Sara is Smiling

Someone to go through life with.

The best gift I could give them was each other.

Even if they don't always realize it!

I recently referred to them as Irish Twins. (Is that still politically correct? Probably not.)
Charlie screeched and Max pretending to puke. "I am not his/her twin!!" they both yelled as if they had rehearsed it. I explained that it's called Irish twins when siblings are born within a year of each other. They were having no part of it.

We were laughing yesterday when we drove past the smoke stacks remembering when they used to think it was the Cloud Factory. They were so sweet and little once upon a time!

I used to get asked if they were twins back then too.
Ahhh, I miss my babies sometimes! I'd like to go back and smooch their little cheeks..but only for a moment. Those two as toddlers together put me through the ringer!! And they still make me laugh even as big kids so it's all good :-)

A Max funny: When my hands are dirty they have more flavour.
A Charlie funny: Quincey told me the other day that I was H-O-T. I heard Charlie saying to herself, "H...O...oh..gross."

Happy New Year?

Is it too late to say that?

We celebrated the new year in Phoenix. It was unseasonably warm even for Phoenix. We had a BBQ, swam with the pool lights on


and then partied til midnight! Well, sort of.
While the kids were in the pool I changed all the clocks two hours ahead so we rang in the new year at 10pm rather than 12am. Oh yes, I'm sneaky. But the kids were determined to stay up til midnight and I knew that was a bad idea (and I was too tired!)

First, before the kids got too tipsy with excitement, sugar and fatigue, we set our goals and made predictions. Quincey and I are big time goal people.. not resolutions. There's a difference.
I won't share ours, but here are some of the kids'.

Charlie:
Learn Dad's dance moves.
Make a thousand dollars!!
Burp the ABC's.
Be the strongest kid with the longest hair.
Be a pilot for West Jet.
Her prediction was: Another H-B baby. (over my dead body)

Max:
Get a hockey goal.
Red Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
Go to a sport's game.
His predictions: Sun's going to be destroyed.
Night will never come. (a little contradictory to the first one)
Farts will stink 500% more.
Rachael (the babysitter) turns into a Cyborg.

Eloise:
Love Hello Kitty even more. (I don't think that's possible.)
Make friends with nice girls and boys in kindergarten.
Predictions: Ruin the moon (clearly influenced by big brother)
Quinn will say 12 words.

Next on the agenda: Twister.
Since there are too many of us, we took turns challenging each other.

Yup, Quincey is wearing a suit. Always in a suit. Playing twister with the kids on new year's eve on vacation.

Dispite photographic evidence to the contrary, Charlie did not get drunk.



We played Just Dance-Abba version on the wii which was way too much fun. (I have video, but I'm too lazy to edit and upload it right now).

Then we toasted the new year.




(that's the wonderful Rachael who was there with us)

I have a very good feeling about this year :-)

Baby Wars

Yay! WATER! Let's jump in!

No?? Fine. I'll throw myself on the ground and scream until...well, until I'm sick of it. Then I'll lay lifeless. Maybe you'll lose interest and just leave me here.


..or maybe you'll give me a freakin puddle??
You will regret this, Mother.

*whistling* Nothin to see here..just splashing around like a regular baby..

That's right! I'm no regular baby! Mwahahaha!! I will wash my hair in this disgusting puddle, Mother! How do you like that??!?!


Really? You think that's cute? You're more diabolical than I thought. No matter. I still have more tricks up my sleeve. Oooooo....look at my cute little matchy-matchy outfit you just bought, Mother! I'm rolling in the puddle now! You'll really be sorry now!


Still taking pictures?? Still enjoying this, are we?
That's fine. I've still got my big guns. Pulling out operation Shock and Awe.
Sluuuuuurrrrrpppp!

I will drink this puddle that tastes like piss and is likely full of foreign bacteria that my little body is not accustomed to! I will get sick and puke all over you, your car, and everything that you love! Mwaahahaha!

Wait a minute...I may not have thought this completely through. I'm filthy! And wet! And my mouth is full of grit!

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! Take me home! Heeeeeeey! I've ruined this outing after all! I WIN!


Dang it.

{Me and Quinny in Phoenix last week while we waited for the kids to finish paddle boating}

Get 'em before they get you..err get yourself? How does it go, Max?

So there's this kid whose picking on Charlie, her friend and Max in the field at school. They tell me he's gone as far as pushing them over and rubbing their faces in the snow.
I told Quincey about this last night, and this morning he asks Max about it.
Max says, "Well, he did it to Charlie and Taylor, but I did it to myself. Just for fun."

We couldn't help it. We both burst out laughing. Such a Quincey clone!

Another Phone Photos Dump

Max loses a tooth at hockey:

See the one on the other side that's half black? That's tooth is partially false, and the coating is coming off. I HATE it. It's a little wiggly now so I told him to really work at it so it falls out sooner.
He says, "But I don't want that one to fall out! It's my VAMPIRE tooth!"

Quinny and I take Max to his early morning practices while the others sleep. We always get a bag of popcorn from the vending machine.

Last time, though, we were at an arena with a coffee shop in it. I got a latte and a blueberry muffin. We sat down to share the muffin, but she ran over and starting banging on the vending machine.
"No, baby, we got a muffin today!" I hold it out for her.
She runs over to me with a smile, takes the muffin, runs back to the vending machine and shoves it in.
Not how that works, actually.

This was in Vegas. I watched this guy all night because I was so fascinated that he was, apparently, so drunk that he didn't notice the hot little number in the spandex dress that he was making out with on the dance floor was actually like 70, wrinkled, and overall pretty gross. I wanted my picture taken with him which my friend there facilitated. Not sure why in retrospect, but we had a good time. :-)

Wouldn't it be nice...sleep? Don't mind if I do.

This is the cart at the grocery store. They only have one like this. We call it Trucky, and Elly acts like it's a friend of hers. If we're lucky enough to get it, she talks to it like it's a person.
"Bye, Trucky! I'll miss you!"

Drink This.

Drink it, I say!


My sister in law Cindy and her daughter Brooklyn invited Charlie and I to see a production of Annie.

The absolutely loved it. As we were leaving they were asking if there might be a CD with all the songs that they could get.
"I can do you one better," I told them, "there's a movie of it!"
SHRIEK!!
Which reminds me...I need to find that movie for her stocking.

She was like this for two days:

She's crying because I took the Sharpie away. Yes, it's Sharpie. That's why she was like this for two days. I scrubbed and scrubbed but could never get it all off. On the third morning I took her in the shower with me and we sat on the shower floor and played and played and scrubbed and scrubbed until it was finally completely gone.
After the shower I was getting dressed when I noticed this:

I took her down and she immediately ran to the closet to.....

PEE! I like to think she was trying to pee on the toilet :-) She's getting a potty for Christmas now!

Rachael the babysitter at Max's laser tag birthday party.

You can see why I like her. She rules through fear.

Charlie's always getting into my phone. The other day she was texting Quincey and he assumed it was me. She's done that with Rachael too. She texted her (as me) to put the kids to bed at 9 instead of 8. Rachael responds, "OK..you're not coming home??"
I found this self portrait among my phone pictures. I also found an entire conversation of mine and Quincey's video recorded. Eek. Don't do that, kid!


Quinn had her surgery to open her tear ducts a few weeks ago. Mum came along for support which was appreciated by both me and Quinny. :-)


And that's all for now!

Crazy hair and mustache day

Just found these on my camera from a month ago.
The kids had been home sick. It was their first day back and they insisted it was crazy hair and mustache day. I was very nervous sending them to school like this without being SURE it was indeed a theme day. In kindergarten I sent Charlie to school with a medusa-inspired 'do for crazy hair day only it wasn't crazy hair day :-(
I was pondering what to do when she suggested we just tie it in a bow. I agreed since it seemed like she could still blend in if we had our days mixed up.


But for Max..whatever, Dude, lick it off if it's not mustache day. Even if he got laughed at he'd probably join in and laugh harder than anyone.


No worries, though. I was indeed crazy hair and mustache day. Emotional scars avoided!

A Funny to Tide You Over Until I'm Out of Christmas Hell

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/christmas

 

Bathroom Mayhem

Just when I'm starting to think how much I looove my toddler Quinny now that she's out of her whiny, nonsleeping baby days I walk in to this:

Ooooh the toddler days! How I have missed thee!
It seems like Elly just grew out of these crazy hijinx. Now I'm there all over again with Quinn.

Quincey got mad at me recently when he got home in the middle of the night from a long flight and found that there was no toilet paper. We had a little midnight spat.
So when I saw this clearly I had to take a photo with my phone and text it to him immediately. It's not me! It's your child!

The Fam

The only family photo we've ever taken.
And let me tell you..it was a CHORE to get.
It took two days of trying and failing, and this was the only shot I have.
Plus, how did I miss the fact that Quincey is wearing pajama bottoms??
Maybe in another 8 years we'll try again!

While we were trying, I got a nice shot of myself with Q and me and Charbear.