I know that smile...

Santa?

Last night I lay in bed with Isaac and G for a while.   Isaac and I had some priceless conversation that included a little talk about Santa Claus.

"Mom, is Santa Claus for real or do you just sneak outside and bring in some presents?"

I smiled really big, tried to process how do go about this without lying to him and came up with this:

"Well I don't sneak outside and bring in presents," the huge grin still on my face.  Real convincing Mom!

To this, Isaac replied with his own huge smile, "Are you telling the truth Mom....I know that smile;)"  I just laughed and responded with the part I feel guilty about...a lie;(  "Well, I've never seen Santa and I don't sneak outside and bring in presents and I do know that there always presents under the tree that I didn't know about (lie)."  I proceeded to kind of sort of change the subject and tell him about a real man named Nicholas who was deemed a saint because he selflessly gave to others and how I thought that Santa Clause was a symbol of Heavenly Father, who gives to us and knows each of us personally.  It seemed to suffice, evidenced by the rest of our conversation that I won't expound upon but I felt troubled for deceiving my son.  The whole Santa Claus thing has always kind of bothered me as a Mother.  But on the other hand, how sad not to have that belief as a child and miss out on all the fun that goes with it.  In the past I've made a point never to tell Isaac or G a lie about it...to evade questions or giving solid answers but this year has been a little trickier.  I can see Isaacs mind at work ALL the time this Christmas season because all the sudden, we're asking him to buy into all this magic ONLY at this time of year.  He's definitely skeptical.  I'm not quite sure how long this whole belief thing is going to last and I will feel horrible if his heart breaks and he thinks that I'm a liar!  Any thoughts on this, Moms?

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving

It all started with:

Isaacs classroom party.

 It was fun to see him in his 5-day a week, school environment!

Mrs. Madl's Kindergarten class.

We really love his teacher.

Then we waited, not so patiently, for Gaga and Papa's arrival.

Awww, like a breath of fresh air they entered our lives!  I am so grateful for Grandparents.  I can't imagine Isaac and Georgie's world without them!

On Thanksgiving Day, Joey and Dad headed for the football field and Mom and I slaved away;)  Once again, it was so nice to have a buddy in the kitchen.  My talented and resourceful Mom took the kids out hunting for greenery for our centerpiece.  They loved every minute of it, carrying their baskets and collecting earthy treasures!

Voila!

(sort of...before my Mom refined the kids labors)

I didn't take a single picture of the guests at our Thanksgiving Day dinner but it included the Fischers...who made this delicious apple pie with their name inscribed in pastry on the top.  Clever dudes;)  We also had our dear friend Ruth Thomas with us.

We spent part of the weekend teaching Isaac how to ride a bike without training wheels.

He did great but I think we'll hold off our serious study until the spring.

It's been WAY to cold around here to keep it up!

Keeping with tradition we drove 2 hours for a Christmas tree on the day after Thanksgiving.  I'm thinking we might hold off on this tradition until we leave Oklahoma.  They just don't have good, accessible Christmas tree farms around here.

But then again they love it...what's a Mom to do.

I'll think about that tomorrow, not today!

Our masterpiece...after completion!

...the real masterpiece!

weird-ie-o

Our Boy

Isaac had a great night tonight.  We went to Emma, his first kiss':) birthday party at the skating rink from 4-6pm.  Isaac was VERY nervous about going because he didn't want to roller skate.  After scoping it out for a few minutes he decided to give it a whirl, put on some skates and eased himself into it.  He began by first hanging onto the railing, then holding hands with friends and finally, braving the great wide open all by himself.  It was a big confidence booster for him, realizing he was brave enough to try, fall and not cry, and good enough to be on his own.

When we got home he and G played for a bit and then I rounded them up into the tub.  Joey was at his volleyball game so I was doing the bedtime drill.  Isaac was in an adorably silly mood and I just kept laughing at him...okay, okay, I got a little annoyed too because he wasn't staying on task;) but I also appreciated his adorableness!  As I was getting Georgie dressed and greased up for the dry winter weather I overheard Isaac, now out of the tub, making CRAZY noises to himself.  I headed his way, ready to yell at him to dry off and "GET MOVIN'".  I paused for a second at the bathroom door when I saw him, naked in front of the mirror, watching himself do weird lip and face contortions while making growling noises and saying random words..."mommieeeeeeee, WOOOOW, rogher, etc".  I rolled my eyes in my head for an instant and prepared myself to get firm with him but a new thought struck me.  "Perhaps a few seconds of expressing himself in his own wierd way is more important than my power trip and him getting to bed that many seconds earlier." (A novel idea for me;)  Oh how glad I am that I followed through on that thought.  The show he put on in front of that mirror, my presence unbeknownst to him, was priceless hilarity.  And I held it together, in total silence, the whole time!  I'm so proud of myself!  But the best part of the whole performance was how he wrapped it all up and came back to himself.  Amidst all his craziness he stopped, oh so abruptly,  gazed at himself in the mirror and said, "Okay...I am weird-ie-o"

At this point, I could NOT stop myself from bursting out.  Silence was far too much to ask.  He was so right!  He was being soooo weird-ie-o and I LOVED it!  He turned rigidly, stunned to find me there, and began busting up right along with me.  It was so fun to laugh that hard together and it was sooo fun to see him laughing at himself!   After several seconds of deep, belly laughter we began to pull ourselves together.  He giggled out an "i'm a little embarrassed" as well as an "I'm sorry" too which I did my best to shut down THOSE thoughts...I'm not sure why he was sorry.  I asked him why but he just kept on laughing.

It was a great night!  I wish Joey and my mom, if not everyone that loves him,  could have been there for it, laughing with us!  It was priceless.  Isaac is sometimes trapped in his own world of personal constraints, emotions, worry about what others think of him, fear and made a victim of his own tenderheart that I just eat up these moments when he is completely and entirely himself, utterly at home in his own skin.  And these moments are getting more and more frequent as he enjoys seeing himself succeed, give, share, like and be liked, and love and be loved!  He's growing up!  And it's so fun to watch!

p.s.  The night before last Isaac discovered what a great reader he is becoming.  I have been a bad Mom and haven't spent much time at all pushing him to read for us.  He rarely chooses to try hard things on his own so sometimes I'd rather just avoid the battle than work with him.  We had some extra time at bedtime, Joey had another volleyball game and the mood was right so I challenged him to read his book to us.  (ya right;)  None of us could believe the words he was rattling off.   After 2 or 3 pages he turned to me and said, suprised, "I'm a good reader!"  I praised him after every sentence at first and then every page and then just sort-of randomly.  At that point he got even cuter.  Every once in a while, after a hard word or the end of a sentence or page he would look up at me with this little melt your heart, "mom, you're so proud of me", soft little grin from ear to ear face, hug me and bury his head into my chest and wait for the compliments to start coming.  It caught me off guard at first but then I knew the drill and told him how great he was doing, how proud I was and he would just light up.  And then turn to me again a few moments later!  It was so cute and vulnerable and I wanted to eat him up!  I love you and I AM proud of you, Isaac!

Extra Cream Anyone?

Homemade Butter

 A young girl in my ward here gave me the coolest suggestion.  Every year for Thanksgiving, she and her siblings make homemade butter!  When she explained how simple it is - as simple as pouring heavy cream into a jar and shaking it...no 100 year old wooden barrel required;)- I knew that we HAD to try it!

After cleaning the house this morning I rewarded the kids with a movie.  They chose Star Wars 2.  While watching, the kids took turns shaking the little jar of cream mixed with a tsp of salt.  It wasn't too terribly long before the novelty wore off and I had to rotate in a turn of my own;)  The kids don't yet grasp the coolness of making your OWN BUTTER!!  After about 20 minutes of moderate shaking, mixed in with resting and a few minutes of vigorous shaking, we opened the lid and found this:

YEAAA!!  Butter!!  I'm drooling at the sight of it!!

We poured of the liquid (buttermilk) into a cup and then loaded our fresh butter into our Thanksgiving Day serving dish and placed it in the fridge:

Really and truly, it tastes silkier, smoother and richer than the store bought stuff AND it's fun!!  It's like jumping back in time...and taking Star Wars with you;)

Tip:  At first the cream is, of course, thin and easy to shake...keep shakin'.  After a while it becomes the consistency of frothy cream and seems to hardly move in the jar at all...keep shakin'.  A few minutes after this, small lumps will begin to appear in your cream...still...keep shaking.  Your honin' in on it.  Within a few minutes it will look like the picture above and you can separate it from your butter milk and enjoy!  Hope my suggestion is worth something to you and you give it a try!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

The "Beatles" at Epcot

In 1996 (this is Joey), my family went to Florida to pick up my older brother, Jake, at the end of his LDS mission.  We went to Epcot Center, where my mother painfully dragged us to all of the pseudoeducational exhibits.  Epcot, overall, was lame back then.  And it is still pretty lame today.

However, on the "Showcase of Nations" (or whatever it is called) side of the park, there is a small gazebo located in "England" where a tribute band called The British Invasion plays Beatles and other cover tunes from the 1960s.  I don't remember anything from Epcot 1996 except the other-worldly sight of my parents dancing, screaming, and acting like teenagers while the band played "Help," "She Loves You," and other staples.

I didn't know the Beatles' music back then, as my parents had reared us on a strict diet of The Beach Boys and Peter, Paul, & Mary.  Thus my musical soul went malnourished, deprived of essential nutrients, while a bounty of Rolling Stones and Beatles LPs rotted on the shelf.

That night in 1996 was my awakening, and on this trip to Disney World I had one request and one request only.  We were going to suffer through a day at Epcot in order to watch the fake Beatles.

I had been preparing the kids for over a year, putting together a playlist called "Daddy's Music" for bath time and playing my guitar while singing "All My Lovin'" and "She Loves You" before they went to bed at night.

But nothing could have prepared me for the freak show that our kids put on while The British Invasion played our favorite tunes.  My favorite moment is when Isaac strums along to the guitar part as if on cue.  That's my boy!  Please excuse my off-key background vocals.  You can't go to a Beatles show, even a fake Beatles show, and not SING ALONG!

Georgie's Magical Dance

It was about 8:30 pm on Monday, November 2nd, 2009.  We had just stepped off of Cinderella's Magical Carousel and were ready to bring our day at Disney's Magic Kingdom to a close.  But the true magic was yet to come.

With the fairy tale tunes from the carousel in the background, our very own Princess Georgie was transported to her own world.  Some of her nascent Studio One dance moves come through, but most of it is her own spontaneous choreography.

P.S. You can hear us cut Isaac off rather harshly about halfway through.  He was a little upset at the time, but I hope he understands eventually.

P.P.S.  The segment is woefully short due to our amateurish lack of preparation.  Always bring an extra tape!

A Typical Sunday/Saturday Morning

Joey and I were talking in bed this morning and I commented how much I loved the background noise.  We were chatting, at 7am, to the sound of the kids playing in their room together.  ANd this is the background noise of all our weekend mornings, something I miss hearing every morning since Isaac went to school.  When left undisturbed, they always wake up with a vivid imagination together.  I love it so much that I decided to post about it!  I wish I had a live post from my mother, telling me what we were doing on a typical weekend morning, complete with a picture...

...(I wish it was a cuter one...and yes, I know my curtains don't match...I'm working on it;)  This is, hands down, the greatest thing about blogging!  Back to my story, by about 7:15 on weekend mornings, the kids have unloaded every stuffed animal, princess barbie and star wars toy onto their bed and are playing anything from Star Wars, to animal families.  Almost always, their method of play is Isaac narrating what he's doing, "and then Luke gets out of the ship and rescues you,"  Georgie listens for her cue, for Isaac to tell her what to do and say next, and then she does it, word for word.  When it comes to creative play, Isaac almost always runs the show.  By about 7:45, she ditches him to find me, but he almost always follows, begging her to come back.  If I'm in bed, she climbes in and I try to convince her to snuggle.  That lasts for about 2 seconds because she's hungry.  "Mommy, can you make me some brefast?"  I reluctantly climb out of bed or Joey runs in from the computer or the guitar, where he spends his Saturday mornings, and gets it for them.  A typical breakfast in the Merback household is Yogurt and Grape-nuts, or oatmeal or toast.  There's usually some fighting going on at breakfast..."she has more than me" or "she always gets that placemat" or "mommy, I said for you to get me some orange juice."  But, if we're lucky, the mood is pretty peaceful.  Its nice to wake up to!  Maybe I should try and recall those joyful moments later in the day when it takes all I can muster not to send them to weekend school;)