Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Multi-purpose Room

This, ladies and gents, is what we call our "multi-purpose room."
Lovely, isn't it?  Don't get me wrong, I am so very thankful to have a roof over my head and shelter and a place to live.  But someday when I live in a house and I have a wee bit more space and maybe some separation, I want to remember the multi-purpose room.  It's just so fun; it sort of looks like somebody threw up in my house.  The fact that I have laundry out and it's just over all messy in this picture doesn't help... it's like those few extra bites that just sent you over the edge and then you threw it all up.  But you shouldn't have been eating furniture in the first place.

Our downstairs is a kitchen (which is closed off save a square-ish cut out over the sink), a half bath, some closets and then there is this one giant room, indeed the multi-purpose room.  It has our office (computer desk), Miles' office (the little table, drawers and chair for his homework and/or the projects he dreams up.  He was stoked when I bought him the table and named it his office.), Miles' toys/play space including Miles' hockey rink, our couch and TV, our dining table, AND I've set up a little spot to paint with the extra millimeter of space!  Honestly, it couldn't be more effective as a multi-purpose room.

Monday, January 20, 2014

Brain Full of Moth Balls

Miles is not a big TV and/or movie watcher.  He never asks to watch anything and if offered, 99% of the time he turns it down.  Dave, however, is a big fan of Pixar/animated films (he wants to be an animator and work for Pixar when he grows up.  Everyone thinks I'm an artist, but it's actually Dave.).  Over Thanksgiving break, we got all the Pixar movies in a collection and Dave pretty much had ants in his pants and would have had a marathon were it not for Miles complaining that the movies "distract" him.  At any rate, there were times Miles got sucked in.  Here he is, catching flies and filling his brain with moth balls:

One of a kind, that Miles.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Christmas

We upgraded our Christmas tree this year!  Miles really wanted a bigger tree so we went for it.  It was fun.

When we decorated the tree and Miles got to this ornament he said, "The best one of all."

This is the ornament Miles made at school.  I think it is so cute!  It came with this little poem:

"Five Little Snowmen all in a line,
They might look familiar because the handprint is mine.
Snowmen will melt 'cause they're just made of snow,
Cherish this handprint because I will grow!"

I'm so glad it's not some lame macaroni thing and it's something I actually want to keep!

Miles woke up at like 4am on Christmas morning crying and saying he was hot.  I was way out of it, but Dave said he was all sweaty, but his room was plenty cold.  Dave went and laid down with him and Miles fought off sleep until 7 at which time he announced to Dave that it was 7 because of the way the light looked coming in his window (we had to take out his clock because he's kind of an insomniac and always checking what time it is and stuff).  At that point, Dave was exhausted from laying by Miles and getting elbowed in the eye and watching him fight falling asleep.  Watching someone who is exhausted not allow themselves to fall asleep is so painful.  Anyway, at that point, Dave gave Miles the iPad and asked him to let us sleep a bit longer.  Good ol Miles kindly obliged and woke us up around 8:30, I think.  And, in true obedient Miles fashion, he didn't even go downstairs without us.  We didn't know it at the time, but his 4am episode was the start of his dirty, rotten illness that plagued the poor kid's Christmas vacation.  What a bummer.

At the end of Christmas Day I realized I hadn't taken a single picture so I snapped a few of Miles.




He asked Santa to bring him a Colorado Avalanche jersey and a Colorado Avalanche hat.  Santa was smart and brought him a t-shirt he can actually wear instead of a jersey.  He also brought him an NHL blanket that has all the teams logos.  Right away, Miles located the Avs logo and pointed out the Columbus Blue Jackets logo which was all covered by his shirt save maybe a half an inch of the bottom of it.  One of these days I need to get a video of Miles saying all the teams (he knows them all) and listing off some players he knows from each team.  It's crazy.

Like I said, Miles was sick:

Can you tell?

It really put a damper on the 5 year old magical-ness I was expecting.  Miles was so excited for Christmas and it was great leading up to it but then he didn't even have the energy to build his legos or be excited that he got them.  It was sad.  It was super duper, hugely and amazingly nice to have Dave around, even though he had to work a bit every single day he was off, including Christmas (livin' the dream).  We took it way easy because Miles was Mr. Feverpants for 5 days.  I think we all would have dreamed it up different, but ain't that just life?  We are all better now and hopefully next Christmas will be more healthy.

Thursday, January 16, 2014

Christmas Eve

 On Christmas Eve we went to look at some lights before we read scriptures and talked about the true meaning of Christmas.  I can handle Christmas Day all by our lonesome, but Christmas Eve felt a little lonely and lacking.  Lived to tell about it, though.

There are some pretty sweet light jobs in the swanky neighborhoods of Houston.  We've pretty much created a DAM tradition where whenever we are out and about-- whether it be on a drive specifically to see Christmas lights or coming home from the store-- we all yell, quite loudly, "CHRISTMAS LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHTS!" whenever we see them.  It sounds obnoxious, but it's really quite fun/funny and it's totally a DAM thing.  Go DAM!  I love my family.



 Grr.  Apparently, anyway.  Remember, this is why I have so many friends!









 One thing I've always enjoyed about Houston is the trees.  They are super cool and a lot of them were wrapped like mad with lights.






The pictures really don't do it justice, but it was so trippy/dizzying to look up into a bunch of strands hanging down from the trees.




Thursday, January 2, 2014

If it doesn't get all over the place...

Miles at his school class Christmas party:

Pretty sure he enjoyed himself.