How Did You Know?!

"HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?"

This is what Cole exclaimed at bedtime as I forced him to hand over the contraband candy he had hidden under the covers.

Here's how I knew:

1. He had a super guilty look on his face.
2. He had tried (and failed at) this before.
3. The crinkling sound the wrapper made as he moved it in the bed.

What I said:

"Mom's just know. Mom's always know."

Say My Name

A few weeks ago:

Tess: Your name is Maren. I like that name.
Me: Thank you!
Tess: I think I will call you Maren now.
Me: I don't think you will.
Tess: Okaaay....

Last week:

Tess: I think I will call you Maren now. Yes, I will.
Me: No, you will call me Mommy.
Tess: Okay then.

Today:

Tess: Sometimes I call Daddy Dad, and sometimes I call Mommy Mom. And I think I will call you Maren now.
Me: Nope. You will call me Mommy.
Tess: Maybe when I am 13 I will call you Maren.
Me: I don't think so.
Tess: Maybe when I am 21 I will call you Maren.
Me: I think you will still call me Mom.
Tess: But when will I call you Maren?
Me: Never. I will always be your Mom.
Tess: Fine.

Christmas 2016

So we had this deal with the kids that no one would get out of bed before 7am. So of course I heard footsteps outside my door at 5:30am.

I was able to ignore the noises until just before 6:30am, when Tess came up to my side of the bed and scared the bejeezus out of me. There was no way I was going to go back to sleep, so up I got!

I wasn't the best at taking pictures this year. It was just fun watching the kids open their gifts and be excited!

Here's Tess with her 20 pack of Shopkins. Woo-hoo!

We thought Josh would have an attitude and complain about all his gifts (as he has done in the past...) but he was actually pretty well behaved! Even grateful for some of his gifts! The only thing he was really jealous about was the Star Wars Can Cozy Cole got in his stocking. What the what? Who knew that would be so coveted?

This guy is getting hard to shop for. Too big for toys, too young for just clothes and stuff. But I think he was happy with the things he got.

Even Lance was well-behaved with his gifts! ;)

Lance and I splurged on Cole and bought him a telescope. He was... less than enthused. However, I'm not too worried. I know once we get a clear night and set it up, he's going to love it.

Spencer got a music stand, so now Tess won't have to hold his music when he records himself for saxophone tests!

I had originally planned for Santa to give each person their own case of soda. But then Tess found my secret hiding place in my closet. Dang it. So then I was just gonna wrap them up and put them under the tree. But nope, I totally forgot. So everyone got their soda at lunch that day.

Lance and I spent the morning cleaning up a little and hanging up this new thing in the laundry room. Woo-hoo! The old one I had would let the broom randomly slide out at times and freak me out when I was home alone.

We also got a Nest, which is SUPER COOL. Or at least, it was for the day we got to use it. (More on that later.)

We spent the rest of the day watching movies, lounging around, eating, napping, and playing. It was a great Christmas!

But the next day? The next day was not a great Christmas. Tess and Lance both woke up sick, so we couldn't go to church. And then I discovered the furnace had died. (Trust me, it's not the Nest - something with the ignition is dead.)

So once again we spent the day lounging, napping, watching movies, etc. Only this time I also had a pot of water simmering on the stove to keep up the humidity.

And the fireplace was on all day. Fortunately, it wasn't that cold outside, so we never got too chilly.

Today is the day after Christmas, but our regular HVAC guys are off. (If we really wanted to we could pay them time and a half to come out today. I did not really want to.) Dang it. Fortunately again, though, it's also 60 degrees today! It cools off quite a bit again tomorrow, but hopefully we'll get the furnace up and running before we freeze too much. It seems like we are constantly having things like this happen. I have no idea why. I promise we do regular maintenance and treat our appliances right. Growl. Hopefully it won't be too pricey, since we just had 2 birthdays, bought a new fridge and microwave, went on vacation for Thanksgiving, and had Christmas! I'm beginning to feel poor and picked on!

Christmas Eve 2016

Since Christmas was on a Sunday this year, we decided to celebrate a day early so presents and Santa and such wouldn't interfere with church. Because we are cool like that and because I totally know Santa and asked him to come a day early, and he agreed because, hey, one less house to visit on the actual night, right?

An actual conversation I had with Tess:

Tess: But how does Santa know to come early?
Me: Because I emailed him and asked him. And he said yes.
Tess: But how do you have his email address?
Me: All moms have Santa's email address. They get it when they have kids.

And that was that, because this was a totally reasonable and logical explanation to a 5 year old. (And her 7 year old brother, who was also there.)

So on the morning of our Christmas Eve I made my kids help pick up and clean the house, because in my mind the house should be clean and nice for a holiday. And I know the house is just gonna get thrashed over the few days after the holiday, but still. A clean home is not too much to ask.

Only, that's not how my kids felt. Much weeping and wailing and gnashing to teeth to be had over the simplest of chores. Actually, Spencer was great. No complaining and got his work done quickly and well. It was those other three. I was about to switch all the nametags on gifts and give them all to Spencer. Although I'm not sure how he'd feel about getting the Shopkins 20 pack...

Anyways, I finally got them to finish their work, which took far longer than it would have if I had just done it all on my own in the first place. Growl. Then I got to work on baking and cooking and whatnot. I put together a breakfast casserole for the next morning, as well as some orange rolls. Aren't they beautiful here? I par baked them, with the idea that I'd finish them up on Christmas morning, only they weren't as baked as I had thought and were deflated in the middle and not at all pretty. They tasted okay, but not as beautiful and fluffy as they should have been. Sad sad sad! I will just have to make some more this winter.

I also put together a deli tray to go along with our veggie tray. On Christmas day I don't cook, so this (and all the other Christmas goodies) is what we munched on most of the day.

This year I decided to make a Christmas Jello for my kids. Kids love layered Jello, right? It looked so awesome at first... and then it started to slide.

And slide....

And slide. Gosh dang it. (It tasted pretty good, though! And heaven help me, those are the only pictures I took for dinner. I made a lovely tri-tip, mashed potatoes, and yummy Roper rolls, but none of that was documented. (That's because we were too busy eating!)

After dinner Lance and I hid the kids' pajamas. We decided to make the hiding spots harder this year, so it took a bit longer than usual - much to their worry. Because, you know, we'd never tell them where we hid them. Even if it meant no new jammies for Christmas this year. That's just the kind of parents our kids think we are. Tess found hers first and was quite pleased.

Spencer was next.

Tess still likes the ribbon best.

A relieved Cole was third. (As per usual!)

A very distraught Josh was last. He was mad.

Then he opened up his jammies and scowled because he didn't like them. Then he FREAKED OUT about the pajama t-shirt because it was "too itchy". (It was not too itchy. He just needed to complain about something.)

And that's why we have zero pictures of the kids in front of the tree with their new jammies this year - Josh's whining and complaining. We decided to ignore him and start reading our Christmas story instead while he cried and complained in his room.

He eventually calmed down and came out. (Wearing a different shirt. The punk.) I'm not sure how, but Cole read the book this year. I bought the Little Golden Book version of The Night Before Christmas, and he did great with it!

Then it was time for our annual self-timed picture. This first one? Not that bad. (Although Tess wouldn't smile at all this year, the punk.)

Then we figured out that I didn't have to set the timer because I could turn on a setting that would take a picture when you said "cheese". Which was super convenient but also meant that a lot of pictures were taken because our kids could not stop yelling "cheese"!

I think this one turned out the best.

Finally it was time for Christmas Even Bingo! Woo-hoo!

This guy was pretty upset when he wouldn't win. Because, you know, Bingo is all about the skill...

Cole is also a super intense Bingo player. He really liked being the caller.

Tess was the first to win; she chose that blue cup from the fabulous Dollar Store prizes.

I made the mistake of choosing this gun as my prize, having no idea it was coveted by all the boys. Oops.

It was a good evening. Everyone had their moments, but for the most part I think everyone also had fun. We all went to bed excited for Santa and the next morning!

Merry Christmas From the Madsens!

Happy 13th Birthday, Spencer!

It's finally happened - we have a teenager in the house.

How in the world?!? One minute he's streaking through the house in a saggy diaper, the next he's almost as tall as I am and making me mistake his voice for Lance's.

Turning 39 didn't make me feel old. This does.

Because I am a sucker, both for my children and for Mary Lou doughnuts, I got up early Thursday morning and braved the bitter cold for these bad boys. (And by bitter I mean literally colder than temps on the planet Mars. Like -20 cold.)

Tess asked why Spencer got the number 13 everywhere. I said it's because he's now a teenager and deserved something fancy. She was satisfied with this off-the-cuff answer. (The real answer? Because I randomly thought of it the day before.)

Time for the traditional birthday candle at breakfast! (He's looking at Josh, who woke up early because he was cold. It's his own fault that he was cold, but that's whole other post.)

Yep. Looks 13 to me!

Despite some lost binder drama that afternoon (Oooh boy, the teenage drama! Which is only slightly better than teenage angst. Can't wait for that to happen.) we enjoyed an evening eating at Cheddar's.  After dinner we came home to open presents. (But no cake - Spencer wanted to save it for the next day.)

I love this picture. I mean, Spencer was happy to get a new tie, but not as happy as he's pretending to be. Despite this, Josh's jealousy had already started to grow. (Seriously, any other time and that 10 year old of mine would not care about a new necktie. Sheesh.)

Spencer adopts this "I really am excited but don't want to show it so I'll exaggerate my excitedness to show how cool I am" kind of face. It's rather charming.

An IQ game...

... and a soduko ball from the Grandparents Roper.

Next it was time for the big gift. (I was really excited about this gift!)

It took him a second to realize what it was. (Notice Josh's still happy face.)

Ta-da! Spencer gets a trip all by himself to visit Grandpa and Grandma Roper. Isn't that cool?! (I used an online template to make the ticket, which I thought was pretty clever.)

Spencer was really quite excited about this.

Josh, however, was so jealous he had to leave the table. In a huff, of course.

(This did not deter the happiness of the birthday boy!)

Sometimes it's hard to be the 2nd oldest.

When Tess realized she wasn't going, she got really, really sad.

Cole just asked when we were eating cake.

For his birthday Spencer decided he wanted to go see a movie with his good buddy Clayton. They had wanted to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, but the latest Star Wars movie came out on Spencer's birthday, pretty much knocking every other movie out of the theater. So Lance took Spencer and Clayton to see that instead.

But first, cake.

Spencer requested chocolate and peppermint.

*nom*nom*nom*

We sang a quick Happy Birthday to Spencer and then they were off to the movie.

We would have had cake when they came back, but it was sleeting and awful outside, so we decided we'd better get Clayton home sooner rather than later. Bummer. So now there's an untouched birthday cake in the kitchen - for another night! - and 4 sad kids. Fortunately for them they have a mother who is perfectly willing to allow them to have cake for breakfast. (But let's be real, here - I know they won't eat it. In their minds: Doughnuts = acceptable breakfast, cake = unacceptable.)

Spencer has really grown up over the past year. He's matured quite a bit. He's more responsible and generally willing to do as he's asked. He's always willing to serve, especially for church, which makes me so happy! He's still really great at playing with little kids, and is even nice to his siblings... most of the time... depending on the day... and the time. (Hey, no one's perfect.) He still likes to stay up late reading and goofing around on his Kindle. And he LOVES computers. He likes to watch the news with me in the mornings and listen to me grumble about the state of national politics and the decrepit GOP. He's more patient and understands a bit more about life in general. 

In other words, he's growing up. Having a teenager is gonna be... interesting... but I suspect (and hope!) that with Spencer it will be an enjoyable experience.