What Every Little Girl Wants

Here's a picture of the kids waiting to be allowed into the great room where they can see all of their presents. This is when they raid their stockings, which are hung on the railing.3 kids got new beds for Christmas. They needed them anyway, and we thought we'd go for the dramatic emphasis of a HUGE present wrapped in a big red bow for Joel, Noah and Savanna. They were very, very happy to have their big beds.
When Savanna unwrapped this High School Musical microphone, she couldn't believe her eyes. She ran over and got some batteries for me out of the cupboard. As I was inserting the new batteries, she was watching dreamily, and she said, "Mom, this is what every little girl wants."
Abram kept telling us he didn't know what he wanted for Christmas. He was sure that there was no way on earth we would buy him an ipod, so we went along with that. Boy, oh, boy was he surprised when he opened his nano on Christmas morning. It's always fun when you can surprise a teenage boy with something he loves for Christmas. Aubrey thought Mark was joking when she read the tag that said, "Aubrey: this is your big present. Love Mom and Dad." She found an i-pod inside, and was very surprised, too.Optimus Noah. He got this cool voice-changing helmet, and it was a hit. We gave Joel the Brio Labyrinth, and it is a wonderful toy. Joel holds the record for getting farthest through the maze, and I hold the record for being the least coordinated.
Zachary was just happy to be here on Christmas. He got a few presents, but he was more interested in being held than opening presents. Jake got a lefty compound bow. The archery lessons began Christmas afternoon.
We had a really fun day together. We didn't go anywhere. Actually when we came home from church last Sunday, we didn't leave the house again until Thursday morning when Mark went to work again. We are pretty laid back around here.

Christmas Eve

We started the evening with haircuts. Zack and Joel were a little too fluffy. We had a party at our house with Mark's sister's family and Mark's parents. Only 20 people! Our smallest Christmas Eve party in more than 10 years. But we had a great time.

We started off with dinner, and then the kids performed the Christmas pageant in costume. Noah was assigned to be Joseph this year, and he said, "FINALLY! I've been waiting years!"
Jake played the violin.
Joel played the piano.
Abram played George Winston's "Carol of the Bells"We then moved on to opening the presents from Grandma D. The kids were all so happy. Joel recieved a set of 4 Happy Feet stuffed penguins, and the new Albert Einstein biography (a must-read, by the way). He was just sitting there with a huge smile on his face, and I said, "Joel, are you happy?" He answered, "Mom, now I don't need anything else for Christmas."

As we were getting the kids all in bed Christmas Eve, Savanna said, "I'm so excited for Christmas--it's cracking my head off!" She is a very descriptive girl. The boys all slept together, and Grandma and Grandpa stayed at our house that night, so they could share in all the excitement that comes from 7 kids on Christmas morning.

We are a happy family

This picture was taken over Thanksgiving weekend. My mom took all of us to get a big family photo taken, and then we made the most of the experience by having our own family pic. The last time we did this was at JC Penney in Omaha when Abram was 1 and Aubrey was a baby. My mom bribed all the kids (her own and the grandkids) with Hires for lunch and bowling if we all behaved for the picture. Needless to say, we were all on our best behavior. Who could possibly wiggle with the promise of a Big H and a frosty mug of rootbeer, followed by the only sport (?) I am even close to good at.

The only little glitch that came up was in the wardroble department. We were all supposed to wear DARK jeans, and a dark fall-colored shirt. So I packed each person's darkest pair of jeans in his or her bag, and I kept all of their new shirts in my suitcase.

Apparently Noah went through his bag before we loaded up the car. This boy loves to wear camo pants. He also thinks that the best thing to wear with camo pants is a striped shirt. He does not wear jeans. He has his khaki pants he has to wear for his school uniform, and his camo pants for weekends. He does have a pair of jeans--nearly unworn--in his drawer. So of course, when he went through is bag before we left home, he pulled out the dark jeans, without me noticing. I can just picture him looking through the bag and saying, "That crazy Mom. She knows I don't like to wear jeans, so I'll pack this extra pair of camo pants instead."

Picture time came, and I assembled everyone's jeans and new shirt to put on as they exited the bathtub. However, Noah's jeans were not in his bag. We went with the only option available. The photographer said they could touch it up and make his pants look like denim. However, I am not only too cheap to pay $100 for that, but also I think it will always be a fabulous reminder of Noah and his sense of 6-year-old fashion.

Z is for Zachary

I love this snuggly boy. He is the happiest, most mellow baby. I love to hear his footsteps as he wanders around the house looking for his buddies to play with. It is kind of sad when the kids are at school and Zack goes to the stairs which lead to the basement and calls, "GUYS? GUYS?" He's just sure they are down there hiding from him. His happiest moment is when we stand on the porch and watch Abram and Aubrey get off of the school bus in the afternoon.

Zachary loves to play with balls. Baseballs, footballs, basketballs, tennis balls, soccer balls--he loves them all. Ball was his first word. If Zachary is ever sad, I just run to the basement and get his little Zacky-sized playground ball, and all is well.

Zack likes to be big, and communicated quite clearly about a month ago that he did not want to sit in the high chair or sleep in the crib like a baby. So now he is a big boy.

Zack loves Pooh and Tigger. Besides BALL, MAMA, DADDA, his only other 2 words are POOH and TIGGER.

Savanna Belle

This girl is precious. She has big, sparkly bluish grey eyes. She is perfect mix of girly girl/tomboy/cowgirl/funky dresser. She is very helpful, and loves to do anything that any mommy does. She has her own kitchen gear, and is always eager to jump in and help me with my cooking.

As soon as we drop the boys off at school each day, she gives me the agenda for what we need to do that day. She loves to play school and store. And she is fantastic at folding laundry.

Everyone loves Savanna's eyes, her cute little bob, and especially her deep, scratchy voice. Whenever there is a hymn in church that Savanna knows, I just have to bite my lower lip, because this girl can sing! She has big lungs, and a big, big voice.

Savanna loves to play with Zack. They share a bedroom, and it is quite common to go check on them and find them both in the same bed.

Savanna loves to wear colorful clothes, and she likes to change her outfit several times a day. She comes up with some very.....interesting outfits. Luckily her hair is no-maintenance, because she will not leave any elastic or clip in for more than 5 seconds.

Savanna loves birds, and can identify at least 20 different species by sight and by call. She loves to take nature walks in the backyard with her daddy.

Foxy is as foxy does

We have a friend named Anna. She is 17, and all of our kids adore her. She hangs out at our house with us sometimes. Last Sunday at church she was sitting behind us again, and the previous week Jake and Noah had been pestering each other the whole time. Anna said, "Do I have to come up there and sit between you this week?" Noah replied, "SURE!"

Anna was at our house the other night making cookies with me. The kids were fighting over which spot they got at the table, because they all wanted to sit by Anna. I said, "Everybody just needs to be nice. Let's all be like Anna."

Noah replied, "You mean, like, be foxy?"

Noah

This is a cool kid. Something about him just lets everyone know that he is cool. The way he wears his cap backward, his choice of words, the way he walks. He is just cool. And funny. Noah has always been very happy, and a little hyper. It wasn't until he was about 1 that I learned that "bouncing off the walls" was not an idiom. He has boundless energy, and is very, very strong. He is a little on the small side, but he makes up for that with his strength and agility. He can balance, do cartwheels, and perfect diving rolls--all without a gymnastics lesson. Abram's friends love to wrestle Noah, because he is so dang strong that he actually can keep them down.

Noah loves school. He is learning so much at his new charter school. He came home last month and handed me a square of clay, and said, "Look, Mom, we wrote in cuneiform today." Yes, the same cuneiform that I hadn't heard about until 10th grade world history. So I asked him, "Did you learn about any rivers today?" "Yes, the Tigris and the Euphrates." Pretty much every day he surprises us with some bit of information that most first graders don't pick up at school.

Noah loves The Lord of the Rings. He loves the movies. He loves the soundtracks. He loves the toys. He loves the costumes. His other favorite movies are the Rocky movies--all 6 of them. Sometimes we call him Noah Balboa.

There is no try

I went to the post office to buy some stamps for Christmas cards. I had used up my stash of Jimmy Stewart and Star Wars stamps on the first half of the cards, and I needed more. I needed something exciting. I looked at the usual selection of religious and non-religious Christmas stamps. Neither type did anything for me. I have been discouraged since they discontinued the Ronald Reagan stamp when postage went up earlier this year.

Then what to my wondering eyes should appear, but a little green man with two green pointy ears?

Could this be true? Yoda has been my favorite since I was about 8. So I bought a stack of these stamps, and for the first time since Ronald Reagan graced my cards and bills, I feel complete. If I weren't such a cheapskate, I would discontinue my online billpay for the joy of putting yoda stamps on envelopes. But, as they say, money talks. I'll have to save these for special occasions. They are now the official stamp of Troutdale Dental, however.

Joel

This boy rocks. He can make me laugh like noone else. He always finds humor in any situation. Never mean humor or making fun of somebody--just witty, smart, hilariousness. He was terribly bored at the public school he had been attending, and this year we were lucky to get him into a charter school near our house. He has thrived there. After 2 weeks of school, one night I was tucking him in bed and he said, "Mom, I just never knew that school could be so fun!" He wakes up early each morning, practices the piano, and makes his lunch, and can hardly wait for 8:15 to come so we can go to school. His teacher loves him almost as much as I do.

Joel has a collection of blankets he sleeps with each night. 3 are from great-grandmas, and one is from my mom. He has to have the one my mom made on the top of the stack each night, and he can tell in the dark if you've put it upside down, because he feels the yarn ties with his hand. He is sentimentally attached to anything he ever played with, wore or owned. I have to make the trek to the DI truck very covertly, or Joel will cry for days.

Joel's hair is like a dandelion gone to seed. It is pure white, very soft and grows straight out from his head. It is so soft. I don't let it grow very long, because he would just be a giant puff-ball.

Jake

This is my foxy, brown-eyed boy Jake. He is so sweet. He started playing the violin last year, and it has been incredible to see him take off. His teacher says she has NEVER had a student learn so quickly. I love to hear him practicing his violin each morning.

We call him Jakey-bob sometimes. His middle name is Robert, and somehow this nickname stuck when he was a little guy.

Jake loves the color red, Curious George, and chocolate ice cream. He can solve any problem, and he often notices very small things that aren't quite right. He pays attention to very small details, and sometimes I'll be looking for something, and I'll turn around and there he is handing me whatever I need--without me saying a word.

Basically, I'm a sucker for brown eyes.

My friend, the Seiko R-Wave QHR008 alarm clock

We have gone through a lot of alarm clocks in our house. Mark was always searching for that perfect one--battery powered, loud, but not obnoxious, easy to set, and most importantly to Mark, not lit up at night. We found this one about 3 years ago, and it is perfect. It is an atomic clock, so it radio controlled to always show the right time! Easy to set, easy to read, just a flip of a switch for Daylight Saving Time, you push the top to see what time it is in the night, and otherwise you can't see it in the dark. Battery powered--with the batteries lasting more than 2 years. We had too many mornings in Omaha where we would wake up late because the power had gone out during the night and thrown off the alarm clock. This is a perfect gift for anyone. All of our kids have these, too.

Aubrey

This is Aubrey. She is an amazing girl. She plays the harp like an angel. She does her homework without being reminded. She loves to take care of Zachary and Savanna. And she is an incredible artist. The middle school yearbook will have her artwork on the front cover this year, and the art teacher told her it is his favorite cover the school has ever had in its 11 years of existence.

We love to have Aubrey around. She has a great sense of humor, and she makes us happy. Some people, actually almost everyone, says she looks just like me. Aubrey loves the outdoors, too, and is a great backpacker and bird identifier.

She was named after a cool song by the group Bread. "And Aubrey was her name. A not-so-very-ordinary girl or name....." I love that song.

Grandma B and me

This is my favorite picture. I love my Grandma. She is my dad's mom, and she is really an angel. She is smart and funny, and very spunky. She has always been my favorite person, and she has a special way of making me feel that I am hers.

I have so many great memories of times at her house. She played games with us, let us eat jello powder, pushed us in the tire swing, read us stories which we recorded on a tape to listen to over and over again, fed us delicious fruits and veggies from her garden, and basically just loved us. When I think of her sparkly blue eyes it makes me smile.

This picture was taken about 2 years ago, and I just came across it again, so I had to post it.

My nephew Cletus

Jon and Ellen had a baby boy this week, and I had some inside info that they were likely going to choose the name Zachary. Well, the little guy was born, and Jon sent everyone an email saying that they had named him Cletus. Somehow I didn't think that name compared with Zachary, and I figured he was up to some sort of joke. But still there was that little part in the back of my mind wondering. I kept waiting for the email saying "JUST KIDDING" to come, but it didn't.

My son Joel was reading email over my shoulder when I had Jon's email up on the screen about baby Cletus, and Joel started laughing his head off. Then he ran around the house yelling, "Good news everyone! We got ourselves a hillbilly cousin!"

If you don't know, Cletus is a red-necked hillbilly from The Simpsons.

So Jon's brother started sending around some very, I'll just say, DIRECT email about the perils of naming a boy something like Cletus, and suggested some other less-frequently-used names that would be just as horrible. Others were discretely contacting him to let him know that it really wasn't adviseable to name a baby that. Jon kept a straight face through it all and stuck to his story that it had been Ellen's grandpa's name.

Meanwhile Jon, Ellen, and the nurses at the hospital were laughing hysterically each time they read a new email from some well-meaning relative who really believed that they had chosen that name for their baby son.

Finally Jon sent out the real email, and they did name their baby Zachary after all.

Abram

We call him Abe the Babe. He's the oldest. He is the best cello player I personally know, and he will very soon be better at the piano than I ever was. He loves american history, and he is a word nerd like me. He is so appreciative of everything I do for him, and he tells me lots of times a day that he loves me. Who doesn't need a teenage boy like that?

Fitzwilly

Have you seen this one? When we first got married, Mark would diligently search the TV schedule in the newspaper looking for this show. He claimed that he had watched it many Christmases as a kid. I thought he was making it up. I mean, come on, Fitzwilly?

Then about 8 years ago, I found the movie at amazon.com. So of course I had to buy it. It has become one of our family's favorite holiday movies. Who doesn't love an old 60's flick with Dick Van Dyke?

Yes, A to Z

Our kids are all named in alphabetical order, A to Z. Only 7, though. Abram, Aubrey, Jacob, Joel, Noah, Savanna, Zachary.

This alphabetical thing was a total random occurrance. Until we were trying to name Zachary. Mark liked one name, and I liked another. And then the night before I was going to be induced, I realized that our kids' names were in ABC order, and it would be a bummer to mess that up. As Zachary was the first Z name we could think of, that's what we picked. And, it suits him perfectly.

Here I go!

Zachary has been sick the past 2 days, and wanted nothing but snuggles. I don't mind, of course, because he is the cutest little guy in the world. His fluffy white goodness is all I need to be happy. It's very therapeutic to stroke his hair. It is softer than anything on earth. And normally he is so squirmy that I don't get much Zacky-lovin these days. He wanted to sit on my lap today, so I thought I'd try to figure this blog thing out. Typically Zack can't leave the mouse or keyboard alone, but he must really not be well, because he let me do my nerd thing without even complaining.