Pure Cuteness

 

 

 

 

Max's Christmas Concert at School

Max Cracks Me Up

After living in our pajamas for 3 days I walked into the living room with an announcement this morning.

ME:  "I'm going to go do something AMAZING!"

BOYS:  "What?"

ME:  "Take a shower!"

MAX:  "That's not amazing.  This is amazing"  (as he jumps up and down and starts dancing)

Being Thankful

This week has been a week unlike any other.

I find it really annoying that just because it's November, everyone thinks it's necessary to clog up Facebook with everything they are thankful for.  What about the other 11 months when all you do is bitch and gripe, or flaunt your latest and greatest workout, or even worse, your latest and greatest selfie?  (And why are most of them in a bathroom or car?  That's just weird.  But I digress.)  Why aren't you thankful then?  And why do you think posting everything you like about your life now makes up for it?  Newsflash!  It doesn't. You just look like a bandwagon chode who needs an attitude adjustment.  You may be fooling yourself, but you're not fooling the rest of us, at least not me.

But this is not why I am writing.  And this really has no bearing on my week other than the fact that for all the crazy things that went on this week, I stayed positive.  November or not November.  That is how I choose to live my life and that is how I am looking back on this week.

Here's a synopsis:

Wes left for a work conference in Dallas Sunday night and is due home in about 6 hours.  He missed it all.

Monday we had a stack fire in our wood gassification boiler chimney stack and I called 911 to have the fire department come make sure it didn't spread.  It had not.

Tuesday morning rolled around and Bo woke up with a stomach ache.  I kept him home from school and by mid morning he was running a fever and then slept on and off the whole day.  We were housebound other than taking Sam to and from school.

Tuesday night a weird storm rolled in with frizzle, rain, then lots of snow, followed by some more frizzle.

School was cancelled Wednesday and we were housebound.  Wednesday night another wave rolled in but this time with super warm temps (40 above) and horrendous wind.  Trees were knocked down all around town and 15,000 people were without power.  Luckily ours just flicked on and off all night but never went out completely.

School was cancelled again on Thursday due to the now freezing temps that made the roads treacherous and the widespread power outages.  We were housebound.

School was cancelled again today (Friday)  for the same reasons, but we finally left the house to go eat lunch and get ice cream.

So, as you can see, not a great week but I did not complain.  I did not bitch and whine.  I did not strangle my kids.  I did not drink an ounce of alcohol.  I did not get annoyed with the boys.  I did not make it a miserable week.  And I most certainly did not feel sorry for myself.  Sorry facebookers.  No drama here.

I did however, look at the stack fire as a warning and a second chance.  I did, however, have an amazing time snuggling and playing with the kids.  I did however, paint and play many games of Candyland.  I did however, bake cookies with the littles.  I did however, love snuggling with Max & Sam in my bed all night when the power surges made our doorbell (the Nebraska fight song) play and my bedroom light come on EVERY time the power came back (I lost track after 7 times).  I did however, love curling up with the boys last night and watching a movie with them.  I did however, catch up on all our household finances.  I did however, play some heated games of hide and seek and only once thought I might let them hide without going to find them.  I did however, love making the boys a picnic lunch in the living room.  I did however, measure the ginormous stack of unfolded laundry as taller than Max.  I did however, take advantage of being home by working on Jasper's potty training.  I did however, love listening to the boys all play xbox together and laugh and giggle at the Regular Show.  I did however, pay Sam & Max $1 to give me a back massage.  I did however,  feel thankful many times that we did not lose our power or heat.  I did however laugh when Wes face-timed us and none of us had showered in 2 days.  I did however, relish Bo crawling into my lap more than once just to snuggle.  I did however, feel very grateful to have my father in law plow our driveway and bring us a few groceries.  I did however, love that I was stuck inside with my favorite people.  And I especially loved that we did all of this in our pajamas.  The only thing that could have made it better would have been if Wes would have been stuck here in his pajamas, too.

The weather was absolutely crazy and so were many of the week's happenings but miraculously enough, we all stayed sane and came out smiling.  So here's to things we are thankful for.  Not for November's sake, but for the sake of a positive life and the hope of passing it on to three super amazing little boys.

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Max-ism

Sam and Max were complaining that they don't like any of our toys any more so I asked them what kind of toys they wanted.  Max answered, "Man toys!"

Happy (Warm) Halloween

I have not been a big Halloween fan in the past, but after this year I am.  It was the first time in 75 years to not have snow in Fairbanks on Halloween.  The temps were in the 20's above rather than 20 below and we took advantage of it for sure.  

We made cupcakes for the school carnival. 

 
We went to the school carnival

Grandma and I took them to Spooky Town at Pioneer Park

  

 

And we took the boys trick or treating for the first time ever.  Sad, I know, but it's been so damn cold & snowy every other year that the whole idea of voluntarily walking around outside seemed absolutely ridiculous.  But this year was awesome!  The boys had a blast.  We took them to Fort Wainwright where there's houses on top of houses.  They sprinted from door to door for and hour and a half and never quit smiling the entire time.  

 

Friend, Bo - Zombie, Max - Wolverine, Friend, Friend, Friend, Friend, Sam - ninja

Jasper

 

 Because we didn't have enough boys or chaos in our house, we decided to get more of both. . .

 

 

He is from the same breeder we got Roscoe from (Abracadoodle in Spokane, Washington) but is a mini-medium doodle instead of a standard doodle.  He is supposed to only be 25-35 pounds (about half of Roscoe) but based on the size of his feet and tail, I'm not so sure.  Here are his parents:

Mom (JuJu) is a mini f1b Labradoodle and weighs about 22lbs.

Dad (Hocus Pocus) is a medium f1 CKC registered Goldendoodle and weighs 45lbs.

 

This is either going to be the best decision ever or the worst.  Only time will tell, but for now, we are all in love. 

 

Small Business of The Year

Burning brush & making smores

Sometimes it's the simplest of days that make the best of days. 

 

Happy Birthday Wes

When I asked Wes what he wanted to do for his birthday this year he said he wanted to hang out with the family.  He did not want a party with friends.  He did not want to go anywhere.  He definitely did not want to go to work.  He just wanted to stay home, relax and play with the boys.  

In my opinion, it's the best kind of birthday there is. 

 homemade cards from the kids

chocolate cake faces and all

MRE Client Appreciation Day in North Pole

This year Madden Real Estate held their annual client appreciation day down at the North Pole office and one of the perks about working in North Pole is having Santa as your neighbor.  They boys were ecstatic to see him and give him a heads up on what they want for Christmas this year.