Busy, busy, busy

Apparently a large 'bug' bit us yesterday because we were busy, busy, busy.  Let's just hope that bug bites again today so we can finish what we started!

UPDATE! - Tuesday morning prayers

UPDATE - LIBBY'S SURGERY WENT VERY WELL AND MY FAMILY IS SO GRATEFUL FOR YOUR PRAYERS.  CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE BRAVEST 4 YEAR OLD I KNOW!

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Please say a prayer tomorrow (Tuesday) morning for my precious niece, Libby.  She's four years old and is having surgery to remove a congenital tumor from her ear.  You can check out my SIL's blog for more info here.  We love you so much sweetheart!

Merry Christmas!

A sincere apology

Ah, the holidays.  A time full of hustle and bustle and all things wonderfully Christmas.  I think I've previously mentioned my unnatural love for checking the mail - sadly enough it really is one of the highlights of my day.  And it doesn't get any better than checking the mail during December because the mailbox always has Christmas cards!  I love opening them up and showing them to the kids and we proudly display all of them on the piano.  Well, I am sincerely apologizing to my cousin Glenn and his family, Clay's cousin Daniel and his family, Clay's Aunt Jeanne and Uncle David, and our friends the Louis'.  Here's how it all went down:

4 p.m. - took the kids outside to ride bikes and play
4:05 - checked the mail and was thrilled to get 4 Christmas cards
4:07 - neighbors come outside to talk and play
4:20 - tired of helping Ethan ride his bike while trying to hold the mail, I put it on top of the car
5:30 - go inside to get dinner ready
6:45 - give the kids a shower and get them in their pjs
7:30 - Clay gets home from work
7:35 - we're all in the car ready to drive around looking at Christmas lights
8:25 - I remember I have a prescription to pick up at CVS
8:30 - drop Clay and the kids off at home to get ready for bed while I run to CVS
8:30 1/2 - OH NO!  realize that I never took the mail inside!
8:31 - drive around the entire neighborhood at about 2 mph with my bright lights on scouring the streets for our mail
8:31-9:00 - find above mentioned Christmas cards with tire marks, dirt, leaves, etc. covering them...also find the Target ad, zoo membership renewal form, Mylanta coupon, Clay's corporate AMEX bill and a credit card application...unfortunately, I also picked up a disgusting smushed cigarette package, an old receipt, a used napkin and a ribbon

In closing, I apologize to the unsuspecting families who lovingly mailed us Christmas cards on Friday/Saturday because they arrived at our house on Monday and went through a lot before ending up mangled on our piano.  The end.

Out of the mouth of Rachel

As the kids and I were doing a little Christmas shopping this morning:

Me:  I think Daddy will like this one.
Rachel:  What is it?
Me:  It's a _______ (can't divulge that info just yet)
Rachel:  Why does he need it?
Me:  Because he lost his other one.
Rachel:  Oh, did a witch take it?

Santa love

A couple of weekends ago we spent the evening at a local park waiting for the fire truck to bring Santa and candy-filled stockings for all the kids.  I hadn't heard anything about it, but saw it on the marquis at the park and thought it sounded fun.  So, we asked my parents to come along and it was actually really cool.  They had the entire park lit up and decorated for Christmas and it was beautiful.  They also had free hot chocolate, apple cider, cookies, balloons, popcorn, etc. while you waited.  And then Santa went all around town on a fire truck handing out stockings to kids until he made it to his final stop at the park.  The kids were so excited to see him coming down the street that we even ditched our spot in the animal balloon line!  Santa and Mrs. Claus and the elves made their way to a sleigh with Christmas music blaring all around them.   While we were line we were rehearsing what to say to Santa when he asked you what you wanted for Christmas.  We were only 1 family away from our turn ... finally we were up ... and Rachel lost it.  I guess I shouldn't have been surprised, but for some reason I was.  So, like any good mother would do I just joined Ethan in the picture.  This is what we got (Rachel's giving Santa the major stink eye):


Tuesday night was our second attempt with Santa, and after not making a big deal about it all or even really prepping her for it, this is what we got (after the kids' program at preschool):


And after Santa told her she could get her dollhouse, this is what we got:

...but the fire is so delightful

Thankful

Just a sampling of the things I've been thankful for in the past week.  Unfortunately I don't have any good pictures from the Thanksgiving gatherings with both sides of our family, but that was partly due to an ER visit for Ethan after the worst allergy attack we've seen for him.  But at least it made the holiday that much more memorable, right?!?  I don't have a photo of the Centennial Hospital ER, but if I did then it would be at the top of my thankful list for the past week because of how quickly they got us back.  Oh, and I'm thankful for oral steroids because they made a shot-fearful child VERY thankful.  :)


being able to stay home with these 2


having old friends to picnic with on a beautiful day


a husband who is strong enough to do this so I don't have to


Little Hearts School


friends who are up for random visits to the park


zoo passes


parents who taught me to always thank God first for His abundant blessings

It's definitely fall around here

A few years ago when we were house hunting one of the things at the top of our list was to find a house in an established neighborhood with lots of great trees.  We definitely found what we were looking for and every year I remind myself that a house with 20+ trees in the front yard is a blessing in the summer and a curse in the fall.  Well, it's a curse in the fall for Clay and me because we have to rake and bag the leaves from 20+ trees, but it's a fall wonderland for the kids.  Ethan had a friend come over last week and his friend asked if he could take some of our leaves home with him to play in.  It's all about perspective...

Interview with a 5 year old

Interview with Ethan William - Nov. 11, 2009

1. Favorite color - red and blue


2. Favorite food – Old McDonald’s


3. Favorite cereal – Frosty Flakes


4. Best friend – Addi & Libby


5. Favorite toy – Astroboy


6. Favorite TV show – Danny Phantom


7. Favorite movie – Mickey Mouse


8. Favorite thing to do outside – play with the frisbee


9. Something you like to do with Rachel – play Sequence


10. Favorite Bible story – Noah


11. Favorite animal – elephant


12. If you could go somewhere right now, where would it be – to the zoo


13. Favorite snack – sugar wafers


14. Favorite superhero – Superman


15. Something you like Mommy to do with you – play Sequence


16. Something you like Daddy to do with you – watch movies

And a few photos to document his life right now:

He likes playing computer games - especially with an "audience"


He graduted from Nana's class at church to the 5 year old class and it felt like the end of an era


He's ALL about Star Wars now and was thrilled when Jack invited him to Star Wars Live at Cowboys Stadium


He loves dressing up as a superhero and saving everyone at home, at the grocery store, at school, at church...


His other love is drawing (wonder where he got that from) - he has a few sketch pads that he carries around and he's starting taping up pictures around the house  (you may have to click on this one to see it)


He played his first season of soccer this fall and can't wait for the spring season to start.  Through this, one of my dreams came true of coaching his soccer team...and I even conned my dad into helping me coach!  Ethan did really well and enjoyed it much more than baseball so we'll stick with this for a while.


He's reading now and wants to know what everything spells.  He's doing great at sounding things out, and I'm trying to remain extremely patient when he wants to sound out the next thing on the grocery list before you head down the aisle.  I've been singing the "Be Patient" song in my head a lot lately.  We are very blessed that he has Mrs. Jenny (Tubbs for you AFCers out there) as his pre-k teacher this year.  She is wonderful and he gets very excited when Tuesdays and Thursdays roll around.


Just a couple of other things I want to record so I don't forget in 10 years (or 10 days):

• he wears a size 5 shirt, 4 pants and 11 shoes


• he wants to know how things work and why they work


• he goes to sleep every night with his moon light on in his room trying to match up the phase with the real moon


• he still mixes up baseball with football


• he's a really great big brother


• his favorite treat is gum


• favorite drink is still soy milk - in the red carton NOT the blue carton


• he hates wearing pants and begs to wear shorts and flip flops every.single.day


• our biggest struggle is him not being able to wear shorts to school when it's 40 degrees outside


• still hasn't mastered tying his shoes

And one funny story:  Last week Clay took Ethan to a funeral for the mom of one of Clay's childhood friends.  The night before we were talking to E about how your soul goes to heaven but your body is buried and what it means to go to a funeral.  After a few seconds he asked, "What do they do with your legs when you die?"  Yep, that was his only question.  Obviously I asked him what he was talking about and he asked, "Why do they take your legs off when you die and where do they put them?"  We finally got to the bottom of that and went back to the summer when I took the kids to my great Aunt's funeral.  I let Ethan see Aunt Ann in her casket and when he only saw her upper body he thought someone had taken her legs off.  I really love how literal this kid is.

Friday Funny

We went on our annual church camping trip last weekend and Rachel was in rare form.  She spends the majority of our time camping covered from head to toe in dirt, grass, syrup, leaves, candy, sticks, juice, etc.  She was filthy Saturday afternoon and fell down in the mud and got a big spot on her pants, to which she replied:  "Oh, no!  I CAN'T go out looking like THIS!" 

A typical Sunday

A couple of months ago I read an article in a magazine about a mom who hired a photographer to follow her family around for an entire day to capture a true day in the life for their family.  While I'm pretty sure that I don't want a stranger following me around for an entire day with a camera (especially not into my laundry room or a couple of closets around here), I do think the idea is interesting.  I think it would be fun now to look at pictures of a day in the life when I was five years old.  I really don't remember anything about being five years old except that I tortured my poor mother by insisting that I ride the bus on the first day of kindergarten (and every day after that) and kept waving at her from the back of the bus while she followed us to school in her car (if either of my children do this I think I will crawl in a hole and stay there for a very, very long time - mom, I really am sorry about that!).  Anyway, I'm thinking I'll start trying to capture some more day in the life-type moments around here, and unfortunately, you're going to be subjected to them! 

So, here's a look into a typical Sunday afternoon around here:

Clay and Ethan spend it doing boy things like watching episodes of the 1965 Batman tv show on the computer after they've played a few levels of Lego Batman on the PS3


I spend a chunk of my Sunday afternoon clipping coupons from the paper


And Rachel spends part of her Sunday afternoon recovering from her 5:30 a.m. wakeup that she feels is necessary after the time change

Trunk-or-Treat

A couple of weekends ago we had our annual trunk-or-treat at church.  I really love this event and Clay and Iwanted to put a little more effort into it this year than we have in years' past.  We always say we want to do something good, but end up falling back on the soccer trunk year after year.  Well - not this year!  This year I proposed the idea of turning the car into a shark and throwing homemade fish into buckets in the shark's mouth as the game, and Clay ran with it.  I really wish I had gotten a picture with his eyes that we made out of paper plates, but of course I didn't.  And obviously Clay and I went as shark attack victims which really didnt' set well with Rachel, but she got over it once she realized her entire evening would be consumed with trying to sneak candy from her bucket and hide the evidence. 

Pumpkin Patch

One of my favorite fall traditions is taking the kids to the pumpkin patch every year.  Unfortunately Clay wasn't able to meet us there this year, but we did get to meet up with the Pilgrim and Davis families for some fun. 






Ethan with the camera


Rachel with the camera


2006


2007


2008


2009


Ethan 2006 vs. Ethan 2009