Torrential Rain!

Looks like it was a good thing Jeremy and I reworked the flagstone on the culvert this fall. Seems to be holding up well to all of this heavy rain!

A day in the life of CHEESE

Ethan has been on a picture kick lately and almost insists on a daily photograph...where he likes to give the loudest "cheese" as possible. Here are a few of the daily photos.....let's hope his smile softens as he gets older...*sigh*

Blowing milk bubbles

LENNOX WAS HERE!!!!

Okay, so I don't have a picture, but guess who I saw at TARGET on Friday!! MR. LENNOX!!!! Mom and dad were nowhere to be seen.....Lennox was cruising the store with Papa...and it looks like he got a toy out of the deal too. He had no clue who I was, and his "who is this weird lady that knows my name" look was classic. Furrowed brow and all...
The Cellarius house can't wait until the C-M family moves into their new house down here!!!

Two boys and a not too thrilled fat cat

Ham and CHEESE potatoes

Ethan decided he wanted to ham it up for the camera. He likes to say cheese.

clean cut tots

Jeremy decided it was time for a hair cut because:

1. Aidan had decided to take the scissors to his hair of his own accord because he had gotten some sap in it from the Christmas tree. For those of you keeping count, this is the second time he has worked his own magic on his locks.

2. Jeremy felt Tiny's "muffin head" was getting out of control. While I do love that curly headed muffin, I was in a bit of agreement. He took too much of the curl off, but I'll just let it grow back.

Here is the result:

My clean-cut, non-muffin, freshly bathed children.

Hmmmmm

Dad, I think there's a light bulb out right there......

Here we go a grizzwalding!!

Drove about an hour to Athens, IL, on Tuesday to pick out our tree for Christmas. Ethan didn' t like the cold, but he loved the free popcorn. He also enjoyed protesting the winter boots on his feet. Aidan just wanted to take the saw and cut down all the trees. I'm sure there was a bugle call made out to the secret surrounding tree hugger brigade because of this. I'm going to have to try harder to instill some left-wing values. At least I know he is firmly fascinated with wind farms.

My Job

Oh the joys of retail. And when I say "joys" you should be noting the deepest of sarcasm in my blogging voice. Today I had to:

1. Yell at two people--technically it's called "coaching" and there is no true yelling involved, but the whole process raises your blood pressure all the same.
2. Deal with three pain in the "guest" returns. All three of which felt it was their purgative to be as rude as possible. Happy freaking' holidays. It isn't even Thanksgiving yet.
3. Deal with the mess from another manager who, even after being in his position for over a year, still is unable to communicate and plan his area during a- need I say more- MORE than heavy traffic season. So I had to do his job on his day off.....yet again.
4. Deal with a computer auto fill (essentially a way to refill the floor of product that has sold late the day before and early in the morning) at noon that was a 2 1/2 HOUR PULL. For those of you who don't know, auto fills drop every hour on the hour between 12 and 5 and have to be pulled before the next one "drops" into the system (i.e. you get an HOUR to pull it). Needless to say there were three of us pulling product and we got the batch done at 12:59. Four flats of product to push to the floor and fill. There were only three of us on the sales floor. Someone felt it was fun to mess with Saturday math.
5. Did I mention that I had to also complete my work for the week? Take my own government mandated 30 minute lunch? Cover the front lanes while that manager had to take her government mandated lunch and two 15 minute breaks? Breaks???? What the hell is a break?? I haven't taken a 15 in over 4 months. Ok, maybe one or two per month, but that was only to get off the floor to avoid popping an aneurysm from some other instance of stupidity. And usually I use that time to catch up on planning and computer stuff.
6. Oh yeah, I also had to cut almost a half hour of overtime, so I had to leave early.

Fun stuff. Let's hope tomorrow is better. I'm sure it will be none-the-less interesting.

Now I have to put away the 9 loads of laundry that Jeremy did today. At least I didn't have to do those!!

meow

Squeak!!!

Oh the joys of living in a house in the country.

I heard the cats playing around in the kitchen and then a small squeak. Of course I figured it was a mouse. I arrived in time to see Fat Lew pick it up in his mouth and take it to the laundry room, from where he continued his mousely torment. I think Fat Lew had done most of the dirty work as it was moving very slowly and twitching a bit. You could practically see its minuscule heart beating out of its chest. Wouldn't you be terrified if a giant, orange, furry blob came purring at you out of nowhere. After a few pictures and a video, I flung the tiny rodent outside by his tiny tail where he shall meet his tiny demise. Then the cats both went behind the washer and dryer. This is probably where the rodent made his fateful mistake of entering the premises through the dryer vent. Little did it know there were two fat cats waiting to pounce.

When you give a 4 year old a camera

So, just in case you were wondering how pictures would turn out if you gave a 4 year old a camera.

A keeper!!!!!

Got to love fall.

Ucky

Melts in your mouth and not in your hand is a complete and utter Mars and Co. fabrication.

Happy Halloween!!!

Don't you just want to take a giant bite out of the cutest M n' M in the whole wide world?!?!  Watch out for Mr. Incredible!!!

pre-k field trip

Aidan had a blustery cold afternoon with his pre-k class at a local "pumpkin patch".  Very hill billy, but he had fun.  Very cold.  Aidan is in the front with the yellow caterpillar hat.

Moo-Moo-Moo. Baa-Baa-Baa

In another round of chastisement, Jeremy has to, ONCE AGAIN, post on the blog in order to appease our constituants.  For all you readers out there, please send your "encouragement" to jennifercellarius at hotmail dot com.

This pic comes courtesty of a family outing at The 200 Acres in Arthur, IL.  (Featured on Martha Stewart!)

o-HI-o!!!

A trip to Great-Grandma Cherie's and the 2008 Hartschuh Reunion!

Jen has been "too busy" to blog, and the verbal lashings keep coming in.  So here's Dad's first attempt at posting.  Hopefully this keeps the peace.

Tiny Sick Boy and Mom

We're all feeling better, but last week the whole house was ill. Poor Ethan was a sack of miserable, lead-weight, potatoes. Still adorable, however.

Fat Lew

Fat Lew enjoys bumming a nap where ever and when ever he can. Today it was on the newly washed cover of the changing table. Lazy Cat.

BRRRRRRRR

So a slight miscalculation on Mom and Dad's part.....we ran out of propane last Sat. night. Of course.....no delivery on Sun. Needless to say, by Monday morning it was a bit chilly in the house. We had to bundle up until Hank Hill from Hicks Gas came to "fill'er up". The bill made mom puke.

Tiny Picasso

Aidan and I went to Target to let him pick out a few of his birthday presents this year. He was very frugal and didn't cost mom and dad an arm and a leg. One of the presents he picked was some sidewalk paint. He enjoys painting one brick at a time!

Under construction

If you hadn't noticed in the last video with Ethan walking, we are currently doing some minor remodel adjustments to the house. We're removing the built-in, taking the bookshelf portions and putting them on either side of the fireplace, removing the wallpaper, patching the carpet with a piece from the dining room (which will be replaced with hardwood), re-tiling the front entrance, removing the linoleum in the kitchen and replacing with hardwood, painting the family room-living room-hallway both up and downstairs-and kitchen, replacing the kitchen counter top and sink---and probably appliances too--, and replacing most of the light fixtures on the first floor. Oh yeah, new curtains too. I'm sure there's more that I forgot.....but the house is in a state of chaos for the moment. We hope to have a bit of this done before the birthday/Easter party at the end of March.

Aidan helped to paint the family room.

Hooray Look At ME!!!!

The tiny has begun to conquer gravity!

Quiet PLEASE!!!

Aidan said his new name is Hasenfeffer. He has also been very loud today. Dad had to take drastic action.

Moooooooo

Great Aunt Judi sent this awesome barn down with dad after he visited Grandma before going to the Chicago Auto Show. Moo Moo Moo Baa Baa Baa

My personal sweep

Chim-Chimmeny, Chim-Chimmeny, Chim-Chim-Cheroo

Mom is down for the count

Boo Hoo...mom has the flu.....

Winter wonderland

We got about 10 inches of snow last week. You would never know today, as it was all melted in an instant when we received 4.5 inches of rain two days after that snow. It melted so fast there was a raging torrent of a river in our front yard that went over the driveway.

Uncanny

I hope that if I ever have a girl, her picture will not look exactly like her brother's. Both of these boys are spitting images of each other...though completely different personality wise....

Tractor Prep

The boys were working on the tractor; preparing it for spring planting. Aidan said he wanted to plant carrots and broccoli. Ethan suggested apple sauce or mangoes. He likes fruit. Of course apple sauce came out as "didi" followed by a grunt, but I was able to translate.

Fun times

Those crazy boys....

Mr. Obsession times 2

*sigh*....so I had thought that only one child would have the strange obsession with cords, plugs, fans, and vacuums. I should learn to never jump to conclusions or believe in wishful thinking. It seems that tiny child number two also has a fascination with things a kid should not play with. You should have seen his eyes light up when he saw the fan. He even knew where the on/off switch was and tried his hardest to flip the switch (no, it was not plugged in!).

Christmas time

We enjoyed Christmas morning in our own home for the first time in years. Aidan was very excited about Santa coming. He got to set out a big "X" in the yard in bright red Christmas lights to mark the landing strip for the sleigh. He even tossed reindeer food (peanuts, corn, bird seed, and red and green cake sprinkles) all around the "X" for extra landing insurance. His various emails to Santa were answered and he tore into his gifts with fervor this year. Papa Don celebrated Christmas with us this year at our house. Aidan made sure to get an extra stocking from storage to hang on the fireplace for him so Santa could fill it too.

Let me at those presents!!

Prepping for Christmas

Aidan wanted to help wrap presents.....but ended up taping his brother instead....

Busy busy busy

Where has the time gone! I have to catch up on this blog...so much has happened in the last month....where to begin....
How about the first real snow of the season just before Christmas!! Aidan had a wonderful time making snow trails. The dog had a great time chasing Aidan.