Pre-Christmas Fun

Last Saturday, we took the kids to Marshfield to eat at Culver's, bum at Target, and then off to the lights in the park.  We had planned on driving through the park, but at the last minute decided it would be fun to get out and stretch our legs.  

The kids were in awe of all the lights!

I couldn't get my camera settings right, but this is Ace and Finley dancing inside of the igloo!

There were a lot of people walking throughout the park...and an even longer line of cars waiting to drive through the park!

They thought it was fun to look through the cutouts!

Santa, Rudolph, and an Elf

Santa's workshop

Ace wanted to stand in line as we were leaving to meet Santa...

And Finley followed little brother's lead to get a candy cane.  Ace was of course disappointed that the candy cane was red...not green!  :)  He also tried his hardest to climb up on Santa's lap, but after a few failed attempts, decided it was okay to just stand by him!  Ha!

Finley's Christmas Program

Finley's 4-K class had their Christmas Program today.  She was very excited this morning and knew all of her songs/poems by heart!  I couldn't help but tear up as I watched her walking out toward the risers.  I could see her brown eyes quickly scanning the crowd trying to find Mommy & Daddy...and when she found us, she waved and smiled ear to ear!  :)

 

Finley's teacher has told us that she doesn't smile very often while at school. 

Finley will agree with this - she takes school very seriously and enjoys learning! 

Today, she smiled throughout the whole program! 

She loves to sing...I don't know who she gets that from?  It has to be her Papa!

She has a smaller class...14 kids...and they all did so well!

She hasn't let me wash the red paint off her nose and proudly wore her reindeer antlers to the grocery store, K-Mart, the eye clinic, and out for lunch.  I think she loved all the special attention!

After they performed we went to her classroom where she gave Brent and I a picture frame they worked on, a calendar, and a card (full of glitter).  We ate cookies and drank punch while she showed us around her classroom and pointed out her friends.

Forgotten Word

Papa:  "When your daddy was a little boy we had a milk man that would come give us milk."

Finley:  "Well now we have cows that give us milk."

After laughing, Papa clarified to Finley that the milk man delivered the milk the cows made!

Early Presents

Christmas started early in our house...the kids received a package from Uncle Mike in the mail on Saturday morning!

 

One pretty present inside the package for each kiddo!

AJ followed the two older kids and tried to get the paper off...

Finley was excited when she found out hers was the one with the pretty, pink bow!  :)

Not so sure about opening presents!

WHAT IS IT?

Christmas could take a while this year!  HA

WOW - Stompeez! 

 

Our kids have seen these on TV many times!  And each time, one will say,

"I wish I could have those!"  No more wishing kids!  :)

How did Uncle Mike know Ace's favorite color was green???

And Finley's was pink???

And of course...AJ was more interested in the packaging!

There was also a Rudolph nose inside...was it for me?  Or maybe Brent? 

Or maybe it really belonged to Ace since he has prayed for Rudolph recently? 

Either way, it provided many laughs that morning for all of us!

They did a great job taking turns...

...well, AJ might not understand sharing quite yet!  :)

 

Thank you for the gifts Uncle Mike!  We love you SO much and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

Dog For SALE

So a few days ago I blogged about how great it is to have a real Christmas tree...

 

REAL great...until your dog decides to mark his territory on it!

 

ARG!

Christmas Dance

Finley and her dance class performed at the nursing home on Monday night.  She bravely went into the "holding room" all by herself and right before they performed they came out of the room holding hands.  It was so cute to watch her from a distance!  To see the huge smile on her face, to see her chattering with her classmates, etc.  What a nice little girlie we have!  :)

 

She picked out her outfit...a sparkly tee, black frilly skirt, and silver leggings!

She looked great!

These pictures are blurry because I had to stand in the way back and didn't

 remember my camera...so my phone had to do. 

Every Monday night we leave dance and I wonder if Finley has fun...or if she is really learning anything.  Some nights she does great...other nights she looks bored or would rather make faces in the mirrors.  :)  WELL...she is made to perform!  She did awesome!  I was shocked at how well she knew the routine!  She had a little spark to her that was so fun to see!

 

When we were leaving her teacher handed out a mini candy cane to all the dancers and Finley said, "Mom, it was so worth it to come here tonight for this!"  HA!  Simple pleasures I guess.

Prayers

I love listening to Finley and Ace's prayers...and the fact that they fight over who is going to pray at supper! We never know what is going to come out of their mouths. Finley typically covers everything by thanking God for the "whole world". Ace will almost always thank God for "Mommy & Daddy, Finley, and AJ" and our supper. But the other night, these were the two prayers they said:

FINLEY:  Thank you God for your son, Jesus, that you sent to be our Savior!

ACE:  Thank you God for Rudolph!

I was first struck by how meaningful Finley's prayer was and couldn't help but tear up after I opened my eyes and saw her smiling ear to ear, so very proud of herself!  And then Ace prays...and totally cracks me up...BUT he was being serious, so I couldn't laugh at him, but instead thanked him and dished up his plate!  :)

Such special kiddos!

Lucky Kids

The kids each picked out a tree to cut down for our front steps...and Brent picked one out for our patio.  How fun that we live in an area where they can experience something like this around Christmas! 

 

When I was growing up, I don't think I knew that you could have a real tree in your house for Christmas.  There wasn't such a thing around us...that I remember anyway!  Everyone had an artificial tree with painted metal tips to know where to place them within the stand.  And mom or grandma would spend forever trying to bend the branches to fill in the empty spaces after the tree had been packed in a box for a year.  I do remember having a real tree in our house once I was in high school...but I know they were not $20 like they all are around here!  

 

Thank you to Nana, Papa, and Brent for taking Finley and Ace up north so they can experience finding their perfect tree!  It's the little things like this that they will remember!

Popcorn Anyone?

We went to the boys basketball game last week...to watch the first quarter.  We had to leave early so Papa could dig a popcorn kernel out of Ace's ear!  Nana was able to get the one he put in his right ear out with her fingers...the left ear was more difficult!

 

The picture is hard to see...but the kernel was WAY down in his ear!  Luckily, Papa had a very small tweezers at his office and was able to dig it out after a couple tries!

 

Uff...I hope Ace learned his lesson!

 

And I learned to think twice before buying the kids popcorn at an athletic event!  :)

Holiday Spirit

This last weekend we finally got our Christmas tree and started decorating!  Brent took Finley and Ace up north and cut down a tree for our patio as well as a couple small ones for outside our front door.  We don't have any snow and the temperatures have been unusually warm (I'll take it)...so it's hard to believe it's December and Christmas is only three weeks away!

 

Finley helped me decorate the tree while the boys napped.

Finished product!

The stockings are up as well as the countdown bags!

Finley saw the top of the container poking out of the bag and said to Brent, "Um, Mommy did something wrong...I can see part of the treat inside that bag!"  :)

Who Done It?

The other morning I was picking up the boys room and saw that someone had taken a crayon and colored and wrote on the side of the dresser.  The perfect W and M led me to believe that it was Miss Finley...so I questioned her.  "NO, it was Ace!"  Really?  I didn't know your brother knew how to write an M and W?  "MOM...It was him, not me!"  So I questioned Ace.  "NO, it was FIN!"  I asked him again and also told both of them that it was a sin to lie.  Finley didn't say anything and Ace changed his mind..."It was DADDY!"  HA!  So Ace and I went and found Brent and asked him why he drew on the side of the dresser.  Brent looked at me like a deer in headlights!  He had no idea what we were talking about.  The guilt must have gotten the best of Finley...she came into the kitchen and confessed that she wrote the M & W, but "Ace drew the spider webs"!  Mystery solved!  UFF!  

 

Quiet Time

Recently, AJ and I spent a morning alone with each other...he has been cutting molars and has been a bit more clingy and whiny lately.  And yes, I have another "mama's boy"!  The alone time was much needed for both of us.  He was so content to snuggle and enjoyed playing with a puzzle and pom poms.  

 

He loved this puzzle...it makes the animal noises!

He is very smart - he soon removed all of the pieces and just used his fingers to cover the sensors to make the animal noises on his own terms!  :)

This is Grandma Mari's creation...Parmesan cheese container and pom poms...

It entertained him for at least 30 minutes!

Such concentration!

"Where are they?"

"My hand is stuck!"

ALL DONE...moving out to the living room!

I Can SEE!

I had LASIK eye surgery on Wednesday of last week...which is something I've put off for almost 6 years!  :)  Mostly because of pregnancies...but no excuses now!  I was in the clinic for about an hour and a half and in the procedure room for no more than 15 minutes.  They spent a total of 20 seconds on my right eye and 15 seconds on my left eye "remodeling".  SOOO Crazy!  The worst part for me was laying in the chair and waiting for it to begin.  The doctor did a great job keeping my mind distracted during the procedure...the Valium probably helped too! :)  AND how lucky am I that I had my very own eye doctor with to "hold my hand"!?!?  Not literally, but Perry was definitely an added comfort throughout the entire process!

 

I napped for a couple hours when I got home and when I woke up, I could see!  It was clouded, but still better vision than I've had for over 20 years!  I have not experienced any discomfort since the hour after the procedure; my eyes are dry, but drops help.  I want to rub my eyes really bad...I don't know why though?  Maybe because I'm told I can't?  And I will continue to sleep with my shields for a few more days.  I am also lucky I have eyebrows left...I learned after putting the shields on the first night that I should watch where I align the tape!  YIKES!  :)

 

My vision is slowly evening out - my left eye is extremely sharp and for me, beyond perfect!  The right is a bit slower in the healing process, but is catching up with the left.  

 

After my post-op exam, I said "OH...I forgot my camera!" 

The optometrist kindly took Perry and I back in the op room and took our

picture by the laser machine!  And don't I look pretty in the plastic shields!?!?  Ha!

We Love the Boys

We drive by a dog almost every day that looks SOOOO sad and lonely to the kids...and to me too!  I've actually had to slow down a couple times to make sure the dog was alive (I don't know what I would have done if I felt it was dead?)...it's always just chained up to a small dog house...never any activity at the home...skinny/mopey looking dog...sad!  Not really any other way to put it. 

 

For the kids it's usually a competition to see who can spot the dog first...followed by "oh...he looks so sad!"  I then turn it back on the kids and ask what they would do if that was their dog?  They of course respond that they would love it...give it hugs, play with it, give him treats, etc.  

 

And maybe one night a week they remember to do the above things with their very own dogs! 

Those poor dogs...they get pushed to the back burner when kids come. 

Maybe the owners of the "sad little puppy" have three kids of their own...?  :)