New addition to our family

We're proud to announce a new addition to our family.

Meet Holly.

Holly is an iRobot Roomba and she is wonderful. I can't tell you how well she cleans the floors and keeps me sane. She picks up dog hair, crumbs, strings, playdough bits, cereal, dirt, chalk dust, crayon pieces, and on and on. Holly provides the boys with about 45 minutes of activity every day, as they turn her on and chase her around while she vacuums. I turn her on after breakfast and again when we put the boys to bed at night.

Nick named her Holly. Nathan calls her Hotty. Either way, she's a bundle of joy.

Christmas prayer

Dear Jesus,

Thank you for presents, Polar Express, my family, listening, for not being sassy.

I love you.

Come, Lord Jesus, come!

I love you.

We decorated a Christmas tree for you.

Thank you for being happy.

Be proud.

Amen

(from Nickolas)

Brotherly love

The fellas helped us put up the Christmas tree last night. The family room and kitchen are almost done, so we were excited to get the tree up and things put back together.

Nick said, "it's finally Cwitmis time!" 

Nathan said, "kickick tee!" 

Jim said, "I'm glad we put the tree up. It looks pretty good here."

I said, "the tree is hot. Don't touch the tree, boys. Please don't put that in your mouth, Nathan. Nick, stop pushing your brother. Get the blanket off the tree. No. Don't sit on the tree. Hey! Get out from behind the tree." 

Maybe we should have brought out the four foot fiber optic tree this year.

Christmas Program

Nick had his first Christmas program this afternoon. It was at the church his school is in. 

He was very excited that the parents and grandparents and friends of friends and all the families went to see HIM. 

That's it. They were just there for him.

 

It was fun, though. He was one of two little kids who would not wear a costume, but that's alright. He had fun. 

Nathan didn't make much noise during the show. (I don't want you to think I don't remember Nathan!).

Pretending to be Hillary

Yes, I taught Nickolas that Hillary is a socialist. I did not, however, tell him that she is evil or ugly or bad. I swear it. He has been asking about her so much lately and I've been trying very hard to be cordial about it. It has not been easy. He asks about democrats and republicans and God and Heaven and stuff three-year-olds should not even think about. It's crazy!

Anyway, we explained to Nickolas that this is the basic structure of our political system:

• Republicans take a little bit of our money to run the government
  
• Democrats take more of our money to run the government
  
• Socialists take most of our money to take over the government
  
• Communists take all of our money to take over the country
  

I think that's a pretty fair explanation of the basic fiscal difference between the major parties.

The boys spend Mondays with Nana and Papa. This week, the boys made and decorated gingerbread men. How innocent! Yea, right. Here's the story as I heard it. 

Nickolas decorated a cookie but wasn't pleased with its appearance. It didn't have much on it (in terms of candy, frosting, etc...); apparently it was too plain. He told his Nana that he didn't like it because it looked like Hillary Clinton. Oh, boy! That's scary. To top that off, when he's frustrated with Nathan, he screams, "No, Nathan! You are being a left wing conservative!" That just cracks me up. Until he starts saying that to his teachers...

Today, Nick was playing pretend. He does this often. Sometimes I have to be Scout or Gram or Nathan, and Nick will be Daddy or Papa. Not today. We were sitting on the floor and he suddenly started being very nice to Nathan. This is not normal. I told him how proud I was that he was playing nicely. His response: "I'm pretending to by Hillary Clinton." I told him that I wasn't sure what he meant. He said: "I'm just pretending to be a nice Hillary Clinton. It's just pretend." I said: "Right, because you aren't a girl, so you can't be Hillary Clinton." He said (hold your breath): "No, Hillary is not nice. I'm pretending to be a nice Hillary Clinton." 

I couldn't have made that up. 

Halloween

I guess I didn't really get many pictures of Halloween before my battery croaked. Oh, well. The boys had a ball and the weather was perfect. I was surprised at how much chocolate they got this year. Yum for me!

My Mac is in for repair. My power supply and mother board are being replaced. This is the third time for the mother board. Does the lemon law apply to computers? Anyway, when my Mac is back, I'm thinking about sticking to this website for my blog. It's much cleaner than my other page. Oh, but who knows for sure what I'll do?

FYI, if you're interested, the next term at work begins tomorrow for me. I'll be gone all day Mondays from 8:30 am to 10:30 pm. I love working one day a week!

Photo Op

Jill and I and Jim and Coleen took the boys to be photographed at the pumpkin farm last week. Check out some of the proofs here. The boys had tons of fun, but it was super cold. Joan, the photographer, was very patient with us all and took some cute pictures.

Right now, I'm boycotting pictures in our house because it's such a disaster. I will try to get the Halloween pictures up soon, though.

Budding Republican

I'm going to capture this on video for you, but until then here is a sample conversation we've been having with Nick:

Us: Hey Nick, what's your political preference?
Nick: I'm a weepubwican
Us: What kind of republican are you?
Nick: Um, a wite wing conserbatib.
Us: What do you think of Hillary Clinton, Nick?
Nick: She's a soshalisp
Us: That's right, Nick. And socialists are bad because they take away our things to give to people who don't earn them on their own.
Nick: She's not going to take my toys!
Us: That's why we vote republican, Nick.

Same face, new place

My Mac is down and I haven't taken it in for repair yet. It's in its box in the garage, beneath half an inch of dust and between moulding and cabinet boxes. Alas, I have begun a new blog in the interim. Here I am.

We're working on the kitchen, so I've posted a peek of the disaster for you. Plus, Halloween came and went, so I figured you'd probably want to see that, too. Nick went as a train conductor/driver/engineer, and Nathan went as the UPS guy. Nathan won a prize for his costume. It was NOT beauty pageant. It was a costume contest.

Well, frankly there just isn't much to talk about. The kitchen project turned into a first floor project, so we've been without the kitchen, family room, den and bathroom for over a week. I can't wait to share the finished pictures with you, but more pressingly, I can't wait for the remodel to be finished!