Frosty the Cookie

My good friend Lara showed me this cool little 'craft' I could do with Avery. It's so easy, and Avery was so into it. She wanted to keep making more and more.

Here's what you need:
Nutter Butter cookies
A bag of white chocolate chips
A bag of regular chocolate chips (we used the mini ones)
A bag of pretzel sticks

All you do is melt the white chocolate chips and spread the white chocolate onto the cookies. Stick on all of the accessories, and voila! You have a cookie snowman.

Aren't they cute and delicious-looking?


I'm a little concerned about Avery's though. She made three of them one-eyed, one of them has no nose and a really short arm, and one has no arms at all! How in the world is he going to "wave goodbye saying 'don't you cry,'"?

Thanksgivingapalooza

That's right, people, I'm a wordsmith.

So this weekend was the weekend that seemed to never end, although now I sit here at 10pm and it does look as though I'll go to bed tonight and tomorrow it will be Monday.

It was actually a fun few days, and like the photographer I aspire to be, I took pictures to document it all. I think I'm turning Japanese I think I'm turning Japanese I really think so. (no offense to my Japanese friends out there, of course)

If only I could have gotten a picture of Anna laying my jacket on the floor of a handicapped bathroom stall to change Avery's diaper. Ick and ewww and yes, I did put my jacket back on.

So I guess I didn't take pictures of everything after all.

Anyway, here's how my Thursday started out. Avery decided the turkey needed to go in the oven before the sun came up, so she woke up the whole household to let us know. Here was the view from the kitchen window. Pretty, but not necessarily worth waking up for.


Things got a little 'hairy' when my sister and I found some weird hairpiece my mom had in her bathroom.


Jed did his best Johnny Knoxville impression for us all, and then got to work as Mr. Mom.




Avery and I picked some flowers and Auntie Merzy helped us take some photos:




Avery then strutted around in her Cinderewwwa shoes. She's getting five more pairs for Christmas. Thank you Costco, you sell EVERYTHING in bulk. Fortunately I've also stocked up on ear plugs and vodka.




A couple of family shots. Boy are these hard to get. My sister is a saint.




After dinner couch loafing. A family tradition. No really. It's been passed down generation after generation.








And a couple of random pics from throughout the day:














Friday, the in laws came over for our second round of Thanksgiving dinner. I won't be eating lasagna for a while. Over. load.


On Saturday the girls and I did a little window shopping. Anna filled her auntie shoes well for the entire day. Good job, grasshoppa. Avery adores Anna like no one else and nothing else. Except maybe Mickey Mouse. Oh, and sugar.

And speaking of sugar, Avery got to make some sugar cookies with Anna while Ainsley sat and salivated.




After playing with RooRoo and Chauwsee for a while, we headed to the nearby outdoor mall and had a little fun. We even saw Santy Claus. He came to check on Avery and make sure she was eating her lunch. She wasn't. She's getting coal this year.


Last we rode the carousel, which Avery loved.


Finally, today we tagged a tree for Christmas -- something we've done for a few years now. Ainsley was quite unimpressed by the process. There were lots of trees left to be bought, but that didn't stop someone from buying the smallest tree there. Weird. Avery also learned she's actually smaller than one of Santa's elves, but only because her head is more proportionate to her body.




So tomorrow is Monday and YAY I get to start Christmas shopping. Ahhh, if only I knew how fun and easy shopping was back prekids. I'd have spent all of my money then.

Whew

I made SIX pies today. That's more fingers than I have on one of my hands. That's a lot of pies. And one less fingers than pies. I'll stop with this analogy now.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving -- I'll be sure to share pics when the whirlwind is over.

The Big Top

We're running a regular old circus over here. We've got an infant with mismatched eyelashes and a contortionist toddler with two mouths. Maybe we should start charging admission? Our tightrope broke last week, though. Darn.

My two doofuses

A Day Out with Thomas

We were suckers and bought tickets to this event. It was actually pretty cool and well set up. There were a ton of people, but that's to be expected where there are only a few locations and on only a few dates. Here are some pictures to share:





Thomas's arrival at the station for our departure:



Making sure no Delta Airlines stewardesses singled me out:



Enjoying the ride:







"That's it, Mom?"



My attempt at artsy shots for the day:





Waving to Thomas as he passed us with other passengers aboard:







Too bad she only slept on the way to and in the car...

Wait just a minute...

you mean to tell me that's MY arm?

Picture for today...

Avery Loves Gymbo

I took my camera to Gymboree tonight. Out of 84 pictures, I did capture ONE where Avery was looking at the camera. Why do I bother?!?! I might say she was too excited or too busy or too distracted to pay the camera any attention, but the truth is, she hardly ever makes eye contact. Unless I bribe her with candy, of course. That works sometimes.

Twelve weeks old!

Nope, I can't believe it either.

Weekend Visit

My friend Viv and her husband Andy were in my town from England for a visit for a couple of days. Windy and I tried showing them a good time with margaritas and martinis, but we kept striking out. Thankfully we had a good pizza shop nearby so we let them do the cooking. We had such a great time talking and hanging out. We wish they lived closer, but for now we'll just have to demand that they come to California every year. So start making plans for next year, Vivvy!

A little slideshow...

You need speakers...

Don't try this at home

This photo is titled "WipesLadder.jpg"


Original, huh?

No, no prompting from me.

If I had needed a ladder of wipes to be able to see this smile down in that crib...


... I'd have built a wipesladder too!

Toddler toes

and man, hairy legs to boot!

I'm not seeing things...

The eyelashes on Ainsley's left eye (the one to your right in case you needed help figuring that out) are longer than the ones on her right eye.







Now, in addition to people questioning me about time spent with both Eddie Munster and Popeye during November of 2005, I'm going to get questions about the dude from A Clockwork Orange too.



Greeeeeeeaaaaaaaaat.

But seriously, they are longer, aren't they? Weird. I have a defective baby.

Nanny nanny

I knew Doogie was gay before you did.

Well, whew...

My husband still has a job. His boss ran for re-election and won. I might have actually been a little stressed if his boss had actually been running against someone else. He's run unopposed four times now. It's got to be nice knowing you don't have to campaign or even worry about your image.

Meanwhile, some of his colleagues in different sectors of the county government were all funding some silly smear campaigns against one another. Pretty laughable, actually. My favorite is where they showed a picture of a candidate in a bar holding up a rocks glass filled with alcohol. As if that would deter me from voting for him... at least he knows how to party!

Jingle all the way...

Avery is really getting into the Christmas spirit early this year. She's been jingling and jingling and jingling for weeks now. If only there was a way to remove the song from the keyboard. For now I'll just stock up on Excedrin.

Things to do in Deadlands

when you're expecting visitors...

A friend of mine from England is coming to visit this weekend. She's a seasoned traveler -- she's been to more of the contiguous states than I have. She's making her way down from Tahoe and then back up again to fly back out of SFO. I have absolutely no idea where to take her in my little town -- things that are quaint and cool to me are probably boring to the rest of the world, which is why when I make blog posts about things around my town, no one comments, or maybe one or two people do, but it's because they feel sorry for me and feel obligated to say something, anything so that those little letters under my post no longer say "no comments."

For example, would she really want to see the little places around town where movies (albeit obscure ones) have been filmed? Movies that were big box office hits like "Hell Night" and "Joy Ride"? It's doubtful. Maybe the location of "How to Make An American Quilt" will tickle her fancy? Nah.

So then I think about all of the cute little Victorian homes. Then I remember, she lives in ENGLAND. Victoria was the QUEEN of England, and I don't mean that metaphorically. She's seen all the Victorian architechture she can stand for a lifetime, I'm sure.

How about the local mountains? Oh yes, I remember now. Everything there burned to the ground a few years ago. I think the lakes are still around though.

So then I explore the option of going to the desert or the beach. That sort of defeats the purpose of coming to my town, doesn't it?

I guess she'll just have to settle for the kegerator, the pool table, and the musings of little Miss Avery (Avery's the one she's really coming to see anyway). I think she might be glad to meet Murphy and Winston too -- maybe we can crate them up for her and she can take them with her.

Wish me luck figuring this out. It's a good thing she drinks alcohol from time to time. I'll just pump her full of liquor and she won't remember how 'bloody' boring we all are.

Ainsley's Debut

I know everyone has been waiting patiently. No worries though! The wait is finally over (also known as I finally downloaded some short video clips and uploaded them to my website).

Beans might not burn on the grill

but what about lizard?

Bruised head

dog hair on cheek, dog hair on shoulder, crust on face, ugly yellow hat on, junky front door...

What you can't see is that she has no pants on, has dirt under her fingernails, and she was holding a sandpail full of marbles.

It was a productive day.

This is what happens

when Avery wakes up in an overly chipper mood, and when I go to get her, she jumps up and down inside of her crib and screeches at the top of her lungs. Ainsley gets woken up before she's ready... that's what happens.

It's all about presentation

That's what a good cook (which I am not) would say, right? Today, Avery didn't want scrambled eggs and toast. So I opted for a Grammy Gigi Special -- I think she calls it "Egg in a Basket." I can only use this trick every now and then. It's going to lose its charm pretty quickly.

With turning two

comes attitude. Serious attitude. In the span of two weeks, I went from being "Mama" to "Mommy" to "Mom." I guess she's just too cool and grown up to be calling me those other childish names. "Mom" it is.

More infectious laughter...

Oof

I am working to change my blog, and I'm really not digging the dark green, so work with me here... I'll have to come back to it later!

Somebody help me

Help me figure out this stay-at-home-mom gig. I cannot do it. I cannot make it work like it's supposed to.

I think I've concluded that moms in the 50's and 60's must have ignored their children in order to be the perfect wives. Having a hot meal on the table when hubby gets home from work? Um, not in this house. Nevermind the fact that hubby doesn't get home from work until after 7pm every night.

Yes, I'm married to a workaholic.

So, when do I scrub toilets? Do I clean while my toddler watches television? How am I supposed to provide educational stimulation throughout the day AND do all of those other things I'm 'supposed' to do?

How do I balance it all?

To me, it's more important to work with my toddler and sing to her, paint with her, read her books, than it is to mop the floor and take chicken out of the freezer.

DUH -- you don't have to be a good mother, or even a mother at all, to know that.

But seriously, my house is a mess ALL of the time. I just can't do it all. Most days I don't even take a shower until noon, or if I have taken one, it's because I have plopped the toddler in front of the television and put the infant in the swing or bouncy seat.

And don't get me started on the infant. I feel so bad for her -- like I'm not paying enough attention to her and not holding her and interacting with her enough. I want to, I do. It seems like when the baby is awake, my 2 year old decides to throw the tantrum to end all tantrums and I simply cannot do anything but deal with her.

Ahhhhhhhh!

Deep. Breaths. Inhale. Exhale.

Now, I'm off to have a glass of wine. Perhaps the whole bottle!

Cute Stuff

I think I say "You're so damn cute" to her a hundred times a day. Maybe I should leave off the "damn," but I just can't help it! I also need to learn how to not be so dense and put the ISO back to the correct number BEFORE I take 85 pictures of my children. I think I took this top one on like 800 ISO and it was broad daylight. Grrrr. I took the second pic with my Canon, so at least I didn't screw up the ISO number on that camera because you can't change it!

Picking Booger

Yes, just one.

I am a big fan of "Boston Legal." I was a big fan of "The Practice," and now I continue to follow the one character that is left on its spinoff show -- James Spader as Alan Shore. He seriously cracks me up.

I was pleasantly surprised a couple of weeks ago when I saw that the show chose to add Curtis Armstrong to its list of actors (you might remember him as "Booger" on "Revenge of the Nerds," although I think I loved him more in "Better Off Dead," though his character's name from that movie escapes me right now).

This show is so wacky, which is why I love it. I can only assume that things will continue to get wackier with Booger in the mix.

I decided to make this a blog post because, in an effort to find Booger's real name on IMDb.com, I discovered that a remake of the original movie "Revenge of the Nerds" is in the works. I don't know that that movie should be redone... it was just fine as is. Movies like that never do well, do they?

Then and Now

I stole this idea from my friend Jennie...

Here is the progression of costumes thus far for Avery -- her pirate costume this year was cute, but I don't know what will ever top last year's ballerina. She was so stinking cute, it was sickening. This year's pictures are of course in the next post down.

Halloween 2006

We took the girls to the local church carnival for Halloween last night. It was a madhouse, but Avery seemed to enjoy herself. I was a little worried we'd be too late to find a parking spot close enough to walk -- I was sewing Avery's costume until 5pm. At 5:15 I resigned myself to the fact that she simply WAS NOT going to wear the hat I had for her, so in a desperate attempt to make her look more like a pirate and less like an International Man of Mystery, I drew an eyepatch onto her face with black eyeliner. Yeah, drawing on her face was a TON of fun... not. Thankfully I had only to pop a hat on Ainsley's head and her costume was complete -- she went as a Trick-or-Treater. Whew.

Anyway, here are some pictures.



Avery walking the catwalk to show off her digs:



Her lame eyepatch:



Avery goofing off and Ainsley looking concerned about what "Trick or Treat" means...



Doesn't she look thrilled?



Oh, wait, THIS is the picture where she looks thrilled. And I look stoned. No, drunk. NO! Tired.



After our 2 mile downhill trek, we realized that if this carnival was lame, we'd have a 2 mile uphill hike to get over our disappointment.



We snuck up on GramZ and PapaZ as they manned their booth:



Lastly, Avery did sit for a moment and pose for a picture. Hallelujah.