Christmas Glory

Many preparations were made on Christmas Eve:
--Made reindeer dust
--Sprinkled reindeer dust in driveway.... the spin and sprinkle method was by far the favorite strategy
















--Sign made for Santa and cookies left out with 2 glasses of milk (one white, one chocolate, because Santa might be extra thirsty)
--Carrots left for the reindeer, because we can't forget about them (they get tired out flying all night!)


All of these steps certainly made an impression on Santa, because he bestowed ridiculous amounts of gifts upon the Rogers children. While Mitchell raced through and tore through each gift in like 10 seconds, Lucy stopped opening gifts to try on each new set of jammies she was gifted, to play with her new toys, or open Mama's presents. Mom and Dad just tried to keep up. You could feel the Christmas joy, much like you can smell the sugar in the air in a candy store. It was good.

Santa Claus

Thursday evening after dinner, we were downstairs watching TV when we heard bells jingling down the stairs. The boys ran to go find out what or who it was, and low and behold--SANTA himself was in our house! The boys were instantly glossy-eyed. Lucy watched from a distance, but started saying "ho, ho, ho" as she inched closer and closer. It turns out he was making some pre-Christmas visits to double check the wish lists and scope out the landing strip for his upcoming visit. WOW. What a special night!

Cookie Monsters!

The kids LOVED decorating the cookies, and sampling the frosting, and eating handfuls of sprinkles. The cookies turned out beautiful AND delicious. Owen made some fantastic multicolor stripes on his candy cane cookies.

Fort Rogers?

Our school was closed 3 days in a row due to snow and icy roads. Needless to say there was an abundance of the white stuff. For all you snow frolickers out there, check out this beautiful fort that Ken built "for the kids". Today he even cut stairs to the top floor. Between the slide and the plastic playhouse in front there is an entrance into the igloo-like underneath. SWEET! BTW, He even snow blows a path up and down the hill, "so the kids don't lose their boots up walking up the hill". Hmmmmmm. Whatever the thought behind it, it sure is FUN!




It was a little warmer today so Lucy and Owen and I went sledding again. YAY! Yesterday and today the kids and I also cut out and baked Christmas cookies. More fun to follow when we frost and decorate them for sure.

There's No Day Like a Snow Day

5:15 am--The phone rings.... YAY! Pam delivered the wonderful news of the SNOW DAY. It was a glorious day. We played downstairs, played outside twice, Ken spent much time with the snow blower, made a fort for the kids, and I baked. Unfortunately, Ken and I are coming to the realization that Owen likely chucked his dudes in the snow again!!!!! CURSES! Well...that is definitely a story that we don't like, but otherwise we had fun. Here they are.


More to follow on the developing Dudes story. :(


-----> THE DUDES HAVE BEEN FOUND!!!!! WHEEE!!!!! Thankfully, he had taken them off inside and stowed them away in an odd spot and didn't tell anyone/couldn't remember where he put them, and not chucked them in the snow like last year.

Post Thanksgiving Familiness and 30 years of Rainbow Belt Glory

While in the Chi-town area we got some time with the Hallowell side of the family for brunch.












Later that night the Baleiko cousins all met at Buco de Peppo's for a fantastic celebration of Amanda's 30th birthday. The evening was superb-- great food, great conversation, great people.

Good Food, Good Family, Good Times... Good Times.

The Turkey Smackdown report is all good! Lots of quality food and fun were had today. 2nd cousins enjoyed meeting each other and playing. The adults enjoyed far too much food.... but what can I say, Aunt Mary does it up right! :)

Owen's First Day!

YAY! The GSRP preschool program is finally up and running again. Last week Owen had orientation and came back ready to go--so ready he was mad when he didn't get to go to school Friday. So Monday came at long last and our little man headed off to school again with Mommy and Mitchell. He was very eager to use his new locker with the big green O on it. He went right in and had a great day! Ahhhhhh... such a relief. What a difference a year makes!

Birthday Bash, Tractor Tales

Owen finally got to celebrate that 4th Birthday of his, and boy was it fun! Glorious weather and good friends made his day. Among many gifts, he now has many more puppies to add to his collection. His bed now looks like a kennel. Here is a picture of him today, fashioning one of the bracelets (party favors) as a headband and holding his prized new Bakugan launcher.









And with the unusually warm weekend came a perfect chance to get wood cut, split, and hauled behind the house. Farmer Ray was kind to again allow us use of his tractor, and
the kids ~LOVED~ the rides.

Oh Man!

Aunt Ruthie, this post is for you.

First Annual Rogers' Pumpkin Launch

A new tradition has been born! It was relatively nice today--or at least dry--so we took the jack-o-lanterns and other pumpkins to the deck. With a good heave from Ken, they quickly met a smattering on the ground below while cheers rose from above.

Up... up.... up!




















Crash!

Trick or Treat: Version 2009

The cherubs were eager and excited as usual for the annual sugar celebration. It is still hard for me to get used to having trick-or-treating be a car-based activity, but the boys have it down. This was Lucy's first real go at it, and boy did she like it! She kept saying "more can-ny" as we went from house to house. They made out like bandits; you could see the sugar levels start glazing over their eyes as we progressed.

Falling Beauties

Today was glorious; It was one of those beautifully sunny, breezy, warm fall days. We spent lots of time outside this afternoon. Daddy and Papa Denny hauled wood under the close supervision of Owen and Mitchell. Lucy and I checked out the pumpkins, then helped finish up wood work. We did carve a few pumpkins--no, wait, check that--I carved two pumpkins. Mitchell helped scoop guts out of one itty bitty thing, Owen protested the texture of it all, and Lucy just wanted me to put the guts on her scooper without her actually putting her hand in the pumpkin. After like 2 eyes were carved, they all ditched me and the pumpkins for a trip on the tractor to get more wood. I have never heard of such a thing! Kids, not wanting to carve pumpkins!


After the wood was done, the boys did frolic (aka wrestle around like dogs) in the leaves. Lucy liked to carry handfuls of leaves around and throw them in the air.

H1N1 vs. Mesick

Oy.... What a whirlwind these last few weeks have been. Last week was unusually stressful at work, as I was notified that very soon (exactly TBA) I will be switching to teach Special Education students at least half of the day at school because of my previous training. Not ideal in timing or situation, but we will roll with it. My brain though, is having a virtual field day with stressing/wondering/ coordinating worry about all the unknowns in the upcoming switch. With that has come much less sleep than normal. Combine that with the influx of germs at school... you get the picture. Last week the absentee numbers in the district were up; up enough to have canceled school for Monday. I came down with whatever bug this is Saturday, and wound up calling in sick today. Apparently so did over 40% of the elementary school! There were only 9 of 24 students in my class today. The middle school and high school also had high numbers of sick kids, so they called off school for the rest of the week. Let's hope that allows me to recover more fully and help our kids avoid the bug.

All that being said, we had a brief stretch of dry weather today so the kids actually got outside for a bit.
Mitchell: reading nicely, doing well on spelling tests, and enjoying swimming lessons with Miss Mary. He will be a character from Star Wars: the Clone Wars for Halloween.

Owen: Also enjoying swimming lessons with Miss Mary, who is super neat and awesome according to Mr. Owen. He will be a ninja turtle for Halloween. He is also prepping for his upcoming puppy party for his 4th birthday.


Lucy: Favorite words/phrases lately--"by my self", "backwards" (as she walks backwards), and "trouble". She loves dragging chairs or the step stool around to get into whatever she wants. She is also able to reach things off of the counter.... hence, the aforementioned "trouble". She will be a monkey for Halloween.

Stomping through October

New boots arrived today. Kids promptly tried them on and kept them on, through dinner and right on until bedtime. Very funny. Humor is good after a week like ours. Long stories short: multiple kids out at school with swine/H1N1 flu so they shut us down for Monday to help people recover, and massive job changes for me lie ahead. More news to follow as I am informed and digest the information myself.

PS: As usual, the box that the boots arrived in was good for fun too!

Frankly Speaking

We had a blessing of Dad's headstone at the cemetery at 9:30 this morning. On the way there it was this glorious sunshine filtering in through the fog. And while very chilly, it was a truly beautiful morning, especially after having clouds and rain almost everyday for the last few weeks. We gathered around, and Father Joe as usual captured the sentiments perfectly, reminding us how truly lucky we were to have Dad in our lives, and how he still lives on in us today. Many thanks to the friends and family who shared in the ceremony with us today.

Monkey Business

Miss Lucy got to celebrate her birthday with a fun crowd Friday night. She got very excited when she saw all the gifts headed her way. She was WAY into opening presents, but still let her brothers get things started for her. Making things even more enjoyable was the fact that as she opened the numerous outfits adorned with monkeys, she ~insisted~ that she wear them at that very moment. Needless to say there were several wardrobe changes in the midst of the wrapping paper extravaganza. Likewise with the toys; she had to play with them right away. It was delightful.

^Outfit change #1 ^

The evening was capped off by Chinese food with the out of towners and an ice cream buffet, as requested by the birthday girl.

^ Outfit change #2 plus the toy ice cream set to complement her real ice cream desert.^

The boys loved getting to see all the family, but Uncle Matt and his fancy phone (with all the games on it) made a big hit.