the rubik's cube

I'm sure that many people have different goals that they want to accomplish over breaks. Reading a book, getting ahead in some class work, relaxing, spending time with family and friends, cooking, cleaning etc. Not Drew, Drew's goals for the Christmas break was to solve a Rubik's cube. It took him about half a day, but now he's proficient at it. By proficient I mean it takes him about 7 min. to solve it. Now what's he going to do with the next two weeks? :) I guess work on solving it faster. Maybe he'll eventually be one of those guys you can pull up on the Internet who can solve it in 7 seconds....

On Friday we went out and did a little post Christmas shopping. I knew the kids were sleeping in the back seat because it was quiet. When we opened the door to get them out it was so cute. They were passed out, holding each others hands. It was really heartwarming. I wish I had the camera with me, it really was a "Kodak" moment. Molly and Gabe are so much fun. I'm not ready to add another baby to the mix anytime in the near future, but I'm excited about the idea of more kids. Sometimes I don't know my left from my right, but Molly and Gabe are great and always give me something to laugh and shake my head about.

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas!
I love Christmas, and the traditions that our family's starting. Last night we read about Christ's birth. Molly loves our nativity. We talked about the baby Jesus. She likes pointing to him. Then, this morning Drew made breakfast. After breakfast we opened presents. Last year Molly cried when we opened presents. Unbeknownst to us at the time, she had a double ear infection. She HATED the sound of the paper being opened. Liked the toys, hated the paper. This year it was the complete opposite. She was all about opening things. It was really cute watching the excitement. Gabe's favorite was playing with the discarded paper on the floor.


This is a picture of some of the kids playing at the Christmas party we went too. Molly was one of the loudest ones there. I know, I was shocked too. She loves the little boy on the couch. She went right up to him and gave him a hug. I've never seen her do that to anyone, besides our immediate family, without being prompted. Whenever he laughed she laughed. I think she's a little young to be checking out boys already.

Tea anyone? This tea set was a huge hit. Well not with everyone. Drew sat down to help Molly get dressed and had a nice wet spot on his bottom. Molly isn't the best pourer. Practice makes perfect, or so they say.

Molly guarding her presents from Gabe.

Who doesn't love makeup? Molly painted her whole face, with a lovely shade of blue and hot pink.

Quick trip

Drew had said that if the weather was good that we could go back to Illinois for a few days. It looked like we had a window on Friday. I80 would be clear. Then it was going to storm. I had come to the reality that we would be spending Drew's whole holiday in Lincoln. Then I got a call Wednesday morning... The weather is clear tonight, it's now or never. After some debate, the answer was now. I packed and we left when Drew was done with his last final. 4:20. The kids did SO well. I was so proud. They get a little slap happy when there tired. There was hysterical laughing for a little while. Molly was laughing at who knows what and Gabe was laughing at her. Then after a little bit of that, pure silence. I'm loving that bedtime is between 7 & 7:20. It was such a change from the drive over the summer. There weren't a gazillion stops. We made good time. We pulled into Midlothian at 12:30. We got to see some family and friends. It was rushed, but nice. (Sorry to everyone we missed, unfortunately that sorry goes out to a lot.) We headed home on Monday. The kids again amazed me and were great. On the way home it took a little longer. We hit a snow storm in Omaha. Luckily we live in a prairie state where it's always windy and there's nothing to block it. The snow and wind combination made the visibility horrible. At least Omaha is only 60 or so miles away. It didn't add too much extra time to the trip.

Molly was thrilled when she saw Aunt Julie's shoes.

Molly and Ethan playing the piano together. Molly's turning the page.

Gabe playing in the tunnel while I was packing.

Aren't there rules?

I would like to know how it went from 58 degrees on Saturday to 5 today. Poor Gabe. We had to go to the grocery store today, he cried when we were outside. He HATES the cold. He's truly a desert baby. Molly on the other hand was trying to catch her breathe. She was in awe. It's no wonder that they're sick all the time. The weather can't make up it's mind. What happened to gradually getting warm and cold? I guess I shouldn't complain too much, it is December 15th... Yuck is all I have to say about that.

I thought I'd include some pictures...
Gabe is getting so big. I can't believe that he's already 8 months. My baby isn't such a little baby anymore.

I thought this was a funny picture of Molly. It's her "yeah right" look.

Gabe loves the Christmas lights. He scoots under the tree and grabs the branches with his hands and feet. It's cute. He also loves to pull the tree skirt over his face. I haven't taken a picture of that. It freaks me out. He pulls everything over his face and then lays there motionless. When I pull the things off his face he just stares at me. It creeps me out. I'm so scared that he's going to suffocate. Needless to say there are never any blankets in Gabe's crib. He pulls the bumper off sometimes and drapes it over himself. I don't know what to do with him.

I think the last two pictures are so cute. They drive me crazy sometimes, but we really have a lot of fun together. I love Gabe's dimples and how happy Molly looks in the last picture.

Other news.

Drew was asked to teach his own class next semester. It's an algebra/trig class. If you ask Drew about it, he'll tell you that it's no big deal. But, I think it's a big deal. I'm proud of him and all the work that he does. I think it'll be a good experience. Even though I'm scared that we'll be seeing him less as his work load goes up... Only 41/2 years left, fingers crossed.

It's official

I'm one quarter of a century old...

(Doesn't Molly's hair look nice..?.. :))

I'm a nerd. I love kitchen appliances. I really wanted a nice waffle maker. Drew didn't disappoint, he even used it to make me waffles for breakfast. They were yummy. I had some obligations that filled up our morning. Drew got two of his fellow math grads to watch our kids for a few hours. Thanks Ashley and Megan! He took me to see Twilight. I liked the movie. I hope the cinematography gets better with the other movies. It felt a little soap opera-ish to me. Lots and lots of closeups. When we got home Drew made steaks for dinner. My favorite. Today was a great day. It was even perfect weather, 58 degrees. I don't remember a time, apart from living in Mesa, that I didn't need a jacket on my birthday.

Just a little past bedtime

Last night Uncle Rob was in town on some business. We met up for dinner. Then he came over for a little while. Gabe goes to bed between 7:30 and 7:40. Molly follows 10 min. later. When this video was taken it was about 8:20. You can do the math. Molly was getting pretty slap happy.

I always enjoy watching the transformation. When we first started dinner Molly would only stare at Rob. At the end of dinner I think she had given a few little grins. By the time we were back to our apartment he was her best friend. She wanted to sit on his lap and show him all of her favorite books. It's amazing to me how different Molly and Gabe's personalities are. Gabe is every ones friend right off the bat. Molly is so cautious. It takes her about 2 hours to warm up.

Thanks for making time to see us, Uncle Rob. We had a great time.

Tis the season

At least Drew and Santa were looking at the camera. As for Molly and Gabe what can be said... Molly was horrified the second she walked into the room. In response to Molly, Gabe wasn't comfortable with the situation either.

Last night was our ward's Christmas party. See picture above. We had a great time. There was a great turn out. I'm always a fan of a big pot luck. I might be small, but I can eat. I was hoping that Molly would have a better reaction to Santa than she did. Friday night was the math departments Christmas party. Santa made an appearance there as well. He came in and gave all the kids candy canes. Molly is a HUGE fan of mint. (She likes to sneak the tooth paste out of the bathroom.) As soon as she discovered what the candy cane tasted like all we heard the rest of the night was more...more...more. Apparently the first Santa didn't change her mind about the second. oh well.

The math departments Christmas party was a pot luck as well. There must be a significant amount of vegetarians in the department. I don't think I've ever seen that much tofu. Hmmm. I'm not sure how I feel about tofu. My cousins wife, Anamarie, would have tofu in a bunch of the Philippine dishes she would make. I never thought much about it. I think it has to be cooked a certain way. One of the things I tried on Friday tasted like it had little sponges in it, gross. After dinner there was a talent show. It was entertaining. Molly really liked a flute quartet and some guy who played the guitar. One guy did some stand up comedy. He told a bunch of math jokes. Ha Ha Ha. Some jokes throughout the night were really funny. Others were pretty lame. But that's what you get at a function full of perspective and post math PhD students. I told Drew that he should have played the piano. I think he has about 4 songs under his belt. Not too shabby. Maybe next year he'll serenade everyone. :)

Wednesday morning we had our first real snow. A nice little dusting. It didn't cover the grass, but it stuck. I took Molly outside so she could see it. She gave me a half smile and touched what was in my hand. Then she went to pick up her frozen sidewalk chalk. She dropped it said ummm no no no and ran back inside. It was entertaining. I'm interested to see what her response is when it really snows. Wednesday we had dinner at Deb and Casey's house. We had chili and cinnamon rolls. I guess that combo is a Nebraska tradition. Drew makes a mean chili, I'll need to find a good, but not too labor intensive, cinnamon roll recipe. Then we can keep the tradition alive and be good Nebraskans.