiday. Sorry the pictures are completely not in order.

This was the first year Connor got to enjoy trick or treating. Once he figured out that all he had to do was cruise up to each door, smile cute, and hold out his bag he was way into it. He climb up the stairs and shove the other kids out of the way to get in front. People would open the door and awe at him, then give him extra candy. At one house the guy put a mask on and crawled to the door. He just stuck his masked face out at the kids to scare them. Poor Con burst into tears and backed away as fast as he could. It took him a few houses to get over it. The guy felt so bad.

Just like Charlie Brown, after each house Greg would dig whatever he got out of his bag, hold it up and annouce what he got. The girls joined in because they thought it was funny, like the special. Kenzie said she kind of hoped she got a rock because that would be funny, then she was like, no not really.

We bought one of those pumkin carving kits with the stencils and tools this year. We made a raven, monster, scary pumkin and a haunted house.

Connor was scared of the inside of the pumpkin. He'd walk over, look in, then back away freaked out.

Dave and I dressed up in our awesome 80s rock star outfits. I teased my hair to the sky and put on tons of glittery eye makeup and false eyelashes. I hit the Value Village up for a short torn skirt, a tee shirt to cut up, and the ugliest belt I could find. Leggings, knee high boots and my giant hair and I was looking awesome. I bought Dave a mullet wig and some fake tatoo sleeves.

The kids all dressed up and ready for the ward party. Hailey dressed up as a witch complete with hideous striped tights. She had glow in the dark, sparkly face make up and nail polish. Kenzie went as a nurse. She was very original. Greg had his beloved Buzz Lightyear costume. There was another boy there with a Buzz costume with no wings, greg kept saying, I'm the real Buzz Lightyear because I have wings. Connor got to recycle the beaver costume for the 3rd kid.

Dave carving pumpkins. He got really into making cool designs. As is tradition in our family, we carve all of the kids pumpkins and always end up with one or two uncarved because we ran out of time.

Hiding from the meddlers in a foreign country

So for those of you who wondered, here's my sister Chrissy's dating/elopement story. After Voldemort (aka the first husband) left Chris had a bit of a dry spell. She'd set herself up on an online dating site and had been emailing Evan but hadn't met him. Her best friend told her if she didn't get back on the wagon, she'd fix her up with some xray tech at work. With a fire lit under her but she decided to meet Evan. She had some sort of back up plan with her friend and her twin, Carrie. She was supposed to be home by a certain time and call them so they knew Evan wasn't a serial killer. When she didn't call they were both in a tizzy in the morning thinking something had definately gone wrong. She says she'd been out late and just fell asleep. They started dating "just for fun" but didn't fill anyone in. We thought she was still stewing over Voldemort. In our family we joke about the "inner circle" like those crazies on Meet the Parents. Me and the parents are generally not deemed cool enough to be in the inner circle so no one knew about Evan. One night Dave randomly crashed her place when he was in Seattle and Evan was there. Finally in the circle! Shock and awe baby, that's the key. Dave and I were quite pleased with ourselves to be the holder of information for once. Anyways after a while she moved into his house so we all figured they'd get married eventually. Well my parents were in Seattle over the Fourth of July for one of their crazy bike trips and Evan asked my dad for Chrissy's hand. My dad being the best secret keeper ever, told Evan "well you'd better do it soon because I won't be able to keep it to myself." So Evan moved up his plan and proposed that day, just to be safe. That night my mom started the attack, when, where, how, what color!! I guess his mom is even worse. Chris had already done the big wedding thing once, and lets face it what guy really cares about that. She didn't want to spend a year dealing with two moms, and stressing out about things like flowers and cake. At first they joked about eloping and everyone got mad so they planned a "wedding" for the end of September. She was always a little vague about the details but we all chalked it up to a low key affair. They'd had this trip to Costa Rica planned for several months. They convinced another couple to go with them as witnesses, and secretly planned their wedding in a rain forest. Early the morning they left, Evan called my dad's phone and left him a message that they were eloping in Costa Rica, and buy the way their phones won't work there. Then they promptly turned off their phones. My dad being a considerably smart man, told my mom right as he dropped her off for a 30 mile bike ride, to my house. After a seething ride, and I'm sure a good workout, she arrived still mad. We spent a good hour speculating if it was real or not. Being the sneaky girl she is, Chrissy sent her "invitations" to arrive exactly on August 31. Inside was a cute invitation and a picture postcard announcing "we've eloped!", with the 31st as there wedding date. Talk about planning. (I called my dad to give him a head's up to check the mail before mom.) When they got to Costa Rica, Chrissy's luggage with her dress, shoes, and everything else was mia, which set her right off. Women in our family are anxiety ridden. We do not take kindly to things not going smoothly. The locals sent her to some town with supposedly good shopping. She found a store with 3 dresses and chose the lesser of the evils. She got married in a brown short dress, and whatever else she could find. Oh and I guess swimsuits there come with a regular bottom and a G string option, just in case you ever need such an ensemble. Apparantly in Costa Rica anyone can marry you if a lawyer signs it. And everyone runs really late (maybe I should move there). So when the guy who was supposed to marry them didn't show up, their photographer said "Oh I'll do it don't worry.", I'll have my lawyer drop by your hotel later. He married them and his assistant, Fabi, took pictures. Then when the photographer took back over, the log they were perched on broke and they fell in this creek. Not some piddly almost dry creek either, this was a rain forest remember. They opted to finish their pictures in the creek, since they were already wet, but they got some pretty cool shots. So we all went to Seattle for a fun party and to meet his family instead of a wedding. In the end it all worked out. They say its all legal and I really like Evan so its all good.

Seattle

We went to Seattle a couple of weekends ago for my sister's "wedding." It was supposed to be a wedding but they decided to elope in Costa Rica instead. Apparantly the families are too meddling, hard to imagine meddling parents I know. They had a really nice reception at a bath house on Lake Washington. We had Indian food and sandwiches for the wusses (aka my family). I'd never tried Indian food, it was so good. Pretty sure I'll have to save that for a girls' night out though.
connor busting a move at the reception. Connor and Hailey were breaking all the rules. They were dancing and moving their feet! Paulitz's do not move their feet when they dance. We have masterd the art of dancing like complete nerds while not moving our feet one inch. Its extremely cool.

Another successful internet hookup! Chris and her new hubby Evan telling their dating and elopement story. I'm pretty sure they were getting tired of retelling everyone about their elopement and felt a group storytelling would be less annoying. Evans a really nice guy, and dorky enough to fit in well in our family. His families really nice and have some equally dorky elements. I think the bigger nerd you are the better you get along with the Paulitz's.

The view of Lake Washington from the reception site.

Since we didn't take a vacation this year, we decided to come early to the wedding and have some fun with the kids.

We took the kids to Alki beach on the west side of Seattle. We hadn't been there before and had heard it was a nice beach. It would be a good beach for playing in the water, but this time of year the kids were more interested in seashells. I think next time we'll go back to Gig Harbor. The kids always hit the mother lode of shells there and they like making the Gooey Ducks spit.

We took the kids to the Point Defiance Zoo by Tacoma. We hadn't been to any of the zoos in Seattle, this one won out because there was an aquarium. Connor enjoying Kenzie's nacho cheese straight out of the container. We bought the kids a bunch of over priced junk for lunch and Con went straight for the cup of cheese. Such a strange child.

The girls were fascinated with the polar bears. They were pretty fun to watch. They kept swimming right up against the glass and the kids like to "touch" them. Greggers really enjoyed it when they rubbed their butts on the glass. Of course he would.

Greg's walrus face. He thought the walrus's were great. He kept turning to me saying "they look like this... with whiskers!" And they were super fat which was of course amusing.

Kenzie with her budgie buddy. They had this bird atrium full of little parakeets or budgies. You could buy a colored popsicle stick with bird seed glued on. The birds would come land on your stick and eat. It was really cute, the kids loved it. They thought it was so neat to hold a bird.

The first night in Seattle we went to Ikea. Kenzie had been sick earlier, so we didn't drop her at the play area. She hated it. It was kind of funny because I always look forward to going to Ikea when we're over there and here's my daughter, everytime we turned a corner and she realized it just kept going she'd groan "I hate Ikea!" And no she wasn't feeling sick she just thought it was "almost the boringest place I've ever been. All there is is house stuff." Welcome to childhood kid. I spent all my Satudays at the hardware store looking at cabinets my parents wouldn't buy until I moved out, you can survive 2 hours at Ikea.

Party, party, party

My brother Carl has long wanted to have a wedding of his own. Now you have to understand that once Carl sets his mind to something, he does not let it go. He will obsess to the end of time about it. Can anyone say Star Trek? Those that know my family know that know that we are all Trekkies by default. I have seen every single Star Trek episode, original and next generation, every movie. I'm even know to make anologies that no one else gets about it from time to time. Needless to say about 5 years ago when my sisters first got married, Carl got it in his head that he wanted to get married too. Since then he has accumulated an endless array of wedding magazines and binders full of cutouts of plans for his wedding. Its not uncommon for him to come up to me, binder open to some flowers and a dress, announcing that I'm going to be his flower girl. Since Carl will never have the opportunity to get married himself, my parents decided to throw him a huge 30th birthday party, wedding style. They rented a hall, hired a caterer and photographer, and bought Carl a new suit. We even hired him a limo to pick up all of his friends and drive him there. Here's Carl and two of his buddies. The kid on the left, Mike, has been his best friend since they were small. Notice the Spock cutout in the back. Evan's (Chrissy's new husband) gift to Carl. It got the place of honor on the stage.

Greg and Connor helping themselves to the cake. There always seems to be mysterious finger tracks in the frosting. Last year when my brother Tim got married, Greg made a grab for the cake and left three telltale finger tracks in the cake, before it was cut. We rotated it before anyone noticed.

Hailey and "her Scotty". My kids love their uncle Scott. If my sister shows up without out him they just want to know where Scott is.

Hailey and my sisters.

A few pictures from the end of summer. This is Greg with his best buddy David. We are so lucky to have such good friends next door. I have a great walking partner and these two little guys are inseperable. I wish I could say the same for Con and David's little sister Lucy. They show their affection by biting.

Dave and Connor at the Finch Arboretum. You can't tell but they climbed a tree and are sitting on a brach.

Greggers Buzz Lightyear costume. He saw it at Costco and of course being the softie I am, I drove to two Costcos to find the right size and fork over 20 bucks for it. But he's just so darned cute.

A little late...schools back

So glad the girls are back in school. This is my very excited face after dropping them off the first day. I waited all summer for this. Here's my lovely girls getting ready to leave on the first day. Hailey was so excited about starting first grade, and nervous. I think it makes her feel like a big girl.

Kenzie has already declared school boring because she's "already learned all this stuff" and she complains that she always gets the "bad classes". Hailey tells me nothing about what they're learning in class. I'm sure there must be some learning going on. Either she's letting it in one ear and out the other or its not important enough to share. She has already managed her first trip to the principals for a little shoving and hitting fight with a boy. He started it so Daddy's told her she's allowed to "pummel" so long as she doesn't start it. hmmm. I guess she'll never get bullied. She's one tough cookie. Are these two actually related?

Ahhh summer

I've gotten so lazy about posting. I have so many pictures I want to post but its that whole I have to get off of the couch to get the camera and cord problem again. I'm not so sure the laptop was my best idea ever.
We're down to those last, fleeting days of summer, when you can almost feel the end coming. The girls start school in two weeks and I feel like I need to cram as much fun as possible in before they go back. We always start the summer with this lenghty list of all the fun things to do. In the end, we never get bored enough to do them all. We seem to fill our time with the park, lake, backyard and life that all that stuff we thought up to keep from getting bored never happens. Kenz of course has her mind set on things we HAVE to do before school so now she asks me everyday. I for one just want to soak up as much of the blazing heat as possible. I've always loved fall but now its just the calm before the storm. I saw a great cartoon where they called it "a bait and switch." So true. I do love fall, but I know whats coming. Funny how a few bad winters has turned me into a heat lover. I'm going to enjoy these last two weeks with the girls and try to pretend their constant fighting isn't making me seriously consider boarding school.

Hiawatha Trail

Obviously not posting for so long put me a touch behind. But we have so much fun in the summer I feel like posting it all, a little at a time. About a month ago Dave and I left the kids with my parents and drove over to Montana to ride the Hiawatha Trail. I knew that it was downhill one way and up the other. I wasn't sure what to expect. You can ride all the way down and catch a shuttle back up. I deemed that for wusses (and I'm too cheap) so we rode about 2/3 of the way down then back up. It was so fun. Its so pretty up there. There's nothing around except for this trail made on an old railroad. Its like undisturbed wilderness with bathrooms! Just my speed. In the pictures of the trail I'd seen, there are these scary high looking tressle bridges. I was pretty sure I'd have a coronary crossing them. Turns out when your on them you have no idea how high up you are. Its just some bridge with a great view. But when you get down below and look up at the bridge you've crossed your like "holy crap!" Well at least I was.
On one to the lower bridges, you can see one of those scary tressle bridges behind me.

Looking good in our bike helmets.

Dave by the waterfall right outside the long tunnel. When you start the trail you first go through this freezing cold, wet 1.1 mile long tunnel. Needless to say you need a bike light.

The view down from one of the lower tressle bridges. We had a really fun time. And didn't die riding back up. (I totally kicked Dave's butt) Shocker of all shockers I underestimated our drive time so we were flying back so I could make it to work. We flew in and grabbed our kids with a hi, bye, thanks and were ready to speed off so I could shower. I was pretty sure it wouldn't be appreciated if I showed up covered in sweat and a fine layer of dust. We were about to back out when my dad informed me I had a flat tire. My back tire was totally flat! Needless to say more speeding ensued and I made it to work by the skin of my teeth. Ironically I was a few minutes early as opposed to a few minutes late as usual. We had a great time and can't wait to do it again. Next time we'll leave earlier and do the whole thing. I think we might have to train our butts to take the seats first.

My crazy boy

I'm pretty sure I've got a Hailey squared on my hands here. Connor is just as crazy as Ha without the super cheesy grin. He's busy, busy, busy. Running everywhere, dumping everything out, and oblivious to all pain. Smack your head? No biggie just keep on trucking. He loves to wrestle with Greg or anyone who makes the mistake of getting down on the floor. Con loves to bang, bang everything that fits in his little fist. He's so silly and cute. But frighteningly like his crazy, hyper active sister.

Here's Connor enjoying a popsicle. He's actually pretty good at it. If he drips any on the table he bends down and licks it up. Just like any good Hailey clone he can't let any sweets go to waste.

Also anything is food. Sand, chalk, sticks, toys. You name it he eats it.

The kid loves water. He grabbed the hose one day and just played with it forever. He had a great time pouring water all over. He's a total maniac in the water. He likes to float in his life vest, kicking his chubby little legs. I don't think he quite gets the necessity for the life jacket to float. today at the lake he kept leaning back like he was going to float on his back and then going under. he kept getting mad that he wasn't floating like he expected. Once he got his jacket on, if you try to stand him up he gets mad and flops back down. Later he got an inner tube and tried to put it on. It was so cute to watch him struggle, frustrated. Dragging him out of the lake is just one big fight. Just like his big sister, he could spend all day in the water, near drownings are hysterical not scary. Hailey still swims around with her mouth gaping open with her cheese ball grin, sucking water in like a whale. I think I'm in for it with this one.

Schools Out For Summer!

Tomorrow is officially my last day of driving across town three times a day to drive the girls to school. My last day of dragging my butt out of bed and driving Kenzie to school in my pajamas. Which by the way usually look like pajamas and couldn't be mistaken for anything else thus further embarrassing McKenzie. Every morning she asks "is that what you're driving me to school in?" Yes of course it is. Its before 9 am isn't it? Who cares how I look? Its not like I'm going to see anyone I know. Well except when I fly by Traci most mornings on her way to drop off, I get the occasional odd look from her. I probably look a touched crazed with my hair flying wildly, and maybe cutting off a few drivers I deem unworthy. I love the idea of getting up super early, working out, and being dressed for the day by 8:30 am. I've set my alarm for that many, many times. But let's face it. I'm not that person. If I'm exercised and dressed in time for the kindergarten drop off, its a good day.
Usually I'm a touch bummed when school's out because it means 3 months of breaking up fights and messes. But thanks to the Central Valley School District' poor planning and a ridiculous amount of snow, it means just over 2 months of fighting and NO MORE DRIVING TO SCHOOL! So I'm going to go find my old Dazed and Confused cd, pop that sucker in, and fly to school in my usual early morning frenzy. I'll be sure to pick out a special pair of pajamas, just for McKenzie.

"The best day ever!" -Hailey

It seems like the days when both Dave and I have a full day off and nothing pressing to do have become few and far between. Memorial Day was one of those few days. We packed up the kids and a picnic and went to Manito Park, my favorite park here. While we were eating on the grass the ice cream truck kept conveniently driving by, reeaallly sloooowly. My girls have held the elusive ice cream truck guy up on a pretty high pedastool since last summer. Before moving to Spokane, the kids didn't really have a great concept of what an ice cream truck was. Last year one drove through our complex on a fairly regular basis. I promised the girls all summer that they would get a chance. Unfortunately he only came through on Sundays or days I had zero cash. The one day the girls had the opportunity they chased him through the whole parking lot. Right before the exit they wanted to make a run for it but got scared they'd get run over (thanks to my brainwashing) so they hesitated and never got his attention. By the time I got there with the boys there were two broken hearted little girls standing on the side of the parking lot clutching their money with tears in their eyes. It was one of those parenting moments that just breaks your heart over something so seemingly simple. Back to Manito. We told the kids later they could, knowing we would be at the park for a while. They were sooo worried they wouldn't find him again. Especially Ha, she was just obsessed with getting him this time. After they'd woldfed down a suitable amount of lunch Dave gave the girls a 20 and told them to run, as the truck was starting to pull out (very slowly). The kids were beyond thrilled. Here they are with their hard won prize. By hard won, I mean obsessive pestering until we finally gave in. I am the weakest link. This is when Hailey cheered "this is the best day ever!" When I asked "even better than Disneyland?" She had to really think about it before saying "about as good.." Geez I should have saved my money and just gone for icecream everyday. Nah the trip was still worth it. But I find it humorous that a child whose had quite a few travel opportunities and has done a lot of fun stuff ranks this so very high. I guess it goes to show the simple things count. Funny after all of that traveling last year, this year we are staying home and the kids will probably like it more. Well not Kenzie. That girls go champagne taste on a koolaid budget. And for the record we did see the truck again before we left. By this time the kids were all hot and sweaty and begging to go again.

Here's some pictures I took of the kids by the lilac gardens. I love the lilac gardens in the spring. They are my favorite smelling flower and so pretty. When we get our own house we are buying some bushes! I want to play with these on Photoshop (maybe poor forgotten Connor will finally get his 8x10 too)