Happy New Year!!!

Welcome 2010! We were going through our photos from 2009 and thought we'd pick a few of our favorites as we look back and ahead. Sorry if the titles arent aligned with the pictures. I cant seem to get that right!!

Marky sniffing snow dog (Jan)!

Koompa's fur (Feb)

Chasing ducks (march)... spring cant be too far away!

Tulips (april)

Horse barn & Alma festival (May)

Scotland! (June)

Welcome Cho Cho (July)

Lemonade stand (aug)

First day of school (sept)

Road trip! (sept)

Camouflage (oct)

the big sleep over (nov)

getting ready for christmas (dec)

Haircuts!

Bee and Frankie and i went to the hair salon for girls day out. Here are the girls haircuts! Frankie's hair is short and layered. I will try to take a better picture today. Its really cute. She wanted to get a haircut just like me (because then she said she wouldn't have to brush it. ha ha).

Christmas tree and winter days

its been a while huh! I guess that is end of semester madness for you! You know what else comes along with this time of year? Talk about the length of the days!! We keep telling ourselves up here on at the 42nd latitude that Monday is the shortest day of the year! yah! But this year instead of fretting over how our sunrise/sunset is:

Dec 20, 2009 8:05 AM 5:07 PM

We just decided to look up edinburgh, scotland:
Dec 20, 2009 8:42 AM 3:39 PM

Ouch!!

And in case you were wondering: The December Solstice (Winter Solstice) is on Monday, December 21, 2009 at 12:47 PM in Lansing.

And here is our cute christmas tree! We decided to decorate our indoor palm tree. We debated back on forth on whether to get a real tree or a fake tree, but all of the research we read said the best thing to do is to get a live tree and then plant it outside when you are done. We did that last year but ended up killing the darn thing. Apparently if you go the live tree route, the evergreen shouldnt be indoors more than 3 days. That was probably Step 1 in how we killed the tree last year. No need to get into the other steps we followed. Suffice it to say that we went the live tree route again this year but are using a year round indoor plant that we've had for a little while. Bee and Frankie think it's cool and it kind of warms things up a bit!

Let the games begin!

Frankie and Cho Cho have been vying over alpha and beta in preschool division. It's a close call to make!

winter storm watch

from the weather forecast:

".. Winter Storm Watch remains in effect from Tuesday evening
through Thursday morning... "

We really dont put much stock in this. Scott has a great rule that you cut the forecast in half and then some. So if they predict 6 inches plan for 1-3. Im guessing it will be 40 and rainy. ha ha.

Both girls fell asleep in the car on our way back from Ohio yesterday. Cho Cho took the opportunity to clean Frankie's face. LOL.

then and now

Cho Cho is 7 months old this weekend, so per request here are then and now pics. Hey, I might as well throw in some kid photos too, then and now!!! Can you tell who is who????

Cho Cho at 2 months, 3 months and 6 months....

snow!

today was our first snow of the season. Cho Cho loved it! Frankie tried to make a snowman but it didnt turn out as it is so cold the snow didnt really stick together.

rainbow day

its rainbow day in the first grade! I hope Bee finds a pot of gold!!!

red hot

this is the red hot needle Ive been using to pop my blisters. When blisters are the size of california it takes several tries... In other news Chooch is back to her old self after having her reproductive rights stripped from her two weeks ago. She was out and about on a 3 mile trek this morning, that with criss crossing, zig zagging, and all around craziness must have added up to about 12.8 miles for her...

barefoot running

Barefoot running seems to be all the rage these days...According to Runners World, "based on your body's proprioceptive abilities--that is, the way it can communicate up and down all pathways. When you run barefoot, your body precisely engages your vision, your brain, the soles of your feet, and all the muscles, bones, tendons, and supporting structures of your feet and legs. They leap to red alert, and give you a high degree of protection from the varied pressures and forces of running." Barefoot running sites have popped up all over the web. I even read a series of articles about it in the new york times. Now I have been curious about this but am too afraid to try it outside - i dont want to step on glass or something worse!
So, when scott went out of town on sunday and I was stuck running on the treadmill or not at all, I decided hey lets try barefoot running. My goal was to do a simple 4 miles. Well, it felt great! I thought, hey there is something to this! Well, that is until about mile 2.5, then my the soles of my feet started to hurt. I made it another half mile before i had to stop. When I looked at my feet i had blisters the size of california!

Cho Cho

Cho Cho has a new middle name. Its Zippity. Cho Cho Irish Bag of NutBags, Zippity Calabrese Barton, or CCIBoNZCB for short. Here she is after zipping around the playground:

Flu Update #3

Marble school is closed for the rest of the week due to over half the kids being absent from what they think is H1N1. Party time, Bee says! (I should note that today was Bee's first day back at school since she got the flu on friday, so it really is party time for her.)

Flu update #2

Both Bee and Frankie have had what is probably H1N1 - at least the Ingham County health department reports that it is H1N1 that is going around. I read in this morning's paper that Bee's school has been hit pretty hard so far in east lansing, with 32% of the kids absent yesterday! Now that is a lot of kids! The rest of us are eating oranges like they are going out of style. Even Cho Cho is liking oranges. The good news is that Bee was better yesterday, and frankie is on the mend herself. So, wash your hands and take your vitamin C!

this and that

the flu has hit east lansing! Poor Bee is down for the count, along with half of her school. Not sure if its the type-a a or h1n1 but she has the fever, congestion, headache, malaise, etc. We actually tried on Monday to get flu shots at the clinic but they had run out, and said "try again next week."

But the good news is that the extended forecast has been revised and we are looking at highs in the 60s this week! Yahoooooo!! And it is brilliantly sunny today and the foliage is more vibrant than it has been in the last few years. Last year seemed to go from yellow to brown. This year we have so much more fire red and bright orange. I will try to take a pic. I think i posted a while back that the warm and sunny september days and cold nights were good for foliage and the trees did not let us down.

Scott is going out to fix our garage door, which is stuck partway open. So we cant get car or bikes out, nor can we shut it all of the way. Go scott Go!

and the extended forecast for east lansing says...

Sunday, Oct 25

Periods of snow

SKip to my lou

Here is Bee performing Skip to my Lou! We got a 3/4 sized guitar on Monday and Im giving her guitar lessons. We are starting with simple chords (C and G7), and also how to read music. We are using a kids learn to play guitar book that claims to be the easier guitar method ever! I couldnt remember if when I learned to play guitar if I started with notes or chords, but Bee likes the chord approach. After she gets these two chords down, we will move onto D7 so we'll be sure to update you!

Questionable taste!

So maybe you remember the picture of our pumpkins from a week ago? Well, we added another little one (from the garden). And last night would you believe that someone stole our pumpkin!! But, they only stole our "Meijer" pumpkin - they left our two little home grown punkies (as frankie was calling them because they are baby pumpkins). Why they opted for that Meijer pumpkin over our little punkies is beyond me!! ha ha. Here is our porch this morning - i think the little punkies miss their mama!

Happy St. Francis Day!

This is always a nice day for us because Frankie is named for St. Francis of Assisi, and he is the patron saint of animals and the environment. So, to celebrate we took Cho Cho for a hike, and gave her the chance to test out her swimming skills in the little lake.

Its Oct 1 and do you know where.....

... your ICE SCRAPER is?????? Yep, that is right, we had to scrape the car windows this morning!!!! It was a balmy 31! At this time i a year i always think, you know in January 31 degrees will feel like a heat wave!

It feels like fall!

It was 44 degrees this morning and we have a frost advisory. At least for the first time, we've grown a pumpkin that is bigger than 2 inches in diameter. We'd say this one is a good 6 inches! the only problem we have is that it is more yellow than orange. Here it is. We call it "baby". Its next to her mama, whom we purchased at meijer.

fun weekend

Can you guess what this is a picture of?






















Its the girls playing on the swings at midnight! That was a new experience for us, too! Ive never been to a playground at midnight before! We went to the ND - Purdue football game this weekend (at purdue) and our car was parked next to "squirrel park" which has a nice playground in it. So, when we finally made it back to the car after the game it was 12:01 and the girls wanted to play. Why not! What fun! They had been so good at the game, and were super excited that they stayed up "till the next day!"

Here is Frankie with the Leprechaun. As you can see our seats were right down by the field. We were in the endzone, so the view of the last touchdown was awesome!


PS. For a funny laugh, Bee wrote a book this afternoon about her travels, and she wrote it all by herself!! When I read it, i noted that she spelled "Purdoo". Perfect!

they are falling fast and furious...

... I suppose that title could reference alot of things these days ... but really Im just referring to Cho Cho's teeth. She's lost two more molars. The big dog teeth need to start growing in or she is going to need dentures!!

Our puffball

I dont know what to say. It must have been in a place in the yard that doesnt have much of what it needs. Its not grown more than the size of a softball - maybe a hair larger. Our other ones have grown to the size of soccer ball, which is more typical. Nows its turning a tad yellow which means its past its prime. Dwarf puffer i guess. pics to follow!

and the winner is...

Bee! Her tooth fell out at about 4 in the afternoon, to be followed shortly by Cho Chos falling out about 5pm. Busy night for the tooth fairy!

Tooth fairy came again!

Guess what she left? A dog biscuit! ha ha. Cho Cho lost her first baby tooth!! The race is on to see who will lose their next tooth. Both Bee and Cho Cho have loose teeth! Lets just pray its neither Scott nor me. ha ha. Bee and I just tried to take a picture of Cho Cho's missing tooth, but she wouldnt let us. So, we got this snap shot of Bee wiggling her wiggly tooth!

the mystery continues

Our little golfball size puff ball is gone!! So here is our baseball turned softball size puff ball. Well, it seemed to grow just a tad, not that much really. Im wondering if it will get as big as a soccer ball or if this one is dwarfed. Maybe Im just impatient. They seem to pop up over night, except when you are watching it grow. In the mean time, I found a recipe for puffball pizza!!