Greetings from the sick house

Hi friends, 

As we are emerging from a very crazy and busy weekend, I wanted to post and let you know that, yes, we are still alive. :) 

On Friday I joined my school and 50 students/parents on a ski trip to Northstar. I tried snowboarding for the first time ever and really enjoyed it! I'm already looking forward to my next opportunity. I was out of the house really early ... about 5:50 and Chuck was in charge of getting everyone out of the house and to school before his 7:30 meeting. (He made it to his classroom eight minutes early! Nicely done, babe!) He was also in charge of picking everyone up from school and since I didn't get home until 6:45 he also fed everyone dinner. This include a first-time feat of Zack eating BOTH corn and mac and cheese for dinner with no tears!! YAHOO! It was so nice to walk in and find things in full swing. Actually, I'm thinking of leaving more often ... the dishes were done and the laundry was in progress! :) 

Saturday morning started at 4:30 a.m. with Zack throwing up. Poor little guy. He kept at it until about 11:30 a.m. when he was finally able to keep water down and joined us for pizza that night for dinner. My sister and her husband were here for dinner, too. About a half hour after we finished eating Chloe hit a wall. A serious wall. She was sick and we all knew it. About three hours later she started throwing up and the 12-hour stomach flu was on to child #2. It's not until tonight that Chloe is actually feeling better. 

Today (one hour shorter than I would have liked given the previous 24 hours) included a trip to Davis for me and Zack, a short field trip (running errands) for Gavin and Chuck, and as Chloe was constantly informing us ... throwing up seven times. To her credit she did an AMAZING job of finding a bucket or the bathroom in time. Well, except for the last time when it she sat up on the couch and just let it rip across the carpet. Nice. Had there been video cameras set up, the video would have been hilarious to replay. A little less hilarious was the clean-up, but well ... I won't go any further. 

I hope this doesn't coming off sounding like a complaint. It's certainly not. It's sad to see the kids sick and so willing to lay quietly on the couch. Chloe is generally such a vivacious and busy child, but each time she asked me to just sit next to her it warmed my heart. 

And so, at 9:26 I am officially ready to pass out. 

Much love,

--M

A little late ...

Hi friends, 

I realize I have taken about a month to post ... my apologies. It looks like my last post was on January 25, exactly one month from today. (Which by the way also marks seven months since our wedding!) It's been a rough few weeks around the Ross house as Chloe spent last week home with the flu. Poor kid. It's so sad when they're sick. Zack had a cough that progressed into an infection in his lungs and now he's on antibiotics. 

Anyway, here are some pictures from the last month. I think they are a little out of order, but at least there are pictures! 

Hope this finds everyone doing well. 

Much love,

--M

We'll start with one of Zack's favorite activities ... homework! About once a month he gets an assignment to bring home. He has to read (or have a parent read to him) from a kid's magazine and then draw a picture of what he read about. No matter what the story, the picture ALWAYS has red, lots of red in it. :) 

This was snapped on one of the days when I was working in Zack's class. Love this picture! 

Zack is seen here eating some chocolate chips. That's a big deal ... why? It means he tried something new. Since this was about a month ago I can't remember what he tried ... but it's a big deal. Zack doesn't like trying new things! 

We cut Chloe's hair! Here is an after shot ... took off about 5 inches and now it's just below her shoulders. She really likes it. The day we had it cut she kept walking into the bathroom, looking at the mirror and telling us her hair was still cut. It was super cute! 

This was the last picture I took of her long hair. I sure do miss the long braids, but the short hair still goes into braids. I loved the big pink bow in her hair on this day. :) 

The main reason I feel so bad about not posting sooner: Chloe turned FIVE on February 1! We had a small party at the house with just the five of us and then had a family celebration the next weekend.

Another birthday picture, this one while she was opening presents. 

Chloe opens her new princess desk set ... to accompany her new desk that we got her. Actually, it's a desk that I refinished. The stamps were the favorite part of this set. 

And here's the desk! 

Gavin was awarded student of the month! Nice job, dude! :) 

Another picture of Zack playing around at school. He was putting polka dots on the letter P.

Sometimes it's nice to have a quiet morning around the house. Gavin loves to play with his Star Wars action figures. 
Here, Zack and Chloe take turns wearing the baby in the back pack. Playing house is a big thing around our house. There is always a mom, dad and baby. 

Our weekend

I'm not exactly sure there is an adjective in the English language that could appropriately describe how the weekend went. 

It was fabulous to have everyone home ... something the kids pointed out a number of times. (By the way, there is a growing awareness of the five of us being together or not together ... the kids are meshing as a family and sincerely miss one another when they are with their other parent.) At the same time, with the rain and being cooped up inside for long periods of time, the kids were a little on the wacky side as well. It got to the point on Saturday night where we started to think that they are professionals at doing just enough to drive us absolutely nuts! 

Perfect example ... Chuck and I were sitting on the couch talking. Zack was sitting to my left and Chloe was sitting on Chuck's right. Zack had a piece of construction paper (read: a treasure map he had just finished drawing) and was rolling it up. It was a thick piece of paper and it was loud and he must have rolled it about 15 times. It got to the point where I couldn't even hear Chuck talking to me, so I asked Zack to stop. About the time we got a little silence, Chloe began slurping water out of her cup ... and noise was back! I understand that noise happens with three kids, but it was hilarious how well they did in tag-teaming us! Just about the time we'd get one settled down, another one was there with a different tactic! 

It's been cute though too ... after going to the school yesterday (mainly to let the kids run wild in the gym ... a big plus of having a dad who teaches PE!) we got all the kids in the house. The rule is that shoes have to be removed once we get in. Zack needed help getting his shoes off and his ever-helpful big sister was attempting assistance. Actually, Zack had on lace-up tennis shoes, so Chloe was doing more of pulling really hard on Zack's foot. As I walked over Chloe looked at me and said, "Can you hold him down so I can pull harder?" Gosh, thanks, honey, but I'll take it from here. :) 

Our toy pickup at night has turned into a bit of a flop. We set the timer for seven minutes and the kids have that long to get things put away. Anything that is left out when the timer goes off, gets taken away. The toys can be earned back the next night if pick-up goes better. Friday and Saturday nights saw some of the best philosophical discussions happen during this toy pick-up. Seriously, Chuck and I stood in amazement as they completely disregarded the timer and sat around and talked. Needless to say, all of them lost some pretty major toys both nights. It was weird behavior. Generally, they do a much better job. 

This morning on the way to church, I started laughing out loud. All three kids were talking at one time ... each to themselves about nothing in particular. There was nothing left to do but laugh as noise overwhelmed the confines of the car. :) 

At the same time, I wouldn't trade any of this for the world. There is something so wonderful about the noise the kids create in the house ... and it's most noticeable when no one is here and the house is quiet. 

Moving on ... we've had a few big things in the last week or so ... 

1. Gavin is the star student in his class this week. We just finished working on his poster that will hang on the wall. Some facts for you: 

* Gavin is 6 1/2 years old. 

* His favorite animal is a sabertooth.

* His favorite color is red.

* His favorite things to do are ride his bike and do Kuk Sool. 

* If he had one wish, he would wish for a pool. 

* The movies are his favorite place to go. 

* When he grows up he'd like to be a police officer. 

2. We bought a scale ... and the kids have loved weighing in. The stats: 

Chloe: 56 pounds

Gavin: 46 pounds

Zack: 36 pounds

No joke ... that's actually how much they each weighed! 

3. Zack continues to struggle with food. We've been trying to ask him to try one new thing each week. Nothing crazy ... this week was a piece of pasta. One small piece of pasta ... and he refused three nights in a row. *sigh* The reward is chocolate chips and yet he passes each time. I never thought a child of mine would refuse chocolate! 

Anyway, I think that about sums things up. Our next big events will be birthdays ... Chloe on February 1 and Gavin on March 18. Chloe turns 5 and Gavin turns 7. HOLY COW! :) 

Hoping this finds you all well. 

Much love,

--M

A rainy day

Hello friends, 

After a couple weeks of fabulous weather we now find ourselves in the middle of more January-like weather. It's rainy and foggy. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to curl up with a good book, a warm blanket and a cup of hot chocolate. It's the kind of weather that makes you want to stay snuggled up in bed with a massive heap of cozy covers on top of you. 

And then you come back to reality. It's 6 a.m. and a munchkin is in the room excitedly sharing that it's 6 a.m. and it's time to get up. And then another muchkin joins in the excited discussion. After gently telling the muchkins to find something quiet to play with for a few minutes ... the third munchkin joins the crew and, well, he's hungry for cereal. Go ahead, try to hit the snooze button on the muchkins, but there just isn't one to be found. Darn. It's Saturday morning at 6 a.m. and so the day begins ... *sigh* 

:) 

We started the morning with a Kuk Sool class for Gavin and Chuck this morning. Chloe, Zack and I joined the expedition and sat and watched (and played with stickers, of course) while the class went on.  We've had a quick snack, enjoyed a showing of Star Wars. Lunch (grilled cheese sandwiches) will follow, quiet time and then we'll head over to the school gym for some running around. 

I hope this finds all of you enjoying your weekend. I have pictures to post and more stories to share, but I will post it all as soon as I get a minute. 

Much love, 

--M

Here's a quarter ...

Hi friends, 

Allow me a moment to share you with my latest, "I feel old" moment. 

The scene: It's Friday afternoon around lunch time and the yearbook club is meeting. It's a great group of kids (yearbook is a club where students miss their lunch break on Fridays to put together the book ... so you can imagine the group of kids who would be attracted to that. Awesome group!) 

One of my students, Mikey, is downloading about 250 pictures to my computer. Sydney is standing next to Mikey and I'm sitting at my computer watching the photos. Sydney pulls a quarter out of her pocket and makes a statement like, "Wow, here's a quarter ..." Sydney has a great sense of humor so I follow up her statement with "... call someone who cares!" I was joking, of course and then I started laughing. It wasn't long before I realized no one else was laughing. 

It had nothing to do with the fact that the statement wasn't funny (although I suppose that was the case, t00) Instead, I got blank stares from both Mikey and Sydney. Why? THEY HAD NO IDEA WHAT THE PHRASE MEANT! In fact, they'd never used a pay phone before. In a world with cell phones, why would anyone need a pay phone? 

I had to take a step back and laugh again ... not at a joke, but at the way things have changed. I can remember the 8-track tapes my parents played when I was a kid, the VHS and BETA tapes that were available at the video store and the first VCR we owned that (gasp!) had a remote control. (The remote had to plug into the VCR and the cord was rather short, but still ...) My high school students have probably never seen at 8-track, heard of BETA or lived in a world without a remote. Heck, even our kids (at 6, 4 and 4) ask to hear the iPod or to send an email or a text message! 

I know I'm not old and I know that everyone has stories like this to share, but the quarter story certainly made me take a step back. 

Happy Monday. :) 

--M 

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