(Auntsie Here) I have some videos that I will get up tomorrow, but hopefully this suffice for now. The other night Jonah asked me to sing the Star Wars song and I wasn’t sure what he was talking about and then he sang it for me (that boy’s memory is incredible). I had him sing it again to share with all of you. jonah song

Here’s some pictures of Hazel. Because she’s cute. And I found my camera cord. And Caitlin has shamed me with her prompt posting.

I put this tigger in front of her and she just stared at it. I felt like they were having a chat.

She fell asleep after playing on her mat. She looked so cute. Then Jonah tripped on her and woke her up. Ah, well, the life of a third child.

I think this is the sweetest picture I have of them.

Ellie wanted to sit with her. I just had trouble keeping Ellie from rolling onto her!

I took these laying next to her and tickling her.

Auntsie here. Unlike Jenn and Chris I plan to post every other day if not daily over the next week during my stay. I will do my best to get some precious pictures and priceless moments on video. Already I have a super great Jonah quote to share from today while we were shopping at Costco. He was sitting in the cart with Calvin holding a bunch of roses talking to himself and I walked up and he said louder,

“When I die  I’m going to give it to God,”

To which I replied, “Give what, Jonah?”

“Give  everything, cause he gave it to me. Like these roses.”

Sometimes his preciousness is too much to handle.

Alright, so about the title – yesterday we went to one of Jonah’s friend’s birthday parties and it was ridiculous. The neighborhood was fancy (well as fancy as you can get in Albuquerque) and when we walked in there was a magician setting up for a show. But before I include a couple snippets  of the party, let me go back to our initial arrival. They picked me up from the airport and we left from there to the party. Jonah’s pants had quite the tear in them and when he lifted his knee the tear doubled in size. Not wanting to look like complete white trash, Jenn’s alternative was to just cut the legs off  (Jonah Party 1) and turn them into shorts. What would we do without quick Mom thinking. Keep in mind this is arriving at a house that has a Zebra skin carpet in their bedroom. Anyways, believe it or not we were able to blend in fairly well and overall had a lovely time. Jonah certainly did once they surprised the birthday boy with ponies and minature horse ridesJonah Party 2 Jonah Party 4. The magician was a little weird but most of the children seemed entertained, and of course all was well once we got to cake and ice cream time Jonah Party 3Today we chatted with Chris online, went to Costco and are about to make some homemade pizzas and watch a movie. Once we have some more clips I will return! P.S. This clip of Jonah in bed was him alone in his bedroom and I overheard him making up a song for himself Jonah Video 1 .

For all of you attending Saturday’s festivities, click on the image below for full size directions.

In my defense they’re called ‘Tuesday Trivia’ not ‘Regular Weekly Tuesday Trivia’, and I’m doing my best to spend less time with my children so that I can put up posts that mostly only Wren and possibly Christie read.  I’ve found that half the time it usually takes to create a trivia is me trying to come up with a good idea, so I decided why not just steal other peoples’ ideas?  I’m not sure if I came up with the title ‘Animated Anagrams’,  but it was something I saw once in a puzzle book and really liked but never saw again.  Here’s the idea, below are about ten different ‘cartoons’ which I’ve made.  I say made rather than draw since I can’t draw so each of the cartoons is the result of a lot of cut and pasting with a little msPaint thrown in for good measure.  Each cartoon depicts a two word phrase in which the two words are anagrams of each other.  For example, let’s say I had the creative expertise to depict Capt Picard and Kirk in the great beyond playing angelic harps, the answer would then be “Starship Harpists”.  Or if I could draw Frankenstein and The Wolfman volunteering and their local Big Brothers afterschool program the answer might be “Monster Mentors”.  Get the idea?  Then get in there and let’s see some answers (Click on each to see full pic)! (more…)

Well, I honestly thought that it would take a little longer than two days of Jenn being gone before Jonah and I started to devolve; but despite our best efforts last night found us at a monster truck rally eating junk food, drinking pure sugar, and making public spectacles of ourselves. Jonah was super-psyched up until the first truck started his engine and he realized what loud was. Even with the earplugs it looked like it might be an early end to the evening. Luckily they were quickly interspersed with dirt bikes and go-carts which he definitely loved. By the end of the night he was actually able to watch the trucks without covered ears (not sure if this was a sign of fear being conquered or simple hearing loss). Even though he didn’t get in bed until 11:15 it was worth it; we had a great time betting who was going to win waving our flag. I’m jealous that Jonah still has the mindset that it’s all about what’s being done, not who’s doing it. During one bathroom break he saw one of the bikers still in uniform (14 yrs old at most) and asked if he could talk to him. He went over and told him that he was a really good racer and wanted to get a picture with him. Then Jonah said he had a secret and told him that next time he raced when he waved his flag it meant that he wanted him to do a big jump. The biker said he’d do his best. Thanks again to our friend Jason for the invite, more pictures here.

Well, you got to hand it to him – at least he thinks he’s got it all figured out.  You never know though, maybe I should call Caitlin’s mom and let her know so she can start saving now – just in case.

BASE jumping? No big deal.  Alligator wrestling?  Soooo last year.  In 2010 the new adventure for true thrill seekers has got to be sub-four-year-old slumber parties.  Plus, in addition to the adrenaline rush you also get the good feeling of knowing that, while it may not ever be you, somewhere there are two parents who are having a quite evening including uninterrupted conversation, restaurant dining that doesn’t include a free toy, and (assuming the night goes well) no diapers.

Thus, it was our birthday gift to our friend Jason to take their two kids Caleb and Sammy (Jonah and Calvin’s ages respectively) starting Friday night at six with plans to return them the next day around noon.   However, I’m happy to report that the evening went surprising well and without major incident.   (more…)

It’s been brought to my attention recently that many of you have been moving around and changing your phone numbers and emails without first consulting me if I approve of such life changes.  Sure, maybe it was convenient for your new job or spouse, but obviously you didn’t consider the ramifications it would have to me when I suddenly feel like randomly calling you and the number I have on my cell phone instead calls some random guy in Denver with a British accent.  So, since I have yet to plug into the gestalt of full-on social networking so that I know what each and every one of you is doing and every minute of every day, I was hoping for the moment to simply try and maintain my own contact info so that I can better pretend to still be personal friends with all of you.  If you have the time, drop me a line here (so as to keep your info off the web)  and help me out by including as much information as you’re willing to share (name, phone, email, IM, address, birthday, website, etc.).  Feel free to pass the request on to any mutual friends who I might have lost contact with.  I don’t know why, but as soon as I turned 30 I suddenly got nostalgic and wanted to know where all my friends went to and see what’s going on.  Maybe I’ll be on MyTwitterbook or something someday, but for now I’ll settle on hearing your voices and writing back and forth

I was very proudly presented with this the other day by Jonah.  Take note all current or future parents:  The most valuable thing you can give to children is your time; big shiny expensive toys are fun for a little bit (and trust me, Jonah has his share), but apparently are easily usurped by memories of bedtime stories, $2 army men battles, and even post-bathtime hair dentangler.  I love you too buddy, I’ll do my best to try and keep your world magical as long as I can.