us? nerds?

John told me he'd like to bring the boys to Astronomy Day at his old high school.

I shuddered, "Oh noOOOO. You are NOT bringing our small boys to your old ghetto school".

"Don't worry", John said. "It's on a Saturday. No thugs or gangstas will be attending. Just nerds will be there."

Me, pausing...."Are we considered nerds too?"

"Without a doubt", John replied. Without a moments hesitation.

Us?

Nerds?

Now where would he get an idea like that?!

Hm...not because I still have my old lab coat hanging up in my closet next to my wedding dress....and chem books propping up the baby's pack n' play so he can breath better from his cold...nope, no nerds here.

Speaking of colds. We got hammered this month.

Calvin jump-started the month with a cough, which he lovingly passed off to Ollie. Not to be outdone, Finn got the pukes, and gave them to daddy...and then to Calvin and Ollie--who both puked a grand total of one time each. Somewhere in the mix, Twain got sick, and after being coughed in the face for the umpteenth time, I got sick too. If you can't beat them, join them. Thankfully we are starting to do much better.

I just found the following photo on my camera.

After Ollie yacked, John sat him down on the floor with a big tupperware to puke in and then gave him a tiny muffin to eat. Ollie thought the huge tupperware was a bowl for his muffin. After each nibble on his muffin he'd place it back in his *bowl*:

When I see this picture, all I can think is "I believe I ordered the *large* cappuccino."

The first person to tell me where that line comes from wins...um...a *large* cappuccino? A $5 Starbucks gift card.

I know, my generosity astounds even me.

And wait, it gets better--you have to wait until February to get your measly gift card because all of my blow money from January is, well, blown. Ah, the joys of budgeting on the envelope system!

Ok, I am borderline delirious. The baby is getting his top teeth and John and I have been up with him for the last 3 nights. I miss sleep. Really badly.

blue moon

Finn was instructed to write and illustrate a sentence about chameleons yesterday in school:

When I asked why the moon was blue, Finn responded, "Normally the moon is white but the color white does not show up well on white paper so I used blue instead...and sometimes the moon really is blue...it has a pattern of white, then blue, then white...

Not being an astronomer myself, I was satisfied with his highly scientific explanation. And there is that saying, "once in blue moon".

And notice the rest of the teeny tiny solar system included at the top of his picture? I am sure Finn's teacher just thought it was chicken scratch. Little does he know that space invaders have taken up residence in our home, quite literally.

My boys decorated their room with the planets. Seriously, these are the things I wake up to, on a daily basis. There is always some sort of wall decor that they have hand-crafted.

Compete with the asteroid belt(brown rocks) trailing off on the bottom right--that's my favorite part.

I told John, "it is not normal how obsessed the boys are with space."

"Oh yes, it is completely normal for boys to be into dinosaurs and space", he informed me.

I'm not completely sure I agree, but what do I know? I grew up with all girls.

But one thing is for certain. I know that it's not normal for wee little Calvin to walk around muttering about W Cephei and MY Cephei. He's definitely under the influence of Finn.

update.

A very special update on Dan and Christy...being interviewed on Today Show with Meredith. Dan shares a little bit of what he wrote in his journal to his sons, in case he did not get out.

You may want to read this post first, in case you have no idea what I am talking about.

sweet weekend

A few months ago, my mom decided to throw my dad a surprise party for this 60th birthday.

Well, the surprise was on all of us when my sister Jessica spontaneously flew out for the weekend to celebrate his birthday with all of us!

Happy Birthday we all shout!

Dad was shocked to see Jess and it was the most wonderful party ever.

Ollie is buried in a book

The boys were very high maintenance and I did not get many great party shots.

Back at the homefront the next day, the original crew...plus Olive, of course!

Thanks to our AWESOME hubbies who took care of our responsibilities, us sisters were able to hang out and chat all day yesterday. Pure bliss I tell you!

My sisters are the most charming, sweet, genuine, loving girls you will ever meet. I heart them!

And since my parents live in the country, I could not pass up the opportunity to take a few outdoor shots of the baby wearing his new hat that Auntie Paula crocheted him for Christmas.

OOhh. Check out those chubby calves. Did not know it was possible to have cellulite on the calves, LOL.

And no, I am not trying to make a fashion statement wearing these ripped jeans. I've had them for over 3 years. I am sadly lacking in the jeans department these days. I've ordered some jeans online and hopefully they will work out better than the previous 4(yes, FOUR)jeans that I had to return. Jean shopping kills me.

I can't get enough of these pudgey hands.

We are NOT afraid of a little dirt. Though running through kitty litter while barefoot is another story altogether(Don't worry, it was Calvin, not Twain).

Little pile of baby.

Looking so forlorn.

Aw, that's better.

It was the sweetest weekend and I did not want it to end. But here I am, back at home typing, still smiling from all the fresh country air.

oh and be sure to read my post below.

in a fog

The last few days I have been in a fog.

On tuesday, I heard that my friend Dan Woolley was in Port-au-Prince the day of the catastrophic earthquake in Haiti. John and I knew Dan and his wife Christy from college, and we also attended the same church while we were there. They were sparkly and friendly and warm and Christy had the smile of an angel. And her skin was beautiful and she had gorgeous naturally curly hair.

We both moved our separate ways but kept in touch via Christmas card and good old facebook.

They have 2 small DARLING bouncy boys. You just want to squeeze their cherubic cheeks.

Dan was in Haiti doing some work for Compassion Internatinal, while Christy and the boys remained in the states.

On tuesday, Dan was not feeling well and decided to head back to his hotel, Hotel Montana. Yah, the one that was completely leveled to the ground.

He spoke briefly with Christy just 15 minutes before the big quake hit, which would change their lives forever.

On both ABC news and Good Morning America, Christy told us that Tuesday was the worst day of her life. She was hopeful because he was not found dead, but in despair at the thought of not living with him anymore.

Nobody knew where Dan was. He was missing. Hour after agonizing hour and no word from Dan.

Hours turned into days.

I basically became a facebook addict overnight, stalking Christy and Dan's pages for any news. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday...and still not one single word on Dan.

My sister Jessica was checking the Hotel Montana facebook around the clock for status updates. Bless her heart, she did not even know Dan, but was worried and praying for him.

Thursday night before turning off my computer, I checked in on Dan one more time.

Nothing.

I had a fitful night of sleep, tossing and turning. I just could not sleep. Was Dan flying with Jesus, I wondered? Or was he stuck somewhere? I figured I must be awake for reason...and that reason was to pray. So I prayed and prayed for Dan and Christy. I was exhausted and had lots of packing to do for a weekend get-away with my family.

Friday morning.

Turn on computer.

Tune in to facebook.

To my shock, I read this message that Christy posted:

The US State Department in Port-au-Prince just called and informed us that they have found Dan in the elevator shaft at the Hotel Montana. HE is Alive!!!!!

WOW, WOW, WOW. I had chills hearing of how the Lord spared him.

Apparently, Dan was on his way to his room when the quake hit. He was with his friend Dave, and a wall was falling on them. Dan jumped into the elevator/shaft and when he looked back, Dave was gone.

Dan was stuck in the elevator for over 55 hours before he was rescued. He was kept going by a Haitian man trapped nearby. Amazing.

Here is some footage of his wife Christy on the news, after hearing the news about her husband. It still makes me want to cry. You gotta watch it.

Dan has some injuries to work through, but he will be ok. He had surgery on his calf and will need physical therapy. He will be in a wheel chair for a while. He had head injuries, but no brain injuries.

Still no word on his friend David. David was with Dan to video the plight of moms and babies in Haiti, the poorest of the poor. David has a wife and 2 small sons. Dan has requested all prayers to be forwarded to his friend David and all the poor souls in Haiti.

And I just read the following:

Please keep praying. "The Miami-Dade rescue team has heard tapping today at the hotel and their dogs have picked up scents of human life.

Will you join me in praying for them? Also, Compassion is an AWESOME organization that has been supporting the Haitian children even before the earthquake hit and so they will not be stopped by as much red tape.

4 little monkeys

Twain is 8 months old. And he is changing so fast.

He is crawling everywhere. He is into ev-e-ry-thing.

I can barely keep up with this baby. And away he goes.

He can get to a sitting position all by himself.

And he is so very pleased with himself. He loves to clap. And wave.

He babbles mama, dada and can mimic some other words.

He is fine playing with the boys, but as soon as I walk into the room, he laughs and then cries at the same time, crawling toward me frantically.

And sometimes I find him crawling down the hallways, looking for me. It's the cutest little pile of sadness and I cannot help but laugh and scoop him right up. He is all about mama.

He always wants to keep me in his sight.

At the same time, he is so very wiggly and wants to play by himself...but he just has to keep crawling back to me and patting my leg to make sure I am still there...all to himself...all day long.


He also loves to pull himself up to stand all the time but I don't have a good picture of that...next time I shall do better.

And cuz it's no fun to be a lone monkey on the bed...

Our house is full of noise and chaos and Twain is right in the thick of it all. He is surrounded by little faces that love him.

Little faces that love to baby-talk to him.

Last time I updated, Ollie and Twain were becoming the best of pals. Now?

Hm.

They fight, if that's what you want to call it.

Twain grabs Ollie's toys and pulls Ollie's hair...Twain doesn't mean anything by it, but Ollie still flips out. Other times, when Twain gets in his space Ollie feels threatened and pushes him or throws toys--we are working on these issues very hard. They still love each other but the competition is fierce around here!

My prayer for these boys is that they love God and each other with everything they have.

i heart my family

New Years Day, I awoke with the feeling of anticipation of excitement. My dad was not able to come up on Christmas, so my parents decided to come up on New Years Day. I was thrilled. And to top it off, sister Lindsay and her husband Jim were coming too! If only sister Jess and family did not live so far away:(

Mom and the boys made up a game called "shoot the planets" with their nerf guns. The paper scattered on the grass represents the planets, in case you were wondering.

Since doing the Solar System puzzle on Christmas day, my boys have become rather obsessed with outer space. Finn has a bazillion questions, and I caught John drawing detailed diagrams for Finn before bed one night. Here are the latest drawings that have been appearing on my refrigerator every day. This one by Finn.

One of Finn's favorite stars is Betelgeuse, as seen above. And can't forget Rigel and Sirius...

And this one by Calvin. Oh, my heart smiles at his adorable little efforts.

And the two of them love to play Asteroid Boy, in which they run around the house at top speed as colliding asteroids. Precious little twerps.

Olive joined us for the day.

My dad entitled this photo "tip-toeing off for a piece of cheese"

Such a noble beast, indeed.

My dad loves to get the boys all riled up.

I coerced my parents into letting me take some pictures of them outside. So here we go...photos of Billy and Adele...

Just a few minutes into the photoshoot my parents were like, "Ok, great! Thanks Davi! We're done!"

And I was like, "Um, no. I'll say when we are done":)

To which they replied, "This is the most photos anyone has ever taken of us!"

Teehee, if they only knew...

I am so thrilled that I was able to take some photos of my parents. The next time you are with your folks, you should try taking some photos of them. You may have to drag them kicking and screaming, but I assure you, it will be worth it.

Even if you accidently step in doggy doo while taking photos and allegedly FREAK OUT upon tracking it into your house...

You will treasure them always.

By the time Lin and Jim got there, the lighting was gone and I did not get any good shots of them together with their new Siberian Husky, Kenai. Next time, I shall remedy that.

Eating dinner.

Twain simply loves his Uncle Jim. The two of them make quite the adorable duo. I often catch Uncle Jim scooping Twain up.

Twain shows love by grabbing.

and patting.

I was on cloud 9 that my family came to help us ring in the new year! Love you guys!