give me your hungry

these women are amazing providers. whenever i go to galadriel's or leah's there is food. and that's what i'm talking 'bout. last sunday the boys made a special trip to see the monster trucks. big and little boy alike enjoyed the demolition, however, if i hear "ARE YOU READY?!" one more time my ears will explode. it's usually yelled at the top of your lungs (you being ryan) and then everyone else chiming in "ARE YOU READY?!!!" or adding some other detail from the escapade.

the girls stayed at the gale's, talking and eating and feeding little ones too small to feed themselves. except for isobel. she has no trouble eating on her own. i'm so proud of her. however (and this is important) she's got this deal with tom where she is almost afraid of him. i guess the story goes something like that: he loves her too much, and she feels smothered. it's really too bad, because lovin' from tom is a nice thing. maybe one day she'll learn that hugs and kisses from cute boys are good things...i'm sure luke can wait for that day, though. but for now, she knows how to reject men really well.

i'm ready for my close up

i just watched the last hour of 'sunset boulevard' and i'm not sure how it relates to tom. but it was actually quite scary and i don't recommend it to anyone. i will say 'walk the line' was wonderful, the best movie wyatt's ever seen. i cried, as any normal person would. also, 'king kong' was worth the price of admission. a bit lengthy, but much more entertaining than i could have imagined. i have a very limited imagination, though.

luke's a movie

since it kind of seemed like luke was talking to himself about the whole movie link, i'll let you know that i was schindler's list. and while i may identify with nazi germany and hitler, oh wait...no it's because i'm SO compassionate and put others first. which makes sense since apparently i like to throw the martyr card at tom.
tom was sunset boulevard, which he wasn't too happy about because neither one of us knew anything about the movie. and then it was on tv, so we recorded what little we could and i think he was mad that it's such an old movie.
then we tried the leader test from the same website and i came up saddam hussein first, then really truly hitler. now's probably not a good time to mention that i studied german for three years in college. maybe that's why i like the thompsons and the gales so much, little blond-haired, blue-eyed babies everywhere. all joking aside, where did adolph get off thinking that was the perfect combo anyway, little dark-haired, dark-eyed moustache man? and when did this post get so crazy? i'll stick to stories about the baby and the dog. sorry guys.
(all of this started because i was responding to luke, remember?)(do you think i'm going crazy with rhetorical questions?)

i wasn't kidding

thank goodness for other dogs. since monday, zero has been hanging out at our house while his parents, jason and colleen, have their baby. brenden dean was born on monday evening and is terribly cute. unfortunately, i forgot to bring my camera when we visited last night, so you don't get to see his cuteness. here with yuma is zero. he's an american bulldog and he is THICK. they have played outside almost the whole week, biting and wrestling and chewing and barking. poor zero tried to get a little hump-action in, but yuma made sure he knew who was boss. and i wasn't joking about yuma being confused on who is a dog and who is a baby. as wyatt gets more alert i introduce him to new things: last week it was two little finger puppets, a frog and a turtle. as i sat on the ground and danced them in front of wyatt, yuma seemed a bit overly-interested in these guys. not long after our little play time we left the house, and i made sure the puppets were on the table, not quite out of reach for yuma, but not in her domain. when we came home the little turtle was no where to be found. hmmm... i had my suspicions. when i got up for a late night feeding (i wish it was cookies and coffee instead of breastmilk) i noticed the evidence, plain as day (or night with a lamp on). the proof is before you folks. what's a mother to do? one day wyatt will be big enough to tell yuma what's what, but for now is it right that the baby and the dog are sharing toys? is this yuma's way of telling us that she hates it when abbie takes her toys? will this confusion ever end?

are you who you think you are?

my brother sent this link to my whole family to see what movie we all are. the whole idea is based on the myers-briggs test. lately i've been interested in personality tests, trying to look at myself from a broad view. i'm not an introspective girl, usually just living every day as it comes, hopefully relying on god and his plan but not really thinking deeply about life. a group of us have been learning more specifically about the seven redemptive gifts from the new testament. it seems like we're all finding what "mold" we're made out of, with all of our drawbacks and quirks. it's been more reassuring than most personality tests, revealing a bigger picture of how we work together, like the arms and legs and eyes of this great endeavor. maybe you already know where you fit in, but i'm still curious, what movie are you?

sibling rivalry

we have a jealous dog. i thought we had drawn the line between pet-love and child-love, but apparently yuma is convinced otherwise. i hope wyatt doesn't get confused.

they say this is christmas

we made it, the other side of christmas.
we hope you all had a great season of celebration; afterall, this is the best excuse for time together with people you love and remembering the one who loves us the most. is that why we give gifts? in the blake family we resolved that we're not about the gifts, sending out lists and making sure we meet the financial standard. it's a nice feeling, knowing that this year we're focusing on our relationships and sending cards and things on birthdays and just spending more time together over the holidays. not that we could ever spend more time together than we did this last december 25th to january 1st. in the franz family we resolved that we would continue to give gifts for every holiday and pseudo-holiday, because that's our familial love language. what did you learn from your holiday? was a smaller gathering the greatest gift? did you start a new tradition? what moment made you smile the most? we had a full week but here's a glimpse of the madness we called christmas...
even though he believed with his whole heart that the long package under the tree was a light saber, miles was stoked to get a bow just like his dad's. only bigger...isobel got one of her many puzzles, the eternally cute carebears. she was eager to start putting it together, but i'm not quite sure why she isn't wearing a shirt. papa rod dressed up like ol' saint nick and handed out goodies to abbie and wyatt. then he hopped on his unconventional golf cart and made his rounds through the neighborhood. wyatt could hardly stand the excitement. i'm still waiting for my pony.
the don, aka mike blake, celebrated his 60th a little early, but definitely in style. we got on the party bus and toured the city, visiting places around town that have special meaning: his boyhood home, the "house on cottonwood" where the blake kids grew up, his office, et al. it will go down in the history books as quite a great surprise and quite possibly the longest limo ride ever.it's a good thing wyatt likes his car seat. and loves being held.
merry christmas to all, thanks for being part of our lives. we love you all and hope your 2006 is filled with lots of laughs and many blessings.

the boys

wyatt and andrew had their first sleep over on new years. aren't they cute? it's safe to say that they get their cuteness from their moms, eh?