Snowed in with Grandpa Rokke!

Sparkley Pantalonays

The other day, the boys and I spent a rainy lunchtime shopping in Target and eating peanut butter sandwiches and snack cups. The boys got a little rambunctious and wouldn't mind me. Finally, they took off and ran about 20 feet away - playing in the clothing racks - where I couldn't see them. I stormed after them and grabbed two little elbows, marched them back to the cart, and said in my most serious low voice, "Mommy is mad, MAD, MAD. You need to stay by the cart and be very quiet and very good!" Sean stuck around and kept looking up and asking, "Are you HAPPY, Mommy?" I strung him a long a little, and then heard Luke coming towards us.

He was displaying his most winning, convincing smile and carefully holding a hanger way up over his head so as not to step on the fanciest, most beautiful peace offering he could find for me. "Here, Mommy! Maybe you like these sparkley pantalonays!"

Shiny, metallic, gold stretch pants, size XL. These are pants Donna Summer would have turned down for her 1978 World Tour as "way too over the top."



I'm going to save them in my closet to pull out and remember the good times the first time the boys swear at me, or slam the door on me, or tell me they want to go to art school, or some other awful day to come in the future.

First Snowman!

Thanks to help from Adriana's son, Manny the Great!

Family Birthday Night!

Lots of fun opening presents...

...followed by hours of cutting plastic boxes open...

...followed by Clint's expert instruction on the new video games...

...while Daddy watched.

Then roast chicken dinner,

and blue cake with sprinkles,

and orange cake with sprinkles.

(Lucky 3-year old boys.)

Happy Birthday Party!

The Guests:

In order top to botttom:

Lewis (with Akila hot on his trail, as usual...!)
Akila rides the Rocking Chicken
Luke and Lillian pretend they're not fascinated with eachother.
William blows the whistle.

Sean spent the first hour of his birthday party in the corner with Brown Bear and his trains and that expression on his face. (the "too everybody" kid.)

But then he snapped on his party hat and came to life!


The "Adults" (again: My blog, I can post what I want.)


Akila's mom, Paige.



Lewis' mom, Karen.




William's dad, Chris.

(I'm sorry, William.)

Lillian's Tim. (Father Christmas.)

Lovely Leslie flew in from Albuquerque!

Sean had orange cake with sprinkles and Luke had dark blue cake with sprinkles.

Happy 3rd birthday, guys!

After the Train...

We wandered around Oaks Park - closed for the season.

The Christmas Train!

First candy canes ever!

First time meeting Santa!

Thanksgiving '08 at Our House

Thankful for eachother.

Please pass the brussels...ummm...never mind...


Handsome host.

Clint brought a celebrity - Sean. He's a famous actor.

The Freney/McCrackens and Gill's necklace.

The kids' table!

The grown-ups' table.

Luke Drawings

Portrait of Daddy with glasses.


A cat.

What a 2-year old dreams...

A couple mornings ago, Luke was sleeping in our bed. I was reading and Sean and Daddy were downstairs eating waffles. Luke stirred and sat up -- all pink, puffy-eyed and messy-haired. I said, "Good morning." and he said, "I have a ladybug on my eye and it flew in my ear!" (Poking at his eye.) So I said, "Wow! No wonder you woke up!" And Luke replied, "Yeah, and Max and Ruby are here!" "Max and Ruby are here? In our HOUSE?!" I said. "No, on the sidewalk! And we finding bugs!" He held out his little palm and showed it to me, "I had loooots and loooots of bugs!"

I told him that's what a dream is and he had a really nice one. He flumped back down on the pillow and whispered, all dreamy-eyed, "Yeah, Mommy."

Now, if I could find out what dogs dream, I'd know the secret to Life.