It's a Cotten life: January 2013

January 25, 2013

Happy! ... oh nevermind

Alrighty, I should have done my list before the sun hid behind a cloud, before I had to argue with my computer (and lost!) about playing downloadable audio books from our library, before the kids started arguing over silly things.

Pretty much, I am sitting in my warm house on this cold day with a tummy full of an orange (I really like oranges) and a (momentary) quiet houseful of kids and am finding it hard to make a list of things I am happy about. There is no excuse for me. I am a whiny rich kid. Except I am not rich or a kid. Just whiny.

But Justin is coming home.

Lily is sitting in her cardboard house talking happily to herself.

Our new-ish wall clock is chiming.

Orianna is sitting on the sofa reading a book with her bag packed to go to Livie and Tori's for a sleepover tonight.

Gilbert has been helping me all day--vacuuming, picking up fridge magnets, pulling things out of the dishwasher.

And Elsie had her first ever pony tail today.

These pictures are giant. I have no idea why. But she is cute even in giant size.

And now, I think I will go have a little attitude readjustmet--namely go into my very cold uninsulated walk in closet and fold clothes in the freezing, can-see-your-breath temperature so that when I come back into my warm house, I can find true happiness.

January 23, 2013

Gingerbread Fun (or Madness)

I am using pictures from My camera AND Clover's, so the pictures won't be in total order. Embrace the imperfection. I like to mask my laziness in not wanting to sort out the pictures as a virtue you should have.

Evan definitely looks slightly bonkers here. Building the barn out of cardboard to help support the gingerbread and to give them templates to cut the gingerbread out.

Yeah, they are construction workers.

Gingerbread, all baked

Icing

Oh yes.

The molasses icing trail was the most popular part of eating it.

Dad said it looked like a manure slick and the EPA would definitely be contacting him about it going right to the creek.

And Pepsi was consumed in the making of this barn.

It really is quite clever

The hay elevator with peanut butter ribbon candy

A tractor with a tire off and a battery cable hooked to it

Silo with pigeons on top

Two dogs, not a good picture of them. The two smudges, are actually dogs.

Chicks

Scheming. And finishing the Candy Kraft ribbon candy.

And then, they started getting creative.

Then they baked some gingerbread for the kids to make a house out of

Gumdrops. What perfect gingerbread house candies they are.

Admiring the gingerbread house

Not allowed to touch? What is the fun in that?

A close up of the pigeons on the silo. Crazy, mad skills.

Then, once the Oregon Vaughans got here, the gingerbread house was destroyed and eaten. It was fun.

A happy houseful of Vaughans!

And then Sunday, after the Barkley's got to admire the barn, it got eaten too.

A bit chaotic

But fun!

The remainders.

It was fun while it lasted. The guys were very firm that their barn had to be eaten before it got stale. So it only hung around for... 2 days I think it was.

Random Holiday Days

The other day, I was looking at some pictures a friend of mine had on facebook. Her sister had come home for the holidays (from Europe) and they had a high old time. There were approximately 75 pictures. Lets just say that I took more than that. I don't know how these people do it, not taking pictures. It is a bit like a compulsive urge. It bothers me to not take pictures if I think they need to be taken. So bear with me here. Or just skip this post and the following ones today.