Love.

I spy a Max with one of his many lovey's.  I love that when you sleep you always have your arms wrapped around one of your stuffed friends.  You have several that occupy your bed: Bunny-Lovey, Mac, and Buzz Lightyear.  Just so you know, I took your picture and then kissed your cheek and inhaled your sweet Max smell.  Some days I wish you would stay four forever.

Best. Dinner. Ever.

We ventured down to the strip to eat at a Vegas institution: Dupar's.  We dined on pancakes (amazing!), french toast, chicken fingers and rib-eye steak with french fries.  It was not the most healthy meal ever but it was delicious. (We did get a side of veggies but they were drowning in butter so I'm not sure that counts.)   We showed the kids Fremont Street and ate deep fried Oreo's and Twinkie's for dessert.  Maybe it was the sugar rush or the lights or maybe even the rain but it was an unusually magical evening for our family.

Easter

R.I.P. Jet Black Reynolds

Jackson's hamster died this week.  It was so sad.  He was such a good, sweet little pet for Jackson.  Jackson really wanted a pet for a long time.  He had to work hard to earn his hamster--convincing me and with good behavior.  He also did a great job of taking care of him.  He cleaned his cage out and always made sure he had plenty of food and water.  "Hammy"  as we nicknamed him had quite a few adventures.  He was a great escape artist and would chew his way out of his exercise ball and run it over and over again into the wall until the lid popped open and he escaped.  He also escaped once from his cage and we found him in Robert's suitcase hiding out with provisions.  I would often come into Jackson's room when Jackson was upset and find him cuddling and loving Jet to help soothe his hurt feelings.  I really never thought we would all get so attached to a Hamster but we did.  He was fun to watch and play with and we will really miss him.  

What we've been doing....

I think it's pretty obvious that "we" have not been blogging.  After a few nudges in the right direction,  I feel sufficiently guilty to actually post.  So here's what we've been doing:

I'm tired of posing for you Mom and I'm going to communicate that with my mouth.

Conquering rocks. 

Trying to get someone to slow down for a picture.

Appreciating Nevada beauty.

Taking crazy clothes day at school to a whole new level.  

Dancing to show off our craziness because we weren't sure you'd get how "crazy" we truly are just by the shorts we are wearing around our neck.  

We slept with all sorts of crazy things including our Wocket without a  pocket we made at preschool.  He was kind of a pillow hog.  

We watched and participated in a whole season of Basketball.  We also got some dirty looks for  our loud mouth shouting things we should probably only be thinking.  It's a problem we have and we are working on it. 

We inherited a great rocking chair and had it re-done.  Now it is happily living in Ella's room. 

We got very, very sick.  We had X-rays for pneumonia but those came back negative.  Diagnosis:  Infrequent intermittent Asthma.  Crappy.  

Tried to particpate in the politcal process by attending a rally with the kids and no husband.  We decided that we do not like crowds and were too worried about violating the fire code to enjoy anything.  Also, was so packed kids could not see or move.  Mom could not even get a picture that wasn't blurry. 

Went hiking in Red Rock canyon. 

Saw an amazing performance from David Gray.

Made crap-your-pants big bubbles.

We took some time to relax and enjoy our allergies  

We organized races at the park.  

We had our first big boy soccer practice.  We weren' t excited about it or anything. 

We sang songs and pretended we were famous at the Lied Discovery Museum.

We responded when duty called.  

We ate green pancakes on St. Patrick's day, pinched each other and Mom ran a 5K and came in 2nd place.  Of course, half the particpants were pushing jog strollers.  

We tried to learn how to vacuum.  

Instead, we learned it was much more fun to steal Mom's phone and take pictures of her bottom with her  underwear showing while she vacuumed.


It's been an interesting couple of months....

Cake Flop

I thought I'd get a head start on Thanksgiving and start baking today.  I've been planning to make this new cake recipe that has my taste buds standing at attention because of it's glorious chocolate, caramel deliciousness.  At the very least, the photographer was a freaking genius. Anyway, I have been hoping to debut this cake at Thanksgiving with the appropriate appreciation and maybe a nod or two to my skillful preparation?!   I carefully prepared this cake recipe from SCRATCH and I even SIFTED the flour.  Seriously, who takes time to sift the flour before putting it in recipes?  It's not like it doesn't get shaken around in the bag when I bring it home from the store and Max pretends it's a toy.  Did I mention that I sifted the flour?  Yes, and because the recipe author likes to make a lot of work for aspiring would-be cake bakers he/she also recommended that you sift your sugar, cocoa and baking powder.  I did exactly as the recipe asked--it could have been the Ten Commandments--I followed it so faithfully.  It took a lot longer than opening a cake mix box,  I can tell you.  I followed all directions except one teeny, tiny, wee, little, small, minute little sentence: "Let cool for 15 minutes and carefully remove from baking pan."  So 15 minutes turned into 3 hours. Has the recipe author ever heard of children?  Apparently not, since he/she has time to sift.    My cake stuck to the pan not unlike when you glue your fingers together with crazy glue.  If this ever happens to you and you look up what to do on Wikipedia just know that their solution is a complete and utter lie. Yes, Wikipedia lies!  Not to mention a waste of your time.  Hmmm.  Kind of like sifting.  You are sunk.  Your cake is ruined.  You might as well cry now instead of prolonging your misery with false hope.  There is NO hope.  Your cake is dead.  It is a crumbly mess.   All you can do now is eat half the pan and console yourself with the fact that at least it tastes good and grumble about all that sifting you did.


(Please excuse my writing, I have to take myself out of the equation there at the end because I can't really admit that I ate half a pan of cake to console myself, now can I?)

Stealing Cars

Today Robert and I had our "discussion" about how he needs a new car.  This always makes me a little crazy.  He does need a new car. His lease is up on his hot, little two-door Audi.  The Audi and I are not friends.  We have never been on good terms.  It's fast, yes but practical for a family of six--NO WAY.   Robert's brain was addled by its sleekness and beauty and so I have had to share a garage with it for a few years.  In my bitterness, I have felt for sometime that I should casually mention over and over again to Robert that this new car he purchases will be the FOURTH car he's had since I bought my humble mini-van.  Yep, numero quatro.  I'm just going to say it: My mini-van looks like death ran over it and then spilled chocolate milk, root-beer and apple juice all over the inside.  Death also dumped out a Costco sized bag of  Goldfish and then had a party and invited 8 of his closest friends with muddy shoes to stomp those fishes to smithereens.  Also, Death might have hit a fire-hydrant while attending church and side-swiped another car.  He might have also found a few miscreants throwing large rocks at it as the sight of the mini-van offended them.   In short, I am ready for a new car.  Sadly, Robert is not ready to participate with cash funds in that venture.

Anyway, we were on our way home from pizza night driving up Sahara, the haven of all things car, and Robert saw a car he was interested in.  The dealership was closed so we parked the car and he got out to go and look.  The conversation between the kids and I went like this:

Kate:  What's Dad doing?
Me:  He's going to steal a car.
Ella:  (Indignantly) MMMMOOOOOMMM! Seriously.  What's he doing?
Me:  He's stealing a car.  You know, sometimes Dad makes choices that I don't agree with.  I tried to talk him out of it but he wants to do it.  So when the police come, don't say anything.
Ella:  Mom, are you joking?
Kate:  (worried) Mom, what are we going to do?
Me:  I don't know.  I really wish your Dad would stop.  I've really tried to talk him out of it.  Maybe he won't get caught  and we'll have a nice, new car. Maybe.

Kate starts to cry.

Me: I'm just kidding!!! Did you really think Dad would steal a car?

I think they did!  We all had a good laugh and I was assured that my persuasive skills were still intact.  Because if I don't convince Robert soon, I may really have to go and steal a car.  :)