Bread Sticks

After baking these Italian bread sticks at school, Cooper was excited to share his recipe with us. He asked Taggart if he wanted to do some baking together and Reagan was eager to join in.
Cooper was really great at showing them what to do and then letting them do it.
After measuring and mixing the ingredients they all took turns kneading the dough.


They formed them into little bread sticks.

They measured the ingredients for the topping.

They grated cheese.

They all spread the topping on with their fingers.

Cooper even washed the dishes. Tag and Reagan conveniently disappeared for this step.

They took turns taking them off the baking tray.


They smelled delicious.

And since it was almost dinner time and I had nothing planned yet - they were dinner, along with a few other things I found in the fridge.
Thanks Coop. You can cook dinner anytime you want, especially if you continue to do dishes as well.

A note

I hope you will have a great bay day too, buddy. Love you.

While Mom's away...

If I had a penny for every one of those silly orange foam darts that I have picked up since Christmas...well, let's just say I could have bought my own Nerf gun by now.

Snow Day

Who doesn't love a snow day? All the plans of the day get thrown out and it just seems a day to play.

We started late. Even after the 6:30 wake up call from the school district to say that school's are closed, we all still managed to be pretty lazy and breakfast wasn't had until about 10:00.


Some playing ball in the house. Sorry Nana - this is so not allowed.


The boys all headed to the school to sled down the hills. Reagan went too but soon came back. She seemed happier just sitting in the front yard making snowballs. A friend joined her later.

I got to play a little too while the kids were outside. Watched Reagan and her friend play through the window as I did some work on my December Daily book. A little behind.

Pizza for dinner.

Hot chocolate and a movie rounded out the day.

As the kids headed off to bed tonight, their hopes are all high for another snow day tomorrow. Chances are very slim, which is probably good. Need to get done all the things I didn't do today.

I attempted

We went out the other day to attempt some photos. Individual ones of the kids, maybe a self-timer shot of all of us if I thought we were up to it.
No completely successful, but I did manage to get a few.
Loved this on the most:

Laughed at this on the most:

But mostly, this is what it was like:

Look at the camera. Look at the camera! Please. Look. At. The. Camera!!

Sad and thankful

Today was a sad day for me, as I found out that a friend, and a mother to my kids' friends lost her 20 year long battle with cancer early this morning.
A day to shed tears for her, her husband and her two young kids.
A day to hug other friends as we try to make sense of this loss.
A day to reflect on the fragility of life and be reminded to treat every day as the gift that it is.
A day to hug my kids a little tighter and be so very thankful for a healthy family.

The boys' room

Cooper and Hudson's room was in real need of a major overhaul again. Re-organizing, cleaning, all that stuff. We had been putting it off because we were trying to decide whether we were going to actually split the space into two, giving them both their own rooms. We had mentioned this to Cooper back at the beginning of December, thinking that he would be thrilled at the idea. He surprised us both by, instead, being very upset by the idea. We have discovered that Cooper really doesn't accept change very well and his room is a place that he spends a lot of time. More than any of the other kids. Hudson, on the other hand, really loved the idea initially, but over the last few weeks has slowly begun to change his mind.
The whole thing has really been very interesting, as the reactions of both of them were actually much different than we expected them to be. I've come to the understanding that maybe they need each other more than they both realize.
So, a couple days ago, the cleaning and purging began. Just as I excepted, Hudson was quite willing to get rid of a lot of stuff and Cooper wasn't too happy to get rid of anything. He threw away some ripped up old Lego building instructions and thought he was doing great.
We did decide to split the room a little more evenly, giving them both their own shelves and also thought they each needed a work space.
So that brought on a trip to Ikea.
Yesterday afternoon, the three boys and I headed off on our adventure. Reagan had two birthday parties to go to, so Tony stayed behind to be her chauffeur and hopefully get a little work done.
(Side note#1: As we got closer to Ikea, Hudson spotted it from the freeway.
Hudson: I see it! We're almost there!
Taggart: Where?
Hudson: Right there. That huge blue building with the yellow letters.
Taggart: Ikea is a building? I thought it was a town.....like Langley.
He really didn't want to go with us. No wonder.....he had no idea where we were headed. Not sure if a building was a step up from a town, or a step down.)
So our trip was successful. We found two desks, two chairs, and two little cabinets with some drawers for storage. They got to pick out their own lamps and they both picked the same ones. :)
After we were done, we were all tired (or at least, I was) and starving, so we drove down the street to find somewhere to eat. I spotted Cactus Club and took my three boys out to dinner.
After we all enjoyed our little feast we headed home. The three of them sang to the songs on the iPod all the way home.

We all spent the rest of the evening continuing to clean out the room and getting all the furniture set up. I think it was about 11:00 before we were done. Taggart and Reagan 'helped' all the way to the end, as it was a bit hard for them to sleep right across the hall of all that activity.
Today, they both already spent some time up there and I think are both really thrilled to have this new space. I heard Hudson say to Cooper: "I'm glad we decided not to split the room and just get these new desks instead."



Hudson building some Lego while whistling a little tune and Cooper reading a book.
(Side note #2: Cooper's pre-shower hair is scaring me a little in that second photo. On the other hand, tony is starting to call his post-shower hair is Farrah Fawcett do. Which is worse??)

A New Year

New Year's was celebrated around pretty low-key. The kids all want to stay up until midnight, so that is what we do. But by the time the clock strikes twelve, we all barely have enough energy to stand up, never mind do any celebrating.
Nevertheless, we have high hopes. I spent a good part of the afternoon preparing all of their favorite snacks, which we all enjoyed throughout the evening. Some games were played, some Play Station Move, (a new Christmas gift), and a movie. We rounded out the evening by watching the ball drop in Times Square on TV. Tony and I both decided that is some really bad TV and not worth watching. Next year we will have to come up with something much more fun to be doing at the turn of the New Year.
Taggart really wanted to make it, and he almost did. This is about 11:50PM on the floor in the living room where he had made himself a bed. I let him sleep for a few minutes and then woke him up just in time to see the countdown and wish him a Happy New Year and then carried him to bed. I think he was back asleep by about 12:05.


And also a few photos of a little fun Tag and Reagan had yesterday afternoon. Cooper and Hudson were playing football out on the field with some buddies so they missed out. Tag though they would be very jealous when they found out.
This is favorite activity.



Reagan gave Tag strict instructions that if his marshmallow caught fire he shouldn't wave it around, but instead just put it the middle of them and she would blow it out for him. They had it all worked out.