November 28....

one might expect to see ice at this time of the year..
but green grass? not so much.
Loving that the temps have continued to be mild.
5o's yesterday and today was an equally wonderful day. The kids spent a long time outdoors playing with the ice that had gathered in the bird bath and water tubs....

Johnny

the elf on the shelf returned Thanksgiving evening.
Yahaira found the book on the desk and immediately asked me to read it.
Awhile later she discovered Johnny sitting on the shelf in the daycare room.
So excited to see him return, most in the house were also excited to see his return, well one was not.
She of course would not like the idea of anyone watching her and certainly not reporting back to Santa whether she has been naughty or nice. I know I should not have enjoyed the scene played out time and time again last night as Rosie walked through the daycare room keeping one eye on Johnny at all times, almost as if to say "go ahead watch me but I'm watching you too" and yes I shouldn't be
quite so excited to have that little elf in our house where at times all I have to say is "johnny is watching" and as if by magic they stop what ever bothersome behaviour we were currently dealing with.... if your curious about The elf on the shelf you can go here to last years post about Johnny, and if you would like to add your own elf to your holiday's you can go here.

sleeping by the christmas tree

a tradition that continues with these new little ones. Every year when we put the tree up the kids would sleep by the tree that first night. Last night that tradition continued with a most of the little ones

this one and the baby were still going strong long after anthony and yahaira had fallen asleep
this photo was taken at 11:30pm. Sigh some things will never be easy, will they?

Rosie

it was her year to put the angel on the tree.
a tradition we started in 1989 when Beckie was 4 and
we had just moved into our home.
each year is written on the storage box for the tree, so fun to look at the list each year and write in the next name.

Decorating...

for Christmas...Friday afternoon we put up the trees,
and hung the stockings. So many excited hands trying
to help out, many excited exclamations of "oh, I remember this ornament"
"I love this one" "I made this? " So fun to travel back in time and recall where each
ornament came from and to share those stories with these new little ones.
Loved sitting in the darkened living room last night with just the lights from the tree.
One of my favorite parts of the holiday.

attempting ....

to get some family photos...

Thanksgiving....

a time spent with family and friends.
meeting linda and larry's new grandson so tiny, so wonderful!
having all the kids home for the holiday (josh surprised us by being there, he was suppose to work but got the day off)
eating way too much food...
winning in pictionary, linette and I are a force to beat.
Counting my reasons to be thankful and knowing I am incredible blessed.

Birthday's

Brandon and Cassandra's birthdays are just a few weeks apart.
We had a party with family to celebrate on Sunday. The ice cream cake
from Coldstone was a huge hit. So hard to beleive they are now 17 and 21...
I can still remember them as toddlers who said they could go frow up?

Christmas pics

2009 edition

21

Today she turns 21.
she has been counting down to this day for months.
(it really matters at this age to "be" 21, I wouldn't choose 21 again for any incentive)
She was the final baby (at least at the time that is what I believed)
she enjoyed her baby status immensely.
She was my child who slowed me down, who reminded me to notice the small details in life.
(oh how I needed those reminders, so swept up in life with three tiny children)
she was my challenge, everything I thought I knew I soon realized were pointless in regards to this child
I am in awe of her, her strength, her determination, her ability to face an obstacle and overcome it.
(I would love to be more like her)
It is a gift to be her mother, even when she is challenging me
It has been a joy to watch her grow.
Can't wait to see what next she does.

gnome made craft shows...

Saturday afternoon Yahaira and big Rose and I travelled to New Ulm for an annual
craft show event. It is always scheduled to coincide with deer hunting opener. We visited 9 different homes and saw many beautiful and creative crafts. I did find few ornaments for the tree, it has been so long since I've added hand crafted ornaments to our tree.
and it would appear that some habits are simply impossible to stop, I did pick up a few scrapbooking items too. Apparently it doesn't matter that I haven't scrapped in forever.

minnie came to stay with us..

last weekend.
It is a project her kindergarten class does, each week minnie or mickey go home with a student and then the student journals in a notebook about what they did that weekend. She was super excited to share the weekend with her (I was frantic at times that we were going to lose minnie) Would have loved to hear her discussion when minnie returned to school monday morning.

Spiderman/girl

Still fascinated by spiderman, was going to be spiderman/girl for halloween, (we had a spiderman costume that Anthony had wore) until someone told her she looked like a boy. the she opted for a butterfly costume. She always tagged girl onto the end of spiderman, so cute to hear her say it. Found this outfit on clearance at Walmart after halloween, it simply made her day.

Katie's baby shower

When I first found out that Katie was expecting, I knew that I would host a baby shower for her. (of course the fact that I have attended maybe 2 other baby showers in my life, didn't deter me) Sunday November 1st was the day, with her due date quickly approaching (mid November) it seemed like a perfect time. I am happy to say that it went quite well, the games were enjoyed the food was awesome (thanks Linda) and it was so fun to see all the wonderful, teeny tiny baby supplies Katie received. Now if she could just have that little one, I know the littlest members of my household are very excited to get to know Katie's baby. So am I.

School Pics...

Kindergarten

2nd Grade

New glasses...

She didn't pass the vision test during pre-school screening. She wouldn't do the hearing test either
but eventually we were able to determine she could hear quite fine. ...sigh. So with the vision test we were not quite sure if it was attitude or an actual problem. A trip to the eye doctor followed just to be sure. Where she cooperated amazingly well, (no I didn't take her, I figured her dad could enjoy that adventure) soon determined that it had indeed been a vision problem and not attitude.
She has astigmatism, and needs to wear those glasses all the time, (no wonder she sits with her nose to the tv screen) We are on day two of wearing them, she has cleaned them at least 100 times (they gave her a bottle of cleaner and her own little cloth, sigh she will wear them out before she loses them)