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."