Total Blackmail

Today I decided it was time to sort out my pictures for 2009 and get them printed.I found this little gem that I am sure will come in handy in the future!
(In case you didn't know, that's Amelia in 3 pairs of pajamas and card board glasses that she made and decorated herself.)

The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 3)

< The Short Sale Shimmy (Part 2)

Good news! Both banks have verbally approved our purchase of the home. I'm not going to rejoice too much until we see something on paper, but unless someone's flaming trousers are suspended from a telecommunications cable, we are going to own this house. Huzzah!

Christmas Greetings!

I remembered how well things went when I tried to take a nice picture of the kids for a Christmas card, so this year, I thought I'd get each one individually.

Merry Christmas, from the kiddodiddos to each one of you! We love and miss you!

Simon wanted to sing "go, go Joseph" because he made up his own words. Also because he was Joseph for the Joy School Christmas program and got confused on which biblical Joseph he was. He actually got the other Joy Schoolers to sing "Joseph, Joseph is it really you?" over and over during rehearsals. Maybe next year he'll get it sorted out.

What you see here is take 18 and that's as close as it got. When we were done, she shook her head and said "I tried my best." I think she improved it.

The videos turned out cute, so I thought I'd try all the kids together. Here's what happened, the kids insisted I put this one on too :

Yep. That's Simon punching Jonny in the face because he started saying "cheese" before he was ready.

Long live the king!

Last week, we had an ultrasound to check on the health of our new baby. The baby is healthy, growing well and scheduled to be born in mid May. I am grateful for the news.
We did also happen to find out the gender of the baby and here's what our kids had guessed:
Simon: girl
Jonny: boy
Amelia: boy (but I really want it to be a girl)
James: boy
Jonny and Simon were at a friend's house during the ultrasound, so they didn't find out right away. When Gary and I picked them up, we talked about the baby for a little. Jonny said "if it's a boy, I will play with it and if it's a girl, I will take care of it" (actually he may have said that earlier in the day.) So when we told him the news, he was prepared to be happy either way.
In order to tell the big kids, Jonny and I made and frosted cupcakes for a special snack, with the frosting color being the clue as to which gender the baby is. He had fun with that, especially licking the knife when we were done.
The kids were a little late coming home from school, because the stopped to play on the way home from the stop. They were trying to chip off an icy patch on the side walk, but they only had pencils for tools. It took a while. When they came in, they took the cupcakes, but were more interested in telling me their adventures with the ice patch than anything else.
I told them, that their cupcakes were a clue to something Daddy and I learned today, and Amelia said "that's nice" and kept eatting. James got huge eyes, looked at his pink cupcake and announced "it's a girl." He was right and he kept munching. Amelia started screaming and jumping up and down excitedly. When she was done, Jonny said "I have more exciting news: we bought King Vitamin (breakfast cereal) at the store!" That cleared the table. Suddenly, all the boys were jumping up and down and screaming for love of the King and his crunchy goodness. Amelia was equally excited.

Here she is!

I liked this shot best because you could see the whole profile, including lips. And check out that arm... I think she'll give Popeye a run for his money!

The Future

Yesterday, I asked the kids to tell me 5 things they would like to do in the future. They didn't come up with 5, but here's what they said.
Here is what they said
James: don't know
Amelia: invent a time machine, learn a foreign language, invent a new kind of food
Jonny: be a turtle with weapons... and a blue mask
James: yeah- I'm with Amelia building a time machine. That would be cool.

Kid Speech

There are a few sounds Jonny hasn't figured out yet. /r/ mainly, but /ch/ and /sh/ also give him some trouble. Normally I think it's pretty cute, unless he's asking for Chex cereal at the store (you can use your imagination.) Today I had to grin when he asked me what a "wino" is. I had to stop myself before answering "It's looks like a hippo with a tusk on it's nose."

One I Haven't Heard Before

When you are big and fat like a termite mound, then the baby will be born!
- Jonny, age4

I am Thankful for Sharing

I thought my 300th post would be profound or thoughtful, but I guess that's not really the KiddoDiddo Way. Because Gary is blogging from the library and I am at home, it turns out that my 300th post is this:

I am thankful for children who are learning to share. After breakfast last week, I found Simon's pal Chicky's beak stuffed with Wheat Chex and raisins and I was glad that he was caring for his little friend.

PS The kids did get over the Swine Flu. Glad that's done!

Google StreetView at Hersheypark

The Google StreetView trike has photographed one of our favorite places: Hersheypark! Check it out!

A Few Photos

Here's a few photos of Gary and James in Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. They did a great job. Watching my sweethearts perform was a huge payoff for all of the nights away at rehearsals.
I didn't take these photos, I had Jonny and or Simon on my lap and couldn't do a camera too. Milan was kind enough to share the photos he took with the cast and I sorted through hundreds to find ones with my guys in them. Thanks for sharing!

Here's Gary popping out during the Jacob and Sons song that introduces all the brothers. He was Levi.

This is Gary whistling to start off There's One More Angel in Heaven. It has a western flavor. The guy who had the solo for this was really good, sorry no pictures of him, he's not in the family-diddo.
Here is poor Joseph, stuck in jail. The children's choir came and sang that song with him. They sounded really pretty. James is in the red, second from the middle on the left. Simon got really excited to see him on stage.

The children's choir sang to wrap up the intermission. It was a song called All God's Critters Have a Place in the Choir. It was really cute. James is in the red, to the right of center in the front row.
Gary was invited to be in the Horus Chorus and here he is, 6th if you are counting from the left. I don't think he prefered this costume, but he did sound nice in the group.

This is Those Canon Days, a comical French sounding song. Gary is all the way to the right. He had solos to start and end this song. He did great. The whole scene was very well done and was a reported crowd favorite.

The whole play was really well done. I am grateful they got the chance to explore their talents and try new things.

Oink! Oink!

Just found out we've got the Swine flu floating around the house. James had it last weekend. Jonny and Amelia came down with it this weekend. Poor Gary is out trying to get some Tamiflu, as he is coming down with it today. Me? I'm fine. I had my Swine Flu shot weeks ago, thanks to a my thoughtful obstetrician.
Lest you think I am uncaring, hogging all the vaccines for me, James came down with swine flu the very day he was scheduled to have the shot. Amelia got the shot, but got sick anyway (though she was only REALLY sick for 24 hours.) Jonny and Simon were to get the shot today. Simon got the shot, Jonny (already sick) got the nose culture to prove once and for all what has been knocking out our family one at at time.
Please keep our family in your prayers.

Green Thumb!

In Joy School, Jonathan planted some lettuce seeds in a cup. The lettuce has started to grow! It's hard to see the sprouts from these photos, but they're there. In the closeup photo, you can see one little white sprout.


Jonny wanted to give this plant to a cousin for Christmas. I told him that wouldn't work out since the plant would not survive being shipped that far. Instead of breaking down into a tantrum, he handled it like a big boy and resolved to give his plant to Mom instead. What a sweetie!

So much to say...

There is so much I can think of to write about that this in going to be really long winded and you really don't have to read it all. I'm afraid I might scare away the few people who read this blog (LOVE YOU!)

Gary and James are off at their first performance of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. I opted to take the kids next weekend to see it, in the afternoon, before they are tired, hungry or cranky (tall order I know, especially on the middle one) but I am kind of sad that I can't be there every time to see my sweethearts on the stage. They have worked like dogs on this show, trying new talents and skills. I hope they come home happy with their performances tonight.

Report cards came home this week, and Amelia's has a surprise inside- her teacher wrote her a note on hot pink paper "Amelia, you ROCK! Keep up the AWESOME work!" She brought home average marks and I am extremely pleased with her adjustment to the full school day.

James also brought home his report card and he was a bit surprised by some of his marks. It seems that his dislike for handwriting (and the resulting short words/partial sentence answers) have finally caught up with him. Don't get me wrong, he is extremely bright, he just hides it well when he writes. Hopefully, he will understand the importance of writing as well as he speaks. (He had a poetry assignment- one of those month long big project ones and it was like pulling teeth to get him to write down anything substantial. Finally, I had him explain each of his one word lines without writing it down, and he said amazing things. I said "did you hear that?! Write down the thing you just said!" As we talked through the assignment, it came together really well. He got great marks on it- I'll have to put some of it on here, when he brings it home.) I think that he sees written work as a way to fill a blank on a paper, not as a way to communicate ideas. Anyway, enough about that. He got great grades on math, social science, music and PE.

I am 13 weeks pregnant and happy to be pregnant. Around moving time, the baby was threatening to miscarry and that was an added stress. Things have settled down now I am hoping for an uneventful 14-40 weeks.

Had my second turn at hosting Joy School. I usually read the lesson plans the night before (I know, procrastination.) On Tuesday, I talked about the kids with a nature walk we would be doing on Thursday (it was in the lesson plan to inform the kids.) Wednesday night, I read Thursday's lesson plan it called for an 85 minute "nature walk" that was to include a petting zoo and a wienie roast. (By my definition, a nature walk means walking on a trail, looking at nature.) Now I KNOW Frying Pan Farm would have made a great location for this event. However, I was not going to pull it off at the last minute, in the middle of a rain storm. (not to mention, pregnancy has put me off hot dogs. Even the sight of someone eating them is enough to send me over the edge.) So, I set up a tent in the back yard and we observed nature through the little mesh windows and then roasted marshmallows over the George Foreman Grill- just FYI, it is not hot enough, even when set on high. That's okay though. The kids were really patient TRYING to roast their marshmallows and in the end, they ate them warm and tough.

Monday, an appraiser came to check out the house. This one represented the second lien holder on the house. The first appraisal (for the mortgage holder) went well and so they decided to go along with the sale, but the second lien holder must also be convinced before the deal can go through. Hopefully, we'll hear back good news in a few weeks.

I got asked to be the assistant wolf den leader and am excited about that- unfortunately, the scouts meet at night here and Gary will be out of town, unavailable to watch the smaller kids. I think I'll have to get another parent to fill in for me because the Amelia really feeds off the energy of the wolf den and it would be absolute chaos if she came along.

While we don't make a huge deal about Simon being lactose intolerant, he is starting to notice something is different. If there is cheese/milk in a dish, I usually prepare him a little bowl of the same food with soy equivalent. Sunday, I left a bowl of shredded cheese on the table untended, and when Gary came to finish setting things up for dinner, he found Simon there, munching on a huge pile of cheddar cheese. When he took it away, Simon protested "I want REAL cheese." We were hoping that the cheese wouldn't bother him and we could call off the whole "lactose intolerant" thing, unfortunately that was not the case.

Simon loves saying "poop" when it's his turn to say the prayer. He always finds a way to sneak it in. I like Jonny's prayers better- he says "we are thankful for tickles." Here's another story about Jonny, he asked if he could look at my piggy bank and I said sure. There is a Chuck E Cheese token and a penny in it and it's pretty sturdy, so I was not worried. Jonny has a Chuck E Cheese token too, that he likes to carry around, and I am always finding it places. So later in the day, when I found a Chuck E Cheese token, I gave it back to him and he said "Can I have the one back from your piggy bank then? I lost yours, so I put mine in there." I was surprised (and pleased) that he was willing to give up his own Chuck E Cheese token to fix his mistake, so I gave him mine too. Now I'll just have to take him there so he can use them.

Jimmy's third grade did a very patriotic Veteran's Day Program, all veterans were invited to attend and several showed up, in uniform. My favorite part was when they sang the military songs and had the veteran's stand as their song was sung. The kids really got into that and sang their hearts out. After that, they read each one's name and the kids brought them flags. My favorite part was when this very old marine gave the little girl a kiss on the cheek when she handed him the flag. I heard lots of moms say "how sweet." How sweet indeed and how grateful I am for the men and women who have fought to protect our freedom. Truly, they are our national treasure. Thank you to Pop and Cousin David and all you other veterans who have served our nation.

And now to reward you for making it to the end of my long and rambling post, here is a photo snapped of the kids playing in the autumn leaves. They really wanted an action shot, so everything is a little fuzzy, (except Jonny's widow's peak!)

And for those of you who are as sleepy as me (therefore- no filter on my brain: I'll probably wonder why I wrote all this in the morning) Here's a more restful pose, taken one night after the kids had fallen asleep.

Sweet dreams!

It would have been nice to know

I went a few places today- the doctor's office (heard the baby's heartbeat!), to eat lunch with Amelia and James at school- I figured they could use some cheer (different lunch sessions, so we had to go twice), dropping off James at play rehearsal.
SO WHY DIDN'T ANYONE TELL ME THAT SIMON HAD WRITTEN ALL OVER MY BUM WITH A BRIGHT MAGIC MARKER?!
Really, I'm surprised about 2 things:
1 That I didn't I notice when it happened. (I sure noticed the "art work" on the table this morning and confiscated the pens.)
2 My kids didn't take the opportunity to tease me about it. Were they being nice not to say anything, or did they just pass it off as a weird mom thing?

Throroughly Traumatized

Yesterday (or the day before) I noticed that James's fish was sideways and motionless on the bottom of the tank. I dropped in a piece of food and it swam (in an exhausted/only half of it moves kind of way) aiming for the food and gave up before reaching it's goal. I haven't seen it move since, and I have been checking. So tonight, I broke the news to James that his fish had been sick and died. There were tears and more tears by all, especially as we sang hymns and eulogized Skipper the fish. He was a good fish. When it was over, I explained that we must bury him (to much protestation- Can't we just pretend he's alive and leave him there? Do you remember what happened to the Jack O' Lantern?!) So we agreed that although we could not leave him in his tank, James could keep him in the freezer until he's ready to bury his pet.
I brought Skipper upstairs and offered to scoop him out, but James wanted to do that. So I gave him the spoon and prepared paper towels and baggies (to preserve the sanitation in my freezer- I hope) and as he scooped out the fish, it gave one half convulsion and the kids declared it a miracle. Skipper lives on, for a few hours or days I do not know. I just feel bad that the kids have longer to contemplate his demise.
*Update: Skipper gave up the ghost this morning, right after the kids left for school. I am not looking forward to this afternoon.

Happy Halloween

Could it be? Am I actually getting the Halloween post up in a timely manner? Here's a photo from trick or treat night:
I'd send a prize if any of you could guess what they are, but I really don't think you could. Amelia- Mulan, Simon- Spiderman, Jonny- "the red, bed ninja tiger" (but you can't tell because you can't see that he has red pants sticking out from the bottom of his too small costume) James- shadow ninja (but he lost his black gloves, so please tell him he is more scary without them.)



I'm including a couple of videos from James and Amelia's costume parade. It was really a book character parade (I found out the night before), where the children were supposed to dress as their favorite book character and carry a copy of the book. Amelia was Tinker Bell and James was Klaus Bo-da-lair from A Series of Unfortunate Events. (I really don't like that series- it annoys me. That's why I'm just guessing at the spelling of Klaus's last name.)





(I tried taking a still photo of Jonny's Joy School parade and learned my lesson.)

So here's a video of the class singing "the Mean Old Witch with a Hat" accompanied by the teacher.

Enjoy!



This morning, Simon woke up me and Gary with a request for help putting on a tiger costume. When Gary was finished putting it on him, he said "I should get candy in my tiger costume." Right idea, wrong day:)

The Next Kiddodiddo

I'm happy to announce that kiddo number 5 is on the way! The due date is in May. We do plan to find out "what it is" (gender) in a couple of months. We're pretty excited!

No Particular Theme

Amelia loves doing preschool for Jonny and Simon. She subjects them to it as often as she can. Sometimes it's a cute coloring page, sometimes it intense grilling on which day of the week it is. The best part (for me) is when she sends home a note: Please talk to Simon about his behavior at school.

James has "football class" for his siblings in the afternoon. He teaches them plays and they kick the ball and pass it and run around some. The best part (for me) is watching them huddle to get directions from the coach. I'll have to take a picture of that sometime.

Amelia has several hard of hearing students in her class at school and there is an ASL interpreter who attends each day to translate. Some of the kids have sign names and I think Amelia's is really funny: it's a sign language "A" rapidly tapping on the side of the throat, to indicate the amount of noise she makes with her voice. The name was given to her by the deaf kids and I think it's quite descriptive.

Some of you have asked how the move went- so far so good! We really like the new house and the space. It seems that everyone is more relaxed, with room to do their own things. The after dinner wrestling matches/crazy time has all but disappeared. (no I did not organize or sponsor that special time of day- it just happened night after night after night.) The kiddodiddos love playing in the backyard and being able to go outside when they choose. The jacuzzi is a huge hit, especially for FHE. The new school is excellent and James and Amelia are making friends. (We all miss our old friends though- if only we could kick the colds so we could visit!) Now if only we could schedule a closing on the house...

We're Even!

Jonny's long anticapted birthday has finally come and gone. He has been looking forward to his birthday since March. Over the weekend, we celebrated the "big 4" with our special guy. I realized that I did not blog about one birthday this year, so I thought I try to find pictures and catch up.

Here is James turning 8! This is not the cake that SOMEONE licked the frosting off of... this is the replacement.

Here is Amelia so excited to blow out the candles. Isn't she cute? (age 6)
Here's Simon, with his fancy cake plate. I chose this picture because he was extremely worried about the candles on his cake and didn't look happy in the rest of the photos. (age 2)

And finally, here's Jonathan, wearing a Ninja Turtle mask, blowing out the candle on his cake. (age 4)

(and while I'm digging through old photos, this is the first day of school, from LAST YEAR! Notice the extremely short bangs- I forget which of my little hair dressers did that. We have a lot of happy memories of that school year. Hopefully this year will be just as good. Sorry no pictures. I forgot to take them.)

The Sweetest Thing

Jonny and Simon make a great pair. I really enjoy their interactions when the biggers kids are away at school. Today they made up a new game to brighten my day. Basically, they jump off the stairs and race to kiss mom and then do it again. So while I was packing boxes, I was smothered in smooches by my cute little boys.