What's new in the New Year?

The biggest news is that Colin lost his first tooth and happily hauled in a whole dollar from the Tooth Fairy!

It's certainly not a new phenomenon that our windows freeze over on the INSIDE but it was the first time in the new year that we took lovely photos of them!

We found a recipe for snow ice cream and since we'd just gotten another foot or so, we just had to try it.

And though it wasn't exactly as creamy as we were used to, it was quite delicious!

Eamon gave it his seal of approval!
The next big thing to happen in '09 was an addition to our furry family. "Poppy" is a cute little furball that I got mainly to keep the mice at bay, but she is definitely growing on us. Liam, in particular, is in love, though Eamon likes to carry her around by her throat. Strangely, she doesn't seem to mind this which is a good sign that she'll fit in here.

She loves to cuddle with the boys.

And Clara is never very far from her. Once they got over the first day or so of fear and wariness, Clara took to licking the kitten up and down and throwing her up in the air with her nose which we find vastly amusing.

By day 3, the furry girls were fast friends.

Liam and his furry love.

Eleven times the fun.

Four boys are no more chaotic than three! Baby Jake had a sleepover which his cousins very much enjoyed!

Eamon decided that he just HAD to hold Jake. All the time.
Eamon, who would never take a pacifier when he was a baby, suddenly became a big fan of the binky when Jake brought his over.

The required "I can only crawl backwards and keep getting stuck under the couch" photo. We have it of all of our boys too!

Liam decided to keep Jake company under the couch!

December Revisited

Thankfully I married a computer geek and, for that, and many other reasons, I am grateful. The least of which is that he got our last months' photos off our now defunct desktop computer and I have finally learned my lesson: backup to external server... just like Christopher has been telling me. For the last 9 years. At any rate, this is what we were up to in the month of December...

. I found these unbelievably cute aprons for my little elves at my friend Jocelynn's mom's store. We've done a TON of baking this season and they've been put to good use!

We went to the Polar Express at the Ecotarium. It was freezing out that day, but just as cold as IN our house so it was worth it for the change of venue and mostly for the hot chocolate and cookies! The big boys insisted I take their photo with "Rex".

Here's Eamon in his rightful place: behind bars!


Not only did we get to ride the train to the North Pole, we got to see Kenda the Polar Bear there too! Here she is waiting for a fish to fall from the sky.


First snow of the season. The kids tried desperately to make snowballs out of the the dusting we got. Of course, by now we've had more snow than we want, by far, and more predicted today. The boys still love it, but I'm ready for spring. I'm done with mittens, snow boots, tiny frozen fingers and cold feet.

The Ice Storm Cometh.

And leaveth us with much destruction. Including the still-broken chimney that stands firmly between me and feeling my toes again.


Reading The Grinch Who Stole Christmas in five layers by the camp lantern on day 2 or 3 with no power. You know, when we still thought it was remotely fun playing "pioneer family".

so much depends

upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens.

(Okay, so it's a red wagon and it's covered in ice, but I still have this Willam Carlos Williams poem memorized from 9th grade English with Mr. Beschta.)

The calm and blue skies after the storm.

We waited for an hour and a half in line to see Santa and the boys got some face painting done to pass the time. They loved them, but poor Liam was so tired on the way home that his was gone in a flash flood of tears much too soon.

This was the first year that Colin and Liam really enjoyed talking to Santa and sitting on his lap. As you can tell from the photo, this was Eamon's second exposure to Santa and he wanted NOTHING to do with the jolly man or his lovely wife.

Gingy and Little Gingy.

Three crazies in a winter wonderland.

Our first real "festivity" of the season was the lighting of the big tree in town. Santa made an appearance which was nice, but the kids really enjoyed the popcorn, cookies and hot cider more!

All bundled up. And screaming like a banshee for Santa.

The fuzziness is not for a cozy dream sequence but just because it was so cold out that night that my camera kept fogging up.

After a lunch out with Meghan at the boys' favorite restaurant, Bugaboo Creek.

Eamon being Eamon. He's very big into balancing things on his head. He's training to be Carmen Miranda.

Ringing in 2009 in style!!

Happy New Year!!

Christmas in Chaosville

I think this is the first time in the history of this blog that a full month has gone by without a new post. Suffice to say, we weren't doing nothing! Between the ice storm and six days without power, finals and final grades that needed my cold and unshowered attention and a computer that decided to crap out, things just haven't been going our way. But the power is back, the grades are done,I've got a cute new laptop and we're back in business! I still have to figure out a way to get the last month's photos off our now-dead computer but I'll save that little project for Christopher who has next week off. And hopefully we can soon update you on all the festivities of the past month!

I would love to show you a gorgeous photo of our tree all lit up, but alas, our power was out AGAIN on Christmas morning. Fortunately, this time only for a few hours. The jolly man left quite a haul under the tree for the boy-os. Who knew they'd been that good this year?

Clara deserves some extra gifts just for putting up with Eamon. Once Eamon discovered the chocolate snowman in his stocking, he really had no use for any of his gifts. Which actually turned out well because his big brothers got to open a few more and Demon was occupied with his hands full for long enough that we could all enjoy the peace and goodwill for a few minutes.Big points out something interesting to Medium. Notice in Liam's hand is the letter Santa left for the boys which he has become very attached to. He keeps saying: "Please don't recycle my letter!! It's from Santa and says I am a good boy!" I think he is just keeping it as an insurance policy for later in the year -- if we try to send him to Time Out, he has written proof he is really just a good boy--from the expert himself!Three little cookie cutter men; just in different sizes.

We made our own gingerbread house from scratch this year. Oodles of fun.

Bushels of candy.
Almost done!"Arggh, the roof smashed on the ground, mom! Well, I guess we'll have to eat it!" said Colin who probably elbowed the darn thing on purpose. I can't say I was too upset: the best thing about homemade gingerbread is that it tastes way better than the pre-fab stuff!

Demon LOVES his new mess-free paint. It means he gets to do art way more often with the big kids and Mommy has a chance of keeping the gray hair at bay just a little bit longer...

Happy Thanksgiving!

We're thankful for all of our boys and the chaos they bring! You'll have to forgive me for not letting Eamon do this craft with us last night. First he ate all the ends of the crayons, then he wrinkled up all the paper, then he tried to steal the glue and run away with it. We assume he is thankful for: brothers that don't beat him when he destroys their stuff, parents that love him even when he is a demon, a dog who is gentle and lovely to him even when he torments her, and food of every variety. Here's what the two big boys are thankful for:

Liam is thankful for: Mommy, Erin, Colin, Daddy and Eamon, Clara, Super Flying Racecars (???), Blocky and Robot (his imaginary friends) and Horses and Cows.

Colin is thankful for: David and Liam, Mommy, Daddy and Eamon, Bunk beds (which he doesn't have, but wishes he did), Santa (brown-noser!), Games, his Superhero Birthday Party, and his new Remote Control Racecar.