90 Years Young

Can you believe these lovely people are ninety years old?  Tomorrow is officially Auntie 'Nette's 90th birthday, and her MUCH older husband, Uncle Bob, turned ninety on November 6.  Last weekend we traveled to Wilbur to celebrate their joint birthday party at the Senior Citizen Center.

'Nette is G'ma Bonnie's older sister, and she and her husband Bob have adopted all of their nieces and nephews (and great-nieces and great-nephews) as their own children.

Here is 'Nette with Bonnie and her dangerous walker.  :)  She was scooting around the room as fast as the great-grandchildren were running, bumping into people--on purpose!--and socializing with everyone.  She told me all about the store that she and Bob once owned and all the people there that they served.  She said, "I just love people!"  Seeing her make the rounds, it was easy to believe.

"Will she really do it?" Henry and Kevin watch to see just how close Jen's teeth get to that cute little baby fist...

A lot of people came to honor 'Nette and Bob.  I had no idea who all the locals were, but you could tell that they all knew each other.

Cousins...they checked out every inch of that room.  And they approved the cake and frosting--the proof was on their faces, hands, and clothes...and table, and chairs, and carpet...

Who is that girl, tall enough to sneak a mint...?

 Colleen with her cousins, Dave and Dan, and their wives, Linda and Joan

We have such a wonderful time with this family.  We don't get to see them very often, but each time we do, they make us feel so appreciated and important to them.   Those small town farm families...love them!

BOWLING with the Templins

We love our friends, Joel and Sarabeth--and we love that they thought of us when they got a Groupon deal at North Bowl!  We had such a fun night with them--from spaghetti dinner at their house to the kids' first experience with POP at the bowling alley, we were spoiled!

Gracie  couldn't nap that day because she was bubbling with excitement.

 Look at those shoes!  She's a natural.

Josh loves balls.  We were slightly concerned that he'd end up with a broken toe because at our house the only thing we "FRO!" (throw) are balls.

 He's giggling, watching the ball crawl down the lane.

 He loved being eye-level with the ball and pins...he was cracking us up.

That's his STRIKE dance.

And Jeff's STRIKE look.

 Joel's "Sweep the leg, Johnny!"

And just when you think they're normal, the Lochhead genes rear their silly heads... :)

 "C'mon, ball--go, go, get the pin!"

 So, Sarabeth!  She was wearing Gracie's favorite color--icing on the cake of Grace's perfect day.

 Josh is so interested in how things work.  The ball return was the highlight of this outing.  As soon as the ball was out of his hand, he was waiting at the return to see it pop out.  He laughed and laughed...

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Thanks for a fun night, Templins!  We love spending time with you!  What fun memories for our family.

24-Hour Fingernail Polish...

...if we're lucky!  What is in little girls' nails that makes nail polish disappear?  We'll put polish on Grace's nails and that same day after naps she'll wake up and it's rubbed off.  It's the craziest thing.  I think there must be little nap fairies that come and kiss it off of her fingers while she sleeps.  :)

Notice the clear table cover I am trying out.  Mom gave it to me for Christmas and told me to put a table cloth and the placemats underneath it for low maintenance and easy clean-up.  So far, I like it!  I miss the warmth of the wood table, but I do NOT miss the grooves in it that I have to wipe out after every meal!  Fun for a change!

Cousin Basketball Weekend

Over MLK Jr. Weekend we went to the farm to watch Brooke and Abby play basketball.  Brooke's game was at Pullman High.  She's doing really well on the freshman team this year--usually scoring in the double-digits.  In fact, at one of her games in Spokane she was close to a triple-double.  Brag, brag--aunties can do that, you know.

At half time, the restless natives got to show their stuff...  Notice Abby's french braids that I had to do RIGHT when I entered the gym...

And that Megan's getting so smart! (Did we think this was possible?)  She brought Josh-bait:  a little stuffed kitty.  You'd think it had catnip in it or something--he was wild about chasing her!

Uncle Tom and Aunt Diane came up to the game--and George and Connie were there for a spell, too.  Brady had to work that day, but Katie kept him up-to-date with texts.

DS = also great Josh-bait.

Abby's game was next in Clarkston.  She's so aggressive and confident!  So fun to watch.

 After the games G'ma Joan took us to Arby's for (an eventful) lunch!  Then back to the farm for NAPS!  Sheeesh!  A morning of games--I don't know if I'd been more tired if I'd PLAYED them!  :)

And here is Josh with Felix, Papa Greg's cat.  Going to the shop to see the kitties is Josh's favorite farm activity...besides watching "Annie."  When we talk about going to the farm he replies, "Annie!  Kitties!"  In that order.  Sometimes "Papa!" makes it in third place on that list.  :)

We had such a great, relaxing time at the farm.  The other highlight was getting to spend the evening with Kelly and Ben at their house after we put the kids down to bed on Saturday night.  We had a great time visiting, seeing the nursery progress, and hearing about the birthing class they attended that day.  Ha!  Can't wait for Baby Girl Moser to join our crazy family!

Happy Grandparents Day!

Actually, I think G'parents Day is in September...but I had to find some new decor for my kitchen windowsill and this is my latest ensemble--grandparents!  Won't they look good with hearts next to them?  February is just around the bend! (And like documenting well-behaved children in public, one must also document pictures of one's sink when it's clean!)

Buddy Kai

We got to see Kai and "Mimi" last week when Heidi was working.  They insisted on all being on the couch with blankets for this picture.  Gracie just rediscovered this Nemo blanket that Kalei made for her when she was born--and she took it for show-and-tell because it was "N" week!

We love the dry winter air in this house!  This girl gets static like it's her job!

Grace's FIRST [Impromptu] Dentist Visit

No pictures on this post--but, really, who takes their camera to the dentist?  Had this been Grace's first REAL appointment, I may have smuggled one in...

On the way home from work today I told the kids that our friends, Joel and Sarabeth, had invited our family to go bowling with them this coming Friday.  This was very exciting for Grace, and she told me how good she already was at knocking down penguin pins at G'ma Dianne's...  And then we moved on to the topic of meeting Daddy at the dentist.  I had an appointment at 5pm and I was going to ask if Grace could come back with me to check things out--to get her ready for her upcoming first dentist appointment.

Grace's excitement couldn't be contained:  "Joshy, on Friday we get to go BOWLING with Joel and Sarabeth...we'll get to roll balls and have dinner at their house...but today is an even LUCKIER DAY because we get to go to the DENTIST!"

She did really well! She asked our [very patient] dental hygienist a question probably every 15 seconds:  "What is that?  How did you turn that on?  Why is the light so bright?  What are you wearing on your mouth? [mask] Why are you wearing it?  Can I see that toothbrush?  Does that tickle?  Can I stand right here?"

When our dentist came in, she let him count her teeth (examining him all-the-while with furrowed eyebrows) but he hadn't built the 20-minute relationship that she had going with our dental hygienist, so Grace only allowed HER to put the fluoride "paint" on her teeth.

Her ponytail swung back and forth as she bounced out of there...with a new purple toothbrush, berry-flavored floss,  a bouncy ball AND a Hello Kitty sticker.  I'm pretty sure she thought it was better than Christmas.  And she was thoughtful enough to pick out a toothbrush and sticker for her little brother, too.  "Look, Joshy--I got you a new toothbrush and a doggy sticker!"  Sigh.  Sometimes they make you so proud. (And when this happens in public, you document it!)  :)  :)

Big MICE in the Pantry

Perfect Placement

Quite often I feel like I spend the better part of my day putting objects back in their rightful places.  I seem to do this task automatically:  grab four things that belong upstairs before going up to get the toddler socks that I forgot to grab up in the bedroom...  The task of "right"ing wrongfully placed objects in a 2-toddler house is as never-ending as...um, laundry.  Constant.  Automatic.  Organizing.  Sometimes it makes me crazy.  And sometimes the unusual placement of an abandoned object pulls me out of auto-pilot...with a chuckle.  I wonder what happened to this milk drinker to make him place this bottle so perfectly in the middle of the kitchen floor?

Underfoot

Meet my cooking buddies!  These days, at the first scent of food in our kitchen, I have eager helpers who like to stand VERY CLOSE to me, grab ingredients out of refrigerators and pantries, and stand up on stools to help me cook.  Grace is getting very good at pouring measured amounts of ingredients into dishes, but Josh is more interested in putting his entire bottle IN the milk measuring bowl to see if it fits (floats?), and touching the stove elements to tell me that they're HOT.  (After one minor fingertip burn we now have the rule that stools must be more than an arm's-length from the stove).   

Such sweet faces.  Can you believe I tell them to, "Go play!"?

January...Bliss?

Ahh, January has arrived.  This is Jeff's favorite month.  He sees new possibility each time January rolls around and this year he's already on a roll of reading his new genre of books:  graphic novels.  He's started another health challenge (aka BET) involving push-ups with a co-worker, and he's been partaking in lots of play time with his kids.  Welcome, January!

"Ugh.  It's January," is more my outlook on this wintery month.  I am trying to rest a bit more--I have been fighting cough/cold/congestion since conferences back in November.  This week I went to the doctor for the second time in the last month and found out I have a BROKEN RIB from a coughing spell I had in December.  Well, I guess that's why my side hurt...I thought it was a muscle that wasn't healing.  Sigh. This month marks the last few weeks of working 3 days/week before I switch to working 2 days/week...c'mon, February!!!  Now THAT is my month.

Josh and Grace have welcomed the routine of going back to Dianne's and are loving their new set of toys scored over Christmas.  Hopefully they adopt their father's approach to January and not their mother's...