Conversation with John

John: I love you.

Me: I love you forever.

John: I love you forever.

Me: I love you forever and always.

John: I love you forever and holidays.

Clever Owl and the Fashionistas

John had his Native American festival at preschool a few weeks ago. They all had Native American names and John chose "Clever Owl." The kids sang songs showed the parents all the Native American crafts they had made over the past few weeks. Some of the songs they sang I actually remembered from when my brother went to school there almost 20 years ago!

On Thanksgiving this year we had 2 stops to make. We started the day at Uncle Dennis & Aunt Barb's house. The regular crew was all there minus my cousin and her family. Sickness kept them away. We had great food as always and lots of fun with the family. We also got some great news. There will be 2 new additions to Thanksgiving dinner next year. We already knew my cousin Niki was pregnant with a little boy, but we also found out that my cousin Patrick and his wife Megan are pregnant with their second baby!

Rebecca giving hugs to baby Chaney (the big sister to be)

John flying planes with Uncle Dennis on the computer

Natalie and Rebecca enjoying the cupcakes

After lunch there we headed to Maw Maw June and Grandpa Bud's house. We had a full house there and a ton of food, including my favorite coconut cream pie. It may not be a traditional Thanksgiving dessert, but Mike's mom makes the BEST pies and this is always my fave.

The girls are starting to want to pick out their own clothes and it is driving me crazy. I know I should let them express themselves, but sometimes their outfits end up looking like this...luckily we weren't going anywhere

Today John had his Tae Kwon Do Holiday party and performance. The demonstration team had a performance that included some sparring and board breaking. Before they got into all that though the little ones had a small performance of their punching. John did great, but unfortunately I didn't get any pictures because one of the instructors was standing right in front of me. He was so proud when he came back to the table and got all his congratulations and hugs. After a small dinner they had an awards ceremony. John got a participation certificate along with the rest of his classmates. It was pretty impressive listening to the older kids and adults getting their awards.

John recieving his certificate - he has one of the mean mommies that won't let him wear his uniform after performing...white and 4 year old boys do not mix well

When we got home from Tae Kwon Do we set about decorating the Christmas Tree. Natalie was a fabulous supervisor and told the other 2 where to put everything. She was scared of a nutcracker ornament and didn't want to get to close to the tree after spotting it. The offending ornament has since been removed. I may have to go back and rearrange a few things now that they are in bed. 90% of the ornaments are about 3 feet high and under.

Christmas List

John has decided he wants a gas station for Christmas. If anyone knows of a Shell Station or Circle K for sale let me know. :)

Nature Walk

It was so beautiful out today I finally took the kids out on the nature walk I had been promising for weeks. We headed out to a nearby park with a couple of trails. I gave each kid a ziploc bag with their name on it to collect their nature treasures in. John was excited to find acorns and pinecones, only to discover that neither were anywhere to be found. He settled for rocks, sticks, and leaves.

There was a lot of running. John kept making starting and finishing lines on the trail and then having the girls race him. He was very excited that he continuously won. Poor girls. Their little legs just couldn't keep up.

About halfway through our walk we came up to a creek that we could climb down to. The kids all had a blast throwing rocks and sand into the water. Natalie kept getting a little too close to the water though. I was just imaging her slipping in and having to walk all the way back to the car with a sopping wet, cold, 2 year old.

After playing by the water for a while we headed back to the trail. I found a tree to put the kids in for cute pictures. We had a talk before we left that everyone would walk the whole way and I was not carrying anyone. They all agreed. Apparently Natalie forgot about 3/4 of the way through though and had a nice screaming fit.

After our walk we went over to the playground to kill some time before lunch. Before I even had the girls jackets off of them John ran over the monkey bars, grabbed on, swung his feet out, and landed flat on his back. He was screaming as I ran over and kept sputtering that he couldn't talk. He had gotten the wind knocked out of him pretty bad. Thank goodness he was already moving by the time I got to him because as soon as I saw him fall I was preparing myself for him to be paralyzed. I think he took a few years off my life. The other mothers at the playground just kind of glared at me. Like I really wanted my kid to get hurt! He's fast, and he's never tried the monkey bars by himself so when he ran to the playground I didn't think I needed to be hovering over him. Plus, I have 2 other little ones to watch. Accidents happen people! Regardless, 2 minutes later he was running around again and all was well.

Continuing Tradition

When I was a kid my dad had bowling league on Friday nights. While he was out, my mom would set up a picnic dinner for us in the living room. Generally it was pizza, applesauce, and nasty Vienna sausages. The latter was only eaten by my mom and brother. Just the smell of them makes me sick. We would sit on towels on the floor and watch all the TGIF shows, Full House, Family Matters, etc. It was nothing crazy exciting, but it was something we all looked forward to each week.

Tonight, while Mike was gone deer hunting I decided the kids and I would do the same. Since the good old TGIF shows aren't on anymore (and my kids are a little too young for them anyway) we hit up the video store and rented Mary Poppins and then swung by Imo's for pizza and salad. YUM! The kids were so excited to get to eat in the living room. We set out our towels and had our own little picnic. After dinner I made some popcorn, turned out the lights, and we had our own little movie showing complete with chocolate covered raisins, which were a big hit. I don't know if this will be an every week thing as they are still pretty young but it was fun to carry on a tradition.

Woo hoo!!!

Rebecca peed in the potty! Rebecca peed in the potty!! Just once, but she did it!!!

Rebecca the Arsonist

Conversation in the car today

John: I want to be a fireman. I'm going to drive one of the big green firetrucks and Natalie is going to ride with me.

Me: That would be a good job. You could help people if their houses catch on fire.

John: Yeah!

Rebecca: I want to catch people's houses on fire.