For you, Tess

I was kindly reminded that I don't post much about my littlest buddy, Jake. Oops!

Look at those baby blues!

Looking all smart in his new suit --

"Let me outta here!" (staying waaaayyy late after church)

I love this shot--

In Rosalie fashion...

Oh, I love me my Jacob! He is such an ANGEL BABY. No joke. I take him to play practice with me. You'd think that would be a total hinderance, what with me rehearsing and costuming and playing my violin. For FOUR HOURS! Plus the 1-hour drive each way! You'd think it'd be an absolute nightmare. Nope. This kid is a complete joy. The only noises I hear from him are the happy squealing and laughing he makes as the rest of the cast goes ga-ga over him. Incredible, I tell you!

Cooking

Question: what do you do when your kitchen looks like this?

Answer: well.... most people would probably clean it. Me? Nah. Let's just make some more mess!

Today I decided to play with some whole wheat recipes:

Tried-&-true bread:

Whole-wheat brownies that, oddly, had no chocolate/cocoa in them except the choc. chips I opted to sprinkle on top. Weird, but tasty!

Half white/half whole-wheat breadsticks. Tastes fine. It lacks a little in the presentation...

Oh, and here's a random shot for you - wanna guess what it is?

Scout camp-out dinner, of course! Mark has lofty goals of getting the verrry urban boys in our ward un-citified. Yeah. Like I said, it's a lofty goal. But he sure tries! On his last scout camp-out he brought 2 live roosters with them. Why? Look back at that picture. Oh yes. He made the boys kill, pluck and cook their dinner. Personally, I think he let them off easy by cleaning & cutting them himself. But then, he had to eat it, too. So maybe that was just a smart move on his part? But it didn't stop there. Later on he boiled down the carcass and rolled out from-scratch noodles, to make a delicious chicken noodle soup. Impressive!

Here's the best part: rather than chopping their heads or wringing their necks, they SHOT the roosters. One bullet to the back of the head, execution style. You can take a boy out of the city, but...

Another illustration

Here is Lacie:

Here are the contents of her pocket (shown in her hand):

"What pocket?" you ask, and that is a very good question.

If you look closely, you can see a tiny little square of a pocket just under her collar.

Again, the contents of her pocket:

Hmmmmm.

I asked her why she had a pencil that couldn't write and with no eraser on it. She replied that she was using it as her magic wand. The little rock was something she wanted to bring home to show me.

Naturally.

Lacie-ism

This is what I pulled out of Lacie's pocket:

a couple hair clips,

some yarn,

a metal flower,

Chuck E. Cheese coin,

a wood splinter,

cracker crumbs,

a sticker that fell off some crazy glasses (X-Ray Vision),

a magnet,

and paper scraps.

Yup. That about sums her up! :)

Andrea-isms

At dinner a couple nights ago Andrea asked out of the blue,

"Mom? How do you think you would feel if, before you got married to Dad, a guy with no legs, but could fly, came and took Dad and hid him somewhere?"

uh...

I think my response right now is the same that I gave her:

"Wait... what?"

~

The next day the kids were looking at the pictures for my screen saver (I have it set up to just randomly cycle through my iPhotos). One came up of Mark and me at our wedding reception. Andrea saw it and asked incredulously,

"Mom?! You were at Dad's wedding?!"

Again,

uh...

Games

I don't like Hyrum's newest game. It's a ramming game. I think it's called "run-into-the-back-of-mom-while-she's-standing-at-the-kitchen-sink." Over and over and over. And then again some more.

NOT my favorite.

I don't like Jacob's newest game. I'd like it even less if he had teeth, so at least I'm glad for that. It's where he opens his mouth as wide as possible and then attacks. As in, face-plant to the nearest extremity of your body.

It leaves you slimy and smelling like saliva.

My latest game is a spin on the classic 'Keep Away.' Only, I'm sweeping the floor and madly trying to push my dirt pile around the kitchen in-time and out-of-reach of Jacob, while frantically looking for the dust pan which I cannot find so I end up just sweeping everything into the pantry and slamming the door before Jake can crawl in.

Come to think of it, I don't like this game much either.

~

As long as we're on the topic of games, I just finished the Hunger Games series. "Just finished" as in I started book 1 Tuesday afternoon and finished book 3 some time around 4:00 Thursday morning.

[Yes, I am quite useless while I'm reading a book -- because if I'm going to read something it had better keep my attention. And if it keeps my attention, well, I'm not so good at multi-tasking and even worse at self-control.]

Anyhow.

I am sorry I read it. It's left me with a dark, sad feeling. And I'm confused, because I've heard soooo many people absolutely RAVE about the books. Okay, so obviously I was "into" the books to be able to consume them so quickly. But as I tried explaining to Mark, it was like watching a particularly horrific accident, and not being able to tear my eyes away because I had just enough hope that by some magic or miracle things would end happily ever after. But then they didn't. They just got worse and worse and worse and then a little better and then worse.

Kinda like the book equivalent of the movie, "Million Dollar Baby."

Personally, I'm not one for sad or sobering endings when it comes to entertainment. I think we have enough of that in the world already.

Lacie-ism

Me: "Don't step on Jacob. If you have to walk around, do it. If there's no room then step on me. Just don't step on him, okay?"

Lacie: "Yeah. Because he's cuter."

Random

My kids are all in the kitchen right now playing Play-Doh and singing the "Gloria" chorus to "Angels We Have Heard on High." They're in different keys, at different parts of the music.

It sounds like a bunch of hooting owls dying.

Bad Mom

I yelled at my kid this morning.

Yelled doesn't actually begin to cover it.

Total dress down.

And I'm good at that. Just ask Mark.

I was debate Queen in high school and I have the awards and titles to prove it.

And I ripped apart my 7 year old.

I could explain why I was upset; how she pushed me over the edge and 'had it coming.'

Doesn't matter.

I feel like crap.

A few General Conferences ago one of the apostles talked about yelling in the home. He said that as soon as you yell or shout the Holy Spirit leaves.

I think about that every time that I yell.

Every. single. time.

Did I mention I feel like crap?

Christmas!

Yes, this is after-the-fact. And it's more for documentary purposes than reading entertainment. Sorry.

Christmas was swell. Pretty dang happy about that, too. Especially since last year was a bit tarnished by the stomach flu we passed around, and I totally feared we'd repeat that scene again since I spent most of the week leading up to Christmas in bed. With the flu.

Happily it went away and we went to Houston! Yay! We were able to be with the Nick & Lexye Thiele family and it was truly lovely. We got there later than we'd hoped (Christmas Eve evening), and Lex was plenty busy with a newborn, so it was pretty was low-key, and yet fun, entertaining, and man! the food was GOOD! Can I just say that Lex & Nick truly understand the value of snack food and treats? Mmmmm.

Now for the documentation:

Kids waiting so very patiently (yeah, right) Christmas morning, and both dads heroically helping out:

(note that Mark is holding his iPad? yes, well, we call it his "Precious" for a reason!)

Santa-gifts are always left out, unwrapped and put-together. I seem to recall that's how it was growing up, but Lexye didn't remember it that way. Hmmm. I also figure it helps that they can immediately play with the toys and you don't have to spend your morning assembling everything. As an added bonus, if you don't actually have the boxes for the toys b/c you bought them second hand, no one is ever the wiser! ...well, unless you announce it on your blog, that is.

I'd like to mention and especially thank Angela and Sara Newman for the donation of the 14 Barbie dolls + clothes & accessories!! Santa's budget was meager this year (is there anyone NOT suffering from this economy?!), but thanks to Sara's outgrowing her Barbie collection at a very (generously) convenient time for us, and a fortuitous steal of a deal on Craigslist back in August, our kids never had a clue. The magic of Santa lives on! Plus, I had a grand time fixing up hair, dressing dolls and posing the ensemble for the display :) THANK YOU!

Mark & Hyrum putting together the "Mystery Machine" from Scooby-Doo.

Lex tried to not let me get a pic of her--

she held Kate up to "intervene." It just made for a weird pic.

Happy boys!

Total success!

...except for the "nice" picture in Sunday attire...

Thank you, Thieles! and Merry Christmas, everyone!

UPDATE!!

Ready for a super-dee-duper-ly long post? Cause here it comes!

**people reading this on email, I truly apologize if this crashes your email or something of that nature. it's long. with tons of pictures. and did I mention it was long? it is. if you can't view it, you can always go to the web address:

http://viehwegs.blogspot.com

I took a bit of a hiatus from blogging. Not sure why except I've been busy, sick, overwhelmed, stressed, traveling, and the usual crazy. Well, that and I'm generally speaking lazy whenever I can get away with it.

Anyhoo.

Here's a nice long recap since... October. Oy.

We went with some friends to the Dallas Arboretum to see the pumpkin display

and get faces painted:

Butterfly 1

Butterfly 2

Pirate mate-y!

Puppy dog

Tiger 1

Tiger 2 (my favorite shot of the day)

Yay for the Pumpkin Patch --- that they weren't actually supposed to be getting into... oops.

On the way back to our car we found O.J. Simpson's missing glove.

RANDOM ALERT:

ever wonder why your kid's backpack is so full?

I have strange children.

For Halloween Lacie enjoyed dressing up,

Hyrum was possibly the cutest cowboy ever,

Andrea loved getting into character - even if she hadn't actually ever seen the Hunchback of Notre Dame (she's Esmerelda),

fun, fun!

We went to the ECI Fall Festival. Ironic that for a group of kids who probably the majority of them suffer with sensory issues, the organization of therapists puts on a party where it was crazy loud, jam-packed, with lots of sugary food and a ridiculous amount of activities going on all at once. Hmmmm...

Hyrum & Lacie danced,

Hyrum fell,

and was soon-afterwards "done."

Jacob is cute!!

Hyrum still puts things up his nose and occasionally can't get them out without assistance.

Then he had a birthday (#3).

Jake had a great time.

Hyrum loved his cake.

Can you blame him?! (Wal-Mart made it)

Soon afterwards, Lacie had a birthday (#6).

Wal-mart did not make this cake. And yes, you're counting correctly - Lacie put 8 candles on her cake. Kindergarten is going well.

I tried to get fancy with what little hair she has.

We love our princess!

Then Mark made a giraffe out of pennies.

Hyrum got hurt

Lacie got sick

I'm trying to learn to do hair.

Jacob looks darling in his hat!

So does Hyrum.

Hyrum is just a cute kid,

dinosaur,

pirate,

as Buzz Lightyear,

or with a diaper on his head.

Notice Jake holding Dinosaur Hyrum's tail? Yes, he's learning to defend himself.

Here is our blockade to keep him out of the kitchen:

Proof that some times I can be a cool, fun mom:

Our pretty Christmas tree that Mark scored for free last January!

Aww...

Oh yes, and Jake can now pull himself up to standing position and shimmy along boxes and furniture like a pro. (10 months old) I think that happened when I blinked.