Andy eating Ovaltine.

Sean sporting a skater look.

Ryan riding a scooter.

Andy is riding a horse dragon that comes with sound effects.

Alex riding a motorcycle.

Ryan climbing the stairs at the park.

Sean checking out what his brothers are doing at the park.

Andy and Alex wanted a little Captain in them.

Mark's got a little Captain in him.

I like this picture of Sir Ry.

Sean and Ryan driving around town.

Andy all tuckered out!

Andy driving a Mickey Mouse car.

Alex and Andy in front of a car.

Papa, Nona, Alex, and Andy at the Silver Legacy.

Ryan and Sean checking out the view on the tram.

Mommy and Ryan on the Circus Circus tram.

Andy, Mark, and Sean on the tram at Circus Circus.

Andy was watching his current favorite flick, "Chicken Little."

Alex smiling for me.

Sean thinking about our predicament.

Trapped in the snow Ryan just looked out the window.

Driving around Reno with the twix.

Sean and Ryan driving at Circus Circus during our Reno adventure.

Sean and Ryan playing in their ball pit!

Back in Utah

The ride into CA was so terrifing, dangerous and deadly, that when we gave up and headed back to NV, we got sucked into a snow bank and had to wait for a tow truck to pull us out. Luckily a sheriff drove by and called for help. We had no phone signal and the few drivers we saw drove on by. The snow plow continued to drive by though he radioed us in each time. We were so scared of the storm, we stopped in Carson City for the night, not confident enough to drive all the way back into Reno. A drive that should have taken 2 -3 hours from Reno took 6 hours for us to get to Kirkwood and back to Carson. The snow plows passed us probably 20 times in the 3 hours we were on that dreadful road.

I didn't fully understand the difference between chains and roads closed. Never again will we drive in such weather, conditions. Never ever again.

The next day all the roads were closed and those few drivers who got through spent as much as 10 hours to get to Sacramento.

It was nice to spend the 2 extra days with Mom & Dad though. Alex and Andy especially enjoyed spending extra time at Circus Circus. But we were very sad to not be able to see everyone else we'd made plans with.

One day we went to the mall where they have a kids wheel. Alex spun for his brothers and won a $10 gift card! He and Andy ended up with some toys from the Disney Store, a set of Power Ranger guns that match his costume. They spent the rest of the trip shooting each other.

We enjoyed a yummy burgers at Mel's Diner with Erin and Geoff, a birthday dinner with my parents at the Olive Garden and a delicious buffet at the El Dorado.

All in all it was a fairly nice vaca -- if you take out all the trauma on the road and the battery we needed jumped to head home. One of those weeks, where we kept telling each other what else can go wrong.

Andy's sharpie

As some of you may remember, shortly after Andy was born, his pediatrician told (and showed) me that "Andrew is very well endowed." Perhaps one of the most well endowed he's seen. At the time, as his mother I commented that I could have gone my whole life content without that knowledge.

During a pull up changing session, I yanked down the pull up a little more roughly than usual as we were in a hurry and noticed a rather large manly part jutting out. "Whoa, are you a little excited, Andy?" He was already squirming uncomfortably."Ah. Mommy, quick you have to fix my penis. Mommy, my penis is broken. My penis is sharp! Mommy make my penis go back down." He actually started to get upset and started frantically groping himself.

"Andrew calm down. Stop touching yourself. If we leave it alone for a second it will stop being um, sharp."He stopped but could have burned holes in himself with how hard he was staring. He relaxed, I pulled his fresh pull up on and we're done.

As we headed into his sibling care class (for Ry to have Kindermusik with other special needs tykes) a little while later, "Mommy, I don't like it when my penis is sharp."

"I know. Its ok, Andy. It won't stay like that." I was certainly blushing, embrassed at this conversation.

"Ok Mommy, but don't let your penis get sharp either."

Ryan playing with Daddy.

One of the approximately 85 pictures Andy took when he got hold of the camera.

Andy mugs for the camera.

This is what Seany does while Sir Ry snuggles with Daddy. He's none the wiser and sleeps in his crib.

Ryan's favorite morning activity -- climbing into bed and sleeping with Daddy.

Alex sleeping sick on the couch.

Sean against the wall had his first time out for hitting Alex while he was sick and sleeping on the couch. Ryan (in the diaper) sympathized with Seany and hung out with him until the time out was over.

Sad Day in Saratoga Springs

Yesterday afternoon a home about a mile from ours exploded. I'm not kidding. The house blew up -- gas leak, pilot light, etc. The couch was on a neighbors roof, pieces of the home were all over that neighborhood.

Apparently a work crew, punctured a gas line nearby and though the gas readings were safe, the owner and gas worker were killed. Her child was outside with the father as she was rushed to the children's hospital as a precaution. The image of that poor man cradling his daughter looking at the rubble that contained his wife's body will be forever tattooed on my brain.

This story is so sad. Its really affected me. A sad reminder of how quickly it can all be over, how a child can be left motherless (so young she won't even be able to remember her), how that poor man will probably forever blame himself for not going in in her stead. The tradegy of this story for me lies in the random, totally pointless deaths of these two normal people.

I'm sorry for sharing such a sad story. I just needed to get it out of my system.

I have an amusing story that I will be sending seperately a little later. It even has a picture!

Messes, Fights, and Lost Marbles

Yesterday was the day of messes.

First, I wrote an email. When I came upstairs, Andy had dumped a box of cereal out on the table and was pretending he was "The Big Chicken" pecking up the pieces one at a time.

As I cleaned up that mess, the twix woke up. I got them out of their beds and got them their breakfast. Finished cleaning up Andy's mess. I decided to take my shower.

While I was showering, Andy decided he wanted some chocolate syrup and all the Valentine's chocolates we'd purchased for teachers, classmates, etc. Sean and Ryan decided to help Andy with all this chocolate. There was a trail of syrup from the playroom to the bar and on Ryan's head, chocolate candies in the hands of Andy, Sean, and Sir Ry.

So I cleaned up the chocolate while Andy disappeared along with the twix up the stairs. I go up to the main floor and nobody's around. I go up to the upstairs. I smell nail polish. I go into my bathroom and closet where I find, burgundy nail polish on the wall in the carpet, on the bathroom vinyl floor and vanity. I got it off the vanity and vinyl with little problem.

Today, after research on the internet, I'll get it out of the carpet and off the wall. For the curious, WD-40 should take it off the wall and liquid detergent and soaking should take it out of the carpet, but I have to repeat the procedure over and over and over.

So, when I decided to do the dishes, I put Sean and Ryan and an array of toys in their play pen. Ryan threw out all but one toy which Sean, not to be left out, then threw out also. I did tell them, they'd have nothing to play with if they threw all the toys out. So as I'm doing dishes, Sir Ry starts laughing and Seany starts crying. I look in the play pen and Ryan is sitting on Seany's head. I send him back to his corner and moments later here Seany crying again. Ryan is holding Seany's binky over his head and has pinned Seany down. Sean couldn't even get a hand free. So, as I was finished, I took Sean out first and then got after Ryan and set him free.

A few minutes later, Seany is screaming blood murder. I turn the corner and his hand is bright red with off centered teeth mark's (Ryan has 3 teeth on the top and 3 on the bottom, but they don't line up) and Ryan is standing on a stool that Sean looks to have been pushed off of.

At that point, I calmed both babies down, and forced them to take naps as I'd had enough.

Basketball & More

We've been very busy trying to get everyone healthy. Pink eye has run rampant through the kiddies with Ryan infected again.

Alex started basketball this weekend. He's on a team with some of his neighborhood friends which makes it more fun for him!

While at Alex's first practice, Andy was playing with Mark and having a lot of fun. After practice started, he got to climb on the stage and play with the other siblings. They had much fun chasing each other behind curtains and playing monster. At the actual game, Andy was very crabby and ready to go. Though he did cheer for Alex when ever he was on the court.

After the game, we went to look at some new model homes. They were nice on the inside and ugly/boring on the outside. But as it was the grand opening, we got to enjoy a free lunch and Alex had the honor of spinning the prize wheel for us. He won the $25 Target gift card to which he said, "I wanted the parachute man, not a gift card." The lady suggested, he get a parachute man and he give the gift card to his parents, he was delighted! Andy then 'spun' the wheel and chose a toy harmonica.

So on Friday, I was trying to put clothes away, clean up the kitchen, etc. Andy was very quiet. He'd taken the box of frozen waffles out of the freezer, the syrup out of the fridge and headed into the bathroom. The door was closed when I came downstairs and wondered what he was up to. He had emptied all the drawers, poured all the cleaning products into the bath tub (where he'd put all the cleaning brushes), and managed to get syrup on the mirror, vanity, closet, floor, bathroom mats, and toliet. Why was he in there? He said, "I was trying to go potty," very experated with me for getting after him.

Sean and Ryan continue to enjoy their pursuits of getting into everything taking things apart and have added to their act, driving Alex crazy! He at 7, sets up elaborate games with his Rescue Heroes (much as I did with my Barbies as a child) and then the twix blow through and take everything apart! Its enough to drive Alex bonkers!

Alex reads ahead of the 1st grade level. Thanks to the movie coming out, his teacher, had him start reading Charlotte's Web. As that's a book in the Devlin library, he's been reading it at home also. He told me, "I like to practice reading it at home first so that if Cassie (his reading buddy) doesn't know a word, I already figured it out for her (not for himself, but for Cassie. :-)."

And for those interested in sending Alex congratulations. He's ridiculously proud of his first perfect spelling test! He doesn't have to spell words like cat, dog, apple, banana. No Alex spells words like "compounds, statements, divided, whether, difficulty, businesses, etc." and is expected to understand their meaning and usage. Alex has words that the rest of us didn't get until 4th or 5th grade, so the fact that he can do these and get 1 or 2 wrong, I think proves he's super duper smart!

Enough about me and my kiddies. I've got to get the twix up and dressed and find out why Andy's being so quiet.

The World According to Andy

In the world according to Andy certain prefixes, suffixes, and other letter combos that granted are crazy in English are pronounced even crazier in Andy-ism.

Example: Alex received a book for his birthday. A Christmas book that plays "We Wish You a Merry Christmas..." It contains all variety of forest animals. Andy loves this book. He studies this book. He wants to commune on some level with the creatures and teach them all to sing, "We vish you a Merby Chrwismas, We vish you a Merby Chrwismas, and a Happy New Year."

He especially enjoys going through the book pointing out the animals and playing, "What's tis one called?" Some of his favorite creatures include, "vouse (mouse)", "sdunk (skunk)", and the "rabids (rabbits)".

Andy had his first official dental visit today. He took a ride in the dental chair which he said, "Its just like a space ship." He had 'pictures' of his teeth taken, which he wanted to take home. And he had his teeth cleaned though she had to pry his jaw apart to clean the last three teeth. He has very healthy clean teeth and the dentist said he did very well as he didn't even need to wear the super important dental shields (sunglasses)!

Mark and Alex were also due for dental visits though theirs were postponed. I had to drive Mark to the doctor yesterday as he was terribly ill -- turns out he has strep throat. Poor guy, I was surely miserable when I had it. We don't know what Alex had -- though he ran a fever and had a virtual migrane (I don't know if kids get them but he might as well of had one) and was very shaken all day yesterday. Today he seems to be afflicted by a head cold.

And in the world of family illnesses, Sean and Ryan are obivously afflicted. Sean has a head cold, 2 nasty infected ears and pink eye. Ryan has a head cold, 2 nearly infected ears and pink eye.

Only Andy and I are thus far immune, I've prayed many times it stays this way.

After the dental visit, (I finally didn't need to get any fillings from those cavities I got while prego with Andy) we went to Wal-Mart for laundry detergent. He asked for quite a lot of items for 'Chrwismas' -- Cocoa Rice Krispies, a random Dora movie, a clock that was about 3 feet in diameter, a bag of Cheetos, a chopper style bike that even Alex wouldn't fit on, etc.

Hope all is well. As you can see, I enjoyed my day with my one healthy boy.

Making their dinos roar.

Alex putting his dino together.

Andy putting his dino together.

Alex digging out his raptor's skeletal remains.

Andy and Daddy digging out his Raptor Dinosaur skeleton.

Just before our dinner feast, Andy crashed for the night. He woke up just before bedtime and was able to use that to stay up late playing with his new stuff.

The gift he'd been hoping for (as Alex slipped up once) from his parents an XBOX 360).

Alex loves this car.

The twix were causing no small degree of frustration when they lept on to Lightning McQueen. Andy was trying desperately to claim him all for himself.

Very happily opening their most anticipated gift (from Steve)! CARS STUFF. This car goes up and down the stairs everyday. They love it.

Ryan on the very tip of his toes checking out the Santa Coke bottles. Alex's once a year treat.

As you can see, Ryan manages just fine on his own.

Mommy helping Seany while Ryan goes to manage the task in his new chair.

Ryan taking a break in a Superman chair whose back deflated overnight! It was a nice idea though.

The twix preferred checking out their loot next to each other, making it easier to be certain of what ALL they got. They do share everything you know.

Seany making sure Ry didn't get anything extra!

Sir Ry checking out his stocking stuffers.

"The stockings were hung next to entertainment center with care..."

Ryan's checking out Andy's scooter and wondering what happened to the room. While Seany made a bee line to his (and Ry's) Santa gift!

Checking out the first gifts trying unsuccessfully not to wake Mommy, Daddy, and the twix! Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots from Mr. C.

The tree -- there were some big gifts that took up a lot of space -- crock pot, canister set, Mark's gift from his parents, cooler stuff for the kids from family and friends. Thanks to all!

The traditional reading of the classic poem, "Twas the Night Before Christmas."

Leaving Santa a plate of cookies and a Coke with his very on mug on it. With those two big grins how could he disappoint!

Andy drew a picture for Santa on the back of his list.

Alex and Andy were animals in the church nativity play. Andy wanted to participate and gripped Alex's hand tightly the entire way. The rest of the church pictures didn't come out at all.

Alex adding frosting (chocolate not white frosting) and sprinkles.

Seany (and Sir Ry under the table) getting in on the cookie taste testing part of the eve!

Christmas Eve cookie making and baking! Alex has the rolling pin and Andy's got the cookie cutters. Alex made gingerbread and Andy made sugar.