White Christmas

All the cousins that made it to the cabin


Grandma and Grandpa's Cabin. Ohh, was it nice.



Sledding!



Our Charlie Brown Christmas tree. The kids made all the ornaments out of popsicle sticks and construction paper.

5 days to go!

So we leave on Saturday for the cabin and i'm so excited and stressed out all at the same time. There are too many details to figure out with the apartments and packing that it's wiggin me out a little.

The kids got a gift card for Toys R Us from one of the tenants in our building and so we went to pick out something before we left. (one less thing to haul.)

Owen went for the Star Wars legos, of course. General Grievous and his 4 lights sabers and a big old ship to put together. it was for 7-12, a teeny bit over his age, but the youngest available in Star Wars. Anyway, I sat there with Owen and Luke putting the stupid ship together and it was so fun to watch them get excited over the tinest addition to the ship. The thing i hate about LEGOs is that if one little part is missing it halts the entire building process. more than one time we all ran back into the living room to see if we could find a missing piece.

Now, Sophie was really funny. Wait, i have to ask her if i can blog this. She might get embarrassed. Ok, no on the funny story about sophie. If you see her, you'll have to ask what she picked from Toys R Us.

Well, Happy Holidays, Everyone. We're off to pick up Doug at the airport.

WICKED!!

Sophie's teacher, Ms. Donskoy, is pretty crazy. Doesn't she look a crazy in this picture?



She's actually great for many reasons, one is that she has a great sense of humor, something Sophie really values in a teacher. Another thing is that she organizes all kinds of fun opportunities outside of class. For example, Sophie is part of a reading group that read the the book the Wizard of Oz by Frank Baum. So Mrs. Donskoy organized a trip to see Wicked at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood, which was awesome for the parents because all we had to do was give her the money and show up. I've been wanting to go forever and so many friends have said that you can't even get tickets for the show right now and here Sophie's teacher did all the leg work.. Awesome.


Anyway, these are some pics from our afternoon out. I drove Sophie and her two friends, Luba and Emma. They were so giddy the whole drive down. In fact, i sat with 2 whole rows of 10 year old who had never been to the theater and they all were so excited, even the boys were into it. During intermission Mrs. Donskoy was explaining the story and some of the symbolism and Sophie was hanging on her every word. Ahh, it was a great experience.







We bought the soundtrack and listened to it all the way home. It was so fun. And the show is so amazing. Elphaba's big numbers made me cry they were so intense and beautiful! Great story... i want to go back so anyone who wants to see it, this is your invitation! Come to LA and i'll figure out how to get us tickets. i want to take doug sometime soon as well.




And Owen went to Luke's house and Owen beat Luke at Battle ship. (that is what Owen wanted me to type this morning.)
They have the funniest relationship. very competitve but just best buddies, too. thanks to Brooke and Jason for keeping him the whole time.

And this is one is for Grandma Terrie. Barry's star was right smack in front of the Pantages.

Pics of the new guys

Our new guys pretty much look like the old guys just a different color. We found a listing on craigslist that had all of this stuff for the the price of an IKEA sectional. It's like getting a bonus bed and 2 bonus dressers.

Here they look black but they are really dark brown.



Eventually, the TV will hang above this, i think.



New Bed! Hooray.




The first time in my life i've had something more than plastic bins or IKEA. Me likey.

A bit of Christmas Cheer (it's a long one, you don't have to read it)

Owen has found his singing voice! The past month in Primary he has become the loudest one. They all sang in church on sunday and, honestly, if Owen hadn't shown up, it would have been sort of silent on the stand. There just aren't very many kids in our primary and we had maybe 8 there that day singing. But Owie belted out the words like a champ. He says he loves singing.

Doug and I also went to his kindergarten holiday program and again, everytime his teacher would put her hands to her ears to have them sing louder, Owen would crank up the volume and we could hear him all the way in the back. Of course, I sat there and cried the entire time. It seems like the kindergarten program is one of those things on the list of firsts that means your baby is really growing up. He was so proud and excited to be up there, i just could keep it in.

Or it could have been hormones. Acutally, i only had two emotions during the entire kindergarten presentation and they were at the opposite ends of the bi-polar spectrum. Blubbery pride and utter... should i say hatred? It's an awfully strong word to use when you're talking about other kindergarten parents so maybe i'll just say that i was extrodinarily annoyed and if i could have slapped every person in that room, i would have. hmmm. that sounds pretty strong, too.

I felt like this for two reasons. Almost every single one of these big, pushy parents completely ignored the principal's request to stay seated during the show so the kids wouldn't be distracted by yelling, waving parents. About 30 seconds after that announcement the kids started walking to some very happy christmas music from the back, down the isles up to the stage.

At that point EVERY stupid parent in that entire place stands up and starts yelling out their kids name and taking pictures and literally jumping up and down to get their kids attention. Are you kidding me? Didn't anyone just hear what the principal said?? The woman in front of us stood up practically the whole time with her big old camcorder to make sure she got every movement her child made on tape. Which is great except anyone sitting behind her was blocked from seeing their kids. Including me!!

And of course there is the family that saved 12 PRIME seats in the middle front for people who just couldn't quite manage to make it on time. So, again, as the kids are walking down the isles a huge family of people walk in 5 minutes late and have to go up the same isles the kids are coming down, and the kids are getting smushed and lost in this crowd of loud, completely oblivious people who don't just try to quickly make it to their seats but keep standing so they can loudly greet each other one by one as they scoot in the row. This is AFTER the program had started and just two rows in front of us. It was sooooo ridiculous I nearly had a coronary. People are so rude!!

Then the school changed the words of "We wish you a Merry Christmas" to "We wish you a Happy Holiday" and that made me really mad. And to top it all off when we pulled out my camera to take the first picture, the battery died.

It was a good thing Owen was so adorable and sang so loud. He was the only thing that saved all those people from getting a big smack in the face from the angry pregnant woman in the back.

So Long..

We've been talking about getting new couches for over a year. It was springtime last year when we were shopping sofa beds and IKEA sectionals. But we never did anything about it thinking it was better to get into the house first and then get the furniture. Well of course the house part of that is taking FOREVER and in the meantime we get the first rip in the cushion of our off white leather sofa. oops, and then the second rip. And we hate it but we just ignored it.

And then our friend stopped by. She's gonna hate that i'm blogging this but it's actually kind of funny. Anyway, she's sitting at our table feeding her baby and comments that the cloth on our dining room chairs is trashed. and she's right. Who buys cloth chairs when you have kids eating at the table?? We do, because we loved the red fabric. And we're kinda stupid. Anyway, we get chatting about cleaning or replacing, blah, blah and then she says,

"But you should probably replace your couches before anything."

Ha ha ha ! Doug and I we're dying inside because it was one of those moments where you realize you didn't realize that your place is disgusting. She wasn't being mean at all, she just knows me really well and knows we've been talking about it forever so she lit the fire (whether she meant to or not.)

So today is the day we say goodbye to our good old friends, the off-white leather couches. We've had 10 years of comfy sleep, bouncy play (hmm, that doesn't sound quite right) and snuggle time with the kids. We hope you bring the same great happiness the next family (even if they live under a bridge) that you've brought to us.

p.s. No, I will not keep them on our balcony so CJ and Jess can sleep on them when they come to visit. Everyone will just have to embrace the new guys. pics to come later.

Some cute pics from last night. Doug had all the lights up in our a make-shift living room studio for the Christmas card. Yes, it was almost 11 when we finished in true Doug Chamberlain Family fashion.

Two odd conversations this morning

Owen: Mom, what day is it? Like the 10th or 11th or what?

Me: It's December 5th today.

Owen: (With genuine excitement) Oh, It's Hanukkah today!!


And then while sophie was talking to her favorite friend Connie she got all excited and said,

"Hey, we have P.E today. Yes!!"


Guaranteed, i never said either of those things as a child.

The Great Baby Name Search

This was by far the funniest list we found. Based on some of the worst celebrity names.

Pilot Inspektor - Jason Lee and Beth Riesgraf named their son Pilot Inspektor. We have inspekted this name, and do not like it.

Banjo - Out of all the possible names, Rachel Griffiths chose to name her son 'Banjo'. I bet she has heard the 'Banjo on my knee' joke a bunch of times.

Speck Wildhorse and Hud - Maybe Hud is an alright name, but Speck Wildhorse? John Mellencamp and Elaine Irwin could have spent a little more time naming their two sons.

Moon Unit, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, Dweezil, and Diva - Moon Unit, Ahmet Emuukha Rodan, Dweezil, and Diva were the baby names chosen by Frank Zappa. Deep down, though we hate to admit it, we'd love to have a friend named 'Moon Unit'.

Zowie - David Bowie named his son Zowie so his name would be Zowie Bowie. This should be a crime. Luckily, he later changed his name to Joe before settling on Duncan.

Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q - Had singer Bono just stopped after Elijah, this would be a great name. But following this up with 'Bob Patricius Guggi Q' makes this baby name questionable.

Jermajesty - Not to be outdone by his brother, Jermaine Jackson named his son Jermajesty. We consider this the worst name of all time.

Another couple of firsts

The creepy guy in 214 asked me to come up and smell his water.

Oh, and he wants me to change the blinds in his bedroom to the long blinds because sleeping in a room that isn't completely dark can cause cancer.