Best Wife Ever

I always used to tell Crystal that she is the second best wife to ever walk this planet. Nobody specific was a better wife, but there had to be somebody a tiny bit more amazing, right? (That really makes me sound like a jerk when written out loud) Anyway, I am now sure that there has NEVER been anybody better at being a wife than Crystal. Tuesday night I had a Homeowners Board meeting right after work that I thought would only last for an hour. It lasted for 2 but she had still kept my dinner warm for me. But of course, as soon as I get it warmed up and sit down at the table I get a call from a customer who had no water. So i have to go out to work, but Crystal says to take it with me. I pack my dinner to go.......and forget it on the counter. I finally get home for good and enjoy my grilled turkey/cheese and tomato soup at 9:30.
Little did I know that she felt so bad for me, and was determined to not repeat that hunger episode. She calls me yesterday right before I left work, just to make sure I'd be home on time. I tell her I have to stop at Best Buy to get some wire colors for the remote start I'm helping Scotty with on Thursday, but then I'll be home. She calls me again on the way home just to see how much longer I'll be. To me it sounds like she's got the "I'm ready to not be the only parent here" tone in her voice, so I speed home (Like I wasn't speeding before). I walk in and am immediately told to sit at the dinner table. I'm all dirty so I have to change first, but after changing I am forced into my chair. And then she drops the bomb on me.
She is now the clearcut winner of the Best Wife Ever title.

merry christmas '09

Merry Christmas '09

we got these cute adidas pants for the boys for christmas jammies because jason and i already owned some, they went perfectly with the colts hats the boys got as gifts!

jax was really excited to get his "little drummer boy" skateboard. i think boomer's favorite gift from santa was his "superboomer". did you know they made a doll modeled after our son?!

this year was unconventional and special. jason was on-call for all of christmas weekend, but we made the best of it. here, you'll see pics of what we did right after opening gifts at home. breakfast was eaten at the water treatment plant, and the boys played with their toys there while daddy worked.

okay.. i've tried and tried, but i can't figure out what the whoozie happened to my font. why it is underlined or blue is beyond me...?! anyway...

all my boys were STOKED to say the least about

this gift from max and nana (my mom) can you tell?! it's a slot car race track. they played with it for hours after they left, even.

(oh, so nice of you to show up again!!)
this is one of my all time favorite pics. it's of jax and ma (ma is my stepmom, but i don't really like to call her that. the word makes it sound like we aren't connected as mother/daughter and we totally are!)anywho...i love this pic because it captures ma's sweet spirit. jax fell asleep in the formal living room, with the neon tree. i woke up to hear jax talking and freaked that he'd wake someone up, so i hurried in to find this. granny reading to jax by flashlight. i melted and then thought quick to take a pic of it to remember that moment and how i felt about it. we don't get to be with these guys as much as we'd like, so it's great to witness a bonding moment.

We're adding another Dahlstrom!!!!!

We've been talking about it for a while now; whether we could afford it, how the boys would react, do we really want more poop to clean up? After all was said and done, we decided to go for it. It only took about a month for me to come around to the idea of adding another little one to our brood. And just like that we're 5 strong!

Our little B-Boy

We got these suits as our Christmas pajamas this year because they are ridiculously cute. For example............

THROW YOUR HANDS UP...!!!

i wish they did it long enough to get video, but of course they didn't.

as i'm making lunch today, i had the music blasting and that beyonce song all the single ladies came on. imagine 2 little boys lipsyncing the wrong words to that song and dancing their hearts out. cute, yes. but it gets better. little man yells over the music to big brother..."SHAKE WHAT YOUR MAMA GAVE YA, JAX!!!"

jason decided he wanted to take the boys up to help him put up lights this year. my fearless little "superboomer" trusted daddy without any hesitation. jax, however kept his little feet planted firmly on the ground. some call him a scaredy cat, but i just call him smart! he's a lot like me in that regard. jason will jump into anything head first, i'm a better safe than sorry kinda girl.

we stocked up on lights last year at fred meyer the day after christmas and got them for a crazy small amount. we went with blue and was a bit worried about what it would look like, but i'm pretty pleased. the wreath over the garage was also from last year's sales and the lighted trees were free from grandma!
i'm such a freak when it comes to never paying full price for anything. so anywho... this is the outdoor decorations. a lot but not too much. we are most definitely NOT the jones' in our cul-de-sac. our neighbor to the leftis totally decked out and BLASTS christmas music you can literally hear from at least a block away! i don't mind it though, i'm just happy that he's so in the spirit! we drove through my mom's neighborhood last night, the one i grew up in, to see lights after we left her house and NOONE had any up. so depressing. i sure hope my neighborhood ever turns into that!




we've got some decor going on inside, other than our tree. we decided to decorate our tree this year with ornaments our kids can play with, and hang our important ones out of thier reach (not that they won't find a way to get to them... i know that all too well!) the pic is of our ornament exchange ornaments hanging from garland on the wall above the sofa. next year i will figure something a bit classier looking than plastic garland, but it'll do for now. the boys made a countdown to christmas chain, and me and my girlfriends made these so cute trees. i love my button one. tif made hers with looped ribbon and pompons in green gold and red, but didn't have enough material to finish. i hope she posts a blog with her final product(hint hint,tif!) and jessie made one with all colors of sequins, SO GIRLY, just like she is!!! i can't wait to see her's too. she didn't finish either, but for lack of time as she was gluing them on one by one!! anyway... i'm sure there will be a lot more christmas crafts around these parts, so december may be very blogworthy!!

oh christmas tree

we went out and got ourselves a christmas tree. this year was my year to choose the type, and i went with a noble. i've been excited for it just about all year! it's so cute.

anyway...here is a before pic with the neighbor boy. he really likes it, too. can't you tell?! j/k... his mom brought him over so jason could teach him how to tie a tie for his christmas piano recital, and that's what the thumbs are actually for.

before...





during... (no judging inside-out-pants man. potty training is a tough job!)




after...


merry christmas!!

we love our best friends!!

let me just start by saying how thankful i am for our best friends. we're blessed to have AMAZING friends. for their companionship, yes... but mostly because they are all just good people. we get to have tons of great role models for our children to look up to, and great kids for our boys to be best buddies with. ginna, justin, austin, scotty, lizzie, and brookie, tif, john, keira, scharae, jojo, jess, i love you guys. thank you for loving us unconditionally and being our friends. we are so grateful for you all!

the following pics are from our 6th annual ornament exchange tonight bear with me, i had to get one of each person with their ornament. this year we GAVE from youngest to oldest


some are obvious from the photos, but here's the breakdown for this year...
brookie to jess-nativity
boomer to mama-kitty gymnast(picked it out THOUGHTFULLY on his own!)
scharae to john-handcrafted complete with alphabet noodle to and from names
keira to scharae-same, but different names and of course keira made hers with green!
jax to daddy-"bot barker" (quarter sized clay robot dressed like bob barker-jason's idol)
lizzie to jax-letter to santa (love having the year on it)
jess to boomer- thomas and friends
scotty to keira-jack skellington (keira was SO in love with it!)
jojo to brookie-giraffe bank "second christmas"
me to tif-froggie in a pond
tif to lizzie-christmas tree globe (she flew all the way to holland just for it!)
jason to jojo-a globe for the globetrotter
john to scotty-a sock monkey

it was lots of fun this year. we went out to birch bay to the calder's amazing resort hotel condo for our party. we had lots of good food, conversation,giftgiving, wrestling matches, dessert,dances and giggles!! i'm really sad that we only have one more day with the calders, but i'm so glad we've had a jam-packed week of memory making times with them! it will probably be 5 more months until the next time we see them!