Happy Birthday Joshua!!!

Okay, technically Joshua turned four on 11/21, but since we had family coming into town, we decided to have the "party" this weekend. Due to the van incident previously blogged, we only had Brian & Brandy's family, but it was still fun.

Josh got his own set of legos ... construction trucks, which Robert Brooke and Ethan helped him put together. I think "Mommy" has finally upstaged "Aunt Brandy" in the gift department. But I'm also sure it is only a temporary set back for her ... the kids adore her - as she well knows!

Although I am known for making and decorating birthday cakes, with all of the fun happenings of the weekend, Brandy and I decided to head to the store to buy one - yes, gasps of shock go here. When we got to Vons we found that a half-sheet of cake that no one would really eat was going to cost $20 so we got an ice cream pie and a package of hot wheels instead ... it was a hit and we wasted nothing!

As you can see, Ginny got her bangs cut this weekend too - which means that there is less snot and food plastering her hair to her face. I think she looks adorable. And this was a great picture of Robert I couldn't resist adding. He has been having fun showing Josh how to be a "big boy" this weekend and even decided to introduce Josh to chess - at least until he discovered that when he and Ethan finished playing they left the games on top of the garbage can. Of course, Daddy came by and thought they had been put there by me because we have been cleaning out the garage and so he just slipped them inside. The best part was when Robert opened the trash and decided that they were close enough to the top to lift out and when he reached in, the box came apart and little pieces scattered everywhere. He didn't realize that I was standing in the laundry room watching. He just looked at the box and then turned to Josh and said "this is soooo wrong" and Josh said "Yes, it is just so wrong" I just laughed! When I looked out the window again, Robert had upended the trash barrel (thank Heavens the trash was picked up yesterday morning and there was really just cardboard boxes in it) and both of the boys were happily separating their game pieces from the rest of the garbage. They even picked up all (or at least nearly all) of the trash and got it put back together before Dad got to the back yard to check on them. Can we say bathtime tonight? I know it sounds kind of gross with the garbage can and all, but I have to say that I was very proud of Robert's initiative. Instead of thowing a tantrum and pouting (which is what I fully expected), he considered the problem and set about trying to fix it. He is growing up!

Vomit ... Flares ... More Vomit ... and Family

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We had a rather unusual holiday (as the title of the post might indicate). Sherri came over and helped me finish my pies late Wednesday night (thanks Sherri!) and I just have to say that having an oven that cooks evenly is amazing! My pies haven't turned out so well in years! Anyway, we got to bed rather late and decided to let the kids be the alarm (since they never sleep past 6:30). Of course, they slept past 7 and to make it better, sometime during the night Ben threw up and just went back to sleep in it ... he wasn't ill, so I just figure he had post-nasal-drip which set off his hair trigger gag reflex. At any rate, that put us a bit behind schedule (we were planning to drive off between 7:30 and 8). We made it out by 9:30 and headed out to Temecula ... we were about 30 miles away and it was time for dinner to start, so I started called to let people know not to wait since we were bringing dessert when we notice a car off to the side of the road with my brother-in-law standing outside! Sure enough, their transmission just quit and they were stuck. We got over and noticed that people were getting right up to the van before changing lanes ... another accident in the making ... and I remembered seeing flares in our car. I have to tell you that when I married Byron (5 years ago) I found these flares in the back of the garage and threw them into the trunk to "be prepared." Ha! We finally got to use them ... once we figured out how to light them. The instructions are less than illucidating. Not only that, they only burned for about 20 minutes and people just kept driving right over them - one guy had his tire just smoking for at least a mile down the freeway (I guess no one realized that bright pink flame was actually fire ... go figure! Sooooo we all finally make it to dinner (which is only three hours later than planned, not bad) and have a great time!

My sister and her husband are in town from Utah visiting with relatives in Norco, so after dinner they met us at the now deceased van to get David's tools and we all caravan out to Mom & Dad's to drop off David, Banae and the kids (and tools). Apparently, Brian & Brandy's family Thanksgivind dinner included lots of pie, cranberry jello, orange soda and a bounce house - see where this is going? We got to Hesperia and all three of Brandy's daughters had brought back up what looked like twice their own body weight - in the back seat of the Suburban ... so we stayed with Mom and Dad for a bit while everyone got bathed and the car re-packed. We made it home before midnight, amazingly. Brooke rode with us so that she wouldn't have to be around her sisters who took plastic bags and threw up a couple of more times. We still had to let her out on the downside of Walker Pass to bring up the popcorn that Grandma Bekki thought the kids might like while they were waiting for us to clean up in Hesperia, but hey, who could imagine that popcorn would grow like that in a 9 yr old tummy? Lots of fun, lots of family, and a memorable holiday for all!

Private Screening

Wow there has been soooo much going on I don't even know where to start. So, rather than create the book where I go back and catch everyone up on the state of the house, Halloween, the progress of the house, school for everyone, the ongoing mess of the house, the visits from family, and the completion of construction on the house (sense a pattern?), I am just going to move forward from last night. ;-)

Byron and I decided to risk a mid-week date since the holiday and company will keep us from going out and we REALLY need to keep those dates alive. So, Byron came home at about 6:30 and we heading down to B-town to see what was playing. Mostly, Byron wanted to have a couple of hours to continue listening to Brinsingr (Paolini's third book) on audio cd ... he has a hard time putting it down, not that I can relate in any way. We were going to see Twilight (I already saw it on opening day, but I had no problem repeating the experience so that Byron could see the Volvo ... if you aren't sure what I am talking about then you are either living under a rock or haven't joined the Twilight band-wagon and need to get with the program). Unfortunately, I got the theaters mixed up and we decided that we couldn't wait an additional hour, see the movie, and still stay awake long enough to make it home - it's hard to be old foggies. So, we saw the new Bond flick instead. The best part? We were the ONLY ones in the theater ... Byron told me he had arranged the private screening just for me (awww how sweet). He only need a very little prompting to come up with that line so it was a great night. We enjoyed the movie and made comments during the entire show without bothering anyone ... it was a blast!

On a final note, the house is finished and ready for pictures so I will get those up soon!