Just some funnies

If this picture doesn't make you laugh maybe the following comments will :

One night as we were eating dinner at Izzy's the boys were asking questions left and right when David asks, "Dad, how do you make macaroni and cheese?" Howard answers, " You put macaroni noodles with cheese sauce." David looks at him kind of funny and says, "No dad....wronnng answer...I've seen it on "How it's made" and you make a macaroni noodle with lots of different ingredients...

Daniel was sitting with me playing when all of a sudden he says, "Mom your breath looks like it's a chicken leg. I think this meant my breath was bad?


David has had an upset stomach so today I told him the nurse recommends that he eat chicken broth for awhile. Daniel comes up to me and says, "Mom can I have some chicken breath too."

I was tickling Daniel this morning and he said, "Stop mom, I'm not a ticklish man"

Okay last one for now, The other day Daniel asked Howard if he would get the Bob the Builder phone for him so he could call someone to kill Handy Manny.

By the way if you got this post in your email it's because I found a setting on my blog that allows me to send my updated blog posts to up to 10 email addresses and you were people that I thought might like to be included. I hope you don't mind.

Winter vacation so far...

I have been wanting to post a lot of the fun pics we've been taking during our winter vacation but I have soooo many and they take forever to download so I have downloaded them to Facebook and have copied a link so that you can see them if you haven't already. The link will be at the bottom of this post since I can't figure out how to move it up here :)

Here are a few of my favorites so far...I'm excited that we still have about 2 weeks left of vacation so there will be more to come...

This was not my favorite family shot but it was one of my favorite parts of our vacation so far. It was our first day of vacation and it's one of Howard's favorite things to do...see his Blazers.

My favorite boys :) This was Monday Dec 15... Howard's 40th birthday and our first day of snow (or was Sunday the first day of snow?) Well, anyway it was our first day playing in the snow. The beginning of Arctic blast 2008.

Just one of the beauties of the beginning of our wintry weather Dec 15th

Our favorite family tradition for the last 3 years is zoo lights at the Washington Park zoo in Portland. This was taken on Wed December 17th. Snowy but no real ice yet. We rode max from Lloyd center to the zoo...the boys loooved it. We even got some cool little lights from some police men we met in the tunnel on our way back.

My crazy crazy cuties!!! My big gift to Howard for his 40th was to take the boys with me to stay at a hotel (Courtyard by Marriott here in Clackamas) on Friday, Dec 19th so he could have the house to himself to play his favorite video game, eat pizza and watch movies. I had the BEST time with the boys...we swam in the pool, went out to Pizza Schmizza for dinner, explored all 4 levels of the hotel (I even found a little business center where I could check my email and get on Facebook) we ate candy shamelessly, watched xmas movies, drew pictures, ate more candy, played games and so much more. I had such a good time and Howard appreciated it SO much.

This is my favorite picture taken today Dec 21st of the maple tree in our front yard. The effects of Arctic Blast 2008 are visually breathtaking. I have quite a few more pics of our wintry wonderland on Facebook.

Daniel, my beautiful brown eyed boy who hates the camera most days has told me that he thinks he likes pictures now. I loved his sweet face in this picture. David is so full of life and creativity. I can't wait to see all that he is going to do in his life.

My crazy fun husband. I love him dearly. I've been saying that I've been married for 18 years already but actually tomorrow Dec 22nd is our anniversary and it will really be our 18th anniversary!

There is more to come and more to see already if you follow the link...

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/profile.php?id=1591312650&v=photos&viewas=1591312650

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

The lights are hung ...

The stockings are hung...

Oh wait, I mean the stockings were hung :-) ...

The yard decoration is out...

(we just started buying them and are doing it very slowly)

Now where did those christmas stockings go again?

Practice Christmas has begun...

The holiday season has begun...

Give Thanks

Don't you love the days when you used to eat olives off your fingers. I still do sometimes :-)

Howard, David, my brother-in-law Phil and his son Matt enjoying some games. Thanksgiving wouldn't be complete without game time!

We enjoyed Thanksgiving with Howard's side of the family this year. It was a big group, probably 18 people, but not all were in attendance so it wasn't as big as it can be. Wow, I can't imagine how we are all going to fit into my sister-in-law Laura's house when we celebrate Christmas!!! If I'm doing my math right there will probably be 28 people when we get together next time. It will be good.

Things I'm thankful for:

My husband and best friend Howard

My boys David and Daniel

Our family's good health

Our extended family

Howard's good job at Xerox

This shouldn't be last but my Friendship with God

Daniel

Daniel is David's apprentice in the field of lego building.


Daniel looking quite pleased with his accomplishments.

Daniel is very three and a half. Gone are the days of Daniel's sweet whatever goes attitude. He is now exerting his assertiveness in full force. I would say he is going through a sweet and sour phase. The other morning he woke up quite nicely with a few I love you mommy's only to arrive downstairs and loudly proclaim "I don't like you mommy because you got my blue dogs warm." All this because I carried his blue dogs down the stairs for him and apparently transferred some of my body heat to them. What was I thinking. He's also a boy of extremes. The other day I made him bread and butter for a snack and when he finished he decided he wanted more. I let him know that he could have something else but no more bread and butter. He wailed that I was never going to let him have bread and butter and he never gets bread and butter. I'm such a mean mommy. I share all this just to give you a small glimpse of what daily life is like these days at our house. It's all good! lol.

A few tidbits about Daniel:
He weighs about 2lbs less than his brother and is about 40" tall
He loves to laugh
He'll often say his favorite part of the day is eating
He loves to play pretend especially anything Star wars related
He can sing his ABC's and is learning to recognize them

Hannah's Birthday Celebration

I had a wonderful birthday yesterday despite my boys waking up around 5 a.m. ARgh! Howard got up with them and I slept in until 6:30 :-) David has been so excited to give me a present and keep it a surprise. As I was coming down the stairs though Daniel came up and said, "come see your candy and Ipod." David was not pleased as you can imagine. Poor guy.
My neighbor watched my boys for me while I went to lunch at PF Changs with a girlfriend. Then when Howard got home from work we went as a family to Red Robin. Yum. It was so nice having a day off from cooking. It doesn't quite feel like my birthday is over yet since my mom, grandma and Howard all pitched in to give me a spa package on Friday this week!!!! I can't wait. Thank you guys.

David

I just had to share this photo. I love seeing the joy simple things bring. I want to reflect on things like this right now because I'm feeling a little stressed since we met with the principal, David's teacher and the school psychologist this afternoon. We aren't getting the daily phone calls home anymore but at conference last week and today at our meeting David's teacher sounds very tired of all the work David requires. She cares very much for David and is somewhat emotional about how hard it is for him to be in the classroom environment. I/We are feeling the school is really pushing us in the direction of medication. It's a very hard decision to make and one we want to be very sure about. On a positive note, the school psychologist is going to be partnering with David's teacher to make some changes in the classroom i.e., visual cues for David to help him follow the routines each day. They are going to help him build up to the 20 minute carpet time in 5 minute increments. Basically he needs help to follow routines and stay on task. We are going to try to help at home by firming up our routines and adding the visual cues as well. We will meet back with everyone we met with today in mid December. If you would pray for us to have wisdom about the next step should these interventions not help enough we would appreciate that.

Leaves and more leaves

I didn't exactly have my hearts desire set on yardwork today but having three large trees, two maples and one sweet gum tree, kind of necessitates the job. I'm not completely complaining here because fall is my favorite season and I kind of like seeing the leaves on the ground. I'm just not as fond of the raking up part.

sixteen 30 gallon yard debris bags later!!!!

After it all hot cocoa and games.

Happy Halloween!!!

Daniel is Bumblebee the transformer and David is Captain Rex a clone trooper. The boys had lots of fun. We carved pumpkins in the morning and went trick or treating starting at the Clackamas promenade stores and then to the mall ending with our neighborhood. Boy was I tired after it all.

First Blog

I can't believe I'm actually writing my first blog!!! Thanks to my friend Amie I have decided to enter the world of blogging. I'm not so sure I will have the most interesting blogs to read but at least now people can keep up with what's going on in Hannah's house.
Today there is no school for David since the school is having parent/teacher conferences for the next few days. Waking up at almost 8 a.m. was glorious. I can't believe the boys slept in past 6:30 a.m. They are usually not so kind. Must have been the late night we had at a harvest party on Tuesday. Usually takes a couple of days to catch up with them. No plans today and so far the boys are playing well together (Thank God!!!) Tonight is our conference with David's teacher. Praying she will have a good report. David was diagnosed with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) earlier this month. His teacher has begun working with the school psychologist to implement some strategies to better help him in the classroom. So far he is using a lap pad (something to add pressure to his body) to help him focus during carpet time. He also gets to hold a little stuffed caterpillar. He's absolutely obsessed with catepillars so this is a real reward for him.
My time to blog has come to an end as the boys playing well together has ended and now I must intervene. sigh.