Family Pictures

Jennifer helped us take family pictures yesterday for Christmas gifts and such. Enjoy!

I'm going to have

A nephew. His name is Samuel.

Please take the time to visit Megan's blog and remember our entire family in your prayers. \

http://pearlmusic.wordpress.com/2009/12/08/update/

Its the little things...

Ever since I was little we had a tradition. Each year we get a new ornament for the tree. When I grew up and had my own tree I got all the ornaments that were mine from my childhood. Its a well loved tradition, and one we have continued with our own children.

Last year was our first holiday season living away from home. I was already mopey because my lovely Christmas tree had been left behind at our old house, never to be seen again. I decided to be thankful that I at least had my ornaments. As I half heartedly decorated a gimpy 5 foot tree, I reached into the box to find one of my childhood ornaments shattered. Not simply broken, but shattered. It was my Precious Moments cheerleader.

The tears formed automatically. I couldn't stop them as they overflowed my eyes and ran freely.

"She. Was. My. Favorite!" I sobbed. Honestly, I don't know if she was my favorite, or if it was simply the last straw to my emotional holiday. I never fully felt the "Christmas spirit" last year.

This year, our second away from home, we are going to be unable to travel back home for the holidays, and that has been hard on me. I have thrown myself into decorating our home.

I have a new tree, and while it still pales in comparison to my old one, its much nicer than the one we had last year. Christmas is sprinkled all over our home, yet there was still that nagging feeling that I was going to be unable to fully emotionally enjoy the holidays giving we won't be going home. I wanted to. I love Christmas. Its my favorite holiday. I'm one of the few people I know that wishes Christmas decor would be out all year. When Hobby Lobby puts their's out in July I love it, I don't groan.

A few days ago, Jennifer's mom called and told her she had some boxes of Christmas decor for us. Would we come get it? After our morning of shopping we ran by her moms, picked up three boxes and headed home. When we got home I proceeded to go through each of the boxes, deciding where I was going to put each item. I reached into the bottom of the last box and my heart stopped. Surely not! There was no way right? But it was, the ornament from my childhood. The Precious Moments Cheerleader, in its original box carefully wrapped in bubble wrap. What are the odds that an ornament from 1988, the exact ornament would end up back in my hands.

All I can say is...

Merry CHRISTmas. :)

Kids Speak

Its been a while since I posted one of these, and I wanted to get them down before I forgot. I spent some time the past few days reading back over my blog and loved reading stories about the kids that I had totally forgotten about.

So without further ado, here are some of my favorite recent, what we refer to affectionatly as "Matthewisms"

Mom changing Matty's diaper "Pee-ew!"

Matthew: "Yeah, Pee Me"

Driving in the car:

Matthew: "There's something in my eye"

Jen: "Its the sun baby"

Matthew: "Will you turn the sun off please?"

He has also taken to coming up behind us, sticking out his little finger and poking our backs saying "boop"

I'm still alive...

I've just been sucked into facebook land. I post most pictures and updates there, and have totally neglected my blog, the fact of which has been brought to my attention. So here is a rundown of our life as of late.

* We all recovered from swine flu/bronchitis and now we all have colds. Except for Aaron. He's superman. Except for the two days out of the year when he actually gets sick, then he's not superman. ;)

*I'm going back to school. I will be taking classes through Kaplan University and then once I have enough credits (24 to be exact) I will transfer to University of Texas at Arlington and enter their nursing program. My goal eventually is to become an L&D nurse. Then once my kids are much older, get my midwifery license.

*School is going ok for the kids. Not great, but not terrible right now. We have decided that we will be moving once our lease is up here in May.

*I had a parent teacher conference with Connor's teacher, and she flat out told me he is a genius. No laughing. He's testing the highest he can possibly test on all their tests, and has all the teachers astounded. He's in the 2nd grade and she said he could easily excel in 3d, 4th or 5th. Due to his other issues however, we're leaving him where he is.

*I'm going to be an aunt! Steven and Megan are expecting in late April. I'm SO excited!

*I got my haircut. Love it! It is taking some getting used to however, no more ponytails for me, I have to make an effort every day.

*Aaron just celebrated his 4 year anniversary for Blue Cross on Halloween. Still loves it, still going strong. They move to their new building in January.

*Matthew is 2. Ornery as ever, but hilarious. Not a day goes by where I'm not cracking up at him.

*Aaron and I will celebrate 10 years of marriage in 20 days. I can't believe its been a decade! Time flies by so fast! I still feel like a young girl in love most days.

I think that's about it. Most of you probably know everything, but I got fussed at by a couple of people for not blogging recently, so here ya go. A blog :) I'll do my best to keep it up, but not promising anything, especially since classes start on Wednesday. I'll be one busy bee! Facebook is easy for me to update because I can do it from my phone. So if you haven't already, look me up there.

Happy Birthday Honey!

Happy birthday to my husband, my best friend, the father of my children, the love of my life.
You are everything I need and more.
Hope its a wonderful one for you!

First week of school wrap up

The first week went very well. All the kids adjusted to the new school better than expected, and so far teachers seem awesome.
Connor made a new friend, which I'm very pleased with. Socializing is just not his thing.
It was a busy week, Tuesday we went to the Air Hog game as a back to school celebration.
Thursday we went out to eat to help celebrate our good friend Jennifer getting her promotion.
Saturday Sadie performed with her group again at the district health fair.

Now for Grace..... as you all know Grace has always been a stubborn little thing. She has a mind of her own thats for sure. I've never met a 2 year old who would stand in time out for 45 minutes, but she did. Because she refused to say she was sorry. She never asked to get out of time out, just stood there serious as could be.
So now we are in Kindergarten. Day 1- Grace informed her teacher "I'm not going to do that, its to hard."
Day 3- Grace tells her teacher "I don't feel like reading, I'm going to dance" and proceeds to dance.
Day 5- We're talking about the school day, and the kids are all telling me that their team won for the week. Their school is divided into two teams "Heroes" and the "Owls" they get points for good behavior, keeping their specified bathroom clean, as well as classrooms, and then finally on Fridays they have an academic bowl, and then announce the winners.
Well we are discussing their team's victory and Sadie tells me how she consoled a girl who got a question wrong, and everyone knows that specific girl is the meanest one in school. I applaud Sadie for her good sportsmanship and kind behavior and then Grace pipes up....
"You know what I'm going to do? I'm going to go to the Owls bathroom and throw trash all over the place so they will lose points"

I just don't know what I'm going to do with her. I redirect often (and I do mean often) but she's going to give me a run for my money, this much is sure!