Possibly I should clean my camera lens...

This is from a few weeks ago, most of the electrical upgrades are done now, but the kitchen was rather short on outlets so Vin (with a bit of outside help) added a few more. He also put in recessed lighting downstairs so we now have light in the basement TV area. Electrical work seems hard and scary to me, so it's pretty great in my books that Vin was able to do it (properly and safely).

This was how Atticus solved the problem of wanting to drum and play the sax at the same time, while also being mobile. He marched round the basement drumming on his head and playing his sax for the enjoyment of the rest of us.

Looks like a mugshot, 'cept for the goggles. Totally random picture, but he looked so funny wearing the goggles (he wouldn't tolerate them before) and I wanted to be sure to document it incase he was ant-goggle the next time I had my camera.

Every drummer needs to sit on something (and put on pants).

We bought a pantry a few weeks back and the kids were pretty certain Vin needed help in putting it together (and distributing parts all over the house).

Atticus was determined to do the hammering of the nails so Vin worked out a method so as not to get his fingers smashed.

He's a very focused hammerer-of-the-nails kind of kid.

Much like Odus, Dillon is always in search of new places to hide/play. And this one so happened to come equipped with great things to play with (pots and lids).

And, of course, anywhere that one is the other must be as well.

I let Atticus pick out a new toothbrush and it turned out that the one he chose (he chose Dillon's too) had a little battery in it. You push the button and the whole thing sort of vibrates. They love it. They are both so eager to brush their teeth and I'm wondering why I didn't buy this sooner.

I introduced Atti to 'floats' the other day. He was rather impressed with the fact that he got to have ice cream AND some pop (cranberry gingerale) all mixed together.

And then the next day when his cousin, Jared, was over for the afternoon he had his first cup of hot chocolate. Jared drank his entire cup with a teaspoon so we were pretty much there the whole afternoon waiting for him to finish. The hot chocolate was a big hit, and the marshmallows even bigger.

Since this picture we've had to cut out listening to music with headphones at bedtime. I found that he could go to bed and still be awake 3 hours later if he had the headphones on.

Last weekend I took my Red Cross CPR/First Aid/AED certification course. It was 20 hours spread over 1 evening and 2 days. I've wanted to take it for years now and the opportunity presented itself so Vin stayed home with the boys and I went to 'school'. While I was gone Vin decided to try his hand a baking cookies. Yes, these are cookies. If you look closely you'll see Christmas trees and gingerbread men.

Really, look very closely.

Very, very closely.

They didn't work out quite as planned, but he's presently fine-tuning his baking skills and promises to deliver individual cookies next time.

Annnnnd, the Elf on a Shelf made his appearance last week. I had it last year but thought Atticus was too young to understand what was going on so I saved it for this year. We read the story it came with and Atticus named him Alfred (wonder where and how he came up with that?), and now every morning Atti looks around the house to see where Alfred is hiding.

We finally got down to it and bought our REAL Christmas tree. I must say we got a great looking tree! It had been in the -30's at the time so it was nice to have an indoor place to go to to pick one out. Pretty sure the kids (and more so Vincent) wouldn't have done well if we'd have had to pick one out in the great outdoors.

An there it is. Too bad once we got it up I forgot to water it for an entire day.

The helpers are never far when there is a tool involved.

Atti actually got to screw something with a real screwdriver. I think it took him about 3 days to get that screw into the trunk.

Alfred watching from above on day 2. My plan was to document where he appeared each morning, but day 2 was as far as I got.

This is at Silas' dog obedience class. Due to childcare issues Atticus had to come with me. He wasn't nearly as cooperative as he appears to be. Atticus, that it, not Silas; Silas rocked the obedience class, Atticus had to be told 13 million times to sit down.

He was really enamored with the dog that was 1/2 the size of his cat.

That's the instructor in the blue shirt. She's alright, no Cesar Millan, but we'll certainly learn some stuff. The boxer on the right is 5 months old, and the chocolate lab near the door is 6 months old (that is one bendy lab!).

Not one to sit still for any length Atticus made it his job to construct a train out of the stools.

We had a water main break on Friday afternoon. By early the next morning they were hard at work bringing water and pure entertainment to us.

Thankfully it wasn't directly in front of our house, but still close enough that the boys could watch the digging and dumping from the warmth of our front window. We had water by Saturday afternoon and were once again able to flush the toilets without scooping water out of our 'reserves' in the bathtub.

I don't know what he's looking at, but he made this cookie tree at his Auntie Carrie's house earlier that day. He basically chewed all the candy and icing off and discarded the actual cookies that made up the structure of the tree.

Don't let him fool you; he's really just scraping the icing off with his teeth, not a bit of cookie passed his lips.

It's taken me all of 3 hours to get this blog up, which is why I don't do it very often. In between potty breaks, fights, tears, snotty noses, lost toys...it just takes so long. It's now almost 1pm and Atticus and I are still in our jammies (it seemed less important than blogging at the time, but then a box was delivered and I was so embarrassed to answer the door after noon time STILL in my jammies). We have a birthday party later on today so I better get us put together.

Merry Christmas to all of you.