leap day

today is the last day of the month, so in my continuing scrapbook project of taking my picture on the last day of the month, here is today's...


this picture is significant mostly for the background....my project last weekend, and hopefully to be finished up this weekend! for those of you that haven't been in our 'new' house, this won't seem as earth-shattering as it really is...but here's a hint...no more mint lime green!

another thing we did today - i let porter watch nick's video before snoozie time:


his comments - "This show is funny, Momma! the alligator and the giraffe are talking for real life!"

so there you have it. real life.

it's been awhile

since i had a KQOTD...maybe the kids just aren't as funny in the winter...BUT, today, got a good one.

Porter, Molly and I are piling into the van to take Porter to swim lessons. Jason is getting into his SUV to head to work. Because of the very (in)convenient location of the tree IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR DRIVEWAY (i kid you not) Jason has to back out first, and then me.

So Jason backs out and heads down the street. I back out.

Here it comes...

KQOTD -

Porter - FOLLOW THAT DADDY!

only a cron

would do this....and he's not the first to do it, but dang, on youtube?



nice going, nick. so glad you're porter's godfather.

sixty

the second of my 'parents' turned sixty recently - and unlike my mom (whom my dad surprised with a trip to NYC!) my fil wanted nothing of the sort - and so it was pizza, wings, and beer with the family...

i did make an ice cream 'cake' for dessert, however (two actually).

the grandkids all had a wild weekend together, that included some interesting interpretations of how to play twister (toddler-style)...


this was the car ride home (how many open eyes do you see?) and mind you, we live 8 minutes away....guess they had fun!

squeak

in november, 2005, my friend amy headed to china with her husband to finalize the adoption of her long-awaited daughter maggie. it just so happens that i spent some quality time with amy shortly before her departure (we were having a scrapbooking weekend in a hotel) where i was sick....from being newly pregnant. it was a little known secret at the time but she made a mental note (maybe it was the fact that i wasn't drinking massive quantities of alcohol - which is how most of my friends and family determine that i MUST be pregnant...maybe i should see someone about that).

anyway - she tells me of this cool thing they have in china that she's heard about from other adopting families - squeaky shoes. they are designed for young tots who are learning to walk - to give them squeaky motivation. well, during her trip, as if she wasn't doing anything else - she bought me a pair, knowing i had another little one on the way. this was, of course, 7 months before #4 was born in our house. she placed her bets that we were having a girl. not that i wouldn't put these shoes on a boy...but for jason, that might have been an issue.

lucky for us, #4 ended up being molly - a brute, but a girl, too. so sunday morning i decided i'd bust out these squeaky shoes that i have stored, moved and restored for over 2 years. i dressed her in a dress and tights and put on the shoes. i lowered her from the changing table and set her on the wood floor in her bedroom.

squeak.

oh my goodness. the look on her face was that of 'FINALLY!!! I HAVE SHOES!' shoes that reflect the very inner core of 'the molls'. there was NO stopping her after that. she danced in her room. she danced in the hallway. the only other person home was jason, who was called from the bedroom by the sound of squeaking...she had SO much to tell him about her new shoes!! lifting her foot, stumbling, only to cause MORE squeaking.

then down to the kitchen. RUNNING. back and forth, back and forth. try as i might, this was the best video i could get:


because she did THIS everytime i asked to take a picture of her new shoes.


i think she thought i was going to take them away.

what i guess i'm really trying to say is that if you and/or any of your friends are making a trip to china, it's worth it to have another kid just to have these shoes.

so much

to blog about....my trip to california, my fil's 60th birthday, squeaky shoes...but what's going to dominate today's post is jason's newly acquired birthday presents - guitar hero 1, 2, & 3 and the disney channel edition of ddr...

and let me just put this image in your mind...jason jamming to some song on guitar hero and wiggling his butt while holding the long notes...

honestly, who would have thought?

i promise more posts coming soon with details of the aforementioned topics...but right now we're too busy trying to be guitar heroes.

clarity

can you see that? the fact that you can actually SEE the fish is what i'm referring to.

anyone familiar with our fish tank would know that this is an improvement of MASSIVE proportions. as part of my valentine's gift to jason, i invested in some new fish...however, it would have been cruel and unusual punishment, even for fish, to have actually placed them in the tank in its state yesterday, which was basically worse than raw sewage.

so....i scraped the interior of the glass with a razor blade. i removed the massive quantities of large floating algae chunks that resulted from said scraping. i removed the plants and scrubbed them. i attempted to scrub mickey, but he may be beyond repair. i removed 75% of the water and replaced it, as well as the filter.

the new fish (and the old ones!) are breathing easier - literally. i SHOULD have taken a before picture...but suffice it to say that you really COULDN'T see the fish. really.

snow shoes

i had to take a moment from my morning snowblowing to capture the depth of our white prison this morning...please note that it was nearly 50 degrees earlier this week and the pavement that was under this snow was CLEAR yesterday....and then yesterday afternoon and overnight - WHAM! school was cancelled by 8PM last night.



so the girls gleefully donned their snow shoes for a trek in the back yard. molly also happily proclaimed that she was going "out! eat snow!!". which she did. that kid never stops eating. at least with the amount we had, i feel relatively certain that she was able to enjoy some fresh snow, as opposed to the nice yellow tinged stuff that covered the yard a few days ago.

funny

given my recent experience, this was exceptionally humorous...if you have some spare time on your hands, which you clearly do because you are reading this, i highly recommend that you also add pioneer woman to your regular internet reading.

smackdown

we had a wonderful weekend entertaining tara's family - well, tara's family MINUS her husband, who for some reason chose painting a ceiling and super bowl fun with friends over THIS:

you can get a real sense of the adventure involved in the tobaggon run with the pictures tara was able to capture with her 12x zoom....we all had a great time and then headed to the sled hill...

the kids had a great time racing down the hill, sometimes making it upright, other times not...

and molly attracted a bunch of attention as the youngest sledder...she has her own sled that has little 'wings' to prevent her flipping over (in theory...she has a few scratches on her upper nose to provide evidence that it doesn't always work)...and she LOVED every minute racing down the hill by herself:

anyway...you get the point...we had fun....

after sledding the girls were headed to a 'girls day out' with my aunt and then we hosted a big fondue dinner, including my in-laws...which ironically enough, my friend amy also did this weekend...what are odds?


the other main activity for the weekend included electronic entertainment never seen before in the baker household - dance dance revolution and guitar hero. THIS is the source of the serious smackdown i gave tara through our three-song challenge.




and despite jason's mild social anxiety disorder, even HE could be found partaking in guitar hero & DDR (as the youngins call it...) for his personal safety, i will not be posting pictoral (not to be confused with pectoral) evidence...i will, however, offer you a glimpse of my future american idols...