we've been waiting for this all winter! the first snowball-worthy snow. the boys and i went out at about 8:30 tonite and started a big ol' snowball fight. the night ended up with a big bonfire in the backyard and a laundry room full of soaked, smoky clothes. i hope they remember stuff like this when they are big...it makes those frozen toes worthwhile.

ok, kids. this is christmas...kind of. you've got the shot of brothers hypnotized by the new leapster game in this shot. lots of electronics.
needless to say, we haven't seen much of the big kid since christmas...










this is a full couch at grandma g's house in mitchell. it's just after the hockey games, and we're ready to rip into the presents....















this is grandpa chris with an armload of grandsons at our house.














you can sort of see my mantle and downstairs here...we got a cool new table from grandma and pottery barn right after this, now the room is looking complete :)














karen and e and her mom and dad visit for a night, and the boys had a blast playing. e is a great kid. we'd steal him anytime :)











overall, the holidays were great. we had karen and her family for a night, and grandma and grandpa burgess and their dogs for not nearly long enough! darn denver snow sent them back home too early, but we sure had fun.

so i bought the digital camera. yep, snuck it right in with my christmas shopping about two weeks ago. so why, you ask, aren't i posting photos like all my other blogging heroes?

because then i have to read the little book that came with the digital camera.

and it doesn't have a good story to it. no pictures. not even a fun little intro. my ADD brain can't handle instructions, directions or anything resembling homework. and that 79 page "how-to" book qualifies for all three.

i took 2 pictures the night we brought the new canon powershot home (took your advice, k) and then zipped mr. canon up in his snappy little bag and he's sitting on a counter. waiting for me to read the book. or, for my husband to read the book and report back to me in 3 sentences or less.

if you're lucky, this will happen by christmas. if not, i still have film on hand...:)

merry christmas everyone.

yesterday i had a list a mile long running around inside my head. in the meantime, my little guy was begging me to stop to play some candyland with him. i told him "after i make a business call, send out a couple of emails, put some laundry in and fold the stuff in the dryer." he was patient. he got out a coloring book and waited. while i'm in the middle of doing the things i told him i needed to do, the phone rang twice for my business, culminating in about 30 minutes of conversation. still, my little guy waited. i kept getting sidetracked, but finally decided, out of guilt, to stop and play.

so i did. but my head was still going. i was thinking of all the things i needed to do while my little yellow gingerbread man was racing around the game board. finally, my 3-year-old puts his man down and says, "mommy, are you sad?"

i said, "no buddy, i'm not sad at all!"

he said, "then why does your face look like that?"

i know what he meant. i've seen the face a million times on other adults, completely distracted while their kids are trying in vain to get their attention. i thought the act of playing candyland would satisfy my little guy, but he saw right through me. he knew i wasn't REALLY there. i was just going through the motions, and he busted me.

why is it so hard to focus on the things most important to us, and get caught up in all the little stupid stuff that doesn't even matter? i'd like to answer that question, but i just heard a little voice yell, "mom...where are you? can you hear me?"

yes, i can. loud and clear.

what is up with the beta blogs? are you guys trying to keep me out of the cool crowd? :) i keep trying to comment on the beta blogs (k, s, r) and no dice. just so you know, the only way i CAN comment is if i do it as 'anonymous.' so don't worry, s, you don't have a crazy anonymous blogstocker after you. it's just me. pathetically commenting without an identity.

here are my comments: k, you have the coolest kid ever. s, we married the same man...only mine uses duct tape instead of sarcasm. r, ONE WEEK TO GO and this whole nightmare is over. bring on the bubbly.

yesterday someone said to me "your little guy sure is happy." at the moment, my 3-year-old was singing at the top of his lungs, hitting a bottle cap with his hockey stick. if happiness can be measured in volume, than yes. my little guy is indeed happy. honestly, he is like no one i have ever met in my life. he truly dives into life, makes the most of every situation and does not let anything get him down. i keep thinking he's going to grow out of this happy-go-lucky philosophy of his. but i really hope he doesn't. yes, he's loud. yes, he's crazy. yes, he's ornery. but he's happy almost 100% of the time. sometimes i watch him, and i can tell he just loves the fact that he is alive. he's a great inspiration to me, and i love the whacky little man to pieces. sometimes my husband and i joke about how out of all those little sperms that could have been josh, the one that swam its way to the prize had spiked hair and was shaking its butt at the others as it sped off, laughing. that was how josh started, and i thank God for the crazy little punk sperm that got to win the race.

i went to get the digital camera. there were rows and rows and rows of them. i read each of their little bios. i tried to choose. there were just so many. i stared for about 10 minutes. almost had one, put it back, picked up one a few steps away.

and then i walked out of the store, feeling the shame of a woman who doesn't know a megapixel from a LCD.

would someone just do this for me???

did you know "kewl" is the new cool? neither did i. i also didn't realize my lack of "kewlness" would embarrass my sons already. my youngest, for example, NEEDS to wear his army fatigue pants and his sweetest spiderman shirts to daycare, because his best buddies will expect nothing less of him. apparently, they all try to "out-superhero" each other every day. yes, we're talking 3-year-olds. if i try to get the kid into a button-down shirt, he tells me he's not "kewl" and will take it off at the first opportunity. whatever. i can deal with the superhero shirts and the army fatigues. i'm bracing myself for the tattoos and the piercings...this is the kid who's going to have it all, i guarantee it. those of you who know him understand.

besides, i still have my more conservative and less socially concerned big boy to dress however i want. he always just throws on pretty much anything i buy him, and seems to care less about fashion or looking "kewl."

so tonite, i got a little shock. i took the boys down to the nu du to get haircuts. my youngest hopped up and asked for the buzz. my oldest hopped up and asked her to "keep it long." he shot me a look as i opened my mouth in protest and said "mom, i need it long for hockey season. it's what we do."

o....k....

umm....yeah. ok. i'm not a total dork. i know that boys are wearing their hair long now. i just didn't think my kid would catch on in kindergarten. but, he did. so we just trimmed it a little, and he's going to grow it out. he made this decision all on his own, growing up once again while i wasn't looking.

i guess that's just what "they" do.

they got me. i'm probably the last human alive without a digital camera. i still take my film in to get developed at target or wal-mart. honestly, i hate technology. i'm a way way way late adaptor. right now i have two rolls of film from october, with halloween photos on them. i want to get them developed but humans no longer run the film counter at wal-mart or target. you have to go to a computer and do it all yourself. i stood at the counter and pushed some buttons one day, and then walked away with the film still in my pocket. i tried to find a human the next time i went, but the only one around directed me right back to that computer... the one mocking me with it's many directions and questions and prompts.

if this is now the new hurdle i have to go through to get pictures, i guess it's time to move on. i am going to buy one of those fancy newfangled digital jobbies. but i need an EASY one. one that i can actually figure out without reading directions, one that allows me to import photos without a degree in computer science and one that can keep me from chopping all the heads off my subjects.

any suggestions?