My husband's new career as a fortune cookies writer

Byron just emailed this to me and I'm posting it exactly as he emailed it.

"Frickin’ Chinese Fortune Cookie,,,,,



'An unexpected event will soon make your life more exciting.'



Uh,,,,we don’t need that. ;-) We need a healthy dose of expected and boring events…..



Byron"

Amen to that!! What a year!

Does it seem drafty in here?

Okay you can't really tell from the picture but those two black pieces on the porch are the cover to the grill. You may be wondering how the grill cover ended up in two pieces on our porch. Wild animal? Freak grill accident? No...it was the wind. The wind was so strong last night it ripped the grill cover in two. Seriously? Yes. It was SO COLD and windy here last night and this is our second of many casualties of the winter weather. It was -5 with a wind chill of -20 when Kendall went to the bus stop this morning. I spent 15 minutes layering her and still when the bus pulled up and she stepped out on the porch she looked back at me like "Are you kidding?" Sorry honey!

The Torch is Passed

The kids were "helping" me prepare dinner tonight and we let Grace in on the action. She's a natural chef. She is now our official stirrer. That used to be Kendall's position but she has moved up to pourer and measurer. Of course it took twice as long and just as much food ended up on the floor as in the bowl, but that is expected. Eventually Byron and I will achieve our dream of having the kids do all the chores while we sit back and relax. Ha, yeah right!

The Carrotonator

Well, the toothless wonder has decided to skip an important developmental milestone. For weeks I have been trying to get this child to eat baby food. She'll take a couple of bites and then be completely done with the whole experience. Out of frustration one night, I handed her a cracker to chew on while I finished dinner. When I looked over, she had eaten half of it. Oh I get it. We're skipping baby food. I started giving her soft table food and she loves it! What a strange child. No complaints here, it saves me a messy step.

Happy Birthday Grace!

Yes our little glow worm is 2 years old. She had a great birthday that included a Mickey Mouse toy that she is currently sleeping with because she wouldn't let it go. When Byron brought the cake home I said I thought it looked familiar. Byron thought we had got Kendall the same cake when she was 2. Then Kendall came in the kitchen and said, "Hey, that's the same cake Grace had last year!" Sure enough, I looked back through pictures and it is the same cake! Whoops! I guess I better check old pictures before I order cakes. The only bad thing that happened to Gracie today was she got a wet foot coming out of the store! The poor thing was following me in the parking lot because I was carrying Maddie. She was being SO good and doing exactly as I asked but she kept saying "shoe, shoe." I said, "Yes you have pretty shoes Grace." But the poor thing was trying to tell me her shoe had come off! Here she is walking in the cold parking lot holding her little shoe in her hand and she can't even get her mommy to listen to her!