My First Lego Set

I spent a lot of time being frugal in 2011.  I didn't splurge much and certainly not on myself.  But when I saw the  LEGO set on the shelf with a dark hair girl that included a cup of coffee, a laptop, and a camera it only took two seconds for it to go from the shelf to my cart.  Her name is Emma and she also designs clothes and likes to have organized drawers.  Hello???  Like I wasn't already sold at the camera and coffee top.

As soon as the boys were asleep I ripped that box open and got to work.  I didn't bother with the instructions, I just went for the pieces I wanted.  Phil just had to take a picture; its kind of out of focus since he was laughing which shook the camera a bit.

We took some pictures of each other...

Then had a coffee break while getting some work done on the laptop...

 The other lego guys are pretty excited to have a female lego in the house

She's a little tall for a LEGO person.  Captain America was more her type.

After I had my fun I let the boys (and my neice) play with the LEGO set for a while.  They had a blast.  One of the best $10 I've ever spent.  Emma and her Design Studio can be found at stores around town or on Amazon at www.amazon.com.  I'm a little disappointed in her rather un-LEGO appearance but all of the other LEGO pieces and accessories are everything you would expect from LEGO.

A Very Happy Holiday {smile because it happened}

It was a good holiday.  I didn't take a lot of pictures this Christmas since I was often busy holding a kid; helping a kid unwrap a gift; holding a wine glass; or bent over laughing with (or at) my family.  We had a very merry Christmas and a very loud New Year's eve.

Snuggling on Christmas Eve; trying to draw out bedtime for as long as possible

  Hours of intense (and quiet!) playing with new toys and legos...

Lots of days just hanging out in PJs til well past 10 in the morning...

We spent many, many hours with family.  They got to play with their cousins day after day.  No school; just play.  The mild, warm temperatures made it possible to get outside more.

Here it looks like he could be my little assistant: posing babies.  Really he is just giving his baby cousin a cuddle and softly petting her head.  Their older cousin with her holiday sparkles on.  And a typical room throughout Christmas day, filled with 10-20 people just enjoying the togetherness.

We tried really hard this year to teach our boys the real meaning of Christmas and that it's not just about the toys and presents.  In the end their favorite part of the holiday season was getting to see all the family, and that's a pretty good start.

Now we're back to school; back to work; back to routines; a whole new year ahead of us.

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope 2012 is filled with great things to come.

The Ulrich Family

A very belated post... the Holiday Season is keeping me busy!  I really adore happy families.  There are so many little moments to capture along with the "safe shots".  This awesome four year old was incredibly cute and a lot of fun to get to know...  he could give my four year old a few tips on cooperating for pictures ;)  We went to the safety of the Jewel Box to escape the dreary cold outside; it was a popular place with about a dozen other families doing photos! Thank you Ulrich Family ~  It was a pleasure meeting you and photographing your family.

~Elizabeth

Still working on choosing names, My husband is stalking me

I know, I know, I'm way behind on posting pictures and still haven't named the chickens.

Thanks for all the name suggestions, here and on FB.  Quite a few are under consideration.  It needs to be a family decision and Phil is too busy to be bothered with picking names right now.  Phil can be rude sometimes.  He doesn't understand ya'll are on the edge of your seats waiting to find out the names we pick. I understand though because I care about all of YOU.   In the meantime I'm still running around calling the chickens "hey".

Phil has also realized recently that he is occasionally mentioned on the blog here.

This is not exactly a good thing.

Now he's actively trying to get a blog mention.  Its almost like he's auditioning.

His "auditions" include creating imaginary fights than bellowing "blog that one"

Let's see, he also created a really big pile of laundry and named it.  Ummm, how original babe.  Already blogged that but thanks for the "new" material. And thanks for the extra day of having to do laundry. really.

There's more.  I won't embarrass him further.

Oh man, I hope I didn't just encourage him further.

Or tick him off.  He's already got me sleeping with one eye open. Ever since last week when I told him I was feeling depressed and he replied by telling me "depression hurts. depression hurts everybody." I punched him so he could feel the hurt of my depression and told him he was lucky I hadn't stabbed him.  30 minutes later he's in the kitchen sharpening his knives.  He says he was sharpening them in preparation for hunting season.  Really?  Oh yeah, I'm sure that timing was all just coincidence.

Just to be safe here's a picture of him being nice.

On a positive note all four chickens are now laying eggs.  That means we get about two dozen eggs a week. I will never have to pay for eggs again.

Our egg production just doubled but our chickens need names

We did a lot of work on the coop this weekend.  Getting it ready for winter with window insulation; painting the siding, expanding their 'free range' area. Here's the before and after:

I'm not a big fan of the blue but it was free.

While we were doing this work one of the other chickens laid her first egg.  So now we have two of the four chickens laying

The boys have been very waffle-y (hmmm, spell check says that's not a word. I say; it is now) on what the chickens names are.

Simone became Bouncy Ball;
Bouncy Ball became Sweet Tweet;
Sweet Tweet (#2) got changed to Tweet Tweet;
Sweet Chick has remained the same but we usually just call her trouble.

My head is spinning.

I told the boys we were giving the girls new names.

We have four girls, we need four names.

I'm open to suggestions... please feel free to post them here.  Just please don't suggest anything with sweet, tweet, chick, or ball in the name.

I considered naming them after my four sisters but one chicken is a little crazy, one is a little mean, and one is a little dumb so I'm pretty sure I would be disowned if I did that.

Suggest away!  The winner gets a golden egg.

And by golden I mean brown.

Christmas Card Photos: Attempt 1

I was armed with M&Ms and Skittles this year (thank you very much Halloween candy collection)

This is what I get?!?!!

Yes, I know what you're thinking:  They're still pretty cute and amusing. Well, there is no audio with these pictures so of course you think that.

Usually its the younger one smiling and the older one making goofy faces.

Even big brother doesn't want to be near him while he's in this mood.  Wait, is it called a mood if it lasts for more than 6 months? Or is it a personality disorder?


I am saving all of these pictures for when they're teenagers.  Then I'll be using these for our family Christmas card.  And mailing it to their friends.

Six Years Old

I know, I know.... he turned six over a month ago.  That's how far behind I am in life. I was considering back-dating this post to September but decided not to since figuring that out might set me behind another week or so. 

He's in kindergarten now, he rides the bus to school, and has somehow turned in to this mature little man who helps around the house, only antagonizes his little brother some of the time, and now only allows kisses on the forehead or cheek.

He is still scared of the dark (and the scary things that might be hiding in the dark) so I'm still needed.  Well, for that and for meals.  Our microwave is very high up and he's still not allowed to use the oven.

He can do "normal" smiles for pictures now if I bribe him enough but he's not so mature he doesn't laugh at tooting jokes (do boys ever mature out of that?)

Happy Birthday Evan! Age six has been great so far, maybe you can stay this age for a few years?