Little long cheese

Do you find the title of this blog intriguing? The truth is, little long cheese is sweeping our house. Zack has a knack for making up words to explain things. He sometimes has a hard time with the actual word, so he makes up something else to describe it. 

Little long cheese has become the word for shredded cheese. Yes, that's the right ... the boy who won't eat much has fallen in love with shredded cheese and asks for it with every meal. Gavin and Chloe caught on quickly and now everybody is asking for little long cheese with their meals. It's just too cute. 

Other cute phrases uttered this week ... 

Gavin likes to take off his pajama top when he gets in bed. 

"It's appropriate for big boys."

Chloe was talking about the distance between our house and her school ... 

"It's far, far away near our house."

After watching Madagascar 2 and the near sacrafice of Melman in a volcano, Zack continues to tell me, "Mama, I won't throw you in a volcano." 

Well, thank goodness for that! 

Much love, 

--M

Our first Christmas

What an amazing day Christmas was! The following pictures should help tell the story of the day's events ... Santa was very good to us all. :) 

Here's hoping your holidays were just as happy. 

Much love,

--M

The Christmas tree and stockings after Santa stopped by. By the way, I think the stockings were one of my favorites this year. We all sat on the floor and unwrapped our stocking gifts together. It was a lot of fun! 

Here you can see the circle of stockings on the floor. The box you see Gavin holding was something new we're trying. Here's how it works ... each kid has a box and any toys that are kept in the box can't be touched by the other kids ... unless you ask permission first. Gavin jumped on the idea ... especially after he unwrapped his new Star Wars action figures. Zack and Chloe, on the other hand, really don't get the idea at all. Neither one of them can consistently remember to put their new toys in the box. Whatever. :) 

Zack's big gift from Santa was a Craftsman workbench. He was so excited ... and safe. Here you can see him trying on the safety goggles. :) 

Santa brought Gavin the original Star Wars trilogy. He was VERY happy about this and we've enjoyed the movies several times. All the kids have been walking about saying, "Luke, I am your father ..." Hahaha! 

Playing with the new toys ... do you see the big car in the background? That was Gavin's big gift from Santa. It's huge. :) He's been having a lot of fun ... actually, Daddy has been enjoying it just as much! Turns out the car goes through the snow quite nicely! 

Speaking of snow ... we had some pretty good snow falling on Christmas day! It changed our plans a little. Without four-wheel drive, my parents couldn't make it to our house ... so we packed up the family and headed to their house. My sister and her husband and Chuck's parents joined us as well. It was the perfect mid-day gathering! 

Nana (something Zack calls Amanda) and Chloe had some snuggle time on the couch! 

And poor Zack ... suffering from a cold ... crashed in the middle of the gathering. Poor little guy slept from more than an hour. 

And meanwhile, the big boys ... played with their new remote control helicopters. 

And at the end of the day, Daddy got the chance to play Barbie with his daughter. Now, that's cute! 

Christmas Eve

If there is one thing I have learned about Chuck, it's that he is extremely impatient when it comes to giving gifts. He has a problem waiting until Christmas day for the gifts to be opened. I had been strong for the last few days, telling him we'd wait until Christmas. But, I had a moment of weakness and gave in. So, we decided to exchange one stocking gift that morning. I received a new calendar (YIPEE!!) and he got the shirt ... 

Later in the day we picked up Zack and a few hours later we rounded out the family when we picked up Gavin and Chloe. Then it was straight to church! As a side note, I have to admit that I was rather nervous about what state the kids would be in. All the kids had a "Christmas morning" with their other parent on the 24th and I had no idea what to expect ... but I was thinking exhaustion would rank rather high. Turns out, the kids ... although tired ... were ready for their big parts in the reenactment of the nativity scene at church.  

Before the evening got started, Chloe took a moment to hang out with Papa Clint and strum on the guitar. It's been fun listening to the kids adjust to having new grandparents in their life. Chuck's parents are called, Nana and Papa and my parents go by Grammy and Papa. The Papa's get rather confusing though ... Gavin suggested calling my dad Step-Papa Clint, but that's quite a mouthful! I'm sure the names will continue to evolve, but every so often Chloe stops and asks, "Wait, what's your name again?" It's no wonder! :) 


After a little warming up, it was time to get the party started ... 

Chloe decided to be an angel and Gavin elected to play Joseph. Of course, after he volunteered for the part he immediately wanted to know who was going to play the baby. :) 

Zack chose to play one of the wise men. 

And then there was Chuck ... who graciously agreed to play the third wise man since we were a little short of kids. He walked in on his knees to a roar of laughter from the church crowd. What a good sport! 


A few more pictures before things got started ... 

And then it was time for the play to begin. Here are Mary and Joseph  ... 

And here sits Zack. I guess he decided he'd had enough of the nativity scene and sat and watched the piano player instead. He got some good laughs from the crowd, too! 

Isn't it cute!? 
Following the service we headed home. We enjoyed some hot chocolate, left cookies and carrots for Santa and Rudolph and then headed to bed. Surprisingly, the kids were all asleep by 8 p.m. :) 

Phone call to Santa

Yup, that's right ... we called the big man himself! While skimming the pages of our local newspaper, Chuck noticed that Santa was taking calls tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. So, after everyone had completed their dinner we sat down with the phone. 

A very nice elf answered the phone at Santa's Workshop and then got each of the kids names and their ages. Santa was out feeding the reindeer so we had to wait a few minutes. It wasn't too long before Santa was there chatting with each of the kids. 

Chloe asked for a Barbie, Gavin asked for a remote control truck or car and Zack asked for a Bob Builder cup. (All very different things from the letters they sent Santa earlier this month ... ???!!) Before we said goodbye, the kids sang, "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" to Santa. He said it was the best version he'd ever heard. (I would have to agree ... it was stinkin' adorable!) 

Much love, 

-- M

PS -- Bravo to the company that put this all together ... it was a local real estate company fielding the calls. It's all part of a tradition dating back more than 20 years. VERY COOL! :) 

Series of posts, part 3: Making cookies

December 13: Cooking making at the Dickson's! We had a great time rolling dough, cutting out cookies, decorating (read: eating the candy) and playing with the grandparents. Enjoy the pictures ... we sure enjoyed our day!

Much love,

--M

Series of posts, part 2: All things Christmas

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to buy our Christmas tree. We loaded everyone into our new Toyota Land Cruiser ... well, new to us, but it's actually a 1996. (We ended up selling the Honda Civic and buying the Toyota. Sign of the times: we sold the Honda for more than we paid for the Land Cruiser. Sweet!)   

Anyway, we headed out to a local tree farm and picked out our tree. It was quite the adventure. The kids enjoyed running from tree to tree and inspecting it. We finally decided on a Noble Fir. 

And there's our new car with the tree loaded on top! 

The picture below is probably one of my favorites. I love that all three kids are looking up at Daddy putting the angel on top of the tree!

After we decorated the tree, it was time to hang the stockings! 

And you can't very well have Christmas without a little snow! Monday (yesterday) was a snow day!!! For a household with two teachers, that was a nice break. We had Gavin and Chloe with us in the morning ... and we were without power most of the day. No worries ... lots of layers help everyone to stay warm. We had a great time sledding, making snow angels and throwing snow at each other. Who needs to drive to Tahoe? We had plenty of the fresh stuff right in our front yard! Sunday night dumped about six inches and then in continued snowing on and off the rest of the day. 

Although Zack wasn't with us to play in the snow, we do have an adorable picture of the little man. Gotta love that smile! :) 

What's Christmas time without a gingerbread house?! Here's the one Gavin made at school. 

Merry Christmas! 

Much love,

--M

Series of posts, part 1: Fun times with the camera

Gotta love the kisses! :) 

To my daughter ...

Dear Chloe, 

I just wanted to write you a note and let you know how much I enjoyed spending time with you this weekend. I know that it's been a bit of a roller coaster in the last few months ... what with me and Zack moving in, your Dad and I getting married and all the other adjustments you've had to undergo. We've seen flashes of your frustrations in the ever-changing environment, but overall I think you've handled it all with amazing grace ... for a four-year old! 

Anyway, this weekend there was a moment on Sunday afternoon when we found ourselves hanging out together. We laid on the bed and watched the snow falling outside. We talked ... about your boyfriend (!!!!???) Ethan, school, life in general and then sang, "Nick Nack Pattywhack" about 52 times.  Our time only lasted about 15 minutes, but in those few minutes I found myself completely overjoyed. So happy in fact, that I was forcing back some of those happy tears. 

Chloe, I hope you know how much I enjoy being a part of your life, how much I enjoy working in your classroom, and how much I love (aka melt) when you ask for a "huggie" or a "kissie." You are an independent soul and you walk to the beat of your own drum ... much more than I ever have and probably ever will ... but I see a great relationship in our future. I know we still have some adjusting to do, but I am so happy to be a part of your life. Thank you for those 15 minutes ... it meant more to me than you'll ever know. :) 

I love you ... 

Love, 

Mommy Megan

Letters to Santa

In the last couple of weeks, I have learned one very important lesson about having young kids ... better to write the letters to Santa BEFORE all the Christmas shopping gets done. Let me explain, starting in October I began shopping for presents ... I'm a planner, so shopping early is the kind of thing I like to do. It spreads the cost of gifts over a few months and also allows for great deals before the holiday season arrives. There is also some sense of satisfaction in being done with your shopping before Thanksgiving arrives!

In early December, when the kids wrote their letters to Santa I realized that the things we had purchased (although toys they will love) are not the things on their list to Santa. Hmmm ... For example, the Bob Builder toys that Zack asked for aren't even available any more. Well, they are if you're willing to have them shipped from Great Britain! As an aside, why in the world would they stop making Bob toys but continue to sell the movies and have the cartoon on TV? Grrr ... Gavin asked Santa for a remote control helicopter, but we purchased a HUGE remote control car. And Chloe, well, Chloe asked for a soft bunny and a kitten ... sorry, sweetheart, Santa is definitely out of those this year! :)

Happy Holidays!