Turkey Take Over

We live in a beautiful place. We love our house, but we especially love the location. We're surrounded by empty acreage which makes our relatively small five acres feel like hundreds. One of the great things that we've come to enjoy is the wild life. Aside from the gophers, who we've made enemies with, the rest of the animals are majestic to watch in there natural settings...until now.

The turkeys have been our on again/off again friends. Friends when they hang out outside the lawn, NOT friends when they stay on the lawn and....cough...cough...leave "fertilizer" all over the place. Because, please remember, though turkeys are birds, they don't leave behind cute little turkey...muffins, they leave behind dinosaur-sized muffins!

It's usually not that bad since the turkeys normally hang out in groups of 10-15. But this winter, the turkey (flocks? cackles? groups? posse's?) have combined for some reason to amass in numbers of 60-80!! I tried to count them a few times and I got up to 67 before they scattered.

I'm not sure of these turkeys' master plan. But I'm a little concerned about a hostile take-over with their sharp talons. If we are attacked by turkeys, don't tell me that I didn't warn you.

Tooth fairy

Caleb, 7, had been close to loosing one of his front teeth for a couple weeks. I had offered to pull the tooth out using various methods we researched on youtube, but Caleb was insistent that he wanted his tooth to come out at school where the kids receive a special box to take it home.

A few days ago, Caleb came home from school with his cheesy grin missing a key ingredient. He explained to us that he had pulled the tooth out himself in the bathroom and had also administered the first-aid needed while alone? A curious story in itself, but we didn't pry much. He was very excited though, enough to overcome the lack of 'special boxes' that the school had apparently run out. He was mostly focused on the arrival of the tooth fairly.

Monica has a cute little bag that the kids put their dead teeth in when placing them under the pillows before night, and that night was no exception. What did change that evening was Abby, 5, caught a case of the barfo-rama's that kept Mon and I up every hour or so through the night. (We're still training Abby to throw up in the toilet or a bowl...and though she's getting better, 'close' doesn't really count in the throw-up game).

As we all woke up and started our morning routine, Caleb came up to Mon and me in the kitchen and announced that the tooth fairy had forgotten him! Whoops! Mon and I immediatly shared some eye contact full of shame, we had completely forgotten about Caleb's tooth. Crisis-control took over and I started to fumble out some sort of story for Caleb as Monica ran upstairs to remedy the situation. Mon quickly placed some money under Caleb's pillow, but not before she found this letter on his bed:

For those who are 1st grader illiterate, it says:

Dear tooth fairy, why did you not come to me and get my tooth.

Write on the back of the paper. P.S. I hope you get my tooth.

Now let's all let out a collective sigh. Ahhhhhhhh.

Mon couldn't bear to write on the same paper (which was promptly held for future generations) and along with the money, wrote a note from the tooth fairy that stated that the tooth fairy was sorry she was late but she didn't want to bother your sister, Abby, while she was sick.

The crisis was averted. But I have to wonder how much longer we can pull this stuff off with our kids.

Christmas Trip

We enjoyed a quick trip to Medford, OR to see family and friends. Grandma and Grandpa Wallace always make Christmas exciting for both kids and adults. It was a great time had by all.


Several people asked that I not play any practical jokes about Santa bringing coal to Caleb. (click here for last year's pratical joke gone bad) Caleb had a curious Christmas in that prior to Christmas, he was questioning the whole Santa story, but has soon as he saw the Lego Police Station that he had requested, he was a believer again. I'm wondering how many Christmases we'll have with the real Santa? Since I'm sure that once Caleb catches on, Abby will know soon after.

After Medford, we came home to spend time with the Foster family. We enjoyed our annual trip to the Coeur d'Alene Resort for gallon-sized ice cream deserts and then celebrated a fake New Year's Eve on Dec 30th. It's always great to spend time with our family for the holidays.

Cousins enjoying their new Pj's from G&G Wallace

Grandpa Wallace reading 'Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

What's Christmas without something from Hannah Montana?

Trains always play a big role during Grandpa Wallace's Christmas