It's all Fun and Games

Until someone loses an eye...

We had the best ski trip ever the other day. Brooke got carsick on the way up, and threw up all over the car, her coat, two pillow pets and her hair. I fell getting off the chairlift (which incidentally, I have never managed to get off without falling) and dislocated my shoulder. Halfway down the hill we got this radio call from Brooke - "Mom! Alix got stabbed in the eye with a ski pole and is bleeding all over!" Would have been bad enough if I were a fast skier and could get down the hill in a hurry. As it is, I'm not. We found Alix looking like this...

Brooke was pushing off with her ski pole and it slipped and got Alix right in the eye. It went all the way through her eyelid, and she had blood pooled in her actual eyeball, but the eye looked okay other than that.
Another inch over and we might have had a cyclops for a daughter.

And is it just me or does this picture of her three days later remind anyone else of a mugshot?

Pink eggs...

I am a true believer in any excuse to have some extra fun. Thus, all holidays are fair game for a party at our house. Valentine's Day. St. Patricks Day. Groundhog Day. Saturday....

Annual making of the puppy cookies was a little more time intensive this year with two classes to bake for.

And somehow I didn't take a picture of the final products... Shame on me! Bad mommy! (please, send me to bed early...) ;)

We had our 2nd annual Pink & Red dinner party. It was super fun. Everyone has to bring pink or red food and (duh) wear pink or red.

My favorite were the pink boiled eggs I made... We also had neon pink spaghetti, red meatball subs, pink pancakes, pink rice, pink breadsticks, meatloaf w/red bbq sauce, strawberries, roasted red potatoes...

We had 17 kids (and their families) over and we played Valentine's Pictionary and the kids got to do a little valentine crafting.

Notice the high percentage of girls? Weird huh? Those few boys are going to love it when that mass of femininity turns 16...

Blah...

I've got the blahs... and can't think of anything funny or sweet enough to blog about. So I'll share with you some of our bologna fashions...

As if bologna wasn't gross enough already...

Please wear a soot...

I found this...

on my pillow. (don't you just love phonetic spelling?) :)

Brooke and the twins planned, and prepared and made lists, and colored place mats, and on and on and on... for days.

You can tell Tom started out super excited...

But he came around...

And this is the dessert Brooke made for all of us...

Guess who?

Couldn't quite make it to the top of the stairs...

Sam really is doing very well, but we have some days where she literally just lays down where she is and rests a while. A little sad, but makes for some great pictures. We feel like her best now isn't quite as good as her best maybe 8 months ago, but it is subtle and she is happy and progressing and learning. She has quit growing again... She grew 4 1/2 inches in the first six months on her vitamins, and not a millimeter since then. Apparently her body only does one thing at a time. Her speech is still doing great as are her eyes. She still has some left side issues, but they are better. She'll use her left side, (if you hold down her right arm) she just doesn't use it well with her right hand. So we're working on that. She got a sweet Strawberry Shortcake remote control car as a result. I think she knows how to work the system... :) We sure love this little girl and know that you do to, so thus the little update...

Change...

Sob. Siiigh. Sniff. Whine. Beg. Plead. Bribe... All things I tried to get the girls to keep their matching, long, beautiful hair...

Guess who won?
Alix now has bangs and Erin's in much shorter. They are super excited because they look "totally different". I'm glad they are happy, but it was hard for me to let their last matching thing go... Oh well. I'm happy if they are happy and everyone at church thinks we should have done this years ago...

Quote of the Day...

Brooke was mad at her sisters for not helping clean the playroom adequately, so she bopped one of the on the head... (and she looks so sweet, doesn't she?) So, she got in trouble and this was her defense...

"Mom. It's easier to talk with fists than words!"

Later she told me she learned that quote in school from Martin Luther King Jr. I might have to do some research on that one...

And it begins...

Ski season, that is...

Lunch time with Grandma

Brooke after her lesson

The twins and Sam

Lost...

Erin's first tooth.

The day after Christmas she was eating a chip and it hurt her tooth and we noticed it was a tiny bit wiggly. So she fiddled with it. Wiggled it. Jiggled it. Worked it. Until she walked up to her dad and asked him to pull it out. (this is only about 4 hours later - this girl works fast!) So he put his thumb on it and pulled it forward. And into her hand.

Isn't she cute? And so brave. I was majorly impressed!

And this is how Alix felt about the whole deal...

First milestone they haven't reached at exactly the same time...

Almost there...

Here are the last of the Christmas pictures that I'll put up now that it's the middle of January... Lame.

Baking our Christmas cookies. And I'm not sure why we have chairs, the girls really only like to sit ON the island...

Christmas Eve Pajamas. Even Tom got some super, manly footie pajamas...

Gotta love Christmas pajamas....

And as a final Christmas note - We believe! This is the girls coming down the stairs Christmas morning. I just love that feeling of excitement and anticipation.

I realize these last few posts haven't been as funny as usual... I really just want them for my blog book, so thanks for sticking around... :)