::jedi battles::

We had a jedi assemblage in the music room before church this morning.



Kris helped Sandy make these great light sabers out of pool noodles as Christmas gifts for the family. We got the idea from some good friends.



The noodle light sabers are great because no matter how hard somebody hits you with one of those things, it never _really_ hurts.  So the kids can whack away at each other as much as they'd like and we know that everybody will survive.



The funniest thing is that Lucy knows exactly what to do in a battle, and she really gets into it.



But, of course, Sandy is the one that gets into it the most.  I think below he had disarmed Kris and was pretty proud of his setup.



"Come and get me!"



Lucy will attack Kris, and whack him a bunch of times.  Then when he whacks her, she drops her saber, screams and falls to the ground.  It's hilarious.



She's wearing her kitty jacket today--by special request because she wanted to say meow.









More battle scenes.  Lucy is in the midst of collapsing here.



And the dramatic demise.





And again later, dead.  Even more dramatic on the kitchen floor.





She knows she's funny.

::christmassy stuff::

This was such a busy month for me, and us.  We're lucky we even got decorations up at all, seriously.

But up they are, and we've been enjoying them.

These silly snowflakes all fell off the window on the first day and broke into pieces.  I had to glue all three of them back together.  After that not one of them fell off again. What the heck?



Lucy, dressed in an Anna nightgown, plays piano dangerously with Christmas in the backgroud.



Here's our "little" tree--the one I like to hang the assortment of family pictures on.  I love the big tree with the real ornaments, but I love the picture tree so much in it's own way.  It makes me smile every time I see one of my adorable babies dangling off a branch and swinging in the breeze.




Look at that fat little Sandy!  I love him so much!



And here's little pigtails girl playing with a roll of wrapping paper.  That's festive, right?



Lucy and I finally got around to reading some of our Christmas books, it was really quite an accomplishment, so I was proud of us.  Sandy came and joined us for a few more a little later on.

It's hard to fit the extra fun stuff in, but so worth it when we can.  Love those sweet little happy faces.

::bwawg-ghi::

"Mo bwawg-ghi!" "Mo bwawg-ghi!!!!" Says this face. What am I supposed to say to that? I try to make her brocolli for herself, and of course she's not interested in it at all. She only wants to eat the brocolli I've made for myself, out of my bowl with my own fork. Good thing she's so cute, of course she gets as much bwawg-ghi as she wants, whenever she wants.

::oh who are the people in your neighborhood::

 This guy lives at my house. He's a little moody, very intense and prone to temper tantrums. But he can be very nice too, as long as you stay on his good side.

 

 He's always offering to "complete my training" and to "join him." Not sure I think either of those things are a very good idea....

::wompa cave::

Same awesome day, big snowstorm, church cancelled.  Kris takes the boys down to the sports court and builds a Wampa Cave.   Sandy is thrilled but at one point he tells Kris he's disappointed that the cave is so small--"why can't I stand up in it?"  Kris has to clarify that this is New Mexico, not Hoth and we can only do so much.



I took this picture because it just illustrates our life right now so keenly.  Kris is trying to get Sandy's boot on.  More than half of the life forms in the house are all gathered in the same few square inches there and crowding in so that whatever it is the parent is trying to do is basically impossible.  I mean, did the dog really need to be involved?



She is the cutest thing I've ever seen in this suit.  And she loves it because when it goes on she knows that it's time to go play in the snow.  She's an adventure girl.



Look out Lucy, here comes the dog!  He might bump into you!
"Noooooo!  DAWG!!!!!"



And here of course I tried to make the kids pose.  Our stupid baseboard heaters are always ruining things for me, and this one in the dining room is no exception.  It's a spot where I actually have good light and a plain background, but of course a heater.  And the kids always try to sit on it when I want them to pose.  Not good for the photo or the heater.



And what is going on here?  We'll never know.  Something tasty maybe?



And after all that prep and a photo session out we went.  There was tons of snow and all the steps were really slippery.  Of course I was the only one who actually ended up slipping, but luckily I survived.



I remember how awesome big snowstorms were when we were kids--it just changes the whole landscape and demeanor of your familiar place and makes everything strange and fun to explore again.

Sandy was very proud of the cave, and the plan was to expand it a bit.



Lucy was just so psyched up to run around outside that she could hardly handle herself.



In goes the cave boy.



I had such a hard time getting him to pose for me.  I don't know why he doesn't understand how important my photojournalism is.





Then I tried to get Lucy in there too but she hated it so much.  She couldn't crawl very well because of her boots, and she couldn't really turn around or stand up because of her snow suit, so at one point she was just stuck halfway in and halfway out.
She, for one, was NOT impressed with the wampa cave.



And then the best thing ever happened.  Sandy was able to make his Luke action figure stick into the roof of the cave.  He was so delighted.



The boy has a good imagination.



We'll see how much more snow we get this winter, if the El Nino performs like it's supposed to there might be more caves in our future!

::cancelled::

We had a huge snow overnight and the next morning church was cancelled!  It was still snowing and snowing in the morning.  When it finally quit we were impressed by the volume of snow that we had gotten.
I think maybe church got cancelled once before in the time that we've lived here ,so that was pretty momentous.

"Sandy, put your bike away!!"

Our view from the house is always fun, but I think interesting weather just takes it to the next level.


Lucy spent the morning pretending to be a big girl with my shoes on and a "purse".  She was very proud of herself.



Make sure and notice the "Let it Go" leggings that she's wearing. They're definitely favorites.

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