Tracking

Tracking Santa online on Christmas Eve...

he thought it was pretty cool and wanted to know if he had come through our city yet

Santa was making some pretty good time according to this website!

Christmas at home

I worked this past Thursday night. The kids had been begging to open one present before we left for Hutchinson on Friday. I kept putting them off saying, i have to talk to Daddy. We decided we were going to surprise them when i got home from work Thursday night and tell them that we were going to do our little family Christmas all before we left town including not one but all of the gifts. We ate a late dinner when i got home and then told them...they were super excited!

i made them endure a few pictures first

this is what Raegan had asked Santa for...

Santa did pretty good for Trey too! He had really wanted this Bear Gryll knife!

Avery had about 5 pages written in her new journal by the time we were done opening presents!

Ethan. loves. angry. birds!

and this is the aftermath...

And, in case you wondered how we managed to get Santa to come early to our house...well i have special connections. Didn't you know he does early drop offs for some people that leave town?? He also has access to front doors when certain homes do not have a chimney. Santa is a pretty flexible guy, thank goodness!

Partying it up at school

Last Friday was the kids last day of school for semester and also their day of parties. Ethan's was in the morning so i didn't have to go back and forth to parties. Kindergarten parties are so cute! We have a super creative mom in the class that does the cutest things at the parties!

they made little sleighs with snowmen driving them...somehow before the end of the party Ethan's was misplaced...if you have visited a kindergarten party this would come as no surprise!

In the afternoon we headed back to school to snap a few pictures at the 5th grade luau. They had pizza, hula hooped, cake walked and hung out in their grass skirts and summer attire

This first semester of school flew by! We are almost a week into enjoying their two and a half weeks off from school before they get back to studying!

Gingerbread house

Ethan was very proud of his gingerbread house that he made in kindergarten. He get's very attached to his things and after it sitting on our kitchen counter for a couple of weeks and pieces of candy being taken by his older brother and the roof falling apart i convinced him it was time for it to be thrown away...only after being reminded that we have a picture of him with his gingerbread house...

Sisters

Sisters are forever friends. These two annoy each other, fight like cats, tattle on each other...i could go on and on...but i love when they are in their beds at night talking to each other (ususally it's raegan talking her big sister's head off), i love when avery does her little sister's hair and get's her all dolled up. I love when Raegan is struggling with eczema that Avery says "i know how you feel Raegan". They may not ever have to fight over sharing clothes since there is the age gap that there is so maybe that is one less fight they will fight. :) I pray these two will remain forever friends!

School performances

The 5th grade strings performed during lunch Wednesday so we went to school and watched Avery play her violin. She is very happy that she switched from the flute and really enjoying learning how to play the violin.

On Tuesday the 4th and 5th grade special chorus group went on a little holiday choir tour. They sang at a nursing home, at a church and had lunch and played for awhile at Zonkers. They then went to Crown Center to perform.

Today is Christmas parties. I am home from the first and heading back to the second one in a bit. Then the kids are off school and i would like to say we can relax but i'm afraid next week is going to be hectic trying to finish up shopping. At least i get to silence the alarm for a few weeks! That always makes me happy especially since my kids are now of the age that they don't even wake me when they get up!

Trey tried out for the 7th grade basketball team but got cut along with a lot of his friends. They have got a team of his buddies put together that are all going to play basketball in a leauge together so tonight he starts practice for that.

Avery is still loving tumbling and is perfecting her back handspring. One of these days i will get a picture of her. She had her allergy followup and her asthma has responded very well to the meds and she is doing great! Someday i will look back and not remember how much you wear your mama out Raegan...at least i keep telling myself that!

Santa

Trey has informed me i am doing a poor job at keeping up the blog. No worries Trey, i am on it and from here till the end of the year i am sure i will have lot's of pictures. There has just been something to go to at school almost every single day...lot's going on this time of year as i'm sure you all well know!

We went to Crown Center the other day for Avery's choir performance and got there a little early so took the littles to Santa's little shop. Raegan freaked out a little and said. "maybe when i'm 5 mommy" (anout sitting on Santa's lap) but Ethan told Santa her name and she seemed to like the fact that he knew her name so then was happy to go sit with him. Ethan told Santa he wanted a remote control car and Raegan whispered to him that she "wanted what Brookly is getting" (her cousin that she bought a gift for and they are the same age so it is something that she loves)

the kids played for awhile and got all the wiggles out before the concert (ha, who am i kidding...pretty sure the wiggles never leave Raegan's body!)

here is the action shot of how most of my pictures turn out!

Up until last night i had only bough 1 or two Christmas gifts but John and i dropped the kids off at their Wednesday night church activities since we did not have Life group and made a stop off at Wally World and now i am well on my Christmas shopping way.

John also surprised me with a brand new laptop last night!! He has been bombarded with side jobs which we are so thankful for because they were few and far between for a couple of years. It easy for me to complain when he is gone evenings and weekends trying to get them done but i am thankful for the extra income! And, it doesn't hurt when he comes home with fun surprises like this! He just bid and got another huge one so he will be busy busy busy again for quite awhile!

Hit it Taylor

It has been a busy past week. I just got back from Memphis on Monday. If you want to read about my marathon you can visit my running blog with the link over there------>

John was busy playing single Daddy. He did a great job along with the help of some friends and Grandma who helped with younger ones. The laundry was waiting for me when i got back though and kids saying "i need clean this or clean that!"

Raegan loves playing with barbies! We have a Taylor Swift one that has a button on her tummy that you push to make her sing. While she was playing yesterday i heard her say "hit it Taylor!" as she pushed the button. It made me smile!

Scootin

We recently had a nice warm, though windy Saturday. Daddy was working so i decided it was a good day to spend some time at the park. Ethan and Trey both had recently spent their money on remote control cars and i had picked up some razor scooters at the thrift shop.

we walked, scooted and drove cars round and around the path till the kids were worn out.

a snaked slithered under my feet while we were walking...i still shudder just thinking about it. it was good entertainment for the kids!

the kids were then on a mission to find the snake again. trey did and chased it with his remote control car...crazy boy!

raegan scooted till her legs "were soo tired!"

It's not even full blown winter and i'm already missing the warmer temps! I am not a winter person.at.all! But, it's here...like it or not!

Happy Thanksgiving

I am thankful for so much! I am blessed to have four healthy children. I have a husband that loves me and is such a great dad! I have a Savior who died for me and loves me even though i am undeserving! I have a cozy little home, vehicles that run, my kids go to a great school and have great teachers. (amazing how many Christian teachers they have had along the way) I go to a pretty awesome church that digs deep into the Word. I have some pretty cool friends if i do say so myself. I have a supportive and loving family on both sides. I live in a free country!

I am very grateful, though many times it is easy to become ungrateful and wish for more. i remind myself often just how good we have it in comparison to so much of the world...we have so much, so much to be grateful for!

I asked my kids each to come in and tell me 5 things that they are grateful for. This is what they said: in no particular order of course

Trey- Cheta my cat, food (of which he eats a lot!), family, God and being able to do better in math

Avery- she wrote down 10 things for me and i told her we were just doing 5 so had her circle her top 5 but as i sit here and type i think, why limit her to 5 so here are her top 10- food, water, family, church, school, Bible, Cheta, house, friends, JESUS (she put that in all capitals so i thought i would too)

Ethan- Ethan had a hard time at first because he had just wiped out on his scooter and skinned his knee pretty bad so in his 6 yr old mind at the time he really didn't have anything to be grateful for but after he thought for a little bit here is what he said- for my school, our house, for the world, for my family, for my mommy (what can i say he is a momma's boy), our city.

Raegan- Grandma, i like how God made us, Max and Sadie (dogs) , your purse (it happened to be hanging on my chair) , for you getting me my Dora book.

Have a very Happy Thanksgiving!!

Things that make mom's heart skip a beat

While i was away a couple of weeks ago on a girl's weekend Daddy took the kids and headed to Hutch to see my sister's husband and my dad. He had a real manly weekend planned that included guns...

For some reason i am having trouble uploading the picture of him shooting the pistol. Daddy took a little video of it and then had Ethan turn to the camera and say "hi mommy!" I will admit i got tense just watching the video! Seeing my 6 year old with a real gun in his hand...yikes, even though my husband is extremely safety cautious! Ethan loved going shooting. I am sure he will get in on the action any chance he gets!

Another this and that post

* Raegan finally stopped puking after keeping not much of anything down for a couple of days! She is a trooper and mid vomit said "i guess i don't get any applesauce now!" (she had been begging for something to eat so we were going to try applesauce when we got home-we were on the way home from taking kids to school)

*She shared with daddy and mommy and we both were feeling pretty crummy for a couple of days. Thankfully we just got the aches and fever part of it and not the other!

*Avery had her annual hearing screen with the audiologist and everything remains the same again this year. Her left ear is compensating nicely for her right ear that has the significant loss. We are thankful that it remains unchanged. She still has a tube in her left ear because of build up of fluid, when that comes out we will have to see what happens.

*Trey has been working on basketball. He is going to go out for his middle school team. If he doesn't make it he is going to try to play with some friends on a league through the ymca...they have a backup plan.

*Avery had a follow-up with her allergist. They always say she is a bit deceiving, she looks like she is doing great on the outside but her lungs always tell a bit of a different story. We are back to doing peak flows and back on all asthma medicine for a month and then they will try to take her off one and see how she does. She also has been once again bumped to every three weeks allergy shots! Hooray! Hopefully we will be able to do that through the winter. Every spring we usually have to go right back to weekly but i will take every three weeks during the winter!

*John has been spending every last extra hour at a side job that he is helping a friend out with. We will all be glad when that project is completed!

*We have decided to wait to put our house on the market till at least spring for numerous reasons.

*I have been keeping busy with marathon training which will take place Dec 3rd.

*Ethan and Raegan rarely nap this year (i have been a nap nazi up till this year. They play so well together especially when they can head outside. When i do lay them down which is about once a week if that, they still sleep for several hours. With no naps and getting up early for school they are both pretty crabby by bedtime. Raegan fights it and stays up talking and doing pretty much anything to keep herself awake. Ethan on the other hand is asleep withing 5 minutes and if we leave him up too long will just go put himself to bed.

*Avery decided after a month that she no longer wants to play the flute. She has a terrible time getting any sound out and is just not enjoying it. She is in the process of switching to strings and is going to play the violen. Since she will probably be playing for the next several years at least we would like her to enjoy what she plays so letting her make this change.

*I did have to get a couple of pictures of her with her flute so that she could remember back when she played the flute for that month in fifth grade...

Kindergarten

I love watching Ethan concentrate when doing his homework. We are finding out he is a bit of a perfectionist. His teacher said he get's upset if he can't do something on his paper just right and has gone and erased the entire paper and started over instead of just correcting the word that needs to be corrected. Most of his homework is just being read to but every now and then he has something to complete.

He is doing well in school. He is learning his sight words one by one and get's excited when he sees a word he can read! He is doing well writing all his letters and is pretty proud of saying his abc's with ease. At the beginning of the year he would get a little mixed up in the middle and at the end.

He loves kindergarten. He has a behavior sheet that he brings home everyday. They start with 5 cubes and get a cube taken away if need be. He has consistent 5's every day so am very proud of him for behaving himself. There was one day at the beginning of the year he got a four and one day in the past few weeks that he came home with a four and his perfectionist little self was not too happy about losing a cube!

He recently got to be a part of his school's lipdub. The high school came and filmed it. I was pretty impressed with how it turned out, it took a lot of organization on the part of teachers and staff. Love seeing the kids school spirit! Look for Ethan and two other cute kindergartners at the very beginning. To watch, just click on the title of this post.

Fall walks

I love the mild, actually warm fall that we have had. It was a little chillier today but me and the munchkin headed out for a walk today. She walked for a little while but then was happy to ride the rest of the way.
she likes to chat about everything while we walk from the leaves on the trees to going over the sidewalk bumps making it sound like she's "tooting" and then she would say..."i think i'll take a nap now" Her little mind zips from one thing to the next just like how she does. There is never too much sitting still with this little sweetie!

Trick or treat

Little Red Riding Hood, two Lord of the Rings faceless guys and a fat little bumblebee set out to get some candy once upon a time...

we met at some of our friend's house for some dinner and then off we went. everyone loved the little bumblebee's stinger!

she would make us nervous when she would take off running down the driveways because i think she was a little off balance with that big tummy but at least she had a lot of padding when she did tumble

just like every other year the kids love to unload all their loot and this year since they were with friends there was some trading going on

the girls did their own trading away from the boys but it cracked me up how the girls had theirs all sorted so nicely and in neat little piles

And now thanks to those bags of candy i will put on an extra 5 pounds probably as i sneak in at night and raid their bags when they are asleep...that's right kids mommy admitted it. I steal your candy!