We decked the halls!

I love having the house decorated for Christmas - while others are shopping on black Friday, I am decorating! Here are a few pictures of the house and of Zach putting the star on the tree!

My sweet Ava

Ava is getting so big and her personality is really starting to show and be fun. She turned 20 months on Thanksgiving and every day we see changes in her. We love that we can hear her voice now (her vocabulary is booming) and she makes us smile every day.

Ava was completely mesmorized with Ed's harmonica playing this past weekend...

I swear I didn't teach her this, but her Thanksgiving pie eating contest techniques are perfect...

Our cute cowgirl!

Ava decided it was fun to try to kiss people while she had a bucket on her head...here she is with Greg's mom Doris...

Here is Ava while we were decorating...she quickly found some stuffed snow men that are now the "snow babies"...

We love our little miss!

Trying not to hit the button

Andrew gets off the bus a few minutes before 3:00 and walks home. He usually stands outside for a few minutes and talks to one of his friends and then comes inside. Today I was waiting for him so we could head off to the children's museum and it was taking a long time. I looked out the window and couldn't see him and so I decided to walk towards the bus stop in case he was there talking. When I got there, he wasn't there. I started to have that feeling - the rapid heartbeat feeling where you can feel the panic coming, but can still keep it at bay. I wanted to be rational and so the first thing I did was call the school to see if the bus was running late (we were having some flurries) or if Andrew missed the bus. They had me on hold while they contacted the bus driver and so I started to check his friend's houses. One of the moms had seen Andrew get off the bus and start to walk home so I knew he had at least made it that far. I was really struggling to keep the panic from setting in and decided to check back at the house just in case we had somehow crossed paths. He wasn't there and I only knew of one other place to check. While I was walking there, I called Greg and told him what was going on (it had been about 25 minutes at this point)and I had to hold back the tears. While I was still on the phone with Greg I went to the friend's house and found that Andrew was there. My panic immediately turned into wild emotions - I was so relieved, so angry that he hadn't asked before going to his friend's house, so grateful that he was okay...adrenaline induced emotion. When Andrew came to the door I brought him outside and told him that he could never, ever do that again. I was explaining how worried I was and then Andrew said, "but you weren't home". I asked him what he was talking about and he said that he noticed the car was gone and so he went to his friend's house to wait. He hadn't thought about the possibility that the car was in the garage - which it was (he didn't think of it because we just got the garage fixed a week ago and just started parking in it this weekend). It ended up that it was just a little miscommunication, but during those long 25 minutes, it took everything in me not to hit the panic button with full force!

Where have I been?

I have been flipping and flopping about the decision of whether or not to send Zach to kindergarten next year. Since he is a "summer boy" there are lots of conflicting ideas and it seems like everybody has a strong, personal opionion on what is right or wrong. Anyway, one of the things that has been keeping me on the "maybe I won't send him" side is that he doesn't like to write. He won't practice it without a struggle and so he isn't getting much better at it. I have kind of been going with the, "when he's ready - he'll start trying" philosophy (kind of like potty training). This past Thursday we had Zach's first parent/teacher conference with his pre-school teacher. I was curious to see what she would say. Then, all of a sudden, the day before his conference I noticed that he was holding his fork with his left hand and I (for the first time) wondered if he could be left handed. I was really curious to see what his teacher thought the next night. When we went in, I asked her if she had Zach down as right or left handed and she checked and said, "He's down as a lefty". I felt like I had missed a train somewhere along the way. I have been making Zach practice writing with his right hand at home and he is practicing with his left hand at school. He isn't getting much better at either because he is always flipping back and forth and I'm sure it is frustrating for him too. Poor, little, southpaw monkey...I'm giving him a few days off (and have been watching carefully to make sure he really is using his left hand as his dominant hand) and then I think we'll start trying to write again next week - with his left hand this time!

A family classic...

We told the kids that they could choose what we did tonight for a family night. We gave them two choices...either go to the 50th annual Northland parade, eat at Famous Dave's and have ice-cream or pick up food from Wendy's and watch the movie 'Babe' (picnic style on the floor) and have ice-cream. They picked the indoor picnic and movie! I forgot how much I like the movie 'Babe'...and I love that the kids are enjoying it just as much...a Bacon family classic...how fitting!

And I was only trying to be funny when I called it "crack salad"

I just finished watching this season's first episode of "Top Chef" - a show I absolutely love. As the show was finishing and the judges were trying all the plated dishes I started to day-dream about being a judge and how wonderful it would be try all of the different foods and interpretations of the dishes. Then I started to think about the brain. I decided to look up what part of your brain makes you hungry and tells you to eat (the hypothalamus), but the description of what it does didn't fit what I was looking for. What I was wondering is what part of your brain makes you want to close your eyes and take a deep breath when you think about a delicious food (and I am convinced that not everyone has as big of whatever part of the brain that is, but that I have an enormous one, given to me genetically from my mother). Anyway, I came across an article that talked about the 3 different parts of the brain that are triggered during food cravings: the hippocampus, insula, and caudate. It was most interesting because they are the exact same areas that are triggered during drug cravings. I just had to laugh that one of the foods I craved the most in Utah was known by all of my friends as the "crack salad" - not because it has cracked pepper on it like one of my friends thought, but because I keep going back to my restaurant to get my "fix". So, now as I watch "Top Chef" I'll know it's my hippocampus, insula and caudate that are in hyperdrive...along with my hypothalamus!

Time is a funny thing

I know there are really the same amount of hours in every day (barring daylight savings switch days), but today has felt so long! It's only 3:45 and I keep feeling like bed time should be near! We didn't have too much going on this morning - a relaxed Sunday - we had pancakes and gave the kids a bath and got them dressed. A little while later we decided that Ava's cold was too bad to bring her to nursery at church and so we thought I should stay home with her and let her get a good nap. Greg left for a meeting at about noon and Ava fell asleep. The boys wanted to play downstairs and so I started looking through pictures (thinking about our Christmas cards). Soon, Greg came back to get the boys and then, time started to stand still! Usually if I have a few hours where I have time all to myself it flys by, but for whatever reason, today it is stalling! The guys should be home in about another 45 minutes and I can hardly wait...maybe that will get the day moving again!

I see snowflakes (said just like the kid from 6th Sense)

I know there are quite a few areas that have already seen their first snowflakes of the year, but I am looking out the office window and seeing ours. It isn't cold enough to be sticking, but I know it's the start of my first Duluth winter! That makes me a little scared...so...I see snowflakes...

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

So, as most of you know, I am not necessarily the most environmentally conscience person you know. I mean, I will fill up my recycle trash can like the next person, but I don't have an electric car, use "green" cleaning products, or have any solar panels on my house...however, I was able to costume my kids for Halloween this year by reusing ones we already had! This was great for me - it made for a very low stress year for getting costumes - and the kids were all happy. Andrew wanted to be Superman (a costume we got him for Christmas almost 2 years ago that was very big at the time), Zach wanted to be a dragon (he wore Andrew's dragon costume from last year) and Ava is too little to know and so we put her in a clown costume that Andrew wore when he was 2 (and that Greg always thought was a little feminine). I thought it was very p.c. of me...Watch out Al Gore...

53 Days until Christmas

I was talking to my friend Anna about Halloween and the dilemma of what to do with the candy - let the kids gorge and then toss it - ration it - hide it away - etc. She had a great idea that I knew the kids would love. She takes the candy and sections it off for a countdown to Christmas (kind of like the paper chains you used to make as a kid). Each day the kids get to open then next section and eat a piece of candy. I made mine this morning and Greg and I just hung it. I know that Andrew and Zach will be really excited to see it up! I thought it was a great idea and it should help Zach too - he has been asking me, "how many days until Christmas" for weeks already!