Ballerina in Baggage Claim

Here!!

Up, Up, and Away!!

Twas the Night Before Disney

We are getting up in five hours. The car is loaded, alarms are set (please no Home Alone scenes here!), and the surprise presents are under the tree. The presents appeared mysteriously a couple of days ago and the kids have been dying to know what they are. They were given a poem tonight that told them they had to go right to sleep so they could open the magical gifts in the morning. Someone asked how I packed - we are in Chicago at my parents' house for Christmas so our suitcases were already out. We will video in the morning and share it later!!

(Originally posted last night, but was somehow deleted.)

My Secret Planning Drawer

We leave in the morning and the kids still know nothing!!

Yoda Santa

Shedd Aquarium

Joshua Loves Gelato

John David's Lego Castle

My Own Little Lalaloopsy

Doing math flash cards is so much better when your student looks like a Lalaloopsy doll!

Christmas Painting

We decorated some of our packages by hand this year. John David helped too, but I didn't get his picture. His was a beautiful Christmas tree!

My Boys

Playing basketball on the playstation

Julia Recites Psalm 136

Memorization is really important to us as a family. John David will finish memorizing his first complete book of the Bible this year (Hebrews) and Julia has memorized a number of passages and poems the last few months.

We do a lot of memorizing for Classical Conversations as well. How many five year olds can tell you what a present participle is or sing songs about the War of 1812, Henry Clay, or Polk? Or how about the parts of the lymph system or excretory system? And you should hear our crazy "Stomp"-ish rendition of skip counting the 14's! (Is it official? Have we attained true homeschooling nerdy status??)

Latin is something new for us this year, but we are learning to say John 1:1-7 in Latin. (We've already learned it in English and have also learned all the Latin words we will need for the John passage.) "In principio erat verbum"!!!

I've reached a new level of decorating greatness, I'll admit. My dining room's new theme is history time line cards. Totally classy.

I leave you with this video of Julia reciting Psalm 136. We worked on this for Thanksgiving, but because of the great plague of illness our family suffered in November, it didn't get finished in time.

(This is my attempt to fancy the video up. It didn't work too well. I'm blaming the windows live movie maker program. The sound and picture aren't lined up in this one.)

This video works just fine. It's just not as pretty. ;)

Mickey Mouse Jesus

Aulora colored this picture of Jesus a little while back. It had a place of honor on the refrigerator for quite some time because I thought it was so funny. All the kids lovingly referred to it as "Mickey Mouse Jesus". (The good news is that her coloring has improved greatly since.)

Daddy and Julia

This was at my brother's wedding celebration in Dallas. Can you tell they are related?

Going to the Notre Dame game together!

Growing Hair

A couple of nights ago, as I was getting Joshua ready for a bath, I had him on my lap. He was already without his shirt, and when he raised his arms up I couldn't resist stroking his little underarm. He quickly looked up at me and said,

"Hey! Don't touch me there! I'm growing hair!"

I asked him who told him that. He said,

"Nobody told me that. I just saw. Daddy's hairy and I'm going to be hairy as a beast just like Daddy."

Grey Friday

Last night I slept on the couch. No, no, no. The marriage is good, but John is sick. I am the last man, uh, woman standing. All that pie helped fortify my immune system I guess. I don't think our family has ever been sick for so long. I think it's been 6 weeks now that at least one person has been sick at all times. I sent Julia around with the Clorox wipes the other day. She must have missed Daddy's door knob. Oops.

My mom and I spent a good deal of time on Thursday making our shopping plans. We were pumped up and ready to go. Toys R Us opened at 9 pm and I was going to knock out the Christmas shopping for the kids in one night. Buy one get one free and 60% off are words promising enough to make me wait a couple hours longer to put on my couch pants. (That's my clever name for my stretchy lounge pants because all I want to do when I have them on is lay on the couch.)

We pulled into the parking lot around 9 and I think the car itself started to hyperventilate. The line to get in was ri-freakin-diculous. Needless to say, I never stepped foot inside the store and my couch pants were in use sooner than planned. Bitter sweet.

Black Friday shopping in 2012?

No thank you.

Please remind me, because I always forget how terrible it is. Every. Single. Year.

Although, I did manage to get a really great coat (that I needed!) from Old Navy for only $5. I did not, however, get up at 4 am to get it. I ran in on our way to The Muppet Movie. (Which I did not wear my couch pants to. Very tempting though.)

Maybe Black Friday isn't so bad after all. I suppose it's really not a black and white issue for me.

Mahna Mahnam

I'm supposed to be doing some work for church and all I can think of is Mahna Mahnam! We went to see The Muppet Movie today and loved it! The only thing that would have made it better is John being with us. The bug that has passed from one kid to another all week long finally got the better of him though. All the kids are well and I'm hoping that by tomorrow he will be well too. I'm keeping my distance and praying that I don't get a turn. There's nobody to take care of me! I'll leave you with this....

John David's Bible Quiz Tournament

John David is quizzing this year for the first time with a middle school team from Elkhart. He's memorizing Hebrews which is neat because that's the first book John and I both memorized too. So far he can quote the first nine chapters! We're so proud of him!!

This past weekend his team traveled to a tournament here in Indiana. John and I couldn't go, but my parents made the drive and watched him all day and then brought him home. His team won first place and he placed 6th individually. His teammates placed 2nd and 4th!

Here he is holding the first place team trophy.

John David, Lauren, and Jonathon.

This picture cracks me up. These are the kids who placed individually. First through fourth place earned trophies and fifth through eighth got ribbons. That was bad enough for this poor guy who wanted a trophy so badly, but insult was added to injury when he was given the PINK sixth place ribbon. Hahahaha!

He was longing for one of those trophies. Maybe next time, buddy!

Here's the team with their coach, Miss Barbara. She's an amazing lady and loves these kids a lot. We will always be so grateful for all she's investing in our boy!

We LOVE you, John David! You make us so proud!

Playing Around

I put a slip and slide out this summer in Tulsa. I nearly died of heat stroke putting the stupid thing out and then they only wanted to play for about 10 minutes. I made them do it longer. I'm awesome. The first picture depicts their reluctance to go along with my demands.

Watching a cartoon together.

Julia hitched a ride on Joshua's tricycle.

Aulora was wearing a new fairy costume.

The Girls Visit Chicago

In honor of their birthdays, both of the girls got to go to Chicago and spend a couple of days with my parents about a month ago. They went shopping for new dolls at the American Girl Doll Store, ate at The Grand Luxe, and took a HUGE bubble bath. Can you say spoiled??

(Can you tell which one is which?)