The Real Hello Kitty and the Tsunami

Last Thursday, Doug was home with the kids while I was at a Relief Society dinner and when I arrived home, he insisted I watch the movies on the camera. I nearly died laughing- the babies are so silly.



Our group of friends had a girl's night out planned at Seaside on Friday night, and as you know, there were residual tsunami warnings that went out for the Oregon coast after the devastating ones hit Japan subsequent to that horrendous earthquake. Aside from the tide being periodically and uncharacteristically sucked out to sea during high-tide and some choppy waves, the worst of it seemed to have missed Oregon altogether and the tsunami warning was lifted. We arrived in Seaside around 5pm to find that check-in was delayed three hours due to the evacuations that morning, so we played some air-hockey in the game room and then went to dinner until the room was ready. We stayed up only moderately late this time, retiring to bed at an early 1:30am. Most of us were up again at 7:30am, so we ate breakfast, and spent some time in the hot tub downstairs before check-out and then went out to eat lunch and find some ice cream before we left for home. All Mommies need a break now and then and it's even better with such awesome friends.


Carly, Naomi, Michelle, Ciara, Rachel, Lisa, Me

Wonderland

We woke up to about 3" of snow this morning. Sterling was ecstatic- no school! He's been clicking on the weather link all week, checking up on the snow status.


When it came time to go outside, however, we had to coax him away from his Sack Person.


Mischievous little imp.










A study of curly willow with snow.


Glistening snow crystals.


Sometimes I go in during nap to find Hylton half-in and half-out of bed.


A successful joint construction project.


A few months ago, the kids asked to use some tape for two pictures they had drawn. It led to this fiasco and a void of tape in the house.


All of Sterling's Mario creations. Even a letter "M" made from a red straw.


This week, 40lbs of chicken arrived and I used the pressure canner for the first time. We now have 19.5 quarts of chicken for the food storage shelves. That makes me happier than you'd think. It's good to know we wouldn't completely starve...

Wherin Sterling finds a special Valentine, I find frustration in the kitchen, and Doug finds he's one year older- and wiser too.

Yesterday morning, as Doug and I were sleeping in, avoiding getting ready for church, the kids got out the craft things and wanted to color. A few minutes later, Sterling woke me up to help him thread a ribbon through his foam heart. Then he woke Doug up and crawled into his side of the bed and showed him what he had made. With a sheepish, lopsided smirk, he shows us that he drew a picture of himself with a dotted line connecting him to a heart, connecting the heart to lips and that he wrote "Sterling" and "Migin (Megan)" at the top. Megan is a girl in his Kindergarten class and he likes her "because she is just cute." He was a little embarrassed and didn't think he wanted to give her the Valentine he made her, but Doug coached him a little bit in how to get girls to like you (ie, be nice, not fight... you know... Kindergarten level), and this morning, I slipped the heart into his backpack.



Today when he got home from school, he pulled out the Valentine Holder he made in class to hold the Valentines from his classmates and on the back, he had drawn this:


He's on the left (with blue, spiky hair) holding a star and Megan is on the right (with long, brown hair) holding a star and they are both holding hands, as well as the heart in the middle that has an arrow through it. Beneath (unrelated), is himself in the middle with smiley hands, and two guys popped out of him and are shooting lasers into his brain from which lollipops and kites are sprouting. (?)

I asked him if he gave Megan her Valentine and he smiles and says, "Yeah. She was just looking around to see who gave it to her and I said, "Me." Then at recess, she says to him, "Lily said you like me, is that true?"
And he tells her, "Yeah, 'cause you're pretty."
And then he said that she smiled at him.

Holy schnikes! Is this really happening already??

I do love seeing how much of little Romeo he is, though. Last week, he came home from school and (blushing) told me that an older girl walked by him in the hall and said to her friends, "Oh! Look at him! He's so cute!!" ... He gets it from his Mama... ;)


Last night, we finally had cake for Doug's birthday (which was last week on the 8th). I made Chocolate Mousse Cake with Creme Anglais and Raspberry Sauce. Also a Panookie because pretty much everything that could go wrong with the cake did (I mean EVERYTHING!), but it ended up working out okay in the end, so we had both!






Happy Birthday, Honey- I love you more than ever!