LIFE AT OUR HOUSE

You know, this picture about sums it up. Baby doll with a sword. There you go. My son actually positioned his sister's doll like this....

You have competition, Chucky!

FOOTBALL!! WOW!!!!!

Hi!! from Jarod.

Today, I am going to talk about this whole KU-MU football Border War (Armegeddon at Arrowhead) concoction in perfect hindsight. For all you KU alumni (CCers) who are spread out across the globe and have been wondering what the heck happened this year with the football team since you all went elsewhere, here's my take on it.
MU did what they were expected to do. KU actually did, too. Although MU's schedule was slightly tougher, neither team played a schedule worthy of a top-10 team BCS team. KU's schedule would be considered tough for a Div.-2 school. Their toughest opponent prior to MU was Texas A&M and Colorado, and did either of them win seven games this year? MU did beat Illinois, but that was the first game of the season. I think half the teams in the Big-12 would've won that game, and NOBODY thought Illinois would be the one to dethrone #1 Ohio St. Then they beat Ole Miss. and lost to Oklahoma, followed by a win against Texas Tech. Those were their tough games. Big deal. They should go 11-1; the same for KU.
KU and MU got to their high rankings in a fashion that would be analogous to a company janitor rising to the position of company CEO in a year's time only because every other employee ahead of the janitor kept getting fired or quit. Every team ahead of KU and MU kept losing.
Missouri is good, but I think they'd get their JOCKSTRAPS handed to them if they played a PAC-10 champ this year. The reason they beat KU at Arrowhead is because KU had a really bad case of nerves. You could see it in their faces the whole first half. Suddenly, with #1 LSU going down, this was it: the janitor was being promoted to CEO; 'Do we really deserve this?' Arrowhead, with 80,000 college fans, might be the loudest sports venue in America. It was too much at first, too electric, so they screwed up early. But once they got used to it and settled in, Missouri couldn't stop them. Four consecutive TD drives in the last 20 minutes. If KU were given an extra two minutes, MU fans might have been calling for coach Gary Pinkle's job again. Face it, MU fans: KU misses two FG's, throws two interceptions, falls behind 21-0 and then 28-7, and KU still had a chance to win at the end? MU will either get beat by Oklahoma or get whooped by their BCS opponent.
It will be interesting to see how both teams respond to newfound success next year. Missouri faces three potentially tough games: Illinois, Texas, and KU. That's it. Other than that, they get to sit in the recliner against Southeast Missouri, Buffalo U., Nevada, Baylor.......they should go undefeated. KU, on the other hand will get plenty of battle scars next year: at South Florida, at Oklahoma, Texas and Texas Tech at home, then MU.

(rebecca wanted me to apologize for the length of this entry. i'm very passionate about football. guy, you know.)

Thanksgiving...fun, and bloating!!!

Here is a sampling of the kids...the four boys in the middle were all born within 6 months of each other! Yowza! :)

My gorgeous cousins Julia and Carolie! Someone actually asked us if we were triplets when we were kids...
The fam! We took about 100 pictures trying to get one with everyone smiling and looking at the camera. Didn't happen.
Brother Dave with his wife, Angie. David kept making stupid faces and Angie almost killed him...she's pretty tough to have put up with him for 12 years!
Timmy Tim with wife Carmen. Tim and Carmen are becoming old pros at this marriage stuff now...they celebrated their 1 year anniversary earlier this year!

The food was delicious...thanks so much to mom and everyone who contributed to the meal. The Erickson/Bass family sure can pack it away, can't we? :) Love you all!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

Well, my baby girl is turning 2 in just a few days. It is a little sad, really. I think about my baby walking around, talking, and running around with the big kids. She doesn't act like a baby at all. In many ways, that is good. I obviously want to see her mature and learn new things. I don't really want her to remain a baby. But, I think every mother knows what I am talking about when I say that sometimes, you just get that ache to hold a baby, or maybe throw caution to the wind and see if you can get pregnant one more time. Realistically, I don't want to have any more children. They are expensive and Jarod and I want to retire before we are 90. But oh, if I were rich and had a nanny... I guess it won't do me any good to think about all the "what ifs" I should just enjoy what I have...which is a wonderful husband and 2 healthy, beautiful children!

Now, totally changing direction...we actually had Elizabeth's birthday party a couple of weeks ago since her birthday is right around Thanksgiving. I have included some pictures from her party...enjoy!

HALLOWEEN!!!! FINALLY!!!

Well, Isaac has been asking for about the past 3 months when Halloween was going to get here.

Well, it came. And so did the CANDY!!!! Every house we went to loaded the kids up with more candy than we could eat in 10 lifetimes. Apparently, trick-or-treating is getting less and less popular with the younger parents, who favor safe church or school parties. But not Jarod and I! No siree bob...we prefer good ol' fashioned trick-or-treating: walking around poorly lit streets in the chilly night, knocking on strangers doors and asking for candy, and of course the fun of checking for razor blades and/or drug-laced candy. I wouldn't trade it for the world! But enough about me...let's talk about the kids!!!

You would have thought that dressing up like a dinosaur is the equivalent of winning the lottery or something. Isaac loved that silly costume! In fact, he wore it almost every day for at least an hour or two for about 2 months leading up to Halloween. He wanted to sleep in it and wear it to Wal-Mart and stuff. Looking back, I should have let him wear it to Wal-Mart...I mean, who cares? :) My mom did take Elizabeth shopping at Kohl's on Halloween in her Ladybug costume and everyone loved her! I guess Elizabeth kept saying "hi" to people and pointing to herself saying "big bug" and laughing at herself. She was like a big drunk-acting ladybug.

So, to sum it up, my kids loved Halloween and Jarod and I had lots of fun, too. Yeah! :)

"YES, I AM OLD." HIGHLIGHTS FROM MY 10 YEAR HIGH SCHOOL REUNION

As you may have guessed from title, I recently attended my 10 year high school reunion. And yes, I am now officially "old." My co-worker Jenny always makes fun of me because I usually seem to put myself in some sort of age category close to high school or something. I have a very hard time accepting the fact that every year that goes by, I get farther and farther from being cool. Earlier this year, I saw a guy I went to high school with and remarked that he was looking "very old, like around 30 or something" to which my co-worker (and very good friend) Jenny remarked with a wicked grin, "yeah, you mean like you?" Hmm...good point. So I am accepting the fact that I am growing older. Married? check. Kids? check. Mortgage? check. Likes to stay at home in sweatpants? check. Takes multiple herbal supplements for regularity and lower cholesterol? check. Well, that does it. I fulfill all requirements to be listed as old.

But, here is the good news....going to my reunion made me feel young again! I actually really enjoyed myself! Seeing pictures of myself from high school and having people remind me of the many stupid things I did back then was hilarious and exhilirating all at the same time! Everyone, including myself, seemed to be a little nicer, a little easier to talk to, and a heck of a lot more mature. I just want to say to everyone at the reunion: I really enjoyed seeing you and thanks for a great night!

By the way, I forgot to bring my camera to the reunion...so the picture of Jarod and I is actually from the night of the reunion, it was just before we went out, but since there aren't any pictures of Jarod and I in this blog...I decided to throw it in!

GIVE ME A HEAD WITH HAIR....

I'M SORRY...I KNOW I'M HER MOTHER, BUT DON'T YOU JUST LOVE THAT HAIR COLOR? :) ANYTIME I'M OUT SOMEWHERE, PEOPLE LOOK AT HER, LOOK AT ME, AND SAY.. "WELL, HER FATHER MUST HAVE RED HAIR" AND SORT OF LOOK AT ME LIKE MY HAIR COLOR IS OBVIOUSLY SO UGLY THAT I COULD NEVER HAVE CONTRIBUTED TO HER HAIR COLOR... I WOULD LIKE ALL TO KNOW, THAT FOR RED HAIR TO ACTUALLY HAPPEN, BOTH PARENTS HAVE TO HAVE THE "RED HAIR" GENE, DUE TO THE FACT THAT RED HAIR IS A RECESSIVE TRAIT... SO TAKE THAT ALL THE PEOPLE OUT THERE WHO THINK I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH MY DAUGHTER'S RED HAIR!!!! ;0

ISAAC WRITES HIS NAME! GENIUS IN THE FAMILY!!

What do you think of our son's first time writing his name? Keep in mind, he is only 3...and he's already writing better than Jarod! :)

WORDS OF WISDOM: BY ISAAC STEVENSON

YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT KIDS WILL SAY! :)

"IF YOU RUN OUT OF CRACKERS, YOU DON'T HAVE CRACKERS ANYMORE. THERE ARE NO MORE CRACKERS TO EAT. BUT MOM CAN ALWAYS GET MORE AT WAL-MART" (TELLING ELIZABETH ABOUT THE WORLD OF CRACKERS)


"THE OTHER DAY, WHEN I WAS IN THE CAR, I SAW JESUS. I SAID, 'JESUS? WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?' AND THEN WE RODE IN THE CAR TOGETHER" (SPOKEN RANDOMLY OUT OF NOWHERE)

"MOM, I LOVE YOU. NOW CAN I HAVE A SUCKER NOW?" (ASKED IN THE BANK DRIVE-THRU)

JAROD'S SECRET TALENT

SPRING BREAK AT THE STEVENSON HOUSE! WOOHOO! (Just kidding) I just liked this picture so I thought I would throw it in...the real purpose of this post is to showcase Jarod's secret artistic talent! Apparently, Jarod likes to paint, and is actually quite good at it, which he somehow kept secret from me for 6 YEARS! Can you believe it? Anyway, a couple of months ago, he came up and told me that he wanted to paint a dinosaur on Isaac's wall in his bedroom. I sort of smiled and nodded my head, calculating the cost of paint to cover up whatever Jarod was going to do to my poor son's wall... Well....surprise! Jarod can actually paint! Boy was I shocked! :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Notice the fine detail of the dinosaurs...excellent work! :) Also, who can beat the Hulk? I mean, come on? What boy wouldn't want the Hulk on their bedroom wall? Jarod actually added to the Hulk painting later...there was a cartoon caption above him that says "HULK BRUSH TEETH"

Isaac reminded us that Hulk also says "HULK SMASH!" Thanks for keeping us on our toes, buddy! :)

Riding in the car with mi mama

Hello Everybody! Mom is busy right now so we decided we would add a little something to this thing called a "blog". We wanted to express our great love for our wonderful mother and all the things she does for us everyday. We especially love to express this love in the car. Usually we try to make as much "traveling noise" as possible...things like screaming, screeching, and singing nonsensical songs at the top of our lungs. Sometimes we also pinch, scratch, and hit each other so mom can know how much we like each other. When we do that, Mom gets a crazed look on her face and pulls the car over, yelling in a threatening voice and saying things like "wait till we get home!" and "wait until I tell your father what you were doing!" We are pretty sure mom enjoys all of these things, so we continue to make noise and hit each other...purely to entertain our mother. Uh oh, she's coming back, gotta run!

Yeah! Blog Time!

So I decided to try this whole blogging thing, since I am trying to learn how to use a computer at a normal 3rd grade level or above now. I swear, I am the most ignorant computer-user (other than my husband) who was born after the year 1970. Basically, I don't even know if one person other than myself or my mom will read this ever. I sort of wanted to keep people updated on my cute kiddos, not that I want to brag or anything, but this is going to be a bit of an experiment. For people who haven't talked to me or Jarod for awhile, this will sort of fill them in on what has been going on. We're not really all that exciting. We go to work, clean the house, do yard work, sleep, and start all over again (here the music in the background to the tune of pick yourself up, dust yourself off...)

Anyway, I have been busy birthing 2 children in the last 3 years and Jarod has been trucking around the metro in a big old semi-truck. I also work for State Farm Insurance and believe it or not have had lots of fun dealing with insurance. Ok, that isn't really true, but I have tons of fun with my co-worker, who happens to be a girl I've known since we were kids. We get along really well and spend too much time chatting, but it is such a great break from being with the kids all day (warning--for really sappy moms, I am not your woman! I like getting out and away from the kids on a fairly regular basis!)

Jarod is very manly (at his job) and wears a uniform with his name clearly stated for all to see. JAROD. You see, if your name is always on your shirt, people won't forget you. And they will also remember to spell your name with an "o" instead of an "e" or "a" I mean, I guess you could use any vowel and it would sound ok, but it wouldn't be right!! Anyway, Jarod also likes his job and thinks it is great to look threateningly down at other vehicles while driving down I-70 at 70 miles an hour. (yikes!)

Our 2 kids are named Isaac and Elizabeth. Isaac is 3 and Elizabeth will be 2 in a couple of months. Isaac just started preschool and Elizabeth is spending a lot of time saying "bubby" and pointing at the door, wondering when Isaac will get back from school (which he only goes to 2 days a week) My wonderful mother watches the kids while I work 27 hours a week. She is awesome. I actually have my meals cooked for me and waiting several days a week. Can you believe it? It's like I get to have a wife, which of course is the best...men have it so good!

We will learn more about the kids as I update the blog with our daily adventures.... Thanks for looking!