Shadow...

We have finally recognized Shadow's true greatness.  At almost 13 years old (in April) we have finally accepted the fact that she is, indeed, the Queen of all she surveys. 
She is slowing down considerably this winter. She limps a lot and really spends most of the day sleeping on the futon or the couch, our bed, Nathaniel's bed or, if the blinds are open and the sun is shining in nice and warm, she'll lay in it on the floor. Sometimes we find her curled up in a chair at the dining room table - where the heat blows from the monitor - she's no dummy.
We have a trunk and a rubbermaid tote at the foot of our bed to help her get up and down - sometimes she uses them and sometimes she doesn't.
Not to mean that all she does is sleep and eat...she has her bouts of play - usually at midnight or 1 in the morning :)
Since we moved in August, she hasn't really tried to get out of the house...we'll see what she does come spring and it is warmer out and the snow & ice is all melted - that might change her mind...

This was in August before we moved out of our trailer. The fan would blow on her so she would lay right there in the boys' doorway.

 

With her youngest tormenter, I mean, subject.
Actually, Grace & Shadow have the most interesting relationship of all...Grace sometimes just doesn't want to get close to Shadow and doesn't like her claws, etc.

Probably because they both think they should be Queen...

She loves to spend the day very productively - ie...shed hair on the futon (I'm black, it's black, what are you complaining about) - which is where we sometimes can't find her because if she is curled up and her eyes are closed and the light is dim, well, you could sit on her (it has happened)...

Her throne - pillow in Brian's chair...don't mess with me.

The oldest subject showing the proper respect.

Joshua was home sick from school one day...and this is what I found...she loves laying right against your leg as you try to sleep (or right between your knees - plan on staying that way ALL NIGHT unless she decides she is going to move)

Nap time, again....

Being friends at the moment...I just realized that I don't have any recent pictures of her with Nathaniel...they get along quite well...his bed (well, besides mine & Brian's) is the only bed she'll sleep on...probably because it is nice and dark (bottom bunk) and quiet when he's at school. When we can't find her (and haven't sat on her on the futon), we look in there and see if any of his stuffed animals have glowing eyes.

Christmas morning...she's waiting for Joshua to open the gift he picked out for her (little mice filled with catnip...yeah, she was pleased)



She couldn't wait for them to get out of the package...she has disemboweled at least one of them, and removed the tails off of all of them.

She likes the balls too - I think she realized right then the potential these had for playtime at midnight.
 

You are dismissed...I need to get back to my important nap, peasants.




Some fun the last few weeks...

On January 29th, Joshua got to participate in the county wide 4-6th grade spelling bee.  It was held at COS.
He looked so handsome and even though he was nervous, did his very best and we were very proud of him.

The fifth grade gets to go to an outdoor school/camp in May. They earn money by selling tickets to a lasagna dinner in early February. 
Between the tickets sold prior to the dinner and at the door, as well as desserts sold and auctioned off, they made the $5,800 that they needed to go ot the camp.
Joshua worked so hard!!  He was great during the dinner serving, etc., but I was even more impressed come 6:30 p.m. when it was clean up time (and he hadn't been home since 7:40 that morning when he caught the bus)  and he was still going strong helping clear tables, fold up and put away tables and chairs, and doing whatever he could to help out.

One of the most exciting things about 1st grade - making rockets!!  Nathaniel made the coolest & tallest rocket - it ROCKED!!
He used water bottles, Lifewater bottles, a Powerade bottle (can you tell we'd had someone sick earlier in the week), Dad's Nexium bottles and Mom's potassium bottles (thank goodness for our prescriptions, right?) plus a cone for the top.
He had drawn a plan of it beforehand and colored each section how he wanted it painted and the teacher later spray painted it for him.

Tuesday morning, right before we were getting ready to head to Etna so I could help in Joshua's science lab this is what greeted me - Miss Grace in her baby stroller (her Christmas present from great-grandma Donna) - she looked so cute...then it was time to get out and she was STUCK!!  I told her she might have to wait until Daddy got home so he could get her out - that wasn't an idea that she thought was very good. She told me I'd just have to try and get her out...well, we did manage to get her out and she has decided that maybe that isn't the best place for her to sit and she'd leave it for Maggie (her favorite baby doll) and others.

Snow White - complete with tiara.  I can't remember what inspired her to but on her Snow White costume the other day - maybe she'd been watching Sofia the First again.
Anyway, she curtsied and was quite regal for awhile.

Merry Christmas 2012

A few weeks ago blogger told me I had no more space for pictures...even with deleting some from 2006...tried again today and it let me add this one and the one from the last post.
So we'll see how many it will let me do :)

 

 These are just some of the out takes of our photo shoot...such clowns!

 Christmas morning...someone is not wanting to be cooperative :)

Brothers...

We went down to Woodland this past weekend for Brian to work (his usual every other week trip) and for us to do a craft fair (with my parents). The craft fair wasn't the most successful (thank you pouring rain, vicious winds and people not wanting to buy anything), but we did sell some things. **Check out my craft blog for some things for sale - great Christmas gifts!!

While we were there, we stayed at Brian's brother and sister-in-law's.  The boys slept in their sleeping bags on the floor next to the bed we slept in with Grace. One of the nights, Brian was working, I was finishing up stuff for the craft fair and the boys were supposed to be asleep. Joshua was having a hard time, but finally fell asleep.  This is how I found him when I checked a while later.  I LOVE this picture. I told him it looks like he is protecting his little brother from something scary. He said that he did that so that he could sleep because he thought it would make him feel better and he figured Nathaniel wouldn't care.  I hope our boys always are friends.

Well, I will have to come back and upload the picture later...the blog says I'm out of photo space, so I'll have to go back over the past 6 (!) years and delete some pictures, I guess.  But Trust me, it's a great picture. :)

few fun things

A lot has gone in the past couple of weeks since my paternal grandfather passed away - but that is a post for another day - I'm not quite ready to do that one yet. So here are the kids and a few fun things from the past week or so.

Nathaniel and Grandpa Bruce (finally Grandpa was able to come to a Veteran's Day program at the school!  Joshua had been wanting that since we moved up here in 2008...and was sick and unable to go to school the day of the program - but Nathaniel was excited to have a Veteran there!)

Grace got her first reall haircut on Tuesday (as in by a professional, not Mommy)...bang trim and ends trimmed...and then she got her hair curled...she was so excited about it.  She then got to go spend a couple of hours at Grandma and Grandpa's and play with Geddy one last time before he had to go back to Utah - which she was thrilled about. She gave Geddy the flower (leftover from the flowers from her great-grandpa's funeral services over the weekend) and told me that she was going to give it to Ged, then he'd give it back to her and this was because she loved him and he loved her.  She then proceeded to have the whole conversation herself as we got ready to head to Etna that day.

She got a treat after her "short cut" (that is what she keeps telling us - that she went and got a short cut...and she didn't get much cut off - don't know where the short part is coming from :))

Yesterday was the school spelling bee for 4th and 5th graders. Last year Joshua, as a fourth grader, took 3rd. This year he achieved 1st place (he told me that it is his greatest achievement yet) and will go on to the county competition at C.O.S. at the end of January. He's got a lot of words to study :) He did a wonderful job...all the kids did. I never want the honor when I was in school and managed to make sure (though I spelled well) to not get into any of the competitions. Takes a lot of guts to get up in front of a lot of people and do this.

Halloween 2012

We had our own little Halloween party at home this year. There was one at church and the kids really wanted to go, but with Daddy being gone for school, and there being a large chance of rain (and it had rained all day pretty much) and mommy not having good night vision when driving, and Nathaniel has been sick, well, we stayed home. We trick-or-treated at Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma's house in Etna after school, and then went to Great Grandma's in Fort Jones and then handed out candy at home. We had a fun dinner, watched a couple of Halloween cartoons and went to bed too late - it will fun getting to the bus on time in the morning ;)

Smile? whatever...

The best we could get out of her...

Cute!!!

Yes, growing up is even evidenced in the choice of how to carve the pumpkin....craziness...

Cute smiles on both of them!

The one who did almost all the "gutting" of the pumpkins...yay dad!!

Cleaning it out...he did most of his own carving this year!

The little details...

Carving pumpkins

Halloween dinner - boo burgers, witch warts (Grace's sliced hot dog), mummy fingers (fries), giant's teeth (apple slices), dried flies (raisins) and foaming wizard potion (rainbow sherbert with orange fanta poured over it)....they boys were impressed - even more so when I told them it was all my own ideas, nothing from Pinterest!

Nathaniel's class party



Ninja's last Halloween parade...

Anakin Skywalker

Butterfly (like last year) she was supposed to be Snow White, but she informed me she's a butterfly...several times...can't aruge with that!
 

Now you can see the foaming wizard potion - and Grace got over some of her grumpies (napping from 4 to 6 isn't helpful)