Christmas Card Quiz

• Guest post from Steve.

Can you guess which kid has a photoshopped head?

Isn't Photoshop great? You have 5 kids that you're trying to get to smile all at the same time without blinking or making rabbit ears (or any other kind of finger gesture, for that matter). If you're lucky, one out of 50 shots will look good. But with Photoshop, you don't need to take 50 pictures. Just a few. Then cut and paste the best head shots into the best overall picture. And voila, a decent picture! And that's what Susan did with our Christmas picture this year. (She hasn't mastered the airbrush and nip/tuck techniques of Photoshop yet, or I would be in the picture too). Can you guess the kid with the head that was cut/paste?

First, place your vote in the poll to the right, then you can check your answer in the comments. Don't peek!

The Forgotten Middle Child

I've been creating labels for my posts and just noticed that, although she is mentioned a few times, I don't have any posts dedicated just to Sarah (typical forgotten middle child).

SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS ABOUT SARAH:

1. Sarah has been my easiest child. When she was 3, I was pregnant with Abby and was put on full bedrest for 12 weeks. We had moved to Utah just 1 1/2 weeks before, and we didn't know anyone. I was so worried about what I was going to do with her. We had help from lots of family members who took turns coming into town, but on the days when I didn't have any help, Sarah couldn't have been any easier. She just hung out with me watching movies or playing with her animals all day long.

2. Sarah is the most dedicated animal nut I know. She refers to people as humans, like she's not sure that she's one of them. She used to want to be a lion when she grew up (a boy lion because they have cool manes). She blows holes in the knees of her pants within days because she crawls everywhere pretending to be an animal. When she was four, she had several imaginary pets. When a neighbor asked her about her "pets," he went through a whole list of animals (lion, horse, racoon, giraffe, elephant, cow, etc.), and she told him all about them and the various things they did together. But when he asked her about her camel, she answered, "I don't have a camel." She never played with baby dolls, only animals. She used to breastfeed a scary Star Wars fish toy with rows and rows of sharp teeth. OUCH! That is true dedication!

3. (If you have a weak stomach, you may want to skip this paragraph) Sarah has had the most impressive looking injury of any of my kids. You know how you're not supposed to run with pencils (or other sharp objects)? When she was 1 1/2, she took off running with a pencil and fell on it. It stabbed into her eye, but luckily, it was not very sharp, so it did not go through her eyelid. Her eyelid swelled completely closed and was the size of a golfball. She did this on Easter, so somewhere in our boxes of pictures (pre-digital camera days), we have pictures of her in her pretty Easter dress hunting for Easter eggs with a golf-ball shaped eyelid. For a long time, we couldn't go anywhere without anyone who saw her wanting to know what had happened to her. I had to constantly ask them to please not scare her with their horrified expressions. The eye doctor we saw scared us to death talking about muscle damage and nerve damage, but she doesn't have any lasting effects from the injury except for a small pencil lead scar in her right eyelid. We all love this gruesome picture (about a week after the injury when the color had gotten less black) - it gets really fun reactions out of people who haven't become hardened to it.

4. Sarah has the best laugh! You can't hear it without laughing yourself.

5. She is happy and easy-going. And she sets a great example for her younger sister, getting her to play with animals when she would otherwise want to play with evil Bratz dolls.

I love you, Sprph.

Halloween

Halloween is over, and we survived. Here's a rundown of the afternoon:

• 4 arguments with kids (3 with the same kid)
• 1 crying child
• 4 blackmail episodes out of which I got clean bedrooms, a clean kitchen and a clean bathroom ("You're not trick-or-treating until your room is clean!")
• several attempts at decent pictures with camera phone because the good cameras are both broken (pictures stink, but I'll post them anyway)
• two hours of FUN and lots of CANDY
• 2 freezing and crying kids
• hot chocolate for everyone
• threats over candy wrappers on the floor
• bed (FINALLY)

All in all, a productive evening.

This is what Sam the pirate looks like without his bottle ("Avast ye scurvy dog! Brin' me me bottle or I'll see ye t' Davy Jones!")

So our only happy Sam picture is with the bottle. ("Arr, me hearty. That be a fine bit o' grog.")

Sarah and Abby, the Cowgirl and Indian. This is the first time since she's had any say in the matter that Sarah hasn't been an animal for Halloween. She still has an animal, but at least she's finally willing to be human.

Matthew as a baby riding on a werewolf's back. He won a couple of prizes at school and at a party. And today at school, they had a "Shout Out" over the PA system to Matthew for having an awesome costume.

He looked especially funny when he was sleeping on a dancing werewolf.

Headless Anna - several people told her that it was the best costume they'd seen all night. She looked awesome! Matthew also heard several times that his was the best costume. Good job guys!

Our Magic Ice Maker

About a year ago, someone (read Steve) dropped a bunch of frozen blueberries into our ice maker. For a long time, whenever you'd get ice, a few blueberries would drop into your glass, too. We tried to clean it out, but they must have been stuck somewhere we couldn't reach. Since then, we've ceased to be surprised by the blueberries and even get a little excited about getting one - after a year, it's a rare occurrence and kind of a treat.




This summer, when Emma Sallstrom was visiting with her family, she discovered a treat even better than the blueberries. She was getting ice, and an ice cream sandwich dropped out of the ice maker into her glass. She was so surprised and must have thought that our house in Utah is the BEST place to visit in the world!!!


Of course, Abby was right behind her with her own glass ready for a try at the ice. It was like playing the slots with all the kids clamoring for their own turn! I don't think Emma will ever forget our magic ice maker! And now, we're all on the edge of our seats waiting to see what will pop out next.