The Ha is 9

Hailey has always been our most challenging child.  Regardless of all the other stuff, she is a strong, determined, and interesting child.  She's the kid who will one minute infuriate you, and the next crack you up.  She has such a sweet, loving spirit.  Even when she's mad at you, she still loves you to death.  (I literally mean to death, she will squeeze you until you are gasping for breath.)

 Hailey has always had her own, distinct sense of style.  If it's sparkly, glittered, or shiny, she will wear it.  She'll probably beg me to buy it.  She got the sequined boots for Christmas, and the sequined dress and purse from my sister.  Basically, if it has sequins or sparkles, Hailey will love it.  We are talking about a kid who has pleather leggings here.

 Always in full exuberance over everything.  It might be snowing, so she should be prepared to catch snow or snowflakes full on.

 More unique Hailey stylings.  She has been referred to as Pippi Longstocking for a reason.

Hailey is a great athlete.  She obviously does not get them from me.  I think she has found her niche in life.  She has a lot of enthusiasm and energy, and she's not afraid to get hurt.  Which works in her favor on the soccer field works in her favor.  If only we could find a way to channel her extraordinary energyv 12 months of the year.
Hailey is truly a special child.  There are a lot of things about her that few people understand.  But she has a HUGE heart, and love's people to the fullest.

Connor's 4 now! (How did this happen?)

I don't know how, but Connor turned 4 in January.  It seems like just last year I had him, and we moved to Spokane.  He has turned into quite the character.  He is basically a miniature Dave.  He looks like a little Dave, he's all boy.  None of that tiny, nerdy Paulitz genes here.  Where Greg's all space and math, Con's all wrestling and sports.

Notice the unbuttoned pants: Connor prefers sweats or unbuttoned pants so that he can enjoy the luxury of waiting until the absolute last moment to use the bathroom.

 Ahh, the Superman costume.  I found it at the Value Village late this summer, thinking it would be something fun Con could dress up in from time to time.  Ha!  He wore the costume day in, day out, like it was regular clothes.  He would proudly tromp around town in that too small, well worn, Superman costume with camoflouge rain boots. It was way to small and paper thin (from wearing it every single day).  For Christmas, I made him a sad, but less ragged, bigger, Superman costume, which he has refused to ever wear.  So, for his birthday, my mom ordered the child a larger, less sad Superman costume.  Within a few days, it was well worn and now means repairing.  It doesn't get the same wear and tear as the old ( I think because it's not flannel like the toddler version) but still.  When you have a kid wearing a Superman costume like it's real clothes, you get some looks.  But as my dad says, I'm a free range parent.

Somehow, this is the only picture I could find of Con initiating a fight.  The kid always wants to fight.  If you offer to read him a story, he'll say "let's fight!"  Which pretty much consists of him trying to punch and tackle you, while you remain defenseless.  He is such a boy.  I mean, the child hums himself to sleep with the Imperial March.  Such a funny boy.  He holds such a spot in my heart, I'm pretty sure he can't ever move out.

Greg's 6th birthday

Greggers had his 6th birthday back in November.  It's hard to believe he is already 6, it seems like it was just last year that I had him.  Obviously, he had a Star Wars party since it is his new obsession.  Tonight he was like "I don't know why but I've just been really into Star Wars lately."  He was so serious about it, like it was a life changing decision.  He is such a serious, mild mannered little boy.   I am always hearing from his church and school teacher what a great kid he is.  I've come to the conclusion, Greg is just a unique boy.  He was the perfect spirit to come to me during a very difficult time.

 My sad attempt at a yoda cake.  I am forever trying to copy cakes I find online, with dismal results.

My little "dream boat."  He has become the crush of Ness Elementary kindergarten.  Funny story from a mom at school.  She was on a field trip with the class, her daughter kept hitting her on the leg trying to get her attention.  When her mom finally looked at her, she said "mom look there's Gregory, isn't he dreamy?"  I feel like this is going to be the story of Greg's school career with girls.

A Very Star Wars Christmas

 My little brother and his beautiful family came up from L.A. to spend Christmas with us.  Jonathan is my first nephew on my side of the family and he is so stinkin cute.  It was so great to see them, I never get to see them because they live so far away.

 We go for the put on every decoration you have own, in the most haphazard manner possible approach to tree decorating.  Because of our schedules, we cut a tree down from a farm instead of traipsing through the forest.  It felt a little like cheating, getting a ride on a hay ride to where the trees are.  But we got a very full tree, which means we can stuff even more decorations on it.   Connor did an especially great job with the decorating.  He managed to cover every single inch of the tree, exactly in the center, right at his height.  There  was this huge clump of ornaments right where he stood, and he was so proud.

Hailey helping me make cookies. 

 I let Greggers dip some oreos himself (don't worry he washed his hands first) and Con got his favorite job, putting on ridiculous quantities of sprinkles.

 This is what happens when you leave a 3 year old in the kitchen while you go give a nebulizer treatment.  Connor my little stinker, dumped the entire bottle of sprinkles in my dipping chocolate.  Then used the empty container to scoop water into the chocolate.  Ruining a whole pan of good chocolate and making a huge mess.

 You know how there's always those presents you just can't wait for the recipient to open because you know how much they'll love it?  I was so excited to give my brother his Christmas gift this year.  Carl is a pretty serious Pepsi lover.  (I guess the love of Pepsi products is genetic)  He also loves to whole himself up in his room, only emerging when absolutely necessary.  So my sister and I got Carl his own mini fridge for his room. I knew there was nothing he'd love more than to be able to keep his Pepsi stash right where he can reach it from his chair.

 Star Wars has officially taken over our house.  Greg now tells everyone he sees that he got a Millenium Falcon for Christmas.  Be prepared to be appropriately excited about this.   Of course the Star Wars guys need a place to hold their next battle.

 We stole the Campbell's tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree.  Only Dave and I got smart and sleep in our own bed.  Why would grown adults voluntarily sleep on a hardwood floor?  Kids are watching Return of the Jedi for the 10th time since they got it for christmas.

 All Connor really cared about for Christmas was a bowling set.  Anytime anyone asked him what he wanted he'd say bowling.  So of course Santa brought him a bowling set.  His birthday is in a few days and he still says he wants bowling even though he already got it.

I just love Christmas with little kids.  I can't imagine what it will be like when they are slovenly teenagers and then move out.  I just don't think I will get the level of excitement over anything when they are in high school.

Best Santa Letter Ever

We have a tradition at our house concerning communicating with Santa. We have a round, mail tube, ornament on our tree that the kids put notes to Santa in. The elves take the notes and Santa writes back. This year all the notes seem to have a theme, "I didn't mean to be bad, and this is why I did it." Tonight I came home from work and found pictures and notes from both Hailey and Greg. I think Greg's note might be the funniest Santa note ever.
Dear Santa,
I tried to be good. Even though I got mad and hurt my sister because she bit my mini Star Wars Obi Wan Kanobi.
Your Friend Greg

Its like he's pretty sure Santa knows he attacked his sister but it was totally ok because she bit my Star Wars guy dang it!

Land of the Twilighters

So to spare our family friends who could care less about Twilight, and think I'm slightly to completely nuts, I've broken our vacation posts into two parts. Twilight highlights, and all of the rest. Forks is pretty much a tiny, one stoplight, one drag town sandwiched between the ocean and the forest. So far as I could tell, you either work at a store in town, or are a logger. I imagine a lot of the town's income comes from us crazy Twilight people. You actually have to wait in a little line to take a picture in front of most of the book landmarks. And the people in town are very good sports about it. If you go to the visitors center on the south end of town, they will actually give you a packet for Twilight. There's a map to all of the spots, fun facts, and trivia. The women there explained, rather disappointedly, that Catherine Hardwick wanted to film the movies where they were set, but Washington wouldn't give them as good a tax break as other states. I'm pretty sure no one in Forks voted for Christine Gregoire. Filming the movie there would have really put them on the map. I talked to some of the shop keepers in town and they would all tell me about how these stores sat empty for ten years. The town was kind of dying off. The town is kind of a jumping off point for back packers and a home base for serious fishermen. But suddenlly all these tourists started showing up asking about places in these books. People in town started reading the books, one lady told me their library didn't even have a copy at first, and getting in on the act. Now there are stores dedicated just to Twilight. And a lot of stores that would have otherwise probably gone out of business, are doing well by carrying large selections of Twilight stuff. There's stuff I never would have even thought of. I mean who would have thought you could buy Twilight rainboots and scrapbook paper in the same store? I never heard a single bad word about the hordes of crazy women that descend on the town, but I did get some nasty looks from some locals. I get the sense that the actual Quiliets are slightly less amused.

This is the Italian restaurant that's in the book, and also used in the movie. I really wanted to eat there but it's more like a date restaurant. It wasn't super expensive, but the people looked so civilized, and it was nice. We didn't fell like unleashing our children's considerable destructive talents would be appreciated.

Some of the home owners in town are very generous with us Twilighters as they call us. This is a bed and breakfast that stands in as the Cullen's home. Personally, it was not what I'd imagined when I'd read the books, but apparantly it's the closest thing they have around. The top picture is the white board on the front of the house. They will let Twilight people come up on the porch to take pictures. The owner's wife writes little notes everyday from "Esme" about what the Cullen's are out doing. I heard that if the owner's are outside in their garden when people come to take a picture, they will go inside so people can have an "authentic" experience. There are quotes from the movie, describing the house, taped to the windows. And an Edward cutout in the top bedroom window. The funny part is you can pay to go inside for set amounts of time to see "Edward's piano" and "Carlisle's office". Being a bed and breakfast, you can also stay there and pretend you're having a sleepover with Edward, but I think they charge you extra if you shred the pillows and break the headboard.

They have duplicates of Bella's truck in front of the visitor's center. The top one is her truck from the movie, the bottom her truck from the book. The sign on the movie truck makes it sound like it's the actual one, but I'm not sure.
My sweet hubby who let me drag him on this nutty trip posing as my Edward. I'm sure he was silently laughing inside the whole trip.
The Forks police department let's you stroll right in to see the shadow box collage they made. And wander around taking pictures of their cars. I don't think crime is too much of an issue here.
These people's house looks just like I'd pictured Bella and Charlie's in my mind. I didn't even have to look at the address to know it was the right one. They must be very good natured about the whole thing. They've made a sign that says "Home of the Swans" and put it in their front yard. And they let you stand in their yard to take pictures. The visitor's center's map tells you what people will tolerate. I can't imagine having cars line up in front of my house all day long and people hopping out to take a picture in my front yard.
This is inside a really awesome store called "Dazzled by Twilight." They have a little branch in Port Angeles, but their main store is in Forks. The whole inside is totally decked out. They have grass like flooring, and twinkle lights on the ceiling. They have all sorts of cool scenes. This is a set of lockers that are decorated like the Cullen's.
The "Swans" house from a distance.
The hospital has a desigated spot for Dr. Cullen.
A side door on the outside of Dazzled by Twilight. Inside this door, they have a whole display of old medical tools. They also have these cool pictures of the actors photoshopped in old cars and clothes and stuff. They're in sepia so they look like all of these pictures of the Cullen's through the past century.
One corner of the shop has a mural of La Push painted down the wall and this motorcycle.
Bella and Edward's tree in the store. There's also a small gazebo decorated with twinkle lights, a cutout of Edward in his suit, and a cutout of Edward, Bella, and Jacob with Bella's face cutout. I took a dorky picture in it, at the top of this post.
The high school sign. This spot had the longest line to take a picture. We're not talking Disneyland or anything, but still.
Down at La Push beach, people write on the logs with burnt sticks. Lots of "we were here" stuff. There was this group of five college girls down on the beach on their own Twilight tour. They asked me to take a picture of them on the logs. It seemed like the kind of thing I would have done with my summer break. The funny thing about being in Forks was that in my mind it was nothing but Bella and Edward's town. I couldn't get my mind to stop looking for actors from the movies around every corner. In my imagination, I would work every random person in town into the story somehow. It was so much on my mind, the first thing I did when we got home was crack open Breaking Dawn, and read like I'd never read it before.

Victoria

For vacation this year we went on what Dave calls "The Twilight Tour." Yes, we did go to the Olympic Peninsula, and yes we went to Forks, but it was only a day's worth of Twilighty stuff. I have always wanted to go to the peninsula to see the rain forest. Really. I'll post more about the rest of the trip later, if I ever get my camera unloaded. Until then, a funny thing happened when we first got to Forks. And I love it when people make me look normal.

We had been in Forks all of 10 minutes when I met the crazy 50+ Twilighter's group (as in over 50, apparently there's a group just for them.) I was unloading the van at our "hotel" when these ladies came up to me and said "you know your hair is red just like Victoria's in the Twilight movies." I laughed and said "yeah I guess it is", and assured them that I did not require further tutoring on the matter, as I am already well schooled in Twilight facts. Figuring they just needed to come over and point out to me that I had red hair, I went back to slogging my way through the piles of DVD's and Capri Sun pouches that littered the floor of our van. Then I hear "um so, we were wondering, since you look like Victoria and all, we would love it if you wold go in the woods over there so we can take your picture." Okaaay. Then they told me all about their gathering they'd planned. Apparantly 30 women, mostly strangers to each other, were all meeting in Forks that weekend. They were going on one of the Twilight Tours, having a baby shower for Renesme and donating the gifts to a charity, and finishing off with a prom. When I commented that it would be a bummer that it's all women, I was told "oh no Edward's coming." They had hired an Edward look alike from Portland to drive out and go to their prom. Now that's dedication.

Knowing all this, I should have known that a simple picture of me standing by a tree wouldn't be sufficient. They led me to the woods right by our hotel, and began to instruct me on how and where to stand. For you Twilight virgins out there, there is a scene in Eclipse when the character, Victoria, is running through the woods, and turns to look behind her for a second. The next thing I know I'm standing half way up this hill, holding a tree with one hand like I'm going to yank it's branch off for being in my way, and glancing over my shoulder like a scared fugitive. Meanwhile, total strangers are telling me to "put my chin down", "look this direction", "don't smile", as they tried to recreate that image. I was a good sport in the spirit of being a big fan myself.

When I finally show up in our room, Dave of course is wondering what the heck happened to me. I think when I told him, he really thought I'd booked us a vacation to crazyville. For the next couple of days, every time I walked through the parking lot, windows would open and those ladies would yell "hey Victoria" in a sing songy voice. Total strangers would stop me to tell me thanks for taking the pictures, their new friends had given them a copy and they posted it online already. They were actually pretty funny ladies. I kept joking I'd made 30 new friends. This has also opened my eyes to a new career possibility. Why would I keep slogging away selling lotion, when I could go team up with the Edward look alike and stage mock fights. If anyone knows any Twilight look alikes, let me know, we'll start a traveling Twilight impersonation company. All we need is the right hair color.