Santa, you've been warned

So these pictures had to stand alone.

My mother and sister took great pains to make an allergen free gingerbread house with the boys.  I owe them!!  Left to their mother's inability to mentally cope with the demands of an elimination diet, there would have been no gingerbread house at all!  The boys were quite proud of it, and while setting up the cupcakes for Santa to eat when he came visiting at our house, Owen must have started to worry that Santa would get greedy.  Because here's what I found later in the evening:

There's the gingerbread house over on the right, and the plate of cupcakes on the left.  But wait, what's that paper?  A note for Santa?

Just in case Santa was getting too hungry, Owen filled him in on the expectations:

"Don't eat the gingerbread house eat the cupcake."  (Learned later that spelling help was requested from Dad.)

LOL!!!!

Holiday photo tour

Lacking the post-holiday energy to *really* record all the bazillions of fun holiday occurrences, how about a tour in photos?  Doesn't capture all the cute sayings of the two gremlins in residence, but it will have to do.

Thanksgiving tree!  Favorite Owen item to be thankful for: boomerangs.  Hmm, OK...

Eden just being cute (there'll be a lot of these):

 Owen self-entertaining=Owen doing a craft.  Here he found some sticks and is making his own kite.

Reuel working like a dog trying to install the radiant heat before the contractor gets started.  Too bad the contractor has been a wee bit slow to start the project.  Ah well, we've waited this long, why not another year!

A small bit of snow.  Boys come in:  "Mom, the slide is like a rocket ship with snow on it!!!"

And again...

Mmm, rice crackers

Asher getting all grown up.  And suffering from mouth eczema from undiagnosed food allergy?  When you take out egg, dairy, soy, berries, citrus, nuts, chocolate, red dye, and a few other things and can't quite kick the rash, you start to dread the possibility that you'll need to remove wheat.  Maybe we can just feed him intravenous glucose with dye-free vitamins.

I finally gave in and got two stools.  The disappearance of conflict involving stool turns is worth the now completely obstructed traffic paths at all times in the kitchen.  That's saying something!!

Nunu!

Another...

Eden's birthday present!  None too sure about it for a while.

However, not a moment's doubt about carrot cake!!  The hands-free approach.

 Disappeared like lightning!!

Gifts are nice...

Packaging is better...

But a baby of my own isn't too bad!

Christmas Eve dinner:

 One seriously happy boy.  I observed him shout to the sky, "Thank you Santa!!!"

And a pleased Asher with suction dart gun (whose father has enjoyed it perhaps more than the son)

 Gift of the year:  Beardo.  From D. Spain, laughmaker

Cool plates from the Dallas fam!

Oh boy.  What was I thinking??  Don we now our Christmas earplugs, fa la la la la la la la la

Joy abounds when there are pencils to be sharpened ad infinitum!

A new weebler!

Trying out a chocolate spoon from Reuel's coworker

Liking the chocolate spoon from Reuel's coworker

Really entirely pleased with the chocolate spoon from Reuel's coworker

Laughter, not the best medicine

I lied.  I knew saying I wasn't blogging for a while would be the surest way to find the will!

My poor hardworking husband has been attacking a home renovation project with great gusto--in the winter temps, no less--and today he slipped on the snow on a step and fell such that his rib cage made contact with the corner of a step.  Of course, he didn't come in and tell me, oh no.  Instead, I had to ask, "Why are you making that strange moaning sound while we're eating supper?" at which point he divulged that he had sustained an injury.  I imagine he broke a rib or two.  He says "bruised", but I have never known a bruise that makes moans like that.  Tonight, sadly for Reuel, was also coincidentally the night when our individual senses of humor peaked in compatibility since our wedding in 2002, and constructively interfered such that there was nothing I could say that did not elicit uproarious laughter from Reuel...thus causing him excruciating pain.  The more he tried to stop laughing the worse it got...I just got funnier and funnier.  It's very gratifying to feel like a stand-up comic for an evening.  I was banished from his presence, but even my attempt to run through the room he was occupying with my arm over my face so as not to set him off...well, it didn't work.  It is interesting the sounds a man makes when he is experiencing pain whilst trying not to laugh.  Lonesome seal?  Heartbroken cow?  In any case, it is now my responsibility to turn off the Christmas tree light switch under the tree each night.  There goes the traditional Christmas day Swint family wrestling tournament, shucks.

My sweet hubby!  What payback for his hard work!  :}
 

Update

I really enjoy blogging.  On hiatus, because...

I. Am. In. Over. My. Head.

Never felt so under the pile...literally.  Feel like I am walking through an episode of hoarders every day and can only keep any 3 rooms at a time picked up around here.

We need some routines.
We need some organization.
We need some willing child labor.
3 kids has necessitated a more disciplined life, and I haven't stepped up to meet the challenge sufficiently.

While we are barely afloat between homemaking, home renovating, sick kids, napless kids, school schedules, holidays, church, friends and just wanting to spend time together...

Blog hiatus.

Cherry Pie

Owen:  AWWWWW!  Why is the cherry pie so gone already???  I only got 2 pieces!
Me:  Well, I think Daddy really likes it.  He must have gobbled up a lot.  I can make another one sometime.
Owen:  Maybe we should send Daddy on a vacation for 10 days all by his self so we can make another pie and eat it and he won't be around to eat it all up.

You've heard of sibling rivalry.  Now we have pie-lovers rivalry!

Christmas Lists

5 year olds really aren't known for moderation are they?  Owen is therefore not unique.  He has been nabbing every toy catalog that comes to our house than he can (if I don't remember to stick it *under* the other items in the paper recycling bin), taking scissors to them, and making a folder full of graphic Christmas list.  Oh my.  I looked at one of the catalogs post-Owen and it was sort of like a lacy catalog-paper-snowflake...definitely more open space remaining than paper.  Once the folder began to bulge, I told him he had better narrow it down a bit because Santa would have a hard time figuring out what his real favorite thing  is with all those choices.  Tonight I spied the folder and it was considerable thinned...but still quite full :)  Here's a peek into the mind of Owen:

Craft kit with lots of supplies for open-ended creative projects
Suction cup archery
Spin-painting
Microscope
Remote control helicopter
Vinegar and baking soda rocket
Microscope (different model)
Razor 360 big wheel type scooter/bike
Laser shooting range w/ gun and targets
Erector set crane
Sewing machine
Build your own go-kart kit

He is being awfully sweet and accepting about the fact that he's not getting what his little heart truly, truly, truly desires (a longstanding desire that has been spoken many times since the summer):  a skateboard.  Maybe he actually is ready for one.  He rides Asher's scooter down the driveway now with no hands just to pretend.  But earlier on, we said no, not til you're quite a bit older, and he grew to accept it.  Now, when I otherwise might be inclined to budge, I am so pleased that this (relatively speaking) wealthy and entitled child is calmly accepting being denied (even in the face of finding out some of his fellow kindergarteners have them when they saw him drawing a picture of one at school!), that I am thinking it is healthier for him to actually have to wait a while...  I'm hesitant to teach him that when your parents say you have to wait, it's not actually true, and you'll end up getting it.  (But he would be SOOOO excited and surprised and it's inexpensive!)

In other Owen news, he has been promoted to the 6 year old gymnastics class.  Apparently he was ready sooner than this, but at 5, the staff thought it wise to push til he was a little older to switch over.  The boy has some talent (teacher said so!  not just me!) and since he has learned how to cartwheel, pull himself up and flip-mount onto the bar, hold a headstand and do a quick handstand all on his own time here at home...well, the preschool class was not such a match anymore.  I am proud of him!  He's practiced hard, and when he gets stuck we watch a video online and he goes and tries to figure things out!  (Ever since I taught him to blow his nose by drawing a picture, we stick with graphic lessons and he seems to do well that way.)

If you can, say some prayers for Asher.  He has had significant asthma symptoms crop up recently (perhaps coincident with the onset of a cold...can't tell for sure yet) and seems in general to have allergic responses here and there to things we haven't been able to narrow down.  I will be getting him into the Dr. this week.  A mother wants her child to be 100% well, and that's not the case for Asher, so my heart hurts for him :(  He is such a sweetie.  In all of this present-hunting, Asher hasn't really been interested.  I am sure he will catch on soon enough, but this year he hasn't developed greed, which is nice!  He is having a bang-up time at his new preschool 2x/week and he wants to bake cookies with me every. single. day.  That's his new fave activity.

Eden's pulling up for a few weeks now!  She is so stinkin' cute crawling around the house getting into things.  We put up our Christmas tree today and it's going to be hard work for a few days to say no consistently enough that she gets the picture.  She does NOT like to be told no.  Oh my.  Is this the girl difference???  She is way more sensitive...if the boys say something with a sharp tone, she cries and lets them know!  Also screams bloody murder if I say no and move her hand away from an outlet!!  Better have the authority battle now vs. later...learned that one the hard way...!!