::more on sand::

Just a little more evidence of how tidy my little Sand is. I really hadn't noticed it until after the birthday cake.

Any moms out there ever given their kids these gross things?

(Can you see his worried look? He's afraid that I'm not going to actually give him the food, but just take pictures all night.)

These things are gross. I usually don't buy these types of things because they are expensive and he eats them so darn fast. But I was at Target today and feeling generous--or just overwhelmed by all the merchandise--and I got this tub. I was actually thinking it was the cheetos type things. Anyway, I got home and got them out and realized they were the gross huge wagon wheels.
Sandy didn't care though, he was ready for them.

"Give me the DARN FOOD!!"

I got these things for Max one time and that was the last. He made such a soggy slobbery slimy mess out of them. So I was rather dreading it tonight.

Here's Sandy post first wagon wheel.

Looks perfectly clean to me really. A little on the bib, but nothing else.

And 2nd wheel:




And there he is with the leftovers--at some point he decided the wheel was kind of gross on his own. He thought real dinner sounded better.

Anyway, such a funny boy. And the differences and similarities between the two brothers is hilarious to me.

::peas::

It's something special about peas. Whenever our Sand gets peas in his mouth--after the initial snarfing because of hunger--he spits.

And he spits, and he spits and spits. I'm usually covered with little spots and so is everything else.

He makes like he's hungry for a bite. Then comes the tricky part. Sometimes he is hungry enough to just swallow it. Other times he spits it at me right away. I'm never prepared and it's always startling, disgusting and funny--as long as he catches me on a day when I have my sense of humor intact.

He does think he's pretty funny.
Besides this evening, last time he did this we were out to eat. Luckily we were in an outdoor courtyard where it was loud, so hardly anybody noticed and nobody could complain. I was a little bummed though when I pulled my sunglasses out of a bag under the table and the lenses were all coated with peas.

Please note the concentration--the flexed muscles--the amazing embouchure. He's serious about his spitting exercises.
If only you could hear the sound effects. Maybe someday soon when you come and visit. I'll let YOU feed him the peas.

You won't be able to resist.

::dinner::

Having dinner with four more kids than normal is no easy task. Not that it's not fun--just a lot more complicated. Good thing there were four of us adults vs the six crazy kids.


(KC says "I don't want what I have, I want THAT one!")

Surprisingly enough all of us adults survived the kid craziness and had a really good time visiting.
And I love that the table is outside--makes cleanup so darn easy!


Love those darling babies!

::dinner & kris::

Kathy made us a delicious pizza a couple of nights ago. It had ricotta cheese, artichokes, tomatoes and some delicious shredded cheeses that I don't remember.

She even made me a couple of non-tomatoed pieces which I thought was so sweet.

Anyway I was trying to take a picture of the cute people at the table, and somebody was giving me some trouble. It's not necessarily the guy you'd expect.


He just refused to behave.


I do appreciate him setting such a good example for his crazy son, of course.

Oy.

::dinner::

We're trying to enjoy our last couple of weeks here. Enjoying moving preparations is never easy though, really.

The other day when Kris got home we decided to pick up a sandwich to eat in a local park area that's super pretty.
We're trying to soak in all the green, because I'm sure I'll miss it later. (But I'm not going to miss the humidity, I promise.)


We got a sandwich from Jersey Mike's. It's the local attempt at a sub shop. It's better than 99% of the sandwich places around. It's still a sad substitute for Planet Sub, or Sensuous sandwiches back in Provo. (Mmmm, now I'm getting hungry.)
But they do have big thin cut slices of dill pickle on the sandwich that are really tasty.


Kris was just glad to be done with another one of his (rather miserable) 11 hour work days.


Max was glad to be outside. And eating doritos.

But he was bummed because we said we were going to a park. But it wasn't exactly what he was hoping for in a park. He was looking for slides and fireman poles and that kind of thing. So in lieu of all that he decided to climb on the car and drive us nuts. And drive poor Sultan nuts who was stuck inside the car because we forgot his leash.

Can you see our new luggage carrier on top of the car? We're gearing up for the cross country haul!

Anyway, it was a nice evening outing. We're trying to have some fun and relaxation together in the midst of the chaos that is moving.

So far so good.

::thanksgiving report::

We had a peaceful low key Thanksgiving, just staying home together. It was really nice. We ate and relaxed and watched football and played games and sort of slept in.
We decided to just eat a few of our favorite dishes and try to make it simple.
Except cooking a turkey never is really simple. I don't think we needed to get a whole turkey, but we did. It turned out yummy which is a good thing because we're going to be eating it for a while.

I cooked a whole bunch the day before so that Thanksgiving itself could be a little more restful. The fridge was all full of yummy stuff waiting to be cooked.

Everything turned out really good except the rolls which I spent way too long making. They burned. Well the tops looked great, but the parts in the muffin tin all burned. That was a pretty big bummer.
But oh well. At least I had Kris get some frozen ones for a backup so we were ok.

We had turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, sweet potato casserole and rolls. I had corn too but I forgot to bring it out. Which was really ok considering how it was way too much food for us as it was.

I struggled with the gravy as usual, but it turned out pretty good. Not exactly how I wanted it but good enough. And seriously, any sort of gravy looks good in my favorite gravy boat ever (thanks Target!)


Max was pretty interested in how Kris was carving the turkey, and had some good questions.

He really wanted the wishbone, but we couldn't find it this year. He was pretty bummed about that. But that's how it goes sometimes. Besides, we make our own luck around here.

This is Max warming up for dinner by munching on a yucky plastic drumstick. Ick.


Happy Thanksgiving to all!
(and to Sultan)

::six::

Today after church we had six missionaries over for dinner. No, we didn't _eat_ the missionaries for dinner, unfortunately, we fed them. They ate a lot!
For some reason our ward has six elders right now. Two portuguese speaking and four english speaking. They're total goofballs. We had a lot of fun with them.

It stressed me out a little trying to figure out what to feed them all, and once I realized that today was fast sunday and they'd be breaking their fast at our house it was even worse. But we figured it out. There wasn't a bit of food left by the time they left, but I think they may have been full.

It was Max that had the best time though. He was playing with them non stop. Tickling, being tickled, playing games, teasing, yelling wiggling. You call it, they did it.

Magic tricks--making quarters disappear (down your sleeve.)

We took some photos so I could email them out to their moms. Max made sure he was front and center.

It was really fun to have them, makes me wish we could have Murphy and his companions come so we could feed them too!
Missionaries are so cute.

::randle family dinner part 2--rats::

After Max and Jennifer finished eating dinner, they headed off to play. Max's dinner consisted of about 100 pieces of pineapple and one slice of garlic bread. I don't care if he's picky as long as he eats fruit!

Max and Jennifer had a pretty good time together playing downstairs in the toy room. I'm sure they made a mess, but they were happy.

While they were off playing, cousin Cammon brought out his rats. He has two of them. I'm not sure what their names are or anything, but they're cute. I didn't think rats could be so cute, even pet rats!
One of them decided it likes my mom, and used her for a dining room table.



I didn't touch them because I was afraid I'm allergic to them--just like every other animal on the face of the planet! But I wanted to, because they were so cute and fuzzy.
Like this:

Then everybody sat around and told stories while the rats ate their fruit loops. It was pretty fun.





Not everybody's mom would be cool with a rat crawling all over them. But mine is, she's just cool like that.

And cute Sydney just watched and wondered at it all.
Then we got tired and went home. It was a fun night. I love seeing everybody, it's so nice.