Handel's Messiah

More pictures from the season, including Brian singing Handel's Messiah with the Chamber choir of Augustana Lutheran.

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Holiday Photos

Ok, I'm having too much fun with Smilebox!!

Make a Smilebox greeting

9News Fun!

Through our moms' group, Momslikeme.com, Babs and I were chosen to showcase some homemade holiday gifts on 9News at 4pm on December 9th. We were soooo nervous, but everyone was so nice at 9News that we were able to calm down. The segment was lots of fun!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Ouch!

What a week! I won't go into detail since, as Simon says, "I don't want to talk about it!", but let's just say Simon won't be jumping on any trampolines again anytime soon - if ever! :)




Thanks for all of the calls, cards, and goodies for gimpy. He's doing much, much better!

Yes We Can!

Change has come. Here's to a better future! God Bless America!

BOO!

We love this neighborhood! At 6pm, the streets are full of little trick or treaters. So much fun! Nina's bedtime is usually 6:30 and (surprise, surprise!) she decided against her naps yesterday. So she was extra tired, but hey, we can't miss Halloween. The plan was for her to be an eggplant, and we got (and still get) lots of use out of our adorable eggplant hat, but alas, mom was not organized enough to figure out the costume. Last week after Boo at the Zoo, Nina's Cha Cha dug up Kate's bumblebee costume and loaned it to Nina. It worked out great too because it kept her nice and warm. Simon decided against the white face make-up for this go-around so the brown eyeliner was all we needed.



In keeping with our Halloween tradition, we trick or treated with our friends down the street. The kids were giddy and hyper, even before the candy. Isn't that what Halloween's all about? But I think we adults have even more fun chatting with all of the neighbors and taunting and teasing those with the dreaded McCain/Palin signs, while cheering for those with Obama/Biden signs. J is a centipede below. How stinkin' cute is that idea?



This was Nina's and her BFFs first Halloween. They were both so thrilled, as you can see. :)



Now, prepare your eyes for what you are about to see. Mom and Dad went to a Halloween party in the Villages. A lot of people do some sort of "couple" costume so mom and dad decided to go as each other. Mom is wearing one of the meat department frocks from dad's job at the local Winn Dixie supermarket. Please note that she is also sporting not only a mustache, but also dad's legendary "serial killer" smile so often seen in most of our family photos. Dad is wearing a ladies golf skort, too much make-up for even the most beautiful drag queen, and some sort of breast enhancing device. He asked to wear some of mom's pantyhose as well, but mom got a little nervous about his total enthusiasm for the project and had to put her foot down.



Seriously, Dad does seem to be enjoying cross dressing just a tad too much, don't you think? And I'm betting that mom's golf stance is better than that. :)



Hope everyone had a great Halloween!!

Thank you!

Thank you to everyone who sponsored Simon for both the Run for the Lynx and the Jump Rope for Heart events! He did a great job and participated (once again) in honor of his Great Grandpa Klein. And yes, we do feed him. I can't help it. He is so dang skinny. I am trying to fatten him up the best I can.

So the answer to the previous post regarding what's different about Simon is that he FINALLY lost one of his two front teeth. Before that he had only lost his two bottom teeth. Well, Brian yanked on that top tooth until it finally came out. The one next to it is loose as well, and we have it partly out. Because is it only partly in still, it is being pushed out at an angle and it is seriously in the middle of his smile right now. You can't get much more hillbilly, believe me. Although, we think this may have helped Simon land a part in the school play this past week. His part, Tex Glitter, has a southern accent and is a hillbilly of sorts. The music teacher said his southern accent was hysterical and that with the teeth, he's the perfect Tex.

Remember when I said recently that Simon hasn't had any behavior issues this year? Well, scratch that! In his parent-teacher conference we've been informed that the reason that his grade is so poor in art is that instead of doing his work, he chooses to goof around and do his stand-up act. He knows his homeroom teacher won't stand for it, but the art teacher is a bit shy so of course, Simon took full advantage. His response when we told him that there is a time and a place to be funny, but it's not during art class? "I know, Mom, but it's my career!" Crazy kid.



He and Zach went trick or treating last weekend at a community center event. The clown costume is perfect for Simon. As Zach said, "Simon, you really are a clown!" Unfortunately, I didn't notice until I was doing his make-up that I had no red lipstick. I thought for sure I had an old Estee Lauder give-away or something. But no, I must have cleaned out the bathroom drawers. See what happens when I clean? I can't find things that I need. So instead, Simon the clown had a Raisenberry Brown mouth and a nose drawn on with black eye liner.

And Miss Thing continues to do what she wants when she wants. What a kid. The other day after a playdate I was working in my office when I heard a bang up against the kitchen island. She had pushed this walking toy from the TV over to the island. So I put her back on the carpet with it, and away she went. That kid is so strong willed! She is such a stinker - and we are loving every minute of it!! :)

Papa's back!

We love having Papa back from his conference in New Orleans. Anyone notice anything different about Simon? Besides the mask, I mean. :)

Four Generations

Well, my dear friend Janel has done it again. She traveled with us to Scottsbluff last weekend to take photos of Nina, me, my mom and my Grandma. It was so special to us, and to have Janel with us made it extra special. I'll post a few of our favorites below. Janel took a few posed shots, and then some candid shots of us just hanging out, listening to Grandma play the organ, and looking at scrapbooks together. Janel, we are so grateful to you! Thank you so much!!







My mom's brother was able to join us for a bit so it was great to have him there as we were looking through the scrapbooks. Everyone has their own "version" of what happened in their childhood. :)



Nina loved watching Great Grandma play the organ.



Can't ever hug her too much!



My dad's dad joined us for breakfast one morning and Janel got this shot of him with Nina in the Perkin's parking lot. So cute!

6 months

Well, I hate to sound like a broken record, but time is really flying by! Our sweet girl is 6 months old already. She passed her six month check-up with flying colors. Mom and Dad got a scolding from the doctor, though. Apparently a 6 month old baby who weighs 20 pounds does not need to nurse three times during the night. Who knew? We were instructed to "Let her cry!" Yikes! We were terrified. And what happened? She cried for a whole seven minutes. That's it. Seven minutes. Then slept on through. And has slept through since. Again, who knew? You would have thought we would know these things since we have had a baby before. But no. We are really clueless.

In the meantime, Miss Thing is gobbling up solids like she's training to enter pie eating contests:



She's crawling all over the place and getting into everything:



And hanging with her peeps:



Simon is a big second grader, and loving every minute of it. Not that he would admit to liking it, mind you. He's had a great start this year. No *ahem* "issues" like last year (remember the note from the teacher: Simon needs to save his stories for recess)? Yea, none of that so far. He tries to schedule his stand-up routine for lunch, and that seems to be working out well so far.

His school did a fun run to raise money for their sports programs. Did I mention that Brian is currently Simon's team's assistant flag football coach? Holla! Simon collected pledges and made it eight times around the loop. There was a bouncy house on each side of the loop that the kids had to run through. It was super fun, but it was HOT. Hello, people! It is almost October. Enough of the 90 degree weather already! I want crunchy leaves and soup!



After the run, Simon's class hosted their first Authors' Tea. The parents came, and the kids read their first written pieces. This month, fairy tales. Simon read his story nice and loud, with emotion and inflection. It was awesome! I was so stinkin' proud of that kid!



Here, in its entirety, and the original, is Simon's story:

The Shark Clue
By Simon Bernhard

Once upon a time there was a shark named prefeser mysterio. Every time his family thought something was wrong of cores he had to solve it. Most of the time it was just a knook on the door or the door bell. He knew it all the time. But sometimes there keys where stolen. If he could not find them in the house, he would look all over the neighborhood. He took training to look for clues. And so he knows how to do it now. Ok, not everything. So where were we. Oh yah. He hunted at dusk but the only thing he hunted was water dragons. He never got one. The End.

You may want to consider that for your next book club selection! Hope all are well! :)

Our Little Eggplant

Well, my friend Janel has done it again! Remember when she made Nina this adorable newborn hat seen below:



Well, now that her newborn hat is too small and safely tucked away in Nina's box of newborn keepsakes, Janel has made her an eggplant hat. How stinkin' cute is this? Janel, thank you SO SO much! We absolutely love it! Now, if I can just convince Simon to be parmesan cheese for Halloween so we can have Eggplant Parmesan! So far, no luck. He wants to be a vampire. But how cute would Eggplant Parmesan be? Thank you, Janel!!

Casa Bonita!!

All of you Colorado natives will appreciate this one. Just for fun tonight we decided to head over to Casa Bonita for dinner. See the big pink castle in the background? That's Casa Bonita. A legendary restaurant in the Denver area serving terrible food, but amazing fun. There are cliff divers and fire jugglers, cowboy and princess shows, puppet shows, a scary cave, Chiquita the angry gorilla, a Mariachi band, Mexican dancers, an arcade, etc. Kids LOVE it! When we were kids it was a huge thrill! Simon got to bring Zach at the last minute, and they had so much fun, although they did get pretty scared in the caves.

I *think* Nina enjoyed herself as well:



But let's be honest. Casa Bonita is fun for the kids, but the adults come for one reason. Unlimited piping hot sopaipillas:



In the arcade, Simon and Zach played enough games of skeeball to win two tubs of this incredibly exciting, well, goop. They loved it and had all sorts of fun molding it into a million different things on the way home. We had fun trying to pick it out of Simon's hair later. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Labor Day Fun

We had a nice relaxing labor day weekend. It's so great when Brian has a three day weekend. Now that summer is over, he doesn't have every other Friday off anymore. Bummer! We love those Fridays off. Above is a view of Simon I see quite frequently. His backside. While he plays the Wii. When Elaine and Co were here they got Simon the Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games game. It is very cool, and every stadium is decked out exactly like the Beijing stadiums. Very fun! Simon got to have his buddy Romeo over on Saturday for some Wii time and of course, to toss the football back and forth. Those two had a blast! Simon and Romeo went to school together when Simon was in Kindergarten, and it turns out that Romeo's mom is a scrapper, so hello! Instant friendship! She also is an amazing cook. I've recently ordered one dozen of her breakfast burritos and one dozen of her beef and bean burritos. Can't wait! In other news, I've rejoined Weight Watchers. Ha! Something's wrong with this picture! :)

Nina sits and watches her brother play the Wii. She is so excited to be able to sit up, and she is quite proud of herself!



On Sunday, I took the kids to the park. Nina and I go almost everyday. She loves that swing! Well, she mostly loves to chew on it, but she does enjoy swinging as well.



Simon spends most of his time at the park sending his wrestling action figures down the slide, but he'll occasionally take a break to practice jumping out of the swing.



What Brian did while we were at the park:



Now don't go throwing a pity party for Brian. Working in the yard for him is like scrapbooking for me. He loves to fiddle around in the yard. Did you not notice all the flowers around the bottom of the trees? Yes, those are his babies. :) More soon!