Thor!

I think we lucked out twice . . . when we took Stormy back to the shelter, the foster lady informed us that they had a lot of little dogs needing foster care for 11 days (until an adoption event). CBC perked up a little and picked out a chihuaha/blue merle mix. Superman came home and said, "What is THAT?! Is that a rat?" Luckily, he is not a giant rat, but he does sort of look like one. Seems to be a great dog! His name was Mannie, but CBC renamed him Thor :)

Easter Bunnies bring pets?!

 
Easter brought us a nice surprise--a dog!! Superman and I had discussed fostering a dog for awhile, and I finally went to foster parent training. The Friday before Easter, I brought home a cockapoo! CBC was in complete shock--we got her on film saying, "Wait, what?" about a million times. She did not believe this dog was for her. The dog was four years old and had just been separated from her puppies--she was the sweetest thing! Her foster name was Sandy, but CBC renamed her Stormy. She was AWESOME! We took her fishing with us, shopping with us, on walks, on runs, played fetch, played hide-and-seek . . . Fabulous with the kids, house-trained, crate-trained, seriously perfect. Well, except for the seizures. The seizures were weekly and were more than we could handle, so the shelter took her back to find her a rescue home that will run tests and find out what is wrong with her and how to help. She was truly so precious to us! I picked CBC up early from school yesterday so she could go with me to return Stormy. CBC cried, I cried, and Stormy cried. Good luck, Stormy! We hope the rescue home will be everything you need and want! We love you!!

Spring Break

CBC got to go to my parents' house in Utah for Spring Break--it was the first time she had flown by herself and she said it "totally rocked." She has asked to be allowed to fly by herself from now on--right, like I'm going to book separate tickets just for her :) Anyway, she made lots of friends and had a great time in Utah. The weather was actually nice--no rain, no snow, no freezing cold. Buddy kept asking where she was and when she was coming home. He called her on my cell phone to tell her to "come home now! You're taking a long time!"

Of course, once she got home, they only got along for, like, 10 minutes.

Keepin' it real

My boss thinks I should start a blog called "Keepin' it real" because I enjoy regaling everyone at work with failure stories in parenthood. Well, here's my most recent spectacular parenting failure--I let Buddy watch "Vampire Diaries" with me. So last night, he was mad at me, and told me he was going to shoot me and "sink my blood." Nice one. Excellent parenting. So proud!

Deep Thoughts

Laughing at CBC's fascinating comments tonight--first, we're watching a recap of the Mariners game and Ichiro missed a catch. CBC says, "WHAT?! Ichiro missed? He's the best! Well, sometimes heroes fail."

And now, we're watching Tron, and the young Flynn jumps off the building as the guard is screaming. She says, "Well, he's gotta learn."

LOVE HER!!

An addition from Buddy--on Sunday, I asked him what he wanted for dinner (usually this results in him asking me, "Is ice cream food?" "Are chocolate chips food?" because I require a "food" selection for dinner). Anyway, he says, "I don't like food. It's not good. I only like candy now. Can I have candy for dinner?" Hmm, let me think about it . . .

CBC's violin recital!!

CBC rocked it at her violin recital--we are so proud! It was the first time she has played individually in front of an audience and she did great. She said she was nervous, but I don't think she looks it--she's a super star!!!

(Can you also tell she has purple and black checked pants with a white and black striped shirt? LOVE the professional ensemble :) )

Last but certainly not least--cousin pictures!

Construction on the Great Wall of China is exhausting work!

And more pics . . .

Misc pics

Since I didn't post for forever, I feel like sharing pictures from Christmas and the intervening months. Enjoy (or don't :) ) ! Mormor and Morfar and Aunt Heidi were here, and we had a blast!

Crows swear?!

Friday, Buddy came home with a new word that we've heard waaay too many times this weekend--caca. We discussed how it's a bad word, but this one seems to be lasting a lot longer than the others. He said it again in the car this morning on the way to church, and I gently reminded him that "we don't say that word" which led to a whole discussion.
CBC: Why don't we say that word?
Me: It's a bad word in Spanish--basically means C-R-A-P.
CBC: Wait, what's the word again?
Me: I don't want to repeat it when Buddy can hear me.
CBC: Just tell me.
Me (quietly): Caca.
CBC: Wait, what?! That's what crows say! And it's a bad word?!
So then we had to hear the rendition of CAW-CAW versus caca. Very nice.

CBC Turned 8!

CBC's birthday has come and gone, with a lot of fun stuff! We extended her birthday for weeks--she turned 8 in the beginning of the month, but we didn't have an actual party until the end of the month because . . . Mormor, Grandpa, Uncle Erik and Aunt Jody and the kids came to participate in the festivities!!! It was so fun having everyone stay at our house, especially since we don't get to see the Hansen cousins very often. We had such a blast! 8 is a really big deal in our religion (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) because that's when children get baptized, so the cousins made a special trip to come and participate in CBC's baptism. Everyone's help was much appreciated, and the slumber parties at night were rockin'! I am so proud of CBC and all she does to be a good person. She is truly a light in our lives.

After the baptism, we all came back to our house and had a combination CBC/Superman birthday party! 41 kids were invited, but (whew!) only about 25 came. It was a puppy-themed party and, wow, it was probably a good thing a real puppy wasn't invited. It was exhausting, but my girl had the time of her life.

Buddy had a great time, too, and is already planning his "speed racer" party--by which I mean he holds it over our heads whenever he's mad--"If you're not nice to me, you can't come to my Speed Racer!" Think I took us all way too far into the "theme" parties! And he's super antsy to get baptized, too--we'll have to plan another huge party in five more years :)
(And if anyone can suggest a more user-friendly and quicker blog option, I am all ears. Trying to move these pictures around took me 20 minutes! Sorry about the crazy formatting, but I don't have 20 more minutes to waste.)

The epiphanies keep coming

We're watching "Chuck" right now and CBC just looked over at me (yes, she should be in bed!) and said, "You know, Mom, sometimes hot people really can't be trusted." Just an FYI for those of you out there who are either hot or are involved with hot people.

Belly dancers just appeared on the screen and she says, "WHOA!" I said, "Those are belly dancers." CBC says, "I thought maybe they were called immodest dancers."

LOVE IT!

Values

This morning, CBC told me that she and a classmate had an interesting conversation on the bus. He told her he'd already decided who was "hot" in their class and he wanted CBC to decide who was the ugliest. She told him no because that was not nice (yay for CBC!!!). Then he asked her who she would date out of everyone in her class. Mind you, she's only turning 8 tomorrow! Her answer rocks, though--she told the boy who was asking that she would date him--because he's smart and because he folds paper airplanes really well! HA! Love it :) I'll update her dating requirements as she ages.

I'm just sayin'

Mormor is a bad influence. We've always known it, but here's my proof--Buddy has started adding "tootie" or "poopie" after everything he says. Thank you, day-care-best-friend. Anyway, we had several chats about it this weekend, culminating in him getting mad and saying, "Well, Grandma said I could say it!" HUH?! And then last night, he told me he'll just wait until he goes to Grandma's house and say it there.

He also decided to try and open a Christmas present because "Grandma told me I could!"

And then last night, after we made our gingerbread house and family, I asked him if I could have a bite of his gingerbread man (which he was busily chomping). He said, "Sure! Eat Sissy's." Nice.

As CBC put it, he's full of it, "literally." (Her favorite new word :) )

And then my dear, sweet daughter asked me, "Do you think Santa is going to bring me what I want this year?" She has written a nice letter to Santa and taped it to our living room wall for all to see. I said she'll have to wait and see, to which she added, "'Cause last year, he just gave me random things." HA! Good one, Santa :)

Beware of kangaroos

One more entertaining thing about Buddy--he is deathly afraid of the kangaroo monster that he thinks lives in our house. Seriously, I have no idea where this comes from, but he fears that the kangaroo comes out at night and will get you if you don't hide. The kangaroo will also get your toys if you don't hide them. Buddy feels like the refrigerator is a pretty safe place, so he's been hiding toys in the fridge to protect them from the kangaroo. And last night, as I was laying in bed and he was going downstairs to tell Superman good-night, he turned on the night light and told me to cover my head so the kangaroo wouldn't get me. I tried to reassure him that I wasn't worried about the kangaroo, to which he replied, "Mom, I'll keep you safe from the kangaroo. I won't let him get you. It's okay, you can go to sleep." Love that crazy kid, but why a kangaroo? I can't wait until we go to the zoo!!!

Sickness, part whatever # we're on now, plus a heart murmur

After enjoying (?) so much time together all week, it had to end with somebody getting sick. Two somebodies, in fact. Superman started Saturday morning by throwing up. CBC followed soon after, and she continued into the afternoon. Of course, being the great mother that I am, I told her she was probably okay after the first occasion, and told her we would still go to swimming lessons. After watching her puke all over the floor on our way out to the car, I figured that was probably a sign that she really wasn't doing too well :( Superman is still not feeling that great, but CBC seemed just fine yesterday evening. I've spent much of the weekend just trying to keep the kids from beating each other, and convincing them to leave Superman alone. It has been eventful, to say the least :) I'm starting to feel like we're cursed this fall because we've all been so sick.

The really interesting thing about all of these doctor and urgent care visits is that we learned CBC has a heart murmur. The urgent care doctor noticed it at the strep throat visit, so we followed up with the pediatrician on Black Friday. She said it's a Still's murmur, which is nothing to worry about. Still (pun unintended) kind of gives me the creeps!

Once there was a snowman

Buddy has been singing "Once there was a snowman" all week long. For those of you who are not familiar with the lyrics, they go like this: "Once there was a snowman, snowman, snowman. Once there was a snowman, tall, tall, tall. In the snow he melted, melted, melted. In the snow he melted, small, small, small." That was this past week in a nutshell. Monday morning Enumclaw School District was cancelled because of snow, so I worked at home while CBC played out in the snow all day. Then came Tuesday with more snow, with school AND work cancelled! We kept Buddy home, too, since it was his birthday, and we had more fun in the snow. And then the same thing happened Wednesday! It was a seriously weird week, especially since winter hasn't even technically started yet! The rain melted after that and it became a more normal November.

After having Thanksgiving on Thursday with almost all of Superman's family at our house (super fun with cousins!!), and then Black Friday shopping most of Friday (and, boy, did I do a poor job of finding the deals, but I sure had a great time!), I think we have had enough together time for a while :) We might all be looking forward to school and work tomorrow.

The pictures are from various snow day adventures, with my favorite showing Buddy enjoying snow for the first time he can remember.

Growing up is hard to do

Well, our boy Buddy hit three years old this week! We celebrated for several days (for various reasons), which convinced him that his birthday is at least four days long. Now that he is a big boy, he no longer allows kisses without wiping them off, nor does he appreciate being called a baby. At least he still likes hugs! I swear, he grew an inch this week, and his vocabulary grew proportionally. I made cupcakes for his home birthday party (have no idea why the picture shows sideways), he took Oreos to school, and we ate a castle cake for his family birthday. He got some seriously awesome Cars pajamas from Mormor, a puzzle from Miss Anne, and toys from the rest of us.

This week has really brought to my attention how serious he is about growing up, and how much he reminds me of CBC at this age. My favorite? When he's mad or doesn't get his way (which happens often), he says, "You're not my best friend!" CBC used to say, "You're not invited to my birthday party!" when she was mad. My kids make me laugh so hard :) I much prefer those statements over several potential others, but I just wonder why not being a best friend or not coming to a birthday party mean so much to them. Too funny! AND . . . Buddy is obsessed with puzzles. He can handle 24-piece puzzles with no problem, but he also likes doing the two United States of America puzzles we have--and he does them by himself! Pretty impressive.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, BUDDY!

Who, Nelly!

This is a plug for antibiotics . . . and a lament against winter. I can tell it's coming because I've already had my annual nasty cold, Buddy got pneumonia, my brother's kids all have walking penumonia, and now I have strep throat. All within the last four weeks. After being on antibiotics for two days, I finally feel like I'm going to live! If we could all have the immune system of CBC . . .

Sports

I know I've said this before, but CBC is a natural athlete. Sports just come so easily to her--which is both a curse and a blessing. She tends to goof off during the practices which drives both the coaches and her parents nuts! Here are some fun soccer photos--her against 5 boys, and she can whoop their butts. Hey, where did that short kid in the Superman pajamas come from?!