December Highlights

This Christmas season we're enjoying all the SNOW! Two snow days last week found us baking Christmas goodies and watching Christmas movies. In jammies of course. :) Blowing snow drifted over our furnace pipe and we woke up to a freezing cold house Wednesday morning. Thank goodness for a fireplace and for repairmen who came over first thing that day. Derek snowplowed and shoveled for almost 5 hours that day...what a blessing to be able to help others like that. An elderly couple I didn't know came up to us at the movie theater and thanked Derek for his hard work. Seeing their gratefulness really blessed my spirit.

Kings of the Hill

There's nothing like playing in the snow with Daddy. All the boys, Derek, and Ginger played on a huge snow pile out front. The kids are still tunneling their way through that mountain. I know snow causes adults a lot of headaches, but none of that matters when I see the kids having fun in it! The backyard has snow forts and tunnels too, although with the high snow drifts I've had to watch the dog a bit more closely. She likes to perch herself on the tallest hill and peer over the fence. Yikes! Thankfully she hasn't jumped ship...yet.

Friday night our kids spent the evening with their cousins while Derek and I went Christmas shopping. Thanks to a great brother and sister-in-law, I can officially say we're all done shopping now! Saturday the boys spent the night at Grandma and Grandpa's house sleeping around the Christmas tree, roasting hot dogs in the fireplace and watching a Christmas movie. Derek and I went to our small group Christmas party and stayed out past midnight! How fun that was for us old folks! ;) If you ever have the chance to play a game called "Things" I highly recommend it!

Aaron's gift from preschool--the bag says To: My Family, and he drew 5 smiley faces

Aaron's all smiles at his program

Lots of fun activities going on at school this week. Aaron's highlight was his Christmas program today. Hard to believe it was our last one...one of many lasts we're experiencing this year. Aaron said his favorite songs were "Jingle Bells" and "Over the Hills" (also known as Go Tell it on the Mountain.) :) Our pastor spoke during the program for a few minutes, and when he asked the kids some questions my little Aaron was the first one to put his hand up in the air. A HUGE difference from last year at this time. He's really coming out of his shell, affirming our decision to give him an extra year at home before putting him in the public school system. For that, I'm very thankful.

Finally, we made our annual visit to see Santa this afternoon. Braylen blushed when I told him to go tell Santa what he wanted for Christmas (a real football helmet.) Later I told him I wouldn't make him do that next year. Another little boy of mine growing up. Aaron sat on Santa's lap and told him he wanted a stamp book. That's his #1 wish this year! Kind of crazy, but a friend told me today about a 3rd grade boy who's asking for a nutcracker. That shows me Aaron's request isn't all that wacky. :) Kaleb's visit with Santa went like this:

Kaleb: I want an Eagles hat, Eagles pants, Eagles socks, Eagles shoes, and Eagles underwear.

Santa: Okay, I'll see what I can do about that.

Kaleb: Oh, and an Eagles jersey and helmet too.

Santa: Anything else?

Kaleb: A Nintendo DSi, Wii games....Santa, you know what I did last night?

Santa: What?

Kaleb: YOU tell ME!

Ha ha ha! Poor Santa--he had to be pretty quick on his feet. You never know what Kaleb's going to say....

Here Comes Christmas

"Ready or not, here I come!" ~Last week I heard my boys shout that out in our family room while playing hide and seek. I think it also applies to the Christmas season! I might not feel ready, but Christmas is coming anyway. So, Aaron and I made a day of it and decorated the house on Friday. We started at 8:30 am and ended at 3 pm when school let out. What a great helper he was for me. I tried not to think of what it'll be like next year when my little boo is in school all day...

After the big birthday celebration last week, I put my Christmas music in the van and started playing it. Aaron heard this line from a song: "Soon the bells will start..." He piped up from the back seat and indignantly said, "Bells?!! I don't hear any bells!" I think of him every time I hear that now. :)

Yesterday I broke the news to Derek that it was the day to take pictures of the kids for our Christmas card. For the past few years I've done it myself, but this year I needed his help. How was I going to get 3 kids and a very active German Shepherd to pose for a picture? I had envisioned a great outdoor shot with the kids laughing and playing around Ginger, all dressed up in red and green. Candid shots of my kids just being themselves. Complete with our puppy.

Well. Freezing cold temps and single-digit windchills killed my dream.

So, we sat the kids down by the fireplace and brought Ginger over to sit with them. Too small of a space to romp around in with such a big dog. If our card had audio embedded in the photo, you'd hear things like this:
"Boys, your job is to look at the camera and smile, NOT at what Ginger is doing."
"Aaron, I can't see you--scoot forward."
"Braylen, DON'T MOVE"
"Braylen, smile nice, NOT like that."
"Ginger--SIT! STAY!"
"Aggghhhhh!!!!!!!"

Amazingly enough, we got several usable shots from our very high-stressed photo shoot. For those of you who will receive a card from us, now you know the rest of the story. :)

You know what you should never do after a photo shoot like that? Put ornaments on your tree. Letting my kids decorate the tree is ALWAYS a madhouse. This year it was even worse, thanks to our crazy picture-taking fiasco. Aaron cries because he doesn't have many ornaments. Well, Braylen is twice his age--what can I do? Kaleb just wants to play with his ornaments. He whines when I tell him they're supposed to be hung on the tree. Braylen bosses them both around, telling them where they can (mostly can't) hang their ornaments. I just want to toss the ornament totes in the air and walk away from the whole mess. Isn't this supposed to be a festive time? Remembering when they made their ornaments, or who they received them from? Nope. It's complete and utter chaos. When they are done and banished to the basement, I look at our sorry tree with clumps of ornaments hung on the bottom half. I sit on the couch and shake my head and think, "Maybe next year will be better." But then I think, "Someday I will miss this."

To wrap up our fun day yesterday, we had supper by candlelight. You want to know what our elegant meal was? Little smokies (complete with football toothpicks to skewer them with), cheese and crackers, and apples with fruit dip. Alvin and the Chipmunks were singing Christmas songs in the background, and all I could do was look at my husband...and laugh. :) Ready or not, Christmas, here I come!

Gr8 to be 8

A pile of presents,

a favorite toy gun,

a BRAND new bike,

a football cake,

all add up to one happy Kaleb!

As busy as life is around here these days, Kaleb sure did have fun turning 8! He opened one present before school--an Eagles shirt that he could wear all day long. After school he told me, "When I was working on my math today, I just kept looking down at my shirt." :) I wonder if he got any math done? It was tough to convince him to take that shirt off at bedtime. Daddy picked the boys up after school, and we enjoyed a visit from Kaleb's cousins as he opened up the rest of his birthday gifts. Aaron took special care this year to give Kaleb "extra" presents. Like a package of gift tags hidden in another gift. And a small gift bag filled with more gift tags and a gingerbread man bookmark. :) He also put a bow on each present and made his own gift tags...Aaron sure did make Kaleb's packages that much more special. Some of the ways I made the day special for him: red balloons tied to the mailbox, birthday message written on the bathroom mirror, gifts picked out with great care, favorite meatball supper, and chocolate cake to top it all off. Birthdays aren't just for the child. They're for the mother too. :)

November 30th is an eclectic day of sorts. I have halloween candy on my counter, turkey placemats on my table, birthday decorations in my living room, and Christmas music playing on the radio. But if I allow myself to go back 8 years, all the clutter clears away and I can see us holding our new baby, Kaleb Matthew. All 9 pounds, 10 ounces of him! Red skin, blond hair, with a candy cane hat on his head. I wondered how I would be a mother to two little boys. Would I have enough love for both of them? Funny thing, it all worked out one day at a time. And it still is. :)

Happy Birthday Kaleb. You bring your parents such delight! You're a patient brother, placed in the middle, able to play the role of little brother at times and big brother at other times. You say the funniest things without trying to be funny. We love you gr8-ly. :)

Thankful for Much

Today was such a super day...a day of giving thanks while enjoying yummy food with my family. How can it get any better than that? The past 2 years we've had sicknesses surrounding Thanksgiving, so I'm especially grateful for good health this year! We celebrated Kaleb's birthday with his grandparents/aunts/uncle/cousins today, which enriched this day even more for me. Our son Kaleb is such a blessing to us. God knit him together in such neat ways--I see so many things in him that are different from his brothers. He brings great joy to this mommy's heart. :)

Kaleb with his wii-Jesus shirt :)

Things we learned about Kaleb today:

He's thankful for his life

His dream job is to be president

If he had $1 million dollars for a day, he'd like to buy the Philadelphia Eagles

He'd like to talk to 3 people from Bible times if he could: Caleb, Matthew, and Luke

His favorite thing to do in his free time: play flag football

His favorite food is a toss-up between: spaghetti, meatloaf, meatballs, chinese, and little smokies--this boy likes to eat meat!

His least favorite food? Chicken fettucine

Funnies from Kaleb this past week:

When Derek got a deer, Kaleb asked, "Is it a doe or a duck?" (he meant a buck)

When asked what he'd like for his birthday, he replied, "Umm, a credit card would be nice!"

At our fellowship dinner at church, Kaleb filled his plate with...ham and a dinner roll. And a small tub of butter. That's it. But when he went up for dessert? He came back with 4 different things on a very full plate!

At supper last night, Kaleb cleared his plate and finished dessert. He looked at me and said, "More?" I asked him, "More of what?" He said, "Of whatever you're going to give to me!"

Funnies from Aaron:

For whatever reason, Aaron's latched onto Star Wars lately. He called Luke Skywalker "Blue Skywalker" for a while because Luke has a blue light saber. :)

He draws out Yoda's name like this: eeee-yo-da

if you look real hard, you'll see Aaron's Yoda sticker he's so proud of!

We discuss over and over how the "wemperwere" (emperor) died and how "dark vader" died, who killed "obi-kenobi-one" (obi-one-kenobi), and why Anakin is a kid in movie #4 yet an adult in movies 1-3! Such a lot for him to take in, but I try to explain it anyway. I'm so thankful for a dad and brother who loved Star Wars so I could grow up and be able to explain the story line to my son!

a wolf and a webelo this year...I sure love my cub scouts :)