Fun February Fotos

Okay, I confess that three of these photos may be from January... but most of them are definitely from this month. Enjoy!

I like this picture of Elijah. I feel it embodies the chaos I experience on a day to day basis.

Since October, the boys have decided that our main front window needs seasonally appropriate decorations. Elijah traced his hands to create winter gloves to hang in the window, and Gabriel drew these adorable anime style snowmen.
Benjamin is getting bigger and oh-so-expressive. He offers more smiles than he used to, but still gives plenty of stink-eyes. Oh, and see that picture in the middle? Yes, that is a chocolate chip. He was storing it in his ear for emergency snacking purposes. That was the day he had his first, and possibly last, chocolate chip cookie.

Aren't these pretty? They are kale chips (Thanks for the recipe Molly!). David John loved these "green chips" but my other boys weren't as impressed. I liked them initially, but found the aftertaste too strong for me. February has been a depressing month in the healthy food arena. I am discovering that I do not like so many things that sound delicious and are good for my body. This month I tried and eliminated the following items from my "Healthy Food Sarah Likes" list: kale chips, sweet potato chips, Greek yogurt, salmon and white bean salad and cauliflower soup. In good news, after years of not getting along with brussel sprouts, we are on speaking terms.
I guess heart cookies are becoming a tradition because we made them again this year and the boys were gung-ho about decorating. We used the cookies to give some of our neighbors "heart attacks" which included a plate of heart cookies, a note about how awesome the neighbors are and several decorative paper hearts. The boys loved sneaking around at night and doorbell ditching. They called themselves "injas" (aka ninjas). They also loved getting to eat some of their own creations. I'm pretty sure the vast majority of the sugar in these sugar cookies was on top and not in the batter.

Here is David John in his favorite shirt. He can read it himself, "I am master of disaster!" Yes, yes you are.
While at my mom's house, Gabriel decided he wanted to knit. My mom gave him some yarn. The other boys wanted some too. Boys + yarn = giant spider web. This poor pull-toy caterpillar was the first victim to be caught. The web was massive starting in the kitchen downstairs (it even went in the fridge) and going up the stairs to the hallway on the second floor. It made moving about the house very exciting. I confess to pretending to be Catherine Zeta Jones in the movie Entrapment when negotiating the strings.
"Say cheese," I said. This is what I got. Maybe they didn't know they should smile while saying cheese?
Valentines Day flowers from the hubby. Marc's favorite flower + Sarah's favorite color= Awww. They smelled great too. I sure love that guy.
For our final picture, here is proof that Benjamin is indeed a Ricks. He is eating popcorn off of the floor. He will get popcorn anyway he can, even if he has to steal it, climb on top of the table for it or crawl away while getting his clothes changed. Apparently the popcorn addiction gene is a dominant one.

Reel Life

Some days, I feel like I'm living in a movie. I wish the movie was a fairytale like Ever After or even an action babe flick like Tomb Raider but alas I am living in one of those naughty kids movies. You know the kind I'm talking about. The basic premise is that a person, usually of the male persuasion, who is categorically unqualified to care for children ends up in charge of a brood of highly-spirited kids. There is inevitably a montage of crazy child behavior in which the house is trashed and the babysitter collapses in exhaustion. I could write these movies. In fact, I could produce these movies as a documentary. The events which I am about to describe are all true. They all occured today. If you would like to envision how this would play out in a movie, just imagine it all happening in fast forward with wacky music playing in the background.

Dear Hollywood Filmmakers,
As a mother of four active boys I would like to submit the following ideas for your next inept babysitter genre film. I have to say that I highly recommend the combination of four boys aged four and under. I find that they are able to produce maximum chaos which I'm sure audiences everywhere would enjoy.
Scene: morning; the babysitter is trying to get the four-year-old twins ready for preschool
In stead of getting dressed, the twins are running around in their underwear, whipping each other with articles of clothing. The very fussy 10-month-old, who is cutting three teeth, is following the sitter around clutching at her pants and crying. When she tries to intervene in the clothes fight, the twins dive at her ankles yelling, "Get her! Yeah! Trip her!" Meanwhile, the 2-year-old calls out from the kitchen where he is still eating breakfast, "I peed!" The sitter spins around, nearly tripping, and catches the baby just before he enters the kitchen where there is a waterfall of urine cascading down the booster seat, onto the chair and then down to the kitchen floor. (NOTE: if this scene is in the beginning of the movie, this might be a good time for the sitter to just pass out and fall backwards. If this scene is occurring towards the end of the movie then I can give you the details of how I handled this situation with great aplomb. I felt like super mom... until the afternoon.)
Scene: afternoon; the babysitter has just picked up the twins from preschool and has fed everyone lunch. The baby has just been put down for a badly-needed nap and the sitter decides to use this opportunity to give the other three boys haircuts.
The sitter is half-way through cutting the 2-year-old's hair when she hears the baby crying. She runs into the room to find a guilty looking twin standing next to the baby whose face is covered in what are unmistakably cheeto-dust kisses. The holwing orange-faced baby is put in his highchair and the haircuts resume. She finishes the 2-year-old and moves on to the cheeto-lipped twin. Partway through his haircut, the baby wiggles out of the highchair restraints and attempts a nose-dive onto the floor. While the sitter rescues the baby, cheeto twin escapes, runs to the bathroom and tries to use the shower curtain to remove all of the hair clippings from his body. The sitter finds him by following a trail of hair on the floor. When she returns, twin in tow, to the kitchen she discovers that the baby has crawled right through the pile of hair cuttings and now resembles nothing so much as baby Bigfoot or perhaps a well used Swiffer pad. She quickly finishes the second hair cut and decides she may as well keep going despite the messes. The third hair cut is accompanied by cries and screams and requires wrestling holds and packages of fruit snacks in order to get it done. She bathes all four boys who throw tantrums about taking a bath and cause tidal waves of water to splash all over the bathroom floor. At last they are cleaned and dressed and she turns on a show for them to watch. (This may be a good time for a brief sappy moment before any additional chaos. You may wish to have her gaze at the four of them all sitting together on the couch, arms on each other's shoulders. They really are adorable boys.)
With the boys thus occupied, the sitter gets to work on cleaning up all of the hair messes. While she is busy vacuuming the hair off of the shower curtain she hears wild laughter from the living room. She rushes in to find all three of the older boys crawling around with a crayon in each hand, drawing as they go. The wood floors are completely covered in red, blue, green, purple and orange crayola. The baby is laughing too, a crayon dangling out of his mouth like some kind of bizarre cigar. She confiscates the crayons, gets out tissues and demonstrates how they can start rubbing the crayon marks off the floor. Two of them agree, but one twin refuses. She sends him to time out with a glitter-jar timer made out of a plastic peanut-butter jar. Thirty seconds later she hears a suspicious sound. Somehow, the twin has managed to throw the jar with such force and at just the right angle that the brittle plastic of the lid shatters. Glitter, water and karo syrup ooze down into the cracks between the wooden floor boards. Bedding is splattered with the sticky, glitzy concoction. She sends the twin back out to help clean the floors and starts cleaning up this new mess when she hears splashing from the bathroom. The baby has discovered the toilet! and toilet paper! Delightful! She cleans up baby only to turn around and find the second pee puddle of the day. After cleaning and sanitzing the floor, she takes a load of laundry down to the basement to be washed. When she returns the baby is brushing his hair with the vacuum hose brush attachment (There are many possible endings here. The babysitter could have a mental break and start hysterically laughing or crying. The three older boys could pull together and offer the sitter some much needed love and appreciation. The parents could arrive home and the sitter could run away and never return. There is potential for everything from feel-good family movie to horror film. I won't tell you what really happened except that everyone went to bed. Early.)

Please contact me if you have any questions or would like some sample footage.

Sincerely,

Sarah

Compelling stuff, right? If only I could get paid for my starring role...

What's Cookin'

Benjamin is a difficult eater. He has never seemed to get on the solid foods bandwagon. Foods that most babies love, i.e. bananas, evoke such horrible facial expressions that you would think we had given him a pickle or a lemon. I think I've finally figured out the problem. Despite the fact that Benjamin is a Hebrew name and both his middle and last names originate in the British Isles, he seems to believe that he is Italian-American. There are six foods that Benjamin truly loves: 1. crackers 2. chips 3. hot-dogs 4. pizza 5. baked ziti 6. risotto. You read that right, risotto. It's like I'm catering to a mini food critic. Rice? No thank you Mom. Unless you had to stand right by the stove for at least 30 minutes to make it, it just isn't up to my standards. I'll have the risotto with truffles, please.
Anyway, the reason I mention this is twofold. First, I wanted to post these pictures of the picky eater himself. Notice the less than thrilled expression about the apple slices and pancakes I am offering for breakfast. I couldn't resist a second picture just so you can all admire his amazing good-morning hair. I love it!
Secondly, it is a good segue into posting some recipes that I love but can't pin on a pinterest board because the websites I got them from don't have pictures. Seriously? Pinterest can't find a work-around for this, like pinning the site and then adding your own picture? Anyway, it is just too much work to go to my bookmarks menu, find the recipe folder and then click on the tab for the recipe I want. Instead, I decided to actually make the recipe, photograph the results, post the photos and recipes to my blogs and THEN pin it. Much easier.
Baked Ham With Bourbon Brown Sugar Glaze (from Reader's Digest)

Ingredients

• 1 fully cooked, bone-in, shank-portion smoked ham (8 1/2 pounds)
• About 40 whole cloves
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 cup bourbon or beef stock
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper

How to make it

• Preheat oven to 325°F. Remove skin (if any) from ham and trim fat. Score remaining fat and stud with cloves.

• Place ham, cut-side-down, on a rack in a shallow roasting pan lined with several layers of aluminum foil. Insert a meat thermometer in center o f ham, making sure it does not touch bone (or test later with an instant-read thermometer).
• Bake ham, uncovered, until thermometer registers 130°F to 135°F, about 2 hours. Meanwhile, combine sugar, bourbon or stock and pepper in a small bowl.
• Remove ham from oven and brush one-third of the sugar mixture over the ham. Increase oven temperature to 375°F and return ham to oven. Every 10 minutes, apply one-third of the glaze, until all glaze has been used. If ham browns too fast, tent lightly with foil.
• Ham is done when the internal temperature rea ches 140°F. Let stand at least 15 minutes before carving.

The ham is pictured here with the aforementioned risotto. The risotto recipe can found here. I already have it pinned and it requires so much attention I may only be making it for Benjamin's birthday every year or something.

I also love a good baked ziti. I use this recipe from food network, but I often vary the cheeses depending on what I have and I always add a can of petite dice d tomatoes with chilies to the sauce for a little kick. Mmmmm.

Ingredients

• 1 pound dried ziti pasta
• Kosher salt
• 3 1/2 cups QUICK MARINARA SAUCE, rec ipe follows
• 1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan, divided
• 1/4 cup grated pecorino romano
• 1 pound fresh mozzarella, half cut into 1/2-inch cubes a nd half thinly sliced
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch of crushed red pepper or to taste

Directions

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, salt generously, and boil the pasta until al dente, tender but still slightly firm. Drain.

In a large bowl, toss the cooked pasta with the marinara sauce,

1/4 cup of the Parmesan, the pecorino, and the cubed mozzarella pieces. Season with the black pepper and red pepper to taste, and mix until well combined. Transfer the pasta to an oiled 9- x 13-inch baking dish. Cover the top of the pasta with the sliced mozzarella, and sprinkle with the remaining Parmesan. Bake until lightly browned and hot, about 30 minutes. Serve immediately.

• QUICK MARINARA SAUCE
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/4 medium onion, diced (about 3 tablespoons)
• 3 cloves garlic, chopped
• 3 1/2 cups whole, peeled, canned tomatoes in puree, (one 28-ounce can), roughly chopped
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• Sprig of fresh basil
• 2 teaspoons kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Heat the oil in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat.

Saute the onion and garlic, stirring, until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. Add the tomatoes and the herb sprigs and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, covered, for 10 minutes.

Remove and discard the herb sprigs. Stir in the salt and season with pepper to taste. Use now, or store covered in the refrigerator for up to 3 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Yield: about 3 1/2 cups.

Okay, last cooking-related item. David John LOVES to pretend to cook. I am always finding little plastic dishes or plastic pieces of food in the refrigerator and freezer. David John explains that his food was too hot and he was just cooling it off so it could be eaten. His recipes usually sound very interesting like "Pepperoni Soup" or "Hamburger Cake". He is much more relaxed about cooking than I am.

If only I could recline with a leisurely smile on my face while preparing a meal. That would be the life.

Ten Year Trivia

So, Marc and I are coming up on the big 10 year anniversary in May. We know we won't be able to do anything huge so we are celebrating in small ways starting this month. Because our courtship was so short, every date and small milestone seems significant to our relationship. I thought it would be fun to post a few of the things that happened in January of 2002 which led to the establishment of the Marc and Sarah Ricks family.
Jan 9th- Marc walks into Sarah's honor biology class. Sarah is ticked off because Marc was in her honors astronomy class the semester before and he wrecked all the curves giving her her first B+ since Junior High. Sarah thought he was dating someone because he always came to class with some girl, who turned out to be his sister. Sarah is dreading another semester of his curve-wrecking ways when he announces that he is the T.A. Phew!
Jan 10th- Sarah goes to a scholarship banquet and discovers that Marc has the same scholarship. They chat over hors d'oeuvres and then Sarah sits down with friends at a table. Marc actually asks someone to move so that he can sit next to Sarah. He has her attention...
Jan 14th- Marc shows up again! It turns out he has guitar lessons at the same time as and in the room next to Sarah's voice lessons. He is also in the major office when Sarah goes to declare a new major of genetics. They chat again. Sarah inquires about Marc's lunch plans. Marc says he will be eating a frozen burrito and then promptly leaves. Sarah feels confused. She would have taken him out to lunch on her meal plan. Maybe he's not interested? Sarah should have realized then that Marc is just not good at picking up on hints. Even not-so-subtle ones.
Jan 24th- Sarah, lacking a car, asks Marc after voice lessons if he could pick up some music when he goes to get guitar supplies. He says yes.
Jan 25th- Marc asks for Sarah's phone number, you know, for music buying-related questions. They talk for at least an hour later that night. Marc asks her on a date, but only after clearing it with the biology professor. He is her T.A. after all.
Jan 26th- We have our first date. Our double backs out at the last minute so after buying music, we head back to Marc's house to decide what we want to do. We end up staying since Marcus is cooking something amazing for dinner. Sarah has a good time with Marc's niece and nephew despite the fact that we watch Willow. Marc's dad tries to be generous by offering Sarah large quantities of gummy bears. Marcus causes some embarrassment when he indicates that Sarah can only eat dinner if she agrees to marry Marc. Who knew she'd actually keep her end of the bargain?
Jan 27th- Sarah invites Marc over for dinner with the excuse that her printer needs fixing. Could she have fixed it herself? Probably. She attempts to make rolls without success. It turns out she is using powdered sugar instead of flour. Sarah is still wondering why her roommates had a gigantic canister of powdered sugar and only a small container of flour. After discovering the problem, rolls have lost their appeal. She makes bread instead. Dinner is a success. The printer gets fixed.
Jan 29th- Marc casually stops by after Sarah's German class to give her a homemade card and a present. It turns out to be a bread knife. Marc had to cut the homemade bread with a butterknife the night before so he knows Sarah could use one. Sarah still loves that bread knife. Sarah also listens to an amazing devotional by Dallin H. Oaks about the Lord's timing. This concept of the Lord's timing will be important when Sarah realizes she might not be going on a mission before she gets married.
Here is a picture of us at a campus ice-sculpting contest from January 2002. Awww.

Kiddy Krack-ups

Here are some funnies from my boys. I confess, some of these are from last year and I just never posted them, but they are too good not to share.

Elijah: "Mom! I keep asking Gabe a question and he just says nothing!"
Me: "Are you sure he heard you?"
Elijah: "Yes! I told you he just says nothing. Watch!"
(I follow Elijah out of the kitchen and into the living room where Gabe is playing with blocks.)
Elijah: "Gabe, do you want to play a game with me?"
Gabe: (without looking up) "Nothing!"
Elijah: "See! He just says 'nothing'!"

We try to have clean up time each evening before Marc gets home from work. One day, Gabriel refused to help.
Gabe: (with a sincere pained expression on his face) "Mom, I can't clean up because my feelings are hurt. I'm really hurting inside."
Despite my assurances that hurt feelings do not prevent one from picking up toys Gabe did not lift a finger. When Marc arrived home Gabriel apologized for his lack of help.
Gabe: "I'm sorry I didn't clean up, Dad. My brains were hurting."
His list of mental excuses needs some work, and where did he learn this melodramatic behavior?

Sometimes we feed the neighbors' dogs when they are out of town. One morning I ran next door to feed the dogs and let them out then ran back into my kitchen where the boys were eating breakfast.
Elijah: "Wow! Mom, how did you feed the dogs so fast?"
Me: "I don't know. Was I really fast?"
Elijah: "Yeah. I guess Heavenly Father just made you that way."
I guess I can add speed-feeding dogs to my list of God-given talents.

We recently purchased booster seats in a fit of optimism. Gabriel and Elijah were really excited about the new seats, but after we measured the boys' heights we realized they were still a little too short to safely use them. They asked why we couldn't put the seats in the van right now and I explained that they needed to grow three more inches.
Gabe: "Three inches! (moaning) That will take forty years! Or four days! That is a really long time."

In November, Marc participated in Movember. For those of you who don't know, Movember is an awareness and fund-raising campaign for men's health. Men all over the nation grow facial hair all month in order to get donations for causes like prostate cancer. Marc has never been big into facial hair, partly because he looks a little sinister and partly because it just doesn't grow that well for him. Anyway, at the same time he started his mustache growth he was also working really long hours. Gabriel put the two and two together and came up with the following statement after seeing his milk mustache in the mirror: "Uh-oh Mom. I didn't get enough sleep, so I have a mustache."

David John occasionally abandons his pleasant persona and goes on a little naughty spree. During one hectic day when Marc was on call and we were having company for dinner he managed to clog the toilet several times with non-toilet-friendly objects. Here is a catalog of everything he tried to flush down: 3 toddler toothbrushes, 2 t-shirts, 3 baby toys, 2 battery-operated trucks, an entire roll of toilet paper and a shoelace. This last item was flushed while we were eating dinner. My apologies to the Cleveland water department if this caused havoc with any of their machinery. Also, do you have a lost and found for items pulled out of the water-treatment plant? We are missing a few things and I think you might have them...

Benjamin is quite good at getting around now, but when he first learned to pull himself up to standing he took several spills. He would be clinging to the side of the coffee table and reaching for a toy that was too far away. He seemed to realize that he needed to move his body to get it, so he would start sliding his hands along the edge of the table toward the toy but he never moved his feet. As a result, we would witness Benjamin's head slowly leaning then disappearing entirely when he finally fell over sideways. I'm glad he learned how to move lower body and that he is no longer the rising and setting baby.

Elijah is really interested in the family pictures that I recently put up. (No comments please about how we have been in this house for 2.5 years and I am just now hanging pictures. I am aware.) He loves this one of Marc from our trip to Alaska.After studying it for a while he asked, "Mom is that you next to the big pole with Daddy?"
Flattery will get you nowhere son.

All three big boys received mini tape-measures in their stockings at Christmas. I love to watch them measure the furniture. "Mom, the coffee table is 50 degrees and 3 pounds." David John's apparently works much like Mary Poppin's measuring tape. When he measures you he usually assigns you an adjective. "Mom, you are pretty." Thank you son. Flattery will get you everywhere.

I love how literal 2-year-olds can be. I frequently have conversations like this with David John:
David John: "Mommy, I hurt myself!"
Me: "What did you hit?"
David John: "The floor."
or
David John: "Mommy, I feel sick."
Me: "Where do you feel sick?"
David John: "In the living room."

Gabriel was very angry at me one day because he misbehaved in the library and did not get a good behavior fruit snack when we got in the van. On the way home he was loudly expressing his feelings.
Gabe: "Mom, I don't love you! You belong in the garbage! Actually, you belong in the dump truck which will take you to the garbage!"
Elijah: "Gabe, that is not nice. If you die, you will go to the bad-guy place."
Gabe (fearing fire and brimstone I guess): "Mom, I changed my mind. I love you now. You don't belong in the garbage."
Elijah should work in the penal system reforming inmates.

Okay, last one:
David John loves to sing and he takes his songs seriously. He got very upset today when his brothers were singing the wrong lyrics. He started screaming at them, which has been a general problem of late. Marc and I sat down with him to talk about what he could do instead of screaming.
Me: "David John, what could you do next time you feel frustrated or annoyed with your brothers?"
David John: "Um, probably cry and scream?"
Me: "No, what could you do instead of cry and scream. You could use your..." (we were looking for "words")
David John: "Body?"
At this point we had to stop the conversation because Marc and I were shaking with silent laughter. We are always telling the boys not to use their bodies (i.e. hit and kick) to communicate. At least he was being honest. Using his body is probably what he would resort to if crying and screaming didn't work. We did come up with some other ideas. We'll have to see what happens next time someone flubs one of his favorite songs.

Salt of the Earth

The missionaries came over on Friday. They are awesome and super patient with my four rascals. We watched this awesome video to help us get inspired about the new year. Go check it out. It's short, it's sweet, it's funny and it was totally appealing to my little boys. After the missionaries went home, I was asked to retell the story of Lot and his wife several times. Gabriel and Elijah would then tell it to each other in tones of growing excitement until they reached the climax in which they were practically shouting, "...but the mommy looked back and she turned into a pile of salt! Ha!"
This story led to several follow-up questions for me. "Mom, have you ever been disobedient?" "Mom, have you ever turned into a pile of salt?" "Mom, why did the mommy look back? Are you going to look back?" I hope not boy-os. If I ever do turn into a pile of salt I imagine it will be because I just couldn't stay away from pickles and popcorn. May we all be like Lot looking forward to a year of promise and less sodium in our diets.

Cabin Fever

It's January. This means it is a New Year, which is great. It also means that we are finally getting some serious snow and that the boys have a lot of school holidays. After two weeks off for the Christmas/New Years holiday I have a whole new appreciation for those 2 1/2 hours a day, four days a week when Gabriel and Elijah go to preschool. Without it, we all succumbed to the dreaded Cabin Fever. Don't worry though. My boys are nothing if not creative. Here are some of the ways they have found to entertain themselves while stuck at home:

1. Computer Games
Okay, so this is not creative, but it's new. This is the first time we've let them play games and they are hooked. Primarily, they play simple phonics games for *FREE* at starfall.com. If you don't know about this site, you should check it out. The games are very short so it's pretty guilt-free to let them play one or two letter games each when you know that only means 5-10 minutes of computer time AND it's educational. Poor Benjamin is left out of the fun, despite his best efforts to get in on the action. Now that he is nine months he is crawling and cruising and bothering his brothers like a pro.The other game they like to play (with Daddy's assistance) is a quirky game called Plants vs. Zombies. They are very serious about this game. Elijah is especially intense about it. Frequently I will hear exclamations like, "Watch out Dad! That zombie is going to get into the house! No, no no! (pause) Okay, phew! Sorry Dad, I just really thought that one was going to get through." All the boys have also taken to talking in zombie voices on occasion. If you see them walking around in a stiff way with glassy eyes and muttering, "Brains!" you'll know why. We've banned the zombie voice in certain situations such as saying prayers. I don't think zombies pray, do you?

2. Fun With Mattresses
One advantage of sharing a room with your brothers is that you have more mattresses to play with. These mattresses have been used as Noah's Ark, forts, tents, and slides. Here is a picture of one of the more dangerous uses they found- a teetering bridge......and here is a picture of them shortly after falling off said teetering bridge.In this picture they have just finished creating a giant mattress, blanket, pillow and stuffed animal "hamburger". They are quite proud of their handiwork. Sometimes, brothers are an added secret ingredient inside the hamburger. Today, they are just the sesame seeds on the sesame seed bun.

3. Playdates
These have been few and far between since most of our friends were traveling for the Holidays. I am ashamed to admit that at two of the playdates we did go to I had to leave early because of toddler misbehavior. Of course, the boys didn't make leaving easy. After several attempts at trying to get everyone's coats and boots on before one of the other boys kicked his off and ran away, I had to swallow my pride and carry each tantrum-throwing child out to the van individually without boots or coat and then dress them and buckle them in before returning for another naughty little person. Cabin Fever will do that I guess.
Sometimes, though, friends are just what we needed. Here is a happy picture from the day after Abbie and Will came back from their trip. They all piled into the rocking chair and asked for their picture to be taken. Elijah informed Abbie that it was okay for her to sit with him for the picture because they are engaged.

4. Robots
Several days in a row, the boys dumped out containers of toys in order to put the empty containers on their heads and play robots. Tired of picking up so many toys, I decided to just make designated robot boxes. The boys were thrilled about this idea. I also thought they might be less trouble if they could see instead stumbling around blindly so I cut eye-holes in the boxes for them and helped them decorate their robots. Of course, as soon as they but their new robot boxes on Gabe said, "I have a great idea! Let's crash into each other!" The other boys were amenable. I tried to control their behavior by explaining that robots are programmed and always do what they are told and that these were non-crashing robots. Apparently, the boys have read I, Robot because they explained they were of the evil robot variety and didn't have to listen. Oh well. It was worth a try.

5. Building Starship
Okay, so they didn't build a starship. They built towers with their blocks while singing a Starship song. Yesterday, I almost died laughing as I watched Gabriel, Elijah and David John busily stacking their colored blocks and belting out, "We built these towers on Rock and Roll!" Marc occasionally shows the boys music videos on YouTube so we think that's where this song came from but even if Marc did show it to them it was a long time ago. Their all-time favorite and frequently requested music video is still Boris the Spider by The Who. Boys are so funny.

6. Kicks with Kix
Today they experimented with Kix cereal. They discovered you can make it roll of the table if you blow hard enough, that it makes a very satisfying sound when stomped on and that it is very fun to throw handfuls up into the air and watch them rain down like little yellow hale stones. Most importantly, however, they devised a very amusing way to eat Kix which involved disconnecting some tubing from their toy vacuum and placing one end of the tubing in someone's mouth then loading Kix into the other end so that they rolled down into said mouth. They all took turns in between fits of giggles. Benjamin enjoyed the spectacle and was happy to eat the Kix cereal that was all over the floor. I guess the New Year will be bringing us a new box of Kix since that one was rapidly consumed today. Did I mention I love my kids? Even when they have Cabin Fever? Oh, good. Well, it's true. I do love my boys and I love being at home with them even if things get a little crazy. One thing is for sure, I never know what they will come up with next.