Unicorns...

Quote of the day:  (Talon while taking a bath)

"I love to swim with my unicorns"

There you have it ladies and gentlemen.  Talon is our highest quote producer at the moment and we will keep you updated when there is more material :)

New Year!

The holiday's are over and it's time for another update.  I have found I like reading my own blog, since I don't even visit it that much; I guess it's my on-line journal.

Dave finally found a job and is happy to be back in the grind.  Except on days like today, when he's sick and would rather be in bed, but he is doing great and loving learning new things.

I'm trucking along at my job, reigning in my domain, as I am the Office Manager and only employee :)  I enjoy it and know everything there is to know about Las Vegas now, in a business sense...

Tristan got more art supplies for Christmas and was happier than a clam.  He produces numerous drawings in one sitting and wants to explain each one in detail when he is done.  Thanks to having lived with an artist growing up (Schmeel) I can totally appreciate his zanyness.  He loves his brothers and is always willing to help.  The latest is folding the dinner napkins in interesting and fancy ways!

Jake is loving music as always; playing guitar hero on the Wii whenever we allow it.  He is also in the chess club at school and on the jump rope team, for the second year in a row.  He is almost always happy, unless he thinks he has done something wrong, which is hardly ever.  He is a great big brother and loves making DJ laugh his head off.

Talon is quite the builder and brings us lego or Knex concauctions daily as gifts.  Dj wants to join in, but it usually turns into baby godzilla and Talon slamming the door to his room so that his latest buildings won't get destroyed.  He is very sweet, but is trying to get used to someone younger than him being around.

Dj is the ham.  He loves to be free, from restraint in public, and run away into the wild.  He definitely has "the call of the wild" in him.  If we put him down in a shopping mall he would run away, talk to everyone, and not even miss us.  Last night at McDonald's he was "flirting" with another dad, in hopes of charming his cell phone away from him.  The funniest was the other day in the cell phone store Dave was holding him and he was literally shaking with want of playing with the show cell phones.  Anything electronic that flips, clicks, makes noise, or in anyway shows life, is a MUST to have for him.  Flip cell phones especially.

We love you all and appreciate everyone's support and connections to our family!!  We hope you have a prosperous New Year and we wish you lots of love and happiness!

Dave & Suz (aka Schwooz, Sus, S, Suse liebe Suse, usw.)

The Flood!

So, I wish we would have been commanded to build an ark! Last week we had a flood... in our house... The magic toilet fairy came in the middle of the night to deliver a magically delicious toilet water flood in our upstairs bedrooms, hallway, and bath. Of course the lower floors were sadly mistaken if they thought they could get away without damage, so it happened that the "cut downers" visited our house, after I had my panic attack.  They cut out anything that got wet, including the garage ceiling and walls. Our raincoats were safe though, I mean, they are rain coats, and were hanging in the closet downstairs; they probably enjoyed being useful for once.

Well, after it was all said and done and we withstood the Spanish inquisition from the insurance company as to why we had the flood in the first place, the house dried rather quickly (thank you desert) and now we are ready to begin reconstruction.

BUT first, I will unveil the culprit of the entire affair.... Yes, it was the evil emperor from Star Wars! He spun to his watery death and is now decapitated due to  this horrible fate.  I found him on my kitchen counter when I got home, and incase you are wondering, NO, I really don't know who would put him on my kitchen counter after where he had been (I won't name names).  Either way, at least the kids could laugh about the fact that we can blame the flood on him.

To spare innocent readers, I will not reveal the grueling details of how the Emperor got there in the first place, and it will remain....well... a mystery!

Sidewalk Sale!

So, I'm driving out of my neighborhood on a lovely Saturday morning and notice that an entire bag of raw chicken is scattered all over the streets. First of course the gag reflex set in and then I thought: "How does that happen?". How do you loose an entire Costco size bag of raw chicken and then not notice it when you drive in and out of your neighborhood. Disgusting, and .... well unsanitary.

But that's not all! Within the next two weeks I found more "store bought kill" on the road. On the on-ramp to the freeway there was a large roll of raw hamburger. In addition to this I saw meat on the road at another location, it escapes me at the moment where, but nevertheless, are Las Vegans looking for alternative cooking methods?

I mean really, who doesn't notice they are missing a large quantity of meat they just bought?

Comments are welcome....

Happy Fall!

"Don't you just love New York in the fall?  It makes me want to buy boquets of freshly sharpened pencils" (You've Got Mail).

I love fall and now that the weather is finally cooling off I am happy to be able to wear something long sleeved.  My husband loves fall and FOOTBALL.  It even rained this weekend and our dog had no idea what to do with herself; a bathroom break in the rain was quite disconcerting for her.

For a quick update:  I must say, DJ is a pretty funny little guy.  He loves to do anything to make himself laugh, for example, force feeding me his toys, or lotion bottles.  He will giggle forever, while I'm trying not to gag on the GIANT bottle of lotion that is being forced down my throat.  He is running all over and loves his shoes.  He unloads the entire shoe rack everyday and is even beginning to try ours on for fun!

Tristan is cultivating his artistic abilities and draws up a storm when he gets the chance.  The subjects are Pokeman and Ben 10 characters... 100% of the time.  Then he just has to keep the papers save from Talon's wandering pen, or DJ's slobbering mouth.

Jake just survived strep throat and scarlet fever!  Poor guy.  He was brave and took the GIANT shot in the backside, but he was better within 24-hrs.  Jake loves to read and do good in school. He just finished his first Harry Potter book, with help, but is getting better and tackling the second one already.

Talon is busting out of his clothes and growing like a weed; luckily we kept all of the older boys' clothes.  He loves to build things for us out of legos and presents new and interesting objects to us every day.  He likes to color and paint with the big boys, but we are running out of green, which is his favorite color!

Happy fall, go for a walk in the brisk fall air for me  and collect a leaf or two for me (as we don't get many of those here).

With Love,

Susie

Super Models

So it turns out that boys can be super models! Our good friend, who is a photographer, asked us over for a photo shoot so she could practice and ten minutes later these are the pictures we had. She is amazing, isn't she?

Shoe mystery solved... read on:

So, my husband and I finally found out how random shoes make their way onto our streets, parking lots, grocery isles, etc. We were walking accross a local parking lot recently when we spotted a gentleman inspecting his shoe in the middle of the parking lot, right in the path of cars. So we must assume that had a car come, he may have had to jump to the side quickly whilst his shoe died a painful death under the wheels of an oncoming car. Who stops in the middle of the road to inspect their shoe anyway????

In addition to this revelation, I recently heard a conversation on a local radio station, where one disc jockey was upset over the loss of one of her brand new tennis shoes. It seems she put her shoes on top of her car after exiting her gym... and drove off! She only drove accross the street to the store, but when back tracking, her shoe was nowhere to be found. She re-traced her route immediately upon arriving at the store, but her other shoe was already lost.... so there you go!

I always thought it was like someone was hanging their feet out the window of a car and all of a sudden "hey, there goes my shoe".

Who knows.... please let me know if you have a better explanation.