Freeze tag

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

No pressure there...

Ella stopped by as I was sorting through the medical bills for the year end accounting and asked me if I liked her dinosaur picture. "Sure honey, it looks great!" I said, without giving it a whole lot of thought, since I was absorbed in bills.

A minute later, I heard her behind me at the desk, sounding out words..

"My Dad li... like... likes... my din... dino... sau... saur."

I turned around to see what she was working on...



It says "My Dad likes my dinosaur. I drawed it. Ella. I made it all by myself."

Something just clicked about how much a little girl looks for her dad's approval, and just how horribly I could crush her by being careless about it.

No pressure there...

Red White and Blue

I've been waiting six years for this...

Stripped and started sanding...


Masked off...


Stained...


Distressed and finished...

Briefly taking its place next to the others.

I made the one on the left when Ella was born. I made the one in the middle when we realized we were having twins, and would need two high chairs. And I've been waiting the whole time to make one for my buddy to celebrate his impending fatherhood.

I can't wait to see pictures of a wee little Bakker, planted in his (or her) chair, flinging every food offered to him (or her) at his (or her) poor exasperated father. And from my recent phone call with him, the poor guy has no idea what is about to hit him... ;)

Polar Express, which was nearly...

...the Vomit Comet.

Paige's parents came out for Christmas this year. Paige picked up some tickets to go to northern Arizona and ride the Polar Express while they were here. Even my mom and sisters were coming with. We had tickets for the Monday evening train.

Sunday night, Paige said she didn't feel so well, and ended up spending a good portion of the night in the throne room. About 1 AM, Ella started hurling. At 3 AM, Levi joined her. I spent most of the night on the floor, waiting to be awakened by calls for buckets, and washing bedsheets. When we woke up in the morning after very little sleep, Paige's mom was also feeling ill.

We postponed our planned morning departure as long as possible. Levi seemed to have totally recovered, Ella was doing pretty good, but Paige was contemplating staying home from her own trip. In the end we decided to make a run for Williams, and if Paige was still sick she could stay in the hotel.

By the time we got to Williams, she had recovered enough to brave the train, and we all boarded in the evening.

Paige had purchased matching pajamas for all the kids...


And herself...


And her parents...


And my mom...


who even added some fancy slippers...


After reading the Polar Express book, eating cookies, and drinking hot chocolate, we arrived at Santa's Village.


Santa boarded the train and passed out bells.



On the ride back, our kids were even brave enough to get up in front of the whole train and lead one of the Christmas carols.


Video. If nothing else, skip to 1:56 for Noah's "fa la la la la, la la la la"s He was really into it.


And yes, in case you were wondering, Paige also purchased matching PJs for me...




After all the drama, we did not turn the Polar Express into the Vomit Comet.

The end...

Christmas Tractors

Christmas day in Tucson, my uncle Steve brought some of his work equipment over to Grandma's house as a surprise for the kids.









Luke was the most thrilled of all the kids. Whenever we drive somewhere, he is constantly on the lookout for "plames", "mot-cycles", and "et-tator." That last one would be "excavators."







Video, sped up 4X...



Little boys and dirt. It never gets old...

Christmas

Not a lot of time to write a post, so just a collection of pictures from the last week or so...

Last weekend we had the Addink Christmas. First up, Grandma has been wanting to take the kids to do this bungee jump for weeks now, and she finally got her wish.

Ella was up first...

Poor Noah was not happy that the order for jumping was oldest to youngest.

Levi was up next. Literally.

He attempted to do a flip like he had seen an older boy do, but wasn't successful.

Noah finally got his turn. His grumpy face was immediately erased.

He also by far was the highest jumper.

Then off to Grandma's house for the presents. They received the usual kid toys. Trucks...

Dolls...

And gemstones buried in your very own hunk of plaster...

Then today we picked Grandpa and Grandma Meyer up from the airport. They made it out of Michigan just in time to dodge the big storm. And then we had round two of Christmas...

Once Noah opened this computer game, no other present could even hold his interest.

Sometimes they just got cash.

And no Christmas would be complete without some form of weaponry.

Paige's comment was something along the lines of "I can't believe I let you buy four of those..."

Finally, sprinkling reindeer feed on the lawn to attract Santa down to our house. "Santa" already loaded up their stockings for round three in the morning!