Aviles Family: January 2011

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Thank You Grandma Marbles!

The boys got their Christmas box from Grandma Marbles (Jeff's mom) the other day and they were so excited!

They loved their blankets and the candy and gum.

They sleep with them every night! Thank you Grandma!

Mittens

This is the newest addition to our family. Her name is Mittens (She is a lot like the cat in Bolt.:))

She is a Schnoodle. I'm pretty sure she was abused and she is 100% lap dog. She is not happy or comfortable unless she is sitting on your lap. She is 5 years old and a couple weeks ago her owner died. She isn't the prettiest thing, but she is a sweetie.

This is how she looks at you most of the time. She is very timid and very shy. Poor ugly thing! :)

First Snow

We had our first snow experience a couple of weeks ago. The boys were soooo excited about it. It was my first experience of seeing it snow and it is very wet! The boys thought it would snow enough for them to make snowmen. They were disappointed. :(

It was a fun experience that honestly I am glad happens every once in awhile. I am learning that I never knew what it meant to be cold. And in a lot of ways I still don't! But it is much colder here then Southern California or even Arizona ever got and I am understanding why people prefer the warmth! I'm not totally converted to the summer, but I'm getting there. :)

Ethan's run in with a truck

Ethan ran into a truck. We were outside hanging out when I hear this SCREAM! A car had just passed and my heart dropped to the floor thinking someone got hit by a car. Well he did, it was just a parked car and Ethan was the one driving. :(

At first I didn't see anything because it was twilight outside, but when I brought him inside I saw the big scrape on his cheek where the monster truck he was pushing around jabbed him.

Unlike Andrew, he was proud of his black eye. My poor baby!

Nice Work

There was a snow storm coming and Jeff had promised to clean out the garage so I could park in it, but I was "bored" one Friday and I did it myself. I should have taken a before picture! Anyway, there is now a 20* difference between my car and the outside when I take kids to school. One day my car's temperature read 50* and it dropped to 32* before I even got to the school! (Which is not far, 1/2 mile maybe) So glad my hard work paid off. :) My back is still feeling it though. This is a new thing, does that mean I'm getting old? Wait...don't answer that!

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Thinking of Having Kids? Do this 11 step program first!

This is funny:

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

For anyone else reading this - I'm thrilled that you are all enjoying it, as I did - immensely. However, I DID NOT write it! It was sent in an email from a friend of mine... and I'm not sure who the original author is.

This is meant to be funny, not TOTALLY serious. Although sometimes this is how it feels! I saw it on Facebook, I can't take credit, but I wanted to share. :)- Memory

New Year's Eve 2010

My friend Megan was giving away free tickets to the zoo that needed to be used by the 31^st. Jeff happened to have that day off and I wanted to go to the zoo, but finances being what they are it wasn’t going to happen. So I was SO excited when I saw her post on Facebook!

It wasn’t terribly cold outside, but the later it got the colder it got and so all the animals were laying in whatever sunlight there was and in some cases that meant we couldn’t really see them. L

The Museum of Living Art was really cool, even if I don’t really care for all the insects and snakes and lizards that were in there. My boys loved it and that is what matters. J

I got a really cool picture of the penguins because he was right in front of me, with only a piece of glass separating us.

It was a great way to end the year with my family.

This elephant picked up this stick and stuck it into his chest and then just stood there moving back and forth. Not sure why, it must have felt good or something! The people coming up behind me thought someone had been mean to the elephant putting the stick there. Lol

Later that night we had a BBQ at a friend’s house and the next day we went to another friend’s house to watch Inception on their cool TV with surround sound. We let all 8 kids roam the house and occupy themselves while we were watching the movie. I was surprised the house wasn’t more thrashed!

It was a great time and I hope we all do that again! I hope that all of you who read this had a wonderful New Year! I hope all your resolutions get completed and that 2011 is a wonderful year for everyone!

Together Forever