somebody had a birthday

So, for the next four days Kev and I are the same age. . . again. We took the birthday boy out to Applebee's for supper and made his open his presents while we waited for our food.

My parents found him this fantastic sweatshirt . . . and Josiah screamed "Go Niners!"

Jo picked out a special gift for his dad: an electronic poker game, to practice on between Guys' Nights:Love that guy! After supper we wanted to go out for ice cream at Coldstone but they were already closed so we got Frosties at Wendy's instead. (we'll go to Coldstone next week for my bday - blueberry muffin batter, here I come!)I got him a digital guitar tuner and cord and Gennie got him a "family night":: a movie we can all watch, popcorn, candy and Chex Mix (since Kev hates popcorn).Then, instead of birthday cake, I made this to celebrate with homegroup:It's a platter of cupcakes:
I got the recipe out of the book Hello, Cupcake! that my mom got me for Christmas. I LOVE IT!! The noodles are just frosting and the sauce is strawberry preserves and the meatballs are Fererro Rocher hazelnut candies. They tasted even better than they look!

Happy Birthday, Kev! Love you so much!

if you give a boy a sucker....

So, they knew we were doing pictures, but they didn't know about the surprise:

That last one was THE one I wanted!!!


Love those boys! I'm so thankful that J has such a fantastic friend -- and that our families are good friends, too!

Now how are we going to top this next time?

can you guess what we did today?

More to come ~ I promise!

first the library, now Walmart?

So, this kid is gonna get me in trouble. Or at the very least, kill me from embarrassment.

We had to make a Walmart run today. . . ugh . . . I hate that place . . . so we ran over there after bible study this morning to grab what we needed and get out of there as fast as possible. Jo did really well, keeping busy with his Goldfish and talking to everyone we passed, and in all honesty it was a good, uneventful trip.

Until the end.

Lately Jo has been really interested in pointing out colors he recognizes, whether its around the house, something we pass in the car, store shelves, etc. It's like an I-Spy thing he does, saying the color and making us guess what item he's talking about. Usually I'm all for it.

Until today.

I paid the lady at the check-out and turned to get the last bags off the turn-around thingy. Jo was sitting in the front of the cart trying to put his own jacket on. Suddenly he got all kinds of excited, pointed wildly and announced, "That's BLACK!!"

I was trying to maneuver the cart out of the way of the ridiculously pushy people behind us who apparently thought the check-out lady was going to reshelve their items if they didn't swipe their card before she finished scanning their stuff. I narrowly missed being rammed by Pushy Pete and looked around quickly to see what Jo was pointing to.

That's right, folks. It was a delightful African-American man standing in the customer service line.

Of course there were people all around us, and Jo's not a quiet kid in anything he does so I'm sure they all heard him. My mind scrambled to think of a way to recover this. Luckily the person in front of our subject was wearing a black shirt so I quickly stage-whispered, "Yes, he is WEARING A BLACK SHIRT, isn't he?" hoping the crowd would believe me.

But no, the kid didn't let me off that easy. "No, Mom, THAT! I like black!" And the pointing continued. I whispered fiercely, "Okay, Jo, that's enough!" and all but ran for the door.

Hooray for Ethnicity Awareness!

#50

So, this weekend I finished my 50th baby blanket! Whew! I didn't even realize I was close to that many until I recently put together a small album of the photos from all the blankets I've made. My dad has been building radio-control airplanes since before I was born and has always taken a "done" photo of each for his little collection . . . thought I'd do something similar, not just because I'm addicted to mini albums, no matter their topic, but also to remind me which patterns I've done and liked and which ones I won't bother with again.

This one is called a Teddy-Go-Round and I love it. Both my kids have tried to convince me it has a happy home waiting in their rooms but I haven't decided what I'm going to do with it yet.

Any suggestions?

Hope your Valentine's Day was great!

HUGE website update!

So, I finally updated my photography website! Come on by and check it out! Every gallery has new portraits in it so be sure to look thru them all.

Find me at www.andersonfotos.com!

i guess he told us

So, yesterday when G came home from school she went in to say hi to her brother. Entering his room she said in sing-song voice, "Hi Jo Jo, I'm hooooome!"

He looked at her disdainfully and said, "My name not Jo Jo. Name's Josiah. I'm not a baby. I a big boy right now."

Again, I had to leave the room to keep from laughing in his face. I came back and asked him if we aren't supposed to call him Jo Jo anymore or just for today. He said, "I not Jo Jo anymore. Big name's Jo-SI-ah."

I'm not sure what's brought on this sudden grown-up-ness but I guess I can't argue with his logic. I told G that when she started school they have to call her by her big name, so maybe he's just starting a little earlier.

Now, if only we could get this newly "grown-up" boy to use the toilet.

she's learning....

So, when Gennie came home from school I told her it was time for them to clean up the downstairs from the superbowl party. Josiah got up from his nap and they went down to attack the mountain of toys covering the floor. I could hear them arguing and Gennie screaming at her brother, "Jo, you have to pick up the toys, too!! It's not just my mess!!" This went on for quite a while and though I thought about going down to demand cooperation and yell at Josiah, I decided to wait. We've been trying to get them to sort out their disagreements themselves lately, based in no small part on the fact that I'm so done with the tattling . . . and I've heard it just gets worse and worse until about the 3rd grade.

Finally the arguing settled down and I didn't hear from them for a while. They came back upstairs and Gennie announced that the job was done, then said, "Excuse me, I have to go get something for Jo." She came back in a minute with a dollar bill in her hands. Handing it to him she said, "Here you go. You picked up all those toys so you get the dollar." She explained that she had to promise to give him a dollar so that he'd stop playing and help her pick up. I said, "Oh, well that's very enterprising of you!" and had to leave the room, I was laughing so hard!

I guess mastering the bribe can start at any age. Now just where did she get that dollar?

superbowl 2010

So, we hosted the superbowl party again this year and loved it! There were a few less people than last year (when we squeezed 40+ into our living room) due to sickness and people moving away but 22-ish was still a great time! I took a few photos during the game but they're kinda blurry so I'll spare you but here is a taste of our weekend.


Josiah was desperate to help us clean up for company so he got out his vaccuum and got to work. Being the thorough kid that he is, when the floors were finished he got out his Swiffer duster and made sure the big vaccuum was spic-n-span:

Last year Kev BBQed burgers and hot dogs but missed a bunch of the beginning of the game because he was freezing outside on the deck so we decided to order the Big Sandwich from Subway this year.
Since I didn't have any decorations to put up we busted out the jerseys. Yes, my whole family has 49er-wear and I don't. And yes, I bought this Denver jersey a few years ago for halloween back when Cutler still played for them. But annoying my husband every time I put it on is well worth not fitting in with my family: "Really? It had to be a Broncos jersey? Of all the teams in the NFL ...."
And since the Saints won, Jo had to dig out his Mardi Gras beads. Any reason to bust out the bling!

And even the kids had a great time, playing all over the house. Gennie's room was a complete disaster and so was the front room and the whole basement. But everyone kicked in and it's all back to normal. I think Gennie and Josiah had forgotten about half of the toys that their friends dug out - it was like Christmas morning with all the "new toys!"

Next year -- caramel Cheetos, baby!

the suspicious suitcase

So, yesterday Kev came home a little later than usual from school. I figured he had extra prep to do or a meeting or some equal nuisance so I didn't think anything about it. The kids were all wound up, J from his nap and G because school was over for the day, and they accosted him the moment he entered the house. I was sitting on the couch, having already started supper, watching NCIS reruns and since the kids were each hanging on his legs I didn't get up to greet him, figuring I'd let them have their fun for a minute and hug him when they were done and had moved on to something else. Kev made it thru the kitchen and into our room to take off his coat, then came right back into the living room and grinned while he asked, "Should I be concerned?"

I had no idea what he was talking about so he beckoned for me to follow him back to our room and pointed to the end of the bed, where this was sitting:

I burst out laughing, and he just stood there looking at me like I'd lost my mind. When I could speak again I explained that this bad now holds all my yarn . . . because my stash had completely overrun the floor of my closet and needed to be contained . . . and I'd gotten it out earlier in the day and just didn't put it back yet. It didn't even occur to me how it would look to arrive home late and see your wife's bag packed and waiting on the end of the bed. The good thing is that he wasn't really concerned that I was heading out, just thought it was a funny thing to come home to.

I don't think I'd get very far having packed only yarn: