Fun before Freezing

With days of rain and cold it was getting hard to keep the kids in check. The other morning we heard the city horn go off two times, which means school is canceled for the day. I looked outside and it was cloudy, nothing else. By noon, however, we had a few inches of snow. This is what the kids did all morning... stare out the window... Boring!! We decided to bundle up and go play. Now, my kids don't have any boots or anything really fit to play in the snow, with the exception of a coat and hat. We've only needed boots and suits at my moms so they stay there. Oops. We found a few layers to last a little while.

The neighbor from downstairs came out with a sled and his mom was kind enough to pull the kids up and down the side walk. They had so much fun. This was Halle's first time really playing in the snow and she loved it. They certainly had winter rosy cheeks too.

We build an awesome looking, strange, safari, pear shaped snowman. This small man took a long time cause all the kids kept knocking it down when trying to pack it. We used a carrot of course and then malt balls for the rest. Hey, it's all I could find. Thanks mom for sending the candy. Halle kept trying to eat them with each one I put on.

We then were getting cold and went to go inside but the door was locked. I hate my door. The lock turns easily and I didn't have a key cause we were just a few feet away, playing in the snow. UGH!! Thankfully, the landlord lives two blocks away and my neighbor let me take the kids in the sled to get a key.

My 2nd thankfully, she was home!! She gave us a key and chocolate candy! What could be better than that. The kids jumped in for a long bubble bath to get warm. Payton is of course Santa Claus. I asked him what he wanted to ask Santa for. He replied, "I want his Santa coat." This is because he is of course an 'actor' and we got the kids Santa hats. I told him I didn't think Santa would let him have his coat. :0

Since all the kids were out of school, they were still outside playing when Andy got home from work. They kids went out for a very quick snow throw. Luckily, they decided it was too cold. I bet they are glad I made them wear a coat and hat unlike going out barefoot and half naked like they tried prior.

They snow is still here and it's too dang cold to even get my mail out the front door, let alone do my laundry downstairs. Burr....I was happy that they had a fun time though. It was nice to get out of the house and run around without even one spot of yellow snow.

That's the way the gingerbread crumbles.

I've missed a few fun events lately, like our ward Christmas party, which was actually pretty dang fun. They had an international Christmas so we had a ton of yummy food. I couldn't believe how much food there was, especially since normally they run out at our shindigs. Other than that, I can't remember a lick of what we've been doing.

I've been trying to get the kids to do a few Christmas projects around the house. Last Sunday we made the all-famous Ginger Bread House. Ours was a pretty sad house. It's probably the ugliest house I've ever seen. The kids helped a lot (last year I did it myself) so it was very unique. It was so much fun though. This picture of Halle is basically what she did the entire time. I think she put a few candies on but she ate most of them. Notice the cheeks full of sweets.


The house kept sliding down the icing because of course, we don't read instructions, (who does?) We didn't let it set before adding the candy which upset Andy since he wanted it to look like the picture on the box. Consequently, I decided to just throw the box away.
We've been stuck to our house quite a bit with colds, but mostly due to the fact that Andy has ended his Peds ER rotation of night shifts and is now doing OB-gyn. Fun, I know.

I'll let him write about that. :)
Thankfully, some of our friends have came over to keep us company.
Reagan and her son Jack brought fun foam to make Christmas trees and snowmen. The kids had fun for a minute and then she and I finished them. She and I had a great time though. The kids had more fun jumping on the bed. They actually made some cute cards though.
Some of you may be getting them for a Christmas card since they've since found more interest and it's become a daily project.




Payton takes it very seriously. I love the concentration. When he's not doing this, however, he is acting. For real. My kids are singing songs all day and acting out some movie. He goes back and forth from 'Polar Express' and his old fav, Larry from 'Night at the Museum'. Thankfully, we've had a break from his Botox routine of 'Christmas with the Kranks'.




Payton and Jack are so cute. Jack just had a birthday. We went to a gym called Playrobics and the kids all ran around for hours. It was awesome. Afterwards, they were so hungry they all sat down at the restaurant and ate without a fuss. I've never seen so many kids sit so good.
Jack also shared one of his Favorite Christmas Cd's with us and the kids are now addicted too. So much that I can't get them to GO TO SLEEP!!! They are too busy singing in their beds.....

MY NY...

When most women think of NY they want to go into the City and get in the traffic, trains, buildings, Subways, Broadways, and Parkways on the Expressway and throughways. In fact there are many "ways" to get to NYC, but maybe the best way is not to go west at all, but east. I am not a woman (last time I checked) and hence have the tendency to flee from any situation where I'm obligated (I signed the contract I know) to carry the purse or a half eaten gummed hot dog and stuck carrying that huge stroller up those two flights of subway stairs. That's not me. The city is OK maybe once a month (at best), but it can be like herding hamsters when you have little kids. I prefer to go East--further on Long Island (FYI--nuclear fallout falls 10% per mile--hey I think about that stuff), and carry my 3.5 inch Mossberg Semi Auto instead of a purse and a stroller. They actually have country stations and 60 miles of Sod farms and beautiful Oak forests. Long Island remains somewhat warmer than the other parts of NY, thus enticing tens of thousands of Canadian Geese to winter here all year. Canadians can reach 12-15 lbs and people here hate 'em because they leave their huge droppings everywhere in the parks. There are actually companies that are hired(they drive Prius's and have this crazy EPA logo) to scare the geese out of your park, yard, or Golf Course or put this nasty stuff on your grass as goose repellant (pictured above left). There are better (and funner) ways New Yorkers...Guys like me who have goose hunted the dream hunt areas of Eagle Lake in TX for years with Dad, can continue the tradition of really scaring them and grow even fonder of NY. For most of y'all who don't know how goose hunting is done, I'll give you a quick talkin' to. In TX you usually haul 700-1000 wind sock decoys through the mud after driving a few hours to then sit in the mud and wait for the skies to come alive. It is a blast, we've done it for as long as I can remember. In Tx you shoot mostly smaller snow geese which can sometimes number 40-50,000 in a field, but with lots of hunting pressure, it can get quite tough to have them committ to landing within 40 yards, or with my gun--within 60 yards. On Long Island, it's not a well known thing and it's only about a 45 minute drive to reach miles of beautiful Sod fields, in this case right behind the big Splish and Splash Waterpark (you can see it in the background in the very first pic). And with no hunting pressure, the birds are let's say, very naive. It definitely makes for a more comfortable hunt. In fact I wore my Crocs (open heeled shoes)on this hunt. The temp dipped to about 28 degrees with a slight NW wind, perfect to get the geese moving. With just about 35 full body decoys put out in two groups next to(within 40 yards) a dug out box blind to conceal Me, Toby and my good friend Tom Casey from Long Island Waterfowling, we were all set up in about 15 minutes compared to the 2 hours it takes when hunting Snow geese in TX. The Geese leave their roost (home) at about 8am, fly down the riverbank to work (us) and hit this field by the hundreds. They see our full body Goose set up and hear the calling, and land---in my freezer...Long Island has a 3 bird per hunter limit. We don't use the dogs here, that would be just plain laziness. The season usually runs from Thanksgiving till Feb 7. We limited with 9 birds by 9:30am. The interesting part is always bringing home that many birds home to debreast without a shed or a yard, you can get some crazy looks from your tree huggin environmentalist neighbors...that garbage man sure was surprised I bet. While I was cleaning 'em the conversation went like this... "Dad, you killed it? Yes son. Did it hurt? No, son. That one's bleeding dad...I know son. So there are no more to feed at the park? Fortunately for us...yes, son." Anyway, so if you're only seeing 1 turtle dove or haven't seen any at all this year, chances are--they could be in season. Merry Christmas y'all.

Better watch out.

See these smiling faces. Yep, that's because the day after Thanksgiving we slept in and opted not to shop. Oh it felt so good! After finally deciding what to do we headed to Manhattan to check out the lights and all the crazy happenings. Our good friend Mike was here for the weekend and thankfully took some pictures with ALL of us in them. That is a rarity I must say. On a side note, the day after this pic, we watched ELF and Payton said, "hey, I was there!" He was pretty excited. (they have a snowball fight on this bridge.) In fact, he said to me the other day while watching 'Santa Claus', "Mom, so have we been to the North Pole yet?" "No honey, we haven't." "Oh, well we still need to do that."
It was a little chilly but the kids still had fun running around in Central Park. I wish I would have taken my camera when it was Fall time and all the leaves were gorgeous! Payton loves having his picture taken but it's hard to get him to not pose all 'model' like.??? He's the next Zoolander, what can I say. We call this Gold steal.
What awesome parent doesn't take their kid on the dirty subway, I mean come on. Actually it's just a joke we have but the kids think it's cool. Jazelle road the subway Payton will tell you.
This picture would be perfect if Andy just had a fluffy hat with on ball on top.
We saw, Cookie Monster, Elmo, and of course Santa. (the one ringing the bell on the corner) Payton only said, "I saw Santa." Later however, when we were of course threatening him to go to bed the conversation went like this...
"You better go to bed cause Santa will see you and put you on the naughty list."
"Mom, I already saw him in NY!"
"Well maybe he had to do a little shopping too." :)
"But I saw him in NY! He's not at the North Pole to see me."
"He's magic. He goes home just like we do."
"Are you kidding me! Fine! I'll go to sleep!"

Mr. Mom

This week has been just fabulous! Well, if fabulous includes everyone throwing up for 4 days straight. Just have to share a little love for my hubby who has been tired, caring, somewhat grumpy, yet mostly wonderful this entire week. The kids and I all got sick, actually, VERY SICK, and he took care of all of us. He stayed up all night cleaning up the kids throw up while I slept on the bathroom floor dealing with my own sickness. He went from room to room and then finally threw a big blanket in the living room and put us all in there to lesson the damage. He did loads of laundry, filled lots of juice cups, and gave plenty of hugs to help us get better. And any guy who can put up with watching Disney movies for 4days straight is a hero. Did I mention that he has this great quality that he can tell you what is wrong with you and why your body is reacting a certain way, the treatment, recommendations, reactions, etc. Made me want to throw my shoe at him! But I guess it's good to be informed. ??? I'm sure he was exhausted and I'm so grateful to him and all he does for us. You're the best babe.
Thankfully we are feeling much better and thank goodness for Lysol and bleach. I've cleaned all day and at least till morning we are germ free. Ha!

Just thinking...

We use these posts as a kind of journal so I figured I should write a little bit before all gets lost in time. The last 3 weeks I have been doing a Pediatric Emergency/trauma rotation in Brooklyn that has been at times like a fast and testimony meeting--sometimes a little slow and boring, then other times trying to detach myself so I don't look soft. And other times like testimony meetings in Texas where you're left wondering what the cotton pickin' heck just happened in here?
Most of the time it is asthma, croup, pneumonia and the diarrhea/vomiting or a few stitches here and there, broken bones,etc. But sometimes it's the kid who gets a 22 bullet (unfired) lodged in his ear or a toy truck fire engine antenna through the top of his mouth into his brain, swallowed a safety pin, or who's face lost a fight to a pit bull, or swallowed roach spray, or car accidents, gang fights, or not alive at all. Most are hispanic and no one else speaks spanish so I get funneled to being the guy up front on most. Those experiences when you're doing CPR for an hour and they ask if you're tired and you are but say you're fine and the mom is in the back of the room screaming not to stop, "save my baby!!" moaning and wailing...for the 2nd time tonight another kid in heaven for Christmas. When the night's over and you quietly get back in your car, slowly, and hit the Expressway and the roads are empty and quiet and get home and climb into a warm bed after going into each of the kids' rooms and giving them each a kiss on the cheek...and you wake up---and all is well.
I started reading Charles Dicken's "A Christmas Carol" for the season and Payton said he wanted to go "feed the ducks down by the water too" like tiny Tim so we did today down on the Sound. These were mostly seagulls and Canadian geese with a few ducks, but with the sun out and watching him try to get the birds closer and closer and start pointing out the ducks from the seagulls...and then watch him get scared when they were fighting over scraps on his shoes...it was a calm moment to just sit back and think "Thanks Lord, for giving me these darn kids."
And all reading this with little ones, maybe sometimes impatient like me, frustrated with everything no one ever warned us about kids--then realizing that their Decembers at home are numbered... and you start taking every funny face, awkward question, tight hug, bit of astonishment, all of their little dreams, and for me this year, calling it Christmas.