TRENTADUE FLICKS

Tune in for the highlights of 2009... and get a glimpse into our favorite flicks!!





CAST OF CHARACTERS:
Mike: as “Real Estate Dad”
KaLisi: as “Household Managing Mom”
Josh – age 7: as “Baseball Playing 2nd Grader”
Caleb – age 4: as “Bike-Riding Pre-Schooler”
Brooks – age 1: as “Toddling Bundle of Rolls”

FEATURING:
NCIS – (Naughty Children Investigative Service) is more than just an action drama. With silly doses of humor, it focuses on the complex and always amusing dynamics of three young boys forced to work together in mischievous situations. Mike and KaLisi continue to brush up on their forensic skills to determine the “victim” from the “perpetrator” in every crime. Test your own forensic skills by predicting which family member, who in a strange turn of events, backed into Mike’s car one dark night.

LOST – We’re constantly teasing you with mysteries, but here’s a few things that we know for sure... Josh continues to lose teeth at an alarming rate; to date, he has lost 7! Caleb is always moving and we often refer to him as a pocket of powerful electromagnetic energy! This energy often rubs off onto Josh and Brooks, which usually leads to destruction of mass proportions! Brooks, who often appears shirtless, can hypnotize the Others with his sultry gaze and round physique.

24 – 24 is broadcast in the semblance of real time, with each season depicting a 24-hour period in the lives of The Trentadue Five, who work together and fight against threats of H1N1, the broken-garage-door-incident, which trapped a mother and her children in the house for three days, and the Fall of 2009, which buried the Trentadue’s with leaves until two brave missionaries raked them out!

Million Dollar Listing – The first season premiered in 2001, and now focuses on the real estate market in Richmond, Virginia. It follows a very prestigious real estate agent at ReMax Action. The storylines range from a down-town listing becoming the final resting place for a local vagrant, to numerous awkward advances from a flirtatious married client. Unlike the show’s title, Mike likes to keep it in the Hundred-Thousand Dollar range.

Cake Boss – This reality show stars the owner of KaLisi’s Bakery. Hundreds of meals go on her table lined with four hungry boys, who have been known to chant, “We want food! We want food!” She’s a one-woman team and has even tried her hand at decorating the kids’ birthday cakes… although she won’t be winning any prizes, the boys loved her first ever Sponge Bob and Teddy Bear cakes!

Sponge Bob Square Pants – This animated series is an extremely energetic story, which centers on the adventures of three brothers who live in a brick, colonial in the Southeast. Some episodes include: “Life of Crime”, which depicts the lone Joshua’s spontaneous excursion around the neighborhood; “No More Mr. Scaredy Pants” featuring Caleb’s victory over the indoor inflatables at Kangaroo Jac’s; and “Overboard”, a heart-wrenching tale of Brooks’ sudden upside-down plunge into the baby pool!

Flash Forward – What’s in our near future? Josh will be baptized in March… Caleb will be starting Kindergarten next fall… and Brooks will graduate to nursery in April! We look forward to many other 2010 milestones in our family and wouldn’t change it, even if we could!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
Love, The Trentadue's

This year we drove up to Iowa to spend Thanksgiving with my sister, ShaLene and her family, including their newest addition Max Ellis Jorgensen!! My parents were also there, and it was a wonderful visit!!!

Caleb finally got a chance to hold that baby... and he loved it. I think it brought back memories for him of holding Brooks not too long ago!

Here's about half of the grandkids (Canyen, Brooks, JayLene, Max, Caleb and Josh).... we were missing Dustin, Dillan, Taylor and Cole!!!!

Grandpa (my dad) wore his best Thanksgiving tie just for the occassion!

It took several days, but JayLene finally warmed up to me and fell asleep on my lap, wanted me to read books and play. What a fun treat!

We also went to a indoor bouncing place... I can't remember the name... but it was very big, and clean, and the kids had a ball! I even took a few turns down their big slippery slides. One time I tried it head first (only after I saw another kid do it)... but I got busted by one of the mean workers...I'm such a rebel!
Anyway, it was a fun trip and totally worth the 15+ hour drive, an overnight stay in a crappy hotel, and 3 overtired kids!!! Would TOTALLY do it again!!!

Halloween Fun

Before I got fully dressed, I only had my goth make-up and fake eyelashes on... and I had to answer the door. The man at the door was struggling to know what to say. I didn't say anything, I just acted normal (I'm so mean), and I think he thought I was for real, until he saw the werewolf and vampire peek around the door. Then he loosened up and said, "Oh you must be going to a Halloween Party!" it was funny.

Josh as a werewolf... I painted that face all by myself, after watching a few tutorials on youtube. People at the halloween Party had a hard time recognizing him until I told them it was him!

Caleb made a great vampire... although he got confused that people kept calling him Dracula. He was frustrated that they didn't know who he was, until I had to explain that Dracula was the most famous vampire ever. Then he was happy!

Evil Dr. Brooks wouldn't hold very still while I was drawing on his glasses... and out of all the make-up that the rest of us had on, his glasses were the hardest to wash off. Red spots were left where the glasses were. poor dude!

We won a prize for best costumes... since we were all the Monsters of Halloween... inspired by our JibJab video in an earlier post! If Mike was in town, I would have made him dress up as Frankenstein!

This was the costumes the boys wore earlier in the day to go to Story Time at the library! They were a lot easier to put on, and took a lot less make-up!

Pumpkin Pickin'

We went to the Pumpkin Patch to get some pumpkins! It was a great day... nice and sunny... Caleb's favorite part was the wagon ride out to the field...

Brooks loved just holding pieces of hay...

and Josh thought it was funny that he found the smallest pumpkin in the world!

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I'm puttin' them to work!

So, I got another freelance photography job where the client needs pictures of kids doing different things that depict a certain word. It was borderline torture for us all the first time around. The boys hated it, I found myself barking orders trying to get them to suddenly become models and actors overnight... and they would literally run away from me when they saw me pick up my camera and my "list" of words! "No more words!" they would yell!

So now that we're doing it again, they were a little less then pleased! Well, yesterday, they actually did great and we got a lot of words done! Here are a couple of my favorites... some of them they didn't even know they were "working"... because they were just having fun! But they were very cooperative and agreed to help me! And the bonus part is... they're actually getting better! They listen to what I say, and they actually do it! Maybe I could hire them out after all!

"swing""squat"
"swing"
"hug"

Brooks is 1!

This is one of his tricks that I hate! He's like Houdini!





It's amazing even after 3 boys... to see the similarities and differences between all three! And it's been fun to watch our little Brooks develop his personality by watching his 2 older brothers, as well as the things that he completely invents on his own! Here's a few of our favorite things about Brooks, in honor of his 1st birthday!

Brooks is quite the character, and has a pretty mature sense of humor for his age... at least we think he does! He seems to know when things are funny, even though you think it's something that would be completely "over his head". He basically loves to laugh, and make other people laugh too... and he's willing to do almost anything... including funny, weird noises... spitting and weird laughs are his favorites!

He recently started walking, and is pretty good at going slowly from one piece of furniture to the next. Although he has a tendency to get too excited when he realizes how far he's gone without help, and gets going too fast only to crash! But he likes being upright... and I like it too... he doesn't collect as much dust that way! But we do love a particular "Brooks move" when he crawls... he swings his head from side to side as he goes... and he looks like a little horse!

Our boys are also known for their lovely locks... and Brooks is no different! I've cut his hair so many times, I've lost count! We know it's time to cut his hair again when he starts to get little knots in the back, from shaking his head back and forth in his car seat!

When Brooks gets mad, he lets you know it! He loves the remote control, or other technological devices, and can spot them from a mile away, and he does not react kindly when you take it away. In fact, many well-meaning people have offered to let him hold their cell phones, keys, blackberries, etc., but we have to politely decline because once he gets a grip on any piece of technology, he doesn't want to let it go! It doesn't matter whether you're holding him, he's sitting down, laying down, or standing up... he will throw his head back and arch his back and scream! Luckily he's received no head injuries as a result of his temper!

He also knows where he's not allowed to go. Every time he gets near the open bathroom door, he will pause and look back at me and smile, as if he's giving me a fighting chance to close it before he enters. If I don't take that chance to close the door, he will bee-line it for the toilet as fast as he can...but thank goodness the other 2 boys have almost learned to put the lid down!

And he's very photogenic... from at least 6 months of age (or maybe even a little sooner), he would stop and smile whenever we pull out the camera! He loves to be the center of attention, and he literally lights up whenever he sees his big brothers! You can't help but smile when you see his little face!!!

For his birthday "party", we invited his little friend, Marshall, (and his family) to come eat some cake! Marshall and Brooks share the same birthday, so we thought it was appropriate to have them eat cake together too! When Josh and Caleb turned 1, they were a little leery of the cake... and it took them a few minutes to figure out that it was something they wanted to eat... but not Brooks... as soon as we set the cake in front of him, he knew exactly what to do and started taking big handfuls of cake and shoving it in his mouth! He sure loves food!

Brooks is the man of the house these days, and pretty much gets whatever he wants! We just love him to death... so much in fact, that we just chew on him all the time! It's just too hard to turn down those yummy rolls on his arms and legs... And even after the 3rd time around, we're amazed at all the fun things that he's learning to do... it just doesn't get old to just sit and watch him discover everything around him! Here's to you, Brooks! We love you!!!


Another poor attempt at my cake decorating skills.... but hey, this is pretty good for me! :)

This is our Birthday Buddy, Marshall!... they were born on the same day, so they're destined to have b-day parties together!!! hehehe!

It's hard to tell from this picture, but Brooks just grabbed the entire piece of cake, and held it to his mouth... he was literally sucking the sugar out of that cake!

Brooks is walking!

It started about a week ago. He's getting braver! His favorite time to show us his tricks is at night... he paces back and forth between furniture. Here he is showing off his skills... as well as his rolls!

Caleb's first day of Pre-School

Caleb is excited about going to school... next year he will start Kindergarten and ride the bus... but in the meantime, I am doing a little co-op with some other kids his age. Yesterday was our first day, and it was at our house, and I had to teach. Caleb is still a little leery of going to school at home (trust me, I am feeling the same hesitation)... but it was fun. Very busy... but fun.
Here are a couple highlights from our day!


We were learning about the letter "A", so we pretended to be "artists" and painted a still-life of "apples".
I thought it was appropriate that Caleb wear Josh's old painting shirt.



We also went outside and found objects around the yard that had the letter "A" in the word and sorted them into buckets. The kids found "leAves, brAnches, Acorns and grAss".



Another good first day!

Back to School

Back to the "grindstone"! This summer has been very relaxing and easy-going and wonderful for our family! And as much as I hated for the summer to come to an end, as of Labor Day (the day before school started), we were ready to get the school year underway! Josh wasn't nervous about school at all. He got Mr. Shieber this year for 2nd grade, and he knows most of the kids in his class including one of his best buds! So Josh headed off to school on the bus, and had a good first day!

Caleb, Brooks and I also had a good first day! Me and Caleb made chocolate covered pretzels... we had good little chats... and he practiced writing his name, letters and numbers.

We did experience a few bumps as the afternoon wore on... I'll spare you all the details... but overall, it was a good day!

I'm no Ty Pennington... but...

I don't like to do this... but I've had several requests to post my latest creations! The first one is a $10 dresser from a yard sale that I refinished! I use it in my kitchen as storage for all the kids' art, craft supplies and other odds and ends. It has revolutionized my kitchen area and now I can't imagine my life without it.

The second pic is a storage bench that I made to not only hold blankets, our Rock Band equipment, and other random stuff... but to also provide extra seating in our family room. I've never done any wood-working... not even a shop class... so this has been a fun learning experience for me! This beast is 72 inches long, and 18 inches deep... we joke that it's the size of a coffin and that I will someday be buried in that thing because I'm so proud of it! I also made smaller benches for the boys to put in their room. They are helping me by painting them all by themselves, so it has been a fun mother/son project!

The only bad thing about doing all these little projects is that Mike now thinks that I can fix anything and everything... so he's slow to do things around here now. What was I thinking? I can't play clueless anymore!