Remember the “Nobama Chickens?”

Well, they just started laying eggs. Here is Daniel with one of Zorro’s first eggs, and a chocolate chip cookie we made with the eggs. Yum Yum. They tasted even better with that fresh-from-the-farm goodness.

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Lizzie-Tizzie

My mom told me today that she wished she had named me Elizabeth. I told her that if she had done that, then my daughter Elizabeth wouldn’t be called Elizabeth and that “she is definitely an Elizabeth.”

“No, she is not an Elizabeth. She is a Lizzie.”

So very true.  Lizzie is one crazy-cool girl.

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Danny Boy

If Lizzie is the crazy one, Daniel is most definitely the serious one. He has been since the day he was born. The best way to describe Daniel is to say that he is a man stuck in a little person’s body.

I mean, just an hour ago, he was complaining to me because he wasn’t allowed to have a job — A real job — one that pays money. He thought that child labor laws are “dumb” and that kids should be able to work if they want to. Sorry son — you’re probably the only four year old that wants to work.

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Men in the Kitchen

I was going through “The Box” recently. “The Box” is that one item when people ask, “If your house is on fire and you could only get one thing, what would it be?” Mine would be “The Box” which is filled with every letter, email, ticket stubs, hotel keys, Chinese fortunes, pregnancy tests, random drawings. . . all that good memory-junk regarding me and ep.

I opened one letter from our first Valentines Day as a married couple, and in it I found two coupons that eppie made for me: One Free Dinner prepared by yours truly, and a half-hour massage by yours truly.

Wahoo!

I told eppie that I wanted to redeem them for our anniversary. To which he (jokingly) replied,”You were supposed to use these six years ago. You can’t redeem these now — now that the romance is gone.” Such a funny guy, isn’t he?

I did get my dinner this Sunday — Steak, which is Eppie’s specialty. Still waiting on the massage.

But here’s the kicker: Daniel would not let me in the kitchen at all. He wanted it to be just him and dad. Daniel set the table, mashed the potatoes, prepared the pink lemonade. . . all that good stuff.

When I sat down at my seat to eat, there on my plate was a piece of paper that read:

You have been

served by a secret

service agent.

“Oh Daniel! I’m going to have to tell your primary teachers about this.”

“Yeah. Then they’ll know that we actually listen to them.”

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One little Indian Boy (and girl)

That was one of the songs Daniel and his preschool class performed for their parents this week. They had to be politically correct, didn’t they?

All that hard work practicing songs and working on their Indian costumes really paid off.

Which reminds me of the conversation I had with Daniel two Monday’s ago:

Daniel: Mom. I really don’t want to go to Hip-Hop anymore. Monday’s are so stressful for me with preschool and then Hip-Hop.

Holly: Come on Daniel. It’s not that bad.

Daniel: Yes it is. I had to do four things already today. Four things!

Holly: What?

Daniel: I had to put beads on my Indian necklace. Then I had to glue my paper onto the drum, and then. . .

I forget what else he said, but it was hilarious. Needless to say, this boy is not a hip-hopper anymore.

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Church Fall Shin-Dig

Eppie didn’t make it home in time for the party. . . was it on purpose, do you think? Nah. He knew there was a cake-walk, and who in their right mind would want to miss a cake-walk?

By the way, I won the very last cake — But I gave it away. I’m so nice!  That, or I just don’t like cake.  Maybe a little bit of both:)

Daniel wants, quite literally, everything for christmas.  Here’s a list of some of my favorite things that Daniel has asked for:

     Land (so he can dig for Dinosaur bones)

  A real rocket — “not the toy kind, okay.”

  A spinning wheel. . .

 . . . with a sheep included.

  A laptop

  A dog

  A vice

  10,000 toys (that’s what he told Santa he wanted)

Daniel: Who are you going to vote for Elizabeth — McCain or Obama?
Lizzie: Donald Duck
Daniel: No. Who are you going to vote for — McCain or Obama?
Lizzie: Mickey Mouse.
Daniel: No. McCain or Obama?
Lizzie: Minnie Mouse!

While driving in our car — Heading home to celebrate our Family Election Party. Daniel often confuses “Election” with “Economy.”

Daniel: Now Lizzie. When we get home, we will be eating our Chinese food and watching tv. Now, it’s not your kind of tv. The tv we will be watching is about the economy. Do you understand?
Lizzie: No
Daniel: Today was economy day. A new president will be picked today.
Lizzie: Oh.
Daniel: Now, me and dad economied for Bob Barr, so that’s who we want to win.

Because Daniel is learning about Indians in Pre-school right now, he’s all into being a “child-Indian.” One night he wouldn’t let anyone use any electricity. For four hours we had to be in the dark with only candles. It was getting pretty difficult as the hours went on, and sometimes we would have to use things like the microwave or the phone, much to Daniel’s dislike. As he was heading up to bed that night, he yelled:

You and Dad are terrible Indians!!

Daniel: Mom, do you know how to get home from here?
Holly: Sure. I know where we are. This is Elizabethtown.
Lizzie: In her most surprised voice: I own this town!?

Kathy (our neighbor): You’re really good with that hammer, Daniel.
Daniel: Yeah. I’ve been doing this for years now.

After telling Eppie what I want for christmas and my birthday:

Holly: It’s going to be so easy shopping for me this year.
Eppie: Thank goodness.
Holly: Hey. It should be fun shopping for the person you love.
Daniel: (matter-of-factly) But dad doesn’t love you.

After coming downstairs to see Lizzie standing on the kitchen counter:

Holly: Elizabeth. What do you think it is that you’re doing?
Lizzie: The Hokey Pokey

Holly: Elizbeth, can you say “Do Re Mi?”
Elizabeth: Do Re You
Holly: Ha ha. No. Say “Do Re Mi.”
Elizabeth: Do Re You, Mommy.

Daniel had to give the Scripture for Closing Exercises in Primary. He practiced for grandma:

Daniel: Psalms 147:7 — “Sing unto the Lord with Thanksgiving.”
Grandma: Very good. Now what do you think that means?
Daniel: I don’t know. Sing to the Lord with a Turkey?

The conversation continued:

Grandma: Can you tell me some things that you are grateful for.
Daniel: Space, chickens, shelter, mom, cows, dinosaur bones, milk . . . (going on and on)
Grandpa: Okay, okay. Is there anything that you are NOT grateful for.
Daniel: Um. . . commercials.
 

After Eppie got after Daniel about his table manners:

Daniel: Dad, I don’t want you making the rules for this house anymore. I want President Bush to start making the rules. But I’m not going to be listening to President Obama!

And another Obama conversation - And I swear I have no idea where the negative attitude towards Obama comes from:)

Daniel: Did you know that there will be no weeds during the Mill. . . Mill. . .
Holly: Millenium. Yes I know. You’ve told me that many times before.
Daniel: I think I know when Jesus will come again to be our king.
Holly: Really? When do you think.
Daniel: After President Obama. In Primary we learned that things have to get really bad before Jesus comes again. So since Obama is going to ruin our country, I’m sure Jesus will come then.

Tomorrow Ep and I will celebrate six years of marriage — Sadly, however, Pitt is in the process of losing this football game tonight.  I asked Eppie if he was going to be in a bad mood tomorrow for our anniversary and he said yes.

Fortunately, we already celebrated on Friday.  Eppie and I both took off work.  Yes, I took off from being a mommy for the day and it was so delightful!  I love being a mom, but sometimes it’s nice to be all wife.  

We went to King of Prussia to do some christmas shopping (But never ended up buying anything. What’s up with that?).  For lunch we ate at the Cheesecake Factory, and Ep and I concluded after years of asking “What is the best restaurant?” that it is most definitely The Cheesecake Factory — without a doubt. 

Ep proudly showed me how awsome he is getting around the King of Prussia Mall area.  I was so proud of my Magellan-wanna-be.  He was like, “Now here is the Best Buy that I sometimes go to to play guitar hero during my lunch break.” and “Here is the movie theater that I went to when I had to pick up the Thompson’s that one night.” 

And speaking of that movie theater, Ep and I went and saw “The Changeling” and let’s just say that was probably the worst movie to see if you want to be in happy spirits.  It was the most depressing movie EVER!  And I love a good depressing movie, but this one was a little ridiculous.  Let’s just say, Eppie and I have been hugging our kids a little bit tighter after seeing that movie.

After a nice dinner, we headed back home — Back to life.  Back to Reality.  Oh, but reality is so nice.  I love my little family of four.  Thanks to Eppie for making ALL of my dreams come true.  To quote one of my favorite songs, “I have all I waited for, and I could not ask for more.”

I forgot Eppie had these on his iphone. But better late than never, I guess.

Introducing:

Daniel as Captain Jack Sparrow-Hook (in other words. . . Daniel is wearing the wig for Captain Jack-Sparrow, and the coat of Captain Hook)

Elizabeth as Crazy Cowgirl (in other words. . . Mom already spent too much at the Disney Store on Daniel, so cheap as she is, she gathered Lizzie’s cowgirl-ish collection together to make this ensemble. And thank goodness too - Lizzie knocked on one door and was done for the night).

Holly as Sexy Spy (in other words. . . Holly really wanted to wear her wig, and since she didn’t want to look like a prostitute, she thought she could be a spy - only she looked like a prostitute)

Eppie as The Halloween Grinch (in other words. . . Eppie just got off from work)

After five years of saying, “Let’s go to New York City” we finally did it. Me, Daniel and Uncle Dan had the time of our lives livin’ it up in the Big Apple. We planned the trip around Daniel — You know, did the things a four year old would want to do. And here’s what we came up with:

Because it was such a nice day, we just spent our time outside, visiting some of the famous sites of New York. Daniel wanted to see Ground Zero and the Statue of Liberty, so headed to that part of town

.

When you put Dan in charge of finding a hotel to stay at, you know he’s going to pick the best, which is how we ended up staying at the Waldorf Astoria. We joked around about the whole thing, pretending to be “the elite of the world,” as the Waldorf claims to host. We would talk in our British accents, and and we taught Daniel to say, “Chop, chop cheerio” and “God bless us everyone.” It was fun stuff.

Daniel had come out of the shower that evening wearing the complimentary slippers. I thought it was cute — A picture moment, if you will.

The whole trip was fun, but the night was a blast. We ended up taking a bike-taxi to our restaurant and it was the funnest thing ever!!!! It was so expensive, but so worth it. We all said that that was the funnest part of the whole trip. I love this first picture of us in the bike-taxi. We had those smiles on our faces the whole ride.

Danny and I stayed up very, very late that night, so needless to say it was very difficult getting out of bed the next morning. But we manged to get ourselves up and moving. We walked the city a little more, ran into a Statue of Liberty and told Daniel, “See Daniel — I told you, the Statue of Liberty is actually smaller the closer you are to it.” Danny went to a dance class at the Broadway Dance Studio. Daniel and I thought it would be fun to watch, but after watching people do “step-ball-change” a gazillion times, it got kind of old really fast. We were bored…But we were very excited at the same time because we had reserved another bike-taxi to take us to the Museum of Natural History to see Dinosaur Bones! Yeah!

That was our NYC in 24 hours trip (I was pretty picture-happy, huh?) We all had a great time - Anytime you do something with Dan, you’re bound to have lots of fun…and spend lots of money. When we were driving back home Daniel announced, “Our next road-trip will be to North America!” He’s caught the road-trip bug! That-a boy!