Future Blackmail Photos

'nuff said.

Christmas arrived!!!!

It was a good day. My pictures uploaded backwards, so I will tell about the day backwards. While I made a ham (my first time in the 6 years we've been married, 'cause I think they're gross. Miguel likes them though, so this was one of his Christmas presents.) After dinner we decorated another gingerbread house. We really like the gingerbread houses. I think they're going to become an annual thing.

Here is Miguel while we were decorating the gingerbread house. So cute. Typical Miguel picture.

Here's the loot. The kids really made out this year thanks to the budget. Yep, we've put money away every paycheck, just for Christmas. Nope, I didn't wrap a thing. Not one single present. Yep, it's cause I am lazy. Work has been super crazy and no fun at all. I've been stressed out, strike that, I've been stressed-the-heck-out and just couldn't deal with it. I know, selfish mom. I'll get better, I promise.

Here's our Christmas tree. I loved having a live tree this year. The scent wasn't impressive, though, which was a disappointment. I think we'll go live again next year. In the spirit of the unwrapped presents, we didn't put any ornaments on our tree either. We have tons, we just didn't get them out. We only used the ornaments the kids made at church. I like our tree very much.

And lastly - the annual picture of the animals. The pretty one is also quite dumb, but thankfully he is calming down quite a bit. He is lazy and just doesn't learn the same way as the others. It's a really good thing he's so pretty. Sadie (the small one) still follows me around like the wonderful puppy she is. Sarge (the one laying down) is totally Miguel's dog and follows Miguel around the way Sadie follows me around.

Christmas 2009 was a huge success.

Random randomness

Silly kids, dog update and we got a Christmas tree!!!!

It's a real tree! We had a fake one we inherited from some friends, but one of the dogs destroyed it (sigh). Anyway, I'm really excited to have a LIVE tree and I'm looking forward to the homey Christmas-tree scent in the house. We haven't decorated the tree yet, but it will happen prior to Christmas day. What you see now is what the kids have been coming home from church with. Thank you nursery for providing us with new, home-made (church-made?) ornaments.

Work is nuts for me, but Miguel is feeling pretty good Thank goodness.

Katie has decided to potty-train herself. It's been interesting, to say the least. When she turned 2, she decided she no longer wanted to wear diapers. I haven't bought a package since. We do LOTS of laundry, but stickers seem to be the magic ingredient to potty-training success in the Felix house, especially if they have kitties on them.

Sherman (the "puppy") is HUGE. He's still a spaz, even though he'll be turning 3 next June. He has calmed down a little in the past 6 months, but he still bucks like a crazed horse when he gets excited. When he sees someone outside of our fence he will start jumping and barking at the same time. It's almost as though the two actions are connected, somehow. He'll jump so high his body easily gets above the fence. Thank goodness he's lazy and has never tried to jump the fence.

And after Halloween...

Thanksgiving!!! I know, these pictures don't seem like Thanksgiving pictures, but they are :)

In the background you can see our never-ending home-improving (new flooring and refinishing the walls - begone wainscotting!).



The kids saw a gingerbread house kit at the grocery store the day before Thanksgiving and we thought it would be a great time. So while I was finishing up dinner (which was fantastic, by the way), Miguel helped the kids with their very first gingerbread house. It was pre-constructed, so they had a great time slathering on the icing and of course, putting on the finishing candy-touches.

Visit from Grandpa..and Halloween

Grandpa was able to take vacation and came to our house for 2 whole weeks! We celebrated 4 birthdays while he was here. He also spent a lot of time getting used to being around a preschooler and a toddler again, cause it's been awhile for him. He spent a lot of time going on walks and was even stopped by the cops twice! I kept telling him at least he's making memories of good times in Tennessee...haha.

He took walks everyday and on one of the walks was stopped by a policeman making sure he was okay. There aren't many sidewalks here and the officer wanted to make sure he wasn't stranded. The second incident was a bit more interesting. He'd hopped a fence to take some pictures of an historical property nearby, and was caught! Though, in my Dad's defense, he had looked for a formal entrance and ticket booth to legitimize his presence prior to hopping said fence. Nevertheless, he was placed in the back of a squad-car and taken to the ticket-booth (which was quite a distance away, across a main highway, on a separate historical property).

This is the thing great memories are made of.

Halloween was fun - I wanted to make costumes, but work has been insane and I'm grateful to have time with my family and I don't want to squander it with crafts taking me away from them...and I'm lazy- teehee. Katie was Batgirl and Josh was a Jedi.

Here are some shots of good times while Grandpa was here along with pics at the Branch Halloween party, the kids in their costumes, and Birthdays. Enjoy!

Also...Blogger is smarter than me and not allowing me to format today, so I'm very sorry for what seem to be the giant run-on paragraph that is this blog post. Have a great day!

Josh quote of the week

"Daddy, can we watch Cast Holes on Marbles Marbles?"
"Watch what?"
"Cast Holes on Marbles Marbles."
(TV in the background on the History Channel) "...we now return to Castles on Modern Marvels"

Peek-a-boo!

I guess they never get too old for this...

Random Tale of Josh and the Gross Dinner

Gross Dinner is certainly one perspective, though it was admittedly a near-miss for our tired chef (me). I made my mom's turkey-stroganoff over rice this evening, and the kids helped me cook. Since I don't measure the spices, I discovered it's a bit harder to 'eyeball' the amount of the spices in a tiny kid-hand, and ended up with a tad (read: YUCK) too much garlic salt in the gravy. Not to worry, I made enough rice to stretch it out and make it palatable.

Enter Josh, who claims he doesn't like stroganoff (though he loves to help me make it), even though he's been eating it since he was in the womb. We had broccoli with it, which is the bane of his existence; certainly the nemesis of any 3-year old boy (he was once only offered his broccoli at every meal/snack until he choked it down the next day at lunch).

Unfortunately for him, I mixed his broccoli into his stroganoff. In order to make dinner a bit more enjoyable I offered cheese into the mix, which he accepted gladly, stating he would then eat his yucky stroganoff and broccoli. He still didn't touch it until I picked it up and took a bite (which I might add, was quite good, the broccoli along with the extra rice and cheese was VERY good, enough so I may have a new cassarole on my hands...but I digress). Once I took a bite he was super interested in eating it himself, so long as I fed it to him. I don't usually go along with that request, but he was eating it (broccoli included) so I just went with it.

On EVERY bite with broccoli, the kid gagged. I still don't know if this is acting or not. I know Miguel has a very sensitive gag reflex, so it could be real, but I still haven' t decided if I buy it or not, especially since he does it with anything he doesn't want to eat, but I like to give him the benefit of the doubt. His last bite of broccoli was a small "tree" which I knew couldn't be very crunchy, and is the part I like the best. He took it and started chewing *and gagging* all while being praised for his valiant efforts of eating his veggies like a good boy. He gagged, and gagged, and gagged again. And finally...he threw up on the table.

Josh 1 Mom 0

He didn't ask for anything else and proclaimed he was finished at that point. I didn't fight it, though he certainly didn't get any "treat" (read: iced animal crackers - YUM) after dinner.

Oh well. On to figuring out new ways to disguise vegetables with dinner. And, just to let you know, normally when I offer veggies it is alongside something he enjoys eating. So I have him eat a serving of veggies first, then provide the good stuff. I guess I have to switch to fruit on the nights we have an entree he despises...hmmm...that may be my new strategy. At least he will eat any fruit I put in front of him. If he could live on fruit, yogurt, cheese and peanut butter sandwiches, I think he'd be the world's happiest kid.

And the tiredness continues...

The new person I mentioned in my last post (please take note of the date of that post), has yet to be hired. Yep, still hasn't started. Yesterday I heard final word he is starting on Monday, so hopefully I will be able to have time to think soon.

Tired...

I'm sorry, I've been working like a crazy person. 2 people quit at work, 1 of which was my counterpart. I am now 8 months into this job, doing the job of a Sr. Technician. Great opportunity. Horrible hours. No fun sinking or swimming.

BUT I haven't forgotten my blog and my few followers.

Pray for me, I think I will be needing it...

Hopefully they will hire someone next week, but then I have to train them AND do the job of 2 people. Why doesn't that sound comforting?

I'm going to bed.

Coming Soon....

Vacation...yes, you read that right!
4th of July

We really aren't dead, I've just been busy. I'll catch you all up on our un-exciting busy-ness soon.

Josh's Antics

Josh was watching Phineas and Ferb this morning while playing on Daddy's computer chair. During the commercials he kept himself entertained like this:

Sorry it's so dark, I didn't want him to know I was taking his picture.

They're 3, and He's 2 and They're All Canines

For those of you keeping track, no human in our family has a birthday outside of February (Josh) or October (everyone else). But we have 3 dogs who all have birthdays in June.

I know, strange to know a dog's birthday. I'll get to why there are pictures of Transformers in a minute, for now I reminisce. Growing up we had rescues or maybe I just had parents who weren't fun. Either way, we never celebrated any dogs birthdays.

Enter married life, and into our lives come Sarge and Sadie. We "Rescued" them from a very nice lady who simply didn't have the room to keep her puppies (which she didn't mean to have) and wasn't going to take them to a shelter. For the first time, we have dogs of our own and even know their birthday! For their first birthday we attended a "family reunion" with a bunch of other pups from the litter. Great fun, not something we would have thought of on our own, but still fun.

Then we have another addition to our little pack of pups, Sherman. The older dogs' 2nd birthday came and went and there was a relatively new baby and a boy being potty trained and things just went on unnoticed.

Now the older dogs have turned 3 and Sherman has finally calmed himself into a decent (yet still annoying) older adolescent at 2. The kids are older and more self-sufficient and we found ourselves in the middle of summer, with nothing to celebrate between Memorial Day and July 4th, so we'll have a DOG BIRTHDAY PARTY!!!

Yes, it really is a simple excuse to buy cupcakes and party hats and an even better excuse to buy Transformers for my husband...I mean for my son.

It's always entertaining to put hats on the dogs. Doesn't Sadie look like she's saying, "This sucks!"?

And what birthday party would be complete without a meltdown from the resident 3-yr-old?

Isn't Sherman a pretty dog? See the dirt he manages to constantly get on my walls and fridge? Yet they are all so obedient they will eat from our children's hands (only with adult-supervision).

All in all, the kids had a great time and we enjoyed our little excuse for a party.

Water Guns in the Afternoon Sun

I love our backyard. The dogs don't add to the landscaping, but it's a wonderfully big space to allow the kids (and dogs) to run WILD, and they love it.

Of course my son loves water guns. He would play with them all the time if I allowed it and he just doesn't understand why not in the house? We had a lovely Sunday afternoon in the backyard after dinner and I was able to snap some photos.

Invasion!

Okay, not really, but isn't this the biggest ant you've ever seen??? It was in my living room! I can't believe I took a picture of it, but that's how shocked I was to see such a huge ant-looking creature in my house! And please, if it's not really an ant, tell me what it is...

Randomly Katie

My daughter worships her brother. She follows him around and tries to do anything he does. She will attempt to jump off of the couch, or build something cool out of legos, just because he did it.
Here, she is simply being herself, trying to fit into a box. Why? cause it's there and she puts stuff in it, why can't she get in it too?

I remember sleeping in this very position when I was a kid. Though, I wasn't only 19 months old at the time.

This is what happens when we attempt to tame the mane in a ponytail...it just doesn't want to be tamed.

Notice the black eye? She fell. While trying to be like Josh. Off the fireplace...but she now knows she can jump and get both feet off the ground.

By the way...her current favorite word is, "No!"

Yep - she's headed to be 2, very soon.

What happens when you turn your back...

My son is a goof-ball, this we know. This is just proof for those of you who haven't figured it out yet.

Poor little girl tries so hard to keep up with her big-brother. She didn't quite "get" the markers part, though some of it had washed off of her face by the time this was taken...thanks to baby-dribbling. See the remnants of green on her chin? And yes, her hair is still pretty wild. She has finally started pushing it out of her face and saying, "Hahr." So cute.

Did I mention they wrote all over the dishwasher too? Thank goodness it was washable markers. When I discovered how easily it all wiped off (thank you, Crayola washable markers), I considered allowing them to write on it regularly. Then reality set in and let that idea go. It's just easier to be consistent this way.

Random House Fun

The best part of having an old hand-me-down couch.

Katie was getting frustrated because the "fort" kept falling on her...

Cool Kid

I took Josh with me to the grocery store on a warm spring day. When I turned around to get him out of the car, he had put on his hat and sunglasses all by himself! I think he's adorable...

Our Very Own Jedi!

Anyone who knows my son, knows he is a bigger Star Wars fan than his father. It is not an uncommon thing in our home to hear Daddy telling us, "I didn't think there was a bigger Star Wars fan than me..."

*Josh's favorite movie is Star Wars: Clone Wars
*He LOVES the Cartoon Network series (it probably helps that he is allowed to stay up late to watch it...hmm...)
*He is fascinated with Ahsoka Tano - Anikan's padawan.

For those of you who have seen the movie, look for similarities between Josh and Ahsoka in these pictures. Those who haven't seen the movie probably won't get it, but I still think it's cute that Josh is trying to be a Jedi...and please excuse the disaster that used to be the living room. This all happened when Miguel fell asleep on the couch. I came out of my office and found this:


Notice the Lightsaber clipped to his belt for quick access?

How about the wristband up around his hand similar to Ahsoka's wrist-wraps?

For those of you unfamiliar with Ahsoka - here she is at wikipedia

Monkeys in my House

The other night hubby and I were sitting around talking, and my kids just started doing silly things. Yes, this is normal, but we'd never seen them do these particular things before. Enjoy...

This one isn't great, but it's the first time we ever saw this. I have no idea how she thought of it. She also likes to swing her legs from chairs, or stand with her hands on two tables (one hand on either side of her) and lift herself up and swing her feet.

Josh joined in because we were laughing so hard at Katie. Even better - I think Josh has his shorts on backwards...I'm not complaining, it's hard enough to get him to put his clothes on after he goes potty, so I'm very grateful he's not naked.

And here we were trying to get her to do it again and get a good shot of it, but by this time she was tired . It is still quite silly. Enjoy.

An Easter Entry...finally

Easter was enjoyed by all this year. Miguel told the kids the Easter-bunny poops out candy-filled eggs. He was hoping Josh would repeat that one in a public place, but to my relief, Josh kept it to himself.

Anyhow, it was an excellent weekend. I can't believe how different it is living here from where I grew up. People wish each other a Happy Easter at the grocery store, or the drug store or Anywhere! People don't worry about being Politically Correct here; it's truly my kind of place.

On Saturday the kids went to an egg-hunt at Church. We had a light brunch of blueberry muffins (Josh's absolute favorite), then a short ending to our Walk With Christ activity we'd been challenged to participate in at home. Finally, the egg hunt began!

There were only 3 kids under 4 at church for the activity, so Katie and Josh and another little boy got a head-start in looking for eggs. Thankfully they limited the number kids could pick up to ensure everyone received the same number. Josh took off and was able to truly participate well. Katie didn't really get it but enjoyed picking up the eggs and looking inside of them.

On Sunday, Miguel wanted to have our own Egg-hunt, but the weather was dreary. Not rainy, but colder and windy. So in the early evening, eggs were hidden in the living room and the kids had a ball.

That pink dinosaur on the bookshelf behind Katie is her Easter Basket. I was VERY excited to get both of their baskets on clearance last year after Easter. This year we bought Josh a cool Star Wars bucket to use as a basket, and surprisingly, he chose to use Elmo.

It was a good weekend.