A letter

Dear Grandparents of my children,

I'm sorry I haven't kept my blog up to date. It seems like something has overtaken our lives, which I affectionately term "crazy-ness". I don't know where all the time is going, but every time I think I have a great idea for a post it ends up being a week later that I finally sit down to post it and, not surprisingly, I have forgotten what funny things I was going to write. Your grandchildren say the darnedest things sometimes, but do I ever take the time to write them down? The answer is a quick "No, but I wish I did." Jaycee told me this very morning that she hates any outfit that I choose for her. Getting ready for school seems to be such a chore for her. I tell her she has all the control for choosing her outfits. Then she chooses shorts. Then I tell her some of the control has been revoked, change again. Then she comes out in a skirt. Then I try putting stretch pants on underneath and she cries and says she hates it. It's been a rough battle with this one. She definitely has her own sense of what she wants to wear, and if I try suggesting something to wear, she simply chooses the exact opposite. On any given day, she will have changed outfits ten times (at least), and that doesn't include changing into pajamas. One of her favorite outfits is her underwear. That seems a little incompatible with the current season, but she is undeterred. Thankfully, we are able to convince her to get dressed when we go anywhere, but as I mentioned before, that is no small task. Luckily, all problems with clothes pushed aside, she is very patient when I try to do her hair. She usually likes to get her hair done, and I have fun coming up with cute new hairdos. I decided to take a picture of one of her recent hairdos. She didn't want me to take her picture, but you can tell she even thinks she looks stinkin' adorable.

Her hair is getting so long and beautiful.

This picture is posted especially for Grandpa Dixon. Rydge's "dork dot" takes me straight back to my childhood. I was around middle school age when my dad had something like this on his forehead. Funny story: We had a little basketball hoop that had a suction cup on the bottom so it would stick to a table. One day my dad decided that it would be funny to stick it to his forehead, and it stuck really good. He left it on for a while because we were all laughing at him, and when he took it off he had a silver-dollar-sized bruise right in the middle of his forehead. He was finishing his education degree at that time and had to go student-teaching to Box Elder schools with that on his forehead. I'm laughing even as I type. Anyway, Rydge's story isn't as funny, but it's worth telling. It was a beautiful day and we decided to go out in front of our house to play and run around. Rydge was so excited and he loves running away from me. I started chasing him and I could just see him getting so tense because of the excitement. He got so excited while trying to run that he forgot about his feet and smacked down onto the pavement. So sad.

You will love reading Rydge's latest stats (not much different than last time):
Weight: 20th percentile
Height: 50th percentile
Head circumference: 99th+ percentile (or off the charts)
That's right, this kid is a lollipop.
But we sure love that lollipop.

I am sorry to report that while we had a wonderful Halloween this year, it has been poorly documented. I forgot my camera when we went trick-or-treating at MCW to all of the offices. As a sidenote, that is the best trick-or-treating there is. It's inside, you don't have to walk from house to house, they have lots of candy, and they feed you dessert at the end. When we went trick-or-treating around our neighborhood, my camera decided not to work, and I could only get it to take a picture without it being focused. Here's our little Spiderman. His costume had a hat and glasses to go with it, but the hat was about 6 sizes too small, and he never wears anything like glasses unless he's trying Brad's glasses on.

This is a picture of Jaycee with some of our neighbors' kids. I don't know why Jaycee turned around.

You might be wondering why there is a long black leg covering the pumpkin on the left. Well, keep wondering.
Just kidding. Story is as follows: Lance had a great idea for his pumpkin this year and he got right to work chopping and carving away. His inspiration came from the barfing pumpkin, except his was a victim of gun violence. On one side of his pumpkin he shoved the end of one of Jaycee's toy guns and on the other side he cut a very large hole with the brains spilling out (dyed red for a real visual effect). He was so proud of his idea...until our landlord came by the next day and had a look of utter disgust on her face. About an hour later, our mailman came by looking at it the same way. Poor Lance's idea was not so cool anymore, and he immediately went and took the gun out. I guess it's not so funny in a place where there really is gun violence. I was going to take a picture of the pumpkins before we went trick-or-treating, but Lance didn't want the picture to be taken without the gun in his pumpkin. But he also wasn't willing to go inside and get it. So there you have it.

Here is a picture of our noisy little man. That's what he does whenever he wants something. Along with that look he gives a horribly loud EEEEEEHHHHHHHH!!! We are still working on communicating with words.

Here is a good picture of our pretty little Snow White (even if her hair is right in the middle of her face).
Look at all the cuteness you missed out on because you had to stay in Idaho and take care of your own lives. Too bad.

Well, it was fun giving you an update on our life here in Wisconsin. If you ever feel like taking a spur-of-the-moment car trip, I know of one that would take you about 20 hours, but we would sure make it worth it for you. If not, we are eagerly looking forward to the Christmas memories we will be able to make with you in the near future.

Love, Chemene.