Holiday Wish Lists

Over Thanksgiving weekend Hope, Holden and Ian filled out their Holiday wish lists and they were quite entertaining. I know that my kids were heavily influenced by Ian's birthday gifts. He is a pretty neat kid with lots of fun toys including an iPod touch he got while we were there. I enjoyed listening to Boy George with him (his choice) and he indulged listening to West End Girls with me and singing along after the first chorus. Good times, good times...

Holden's wish list says:

I would like a DS and pokemon cards and BAKUGAN and Star Wars people and laptop and a IPod Touch and a phone and a dog.

Needless to say, those last three will not be happening for quite some time. We have a netbook (a term my brother in law taught me) computer that is perfect for them, they may get a smaller version of the iPod and we have a phone and a dog already. As for the other stuff its a possibility. Holden has improved so much in school this year and I have to attribute that to Tom and his current teacher. Tom is in charge of his homework each night and Holden's been kicking butt and taking names with his spelling words making the Spelling Aces list almost every week and even gotten 100% on the pretest once. His reading is wonderful and he wants to read different things for a change. His current teacher and reading teacher are wonders! As parents we are so much LESS stressed this year over last. They are very communicative about what is going on in the classroom and specifically with our child. I could not be more thrilled with their work.

Hope's list is a little harder to read because she insisted on starting with a pink marker that didn't work out so well. It states that she would like a DS (the Nintendo DS). I'm pretty sure Santa will grace our house this year with these. We're finally entering that world as I've seen several articles that recommend it and seen games that will not turn them into vidiots (video idiots). The second item is a scooter, then a computer.

I have a feeling that she will get most of her list this year.

I can't tell you how different this year is to have Tom home for the holidays. It didn't really sink in until we were putting the tree up this weekend and the kids (and me too, a few times) kept telling him he was putting things in the wrong place or doing it wrong. There are lots of traditions that the kids and I are used to that Tom has missed out on. It's so good to be able to share those with him now. This has been a good year...

Good times Good times

One of the highlights of this trip was the hay bales. I thought that they would just sit on top of them which was stupid of me. Then I thought they would just walk around on them. Then they decided they would run on them and I was a little skittish thinking they would stay on one row each. Then they discovered they would jump across them and play tag. Which was kind of fun until Hope went splat and slid between the rows. She was fine, but I was worried about them going over the other side. I can hear my grandmother saying I was overreacting, and none of her kids died. I let them continue with lots of "be careful" and "easy" and "not so rough."

Thanksgiving in Kentucky

It's been a while (8 years) since we have been to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. The last time we were there I was pregnant with Holden and got sick, I suspect the 8AM turkey feast. This year we arrived at 9:30 AM and the Thanksgiving spread was already laid out. I tried a little and made it through with little bathroom time. Tom and the kids were not so lucky.


I would like to make mention of the pictures. Here is Tom shortly after we arrived being put to work to clean the "crisco" out of the chimney. I'd say he did a great job given the tools he had to work with-- a long knife, a pole with about three bristles and an old metal fence post with a rope tied around it. Plus, a grumpy man telling him every few minutes that he's doing it wrong... what a good guy. While he was up there I mentioned that the gutters needed to be cleaned out and he took care of it with no complaints.





A new addition to the family was Wilbur the pig. I don't think you can tell in this picture but little Wilbur here has problems with his back legs. They are folded under so it's like he's walking on his knees. He's a cutie for now...
Before we left another pig showed up that was a little bigger and a female. We called her Charlotte, Tom called her future bacon.
These cows were also there. Notice the one on the right has a cleft lip. I didn't know that was possible in cows. It's an interesting menagerie to say the least.

Good times at Grandpa D and Grandma Gs house

Hope was thrilled to be able to collect the eggs with Grandma G. Being the techno junkie I thought the highlight would be checking the deer camera, but for the kids and I think Tom too it was throwing rocks in the pond. Can't get more basic than that...

Archery

This is my first attempt at posting a video straight from Picasa and I hope it works. These are the 7th and 8th grade boys doing archery in gym class. The boy in the middle forgot his gym clothes. It's really a pretty cool thing and from what I've been told this is the only school in Missouri that has archery. Not really a surprise. What is surprising is how much the kids love this unit and what a great job they do with it. I got a chance to use the compound bow the other day and it was cool, plus I did really well-- one ring out from the bullseye.

Hope's picture of moi

Hope came home with this picture of me she did at school last week. Of course I love it! Look how skinny I am! :)

I'm not sure where my hair went, but at least it's nice out-- see the flower. Her teacher wrote the correct spelling of My Mom for her at the bottom. I should also note that she was able to correctly spell it for me this weekend.

Shrinky Dinks

Who doesn't love and remember Shrinky Dinks? Apparently, Tom. He'd never heard of it before. I'm not sure how that is even possible?
The base craft shop was having a going out of business sale and I happened across them. I remember my friends having them, specifically a Smurf set, but I don't think we ever had them.
At first just Hope was willing to play with them, but Holden quickly got interested. I told them to just use one sheet for now, but when I came back to the dining room after cleaning up the kitchen there was only one of 5 sheets still there. Something was obviously lost in thier translation of it. They made some neat shapes and we fired them up in the oven. We did learn that for next time the shapes they cut out should be rounded becuase they would make a great weapon after cooking. In other words, there are no shrinky dinks in the prison craft center cause they'd make a great shank. As we are trying to encourage love and harmony between the two, the dangerous ones went into a baggie that "accidently" disappeared.

Even Tom was intrigued when the project was over. I'm hopeful I can go back up to the shop and buy some more before they close out.

Good times, good times!

Finally cheering!

It took the whole season, but Hopi finally started to cheer during the game. Unfortunately this was her last game and there was a parent brawl, but she cheered nonetheless! Fortunately, most of the cheerleaders didn't even recognize there was a problem until it was over and neither did many parents. Who would have thought emotions would run so high in a Kindergarten through second grade football championship?

BTW- purple headband was not my idea. I did encourage it to stay in the van, but it was not a hill I was willing to die on. Also, that's would be a temporary neck tatoo that was still on her neck. I finally made her scrub it off two days ago because I was worried they would think we weren't making her bathe at home. Those things stay on forever!

The Day After Halloween

These are a few shots from the day after Halloween. We had a spider friend brave the weather and create a home on the outdoor canopy-less canopy. It looked pretty neat with the dew weighing it down. I wish I had been able to get a better shot of it, but I think it will take a better photographer/camera for that to happen.



These are a few of our pumpkins that we carved. The first is a simple face with no mouth (perhaps, wishful thinking on my part?). The next one is all Tom's design and the final one is our version of Cinderella's carriage. We knew what it was, but many of the neighbor's had trouble figuring it out...

Happy Halloween II

Just wanted to post a few more pictures. Holden didn't enjoy Halloween so much this year. He really wanted to go with his friend, but we made him stay with us. He had very little candy, which for him isn't a big deal. Hope, however, was thrilled with her booty. In fact, I thought she was just admiring the luminaries in the last picture, but she was trying to get better light to see her candy by and not let us see she was enjoying more than the one piece we said she could have.

Happy Halloween!

What a great day! Tom and I had a wonderful time. I realized that it was his first time home in five years for Halloween. He hasn't been around for one (and it's our favorite holiday) since Hope was a baby.
Hope was a cowgirl complete with lasso rope and cowgirl hat she wanted Tom to wear halfway through trick or treating. This picture is of her before school. Doesn't she look happy?
Tom and I decided to have a short party before trick or treating was to begin. He created the games for them to play. The one with Holden (aka Indiana Jones) below is where the kids had to make it through the spooky haunted house with arms that were alive and couldn't touch you to get the silver apple. The kids thought it was great and had a good time. One of the other games we had was Dress Tom for Halloween. Tom couldn't decide what he wanted to be so we decided on a mummy. With everything going on he didn't have time to wrap himself so we let the kids do it. I think they enjoyed that the most. To his credit, he wore the wrappings through the housing area the whole time stopping every so often to pick up parts that had fallen off. The last picture is from Tom and I sitting on the swing waiting for trick or treaters (which didn't really come becasue of the construction). He pointed out the big spider right beside me and I thought it might be cool to try and get a picture of it with the luminaries in the background. Kind of turned out neat. Wish I had a better camera (perhaps for Christmas).

Career Day

Today was Career Day at the kids' school. It's part of Red Ribbon Week and each day they dress up like I remember doing for Homecoming Week. I'm not entirely sure since it's supposed to be a connection to keeping kids off drugs. Will this help her ten years from now to "JUST SAY NO" ? Somehow I doubt it, but one can be hopeful. Grandma bought her the K-State cheerleader outfit last week and decided to wear it today. Perhaps she is thinking of making college a career like her mama?
Holden was all set last night to dress as his intended occupation of scuba diver, but morning came early and crank came with it. He was willing last night to wear swim trunks and surf shirt but when I helped him put on his long johns to go underneath (it was 34 degrees this morning) the idea was not so appealing so he has on a soccer jersey and jeans. He will be a professional soccer player-- David Beckham watch out!
A final note: She has a tatoo necklace around her neck. I'd rater it be the fake tatoos now than a real one later. You should see her feet which are covered with them. Woe is me!

Whirlwind Trip to Kansas Part II

This shot of the kids in the hotel turned out great. What you don't see is the fifteen others I took trying to get them all to look at me and not the television or to stop touching each other, or to be still long enough for the camera to click. It was well worth it, could they be more adorable?

Two great shots of Baby Jonathan. He is such a good baby. He didn't mind all the kids trying to hold him or Anthony's version of loving on him or Hope swinging her hair in his face. He quickly learned to grab himself a handful of hair which made her stop it.

I was pretty impressed that Hope wanted to hold him. She was pretty facinated with him and how much he could do. I tend to forget she's not been around babies that much. This lasted about thirty seconds since Jonathan weighs almost as much as she does. She was trying to keep a brave face for the picture, but you could tell he was getting heavy for her as she started to droop.

Whirlwind Trip to Kansas

A few photos from our trip over to Kansas to see close family and far-flung extended family. Anthony was a hoot! I must tell you he enjoyed his Indian and the Jones Lego set Grandma bought for him at Wally World. He played with it with Holden and Hope, but he liked being Indian and the Jones (Indiana Jones).


When I finally got my camera back from Holden (the future Ansel Adams) I had to crack up at this picture which could not be worse of me or my mom. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree does it. I'm pretty sure we were getting on to one or all of the kids. The best part is that baby Jonathan is wearing the coolest shirt ever that I got for him. It says My Aunt Rocks (size 18 mo). It fits him quite well and we had a good time sporting it that day.


This is one of my favortie shots we got during the trip. Have you seen a cuter baby? He may be ginormous, but he's gorgeous and the sweetest baby you would every see. I think I saw him actually cry once the whole time.