I kept thinking that I needed to post something and now here it is already past Christmas! We apologize for not posting for over a month, but here is some more info about what is going on in our lives.

Lydia got four teeth within a couple weeks of each other. She now has her own little toothbrush and Ben is jealous because it lights up. She is getting into everything! She crawls all over the place and has learned how to open cupboards and drawers, so she is always pinching her fingers in something. She is definitely a competitor for clumsiest kid ever. She always has a bump or bruise or small cut on her somewhere. Maybe she does it on purpose, though. She sure seems like that is her intent when she comes at you with that little head of hers. She is a world champ head-butter. She loves electronics and at this moment just turned on the camera all by herself. She knows just what button to push to make it turn on.

Ben is a close second in the clumsiest kid ever, but he is definitely the winner in the wimp contest. I don't want to sound mean, but that kid cries if he is tapped on the shoulder. Other than that, he is a good kid. He tries to take good care of his sister, but she doesn't always like the attention. He is a whiz at the computer and Wii. I am convinced his is going to be a computer programmer some day like his mom. He got lots of fun toys for Christmas, but he just wants to play with Lydia's toys. I think it is just because he doesn't have to go downstairs to get them. (Laaazzzyyy!) He also got a bunch of new pants and pajamas for Christmas because he is growning so fast. He is still a stick, but all of his pants and pajama bottoms were looking like capris.

Jared is doing about the same. He is still trying to get used to his four day work week. (Read the fridays entry, if you haven't yet. It is hilarious) He had some problems with pancreatitis if you didn't hear about that, but he is feeling ok now. Not quite back to normal, but better. He is also stressing about how much we spent this Christmas. We bought a new 52" lcd hd tv for our basement. We got a great deal on it, but the only way I could convince him to get it was to promise I would work more hours. So what am I doing this week? Oh, I am taking a vacation. :)

I just have to say that I deserve this time off. I have been working hard getting a major version of my company's product released (Tweak CMS - tweakcms.com), and fixing all of the bugs that we caused. ;) It is stable now and working pretty good so I decided to relax and enjoy my holiday. I also wanted to have plenty of time to visit with my sister Charese who is coming in town today. I haven't seen her for a couple of years and she is only going to be here a couple of days on her way to their new base in Washington state. Besides all of the stress of work, kids and the holidays causing a handful of migraines this month, I have been pretty good.

I think that is about it. Below are some pics of Christmas:

Santa came to visit a couple of days before Christmas
Ben was excited...

but Lydia wasn't. This is the only picture we got of her smiling, and I think she was only smiling because she got that candy cane.

Christmas Eve we went to my parents and performed the Nativity. Ben was a shepherd...

Lydia was the cutest Mary ever...

her cousin Eli was Joseph...

I was a wise woman...

And Jared was a very reluctant King Herod (or King Jared as we called him).

Christmas morning before we woke up the kiddies.





They were a little reluctant to get out of bed...
(Our video camera is broken, so we had to take them with our digital camera. These are not very high quality)

Lydia let us torture her at Grandma Price's house.

Sorry it has taken me so long to post these pictures, but here was our Halloween!

Some of my fam at the family Halloween party

Jared taking out his frustration on poor Big Bird, the pinata

My two cuties before going trick-or-treating


I went as the Wicked Witch of the Web


Our awesome house all lit up



Our three pumpkins. Can you guess which one is Jared's? Which one is mine? Which one is Ben's?

When the decision was made last summer to close my workplace on Fridays, the move was highly publicized. A lot of people know that my schedule was affected by the move, and so I am often asked the question: "what exactly do you do on Fridays?"

We made the decision at that time that Colleen would go into the office on Fridays, and stay at home the rest of the week. Ben and Lydia would no longer be dumped off at their poor grandmother's house during the week. Under this setup, Fridays were now my opportunity to spend quality time with the little rugrats.

On a recent Friday, I decided to take a few pictures to show people exactly what I do on Fridays (though many of the photos were taken by Ben). Perhaps this will save me the trouble of answering the same question over and over again.

Here's the short version:

8:45: Colleen heads out the door to go to work. She normally has Lydia up and fed by this time, and leaves her and Ben to play on the floor with an admonition to "be good for dada--he's had a long week, and this is the only day he can get some sleep"

8:48: I'm awakened by sounds coming from the adjoining bedroom, indicating the need for me to intervene. I find that Lydia is, of course, bullying Ben.



9:03: Breakfast is served. Today, Ben asks for cereal, with a side of chips and soda.

I have no idea why he's wearing that blue ring around his arm as he eats.



Lydia seems to have a thing for sour cream and onion.

I try to read as much of the newspaper as I can before Ben swallows all his food and starts talking again. Pretty normal news day: the stock market is slowly crashing so that nobody can ever retire again; Sarah Palin is being castigated by the media for making comments almost as stupid as those being made by Joe Biden, and the novelty of that $685 million Legacy Parkway seems to be wearing off, as everybody is going back to I-15.



9:15--Lydia and I are done eating chips, so it's time to get dressed. She seems to be taking her role as a diva seriously today.



9:38--Ben is finally done eating his breakfast, and so has dressed himself. And done his own hair. He didn't do too bad today, actually; he normally ends up in sweat pants--summer or winter--when he chooses his own outfit.



10:02--time to start laundry. I've got several loads to do today. Because Lydia does not like being left alone, I sometimes have to be creative to get her down the stairs with everything else I have to carry.





10:29--I tell Ben we need to go to the store, so he had better use the restroom before we go.

10:38--me: "Ben, are you done in there?" Ben: "NOT YET!"

10:43--me: "Ben, hurry up in there" Ben: "O-KAY!!!"

10:47--me: "BEN????" Ben:"and dada, go away"

11:15--we finally arrive at our friendly neighborhood grocery store. We have a lot of shopping to do: we need to make a soup for the Halloween party tomorrow with Colleen's family, we need more cereal, and I'm making dinner on Sunday for our anniversary (Colleen and I are both looking forward to a romantic dinner at home with just the four of us). The menu will consist of BBQ ribs, fresh pineapple, fresh baked rolls, potatoes and gravy, and double blueberry pie from Marie Callenders. This kind of meal would cost a fortune at a restaurant, but is relatively inexpensive when it come from Jared's kitchen.

Lydia seems to enjoy going grocery shopping...



as does Ben



11:40--all finished shopping, it's time to head out to the car, everything safely loaded onto the cart



11:55--Back at home, my strategy is to find a way to distract the oompa-loompas while I get all the groceries put away. This is easy with Ben, who is ready for lunch. He declines my offer of chicken nuggets in favor of cereal.



Lydia, however, doesn't seem to want any lunch. I allow her to play on the floor and hope she'll just stay out of the way.



However, Lydia seems to have other ideas:



Opening the refrigerator when a crawling munchkin is around is comparable to turning on your porch light when a moth is perched nearby. Both will become transfixed and make a beeline right toward the source of the light. They have no apparent plan or purpose, other than to flutter about and be a nuisance.

After extracting Lydia from the open refrigerator, and prying a bottle of soy sauce from her cold little hands, I head downstairs to put away the remainder of the groceries. Cake mixes and pasta noodles were had today for only .69 cents, so I stocked up a bit.



12:25--I want to put Lydia down for a nap, but I know she's not going to consent to that idea until she's had some lunch. Since she wasn't acting hungry before, I head to the cupboard and search for the most enticing, delicious looking vat of baby food I can find. The results: Gerber white turkey stew with rice



MMMM! Delicious. Lydia offers her compliments to the chef.



Pretty soon, I see that glazed look in her eyes that indicates she's ready for a nap:



12:45--time for cleanup. I find that the nifty hose in my kitchen sink works equally well for cleaning both the highchair tray and the baby:



1:00--with Lydia safely in bed, Ben and I head out into the yard to do manly stuff. First on the agenda: replace the leaky old hose faucet.



Not only is this going to be a functional and aesthetic upgrade, but it gives me a chance to use the nifty plumbing wrench I bought for $3 at the NPS Store.

1:15--Ben and I head into the back yard to take care of all the leaves that are falling off the trees. This is a chance for me to use my new favorite toy: my chipper shredder vac.



This thing is awesome. It vacuums up all the leafs, cuts them into little pieces, and stores them in a bag you can dump in your garden. It also shreds sticks and branches. These things are kind of pricey, but we bought ours lightly used off KSL.com, and got a great deal. Having 15 trees in our yard, it seems like a good investment.

1:20--I've checked the oil, filled it up with gas, connected the spark plug, and fired it up. I'm ready to quickly and efficiently take care of these pesky leaves.



1:22--Ben is jumping around like his Superman underpants are on fire. I turn off the Machine to ask him what's wrong:

Ben: "You're not s'posed to do that. You're s'posed to make a big big pile for me to jump in"
Me: sigh

1:26--the Machine is safely shut down and put away, and it's back to the old fashioned method



1:52--I've raked up enough leaves to make a pile that, I imagine, would seem pretty big if I was only three feet tall. I instruct Ben that he will jump in this pile, and he will like it

"Whatever," says Ben before his daring plunge





2:14--I head inside to check on Lydia. She's still sleeping, though I don't imagine she's real comfortable:



I'm hoping to quietly sneak out of the room, when I hear a little voice yell down the hall:

"and dada, is superbaby awake?"

She is now.





While the temptation obviously exists to leave her behind bars, I figure she'll be in a better mood now that she's had a nap.

2:23--You want to know a good way to help a baby wake up? Put her on the floor and let her chase after a robotic vacuum.



The IRobot Roomba is Coleen's favorite new toy. She scored it at the NPS Store at yet another bargain price. It might occasionally crash into a baby, but I don't feel too bad because it's her Fruit Loops it's vacumming up.



Despite his best attempts, Ben can't seem to come up with a solid argument for me to put this thing away in favor of a broom (sorry, I'm still bitter about the incident with the leaves).

2:43--while I'm vacuuming the living room, I head downstairs to attend to the laundry



"and dada, don't put the baby in the dishwasher," Ben points out.

I'm hoping to wash and fold all the laundry before Colleen gets home. Not only would it put me on her good list, but it gives me a chance to sit down for a while, and I have a basketball game I recorded that I'm itching to watch. This is the New Orleans Jazz vs the New York Knicks from February 25, 1977. Pistol Pete Maravich had 68 points in that game! (this was before the inception of the three-point line). Unfortunately, the clock was working against me by this point, and I never got around to folding.

2:54--While we're downstairs dealing with laundry, Ben asks if he can watch a movie. This sounds like a wonderful idea to me. "Which movie do you want to watch?" I ask. "Hmmm. Buzz Lightyear and Woody," he replies.

Never saw that one coming...



...since his Buzz and Woody toys have a semi-permanent place in our TV room.

I decide to leave Lydia downstairs with him, and see how long they can entertain each other. My guess of ten minutes proves to be pretty accurate.



3:09--While the kids are occupied for a few minutes, I set up to begin making that soup for the Halloween party. The potage of choice: crab chowder. I get all the essentials together: crockpot, dicer, santoku, laptop computer, cutting board, peeler, and a TV on the table.



While slicing and dicing, I flip between sports and the news. I haven't had much of an opportunity to read my newspaper today; for all I know, John McCain has succumbed to his age and gone to that big White House in the sky, and we're facing the prospect of President Palin (but wouldn't it be fun to have eight years of winking ;) through the State of the Union address? You betcha it would).

The chowder proves to be a difficult project, as Lydia has insisted on joining me in the kitchen and is continually tugging on my leg. I'll occasionally pick her up, but she seems to want to play with the sharp instruments on the table. Not a good arrangement. This goes on for what seems like forever, until...

4:34 pm--Colleen walks in the door. "Hi!," she says. "hehehehehehehehe," Lydia replies. "Here," I say, holding the baby out with one hand in Colleen's direction. I'm vividly aware that a person coming home from work might like a few minutes to change clothes and adjust to this other aspect of life; I'm also aware that this is the one day per week I have to return the favor to Colleen.

All in all, not a bad day. No major injuries, nobody was left at the grocery store, and I got a few things done around the house. I even have photographic evidence to prove it.