Too many cookies!

Damon was tucking Cru in on Christmas Eve and Damon asked if he wanted him to put some cookies and milk out for Santa. He said, "Yeah but not too much or he won't fit in the chimney."

Haste

While telling the story of the First Christmas with our nativity, we had the kids bring up Mary, baby Jesus and etc. when it came to that particular part of the story. They seemed so eager to place them gently by the manger when it came to be their turn. Well as Damon read from the Bible Corbin seemed more eager than the others and was hovering over the manger with the camel. He had already placed Joseph in the manger and was listening to every word coming out of Damon's mouth so that he was prepared for his turn. Damon, speaking of the shepherds, said "And they came with haste". At that point Corbin piped up and said, "Is this Haste?" Holding up the Camel with a quizzical look. We all started laughing but he just put the camel by the manger anyway.

Christmas Craziness

This year we spent Christmas at home in Utah and had the privelege of having Carl (Damon's brother) and his wife Jinger and their family come stay with us. We started the festivities off by eating and ended the festivities by ...yes EATING! It was great food (loved the spinach dip Jing). Anyway we had a great time. We had fun decorating ginger bread houses but the boys spent most of their time asking us to transform their cars

into robots and vise versa. I have found that I have mad skills when it comes to folding, bending and morphing these decepticons and autobots. Cru and Corbin also got G.I. JOE Snake eyes stuff. They are as Cru put it, "real ninjas now". We also got a Wii game system. It's been a lot of fun... I think I have a bit of tennis elbow. The boys played

all together (boxing, baseball, tennis). It motivated them to really box one another which was fun to watch. But it proved to be too exhausting for the dogs. Overall it was a great day!

New Chompers

Ava is now 15 months old and is on her way to having a mouth full of teeth. Her gums are bulging because all the teeth decided to come in at the same time. Although she is CRANKY and unreasonable she is hanging in there and will soon be able to chew up and take down beef jerky just like her mom...teriyaki please! This picture depicts the trauma we are all experiencing here at the Andreasen household. If you click on the picture it will enlarge and allow you to see the many teeth coming in.

Princesses and Armies

I got home from work today and asked Cru about school. He told me that today he played Princesses and Armies at recess. When I asked about the rules of this game he said, basically the Armies chase the Princesses and then the Princesses turn us into things. I asked if he got turned into anything....."I got turned into a Toad."

I thought this didn't happen until Jr. High!

Worst Day of 2007

Monday was THE worst day of 2007 for me...I hope. The year isn't over yet. I'll share my experience of that day with you so it makes you feel better about how your day is going.
What launched this snowball of catastrophes was a small mistake actually the night before. I set the alarm on my watch to wake me up, only I accidentally set it for PM rather than AM. I woke up to the sound of the school bus compressing it's brakes and opening it's doors for the kids to get on. "CRAP! Cru wake up you missed the bus!" I let him take his time eating his breakfast and catch a little bit of "Clifford The Big Red Dog". In the mean time I was getting ready and realized I couldn't find my car keys. I thought no big deal, they'll show up. But after searching high and low I finally gave up hope and began the dreaded process of putting snow clothes on all my kids. (It was like 19 degrees outside and the wind was blowing) Once that process was done I loaded the two little ones in the stroller and gave Cru a few words of encouragement before we headed out the door for the mile walk to his school. We realized after about 20 steps that we couldn't go our regular route because of road construction so we went an alternate route. We made it to the swinging bridge that crosses the river but it was rough going. The snow from the previous day had made it very difficult. After struggling our way over the swinging bridge we came to our intended path but were frustrated to find it had been gated off! That was the second "CRAP!" of the day. So the only option at this point was to ditch the stroller and take a huge flight of stairs up the hill. So that's what we did. Once to the top a blast of cold wind hit us...but did we stop? NO! because we came this far and education is important RIGHT! We could do it! (That was my optimistic attitude talking) So the pioneer children sang as they walked and walked and walked ...AND walked. The kids were really good until this point. Corbin's little legs had a hard time keeping up and they were all getting cold. Corbin began to cry. But once the school was in sight everyone felt like the torture was over....But was it? We did make it to the school and Cru was only 30 minutes late! But there was no way I was getting Corbin to walk back down to the stroller. He hung onto the handle of the school door and kept saying, "I want to stay at school with Cru". I put him on my back with Ava in the front and started to head out but Corbin couldn't hang on tight enough so I knew a piggy back ride wasn't going to work. So I knelt down to let him off and must have let go of him too soon because he didn't have his feet under him and he fell and bonked his head on the sidewalk. Keep in mind during this scene the lunch ladies in the cafeteria had a great view and saw the entire thing. So Corbin is screaming, I have mascara under my eyes from the night before so I look like Rocky and Ava realizes she needs to cry because she has to do everything her brother does. That's when the third "CRAP!" of the day was said. I finally gave up on my optimistic attitude and walked to my spectators inside the cafeteria to ask for a ride home. Luckily Sister Howell (Cru's primary teacher) worked there. Two other women were gaping at me and I think wondering if they should call Child Protective Services. Bless Sister Howell, with no hesitation she grabbed her car keys and took us home, picking up the stroller on the way. When I got home I looked on the table and there was a note with my car keys sitting next to them. It said, "Merry Christmas! They were in the garbage downstairs" AAAAHHHHH! Damon, bless his heart, had drove all the way home from work to give us a ride to the school but we weren't there so he started searching for the keys. Needless to say I had exhausted myself emotionally and physically by 9 a.m. and was useless the rest of the day. Well there you have it. I hope you feel better about your day now. If you do my mission is accomplished! Oh and at 6:50 PM while I was cleaning up the kitchen my alarm went off. I started laughing hysterically.

The Dentist

So I went to the dentist Monday. I think the dental assistant that cleaned my teeth ate at our local sandwich shop, BIG MOE'S. She had the worst breathe in the world and by my judgement ordered the pastrami burger with onions. I sat in the reclined chair for 30 minutes laughing to myself and trying to concentrate on breathing through my mouth so I wouldn't smell anything. That's really hard when you have a set of metal tools jammed inside your gaping mouth.