Super Yuk!

School is closed AGAIN today, due to super-icy side streets. It's like a skating rink out there! Roofs are collapsing all over town, luckily ours has a steep pitch so we aren't in imminent danger of cave-in. Pia hasn't worked in weeks, poor thing (I'm sure she's missing her students like crazy ;-) The boys and I are hanging around the house relaxing. Maybe I will get some knitting done, if the boys let me (usually they insist I put the knitting down so they can sit on my lap. This phase probably won't last much longer, so I try to take all the snuggles I can get)

The 2008 Total!

I managed to complete a total of 41 knitting projects in 2008! Plus the t-shirt quilt! My grand total was assisted considerably by the Advent Tree ornaments, which are still not quite finished.

My fave? So hard! I love Mikey's dog sweater, Piggy and Munchy the pig and penguin ornaments, my various 'mystery' knitalongs, and the Beer Sweaters were all a lot of fun to do, and turned out well.

What's on the needles in '09? Lots of stuff! I'm trying to finish the ornaments so I can put them away, I still have 2 shawls to do (the Halloween Mystery Shawl and Mystic Something or Other), I have tons of socks I want to knit, and I am going to make the Great American Aran Afghan out of CASHMERE!!! Woot Woot that is going to be the most fab blanket EVER. Oh, and I want to knit some cute sweaters for the little girls I happen to know and love, plus the boys have a long list of items they need (starting with a boat! for Alex, that would be a life-size boat mind you). I am also planning to knit a couple of sweaters for ME, as I never seem to have anything warm and handy to toss on when I get chilly. It's either that or buy a 'slanket' (never). Plus I need mittens!

As you can see, there's no shortage of projects in the offing. Yay for snowy weather so I can stay in and knit!

YMCA

the boys and I spent the afternoon at the Y. It's a super nice facility and we had a lot of fun. We swam for about 2 hours (and Shamu the whale aka Lavs even got in the water and didn't cause a tidal wave). The slide there is a blast! The twins are very daring, they can go down 'criss cross applesauce', laying flat, head first, etc. RJ hasn't quite mustered up the courage yet, but soon. And Mikey & I went together --- once. That was enough for our little swimmer.

They also have a rad climbing wall. Try to imagine these are good pictures:

Mikey aka Spider baby! He was determined he was old enough to go. I think Mama had a minor coronary when I told her, but it's pretty safe (I think) He must have gone up at least 20 times. At the end, the nice guys who man the ropes were on a first-name basis with him, and told him "See ya, Mikey" when we left. Cute!

Liam venturing up the wall on the hard side.

Here's Alex climbing. Note that all the boys were wearing snow boots, so it's even more impressive that they were able to climb the wall. They are all strong! And pretty fearless, though there were a few little tears when they got 'stuck' way up high. RJ naturally chose any activity which was as far away from us as possible. So no pix of The Invisible Man.

And here's our baby once we got home. It's fun to go to the YMCA!

Let Me Clarify...

Lorraine and our boy Jon Helen ARE 'an item'!!! We love having Jon here, the boys think he is a combo God/Power Ranger/Kung Fu Master/Builder of Anything/Dump Run Guru, and of course teacher of every cool thing a boy ought to know.

Now we just have to find more stuff for him to remodel so we can keep him here 4ever!!!

Yeah, That's Just What I Think

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New Year's Eve Fun!

Steve and I met up with Lorraine, Jon (as Alex whispered to me: "Jon & Mama sitting in a tree!!!..."), and the boys at First Night for some NY Eve fun. Spokane puts on a great celebration downtown on NYE for the whole family. We somehow managed to miss the entire kids' arts/crafts/entertainment venue but still had a great time and found plenty of stuff to do:

RJ checking out the crazy lady knitting with giant needles.

Spokane has a fabulous carrousel, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2009. Of course, we had to take a ride. Liam and Alex were expert at snatching the rings! Alex rode with his light saber, never can tell when you might need to shout "Hi Yo, Silver!" and battle a bad guy when you are horseback riding.

The "Bubble Wrap Run" was our favorite. Great noise maker!

Jon and Mama enjoying the festivities.

Mikey with his light saber. He had to keep it out of Jon's clutches, or else he wasn't getting it back. We should have bought 5 of them!

Obi Wan Alex

The twins on the PF Chang's ginormous horse statue.

Our best New Year's Eve faces

Xmas 2008

Here are a few pix from our little Christmas Day celebration. The girls (Pia & Katie) came over and we exchanged gifts and had breakfast. We missed our VA-ers!!! The gifts given and received were perfect, Santa must have been listening this year.

I think Katie's favorite gift was the 'dog print' ornaments Cara sent from VA. They even had some authentic dirt and hair on them. Car said it took her about 10 tries to get Lois and Walt's paws immortalized. Good crafting, Car!

I went all "Martha" on the girls, and made them this basket using a favorite sweater of Pia's that had gotten felted in the washer. It turned out really cute! Then I loaded the sweater-basket with a lot of yarn so they'd have plenty of materials for winter knitting projects.

I knit Skyn a pair of fingerless gloves for snow-shoveling. Unfortch, I accidently made them both left handed, but he's so nice he didn't mention it. Or maybe he has two left hands? Kind of like Eugene Levy in "Best in Show"...

The girls feigning extreme excitement while opening their presents.

More excitement while cooking our breakfast.

Here's the cute new Santa they gave me. A fine addition to the collection!