Christmas dance...

they performed at half time, during the girls basketball game.
It was energetic, and loud, chaotic and wonderful.
They were excited, and eager, afterwards
they were simply tired, it was way past their bedtime.
meltdowns occurred once we reached home (not the best way to end a fun evening)
all is calm for now.

Dance performance

haircut

he came home from school today and his hair had grown three inches. No, I kid you not ....I sent the boy out the door with normal looking hair and he returned with a shaggy, poofed out hairdo. (so perhaps I noticed last week that he needed a hair cut, and of course I intended to call Erica to schedule an appointment, and of course I remembered, at 1am a few nights (figured she wouldn't like a call at that time) so I guess I shouldn't be so surprised that his hair looked like a lab experiment gone bad.) Knowing that the wait until I could get him to Erica would be painful for him and me, the poor kid sweats, below zero temps and he has water dripping from his hair. So I called Linda, who trudged through the snow with her hair clipper to fix Anthony's hair. No really she did trudge through the snow, I have the puddles in my kitchen to prove it. Well I did have puddles until the girls decided to play in them and soak their socks and pj's. Which required a wardrobe change, but I digress we are talking haircuts here, not wardrobes. He was fine with this venture until Linda asked if he wanted both ears cut off or just one....I suggested we keep the right, he tends to favor that one. His face was priceless, thinking he will soon catch on to our particular brand of humor. You will notice there is no after pic, he disappeared quite quickly to shower...he didn't appreciate the itchy hair. I can assure you he looked wonderful, thanks Linda you saved the day!

preschool Christmas program

Wednesday was Rosie's preschool program. She was so excited that Josh said he would come watch her. (she loves her big brother)
I didn't get to go, but it sounded like it was adorable and fun.

Sunday School program

this morning was their Christmas program for Sunday School. I have been hearing the songs for weeks as Rosie and Yahaira practiced.
Anthony had a part in the program and had to memorize his lines, he did an awesome job!

Anthony...

who played his part as a silver ornament extremely well.
I think he was surprised to see me sitting right in front, not so long ago he was a kindergartner who looked overwhelmed and uncertain when he first took the stage...tonight he's a pro...filled with confidence that comes from having done this before.
Have I mentioned that this concert is one of my favorites? It is!

Christmas program

her first ever.
I had awesome seats, front row, center seats...
sigh.
not that it mattered because she stood directly behind the music stand and I could barely see her.
loved watching her perform, loved listening to her practice again and again in the weeks leading up to this program.
So fun to watch all the elementary kids, they truly love the experience. What a wonderful way to begin this holiday season
with a program filled with smiling faces and wonder, eager performers and laughter.

Snow storm....

started Tuesday with snow...
school let out at 1:15 continued to snow and of course the wind picked up.
Wednesday when we peaked outside this is what met our eyes....
lot's and lot's of snow, drifts, upon drifts...not to mention freezing temps.
(yes my girls are in their pj's, and yes I do realize they do not have a stitch of winter gear on...
it was a 10 second photo op. well, except for Rosie who was quite intent on heading right into the snowdrift you see in the picture)
a few moments later she was properly attired and did head out into that winter wonderland....a few minutes later, she was back in side...
shivering and explaining to me how cold it was outside...
man I love winter....(yes that was said with sarcasm)
Thursday morning brought sunshine and below zero temps...and a two hour late start for school.
(yes my kids now believe that school weeks will contain snow days)

this is what happens...

when you become distracted while attempting to chop onions.
sigh, a nice clean slice through half my thumb.
can we say ouch! I did.
it resulted in a trip to urgent care, since I couldn't get the darn thing wrapped tight enough,where they suggested stitches
or gluing. I opted for the glue route. Needle to skin.... so not a part of my day's plan.
When it became apparent that it wasn't going to stop bleeding, kevin asked if I could drive myself out to the clinic.
I glanced at the snow falling steadily out the window and at the death grip I had on my finger to stop the bleeding and said seriuosly you think I can drive? I called Linda who gave me a ride to door of the clinic.
Had a nice chat with the urgent care doc, used to do daycare for her, and a wee bit later finger is glued and taped, arm is numb, had to get an update on my tetnus shot (yeah). Home now with directions to not get the finger wet for 5 days. I see a future of no dishes, ahhh no complaints from me. Finger is still numb, thinking later could be interesting.

Christmas cookies

did a bit of holiday baking today...
kinda cheated in this endeavor...
we used already cut out cookie dough...so all we had to do is bake and decorate.
A success no matter how we approached it. Rosie spent a lot of time getting her snowman just so...only to eat it in moments.
Discovered that these cookies were rather tasty (so didn't expect it, usually sugar cut out cookies need frosting just to be good)
so not the case, these tasted amazing just from the oven. Tomorrow we will decorate more of those cookies, a project with the daycare kids, always fun when you add sugar and candy into the mix.

a moment to celebrate

do you see this?
yes I realize it is an empty counter top...not exciting you say.
well to me that is the stuff happiness is made off.
Why? because for weeks it has been filled with piles of papers and photos and various other scrapbooking tools in my never ending quest to "catch up" I haven't scrapped for months, pretty certain I have whined about that various times during those months. No desire to put scissor to paper, none! When Shirley began a crop night at the library a few months ago I attended thinking this would be the motivator...not quite, loved going, just didn't accomplish much. sigh. Began to think perhaps I had just lost that creative edge, after all the number of scrapbooks I have created over the yeas is staggering and perhaps one just runs out of creative energy.
or one is lazy.
finally one Saturday a few weeks ago I started to clean my little scrapbook corner, pulling out stuff, paper, and more paper, and more paper (you get the picture) dare I admit the stack of card stock was as tall as Rosie. Sigh, apparently my lack of creativeness didn't stop my desire to buy. After some serious purging and much needed cleaning, my space felt ready...and so did I. Once again I was putting pictures to paper, updating first one child's, and then another album so they were current. The last time I had put pages in Anthony's album was spring of 08. yikes! Today all 4 little kids albums are up to date. Once the older three graduated and completed their first year of college I stopped doing pages for their albums. I also completed an album from our summer vacation, Christmas of 2008, and an album from our Disney on Ice adventure last March. Each of the kids also have a school album which is also current... as is the picture frame on the wall, and not to be left out, their totes (created in a frenzy a few years ago, designed to hold their papers and art projects from each year of school) is also up to date, dare I admit that in Anthony's we were a year or two behind, sigh. Hopefully he won't remember that years from now :)

and here is the completed albums, what a beautiful sight that is.
love how the kids pull out their albums and page through them time and time again.
Love hearing the giggles and comments as they remember this moment or that.
Love that for right now I am so completely caught up.

Christmas ornaments

One of the things I love about this holiday season is all the handcrafted ornaments that make there way into our home.
Yahaira brought the first home this week, from an afterschool adventure class she attended. She was so excited to hang her snowman on the tree and set her painted/glitter covered pine cone in just the right place.

Merry Christmas!

Make a Smilebox greeting

really....

was this necessary?