2010

Have a safe holiday everyone.

We will be ringing in the new year with the kids and some packing. It is snowing outside right now so even more of a reason to stay in tonight. I was thinking today, about when I was a little person and 2010 seemed like a sci-fi dream. So far into the future. I thought I would be driving a flying car and wearing a cool space outfit like Jane Jetson. Instead I wear alot of sweatpants. I drink coffee from a cup and eat cereal from a bowl instead of a breakfast in a capsule. I am starting to think the Jetsons made more of an impression on me than I ever thought..Those darn after school cartoons.... Thanks for the letdown George Jetson. Maybe I will have a Rosie and that sub-compact space shuttle in 2050? I'll just have to wait and see.

Happy New Year to you all. I hope all your dreams and resolutions come true.

Here is last years post. So much changes in a year.

http://raylenebabbitt.blogspot.com/2008/12/happy-new-year.html

Wednesday

Evening Sunset
Playtime with Fieldin. Look at the boy toys.

Morning dance time.

Feeling A Bit Sentimental

While the kids took their afternoon rest time today, I sat and stared at our walls.

It made me well up a bit. I can count the number of days left in our house on my fingers. It will come and go so quickly. Shortly after we wave goodbye to the house, the new owners will be opening the front door to begin their own memories here. I wonder if they will love this house as much as we have? I wonder 20 years from now how many people will have owned this home.
We bought this house almost 8 years ago. It was shiny and new with asylum white walls throughout. It was a house waiting to become a home. We were excited. We painted walls first thing. The kitchen was bright orange, the bathroom light purple, quickly all the white walls were gone. We watched the yard get landscaped and cheered at our first blade of grass. We watched fireworks on the 4th of July from our back deck. We used the house as our guinea pig, learning to plumb, mess with electrical wires(and getting shocked..), sheetrocking and pruning roses.

So here we are 8 years, two kids, and a house of muted calm colors later (we changed the orange walls a few years back). We will miss it here but are happy for it's future owners. I know it will be a good little house for them just like it has been for us.

Ugly Clothes for Greta's Ugly Dolls

Somewhere between playing in Pixie Hollow and Fieldin's second mid-morning snack I found some time to sew up some clothes for Greta's two ugly dolls. She asked me to make them clothes for when they have to go outside. I had her pick out the fabric then I made quick patterns out of butcher paper and voila! Instant ugly clothes. The most fun was making the red polka-dotted hat for her doll with three brains. (see above)
She is very happy with their clothes and got them dressed for our morning errands and then they were changed out of their"outdoor clothes" for naptime.

These were quick and fun to make and were a good little creative break in my day. I found some thule in my fabric bin and I am sure these two dolls will have tutu's soon.

Sunday

Nightime Wrestle Time. They both love this.
Playing in mommy's boxes.
Taking Greta to "The princess and the frog". She wore a princess dress of course.
More packing.
No coffee today!!!
Now, the hills are alive with the sound of music...such a good movie.

Look Out Boxes

Today I switched my lever to "hard core packing mode". I was a machine. I got a lot boxed, shoved in bins and bubble wrapped and now I am very tired. I haven't had much time to pack, just found time on the occasional evening after the kids go to bed. The problem is then I have to be quiet. I am not quiet nor is my earthquake roaring, village crumbling, high pitched sounding tape gun. It of course wakes the children, a sound like that would wake anything. For that reason, I have been packing mostly downstairs, out of ear shot.
Deconstructing our house hasn't been that bad. It is the garage I worry about. Things falling from shelves, shoes to trip over, things with wheels. I have to protect myself just going out there for boxes. The thought of packing it up is a bit unnerving. I have a little over a week to get it done...and I will. I will sway around the house wearing my masking tape bracelet and my sharpie pen broach and before I know it, it will all be done. Just an update my friends, I'll keep you posted.

Greta Only Goes To Bed Early One Night A Year....

...and tonight is that night. She went to bed quite early tonight and told Jeff and I that we MUST get to bed early so Santa doesn't skip our house. We promised to get to bed soon and she dozed off to sleep quickly. We had a nice Christmas eve of watching the kids open gifts and enjoying our traditions.

Greta wrote some notes for Santa next to her "bribe". In case you can't read 4 year old, I will translate. "I was good, Greta" and "Fieldin was stinky". Both are very true.

The kids spent the evening tracking Santa on line, which has become a tradition in our home. Greta checked in OFTEN and kept shouting to us all that we need to get to bed...SOON. My favorites" We must get to bed, Santa is in Malaysia" and" He is at the Pacific Ocean (he wasn't) he's in the Pacific we're running out of time".
We loved watching the kids rip open gifts tonight. As for Jeff and I, we decided not to exchange gifts this year with each other. There is nothing that we needed or wanted. We feel very blessed and that is a far better gift than anything that could come in a box.
Merry Christmas Everyone. Much love to you all.

They Make Toys On Garnished Wages

Some of my favorite holiday lyrics.....Lets think of the Elves today.

I make toys, but I've got aspirations

Make some noise

Use your imagination

Girls and boys, before you wish for what you wish for

There's a list for who's been

Naughty or nice, but consider the price to an elf

You look at yourself

You're an elf

And the shelf is just filled with disappointing memories

Trends come and go, and your friends wanna know why you aren't just happy making crappy little gizmos

Every kid knows they'll just throw this stuff away

We're used to repetition, so we drew up a petition

We, the undersigned, feel undermined

Let's redefine "employment"

We know that we've got leverage, so we'll hand the fat man a beverage

And sit back while we attack the utter lack of our enjoyment

It may be tough to swallow, but our threats are far from hollow

He may thunder, but if he blunders, he may wonder where the toys went

-lyrics from BNL

I Only Eat Corndogs On Really Bad Days.

And it wasn't really that bad. I am speaking of the corndog, not today. Today kinda sucked. It was a corndog day and I have the slightly greasy fingers and thoughts of regret to prove it.
As much as I would like to tell you about my day I really can't. Not right now. But I am going to write it down and tell you about it at some point because it is a very good story. A story about adventures in home selling.......

Being the optimist I am, I can say there were still very good moments in my day. One of them was an impromptu pre-dinner (pre-corndog) game of pin the Santa hat on the Santa. I sketched out a quick Santa on butcher paper and was told he looked grumpy. I guess art reflects mood. I explained that it is getting very close to Christmas and Santa is probably feeling a bit stressed right about......now. (I'm with you big man). The game was a fun break. I pulled a big Santa hat over Gretas eyes so she couldn't cheat. Next, I hope to try "pin the red nose on rudolph". I am sure there's nothing like hearing the kids laugh at a red nose stuck to Rudolph's bum on Christmas Eve....oh the memories. Have a holly jolly evening everyone.

Monday

A few little joys from today....

• Watching Greta and Fieldin play Ring around the Rosie and watching them dance together.
• Singing Christmas songs with Greta at the supermarket and craft store and finding more people joined in on our singing then gave us annoyed looks....
• Finding two boxes of gifts at our front door. Thank you Kristy & Kim!
• Puddles to jump in.
• A nice phone call from afar.
• Lilies that opened and look lovely on the messy kitchen table.
• Scamming the last big bundle of bubble wrap on the store shelf.
• Buying Polar Express because Greta can't get enough of it.
• Fieldin playing in the shopping cart and making every passer by except a few grumpy ones laugh.
• Greta shopping in full out Disney princess attire.
• Knowing Keri will be here this evening.

Happy monday everyone. Four more days until Christmas......

Recital

Miss Greta had a great time at her recital. She loves any reason to dress up. You did a great job Greta we were so proud :)

Goodbye Pullman.

Alot of you already know this(Maybe the for sale sign in the front yard gave it away..) but after 8 years(not including college years) we will be saying farewell to the wheatfields. By mid-January we will be dropping down a state and turning in our Washingtonian membership cards. We are very happy and excited for our futures. I am keeping the name of our town out of the blog for privacy sake(friends and family of course will know where to find us). I can tell you we will be a short drive from the ocean, a major metro area and the mountains. We said we would never move unless we found an ideal location. This was ideal for us, and we are quite picky.

We will miss our friends and acquaintances that we have met in Pullman over the years. We will miss the Pullman Public library and City of Pullman staff, ferdinands, our little home, shortbread cookies at Green Frog, Dissmores, the sunsets and so many things. Luckily, like our belongings, we get to take the memories from Pullman with us. We will be a quick drive to cheer on the cougs when they visit Oregon. Only now we will be the ones taunted, hollered at and cheering for the team without the home court advantage.

We will still continue our blog and the name will stay the same. Since the wheatfields hold a special place in our hearts. Please come visit if you are ever heading our way. I don't really like to say goodbye. It's just until I see you next time, right?.....

In other news, Greta has her recital tomorrow. I will post some pics..

Saturday

Watching Greta as Cinderella dressed as a hula dancer while it was snowing outside practicing a dance for her daddy. Aloha Makuakane. She also says Merry Christmas in Hawaiian. Not bad for a 4 year old..
Mommy and Greta tea party by her favorite window. If you haven't noticed she is dressed like a princess all day, every day, except when she is a fairy....

Watching Greta and her friends practice at their dance rehearsal and trying to stop Fieldin from doing his "solos"...

Listening to Fieldin say new words "shoe" and "piggy". Saying "Hi Santa" while watching Rudolph on t.v. and hearing him begin to recite the alphabet. He's been saying part of the alphabet for a few weeks now, it goes like this. A,B,C,D, E, F, G, O, P. I love this. I hope to catch him on video sometime.

Happy Weekend Everyone. We have Snow, SNOW, Snow.

Santa Face Time

We spent last night at a holiday party and the kids were VERY excited to see Santa Claus. Santa Butch Cougar was also there. Fieldin called him "puppy".
Fieldin chatting with Santa. He loved Santa. Maybe because Santa has good fashion sense and was dressed just like him....

Greta giving Santa her very looong list. I know what he is thinking right now..."wow, kid.. you had better been good this year..this list is long"

The kids dancing, singing and grooving on the way to see Santa. A bit excited, yes...

You all still have time to get those lists to Santa.

Little Drummer Boy

This video starts a little slow but he gets into it quickly. I am glad you all liked the walking video :) I will have one of Miss Greta soon. She has a dance recital coming up in about a week.

Wanted to tell you a little about Fieldin at 14 mths:

He eats ALL day long. I am talking 2 hour marathon meals, He gets in our kitchen linen drawer and puts the oven mits on his hands and chases us around either roaring or making jaws type sounds"dah, dah, dah", He is happy, he loves shortbread and all types of beans, he sometimes has crazy Einstein hair, He can say "santa" and "ho, ho", He talks all day long, he says "see ya, bye bye" when Jeff goes to work, he is funny and makes people smile..just like his sister, he likes to wrestle other toddlers, he likes singing solos, he still loves to dance, he loves sneaking into Greta's room and wreaking HAVOC!, he says "hi" and waves to EVERYONE, everywhere, no surprise he is social...like Miss Greta(I'm seeing lots of similarities), he likes trucks and farm equipment, he loves messing with the t.v. especially when sister is watching something, he likes to color, Did I say he was always hungry...it's worth saying twice.

He Walks

1:00 ish p.m. Jeff was home for lunch. The baby took his first steps toward his daddy. He is fast. When he really gets going he walks sideways like a crab. He claps for himself and he is proud. I cried. I bawled when Greta took her first steps too. It's bittersweet. I am so proud but I also feel a little loss. When they take those first steps they are gaining a lifetime of independence and they are no longer babies. Fieldin, all three of us are so proud of you. We love you pudger.

Tonight I get to watch Fieldin walk around and wave and shout "bye" to Greta as she passes. What a wonderful thing to see while I wash dishes. Thanks to a good find by Jeff I am washing while listening to "A Christmas Carol", narrated by Orson Welles from his radio show broadcast. It is amazing. Those days of radio broadcasts cannot be beat. After this I am going to listen to Bing Crosby's WWII radio broadcasts and listen to one of my favorite songs, Snoqualimie Jo Jo.

Happy night everyone and Congratulations my sweet boy.

Singing at Dinner

Fieldin finishing the song. Santa Claus is Coming.....(Fieldins Part) To Town! The more he sings it the more clear it gets. It is pretty funny.

A Restful Weekend

We needed a low key weekend. We watched some Christmas movies, trimmed the tree and watched the Eugene Ballet Company perform the Nutcracker. Greta loves any reason to get dressed up and have "fancy" hair. She loved the nutcracker. My favorite part...while the mice faught the Nutcracker and soldiers, I heard Greta in her seat saying"those dirty rats.." She sounded like a cheeky mobster from the 20's...or maybe a cartoon character. Either way, it was very entertaining. Greta couldn't wait to see the Nutcracker. She wanted to watch him the WHOLE ballet. Nutcrackers happen to be one of her favorite things about Christmas, she even collects them.

Another Monday is on its way.Have a good one everyone.

The Contents Of My Purse

This was too good not to post...

Once upon a time I didn't use a purse. I just carried around my keys and a tiny wallet. Some of you may remember this....... At some point after Greta was born, I carried around a small purse that I crammed a bottle and a diaper in. I owned a diaper bag but left it in the car for emergencies. There was no way I was lugging a big bag around.

Now, I find myself carrying around a gynormous bag. It's big. These days I look like I am heading out to catch a plane instead of running errands. My purse looks like a carry on. A big purse is my equivalent to a mini van. I hear people say"I'll never be caught dead driving a mini van". Well, a Saturday morning spent at pee wee soccer will show you this isn't the case.. I said I would never have a big purse OR a mini van... We all see what my future holds don't we.

I blame the children for my big bag. I am always carrying their food, collected pamphlets, paint sample cards, garbage, business cards, rocks & leaves, snot rags....Instead of just confronting the truth and carrying a diaper bag like a sane person, I just got a bigger purse. Here is what I found in my purse today:

Anti- bac wipe container, Mickey mouse scarf, knit cap, keys/wallet/ 75 cents, receipts & a notebook..no pen though, I lost it, 2 grocery lists, 2 rubberbands(both pink)/Disney princess hair clip/bobby pin, one paper clip, 3 recipe cards, a coloring book and crayons(for emergencies), 1 clothespin(?), 2 punch cards (with hardly any punches..I forget), 1 coupon, 7 travel brochures, dental floss, a toddler granola bar, kleenex, 3 small containers of (probably stale) cheerios and crackers, neosporin spray, band aids ( reminder to self: need to restock), Elmo cell phone, 2(!) tubes of lotion.

Anyone want to share what's in your purse?

4:02 p.m.

I am hoping the baby keeps napping.
Greta is watching Cinderella while dressed as Sleeping Beauty.
I am worried my Cajun bean soup will not be ready by dinner time. The beans aren't even tender yet.....
Looking out the window to see EVERYTHING covered in frost.
Trying to remember if tonight is the night Santa makes his pre-Christmas visit to our street.
Right now I am glad it is Friday.

Happy evening everyone.

A Discovery

This morning Fieldin found his belly button. He pulled up his shirt, pointed at it and said
"oh noooo" in a worried tone. It was funny. Then he said "gwetah, gwetah". She is his big sister and the authority on all things. "It's o.k. pudger" she said. He still look confused. We told him it was his belly button and joked with him a little. It wasn't until he saw Greta's belly button that he was good again. He laughed hysterically. No more worries. Now he is pointing to his belly button and saying"beep beep". Another crisis solved by Dr. Gwetah.

Advent

Miss Greta has been waiting patiently for December to arrive. December 1st is when she gets to peel back the first window of the Advent Kalender to find a sweet treat. This morning she opened "#2" as she says and found a slip of paper for an advent gift. Christmas books for Miss Greta the bookworm and a coordinating cd of music for Fieldin our lover of music.

(opening an advent gift)
(Greta's nativity scene. She sets it up each day and sings to baby Jesus)

It's December 2nd and beginning to look alot like Christmas....

Two days down. Twenty three to go :)