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.

Houses will eat ALL your time

This summer we worked at getting our house painted and replacing the 4x6 posts in the front with columns. The columns which were supposed to be a 1 weekend project, turned into much more, but we finally got them done and I thought I'd post a pic of our house. It will never be a really cute house, but I do think that it looks better than it did before.

Thread...really?

Charity thinks that someone needs to teach my kids how to make Christmas lists.

Here's Israel's exactly how he wrote it:

• Yo-yo
• Soda (Pepsi or coke)
• Water pistol
• 10 stay home from school certificates (signed by you)
• Jump drive
• Bag-o-chocolate pretzels
• Rosin
• Thread
• Sour Spray
• Silly String
• Bamboo

Luckily for me, I think I can get everything on his list for pretty cheap...although he's not getting silly string, Steve has banned it from the house. We still have remnants of it from 5 years ago when I made the mistake of buying it.

He'll definitely be getting the thread. Because, the boy asked for thread.

Tree hunting

We took the kids up to the mountains last night to cut a Christmas tree. The weather couldn't have been better, we needed coats, but it wasn't bitter or anything. The kids quickly discovered that the trees that you get in the forest aren't exactly like trees that you get at Home Depot. "They have feelings, my friend." No, really, trees in the forest usually grow in groves and in pairs. When you see a beautiful tree, most likely it is two trees growing together, so that if you cut down one, you essentially get a half of a tree. (We decided that next year maybe we should get two permits and finding a tree would be a peice of cake.) Finally Israel and Elijah found our perfect tree. We brought it home and decorated it.

I love Christmas!

Turkey Day lessons

So, I learned a few things on Thanksgiving. Very important things about running and racing that I wish to share with you.

1. Registering ahead of time is just asking for trouble. Mother Nature knows you've committed and will do her utmost to make sure that you will never again register in advance. (20 degrees, no joke!)

2. If you think that the 1/2 mile walk to the starting line will warm you up...you are mistaken.

3. They say that there will be water during the race, what they really mean is they will chuck ice cubes in wax paper cups at you.

4. Sister-in-laws will always kick your butt running, but they are nice enough not to do the victory dance in front of you. Granted they probably had enough time to do it about six times before you crossed the finish line.

5. Ellipticalling is exercise, but fails to use certain very important muscles. Running will let you know very quickly which muscles. They are the pick-up-your-leg muscles. Pick-up-your-leg muscles are very important for running. Very.

6. They need a big laundry basket half way through the race where you can throw your hat, gloves, and possibly shirt and pants when you suddenly get so hot you rip off half your clothes. It would be nice if said basket met you at the finish line.

7. You know you're slow when you pass a woman who is running with a stroller only because she stopped to feed her baby a bottle half way through the race.

8. Hills are bad. Baaaaad.

9. It only takes 1 small caramel apple cider to negate any calories burned running a 5k.