Just Another Day in the Office

Alex got a new Nerf gun and a shooting target for Christmas.  He was doing a little shooting yesterday while I was working.  Guess who didn't like it:

And not shockingly, as soon as he realized his beloved Aiden didn't like the shooting, he stopped.  But that wasn't enough, he needed to be sure to comfort her:

Sometimes working from home isn't the easiest task.

Yaaaaaaaaawn

Christmas #1 was fantastic.  We are taking a quick breath and then gearing up for Christmas #2 this weekend in Minnesota.  Ready?  Go!

Stay Out!

I am not allowed to go to any stores from now until Christmas.

I went to Target to return something yesterday and get some allergy medicine for Alex.  $85 later, I had said medicine, a new game, a new tent, a toy dinosaur, and some other things.

Not allowed.

Current State

Nothing like leaning your head on your hand to remind you that you didn't wash your hands after changing a stinky kid.

Happy Friday!

The Good With The Bad

Sometimes to get this

You have to go through this

Business Attire

There isn't a call so important it requires pants.  Words to live by.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiip

Given the frantic pace with which Sam opened his few St. Nick presents, Christmas is gonna be a little nuts this year.

(Don't mind the giant stain on the carpet behind him.  The dog and I have spoken about it...at length.)

Not So Spa-eque

Travis had his wisdom teeth pulled the day after a different, more delicate procedure, so he has been movin' pret-ty slowly and isn't allowed to lift anything.  Which obviously puts me in full caretaker mode for everyone in the house.  No prob; I got this.  And I did and do.  But it is exhausting.  I have said it before, but I do not understand how single parents do it.

Anywho, Tuesday night, the boys were occupied so I told Travis I was going to quick jump in the shower, something that was badly needed.  He agreed and I ran upstairs in eager anticipation of 10 minutes of steam filled aloneness.

Alas, I am a mother.  Aloneness is a rare gem.  A rare gem that I did not find on Tuesday night.  I was just getting a good shampoo lather on my greasy hair when WHAM!  I got hit in the face with a Nerf dart.  A Nerf dart.  To the face.  WHILE I WAS IN THE SHOWER.  I yelped out of shock and Alex's response was, "Did I get you??!"  Yes you got me!  I'm not just in here yelping for my own entertainment.  "Mom!  That was such a good shot!  I had to ricochet it off the ceiling!!!"

Good job, now leave. me. alone.

Artistic Talent for Dayz

The boys clearly have an amazing artist to look up to:

Yes I made that.  And yes I'm proud of it.  Let's see how good of a snowman YOU can make while a 7 year old is trying his damnedest to get snowballs down your back.

Perfect.

I looked at the clock and saw Alex was going to be home in about a half hour and that's when I remembered I hadn't wrapped his St. Nick presents yet!  Aaaaaaaaaaand GO!

I couldn't for the life of me remember where I put the "Santa" wrapping paper, so I grabbed a roll of paper I'm fairly certain he won't recognize.  After I got everything wrapped, I decided to hide the paper under my bed.

Any guesses as to what I found under there?  Yep!  The last two years' worth of "Santa" wrapping paper.  Ho ho d'oh!

Coming of Age

As the first snow fell, Travis began his annual grumbling about our snowblower.  It is self-propelled, which would be nice if a sloth hadn't been selected to decide at what speed the propulsion should be set.  It.  is.  so.  slow.  As in years past, Travis was lamenting how we should sell it and get a different one and so on and so forth.  Then he headed out to the garage with Alex in tow, to make sure it would start.  No time like the first snow fall to make sure the silly thing works amirite?

Anywho, about a million pull cord pulls and 7 minutes later, Travis came busting back into the house.  "Never mind!  Forget what I said!  We're keeping it!  It's EXACTLY Alex's pace!!!!"

The handing off of the snowblower torch:

And yes, I took gloves out to both of them right after I took this picture.

First Snow

I'm pretty sure Sam doesn't remember what snow is.  We got our first snow of the year yesterday, and he was definitely confused by it.  I told him to look out the window and see what was happening.  He looked, turned to me with a confused expression, and said, "Ummmm....it's drippin' outside."  I explained it was snow, but there were no light bulbs of recognition.

Then later he was outside while I was shoveling while simultaneously fighting off snowballs from the older one, and he walking around with his arms up and a look on his face like he was going to catch a horrible disease from whatever was on the ground.  I finally convinced him to walk in the snow and he seemed to enjoy it for about 32 seconds.  Then he turned to me, waved his hands, and said with zero inflection, "I'm done with this."

He did seem to get into the hot chocolate that comes along with snowy weather though...

His brother likes that part too...