The Girls Sing and a Snippet of the Christmas Program

We're so excited here at our house that Christmas is only 7 days away! After school today, Julia decided to throw a birthday party for Jesus with Aulora since Aulora didn't get to have a school party. They put stuffed animals in all the chairs and set out treats and decorations. They even had a goody bag ready in the corner. I heard them from upstairs and Julia was leading Aulora in singing the birthday song. Too cute! I had them do it again for the camera. You'll see in the video that Aulora was a little busy enjoying her treat to sing again.

The school program was last night. It was very sweet and the kids were pumped about the night. I tried to take more video but I had a little too much help from Mr. Joshua. Enjoy. =)

Man in the Making

My boy, "Little", is morphing into a man and I'm not so sure how I feel about this. One of his classmates (of the girl variety) got him Bath and Body Works cologne for his birthday. He was not at all impressed about it at first, but he changed his tune pretty quick. Multiple times a day he goes into his room to spray that man stuff all over him. Once he's gone to school and I go into his room to pick things up, his bigness lingers. And I don't like it.

He's been practicing the piano a lot lately. He was on the verge of complaining about it one day until I mentioned that girls really liked it when a boy could play the piano. Well yeehaw, that little bit of information seems to have launched his musical career. When, exactly, did he start to care what girls thought? Last time I looked he was totally into whatever creeped or grossed them out. (Perhaps I should tell him that girls also like it when a boy takes a shower.)

Then yesterday was an "un-uniform" day for his class because they won the box top challenge. (If you would like to donate box tops please send them our way! Our school has raised well over $500 already this year and that's with just 30 students!) He took a little longer than normal getting dressed and when he came down he had on his cologne (of course) along with a very well thought out outfit, complete with pearlized snaps and a really cool hemp necklace. He was extra tall somehow and I'm pretty sure his legs looked hairer. I could be wrong, but I don't think so. And for some reason, on this particular day, I didn't mind his bigness quite as much.

It made my heart feel full.

And proud.

And a little old.......

No Apologies

There were great plans for major updates yesterday but I ended up spending about four hours playing Monopoly with John David instead. Oh yes. Monopoly.

(And I loved it! Shhhhh!!!)

We made special memories and laughed and loved. It was fun. When Daddy finally came home at 1:00 am after studying and taking practice tests all day at school we were still playing!

John David was sad that I couldn't play again this morning so he's been teaching Julia how to play and they've been doing great.

We had to skip church today because Julia was sick all yesterday and was still throwing up through the night. She woke up at about 11:30 and seems to feel good again. She's always been funny that way with quick little bugs.

It's so weird that here we are in December, in Northern Indiana (only a few minutes from Michigan actually!) and we've only had a couple of snow flurries so far. Nothing that has even stuck. The kids are sad but we keep telling them that we'll be tired of lots of snow soon enough. Meanwhile, all our friends and family in Texas enjoyed snow and even built some snowmen! Now that's strange!

I slightly panicked a couple of days ago when I realized there were things we needed to do to get our house ready for the winter that I hadn't even considered. For instance, cleaning out gutters is a very important thing. One company wanted $250 for the job. Uh, no thank you. I found a 20 year old guy from Craigslist who did the job for $25. I had to give him multiple bowls of hot water since the gutters were already a little frozen but it's done.

We still have to get all our storm windows back on and get the snow blower serviced. I'm getting a little nervous! Like, should I be stockpiling a month's worth of food in the basement in case we get snowed in? Seriously?

Another winter problem is Joshua. The child does NOT like to wear a coat. At all. He screams! It doesn't matter which coat either. Not sure what to do about that. So far I've mostly just dressed him warm and then thrown a big blanket over him but that can't continue.

Gotta run now before Aulora puts another roll (as in whole roll) in the toilet.

I should seriously consider having some circus music play on my blog.......




PS. Thanksgiving went great. I cooked a whole holiday meal on my own! (Until my mom got here about 30 minutes before we ate anyway. Does it still count?) It certainly wasn't the fanciest and prettiest feast our family has ever had (sorry, I don't own a gravy boat and we didn't bring out the fine china) but we were together. And black Friday shopping? Nope. I slept in. It was great.....