Allison's artwork

Mommy was generous last Saturday and we got out the watercolors and let the kids paint (they ask to do this a lot, but since our kitchen table sits on carpet, I usually just don't want to deal with it.) Alex and Evelyn pretty much just made a mess and used a lot of paper (and were subsequentially banished to the bathtub to play with shaving cream) while Allison spent the entire time working on a couple of trees. But they are gorgeous trees!

We decided it needed something in the middle so I inserted her into her own artwork. What do you think?

Picture set on flickr

I've been really bad about updating the blog. I'm just not feeling the motivation for it right now. But in case you haven't seen it, I'm doing a daily photo set on flickr this year and it's probably the best way to keep updated with our family (at least at the moment, I'm sure I'll change again) If you click on the slide show, it will take you to my flickr account, where you can read the descriptions I've written to go along with each photo.

50s day at school

Today was the 50th day of school and the kids got to dress up in 50s-wear. Xander was home again since he threw up after dinner last night (after acting fine all day yesterday... after throwing up the night before. Grrr...) but Allison has fun. I made her a quick poodle skirt yesterday night, no hemming involved and a white T-shirt to wear today (she asked for a blouse, but I have limits)
 
The best part was that we got to use her pettiskirt that I bought 2 yrs ago and she's worn maybe 3 times for dress up, giving her poodle skirt maximum twirlability and getting lots of attention at school, which she thoroughly enjoyed. Sometimes it's good to be able to sew.
 
Did I mention that I had all the fabric, the bias tape, and rhinestones for the poodle collar just sitting in my stash? I'm so pathetic.

I'm just so dang lazy.

I'll admit it. Having to upload pictures and post them here just sound so....

OK, yeah, facebook has made me lazy. It does all the work. But you can't write much. So I firmly resolve to do better.

What's been happening?? Lots of sickness, but I think that's everywhere, right? Ug. I'm hoping for a healthy winter. I've lost over 10 lbs and I went down a pants size!! Hallalujah! Now if everyone can stay healthy so I can keep exercising.

And now for pictures...

It snowed. Fortunately, it also melted. But not before Allison entertained Evelyn for nearly an hour building a snowman in the yard.

From 2009_10_31

Evelyn got a black eye. The same day as I got my flash in the mail. So I got to practice with her... cheese crackers and all.

From 2009_10_31

Of course she picked the black-eye day to get all snuggly with Peter after work, but since I was still looking for opportunities to use my spiffy new flash, my camera was readily available and I got to work.

From 2009_10_31

Oooooh.... then I made really cool cupcakes for a baby shower. The ducks are actually lemon truffles made in molds and the cupcakes are lemon with lemon curd filling and cream cheese. I'm such an overachiever.

From 2009_10_31

Alex decided to do some chalk drawing on the sidewalk. I saw this as a perfect opportunity to take my spiffy new flash outside. (see how bright his face is?? see? see? OK, so he wouldn't actually look at me)

From 2009_10_31

We went to the pumpking patch. They were out of pumpkins, but hey, it was still fun. The corn maze was fun (oh, yeah, and did I mention I brought my flash? On a stick? No wonder my family is sick of me)

From 2009_10_31

But see, without it, would have I have ever gotten this cool picture? This head and hands were sticking out of the bottom of an uprooted tree, far off the "beaten track." Now bear in mind that my little boy refuses to go downstairs and go to the bathroom by himself because he is "afraid of houses." This kid drives me crazy!!

From 2009_10_31

We didn't get around to carving pumpkins until Halloween. Fortunately I found some at the commissary which made the kids forgive me to taking too long to go to the pumpking patch. But, between illness and Peter being gone I just couldn't get around to doing it until he was back home again.

From 2009_10_31

This is the first year Allison has carved her own pumpkin!! She was so proud of herself!

From 2009_10_31

Halloween night. These dang kids wouldn't stand still for pictures!! I mean, really. I spent how long making there costumes and they couldn't even hold off on candy for 10 stinking minutes?? Really?? Oh, right. They're kids. And sick of mommy following them around with a flash on a pole. But, oh, well. Allison was a vampire. Xander was a ghost. Her costume was nuts. His was simple. But they were both happy.

From 2009_10_31

Evelyn was a lil' devil. Peter's idea. I just couldn't make her something sweet and pretty with the other two but I wanted something cute anyway. And boy was she cute!! She got a lot of attention at the trunk or treat and around the neighborhood. I learned that sewing leather to the bottom of a sleeper isn't enough to make the feet last more than an hour with a rambunctious toddler in it. Her poor little toes were sticking out by the end of the night. But notice how I made a matching jacket. Oh, yes, Alex is still wearing PJs two sizes to small but boy did mommy go all out on the Halloween costumes.

From 2009_10_31

No one else would let me take pictures of them, so I tried out my light inside on Evelyn. She sat still for precisely .73 seconds but oh, well. I tried.

From 2009_10_31

Which brings us to today!! Would you believe that my little boy actually ASKED me to go outside and take pictures of him. Really, no kidding!! Of course, I'm pretty sure that was only because he wanted to go outside and play and didn't want to go alone and has figured out how to manipulate me because he wasn't the most cooperative of models, but that's OK, I'll take what I can get.

Here we have Alexander in a pose of his own creation.

From 2009_11_08

And then I tried to get a cool, jumping-high-into-the-air-in-front-of-the-sunset pose, but it didn't work well. I fixed the lighting after this one but they all went downhill from here. I think we need to work with this kid on actually getting his feet off the ground.

From 2009_11_08

Thanks all and tune in next time (which hopefully will be in less than 6 weeks) for more exciting adventures in the Keyes household!

First snow

It snowed last night. Just an inch or two, but a herald of things to come. On the other hand, it's been hovering at or above the freezing mark last night and today so it was wet, slushy snow which we rarely get (most of our snow if more like fine sand). Alex has been sick so I wouldn't let him play in it, which was so sad for him and Allison was very disappointed when I told her it would probably be gone by the time she got home from school.

But it wasn't! Mostly gone, but enough left that she ran in, dropped her backpack and went back out to take advantage of it. She was so excited to have snow that actually "packed!"

She even managed to get two little snowmen out of it!


The best part, though was Evelyn standing on her little stool at the window watching the whole thing with a smile on her face.

Evelyn's gymnastics

I haven't been great at updating lately. I got my (four impacted) wisdom teeth out a week ago and it hasn't been the most pleasant experience of my life. So I've mostly been wallowing in self-pity. Today was nice, though. I had my post-op checkup and found out I had a dry socket, which doesn't sound great but means that he could pack it and now it doesn't hurt as much. So maybe I'll actually be able to sleep tonight.

My appointment was over at 10:30 which is the time that open gym starts at RRVG, so I took Evelyn over there to play. She had so much fun getting to play on the "big kid" equiptment, although I'm kind of wondering if it's going to make watching that much harder tomorrow. The first thing she did was head for the trampolines, but then I introduced her to the foam pit. Honestly, it was with some trepidation at first that I helped her down the slide and into the pit, thiking that she would panick admidst those huge cubes of foam and that I'd have to climb in somehow and rescue her. But it didn't happen. In fact, she spent the rest of the time in the foam pit, climbing over and around the cubes and only needing me to pull her all the way back out once she got to the edge. Silly girl.
 
 

Fruit picking

On Monday, we drove out to the house of a family in our ward. Peter is their home teacher and they had invited us to pick fruit on their land. The kids had so much fun. We picked apples, wild plums and chokecherries. They played with the kittens and ran around. It was almost like being transported to a different time... this old homestead out in the middle of the prairie and fields.

I need to give North Dakota more credit.