All I Want for Christmas

Over Christmas, we were listening to the song, "All I want for Christmas is You".  Immediately after hearing te song, Paige came up to me and, in all seriousness, said, "Mommy, all I want for Christmas is toys."  Since then, she's latched onto the phrase, "All I want for Christmas is" and then fills in the blank with whatever she's thinking about at the moment.  Sometimes she's being sweet and she'll say that all she wants for Christmas is "you, Mommy."  Sometimes it might be something she wants to eat like pixie stix, a cookie, or a popsicle.  Probably the most dramatic one I've heard is, "All I want for Christmas is a double decker bus."  (Not going to happen!!!)  And then I heard the most unique one this afternoon.  Its a beautiful day outside and we've been working around in the yard and outside doing some clean-up.  Paige was riding on her little bike and at some point rode up to me and said, "Mommy, all I want for Christmas is no slugs."  She paused for a second and then yelled, "Do you hear that, Santa?  All I want for Christmas is no, no, no slugs."  That one actually sounds pretty good to me, too.  :)

Announcements

As part of our weekly Family Home Evening each week, we have a short time for announcements.  Mostly this is about scheduling.  Each person takes a couple of minutes to announce what activities they have going on that week.  It could be their weekly lessons, a church activity an awards ceremony at school or a doctor's appointment.  It helps us know what each person has going on and it reminds us of what activities us parents need to be aware of.  Occasionally someone shares an announcement that has more to do with something great they accomplished that week or something they are hoping to accomplish that week.  And we frequently have to re-direct someone who wants to make announcement time a free-for-all time of sharing all their thoughts and feelings. :)  We had a good laugh out of announcements this week, when Cory called on Paige to share her announcements and she responded with, "I love Target."  It may have been a little unorthodox as far as announcements go, but I can't argue with her on it one bit. :)

I'm Thinking of an Animal...

We love playing "I'm thinking of an animal" with the kids.  Its fun when they are little and you give them clues, little by little, until you see their face light up with knowing as they understand what you're describing.  And their clues to you are hilarious.  Its an especially a fun game to pass the time in the car.

Yesterday, while in the car for some errands, Elise and Paige were playing.  Paige is old enough to give clues that actually make sense and lead to a real animal and she's a good guesser.  Most of the time.

Elise gave these clues, "I'm thinking of an animal that lives on a farm.  It is fluffy and has feathers and lays eggs."  Paige only paused for a second before guessing, "A bird-sheep!!!"

Obviously that's what it was. :)

Its hard when you're "just a kid"

We've had trouble with Paige using Elise's markers.  (See the last post.)  It's bad enough that she uses them without asking.  Add to that that she's drawing on all kinds of surfaces with them and then leaves the lids off, and you can understand why a big sister wouldn't be too crazy about sharing her things.

The other night, Paige had gotten into them again.  I told her she needed to ask before she uses others' things and then had her apologize to Elise.  I asked Paige if she thought there was anything she could do to make it right with Elise.  Paige looked at me and said, "What do you want me to do?  I'm just a little kid!"

Oh, that kid!  She makes me laugh.  Its not the answer I was looking for, but she does have a point. ;)

Artwork

You may remember that Paige used to draw on anything that was NOT paper.  We've been very fortunate that for a while we've been graffiti-free in this house.

Unfortunately, that is no longer the case.

 Mostly what we're finding these days are smiley faces and her favorite letter, "P".

The best part is that they're usually written in permanent marker.  In which case, I'm really grateful they're smiley faces.  It could be much worse.

And even better than ONE smiley face, is a LOT of smiley faces.  I didn't get pictures of the ones she wrote on the hallway mirror or the giant letter P behind the towels in my bathroom.  And probably a few more places I haven't found yet.

We try to keep markers away from her, but that's a tall order in this house.  And we are continuing to emphasize "only write on paper."  Until them, I'm just trying to enjoy the little reminders of happiness from that adorable little imp.

This is one seriously sweet kid.

We Love Daddy!

One of our next December activities was a celebration of that wonderful man that my kids call Daddy.  We decorated the inside of his car with crepe paper, wrote sweet notes and put them all in his car, and left a message for him on his windshield.

 We missed his reaction when he saw it, but we got a picture after he pulled all our goodies out. :)

He might not have found it when he did, except that Paige ran and told him he needed to go see if his car was all sparkly. :)  I think it was just exactly that. :)

We sure do love that man.

Days of December

Each October, we do a daily activity to celebrate the fall season and the upcoming Halloween holiday.  This October, morning sickness pretty much wiped out any desire I had to do fun activities.  So we're making up for it in December by doing a neat activity each day of the month.

One of our first activities was going out to dinner as a family.  We went to our local Chinese restaurant, a favorite dinner for all of us.  The kids were very well-behaved, although any time you take four kids out to eat, you can expect a little bit of chaos.

Waiting for our food.

Paige and Ian

Elise and Merry Grace

My sweetie and I.

The food was delicious.  The company was fabulous.  We had a lot of laughs.  Paige ate her weight in duck sauce.  We told the story of my Dad and his buckwheat pancakes.  It was a perfect night and a great way to celebrate the season with the family.

After dinner, we went to the Nativity our church puts on each year.  They have over 600 Nativities displayed and they are beautiful.  Paige fell asleep in the car, so I went in with the older kids while Cory stayed with Paige.  That was probably just as well, because I'm not sure she could have handled not touching them, even though we had that conversation 101 times that day.  It was hard enough for the older kids not to do it.  

Some of the Nativities were so beautiful, I was almost moved to tears.  We snapped a few pictures with my phone of our favorites, but really, every one was amazing.

This was the perfect end to our family celebration evening.  We definitely left with the spirit of Christmas in our hearts.

Summer's Last Hurrah

I've been going through pictures and since I've been a horrible poster the last few months, I found a few things that were worth catching up on.

 Elise hosted a fashion show for Merry Grace.  She modeled some of her favorite outfits and styles.  It was awesome and we clapped a lot.

 Paige wasn't one to be left out, so she joined in a modeled a few of her favorite outfits, too.  Mostly hers didn't match, but she truly loves them and we clapped a lot. :)

 My Grandma's African Violet bloomed beautifully.  It might seem like a little thing, but it made me happy to see it look so wonderful.

 We had a fun picnic with friends.  Elise and Emmy hosted a "shop" for Merry Grace and Ally, which they loved.

They named the shop Sunshine 'n Shade.  It was super cute.

Luckily, everything was free, which was a price we could all afford. 

 Total peace.

Total cuteness.

We've had a wonderful fall, but looking back at the beauty of summer leaves me a little nostalgic for the warm sunshine.  I guess that's the beauty of each season and the different kind of beauty each one brings.

State Fair

One of our favorite parts of fall is our annual trip to the State Fair.  It's so much fun.  We went with Uncle Neal, Aunt Amanda and family.  Its really nice because every child has a buddy when it comes to the rides.

As usual, the rides were awesome, the food was fried and fabulous and my feet were aching by the end of the day.  But it was wonderful!

Merry Grace and Ally on the swings. This was one of our first rides.

 Ian and Charles Allen on the swings.  (That face kills me!)

Elise and Emmy. :)

 Paige and Parker had fun together, too.  They weren't big enough for the swings, but they found lots of fun things to do.

 The hot air balloons were one of their favorite things.  It was tucked away in the corner of an area and there was hardly ever a line.  In fact they were usually the only ones on the ride.  They sweet ride operator let them ride over and over as long as there wasn't anyone else in line.  I think they got about 6 free rides.

 The slides were fun, too.

 The corn on the cob is probably my favorite fair food.  As usual, it was AMAZING.  When something is  dripping in butter, how can it not be great?

 Elise and Emmy did this trampoline jump thing.  They went super high.  They were going to do a flip, but I think they were jumping higher and faster than they thought, so they passed on that part.

 Ian, Charles Allen, Merry Grace and Ally rode the "Super Shot" which is the tower that drops takes you up and and drops you back down.  No thank you.  I was actually really worried for the girls, but they were super brave and didn't seem fazed by it at all.

 They all really loved this roller coaster and rode it several times.

What a fun day!  And what a cute group of kids! :)

Color Me Rad

Cory and Ian participated in this 5K recently.  They had a lot of fun getting ready for it and running in it.

Here was a "Before" picture.  This is how they looked when they left the house.  

Too cool.

 Uncle Neal, Aunt Amanda and their son, Charles-Allen, ran the race, too, which made it lots more fun.
You can imagine that those boys had the time of their lives.

 I love this! :)

 Early in the race, Ian was still looking pretty clean.

 But it didn't take long for that to change.

 I think the dirtier the boys got, the happier they looked. :)

 Oh yeah!!!

 Here's a great "after" picture.  

 I love this kid! :)

 They had a great time and it was a good experience for all of them.  Great memories. :)  I think they're all ready to run again.