Nurture not nature

Yep, that there's Case's 1st birthday. February 16th--PRESIDENT'S DAY THIS YEAR!!! We got him started with the RIGHT party. He's no jack ass.

Honestly, does every mother on the planet have this picture. I sure have one in all four kids scrapbooks. It's the..."I think it's so fun to pull all the toilet paper off" stage. That's the scientific term.

So I always write a note to Hadley (and all my kids) on her banana in her school lunch. I didn't do it one day last week. When she got home she told me she had something for me in her lunchbox. When I opened it, there was her banana peel. She had taken a red pen and wrote, "I love you Mom" on it.

She's THE cutest kid ever!!

Feet and Eat

I love these little feeties! Even when Russ and I get a call from the sitter on New Year's saying that Layne swallowed the pendent from a necklace. Honestly, she's 3 1/2 not 1 1/2. So after making sure that she was breathing and after googling it to find out what to worry about and what to look for--we waited...poop stick in hand. Yep, that's right folks, we were checking poop for 13 d@%$ days. Of course, she was on fiber and mineral oil so it was nice and frequent too.

After four days without any results, we got an x-ray. I was thinking that it probably wouldn't be there (either she didn't swallow it like she said, or we missed it coming out the other end). So after the x-ray I was helping Layne get dressed behind the little curtain and I hear the x-ray tech say, "Is that a pendant? It looks like a pendent." Oh HELL!

So, long story short...er. 9 days later still no pendant so we got another x-ray and it was gone. That was a little bitter sweet. Honestly, after 13 days of poop checking, you're really wanting the satisfaction of seeing the thing.

Layne was concerned too. "Mommy, but where did it go". I reminder her of the digestive system (a discussion we have had many times over the last 13 days). Her response, "But Mamma, I want to put it on and wear again". Nice!

Just so we're clear, I will not be using a poop stick ever again...honestly, what was the point, she still ending up having to get the x-rays. Live and learn.

The pendant had the Tree of Life on it...evidently it was "most desirable".

Not your average Christmas card

You know you need a new year to come along when...

...not only do you give up on sending out a Christmas card, but you don't even get a Christmas e-card out in time for Christmas. So here's my New Year's e-info.---pathetic!

I just started blogging a couple months ago and I don't have very many entries. So I'll just refer you to the few previous posts for what's going on with us. Instead, here's a day in the life of the Thomas family--enjoy!



Father of the year…

Russ was busy at the computer one evening, researching taxes, buying guns, planning for the impending attack of mindless zombie hordes or whatever it is he does in there, when outside the door he heard Hadley jump from the piano to chase Kord, a little thing they do every night.

Immediately following that event Russ hears a loud thump at the base of the stairs. Thinking that Case, who he was “in charge of”, had fallen down the stairs he heroically jumps from his chair and dashes to the scene to find Hadley lying at the bottom of the stairs. Relieved that it isn’t Case, he asks Hadley if she is OK. The only reply he gets is a soft whimper. Figuring that she is playing up her “injury” so she won’t have to return to her piano practice; he again asks Hadley if she is OK, followed by a gentle nudge with his foot. She again whimpers but continues to lay face down on the floor. Satisfied that she’s OK and simply trying to avoid piano he returns to his important work at the computer.

Several moments later Nicole reminds Hadley that her piano practice isn’t done and Hadley begins to cry. “Oh, Hadley”, Russ says, your fine, go do what mom asks”. Another few moments pass when Hadley stumbles into the kitchen and Nicole calls out, “Russ!! Did you just leave her there? She’s bleeding!!!!” Russ jumps back to his feet and runs to the kitchen where Hadley is in her mothers arms.

The dazed look in her eye is something Russ vaguely remembers. It’s that same foggy look she had right after she passed out from the sight of blood after cutting her finger awhile back. It turns out that when she jumped up from the piano to chase Kord she only made it as far as the stairs where she passed out from jumping up too quickly. As for the profuse bleeding from the mouth… when she hit the floor, a recently loose tooth had been knocked from her grill and had flown halfway across the room. We finally found it by the front door.

If only the story ended there… dad also forgot to play tooth fairy later that night so she woke up with a sore lip and a big envelope of nothing under her pillow. Nicole gave her a $5.00 the next morning in proxy. Yep, Father of the year, that’s Russ.

As I am pushin' perfection, it's no problem for me to mock Russ. Honestly, he's so lucky to have me...and we him.

Merry Christmas!

Goofy Goobers

Well, we've been having a FANTASTIC fall. It's been ridiculously gorgeous up here. In my 10 years here, I don't think I've ever seen the fall colors this vibrant. We've been too busy, but we're working on that. I've always said that we're not going to be a crazy busy family. So I've said that each child can only have one sport at a time. That's great but when you multiply that times three kids in sports, then you add piano lessons (I'm thinking it's not fair to claim that as their one activity), and cub scouts--suddenly things get a little crazy. Then there are the parties, friends over and on and on. So we're working on finding the most important things and cutting other things out...Any ideas would be MUCH appreciated. Anyway, here's some fun that we've been having...

A women after my own heart...cookie dough and diet coke--check me out being a good mom--it's caffeine free!

Kord was the chairman in fourth grade play...this was BIG. He was front and center with TONS of lines. He did a great job, so Layne and I made GI-NORMOUS cookies for all.

How you know when it's gone from a recession to a depression

Our AWESOME cousins came for Thanksgiving. In an attempt to bribe the older cousins (who aren't even in this picture) to come, we bought Rock Band. "OOOHHHH great Mother of Rock Band, please, allow us the opportunity to engage in the noble pursuit of Mississippi Queen".





They won











Okay seriously, the boy's freakin' adorable!

Yep...adorable







I know it's been a while, but Halloween was the normal hilarious and fun...

...except for Hadley, she was the sick Karate Girl. It was pretty pathetic.

There's more

Okay, here are a few more highlights:




















For part of family night, we decided to try some MRE's that we had with our food storage...they were a big success with the kids...as you can see.

Honestly, I've been working for 11 years on my husband. I buy his clothes for him--steering him away from the wife-beater shirts and the AC/DC attire. But the simple truly is...once a hick, always a hick. This is how hicks go mole huntin'.

Yep, they got inside a sleeping bag, got reading material, and bounced their way down the stairs—while reading. It’s the Bouncing Books reading program!


























Holy hilarious. This is my 6 year old's and 9 year old's version of changing Case's diaper. Case kept crawling away with his bare bum. Holy funny!











Me and my little guy!












Layne (3 years old) LOVES the movie The Grinch with Jim Carrie. She wants to watch it constantly. It’s a little disheartening to random people in the grocery store when she looks at them and says, “I’ll hunt you down and gut you like a fish!”















This summer we went to Maryland to see my Dad. My brother and his family went too. The plane ride was great too. Especially when the guy beside us left and found another seat. Ironically, I thought the kids were doing amazing at the time. If he thought that was bad he would have needed his oxygen mask if he had been with Case at his peak.


Hadley was calling the nugget shaped pretzels “nuts” as we were getting ready for lunch. It was driving Layne crazy. She was getting so frustrated with Hadley, “No, Haley, it NOT a nut. It a pwetzel.” So we sat down to lunch and Russ asked Layne to say prayer. She said, “Fadder, pwease bless that Haley not call pwetzel a nut. Name Jesus Cwist. Amen.” I’m figuring we’re doing to good job of teaching Layne that prayer is talking to your Father in Heaven about things that are going on in your life rather then just saying the same thing over and over.

AND IT BEGINS

HELLO ALL!! Between Diet Cokes, I DO have time for some family fun. We love the crazy northwest coast. It may not be 95 degrees and sunny; the rip tide would pull you out to your death if you go out past your ankles...but hey...it's home.

My Hadley is...well, she's Hadley. What a hilarious little person. She's in the first grade now. Last year she decided that Ethan was just dreamy! So she talked about him and played with him. I became friends with his mom and when she found out I was Hadley’s mom, it was “OOOOHHHH, Hadley”. Evidently Hadley was a little bit of a stalker. So Hads and I had a talk about being discreet and “playing hard to get” as it were. So the next day she came home from school and nonchalantly mentioned, “I told Ethan that I love him and that I want to marry him”. Well, I guess she decided to go with the direct approach instead. I guess it worked because by spring Ethan was head over heals in love with Hadley. Now they’ve decided to just be good friends.

She was THE most gorgeous flower in Alice in Wonderland.

She has found her athletic calling. Soccer. The soccer bulb came on a few weeks ago and she has been a scoring/dribbling/corner kicking machine ever since. She practices dribbling in the yard and talks about playing indoor for her coach when the weather turns.

Kord recently joined the "Science Olympiads". An after school competitive team based program. Last weeks team challenge was to build a contraption out of straws, a small amount of duct tape, and other materials that would protect an egg in an 8 foot fall. Their team didn't win but in Kords words, "at least the egg didn't explode everywhere, it only cracked".

Kord is also playing flag football again this fall and usually finds himself playing quarterback because of his size and hands. Today was a historic moment in his career as he scored the go ahead two point conversion on a QB sneak in the final seconds to win the game. In two seasons of play that was his first score so he was pretty happy. So were we.

Layne has devilishly charismatic older siblings and sarcastic parents to guide her development so we have no one to blame but ourselves for her wit and charm. Hadley came in way past bedtime a few nights ago and complained that Layne was being naughty and not letting her get to sleep. Layne than ran to the top of the stairs and instead of protesting her innocence put her hands on her hips and in a nanny nanny boo boo tone of voice yelled "that's riiiiiiiight". It was a kind of a "and watcha ya gonna do about it moment". Well, what dad did about it was stifle laughter for several minutes and then having lost all credibility as a disciplinarian let Layne fall asleep in our bed. She just started her first year of pre-school and loves being a big girl like Hadley.

Case is moments away from crawling. He has finally broken out of the basement with regards to his weight percentile ranking that we were worried about. It might have to do with the fact that he is eating us out of house and home now that he has been introduced to solid foods.

This summer we got to go back to Maryland and D.C. to hang out with Dad. The kids loved seeing the declaration, national archives, library of congress and other sites they remember from "National Treasure". Kord spent a lot of time devising a plan to steal the important national documents, in the end he stole the Declaration and bolted for the door. Okay, it was the $10 replica and we DID pay for it...but we had tons of fun with it.

Then we proceeded to the National Gallery of Art. I was explaining Seurat's style and discussing how we thought he did it. In a flash, Kord said, "Yea, it's bumpy" while raising his hand and touching the painting. AHHHHH. It was all in slow motion for me. I couldn't stop him before he touched it. Well, I obviously spent some time helping him to understand the magnitude of what he just did. After all was well, we all love to laugh about it. Honestly, how many people do you know who have touched an original Seurat.

Since that was only a day after he drove grandpa's golf cart into a tree--Kord had an eventful Maryland trip.

The kids also had a great time getting to know Grandpa and the bottom of one of the many tributaries to the Chesapeake. Grandpa towed kids around the river day after day attempting to throw them from the tube.

I'm still working on Halloween costumes. AHHH. The issue is that every year the kids want more complex costumes since they know that mom will do it. "Mom, how about you just make me Eragon with a life sized dragon to ride. And not the way it looks in the movie. I want it the way it looks in my mind from reading the books. " Russ is still working with the young men. He was released as the YM president and put right back in as the Venture advisor. He loves it, none of the administrative garbage and all of the fun.