To All Our Friends and Family

We hope that you have a magical Christmas!
We miss and love you all!

Save the Last Dance for Me

We are down to just over a week before we leave for Chicago and are just starting our "official" good-bye's. Kelsie had her last ballet class tonight and I was lucky enough to get there in time to take some pictures and video tape a little bit of it. (She is the one next to the girl in the blue shirt.) She is going to miss her friends that she made in her dance class and especially Miss Lyn, her teacher.

I should be packing, but....

I couldn't resist. There are just too many fun things to share! Not only did Kelsie get some teeth pulled, but Caleb started clapping! In this new world of technology, we thought we'd share that with all of you.

Also, Brandon is into sneaking anything and everything right now. It ranges from candy, video games (a story for another time) and even the camera. This time he was caught, red handed! The best part is how quiet he is. He knows he's doing something that he doesn't want to get caught doing. Sneaky little thing!

We've hit a milestone

When Kelsie was in kindergarten, it wasn't too long into the school year when she began noticing that some of her friends were losing their teeth. She often asked us when she was going to lose her teeth. The same thing happened again in first grade. "Soon" was the regular answer and expected response each time she asked. Finally, half-way through SECOND grade, she finally lost not one, not two, not three, but FOUR teeth.

Here is how it happened.

A couple of months ago the exciting announcement was made that Kelsie's two bottom adult teeth were growing in. We looked in her mouth and saw the pearly whites just starting to break through her gums. We were all excited for the much anticipated loose tooth process to begin (including Brandon who suddenly told us that he was getting his teeth too).

We waited.

We waited a little longer.

We waited until both teeth had grown in behind her baby teeth but still no loose teeth. She tried and tried to make them move, but they were just stubborn (hmmm, apple doesn't fall to far from the tree on that one). A couple months later when she went in to the dentist for her cleaning, they got a good look at those stubborn baby teeth that would still not budge.

"I think we're going to need to extract these two baby teeth to let those adult teeth grow in where they are supposed to," said the dentist. "Extract" is the secret code word for "yank" so as to not scare small children. Didn't work.

So, we set the appointment. And wouldn't you know that the day before the scheduled extraction, Kelsie came home with a BIG surprise. One of those little stubborn teeth finally gave in and started to wiggle. I think she secretly was hoping that this meant that she wouldn't have to go to the dentist and have them yanked out. No such luck. We went to the appointment where they "extracted" her two baby teeth. After looking at the damage, the dentist then said "I think we're going to have to pull two more teeth." Apparently her mouth is a little narrow and we will be referred to an orthodontist in the near future. So, after half an hour in the dentist chair and enjoying a little "happy gas", Kelsie came out of the office with 4 teeth missing across her lower jaw.

After waiting for so long for a visit from the tooth fairy, she finally came to our house last night and left a certificate and a nice little chunk of change. Kelsie is all smiles now and loves to show everyone the long-anticipated holes in her mouth!

Like Father, Like Son

Enough said.

Star Wars Mania

In case you didn't already know, Brandon is OBSESSED with Star Wars. It is all he talks about, thinks about, draws about, I think it's been absorbed through his skin. He tried talking both Grandpa's into being Luke Skywalker with him for Halloween and wants to buy them each their own Star Wars toy for Christmas. The first thing he wants to do when he gets up in the morning is look up star war pictures on the computer and, if he's really lucky, a video or two as well (he's got a sucker for a dad!). You can pretty much guess what the last thing he wants to do before bed each night as well. When we go to the library, the ONLY books we check out are , yup, you guessed it, Star Wars. I'm sure if we gave him the option, he would sign up for the Jedi Training Academy and learn the ways of the force. (We just won't tell him about it.) We had no idea that a couple of classic movies would result in such obsessive-compulsive behavior from our 4 year old. I think we'll hold off a little while longer before introducing Indiana Jones to a young impressionable mind.

A recent conversation (if you can even call it that since it's pretty one-sided) took place on Wally's way to work this morning.

"If Darth Vader comes to our house, I'll shoot a dart at him," Brandon says.

To which Wally replies, "If Darth Vader comes to our house, you need to fight him with your lightsaber."

"But my lightsaber is just a toy."

"If Darth Vader comes to fight you, your toy lightsaber will turn into a real lightsaber."

"Oho! Then I will have to take him outside to fight him?"

Pause. He has to think about this for a little bit.

"If I fight Darth Vader, then I will turn into Luke Skywalker. Then I will start doing flips over him like in The Return of the Jedi and I'll just keep doing flips. Then I will flip so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, sooo, far that I will be in Pennsylvania and turn back into Brandon again. Then Darth Vader will find me and I will turn back into Luke Skywalker and flip over him so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, sooo, far back home."

Silence.

"So, did you beat him?"

"Yep." he says with a shrug of the shoulders.



What do you say to that?

Gobble, gobble

There's nothing like a great turkey, with all the trimmings, and fun people to celebrate with. My sister's family came down from Seattle to be with us which was especially exciting for me since I haven't spent Thanksgiving with anyone in my family for about 6 years. Wally's sister and her family also came down from Idaho to play games with us the night before Thanksgiving. We had lot of fun and decided to bake the pies Kelsie helped me make for everyone that night. We all enjoyed some good homemade apple, pumpkin, and chocolate velvet pies and played an exciting game of Killer Bunnies.

We started our holiday morning participating in our family's 3rd annual Turkey Trot 1-mile fun run. We were lucky enough to talk Ben and Whitney into running with us. As we all got ready to go, Brandon insisted on wearing his boots during the run and was a little put out when we told him there was no room in the stroller for him. It was a cold morning, but once the race started we were able to stay warm. I pushed Caleb and my niece, Lydia, in the double jogger while Kelsie ran with me and Brandon ran (more like walked) with Wally. Kelsie and I finished in14:49 while Brandon and Wally crossed the finish line at 24:41. We were proud of our kids for running and finishing the race. Kelsie mostly enjoyed the race and Brandon informed us that he does not want to do that again, ever (maybe the boots had something to do with it?). We'll see how he feels about it next year.

Upon returning home from the big race, the major cooking operations began. We marinated our turkey overnight in a salt-water solution (1 c salt and 1/2 c brown sugar per 1 gallon of water) and then stuffed it with fruit (apples, oranges, pears, and limes), an onion, and some garlic. We then seared it for half an hour in a 550-degree oven with a homemade tin-foil hat, and then let it cook at 350 for the next 3 hours. In the meantime we set to work mashing potatoes, making candied yams, roasting green beans, cooking the rolls and stuffing, and finishing off with a nice crisp mandarin salad. (Nothing says Thanksgiving like a mandarin salad.) When everything was ready, we all sat down and enjoyed the ever popular Thanksgiving dinner. All the food turned out great, especially the turkey, if I do say so myself. We went around the table and said what we were thankful for, stuffed our faces and our bellies, and then retired to the couch for a long winter's....oh wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

The rest of our weekend was pretty quiet. Whitney and I braved "black friday" shopping and were able to get a couple good deals. Here's a tip: I will forever and ever shop at Target if I ever shop on black friday again. They had plenty of their great deals there when we went at 9 a.m. which proves that you DO NOT need to get up at insane hours of the morning to get the deal. I was so happy about that, I even let one of those nice people in a red shirt know. Also, there was NO LINE when we went to the check out. We just walked up and paid and walked out. It can't get any better than that.

OK, 1 more tip: check online. We found some some deals online that were just as good as going to the store, except we didn't have to get up early or wait in line for 45 minutes.

Wally and Ben took Kelsie and Brandon out shooting rockets (one apparently blew up which made the excursion that much more exciting) and we enjoyed kicking off the holiday season with music and movies.


We also made this cool "Thanksgiving Garland" out of tissue paper and glue. I got the idea from a friend's friend's blog and thought we would try it out. (It's a lot like making a pinata. Kendra, this should make you proud.) It was super fun to make and maybe next year we'll add what we're thankful for around it.