A Trip To Sardine Land

If you've watched "Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs", you would think that this post was inspired by the said movie. However, you would be WRONG!!!

In an effort to increase his good cholesterol, my husband has been increasing his Omega-3's, so avocados, walnuts, and yes even sardines are on the menu!

HERE THEY ARE!

The boys thought the idea was cool, because they saw the movie and all of the people eating sardines. They thought they should give it a go. Both Hunter and Chance are up for Dad's adventures because Dad is so cool.

Chance may be a little reluctant at this point. The stink probably hit him right about here.


Dad is showing how it is done

Hunter enjoyed a sardine/cracker sandwich

Just as delicious as he thought it would be!

"Ummm, what was all the excitement about? This is disgusting!"

"Can I spit it out?"

You will be sad to know, now that Daddy knows Chance doesn't like sardines, they are a punishment for not eating his dinner.

Sorry Chance!

Christmas 2009

For being so prepared for the month of December, it ended up being a lot more crazy than planned. We were SICK!!! Everyone had a turn, but the boys got the worst of it! It continued through the whole month, but fortunately after 5 am Christmas morning, it let up for us to have a nice Christmas Day and then came back to visit through the rest of the month.

Our McGee family traditions for Christmas were even changed this year. No one felt up to our usual Christmas Eve Crab for dinner, so we had crackers, cheese, fruit, vegetables, beef stick etc.. So we didn't waste our yummy crab on yucky tummys. However, tradition did stick that each of the boys got to open their new pair of jammies from Grandma and Grandpa Joe.

Hunter got cool pirate jammies.

Chance got cool bug jammies

(You can tell that we don't see Grandma often enough by the length of Chance's PJ's)

Christmas morning brought throw-up and Santa presents.

This is Mom's stash

Santa was really using his thinker when he brought me a steam vac. He must have been able to smell the puke in our carpets all the way in North Pole!

Dad got some cool toys to play with the boys.

Chance and his treasures.

(Notice the change in jammies, the bug one's had a rough night.)

Hunter was so excited about the "Batcave"

Santa wrote a nice note and drew a picture on Chance's new art easel

We have had LOTS of fun with these nerf swords

"I HAVE THE POWER!!!"

We had a very nice Christmas, hope you did too!

It's ICE TIME!!!! HOCKEY VIDEO CLIPS.......

You wanted it you got it. Here is our own little Gretzky in the making!!! Everyone has been requesting more hockey stuff so this is as good as it gets! VIDEO FOOTAGE!!!

This is pretty funny too........

Most of Hunter's team prefers to skate forward...I think Hunter prefers to skate backwards. His coaches always ask us if we put him up to it and the answer is no. He does what he prefers! Looks like we got a defenseman on our hands! We thought you might appreciate that Doug!

Here is another one!

Our little slasher has come a long way from the days of slithering as an ice slug. We kept telling him he would get better and sure enough he has!!!

We love you Hunter Buddy!!!

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!

We LOVE Christmas!! What could be more wonderful than beautiful smells, colorful lights, and giving to others?

We found a beautiful fresh tree to add to our decor, and we even found a REAL tree stand (see December 2008 post) this year too. We also purchased our first star to go on top of the tree. It is a beautiful tree full of homemade ornaments and a few store bought ones. It reminds me of the tree that I grew up with. The boys enjoyed decorating, and still enjoy re-arranging some of the ornaments.

One of our annual traditions is making REAL Gingerbread houses. We of course grouped into teams.

Team Daddy and Chance and Team Hunter and Momma

we had a great time.

This team doesn't even have their house stuck together yet, and one of the participants has chocolate and goo around his mouth already.

Hunter was excellent at hanging the "lights" on our roof. He was very patient with it.


......still eating!!!

Hunter was getting frusturated because the other team kept saying how girly our house was since there was a girl on Hunter's team. They kept telling him that Barbie lived inside our house!! I had drawn a frosting heart above the door to put some red hots around, but before I could even get the red hots on, Hunter smeared it!

We did end up putting candy cane "cannons" and "lasers" on top of our roof. We also put a US Flag on the side of the house. We decided it was the "married" military housing. There were also cinnamon bears out front to keep an eye out for intruders.

Team Daddy and Chance put the marine symbol and a gun on the side of their house. Their house did turn out very MESSY...oops, I mean MANLY!!

And guess what???? Chance is still eating the candy off the house every chance he gets.

Last but not least we went straight to Santa Claus' house in North Pole and told him what we wanted for Christmas. He told the boys that he had been waiting for them, and that they were definitely on the good list. They were very happy about that!

Chance told Santa that he wanted a Shark and a Motorcycle.

Hunter told Santa that he wanted the Batcave.

Both boys got a candy cane and were very pleased with their visit to Santa.

One of our traditions when we go see Santa is that each of the boys get to choose an ornament to represent that year for them. Hunter chose an eskimo riding a polar bear, and Chance chose an Olde World style Santa ornament.

The best part of Christmas is the element of surprise and anticipation of these little boys. Hunter said to me, "Mom, everytime I sleep I just dream of those presents, and the day I get to open them." He also keeps asking me if he can just open one present, and then he'll say, "Just trickin' since he already knows the answer.

We have also had FHE about Christ and why we celebrate Christmas. They love to look and touch my nativity scene, and talk about what happened on the night Christ was born.

This is "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year!!"

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday at our house this year! We got to sleep in (just a little bit), and then we started our day by watching the Macy's Parade on TV. Before we knew it, it was time to start working on the "Feast".

Kelly did a great job peeling Yams AND potatoes. He peeled a ton of potatoes because he really LOVES mashed potatoes and I don't make them nearly enough for him.
Now Kelly has enough mashed potatoes to feed him until the middle of December!!!

This is George the Gratitude Turkey. During the month of November when we sit down to the table we think of things we are thankful for and then add the feather to George. So, he started out as a "naked" turkey and now he is in full bloom.
This is what we were grateful for this year:

Alaska, loving husband, cabin, Gee Gee's garden, Grandpa McGee, sweet treats, family, water, hats, food, planets, preschool, world, zombies, chickens, Gee Gee, wrestling, snow, truck, soup, washing machine, Aunt Valerie, electricity, memories, ice cream, Halloween, video games, Chance, Hunter, beds, Mickey Mouse, trees, cookies, teeth, toys, bugs, music, reliable vehicles, Batman, fish, Joker, broccoli, sweetheart wife, warm home, good friends, Ryan, string, airplanes, Grandpa Joe, showers, sharks, Our Countries flag, USA, outerspace, bacon, stars in the sky, milk jugs (milk duds), fun days with family, clowns, yummy smells, auto start, soda, books, days off, our bodies, hulk shirt, snacks, job, broncos, movies, toys, cereal, stuffed lion, our minds, dump trucks, cartoons, The Gospel, Thomas Train, Brandon, hugs, kisses, fingers, clothes, health, The World, Momma, Dad, Button (a guy Kelly works with), hockey, good landlord, health, football, Dodgers and NAPS!!!!!

We are VERY fortunate despite the sad things that have happened in our extended families this year. We are very aware and grateful for the blessings we DO have.

While dinner was being prepared, the boys did a "color by number" cornicopia picture,

and took turns playing games with Dad.

Handsome little Chance

Brothers

Dinner was very delicious and all turned out well. It is tricky however, to get the timing down so that everything hot at the same time. Maybe next year I will get to be thankful for a double oven!

While we were eating we noticed that Chance grew a bit of a goatee. Apparently when he was wiping his face, the napkin stuck to the marshmallow goo on his chin.

We got a pretty good laugh out of that!

Little goatee guy

My "LUV"

After dinner I was ready for a nap, and Kelly was ready for football, and the boys were chomping at the bit to watch the "Thundercats" DVD that came from Netflix.

Everyone got to do exactly what they wanted....it was NICE!

After football, movie, and nap, it was time for pie. We had chocolate velvet pie, and pumpkin. The were both very delicious. Hunter chose to eat his pie with his hands like pizza.

Yum!

At the end of the day Kelly was most grateful that his Broncos won!!!!

It was a lovely holiday for our family, a time to reflect and enjoy eachother's company.

Memories & Dreams

Do you remember growing up when the toy catalogs started coming in the mail, and it was getting close to Christmas? There was a certain magic and excitement in the air, and the dreaming began.

We received our Toys R Us catalog in the mail on Wednesday, and I think it has been read, studied, searched, and flipped at least 100 times so far. Hunter, even last night spent over 1 1/2 hours looking through it again. It has also become a good learning book as we learn about 10's and 100's and practice identifying numbers and their placements.

Hunter decided that he REALLY wants the Batcave listed for 34.99. He even cut the ad out of the magazine and has it stashed in a "secret location". He will ask Santa for it when we go to the North Pole in December. He is really excited!

It has been fun to watch the boys and see them turn the pages of these magazines over, and over. The other day I received the American Girl magazine. Can I tell you how many times I pored over this catalog from the ages of 9-15!?!?!?! I dreamed of having the dolls, the clothes, the accesories, but it was soooo expensive, I knew that I wouldn't ever get one.

It was so fun to DREAM!
This is the doll that I wanted (below) her name is Samantha. One year for Christmas I got her book collection, I am sure my Mom would have loved to have given me the doll, but on a single gals income it would have caused a financial struggle. I still have the Samantha book series and hope one day to pass them on to a daughter or a grand daughter and hopefully she will love them as much as I did.

So, as I flipped through this catalog, it was fun to think of the memories of all the times I used to look through this catalog in the "old days". Now you can buy the American Girl that looks like you, I found the one that looks like me, that was fun!
While I was sad to never get the Samantha, I got something better, I got the chance to dream.
THAT IS ONE OF THE BEST GIFTS!!!
While some of you might think I still am looking at the catalog everyday, I really only looked at it twice and then gave it to one of our friends little girls. I told her they were expensive, but it is a fun magazine to look at :)

DREAM, DREAM, DREAM

"I've Told You Three Times!!"

For preschool today, we were lucky enough to get to go on a field trip to the firestation.

Here are two of the cutest firefighters I know.

This is Firefighter Andy. He gave us the tour, and reminded us how strong a fireman has to be. He also taught us to call out for help if we are ever in a fire and to stay down low to the ground.

This is Chance inside one of the big fire engines

Hunter and his good friend Brandon loved pretending to be firemen.

You always hear little boys say that they want to be firemen when they grow up. However, this is the conversation that went on in our family....

Mom: "Hunter, do you want to be a fireman when you grow up?"

Hunter: "NO! I've told you three times...

(with a look on his face like, "don't you ever listen?")

Hunter continued: ......I want to be a Dodger and NOTHING else!!!"

So there you have it folks, Hunter will be a Dodger and not a fireman.