and to all a goodnight

this was such a fun christmas! the monkeys are all at such fun ages. the girls both requested new bikes (good thing, too. their old ones were getting pretty pathetic.) jakob wanted an electric scooter (umm, yes please!) and max wanted every car/truck thing that he saw. santa finally settled on a batman geo-trax. we went to nona's that afternoon and stayed a couple of days and ate all of her delicious food. usually i could care less about food, but i was 37 weeks pregnant and never got full. mom's pumpkin pie for breakfast? lunch? or dinner? all of the above. oh, the nostalgia.

preggers

for those of you who requested pregger pics...i think this is the only one i have. thanks to max.

fhe

we went to the campgrounds for fhe. we had so much fun. climbing on rocks, and "skating" on the frozen river, making s'mores and foil dinners. we saw people riding horses and met a family searching for their lost dog. it was nice being together and talking and playing and watching. (although riley got her feelings hurt...again. that girl can {and does} cry at the drop of a hat. sheesh.)

grace face is 6

riley grace wanted a fashion party. so she invited 6 of her favorite little dress up buddies (i think we had 9 guests show up!) to get their make up, hair and nails done (notice that the daddy and the big brother are the nail artists.  love that). they watched "barbie: a fashion fairytale" while they got super fancy. the pink cake i made got completely stuck to the pan. there was no saving it. so i sent the daddy out at the last minute to get "anything girlie". he came back with tinkerbell. the birthday girl was cool with that. we all had tons of fun.

p.s. when jakob got his piece of cake, he looked at it, said, "uuuummmmm" and then immediately asked for a different piece. the daddy, who was the cake cutter, thought the boy was trying to get more icing, so he told him to scram. but when we noticed jakob had a square with nothing but tinkerbell's "hips" on it (as riley calls them. woops!) he immediately got a new piece and the daddy vowed to pay closer attention to where he was cutting.

"a lot of people go to school for 7 years." "yeah...they're called doctors." -tommy boy

the first week of october, he went to texas to defend his dissertation. and not to brag or anything, but the director said, "i've never said this to anyone before, but this doesn't need any revisions." can you believe that?! hallelujah!!! my husband is a doctor! ("not the kind that helps people"-randy pausch's mom) but a doctor nonetheless.

jakob's 9!!

the boy turned 9! what is happening? since this is an odd birthday, we had a family party. we had star wars pancakes for breakfast. we had lunch with nona and grandpa at cafe rio. (bless that boy. this pregnant lady couldn't have gone another day without a pork barbacoa salad.) and then he wanted to go to an arcade. there was a huge ball pit/gerbil tunnel thing, a dress up room, mini golf, and a bunch of video games. what 9 year old boy wouldn't love that? so, are you ready for 9 things we love about our jakob gray? ready or not, here they come:

1. this boy likes food. and makes funny comments like, "it smells like heaven in here." and "my taste buds could not be happier."

2. he is a great helper. he loves to have jobs around the house and at school.

3. he loves babies. good thing, too.

4. he makes great forts. riley and max love his cushion house/blanket forts.

5. he's an unintentional hottie. there are always multiple girls vying for his attention. he doesn't seem to notice. yet.

6. he can memorize anything.

7. he doesn't discriminate. he'll play with anyone, any age, boy or girl. doesn't matter.

8. he's a smartie. most things just click for him.

9. he took on some older boys in the neighborhood who were being mean to the little ones. and even though he stood his ground, he got teary when he told me about what happened. sweet sensitive thing.

let it begin

it snowed a ton the first week of october. the monkeys were so excited. because this year we actually have snow pants and waterproof gloves and boots and sleds. it lasted about 3 days and that was it! they had fun (and runny noses) while it lasted.

monkeys

max learned how to do the monkey bars this summer. riley is so excited to have a fellow chimp to play with. the weather is still nice enough to go to the park in the mornings, and since the other 2,000 occupants who are normally there must have all started school, we are taking full advantage of the empty playground.

sometimes the little man gets tired and pretends to fall asleep. who could blame him?

the tooth fairy

this pretty little girlie lost a tooth!! we were eating dinner and she kept telling me something was stuck in her teeth. so we brushed them. then flossed them. then brushed them again. then i wiggled it. it hadn't occured to me that my littlest girl was big enough to have a loose tooth. but apparently she is! she "took it out" all by herself. then went outside to show her friends on the playground and lost it in the tires. she wasn't really upset. she just wanted to make sure that tooth fairy was going to bring her some cash anyway. so she wrote her a little note.

"dear tooth fairy, i lost my tooth in the tires. but i would still like some money. riley." "riley, thanks for the note and the beautiful picture! T. Fairy."

she got 2 bucks. a couple of days later she lost another tooth. and got 2 more bucks. she wiggles random teeth, now, in hopes of getting rich.

when the cat's away...

max and i spend our afternoons together. just us. i've never had just one kid at home. sometimes we go to the library. or the park. or get groceries and run errands. (do you know how easy this is with just one kid?! almost too easy.) but sometimes we just stay home. and play. like this day when we played with jakob's "guys". we started lining them all up (for a war, maybe?  i really don't know.) but ended up throwing our guys in hopes of  knocking down the other guys. max kept saying, in a very serious tone, "mom...let's do this." who knew that could be so fun?

first day of school!! first day of school!! (via my phone)

zoe lane started 5th grade!! (that's middle school in these parts! what?! i know. right?) but it's just 5th and 6th together in one school, so really it's like a sr. elementary school. she is making some great friends in her class. it is fun to see her happy and comfortable.

jakob started 3rd grade. but he didn't want me to walk him in. (excuse me?) i am happy that he feels confident on how this school works. and that he knows some of the kids in his class. and that his teacher adores him.

sweet little riley grace face is in afternoon kindergarten. she is super excited about school. it helps that half our neighborhood is in her class. no joke.

maxwell rees started preschool at the university.  he goes tuesday and thursday mornings and is (usually) so excited about it.  (riley went with us for orientation and now informs us over and over that "at max's school, they don't learn anything.  they just play.")