sybrowsky year-end review - march 09

In addition to Grandma Holly's visit in March, we celebrated March with a family getaway to Great Wolf Lodge (aka Grateful Lodge according to Addy) near Olympia. Not only is it a huge kid-friendly hotel, it is an indoor water park. Eighty-degree weather in March? I'm there.

We watched movies,


ate treats (in our underwear for some reason),


played kung-fu with the fountains,



went on HUGE waterslides,


tried to spray Mom whenever she was in squirting distance,


went to story time with the wolf,


and got really, really wet!


Boy were we tuckered out when we got home!

sybrowsky year-end review - january 09

Hi, my name is Mandy, and I am a crafting addict. Especially when it comes to the holidays. I make myself and my family crazy every year. So when I received some wise advice from my boss this year, I decided to take it and try to save Christmas. She said she heard this from husband years ago and took it to heart: "Don't ruin another holiday by sewing!" And I'll add or papercrafting, baking, decorating, etc. So when I caught myself holding my family up for a holiday get-together with friends while I was madly trying to finish their Christmas gifts, I decided then and there to let go. I stood up, turned off my sewing machine (with the project still under the needle), grabbed my coat and left. It felt so good. This is also why I stopped making my Christmas cards about 10 cards into the 60 on my list. Only family and a few close friends got cards this year. The rest of you will have to live with this photo of our card, and our sincere wish for a wonderful new year! And if you're a craft addict like me, decide now not to ruin any holidays for yourself or your family--let it go. It is okay.

So since we didn't get a Christmas letter out this year, and because I've been getting threatening Facebook messages from friends and family about my lack of blogging, I decided to do a Sybrowsky Year-End Review. I'll post 12 entries with pictures and stories from each month of 2009, a tough but rewarding year, full of lots of opportunities for growth. Thank you all for your friendship, love and patience as we adjusted to changes in our lives and schedules. We are so lucky to have so many wonderful people in our lives. Life is good!

january 09
We returned home from Christmas in Utah for the end of the snowiest winter ever in Seattle. The boys loved playing in the snow!


James was the student of the week at preschool. We made this poster together and he answered some questions about himself:
Favorite food: pizza, quesadillas, and candy
Favorite color: all the colors!
Favorite song: "Ring of Fire" by Johnny Cash (ha!)
What do you want to be when you grow up: A bone doctor, a basketball player, and a builder


James makes his own book of astronomy. Here's a sample. We were impressed with the detail and accuracy.

killing easter eggs

James: "Mom, is that the stuff we use to kill the eggs?"

Me: "Huh?"

James: "The stuff to kill the Easter eggs."

Me: (Pause) "Huh?"

James: "That thing we're doing tonight."

Me: "Ahh, you mean the stuff we use to 'dye' the eggs. Uh, that's actually a different word than the 'die' you're thinking of. But yes."

I shouldn't be surprised that James is finding a way to make even Easter a spooky holiday. Killing Easter eggs. Check out this cracked egg he dyed. He loved it because it looked like a creepy spider web.

And I wasn't at all surprised when he came home from school with this one-eyed, fang-baring Easter bunny. Sadly, neither was his teacher. It seems he turns almost every art project into some kind of monster.

Despite trying to give this sacred holiday a Halloween spin, James was actually very interested in the meaning of Easter. He learned quite a bit about the Savior's death and resurrection in school last week, and came home with some good questions. After a long discussion about why Jesus had to die, his response was, "Mom, how come when I ask you questions you talk for such a long time?" Oops. Apparently I bored him. Hopefully something sunk in.

He was most excited about the Easter egg hunts and the surprises he was expecting from the Easter bunny. We had a fun Primary egg hunt on Saturday at the church. The boys had so much fun, but James was "super mad" that Addy found more eggs than he did. He thought it was "so not fair." But it was still the "best day ever."



Christian was on call today (third Easter in a row, poor fellow), but he made it home in time for our egg hunt. James loved his new sunglasses (he's been eying them for about a month at WalMart).

Grandma Holly got them each a book and we read them several times today. I love good kids books! These are both winners.

It's so nice to have this Earth book as a reference. James has been asking me how whirlpools, volcanoes, and lightning work, and my answers until today have not been sufficient. Now we have all the details he needs. Thanks, Grandma and Grandpa!

Of course 95% of the candy was consumed today. Here's James' candy sandwich, made from two Laffy Taffys and four jelly beans. Needless to say, the sugar high lasted most of the day.

But it really was a wonderful day. We are so thankful for our Savior and the chance we had to think about him and celebrate the wonderful gift he's given us. We hope you all had a wonderful day, too!

sybrowsky quote of the week - noses and elbows

For a while James had a strange obsession with smelling everything he put his hands on. He smelled each fruit snack before he ate it; he'd put his pajama top to his nose before putting it on; he'd even stop to sniff out his Hot Wheels car during the middle of a big race. I thought it was weird, and I didn't want him wiping his nose on everything, but I didn't think it was that big of a deal. Jessica's son who is about the same age was doing the exact same thing, and we would watch them do it and giggle.

Christian, however, got very frustrated with all the smelling and was constantly asking James to stop. My favorite quote from Christian (and this demonstrates his parenting method) is, "James, you may not smell anything ever again!" To which James replied, "I'll never stop smelling." Kid one, Parent zero.

He's mostly stopped with the sniffing game, but he's become very vocal about the various odors he encounters. He has a super-sniffer, which he inherited from either his father or Grandma Holly. Either way, he's not stingy with his super-smelling abilities and is always willing to share with whoever will listen what odors are perturbing his senses. For instance, when we walk into a public restroom, he'll very loudly comment, "It smells stinky in here! Like diarrhea!" Once he went with Christian into Harborview Medical Center on a quick errand, and when they returned to the car, all he could talk about was how stinky the hospital was. So one day while he was talking about how he is going to be a bone doctor just like daddy,

I asked him this:

Me: James, how are you going to work at the hospital if it's too stinky?"

James (without missing a beat): I'll just have to plug my nose and do it with my elbows."

Apparently he'd already thought it through and decided, yes, this is something I can work around.