2012 AJ and Charlie

Raise your hand if you figured out that my friend Brittney, the photographer, is back in town. 

You Mean I Could Have Used The HOV Lane?

The other day I left my windows down overnight in the garage to air out the car.  I am not going to go into why the car had to be aired out, but trust me, it had to be done.

During my morning commute, I got quite the surprise when a field mouse scampered across my dashboard ***while I was driving ***.   He had obviously made himself at home in the car during the night. I am all for carpooling, but this guy had to go. Instead of calling Shawn in a panic and freaking out over something he a) could not help me with, or b) has any control over (which is my usual M.O.),  I pulled into a parking lot, put the window down, got some coffee and hoped for the best.

I haven't seen the little guy again.  I can only assume he is enjoying his new digs after his recent enrollment in the field mouse catch and release program

You Were Born in 2008? You Don't Say!

Charlie just asked me to read the text in his fortune cookie.

Hometown Holidays

Every year, our town does a holiday celebration that is pretty amazing. They truck in snow, have an enormous Christmas tree, s'mores, craft tents, pictures with santa, sleigh rides and concerts by the school choirs. In a state where 80% of the people are transplants, it is a much needed shot of what the holidays are "suppose" to look like. 

It was very obvious that Charlie was born here, because he took one handful of snow, announced it was cold and was done with playing in the snow. When his brother (who was born in MN) was this age, we would have to drag him out of the snow while his hands were bordering on being frostbitten. 

Two of my favorite people, hamming it up for the camera.

Charlie and his good buddy, Isaiah.  In this first picture, I did not give them any directions in terms of posing.

In this picture, I asked them to pose nicely.  It is obviously about killing them to do so.

Here where we making the s'mores. Yum.

Charlie and Isaiah eating their s'mores. Isaiah's grandma, Tammy and Isaiah's mom, Jen, are behind them.

Charlie with Santa. Isaiah did not want to sit on Santa's lap until Charlie explained to him that they could ask for monster trucks if they did. After that, Isaiah was on board.

Here is the beautiful Christmas tree in the town square.

I love this picture because it shows how small Charlie and Isaiah are, compared to the tree. They thought it was amazing.

Proof

Just to be clear, we do have more than one seating option in the family room, and this picture proves it. 

Who Knew Soccer Could Be So Pretty?

This is the flower farm that is next to AJ's practice field. I have been meaning to take pictures of it forever. The day I finally remembered, I didn't have my real camera, but the phone pictures aren't too bad. 

Photo Booth at Lauren's Wedding

Let The Holidays Begin. . . .

Mom, Take My Picture!

I'm Sexy and I Know It- Gobble Gobble

One of the many reasons I love teaching third graders is that they make me laugh daily. 

The kids were given an assignment where they had to write a persuasive letter to the President pretending they were a turkey, and asking him to pardon them for Thanksgiving. I really encouraged the kids to be silly with it. 

One boy, who did not quite get that the whole point was that you would not get cooked, wanted to warn the President that he would burn his mouth if he tried to eat him. But how he explained it in his letter was that he should be pardoned because he was "hot and a good dancer".

Me: Charlie, what do you want for Christmas?
Charlie: An iPad.
Me: That's not going to happen. What else?
Charlie: Oh, fine. Hot Wheels.

A Knight and Horse

The nice thing about staying at the Excalibur is that there are good things to buy for your 4 year old son at the hotel gift shop. He played with them until he went to bed last night. 

Lauren's Bachelorette Party

This weekend was my friend Lauren's bachelorette party. We went to Vegas. Kelly and I drove up there and met Lauren, Rene and Jammie there. This cloud was right over Vegas. That really should have been our first sign that no one should even bother gambling. 

Lauren got all dressed up and Rene gave her a pink boa and a flashing button that said she was the bride. 

Lauren was given scratch of cards that had dares on them. There were pretty tame, but I was still glad I was not the bride.  She was a good sport about it and did everything that was asked of her. 

I honestly do not remember where this was, but many of the hotels were already decked out for the holidays. This is Lauren and Kelly soaking up any Christmas cheer they can. 

We went to this beautiful restaurant at the Venetian. The interior design was amazing. These stone tups filled with rose petals were in the entry way. I wish I had taken more pictures of the rest of the restaurant.

Here is the ceiling of the Venetian. I love Vegas because it is like going to a million little Disney Worlds. Each hotel is decorated in a very specific way. And they are very good about the details.

Some scenery from the way back.

This was the car we were stuck behind on the way back, on a one lane highway. It was so unbelievably gross and the smell was something I cannot begin to describe. Kelly, a vegetarian, was barely able to drive. I have to admit, I was not a good friend. I was laughing, until I was crying, at the fact that we got stuck behind this for several miles. 

It was a fun weekend with a lot of good memories. And one dead deer. 

I Think Santa May Need to Get a Second Job

At The Park

One Little Monkey With Bedhead

Hello, Charolette

My Students Can Be So Sweet Sometimes

We had a Halloween party yesterday and everyone brought treats. I had bought a box of fruit snacks that AJ and Charlie continually beg for. I joked with my students that my kids were very upset with me because I had brought the fruit snacks to school instead of keeping them at home.  This one boy gets up from his desk, hands me his fruit snack, and says: "Tell them that this is from me".

Halloween

Halloween this year was fun and laid back.  By friend Brittney moved back to AZ and now lives around the corner. We went and had some pizza with them and then AJ and her oldest daughter Maddy and Maddy's cousin, went trick or treating.  Brittney and I took Charlie and her youngest daughter, Lily around the neighborhood. Charlie was not as into it once he realized that AJ was ditching him to go with the older kids. But we did about 15 houses and he got a good stash.

Charlie was Bumblebee from Transformers and AJ was a vampire. 

A house on our street was giving full sized-sized Butterfingers. Luckily for me, AJ has been trained since birth to give all his Butterfingers to me.

After Charlie got tired of trick or treating, we went and hung out on the front porch with Shawn to pass out candy. We brought out chairs, some drinks, and basically tailgated on our front porch. Our neighbors across the street made the rest of us look bad by making a haunted house facade out of an old box, and using to block tiher porch. There were windows cut out and her little girls passed out candy to the trick or treaters through the window. I wish I had thought to take a picture.  It was pretty creative. 

I found this easter basket this past year. I love that Charlie wanted to use it for trick or treating. 

Our jack-o-lantern that AJ carved.

Charlie imitating his pumpkin.