Lunch with 4-yr.-old Boys

Just another typical conversation with my Luke . . . I figure I have about two more years before he stops communicating with me at all . . .

Luke: Miss Kathy at my school says she doesn't like it when food hangs out of my mouth when I eat.
Me: Yeah, that's gross. Is eating nicely one of the rules at pre-school?
Luke: I don't really know what the rules are. But I try really hard to follow the rules. And behave.
Me: Well, how about not hitting? I bet that's one of the rules, that you shouldn't hit kids?
Luke: Yeah, hitting kids is bad. Mom, how come girls never get in trouble and boys always do?
Me: I don't know, why do you think?
Luke: Well, Mia and Maggie are super nice, and they have long hair, and boys have short hair, and girls with long hair only want to play with other girls who have long hair and NOT the boys. Boys only have short hair.
Me: Do you want to play with Mia and Maggie, Luke?
Luke: No.
Me: So who do you play with?
Luke: Roman and Cairo. They're boys.
Me: So, what do you like to play at school?
Luke: Mom, I'm so hungry. Can you stop making me talk? I just want to eat my hot dog.
Me: Okay Luke, sorry.
Luke: Hmph!

And on a totally unrelated note:

Look who's the cutest Cougar fan ever. We're going to watch the BYU vs. UCI Volleyball game tonight. Happy Friday!

Our Little Sweet Potato

Ready and waiting

First Bite
Where's my rice cereal?!
I think I like it . . .
We've got another eater here. (She's trying to make those cheeks even chubbier).

Big Huge Christmas Re-cap Part II

Is anyone still reading this?

Anyway, the fun continued when my sister and her husband Chris flew in from Florida. We "progressed" at the annual Progressive Dinner with the Calder relatives, stuffing ourselves silly.
This year was all the more special because we actually got my boy's to cooperate and play a wiseman and shephard in the nativity play (no sheep costumes here). Chloe made a rather "untraditional" Baby Jesus in striped tights and patent leather shoes.
In true California style, we got together with friends and made a Sand Snowman at Newport's 15th street beach. This was surprisingly harder than it looks! We hope this will become an annual tradition, it was such a fun, relaxing time in the sunshine.
On the 23rd we stuffed our car to the brim with snow clothes and presents and headed up to a gorgeous cabin in the mountains of Big Bear with the entire Bollard Clan. My very first White Christmas! I can't say enough about how fun this trip was, especially for my boys who loved every minute of being with their cousins. Thank you Bill & Christy!

Luckily Santa found us in Big Bear, much to Ethan & Luke's relief.

After Christmas we headed back to San Diego to open gifts with my family. Luke won the prize this year for gift opening reaction faces--here he is marveling over the Zhu Zhu pet hamster from Aunt Danielle:
We also took some Rose family pictures, which was a big deal because the last time we were all together was 4 1/2 years ago.
Well, I may be the very last person in the blog-o-sphere to do their Christmas re-cap, but better late than never. Reviewing it all in pictures makes me happy and tired at the same time. Here's to a great 2010!

Big Huge Christmas Re-Cap Part I

Today is the day! The day when Chloe is sleeping, the boys are entertaining themselves and dinner has already been started. The day when I have a passing moment to give a thought to this poor neglected blog and chronicle Christmas 2009.
This season was one of extremes--some of the most magical, fun holiday times we've ever had, coupled with some of the busiest days I've ever had trying to make it all happen (with a 4 month old in tow!). Forgive the long post, but I want to document everything, in part to record all of the joy and also to remind me to factor in some quiet next year.

A tree was trimmed . . .

. . . and stockings were hung (notice the letter to Santa sticking out of Ethan's!). I was especially excited to buy Chloe a "girl" stocking this year. Growing up I had a stocking fashioned after a pink ballet slipper so picking out this one for her was a little nostalgic.

Goodies were made:

sugar cookies, caramels, white chocolate cherry chunkies, peppermint mud pie, apple cakes with butter sauce . . . oh, and 100 homemade rolls for the Ward Christmas Party (yes I was volunteered for this by my friend, no I was not smart enough to say "No!", and yes, I made them on the same day my dishwasher unexpectedly broke down). Needless to say, I will be South Beaching it soon . . .

Chloe's Christmas Pictures were taken:

Since all of my kids are born within five weeks of each other on the calendar year, I've had each of their 3 month photos done in December. Check out Ethan & Luke's to see how Miss Chloe fits right in to the Bollard mold:

160 Christmas Card were mailed, or "delivered" to many friend's paper bag "mailboxes" at a fun park day exchange party:

We couldn't get enough of Christmas Disneyland!

Did you know they have live reindeer there in December? And, even though lining up for the parade was one of the most claustrophobic hours of my life (the lady next to us literally almost killed a few people in her electric wheelchair--no joke), I'm still glad we saw it (thanks for being a good sport Mom!). Christmas or no Christmas, the boys were just in heaven the moment they discovered Tom Sawyer's Island:

We made several trips down to San Diego,
the first being a visit to my Grandma & Grandpa Calder's house.

This is the house I went to for Christmas dinner every year growing up and it is full of all of my Grandma's special touches: little nativity sets from around the globe, fancy table settings with a popper on each plate, Christmas decorations in every room of the house (even the laundry room!), tins of the white crescent cookies (any Calder relative is saying yum right now), a train set running around the Christmas tree, and a million other things that make it fun to be a kid at Christmas. Thanks for completely spoiling us!

My Grandpa can make all babies smile by doing this pucker noise with his lips. (He can also make all little boys laugh by asking them if their name is Mary Ann. My boys think this is hilarious.)

And, of course, after Nana's house we hit the San Diego Zoo.

Seriously, how many pictures of us at the Zoo have I posted on this blog? They should be paying me advertising royalties by now.
The highlight of this trip was being invited by the staff of the educational department to come behind the scenes and hold some sort of creepy prehistoric-looking lizard that Luke fell in love with.

And all of this was before the actual week of Christmas!

Baaaaa Baaaaa

A conversation between Luke & Sister Rasmussen at the Nativity Rehearsal before tonight's Ward Christmas Party:

Luke, would you like to be a Shepherd?
No.
Luke, would you like to be a Wise Man?
No.
Luke, are you afraid to be on stage?
No.
Well then, what would you like to be, Luke?
(Long pause)
A Goat.
Excuse me?
A Goat.
Hmmm, well we don't exactly have a goat costume, but there's this sheep mask in the bottom of the costume bucket . . .

It was love at first sight.

I present to you, the world's creepiest-looking, most excited,
sound-effect-making
Nativity Sheep:

And if one is going to be a sheep, it's only natural that the other is going to follow suite as a donkey right?

They were fairly attentive during the performance, except when they started crawling around the stage on all fours (because that's what animals do Mom!).

And speaking of dressing up, I still can't get over this one's little legs in her Christmas get-up:
And check out that drool coming off her pouty bottom lip--it's the only thing my children inherit from me. Otherwise they're pretty Bollard through and through.
Besides his sheep debut, this was Luke's first time ever happily sitting on Santa's lap. It was a big night for him. He must really, really want that T-Rex Robot he ordered up.

Thanksgiving 2009

So this was our best attempt at a family picture before Thanksgiving dinner. It's not perfect, but at least it documents us before half of the boy's food ended up on their shirts. And it captures Chloe's smiley face. How cute is she on her first Thanksgiving?

We had so much fun at my Aunt Becky's house. Here's some of the highlights:

-The entire meals was so good, but my mother takes the art of making homemade gravy to a whole new level. In heaven I will eat everything covered in it followed by a dessert of my Grandma Calder's Pecan Tassies.

-It was a gorgeous 82 degrees and the boy's entertained themselves in the jacuzzi for 2 hours.

-Discussing "deep" issues with my female relatives such as: the New Moon movie, the upcoming Newport Beach house vacation, which cousin will have the next baby, and Jamie's newly dyed red hair.

-Will's day of sports, starting with the Turkey Bowl in the morning, Volleyball, Table Tennis & Basketball at Becky's, and golfing with all the guys today.

-Snuggling up in our pajamas on the couch and watching Miracle on 34th Street with my Mom & the boys.

-Planning Black Friday shopping strategies. We aren't die hard enough to wake up early, but we did manage to get everything we wanted for the kids all in one morning.

-Eating my first See's Chocolate of the season.

Hope you had a wonderful holiday!

Thankful #8

Today I am thankful for:

My Sister Danielle

(This is us the day after Thanksgiving 2004)

Here are just some of the reasons why:

-She's forgiven me (maybe?) for being a very bossy older sister
-She was my co-conspirator in high school when we took the mini-van through the car wash instead of hand washing it like we were supposed to.
-She has a gift with children. She loves them, they love her. Almost without exception. I sooooo wish she could be my kids 2nd grade teacher.
-She sends the best birthday packages, always on time (she used to work at a UPS store), and gift-wrapped even underneath the box. They are almost always stuffed with really good books.
-She has a very dry, sarcastic sense of humor--you have to watch for the little comments under her breath.
-She can talk Twilight & New Moon with the best of them.
-She rarely complains (now why didn't I get that trait?)
-She ends most phone conversations with "Love you Aud!"
-She endures hard things with patience and faith.
-And, she's coming for Christmas this year. Hooray!
Love you Yelly.

Thankful #7

Today I am thankful for:

Pretending I'm 17 again.

Tomorrow I will be thankful for ANY form of a nap my children will allow me.