My Father's Eyes

Here's my little bug-a-lugs:

check out his eyes. . . they're very debonair, deep brown and screaming mischief.

Last night while folding clothes my little bug entered the my room and started to have a very delightful conversation. All of the sudden the conversation took a sharp and sudden turn, mid sentence. "mom i don't want my brown eyes"

"what"

"i don't want my brown eyes like you anymore. I don't want to have your eyes, I want my blue eyes back."

"I love your brown eyes. There so handsome!"

"No I don't want eyes like you anymore. I want my blue eyes back. . .I want my blue eyes like my daddies blue eyes."

"But I love your eyes. Look there like mine."

"I don't want eyes like you. . .I want my blue eyes. . ."

"You're eyelashes are so long and pretty"

"I want my blue eyes back. . . JoJo's got my eyes"

~suppressed laughing

"What?"

"JoJo took my eyes. I want them back"

~Josie enters very concerned

"Josie isn't it funny. Kimball thinks your eyes are so beautiful, he want them. Isn't he funny"

~Josie still not laughing

"He loves you so much, isn't that cute."

"She took my eyes. I want my eyes back"

~can no longer suppress the laugh, between the little boy squishing his eyes trying to get them out of his head and the little girl very concerned"

"Mom, this isn't funny (said very non emotionally). This is a very serious situation."

Much to Kimballs dismay, his eyes are still brown.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! 2010

Every New Years is spent at Grandma & Grandpa's with a lot of food, great games, and of course, fabulous people! A mean game of Slapwich & UNO was going down last night. Then we celebrated New Years Eastern Standard Time. It makes the night even better.

From Sweating in Sizzling Summerland to Walking in a Winter Wonderland

I can't believe that just a few days ago we were wearing shorts, t-shirts & sunscreen. There was the greatest Christmas song. I could never track it down & I still can't find in online. Anyways, it was a play on "Walking in a Winter Wonderland" but went "Sweating in Sizzling Summerland". It was fabulous, and totally made me laugh. Now we grub up just to get the mail.

Craig and the kids have been scraping and shoveling snow and ice since we've been back. Even with all their hard work we still can't see the sidewalk.

Yet Another Flight & Christmas Again!

Kimball & Josie found a set of wheels to make traveling easier. Well for them anyways.

As soon as we would sit in our seat on the plane Josie would buckle up and find the flight emergency card. She would attentively watch the "in flight safety video". She checked it several times during the flight. Towards the end she had Abby doing the same thing.
Only 2 hours into the Sydney to San Fran flight, McKay ate a Minty and pulled off his Lower Lingual Holding Arch aka built in retainer with a crank. But it only came off one side. The poor kid couldn't eat anything.

But as soon as we got to Salt Lake, Kimball decided he couldn't walk any more. When I told him Grammie was outside waiting for him, he took off. He was so excited! Grammie had presents waiting for everyone. It was Christmas all over again!



They loved them! The girls were totally blown away by American Girl dolls, and grandma had even made matching jammies!

Escaping Death

The other day as we were walking long Circular Quay we were watching some of the street performers. Just as we walked up, the performer called on me to "assist". Yea right. I'm a total wall flower type of person. To stand in front of a ton of people and do things is not my cup of tea. Kimball followed, he's always up for some fun. The guy was CRAZY. Literally. The longer I stood there the longer I got worried. I could see the headlines. . .

In the end we all made it out alive.

The next day we walked the bridge. Yes as if the previous day wasn't terrifying enough, I took on one of my biggest fears. Not just heights, but heights with children. I was soo proud of myself. However there were certain rules, like 1. Josie~ no throwing fits, on the bridge, what so ever, no laying down, turning, stomping of feet ~anything! 2. Kimball was to be held the entire time away from the edge. 3. Josie was to hold an adults hand the entire time! 4. No running 5. no holding on to the edge or looking over the edge. 5. absolutely no teasing mom with any of the following

It was amazing! I will never look at the Sydney Bridge the same again! Once we were on the other side We ate lunch, fed the pigeons and enjoyed a lamington.

{don't you love Kimball's fit? He's decided he can't walk anymore. }

Not only did we walk the bridge once but then we walked back over. It was beautiful up there.

At the close of the day Craig's Auntie Karen came and met us for dinner. She lives two hours away. How nice is she. She brought gifts for everyone, and then shouted for the ice cream at the end. She is such a sweet person. The kids adored her!

And today we are headed back home. For Christmas Santa brought Josie the Wizard of Oz. We have watched it continuously lately. As the trip has gotten closer to an end, I keep repeating in my head, "There's no place like home, there's no place like home." It has been an amazing trip. It was nice to have a break from routine, but now it will be nice to have a routine again.

An Incredible Day!

The morning started off at 4:05 a.m. ~ good thing Kimball wore his glasses, it's pretty bright outside.;0)

Then we caught the train up to Sydney. This was Criag's and Kimball's favorite thing so far. It was great. Very relaxing
We checked into the hotel and hit the streets. We saw the bridge and watched the brave people walk on the top of it for a while.
Actually visited the Opera House. We've always "seen" it, but never really checked it out up close. How do you love Josie's fit in this picture. She was feeling the 4 a.m. wake up call.
This is better:

After the bridge, lunch and the Opera House we went onto the Botanical Gardens. The boy's are enjoying the grass.
We played UNO. This was my favorite part. Playing together as a family enjoying the views, and each other.
Kimball photography skills. I don't know how he made it red, I want to figure that out
Then the races started which led to a game of pile up.

And as everyone knows a perfect day has to end with some ice cream!

Christmas, Christmas, Christmas!

In Australia, Santa delivers all of the presents in a "Santa Bag". A red bag or pillowcase is placed on the bottom of each child's bed before going to sleep. This takes place of the Christmas Socks. Then during the night if you've been good Santa places all of your toys in that sack.

This was a fun tradition that I felt we HAD to implement while we were here. However it was quite hard. I knew that even if I had a "no peek until you get on my bed" rule, it would be too hard to resist. But the only one to peek was little Ms. Tink. It was pretty fun to watch them "dump" their bag on our bed. Then sort through all the exciting things Santa left.

In the past one of our favorite things to do was take everyone to the dollar store and let them buy a gift for each person. However this year with us traveling around during Christmas, I didn't want to loose the "meaning" of Christmas. We decided we'd have a "homemade" Christmas. It was really fun! It was great to watch the kids plan and work on their projects before we left. We even worked on a few once we got here. McKay made a marshmallow gun for Kimball and stamped charms for the girls. Abby sculpted and painted a figurine for everyone. Josie wrote and illustrated books. And Kimball, well I cheated on helping Kimball, he got everyone an Australian book. It was a very neat experience to watch. The kids LOVED it!

After presents we had a Christmas "brekkie". Pam's side of the family came over and we had a large breakfast. It was great catching up with family. It was fun to see all of their children too. We'd only heard about them, to see them in person was fabulous!

What an amazing Christmas! We hope you all had a fantastic Christmas as well!