hello?...hello?...hold on. i can't hear you. i've got a banana in my ear.

i did that "joke" today at lunch, while attempting to get the kids to eat more fruit, and they loved it. so riley adopted it as her own and proceeded to carry that 'nana around til it was bruised and squished and inedible. she kept getting the punchline wrong, though. she kept saying something like,"hello? i'm be coming to you house." but no one corrected her since her version was way cuter than mine.

afternoon of the living dead

when our geriatric (and quite senile) computer finally joined the giant hard drive in the sky, we researched laptops. and discovered the one that we wanted was perfect, but far too expensive for a grad student with 4 little monkeys who would be pleading to use it. and the idea of grubby little hands and electronics makes john paul cringe. so we felt a more family friendly computer would be best for now. (at least until graduation.) and then the kids would inherit this one and we could finally get our macbook. (or...my macbook.) but somewhere between "i'm bored" and 29 degree weather the internet became a nice little form of entertainment. (which, like all electronics at this house, had to have a time limit attached.) but their faces, oh the faces. they've become zombies for the allotted 25 minutes a day.

close encounters of the red kind

i think i might have one lone picture of zoe on santa's lap stashed away somewhere. she would have been about 10 months old, and thinking something like,"hey, there. how's it goin'?" other than that, my kids have all been quite stand-off-ish to the white haired old man from another state...or planet...depending on which one is telling you about him. and i never pushed it, never really wanting to wait in line, not really desiring one of those photographs of panicked babies and desperate st. nicks. you don't have to tell him directly, anyway, i've heard. you can send letters, or so i've been told. (or yell across a crowded mall like the 3 year old zoe lane. "HEY, SANTA!! I WANT A BARBIE! A BARRRBIEEE!) and, to be perfectly honest, i never really know how to handle the whole "santa claus" issue. what form of christmas do i really want to perpetuate, here? but on the other hand, who am i to say he doesn't exist? after all, to this day my own mother claims there is a santa. so i find myself still believing. at 32. and when my children ask me details about the jolly man's personal life, i pull a louise. "how do you think he gets in to a house with no chimney?" (wait for answer) "hmmm. that sounds like a good idea." but this year the primary had a real life santa-sitting. and with no expectations, i found myself last in line with my 3 oldest. all of which completely and totally surprised me by sitting on that guy's lap and telling him what they would love most for christmas. after the fact, i inquired about their new found experience. jakob expressed some disbelief that he was in fact the real santa clause, because his hair and beard looked an awful lot like "grass". and when i asked what they told him they desired above all else, i discovered that silly little santa put words in their mouths! (i'm assuming that it was an attempt to counter act their hesitant requests, but come on.) "how about a really big race car!" excuse me? he's been asking for star wars for the last 11 months. let's not shake things up now. and baby bird informs us constantly that "santa say he bing me fee bahbies. pincess bahbies." that's "3 princess barbies" for those of you who do not speak riley's dialect. (but she's not all that reliable.) hmm. well, santa had you pegged for a dora girl. when did this princess business start? and zoe was feeling a bit too tall to be sitting on a stranger's lap, but forgot all about that when she was presented with a goody bag bursting with candy canes and chocolates. they were all really happy with the whole situation. and i found my smile permanently attached that morning. maybe because i had a pretty good idea of what was coming. or perhaps because my babies were so well behaved as they stood in line for so long. but it could have been because if that guy wasn't the real deal, there is a very likely possibility he knows the big man personally. so i imagine that very soon, they will have a brief, yet effective, discussion on the word "vague".

max's greatest day ever

1 crushingly adorable baby boy + 1/2 peppermint oreo on the floor (no one's claiming responsibility) = 1 happy little maxwell

bittersweet

a couple of weeks ago we noticed jakob saying things like "sLide" and "sLick" and "pLay". as opposed to the previous forms of "sWide" and "sWick" and "pWay". it's the end of an era. i'm not quite sure how i feel about this.

accents

about a month after we moved to texas, zoe started giving us accent lessons. "you don't have to say potato, you can just say 'tata. and if you are talking to a lot of people at once you just say "y'all" which stands for "you all". instead of saying "you guys" or "all of you". and words like "friends" and "hey" can have 2 syllables, if you want." we thought that was so observant of her. and just about a week ago, she pulled out her very own "y'all." "hey, do y'all want to go in the backyard?" john paul and i smiled at each other. so proud of our little texan.

sick sick sick

in the last 3 days:

• 2 ear infections have been diagnosed and treated.


• 2 top teeth are coming in all lopsided and adorable and owie.


• 1 case of the chicken pox has reared it's ugly little head.


• and 2 stomachs have thrown it all up...multiple times (one while sleeping, so all over the poor little one and then, stumbling in the dark, finally made it to the bathroom. put the dirty jammies in the laundry basket and changed into clean sweats, all while the rest of us slept. came in to my room, after the fact, simply to inform me of the goings on, then immediately fell asleep next to me. the other barfer, however, cried for 2 hours, layed down on the floor, then puked all over said floor. took a big, fat, long nap. then woke up crying and whining {sometimes yelling} went back and forth between the bed and the couch, continuously expressing pain and discomfort and unhappiness. and in response to our inquiries of how we could help, would yell "I DON'T KNOW!" finally stayed in bed long enough to puke all over the blankets, carpet and clothes. the throw up trash can was literally right next to the bed, surrounded by puke, but nevertheless, untouched.)

so far:

• 4 doses of amoxicillin have been administered


• 2 teaspoons of tylenol have been chugged


• 8 ear drops have tickled on the way down


• and 1 children's chewable pepto has been chewed up and spit out

we average:

• 4.5 hours of sleep a night


• 3 movies a day


• 1 nap per person (everyone but me, that is)

the best part of having sick kids:

• 4 for 4 have fallen asleep in my arms


• they are all a bit more snugly, allowing me to hold them, rock them, hug them a little longer


• their appetites have faded (so i don't have to make lunch)


• and what with all the napping going on around here, i get to watch something that isn't animated, for a change.

a thanksgiving in pictures (none of which i took)

this has been one of our favorite thanksgivings yet! and here's why:
we went here: because these guys ROCK! and let all 17 of us invade.
we ate something that resembled this: and all of the other warm thanksgiving-y goodness that you're supposed to eat.
we played this:with these guys:
and these guys, too: the final score said we tied, but bobby debated that. he may have been right. how could we tell, after all, since katherine kept leaning on the dry erase board that tallied our final score and it ended up all over her forearms. 78..79..freckle. good thing i'm the least competitive person ever, or there could have been a good old fashioned brawl.
and these guys: took all of us:here:
plus they watched the remaining 9 kids so we could go with these guys: to see this movie:and it was OH SO FUN!! plus they had one of these:in the bathrooms. and even though i didn't have to "go" i HAD to try it out. so i washed my hands about 3 times. and it totally lived up to all my expectations.
it snowed our last morning in kansas,so the monkeys filled up on snowball fights with the cousins and froze their little noses off for a little while so they could take some of it back to texas. (if only in their minds.)

!!!WE MISSED YOU, ASKEWS!!!

**somehow i escaped thanksgiving with no pictures of my own, so i stole these from google images, my ghetto scanner, her and her, who just so happen to be my diggety-dope sisters in law.

and, at risk of going way too cliche, here are some things i'm especially thankful for this year:

• my husband who knows his way around a stove, ironing board and washing machine. (thanks, paula.) we're still working on the dishwasher.


• my babies' health, happiness and their "i-just-can't-help-but-squish-you" adorable-ness.


• texas a&m's late acceptance date.


• my family, who i would want as my friends even if we weren't related.


• my faith that gives me a deeper understanding.


• and last but not least, the absolutely AWESOME friends we have fallen in love with in texas. (you can meet some of these little lovelies here, here, here, and here.)