Day #25-26: The Move

We are moving. Not too far away but far enough that we needed two days to do this thing. Thank heavens for good friends who help us out- if it were just D and I, it might never get done:)
I promise to post pictures of our new palace.
As soon as I get my mind put back together.

Enjoy the days off!

Day #24: Spiderman

This had been a whole year of Spiderman.
A YEAR. James has been referring to himself as 'Spiderman' for a whole year now.
oy.

Day #23: Awkward

You're all familiar with the website that specialized in awkward family pictures, right?

I love seeing those.

It makes me feel infinitely better about my family photos.

But I think this one could be labeled an awkward family photo.

I look manic. Oliver is CLEARLY not happy to be on my lap, Drue looks like he's nauseated. Or in pain. and James has that serial killer look.

'We are a ha-ppy fa-mi-ly'.

Day #22: Thankful turkey

Family Home Evening.

Or, as we lovingly referred to it when I was growing up, Family Fight Night.

I've heard of people who had wonderful FHE experiences, full of loving and insightful words of wisdom from the scriptures and parents, fun things to do that have been planned all week, a delicious treat baked with care by Mom that day, with nary a snarky word nor hurt feeling.

But then, how much fun would that be if that was the ONLY kind of FHE?!

Ours was a full-on brawl that opened and ended with prayer.

I jest.

Maybe.

Drue and I have been trying to get FHE to be interesting for our EXTREMELY demanding audience and difficult demographic: namely, male children aged 2.5 to 5.

But we have found something that really seems to work!

ART LESSONS!!!

That's right. Every monday night, we have a small lesson that focuses around drawing.

Monday's lesson was about gratitude (what else?!).

See how thankful we are:

Just in case you can't read our thankful-feathers, here's what we came up with:
Parks and Recreation (the activity and the show. I heart Ron Swanson)
Warm water
Good friends
Family
Fresh bread
Train tracks
Volcano
Sewing machine
House
Yoga
Spider (I'll let you know that I am NOT thankful for spider. James is)

Happy thanksgiving and may your FHE's always be merry and bright.

Day #21:Underwear

There comes a point in every boy's life when you just get to sit around in your underwear and watch a movie.

Today was that day.

you're welcome.

Day #20: Hide and Seek

We have been playing a LOT of hide and seek.

This is how we play.
James counts to ten: onnnne, twoooo, threeeee, fourfivesixseveneightnine, TEN!!! I have found his counting pace to speed up in a direct correlation to how fast the hider is removing from his sight.
He also counts with his eyes open. But we're working on that.

Once he has counted- quickly- he goes on a tip-toe tour of the house.

If you are not found just around the corner, he starts calling your name with increasing panic.
"mom? Mom? Mommm? MOM?! MOM!! MOMMMMMMYYYY!!!" It might be pathetic if it weren't so funny.
I know, I know- he's going to be in therapy because of me.

Here's how Oliver plays:
He starts counting and then HE goes and hides. When he gets done counting, and you're standing there looking confused, he POPS out of his hiding place with a big "Ifoundyou!!!" said with a binky clenched between teeth.

The proof is in the pudding.
I guess if I were as small as he is, I would totally claim a vacant bookshelf as a hiding place. He just looks so cozy!

Here's a video of this whole thing with me counting, James hiding (and I really didn't tell him where to hide- he figured that one out on his own), and Oliver giving him away.

All But Dissertation

All But Dissertation is the step before graduating with a phD or DMA.
It's affectionately known as ABD.

And I can now announce that Mr. Nels Drue Daily is officially ABD, University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

It's like being a dr. without the dr. part attached to your name.

I am so proud. We have been 'students' for 6.5 years. 6.5 years without a steady income. 6.5 years of stretching our budget as tight as possible. 6.5 years of hard work, multiple jobs split between the two of us, late nights and early mornings. 6.5 years of riding the bus to school and work- Drue really has done this. We do not have a second car so he has been riding his bike, walking, and riding the bus to school AND work for 6.5 years.

He has worked so hard. I do not say this glibly. Hard hard HARD.

And when he graduates in May, he will be the only person in his family with ALL 3 DEGREES, and be the only one with all 3 degrees from different universities, and and the only one without a single degree from BYU. (I'm referencing the one in Provo)
He'll also be the only one with a degree in something other than the hard sciences:)
I guess that makes us, like SUPER black sheep.


I'm not prone to boasting:). But this accomplishment I feel calls for a special blog post.

Congratulations hon!!! The light at the end of the tunnel is ALMOST HERE!

Feel free to add your congratulations in the comments:) I know he'd like to see them.

Day #19: Family pictures redux

My friend took family pictures for us this year. She was great- we were in and out of pictures in less than an hour! That's my kind of photo session!

James- 5 years old

                                                                  Oliver- 2.5 years old

                                                           Two boys: 37 years, cumulative

                                               The family: 67.5 years old, cumulative.
                                                           Almost 7 years old as a unit.

And I will expect a 'happy anniversary' from each and every one of you...... come April 29th.

Day #18: The difference apparent

This video clearly shows the difference in personality between my two boys.

Just seconds before I took this, both boys were laughing, jumping and being all-around cute.

Then I tried getting video.

Note to self: just sneak up on them doing funny things. NEVER let them know you're getting the camera.

If you surprise them, they will continue to be adorable.

If you clue them into your intentions, they will either freeze in the spotlight or go wild with performance.

But I got a couple cute stills of them.

Day #17: What I made

What do you get when you take one sleeping owl...

                                                     And one awake owl......

                                                      And put them together?...............

                         Well first, you get an accurate picture of what my bedroom looks like at 6:00 this morning. I am the awake owl. That would be because my devil charming children woke up WAAAAY too early this morning.
       You also get a preview for a friend's birthday present. I made these all by myself. Hand stitched, stuffed and loved. I think they are darling.
        What's that? You want one or two? Sure. They are a million dollars a piece. Just kidding. Only $200. Maybe that's a bit over-priced. But my sanity is worth at least that much.

Day #16: a little bit of trivia

When you see a cloud trail in the sky and you think it might be from an airplane or a rocket, you are automatically incorrect. James says it's from a shark- a cloud shark.
And he cannot ever be wrong.
Ever.

Cloud shark.

Day #15: The whole fam-damily

This summer we took a surprise trip to California. Like, a VERY surprise trip. We got the call on Sunday morning and left on Wednesday at 6am. It was a wonderful trip. We did some fantastic things with the whole family- Drue's whole family. One of the things we did was to have family pictures taken with the ENTIRE Daily family- all the cousins, families, children, grandkids. Organizationally, a nightmare- but the results were worth it.
Here's our family picture from the summertime

And the boys:

Day #14: Crazy Day

James had drug-free week at school last week. We had major drama about this, but I was able to catch him all dressed up for silly/clash clothes day.

He picked out everything. Even his hair do.

 But, after about 3 minutes of being dressed like this, he just couldn't take it anymore. He was NOT smiling about his hair. Note for future reference: Infusium B-23 negates super-hold hairspray.

We tried! I can see this half-smile being the bane of family pictures for years to come...

Day #13: oh boy.

This morning hit me right between the eyeballs.
And it also hit Drue, in the left eyeball.
To be a bit more specific, pink eye hit Drue in the left eyeball.

No pics. He looks like a zombie. That that's the nice way of putting it.

My day started at about 12:30am. That's when D woke up totally confused and VERY concerned about his eye. It's all goopy, it throbs, I can't find anything wrong in it, he says. I go back to sleep. I know, I'm a really concerned wife at 12:30am. Not.
I was awakened again at 2:00am- this time, it's James who has decided to be afraid of monsters and is once again sleeping on my bedroom floor. Okay, I think. At least Oliver isn't up too.
I thought so. I was wrong.
Ollie gets up because he can't find his binky. I throw myself out of bed to deal with this at 2:45am.
Back in bed. Try try try to get to sleep. Can't. You know what I'm talking about here- I've had to think for more than 2 minutes in the middle of a REM cycle, so now I'm up a creek without a paddle. Metaphorically speaking.

James is up at 4:30-he's had a bad dream on my bedroom floor. Oliver is talking in his sleep- I can't help but listen in. He's calling my name in his sleep. It's DARLING.
James is up at 6:15- he's cold and wants in the warm bed.
I'm finally wrenched out of bed at 6:45am (my normal wake-up call) by both boys.

Oy vey.

The morning is great, I'm trying to get ready to leave for the Y to teach my gymnastics classes, I wake up D and his eye is swollen, glued shut and he almost vomits. Yay for the morning! no y for me.
Spend the morning at the Dr.'s office where I talk the boys into playing hide-and-seek for 45 minutes.
It's been basically me and the boys ALL day. I usually get a break on saturdays. Not this one.

But the talk-about story tonight was sweet.
James told me a story about a Skeleton on October 31, 2-3000-and-11, that looks up and sees a planet with rings, and the sun and he wakes up and the end.

Oh, and it's daylight savings time tomorrow. Don't forget to set your clocks! I did mine at 8pm tonight:)

Day #12: Move it.

My boys think King Julius of Madagascar fame is The. Best. Character. Ever.
King of all movies.
Best.
Super-Julius.
Coolest Marsupial.
Above all others.
I apologize for the superfluous hyperbole, but they just love him.
They have learned how to "move it". You know what I'm talking about.

James is particularly good at this.
behold:

Day #11: Put me in the zoo

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a mommy who could read very fast. Her little boys loved to hear her read whole books in one breath and they would dance and run until, when she was finished, they would collapse into fits of giggles and laughter.

And now, the story comes to life:

Day #10: when your car gets sick

One day, while minding my own business, and parked very nicely at a stop light, I got rear-ended.
It thoroughly smashed in my trunk hatch, moved my bumper, destroyed the lights and knocked some internal things loose.
Suffice it to say, I was not pleased.
The only good thing about this whole debacle is that it was not my fault in the least. The other insurance company has taken good care of us, and I am thankful for that.
My car needed to get fixed ASAP on October 5th (date of the accident). Too bad it couldn't get fixed until October 31st! It may just be me, but I felt that was an unusually long time to wait until I could even take my car into the shop to get it fixed.

Halloween arrived (see my previous post) and the car went into the shop (almost) as planned. And I got this to drive:

It's a Mazda. I think that should be 'nuff said. But I'll elaborate. It's a Mazda POS 3.

Well, maybe that's not entirely correct.

It's not a total lemon.

Although, for the last couple of days it's been telling me that a tire has low pressure, but not which one so I can fix it!

jerk.

It's good points:

It can accelerate faster than my shaggin' wagon.

I think that's it.

It's not that I dislike Mazda cars.

I just really miss my Subaru.

Halloween 2011

See our bones? We need to eat more.

Oliver refused to put on his whole costume. He went out in his favorite footies- I had to BEG him to wear the shirt I made for him!

As you can see, D didn't have the time to get makeup on.

But James and I had a great time with face paint.

Oliver dictated his own- including the colors. I had nothing to do with that. He looks like a space clown.

Happy Halloween 2011!!