Waiting for the Big Guy

'Twas the night before Christmas

and two boys could hardly wait

for the arrival of Santa, his sleigh and reindeer,

Rudolph's red nose leading the way.

Hoping the weary travelers could

weather the "Arctic Blast of 2008!"

and find our chimney,

NORAD's Santa tracker they did watch.

A note of thanks,

some homemade rootbeer,

carrots and a couple of cookies

left out for the visitors.

When they first awoke,

in the hour of o'dark thirty,

Mama said "No, no, still sleepy time"

and back to slumber they went.

At day's first light,

neither Mama nor Daddy could

postpone the trip to see

what might be waiting for

them under the tree.

When who should they spy

but Aunt Tiffy and

Aunt Tiffy's Pat!

Surprise!

Oh, Santa showed up, too.

Snow Update

Yeah, so it's still here. I don't think it's going anywhere anytime soon. And, we're supposed to get more!

We did leave the house yesterday, which was great. We chained up the car and headed out to pick up important supplies - like honey roasted peanuts for the boys, the fixins' for enchiladas, toilet paper for D and Cheez-its for me. And a couple of important presents.

Here's some of the latest scenes from around Portland and the snow palace.

Look - it's warming up!
There's a car under here somewhere ...

Snowshoes on Lombard - not a normal occurrence.

I think Paul Bunyan could use some mittens.

How Structural Engineers Play in the Snow

Snowball fight? Perhaps.

Snow angels? Maybe snow angles.

What they really like to do is worry about the integrity of nearby structures - the garage, the house, and most importantly, the roof over the brew structure. At least there's access to the last one - and something for the engineer to fix.

Breakfast Anyone?

Why yes, those are peanut butter fudge filled aebleskivers ...

Happy Boys

Winter Wonderland

Snow Day, Part Two

The real deal. Today's snow was not like normal Portland snow. Friday night, we got a smidgen. Enough to make things more white than green. Saturday morning, the boys said "Mama!" at 5 am. It wasn't snowing then, so I convinced them to go back to bed. Gentle threats. Anyway, it started snowing at 6:30 am. It's now almost 18 hours later and it's still snowing. Much to Ry's delight, there was enough snow for sledding. We used the neighbor's driveway and Ben practiced some new techniques. Ry was a quick study.

Penguin Anyone?

It's all my fault. I was teasing another mom about doing too much. She said she could do more and I volunteered to help. These were to be distributed to the 14 kids in Ben's class during their holiday party. Only it was canceled. Go figure.

Note: Sight restored to penguins with application of googly eyes.

And a Baking We Will Go ...

Somehow, I managed to get three days of entertainment from one batch of sugar cookies.

• Day one: make dough.
• Day one.five: hide dough from Travis so he doesn't eat it.
• Day two: bake cookies (new tip - roll out the dough in powdered sugar - so yummy!).
• Day two.five: stop Ry from licking his hands and sticking them in the powdered sugar.
• Day three: decorate the cookies.
• Day three.five: tell Ry 27 times that he can only have one cookie.

Snow Day, Part One

This has been quite the week. One week ago, they warned that snow was possible. This is always exciting for me because I love the snow. I usually don't have to be anywhere and I get to stay home with the boys.

While there have been some *discrepancies* with the forecasts over the last week, snow has pretty much been a constant. For days and days and days. Five days with only two hours of school. Yes, two hours. They closed at 10 o'clock on Thursday morning. And from Monday to Thursday, Travis was freezing at The Dalles Dam, so it was me and boys, in the house for the entire rest of the time. And, there appears to be no end in site. I know those of you in places where snow is more frequent laugh at the crazy northwesterners and the world is ending reaction to a little inclement weather. Of course, we laugh at your fear of the rain. That's just how it goes.

The excitement grew on Sunday as the snow started to fall. Once there was enough snow to play in, the boys were quite happy to venture outside.

It was pretty typical Portland snow: not too much work was required to find the pavement.
And there was just enough to have a little snowball fight with Daddy. Why yes, that is his new Carhart jacket.

Ry's implementing the sneak attack approach - if he can't see you, then you couldn't possibly see him.

Flu-Tats Two

In exchange for extreme bravery (no tears from either while getting their flu shots) the boys were rewarded with a nice selection of tattoos from their pediatrician. A gun show and running around the house shirtless followed.

Pearly Whites

Ry had his first trip to the dentist and was a total trooper. It helped that Ben had shown him the ropes a few weeks before.

Big Changes

We transitioned Ry into a big boy bed in September. He started in the trundle in Ben's room. We decided to have the boys share a room so we could turn the other room in a playroom/guest room. Hopefully, this will help us to reclaim the living room. And, hopefully, they will enjoy most of the time they spend together in their room. Thus far, I think it's a success. They both manage to stay in their room until Travis gets up at o'dark thirty for work. And aside from the one biting incident (Ry really wanted Ben to wake up), it's gone pretty well.

Here are some pictures of Ry's first night. He was pretty excited.

Note: when taking Ry's picture, don't tell him to smile. It just makes him close his eyes.

Going, Going, Gone!

It was a regular school day. Travis and I picked Ben up at the end of the day. Travis waited with Ry in the car. I reminded Ben to get his stuff. We got in the car and started home. I attempted to pry information out of him about his day. Usually the conversation goes something like this:

Mama: Ben, how was your day?
Ben: Good.
Mama: What did you do today?
Ben: Nothing.
Mama: What did you talk about today?
Ben: Nothing.

But on this day, it was a little different.

Mama: Ben, how was your day?
Ben: Good.
Mama: What did you do today?
Ben: Nothing. Oh, I lost my tooth.
Mama & Daddy: What?!

Of course we were almost to the freeway at this point. It had happened first thing in the morning, so no one remembered to mention it to me when I ran in to pick him up from school. We turned around and picked up the tooth, which had been safely stored in a paper napkin inside a paper cup.

Ben lost his first tooth at 9:15 in the morning on September 29th, 2008.

Loose Tooth B

As yet another sign of Ben's impending adulthood, he got his first loose tooth. While he was not to keen on the tie-a-string-around-it trick I suggested, he was quite content to wiggle it back and forth. Constantly.

Run, Run, Run!

Ben's school participated in the Run for the Arts fundraiser to raise funds for art projects and fundraisers. Ben and the rest of his class did a great job. Ben completed 15 laps - the most in his class. Go Ben!

Sarcasm ... Check

First, a soccer update. At today's game, Ben scored THREE goals. One was a thing of absolute beauty. Ben had a free kick. He got the ball, checked out the opponents, and simply chipped the ball up over everyone's head and into the goal. Nothing to it. The other team just watched. Everyone cheered. There was music and confetti. Okay, maybe not, but there should have been.

Anyway, so the point of this post is to tell you about Ben's latest funny. In preparation for today's game, Travis ran to the store to get snacks. We bought apples (for the team) that no one ate. Travis was also supposed to pick up some licorice (it was on sale). He forgot (I didn't give him a list). Today, while loading up the car, we said "Ball. Check. Water. Check. Granola Bars. Check". Ben says from the back of the bus, "Licorice ... Uncheck".

Gosh, where could the sarcasm gene come from?

Oh Hoppy Day!

The boys handled this year's bounty as the hop growing season came to an end. We had a hoptastic crop this year - our Cascade, Northern Brewer, Magnum, Willamette, Nugget and Centennial all bore the smelly flowers used in Travis' brewing endeavors. Travis cut down the vines (the house looks a little naked), showed the boys what to do, and they took it from there.

Ignore the white stuff on the house. It's really okay - just needs a little paint.