A Holiday Message from our holly-jolly cat

Rocky puts up with so much from the children. They constantly chase him, try to pet him and laugh while I torment him. He makes up for all his nice work by being a jerk once the babies go to sleep. He regularly scratches on their bedroom door after they're in bed. He wakes me up in the middle of the night by scratching on MY door, even though I keep it open. He attacks me while I sleep, or worse, humps my leg(eww! He's been neutered, too!). He has the most annoying, howling cry. He knocks his food over for fun, then cries for more. Lately, he's been eating our FAKE Christmas tree, then barfing it up randomly. In short, Rocky is a pain in my ass. So, I decided to humiliate him on our family blog! Enjoy as Rocky wishes you a Merry Christmas as only a complete jerk-ass can:

Early Christmas With Unkee Ron

My brother, Unkee Ron recently moved to Southern CA to be closer to his fiance and future son, Kingston. We miss him terribly! He came back to our neck of the woods to celebrate a late Thanksgiving/early Christmas and it was really fun. We had a lovely dinner at mimi's house and exchanged gifts. Ben got some awesome art supplies and Emily got practically a whole new wardrobe plus this gorgeous personalized step-stool. The step-stool was the big winner with all the kids=) As you can imagine, trying to take great, meaningful photos of three toddlers opening presents really didn't work out well. These were the best of the bunch, sadly! I have been majorly slacking on the picture front lately. I don't like to post many entries without pictures, so that explains the huge gaps between new blog posts. Hopefully there will be more to share as the holidays come and go!

Building Blocks

Milly has become quite skilled at building towers. Perhaps we have a future architect or structural engineer on our hands! She's come a long way since simply watching Ben during her babyhood. Now she can stack them, 7,8,9 even 10 blocks high. Ben likes to kick them over before her towers get too high and mighty. Sigh...big brothers;)

Baby Emmie watches intently as Ben stacks his blocks.

Almost 9 months later, Emmie is a pro, herself!

She's very focused while she stacks, though she probably doesn't need to be...

She can even stack them while on her belly!

Even while looking in the other direction!

Or with her back turned! See? I told you she is a pro=)

Let's Go To The Park!

After the farce that has become naptime, we decided to go for a quick trip to the park. It was getting dark, so we had to get all our fun in while we could! Ben had so much fun climbing up the slides, running around like a wild man and playing with his sissy. At one point, he told me, "Mama, this park is AWESOME!". I don't know where he learned that but it made me laugh! Emily enjoyed climbing up the stairs(but did not enjoy stumbling down them:/ Poor Emmie), and sliding, of course. Ben taught her how to walk up a big spiral slide which I didn't capture for posterity. I knew the minute I tried to film her, she'd fall off further making me look like a terrible mother. I was amazed at her bravery. She didn't want me to hold her hand or help her and she made it all the way to the top more than once. Here's a few shots from or playtime yesterday, plus a video of Ben asking me for money. I thought I still had a few years before they started doing that! At least he's appeased by pretend money for now=)


We love the slippy-slide!

Emily is always all-smiles when she reaches the bottom!

Doesn't he look so big in this picture?! He's definitely lost all his baby-ness:(

From the Mouths of Babes

Yesterday, Ben decided he didn't feel like taking a nap. He pounded on his door, yelling, "Mommy! I awake! I took my nap, can I get up?". I opened his door and told him he needed to lay back down because I know he hadn't slept at all. He told me he needed his diaper changed(that's their special trick to get out of taking a nap. They've learned to defecate on command. Charming.). I changed him and told him to lay back down.
Five minutes later, he starts pounding on his door again! I went in to put him back to bed and the kid upped his game. BIG TIME. He looked up at me with the saddest eyes ever and said(in the saddest voice ever), "Mama. My (s)tomach weely hurts! I need to get up. Pleaaaaase, mama." I couldn't contend with that! I told him he could come out of his room and wouldn't you know it? Insta-recovery. I've been out-witted by a three year old.

This evening, after taking a much needed nap, Mr. Benjamin woke up to find that it was already dark outside. He knows this means we can't go outside to play which is never a good thing. He was beside himself with anger. He ranted and raged for well over thirty minutes. He got to the point where he was trying to hit me, so Emily and I went into their bedroom to play(hoping he'd join us). When he realized he no longer had his captive audience, he ran to find us. He swung open the door, pointed an angry finger of recrimination and said the meanest thing he's EVER said to me:

"You are a really bad friend, mama!"

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry, so I laughed while pretending to cry. The only thing Ben hates than being ignore during a tantrum is being laughed at.


Ben, in happier times.

Cry Baby

Emmie is becoming quite the drama-queen. She knows exactly how to turn on the water-works when the need arises. She's also very sensitive and prone to hurt feelings and hysterics over seemingly minor accidents. She's just so cute when she's crying that it makes the tantrums and tears worth it=) Here's a compilation of my favorite cry-baby pictures. Some are funny, some are heart-breaking!

The famous "Emmie Meets Chuck E. Cheese" shot.

Her godmother Katie tries to comfort a very sad girl who just bumped her head:(

One of many tantrums al fresco

"Waaaah! Why do you take my picture instead of comfort me?!"

So sad and ready for bed:( Impending bedtime always warrants a tear-fest.

Someone was tired of being a swimsuit model.

Poor, sad Milly during an allergic reaction

Learning to stand alone proved just too distressing. Falling down always caused tears!

Too many pictures is another way to piss her off. Even a starlet has her boundries!

Sad Girl wanted mommy to hold her instead of snapping her picture. Mean mommy!

I hope these pictures made you smile instead of cry, too=)

Same dress, different year!

Much to my delight and amazement, Emily still fits into her holiday dress from last year! It was a size 6-9 months and she is more than twice that age now. It didn't seem too big last year, nor does it seem to small this year. Either way, I'm thrilled to be able to use it again. She only wore it once and it is so sweet. She recieved it as a Half-Birthday gift from her beau down south, Jett(of The Life and Times of Jett blog!) and we never got her pro pics taken in it.

Now, Ben on the other hand will be MUCH harder to dress. He will only wear dinosaurs or doggies so my search continues for something festive and Ben-approved. This is God's way of tempering my control-freak tendencies. He's given me a child who's even more arbitrary in his desire for control;)

What a difference a year makes!

The dress: Christmas '08

The dress: Christmas '07