This Face

I'm doing something new...I have seen other people blogging about the website "I Heart Faces".  I have been curious, but never checked it out.  Today, I checked it out, and it looked like so much fun!  I love taking pictures, but have so much to learn.  Mostly, I experiment.  A great deal of my pictures are taken inside, so I use a flash.  I've been using our giant flash lately, to see if it's any better than just using the flash that comes on the camera, and it's been interesting.

Anyway, when Eliana got out of the bath tonight, she wrapped herself in her towel without help and looked at me beaming; she exclaimed,"I did it!"  I ran and grabbed the camera, because...this face!  How I love it.  And I thought of the "I Heart Faces" challenge that I had just read about.  This week's theme is "Best Face Photo".  Well, this is certainly one of them, for me.  It's the cheeks!  They get me every time.

There are so many faces out there!  And each one tells a story...go see for yourself! 

The Time That Was Supposed to Be

(I'll be back-tracking a little here!  Sorry to anyone who likes chronological consistency!)

Since my mom and dad's accident, we all feel a little more the sense of how fragile life is, and how quickly things can change.  In the blink of an eye, and yet in a moment that seems to pass before you like a slow-motion movie, your whole life can change.  We have all had those experiences...where something incredible happens, either good or bad. 

We joked about how of course they would make it through the flight safely, since they had been spared in the car...why would they be saved if only to perish in a plane crash?!  But seriously, we were all so relieved and grateful to see them, and to hug them!  We had lunch together that first day shortly after they walked in the door...

Do you think they like her a little bit?

Do you think she likes it that they like her a little bit?

Just a little bit!

Christian favors both sides of our family...he can look so much like Mike did as a boy, and even Mike's brothers.  But there are also many, many times when his expressions are just like my dad's.  It cracks me up.  They are pretty close.  They're both big Star Wars fans, you know.

The rest of that day they rested, since they had to get up so early for their flight.  It was New Year's Eve, so we made an effort to stay up.  We made it to midnight, east coast time, and probably went to bed by midnight our time.

We saved our Christmas fun for the following day!

The anticipation was rising...Eliana could not wait to open her "fresents"!  She knew that once Grandma and Grandpa were here we could dig into the pile of wrapped gifts that was still hiding behind the tree.

The big kids received ipod speakers/chargers for beside their beds.  Michaela's is designed to look like a purse.  Isn't it cute?!  She really liked it.

And Christian's is pretty cool...very streamlined and masculine. He didn't know what it was at first, but when we explained it to him, he thought it was neat.  Now, of course, we have to find his ipod.  (Sigh.)

Eliana got a lot of fun things for her kitchen...baking tools and pots and pans.  She liked every single thing she opened.  Can you tell?

She was very busy cooking for Grandpa.  It's a good thing he has a hearty appetite!  And a sweet tooth-just about everything he got from her was "tookies wif choc-late!" 

Christian opened a dinosaur excavation kit.  He thought it was great!  He immediately got to work after reading the instructions with his dad. 

And he totally dug the safety goggles. 

I think the above photo may be one of my favorite pictures ever.  I would also like to say that later in the week, Mike was going to do something that he thought would require goggles and Christian ran and grabbed these for him.  Loved it.

Speaking of loving it...Eliana loves chocolate about as much as her mother.  Here we are playing tug-of-war with a bag of M&M's that I got in my goodie bag (kind of like a stocking!) from my mom.  But they were the kind with peanuts, and we all know what she thinks of the Peanut M&M's...so, I win!

Soon, it was my mom and dad's turn to open their presents.  Eliana made it her personal responsibility to be in the middle of any and all gift-opening activity.

We gave them a new comforter cover; it has a pretty red, vinish (vine-ish?) design all over it. 

Now, you can't have a comforter cover without a comforter to cover, right?  This is what Dad thought about that...

"A what?"

As he was trying to fit all of their stuff in the suitcases the day before they left, he asked me,"What was that other thing you gave us besides the bedspread?"  I told him that it was a comforter, like a cover for the bed.  He said,"Is it fitted?"  He didn't quite get it.  I tried to explain that it was just like a bedspread, it went over the bed, and that it was a cover.  Then he asked again about the duvet.  I said,"It's a cover...for the other thing."  He had that same expression on his face.  Once he sees it all put together, I am sure it will make sense, but as of a few days ago...not so much.

I love looking back over these pictures...seeing the fun, and the joy on everyone's faces.  These are moments that are treasures to me.  There are more photos that I would like to share, but I will break it up, so that this post isn't too long.  Ha, it probably already is too long!  But, it was definitely a special time, and one that was given to us and was a blessing.  I know I've already said it, but we are grateful for that!!

A Family Tradition

When my parents and I are together we love to play Scrabble.  Sometimes Mike joins us, and sometimes he doesn't.  The last couple of visits we've had with them, though, the kids have gotten to bed late most nights, then there is stuff to clean-up, and our time for fun starts around 10:30 or 11:00 at night.  We don't always feel like starting up a game of Scrabble when midnight is closing in on us.  Actually, we might feel like starting, but the way we play, it's the finishing that gives us headaches.

The kids were on a crazy late schedule for their visit this time as well.  It seemed like no matter what we did (early dinner prep, no baths, order pizza) it still got very late before they were settled in bed.  Mom and I were determined to play Scrabble though.  One night, she looked at me like,"Is it going to happen?!"  I wasn't sure if she really wanted it to, but...we got the game down off of the bookshelf and she set it up. 

We had two letter holders out and had drawn to see who went first; it was her. 

You know, no one likes to start.  Even with the double points, it's a stinkin' job.  She had cruddy letters, too.  And those darn double letter scores are always just out of reach, aren't they?  It seems a universal thing that four-letter words are so easy to come up with, yet the five-letter words are not to be found amongst all the tiles on those little holders.  Oh, the ease of the four-letter words...

We had each taken our first turn, and then my dad walked through the room.  She turned and asked him,"Do you want to play?"  She hadn't asked before, because he was watching a game.  She told him we had each gone and that if he wanted to jump in, now was the time.  He did join us.  He pulled out his seven letters, and then he said,"Oh, I have two seven-letter words, but nowhere to put them!"

We felt so sorry for him. 

You see, he puts down a seven-letter word just about every game he plays.  It's infuriating and fascinating at the same time.  He can pull out the tiles "e", "q", "t", "i", "i', "w", "n' and put them all down with the "q" on a triple letter, so that it counts twice (crossword puzzle-like), OR he will put down the seven-letter word so that it crosses over or begins on the triple word score.  That sentence may or may not contain some hyperbole.

As soon as he said that he had nowhere to put his words, I looked at the board thinking surely there was a way he could incorporate the "s" that my mom had used in her word into his word.  And don't think that he didn't do it!  He did!  On his first go!  In a game where we foolishly asked him to play once we had already started!

He tried to act sheepish (sheepishly?), as if it weren't his fault at all...

but I don't think he felt that bad, really.  What do you think?

But my mom...well, she felt just great about asking him to play!  She was so glad that he joined our game...

My mom and I never quite caught up after this beginning...

He went on to kick our butts quite soundly.

But...after all, it's tradition.  And we all love family traditions!  Right?!

What are some of yours?

Squeezing It In

I could be talking about getting into my pants these days...but I'm not.  I know you are so glad.

My mom and dad have been here for four days, and are here for the remainder of this week.  Nine days total.  And so far we have celebrated New Year's Eve, New Year's Day, Christmas (a little late), Michaela's birthday, watched Julie and Julia, and gone grocery shopping. 

You might not think that last one fits...but when we're all together, it's an event.  There are coupons involved.

As usual, we are trying to squeeze in all that we can.  Michaela has yet to have her birthday party with a couple of friends (that's coming up later this week).  And we toyed with the idea of traveling to Houston for the Narnia exhibit at the science museum...but an eight hour drive (that's an optimistic time) didn't sound appealing to anyone after all, especially in light of my parents' recent adventure in an automobile. 

We have just been enjoying one another.  We laugh a lot when we're together.  I have to confess, there is some potty humor.  But we try to control ourselves until the kids are in bed.  We don't want to be bad examples. 

We need to play Scrabble.  We need to go to Ikea.  We need to do the dishes.

Hey!  Who said that?!

I suppose I do have to go and take care of that...I'll be sorry tomorrow if I don't.  I hope that everyone is having a good start to a new year.  Remember to fill in the year blank with 2010!  I always have such a hard time with that transition. 

Her Way Today

Michaela got to plan the day today...

After a trip to the grocery store with Grandma and Grandpa to get what we needed for dinner, the girls headed to the American Girl store to have lunch.  That is exactly what you need to do if you ever want to spend four hours on a very expensive (but according to my mom, delicious) lunch.  The wait was very long!  But we browsed the store, and my mom enjoyed seeing it all; she had never been to an American Girl store before.  It is quite an experience. 

Of course, my camera battery died shortly after we sat down to eat, and the pictures I got at the table were not so great, so...moving on.

The afternoon was spent resting together.  Eliana had fallen asleep on the way home, and slept for an hour in her bed, which gave me a chance to make Michaela's birthday cakes.   (Cakes?!  You'll see.)  My mom had started beef stroganoff in the crock-pot before we left for lunch, so we had just a little dinner prep left.

Michaela's meal of choice:  beef stroganoff with sauteed spinach.

For her birthday cake, she wanted mini-Bundt cakes-vanilla with chocolate icing.

And here is an example of what a stellar mom I am.  The candles we have?  Blue.  The number of candles we have?  Eight.  She is nine today.  Her response?  "I had one candle in the American Girl store!"  I guess that equals nine, so we're good.

"Happy Birthday to mee-eeee!"

Everyone enjoyed the cake.

There was a lot of giggling.

And of course, presents.

We gave her a digital camera...she immediately opened the box, and after her dad put the batteries in, she was taking pictures.

She received some new clothes and the stable set for Felicity's horses...

She unwrapped a Candy Factory (well, that's just what we need around here!), a new jewelry box, and a necklace.

There is never a shortage of help whenever there are presents to unwrap.  Or "fresents", as Eliana says.

Grandma and Grandpa got her the boxed set of the Madeleine L'Engle A Wrinkle in Time series...

And it was a fun day.