Monday, December 24, 2007

Merry Christmas!




Here are some pictures of our gingerbread train. We didn't get out the camera until after Stacey, Kaylee, and Brianna had already headed home. Too bad. Probably my fingers were too frostingy. Their train was cute too. Not to mention how cute they are! At least I have some little girls for nieces even if I don't have any for daughters.

I couldn't resist putting up the picture of Cole hugging me even though I look like I've been cleaning and baking all day. Well, that is what I was doing, so I guess I can look like it. We sure did have a lot of fun!

I didn't get any pictures last night at our holiday "special dinner" either, but we had a great time. You can't always cook, bake, serve, refill glasses, clear dishes, clean messes, and click pictures all at once. Well, maybe you can, but I find it tricky. We enjoyed the good food and the great company. We should keep this tradition more often, I think. We also sang Christmas carols to our heart's delight, which is another of my very favorite things in the world. We are busy having a merry Christmas, and we hope you are too!

Monday, December 17, 2007

Can't Wait for Christmas!







Remember feeling so excited that you could hardly stand it as Christmas Day was approaching? As a kid, I invented a ritual called "wiggles and squiggles" which was performed as I was being tucked into bed on Christmas Eve. I would snuggle under the covers, pull them over my head, and then flail about wildly. It was a terrific way to give voice to my excitement. Not really a terrific way convince my parents that I was ready to fall asleep so Santa Clause could come, but they didn't mind.

As a grown up, the countdown to Christmas is an endless to-do list that involves not just a little stress. So this year, in an attempt to make sure to include some excitement and magic on my list, I told each of the kids they could choose a favorite tradition that we would strictly uphold. Of course we would decorate the tree and hang stockings without anyone choosing it as their special tradition, but everybody got to choose one extra of the kind of things we don't always get around to. Luke chose to have a "special dinner" where we use the nice dishes and invite guests and drink sparkling cider from goblets. Cade chose to make a gingerbread creation--instead of a house we are making a train this year. All aboard! And Cole chose to keep the tradition of reading a Christmas bedtime story every night throughout the month of December. (Well, I sort of helped him choose that one...it's my favorite, too. But he doesn't let us skip a night!)

So far things are going well. Three is a manageable number of projects for me, and three is a great number of kids to make happy. It's been fun to have them in on the planning and carrying out of the traditions as well. It helps them see that these type of projects do take planning and forethought, but it also helps get them excited as they anticipate their turn. Friday is our designated gingerbread day, and cousins are coming to help! Can't wait to make a big frosting mess! Just in time to clean it all up before our special dinner on Sunday evening.

And of course, I'm looking just as forward as they are to see what Santa will bring. But the part I love is to watch them discover what good kids they must have been! I got an Amazon.com package in the mail today. The box was quite a bit bigger than I expected for the price I paid. Can't wait for Santa to come!

But then again, there are times I wish the magic of Christmastime would linger a bit longer, and not just so I can have time to finish all the stuff on my to-do list. How December flies by when you are no longer under the age of ten! I love the yummy scents, the baking, the hot chocolate in mugs after playing a little too long in the snow, the friendly greetings, the warm wishes, the memories, the nostalgia. The closeness of family and old friends. Giving to neighbors and strangers too, and remembering the reason we celebrate Christmas at all. Feeling the reality of Christ's life a little more deeply, feeling faith and hope burn a little more brightly. These are the parts of Christmas I want to hang on to and not let go.

Can't wait for Christmas to come! Hope I don't have to let it go.


Saturday, December 15, 2007

Cade

Crazy C Alphabet A Damaged D & Elephant E C.A.D.E > Cade Cade (_-<^>-_) Cade (-}[+ < - > +]{-)

1/1=2/2



one two skip a few ninety nine one hundred skip some more two hundred and four. Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp (Singing alphabet) Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz. Did you here me sing?Maybe you didn't.But bet you did. 1+2=3. 3-2=1.3x3=9.2/2=1/1..100.%.2=0.5.

by Cade



That was all Cade's writing there. Can you tell that his favorite color is green? And he loves math. He shared some of his favorite equations with you. He also loves how smart he is. We love how smart he is too. And how much fun we have with him.

One interesting thing about Cade is that he loves healthy food. He is my only child who will eat tomatoes. This summer he learned to love loaded hamburgers from the barbecue. While his brothers eat hamburgers with cheese and ketchup only, he found out how delicious onion, tomato, and lettuce can be. (Pickles, not so much.) Also he checks food labels! My first grader checks food labels! For such things as sugar and fat content. He pays most attention to how many grams of sugar are in a food, and makes choices based on this. He likes Corn Chex instead of Trix for this reason. Also, he chose his instant oatmeal packet flavor the other morning based only on which flavor had the least amount of sugar, rather than which flavor sounded most appealing to him, and all of this with no prompting from me. I asked him if he wanted Cinnamon Roll, Apple, or Maple, and then he came and started comparing grams of sugar. Wow. Well, I'm glad he is excited about being healthy. Maybe he knows he needs all the vitamins he can get if he's going to ever reach 5 feet. Cute guy got some shorty genes to deal with. Says Cade, "I might not be the biggest one in my class, but I might be the healthiest." True, he might. (He already knows he's the smartest...there's no might about that!) He just informed me that his teacher is probably smarter, but he is the smartest kid. There's no arguing with that, huh?

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Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Thankful


Wow. A couple nights ago we encouraged the kids to keep a journal for the two weeks leading up to Thanksgiving about what they are thankful for. We asked them to pay particular attention to the ways the Lord blesses them each day. Well, I guess I can't really give them an assignment without participating myself, so here I am. But as I've been thinking, I've realized that I have been a total pessimist lately! Which is not my nature usually, but I am having an unlucky streak or something.

A couple weeks ago as I was taking Luke to school, I was making a left turn when another car who also wanted to make a left turn onto the road I was turning off of ran smack into me without ever even seeing me. Turns out he doesn't have insurance. But the good news is I borrowed a car for a weekend away with my sisters, and I got much better gas mileage than I would have in my wrecked car. The great news is nobody was hurt even a little. It makes me wonder if I had made Luke walk by himself if he would have crossed the street at that intersection. If another car didn't see my big Mountaineer, it sure wouldn't have seen a 4th grader crossing the street. There are a lot of blessings in pretty good disguises, and who knows but what this was one of them.

It's funny how when you're worried about money being too tight, that's exactly the time when things like getting hit by an uninsured motorist are likely to happen. But even though we have had some unexpected expenses lately, we have been blessed with food, shelter, and enough to get by just fine. The video game Lanny has been working on for the last six months was released the day before Thanksgiving, and it got quite good reviews, including a 9 out of 10 from Official XBox magazine. The sales are on target with the projections so far, if not a little better. So if we are patient, we just might get some more monetary blessings soon, too.

About three weeks ago I had left my sewing machine out after finishing Halloween costumes late at night. I almost always at least unplug my machine if I don't put it completely away, but I guess I wasn't thinking clearly at 3 am (after finishing an amazing Link costume from "The Legend of Zelda" video games), and I just set it over to the side of the dining room. Later, while making dinner that Sunday evening, I heard my machine start sewing and Cole start crying hard. I ran over and he had sewed his finger. I scooped him up and ran him to the sink where I washed the blood away so I could see the wound. The needle had broken off in his finger. I got it out and ran him to the Instacare where they cleaned it out good and took an x-ray to make sure there was nothing else left behind in there. The needle had gone in and out twice, but it had only gone through the fleshy part of his finger tip, and all it really needed was a band-aid.

So the next thing I am thankful for is a healthy family. Accidents like these could have been much, much worse. Fingers can mend, cars can be repaired or replaced, but we have each other, and we are healthy, happy, and able to take care of each other. Our lives aren't perfect, but I really can't imagine having too many more reasons to be happy and thankful. Really, what could be better than this? I have 3 little boys and one big boy who love me, and who are loved by me. We are so happy together. Life gets stressful sometimes, but there is no reason to focus on the little annoyances because they are nothing in comparison to the big, wonderful, amazing blessings we have because we are a family, and because we believe that this life is part of a bigger, better eternal plan. We are just so blessed. I am going to remember it, and be happy because of it. And not get bugged too much even by uninsured motorists or emergency room visits or taxes withheld. Life is good. So good.

Friday, October 26, 2007

1/1=2/2



one two skip a few ninety nine one hundred skip some more two hundred and four. Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp (Singing alphabet) Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz. Did you here me sing?Maybe you didn't.But bet you did. 1+2=3. 3-2=1.3x3=9.2/2=1/1..100.%.2=0.5.

That was all Cade's writing there. Can you tell that his favorite color is green? And he loves math. He shared some of his favorite equations with you. He also loves how smart he is. We love how smart he is too. And how much fun we have with him.

One interesting thing about Cade is that he loves healthy food. He is my only child who will eat tomatoes. This summer he learned to love loaded hamburgers from the barbecue. While his brothers eat hamburgers with cheese and ketchup only, he found out how delicious onion, tomato, and lettuce can be. (Pickles, not so much.) Also he checks food labels! My first grader checks food labels! For such things as sugar and fat content. He pays most attention to how many grams of sugar are in a food, and makes choices based on this. He likes Corn Chex instead of Trix for this reason. Also, he chose his instant oatmeal packet flavor the other morning based only on which flavor had the least amount of sugar, rather than which flavor sounded most appealing to him, and all of this with no prompting from me. I asked him if he wanted Cinnamon Roll, Apple, or Maple, and then he came and started comparing grams of sugar. Wow. Well, I'm glad he is excited about being healthy. Maybe he knows he needs all the vitamins he can get if he's going to ever reach 5 feet. Cute guy got some shorty genes to deal with. Says Cade, "I might not be the biggest one in my class, but I might be the healthiest." True, he might. (He already knows he's the smartest...there's no might about that!) He just informed me that his teacher is probably smarter, but he is the smartest kid. There's no arguing with that, huh?

Blog We Must!


Cade has been telling me for weeks that he wants to make his own website. I told him that maybe we could make a blog, which is even better (because it's easy) than a 'real website'. He would love to put up some pictures of himself. He knows he's pretty cute, and why not share the joy? He says to say "blogs are fun." So far, we are having an enjoyable experience. Cade is the middle child pictured here, and the middle child in our family. Perhaps this has something to do with his need to excel amazingly in everything he does. If he is 150% awesome, then he'll get noticed and praised for it, and he thrives on notice and praise. We think he's great, and we tell him so, and I'm glad that he believes us. Maybe now you'll see what a great kid he is too!

Luke is on the left. He just made a power point presentation about himself for his fourth grade class. He is standing right beside me, and would like you to know that he is here. Luke has an imagination like no other. He reads constantly, except when he's dreaming up his own stories. He also loves video games, karate, riding bikes, and swimming. We just moved very close to an indoor pool, and he is excited with the prospect of swimming through the winter, which we never get to do. Luke is a super helper...if you can get his attention long enough to ask for help.

Cole is just too much fun! He's the littlest; just turned three. He asked for a Lego "Bionicle" for his birthday, because that's what boys want for their birthdays, of course. He took it to bed last night and woke up with just the face of it this morning. He brought it out to me and asked in his grumbly sleep voice, "Where is the rest of my Bionicle?" He loves sleeping with Lego guys. I bet you may have never noticed how cuddly they are. His other favorite Lego guy is the Star Wars Storm Trooper. He calls them "Storm Trooper helmets," because the helmet is the best part. He loves pulling the arms, legs, etc. off (putting them back on is harder), but the helmets he can get off and on, so they are definitely the most fun. The main problem with taking them to bed is that he ends up sleeping on lots of little Lego body parts all night, and if this ever wakes him, then we have to find all the missing parts (he always still has a hold of at least one part) in the dark, and reassemble the guy before he can go back to sleep. For a while we were past this stage, but here it comes again, I'm afraid. And I'll probably have to wake up his brothers to get the Bionicle back together, because Bionicles are a little above my skill level, especially at 2 am. But then again, he is getting used to sleeping on plastic poky things, so maybe it won't wake him anymore. I hope. :)

I, the mom of this fine crew, say 'boys are the best!' This is a good way to remind me of just how much fun we are having! You might not believe it, but sometimes I forget. Well, that's it for our first blog post. Catch you later!