Ignore anyone not a baby in these pics

I was just wondering to myself how much alike Cecelia and Francesca looked at the same age. So I found a pic of Cecelia from Feb 2004. She was almost exactly Ches' age. Wow, I didn't actually realize how much they looked the same.

At least they do to me. (Although somebody has more hair than somebody else.)

Quit giving my kids stuff!

No, not you. Or you. Or you. It's all the other people. Today I spent the morning trying to clean out the playroom that had become such a disaster that you couldn't walk through it. I had filled one garbage bag to throw out and one garbage bag to give away and I was winding down. It wasn't finished, but I knew that Ches would be waking up soon. So...I said to myself, I wonder if I could find 100 more things to throw away. They didn't have to be big things, just anything. And so I spent a little more time and, yes, I managed to find 100 more thing to throw away. Some were small, like a bead sitting on the floor. Some were big, like a dump truck that my kids haven't played with for forever, but much of it was little things that my kids bring home from scouts, birthday parties, pre-school, church, Burger King kids meals, etc.

You see, everyone seems to think they need to give my kids stuff. Little erasers and pencils, ultra cheap toys in little party bags, and handouts and popiscle stick people and stuff. My kids like these things and are sure that they should get to keep them, but they play with them for a few minutes and then they end up in some corner of the playroom with lots of other junk.

Today, there are over one hundred things sitting in my trash can that I will never have to pick up again...and it's making me very happy. Now, how do I keep from ending up with 1oo more things?

Why do I try to do these things?

Why do I try to start a blog when I can't seem to keep doing anything else consistantly? Who knows?

Christmas season was hectic as usual, but we had a fun trip to Utah and some nice time at home too. As is typical, we spent a lot of the trip home discussing what we should be doing to our house. This time, in case we end up selling it this summer when Intel closes its door. So now, instead of leasurely blogging, I'm half way through painting my bedroom, Steve is working on putting a ceiling light in the little room of of our bedroom, we are seriously considering putting new carpet downstairs, and I have been looking at toilets and sinks to replace the yellow porcelain ones in the downstairs bathroom.

And here's a pic of Francesca and Cecelia, since I had a request. We forgot to take our traditional Christmas Eve family pic this year, so I still need to get a current pic of our family. When I do, I'll share.