Um...

Oh. Ohhhh. OHHHHHHHHHHH. That is my remorseful lamentation. Remorse because I don't even remember what happened in January of this year and the picture below is pretty much the only one that was on my camera:

This was taken at my house the day I hosted a surprise birthday party for Logan's Grandma Neilson (in the center wearing the red sweater). Other than that, I really don't have a recollection of January at all. I'm fairly certain there was cold weather and many runny noses at my house.

And so we move on! February is a little brighter in my memory. The girls had a big time making a snowman with Daddy -- and the snowman was pretty big, too! They were so proud of their creation. Every day he would melt a little bit until he was nothing but a straw sombrero in the front yard.

Next we had Valentine's Day. Siblings are invited to attend Amanda's joyschool parties, so we all loaded up into the van for a valentine exchange, cookie decorating and making mailboxes for valentines. What fun!

Benson's first birthday was right on the heels of Valentine's Day. I can hardly believe he's one! What a sweet little man he is. I just love to snuggle him. He is saying all sorts of things these days: Dada, Mama, no, bye-bye, baba (bottle), Amanda, please...and he can also tell you what a lion, a bear and a fish say. So cute! We had a little party for him on Valentine's Day at Grammy and Papa's house. Here is the progression of Benson enjoying his first chocolate cupcake. Yum!

Things started out pretty clean. Check out those rolls! Benson is on the...um...higher end of the chart when it comes to weight (surprising, I know).

"Hey, is that flame thing edible?" (Grammy is preventing Benson from putting out his candle with his finger like Lily did when she turned one.)

"Hmmmm, looks promising..."

"This cupcake tastes a lot like paper to me."

"The flavor improves remarkably when you turn it this way!"

"I'm going to have crumbs in crevices I didn't know existed..."

"Why hasn't anyone ever given me one of these before now?!"

"Can I have another one of those, please?"

On Benson's actual birthday (February 19th), I walked into by bedroom to behold this sight: Lily sound asleep on a wicker blanket chest. She had purposefully climbed up there to have a nap, evidenced by the stepstool, her fleece blanket and her "ties" (a small tied quilt she puts over her pillow whenever she sleeps). I don't know what made her think this might be a good place to catch a few winks, but I thought it was pretty funny and ran for the camera when I saw it.

While we're on the subject of kids turning up in weird places...I was downstairs in the kitchen one day when I heard the sound of something falling onto a hard surface. I knew that Benson was playing up in his room, so I ran up there to see what was going on. I peeked into his room. No Benson. I looked in my bedroom. No Benson. I looked in the girls' bedroom, glancing in the bathroom as I went by. No Benson, no Benson. By now I was very confused and a little worried (Benson didn't know how to go down the stairs by himself at this point, so I knew he was upstairs somewhere). It was at this point that a little noise drew my attention to the bathtub. I entered the bathroom and drew back the shower curtain -- and this is the sight that met my eyes! Benson had apparently tired of the entertainment in his bedroom and had sought high times elsewhere. I suppose he found what he was looking for!

Benson received this little boombox (which is also a karaoke machine, I might add!) for his birthday. In the mornings, one of the girls (usually Lily) will go into his room and turn on whatever CD is in there. The gesture is sweet, though sometimes I wish they'd just let him sleep.

Pizza night at the Toone Pizzeria! Logan decided one night that it would be fun to make homemade pizzas. When he suggested this idea, however, it hadn't dawned on him that we didn't have pepperoni, mozzarella, ham, red sauce...any of the main components of pizza, really. As anyone who has children knows, once the words "Let's make our own pizza tonight!" have been uttered, there is no turning back. So a trip to the grocery store became necessary. We loaded everyone up inot the van, got the required ingredients, and headed back home to begin the process. Needless to say, it turned into a late-ish night for the kids. That's why they're in their clothes in the "before" pictures and in their pajamas in the "after" pictures.

I was rather amused by this next little story. One morning, Amanda went down to the office and didn't come out for a long time. When she finally did emerge, she presented to me this note. She wrote it for her friend Gabe, who had some surgery that necessitated missing joyschool. When I read through it the first time, Amanda quickly corrected me. This is how she intended it to read:

"Dear Gabe,

I am sorry that at your mom's house you're sick. I hope you feel better."

Well, if that's not just one of the cutest things you're ever seen, you're dead inside. That's pretty good for a four-year-old -- especially with no prompting!

Awww! My cute nephew Sawyer came to spend a night with us last week. My sister revealed to me that she and her husband have not had a night without Sawyer since he was born almost 18 months ago. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Anyway, she decided it would be fun to get away for her husband's birthday, so Sawyer came to play at our house. Yay!

If you look closely at the first picture of Sawyer, you can see a faint rash around his mouth. It got a bit irritated later that night, so we put some Balmex on it. Something about this photo reminds me of a mime I saw on Reading Rainbow...

This next photo isn't going to make any sense without a little explanation. Logan surprised me for Valentine's Day and got tickets for us to see "Wicked" in San Francisco! Very naughty...but so nice! As we were leaving the airport, I decided to take a picture of the SNOW that was falling so I could compare it to this...

...the view from our hotel room window! It's hard to believe that San Francisco looks like this pretty much all year round. This is why it has one of the highest homeless populations in America. Seriously, there are homeless people EVERYWHERE. Don't wory, though; it didn't prevent us from having an absolutely FABULOUS time!

These are the sea lions that have taken up residence on Pier 39. They just showed up one year...and never left! City officials used to regard them as a nuisance (when they get barking, they are extremely loud) -- until they realized these sea lions were a virtual gold mine in terms of attracting tourists by the hundreds. Not so pesky now, eh?

A picture of me with the famed Alcatraz in the background. A little explanation about my hair: this was an extremely windy day. This doesn't excuse my Rod Stewart/Harry Potter look completely (it really is time for a trim), but gimme a break at least.

Here's Logan on one of the piers with downtown San Francisco in the background. It's very picturesque, don't you think?

We visited the Heart of the City Farmer's Market on the morning we left. It's so great; cart after cart of fresh produce, flowers (like the ones you see here) and vendors. There was a huge line alongside one of the buildings. Upon further inspection, Logan and I discovered it was people patiently waiting to purchase live (or very recently live) chickens and quail. Now there's something we hadn't seen before!

This is the view of the farmer's market looking toward the capitol building.


And now for the show itself! Well, first of all -- we almost didn't make it to the show. Our map had a bunch of landmarks on it, but it didn't have the Orpheum Theatre. So Logan used his trusty Blackberry to look up the address on WhitePages.com. Up popped an address, and we, being the technology-trusting people we are, walked right to it. Unfortunately, at 7:50 p.m. and curtains up at 8:00, THERE WAS NO THEATER TO BE FOUND! He checked the address again; still the same. I pulled out our tickets and found the address printed on them. The theater was about 10 blocks away from where we were, and there was absolutely no hope of getting there in time -- even if we ran the whole way. So we did what any self-respecting people would do: we started screaming for a cab! We were able to hail one without too much trouble. When we got in, it was 7:53. "Orpheum Theatre!" I said. The cabbie glanced at the clock. "Does the show start at 8:00?" he asked. "Yeah," we answered. "Ooooh," he said with a furrowed brow. But then his face brightened a bit and he said, "Well, it's not that far." And with that, we were off on one of those crazy cabbie-driving-like-a-maniac-to-get-the-couple-where-they-need-to-go scenes like you see on TV. Seriously! We screeched to a halt in front of the theater and ran inside just as they were making the final seating call. We bolted up two flights of stairs to the mezzanine level and scooted in right as the doors were closing. WHEW! It's a good thing we made it, because they don't open the doors again until the show is 22 minutes in. So that's our dramatic story about how we almost missed the show we traveled to San Francisco to see! Anyway, we both really liked the show and felt it was totally worth our time and money.

We had some really great food while we were in San Francisco. I posted a review on Chowhound.com; you can read it at http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/605920?tag=search_results;results_list.

We'll miss you, San Francisco! We're totally going to visit again!

So now it's back to real life. I'll share with you a couple of stories from my real life -- and I hope I'm not the only one who has stuff like this happen...

So last Saturday I was helping to throw a baby shower for my SIL Noelle. I was responsible for bringing some sandwiches, some brownies and some punch. So that morning, I made the brownies and put them in the garage to cool (I often put baked goods in there to cool off a little quicker). I got the sandwiches ready and sent Logan to the store to run an errand for me so I could get in the shower. The kids were watching cartoons downstairs. I went and checked on them, told them that I was going to get in the shower and that their dad would be home in just a couple minutes. Sure enough, just as I was getting out of the shower, Logan was getting home. He came into the bedroom and said, "As I was pulling up to the house, Lily was outside -- in her pajamas -- walking laps around the minivan and crying because I went to the store without her. When she came outside, she left the garage door open -- and Charlie ran out there and ate your brownies." SUPER!!! That is just what I needed! Well, since eating chocolate can do damage to a dog's heart, Logan had to force-feed Charlie hydrogen peroxide to get him to throw up (we knew this was the drill because Charlie consumed an entire plate of chocolate cookies a while back, and the vet told me to feed him hydrogen peroxide). Anyway, it was a lovely way to start the day. :)

The next story also involves Charlie and the bad things that happen whenever I opt to bathe. Today, the kids were playing in the girls' room. I went in and told them that I was going to get in the shower and asked Amanda to let me know if Benson needed help. When I emerged from my room 10 minutes later, I stepped into the hall to see Benson guzzling a bottle of children's Tylenol. WHAT?! How on earth did he get his hands on that? A little detective work led me to this conclusion: Benson had left the girls' room and wandered into the bathroom (I'm beginning to think he has a fixation with the bathroom) where he found a brand new, unopened bottle of Tylenol. On his own, he never could have opened the bottle (child safety lid and all). Enter Charlie, the willing co-conspirator. Somewhere along the line, Benson handed the bottle off to Charlie, who chewed the lid off. Now the sweet purple nectar inside was free for the drinking -- and Benson obliged. When I arrived on the scene, there was a puddle of Tylenol on the carpet and about 1.5 oz. of the original 4 oz. left in the bottle. With great consternation, I called Poison Control and explained the situation. They asked how much Benson weighed, how old he was, etc. After some calculating, the Poison Control guy concluded that Benson weighed enough that he shouldn't be adversely affected, even if he drank half the bottle (which I doubt he did, given the size of the puddle on the carpet). See, kids? It does pay to be fat.

So the next project we'll be working on is a bit of an overhaul in the backyard. We're going to try to go from this:

to this:

I'll have to let you know how it goes. This officially ends my biggest post yet (until next time, of course...)!