No if, ands, or BUTS

Christian is loving kindergarten and his teacher.

I was a little worried about his teacher.

She's wasn't a very social person with the parents.
(I verified that perception with some other parents at a birthday party last weekend.)

But after working in Chris's class, I find that with the kids she is the complete opposite.
(She also has warmed up to the parents throughout the year.)

Those kids love her and she is FANTASTIC with them.

Yesterday, Christian was throwing his schoolwork at me while I paid bills.

I saw a little note at the bottom of one of his papers in his teacher's handwriting.

I stopped to focus on what his teacher had written, thinking it might be some sort of praise.

Not quite.

Not even close.

Let me explain....

Their classroom letter of the week this last week was "U".

In one of their centers, they are suppose to "write the room". Meaning they find things in the room that either start with that letter or have that letter in them and make a list.
Then they are to make a sentence at the bottom with one of the words.

Christian's sentence read.....

"buts are a body part."

When I asked him about it and proceeded to tell him that what he had written was crude and I agreed with the "not appropriate" comment his teacher had written at the bottom of the page, his innocent comment was......

"But, Mom it had a 'U' in it."

Assignment complete.

Dear Readers

Dear Readers of my Blog,

I know you are reading this because I get an occasional email about it.

But I'm curious as to why you are all so shy about leaving comments?????

Thanks be to my friend Julie who DOES comment.

So I'm asking you as my family and friends to let me hear your comments.

It's not that hard and just because you sign up for a goggle account, so you
can add those comments, doesn't mean you have to have a blog of your own.

I just want to know that you enjoy what you're reading and to hear from you.

Love, ME

Potty Trained!

This is the face of the newest member of the potty trained club.

It's official now: No more diapers!!

I am proud to announe we've had 6 dry nights in a row and

although the number 2 job is still a little dramatic

it's getting done in the right place, now.

Does it make me sad that I don't have to buy diapers anymore?

No, not really although I realize that my babies are growing up

and that they are my last.

But as long as they still like to cuddle with me on the couch in the

mornings after the kids are off to school.

And they still want kisses and tickles from me.

Then I'm okay with the fact that they are big enough

to not use diapers.

We'll see how I feel about them growing up when they attend a regular preschool next fall.

Christian is 6

Christian turned 6 last month.

I wanted to post some things about Chris.

He hasn't quite figured out that a smile is suppose to be a beautiful thing.

He always looks a little upset when he smiles.

We have to tell him a joke that will make him laugh to get a "real" smile

out of him.

For his birthday he got his very own flashlight and measuring tape.

He also got a new chapter book and a puzzle.

Christian is a phenomenal reader.
His teacher even says so.

Mrs. Moody(his kindergarten teacher) sends Chris and 1 other little
boy to the library during reading time to pick out their own books.
He takes AR (Advanced Reading) tests while he's there and the aide
that helps him says he rarely misses any questions.



He loves to sing.

For the Primary program last November, our family was asked to sing.

The Primary kids sang the first verse.

Todd sang a verse by himself.

I sang a verse by myself.

And then our kids sang the last verse.

Christian was front and center and right in front of the mike.

But he knew his part and sang it loud and clear.

Afterwards, a member of the Bishopric said that if he could sing

with Christian he wouldn't mind singing.

Christian likes inventing things with the Legos and his brother, Russell.

They like to play games outdoors with each other as well.

He is a very friendly little boy and LOVES playdates with his friends.

Although we need to work on when we have friends here....

He forgets that he needs to play with his friend and gets distracted

with the things he does on a regular basis.

He is learning how to swim and took lessons last summer.

I'm not sure he's ready for the swim team, but at least

he's more comfortable in the water.

I sure love this son of mine.

Out of the mouth of Babes

I was looking at my cousin's wife's blog the other day. She had blogged about her youngest daughter's affection to the phrase, "Ta-da".

Within a day, Spencer took up the phrase.

It happened after his co-op preschool valentine's party.

When I came to pick them up he ran to the counter where their bags were sitting with decorated cupcakes that 6 two- year-olds had done themselves. He put up his "presenting hand" and said it with a huge grin: "Ta-da".

He said it several times that afternoon and again when Daddy came home. I asked him if he wanted to give his Daddy the valentine he had made. As he proudly handed the construction paper, personally colored heart to his dad he said it again: "Ta-da".

Hannah's new phrase cracks me up.

Although it makes me wonder what else my little ones are picking up as they watch TV with their older siblings.

If any of your children watch Disney Channel's Phineas and Ferb, you are familiar with Hannah's new phrase.

"Whatcha doin'?" frequently comes out of her mouth everyday. Add in her 2-year old voice and a drawl and you can hear it in your head.

She asks me when I'm showering.

She asks me when I'm putting my make-up on.

She asks me when I'm eating, sewing, at the computer, watching TV.

I think you get the picture.

It all makes me smile.

Holiday Haircuts

The girls have been asking to get haircuts since school started in August.

It's just one of those things that gets shoved to the bottom of the priority list for me.

Besides, Janelle needed to keep her hair long during marching season.

She had to be able to get it up in the "required" hair-do for Colorguard.

So after Christmas (and before the New Year), I took the girls into the salon

to get their hair cut.

Before

After


I was tired of the daily ponytail that Julie wore her hair in.

And she needed a "clean up" haircut after swim season.


Before


After

I loved Rachel's long hair.
Especially when she wore it in 2 long Indian Braids.
But alas, she wanted a change.

Before

After


And Daddy was the one who wanted to trim up Hannah's hair.
It was just getting to where I could put braids in it.

Hannah was the first one in the chair.
She didn't even whimper.

Before


Hannah's new "do" is my favorite.


After

Julie and Rachel both had enough cut off to donate to Locks of Love.

They always seem to wait to get their hair cut until they have enough to donate.

We will have to get a family picture done soon before everyone's hair grows out.

Concerts and Recitals

December is a musical month for our family.

We usually start with piano recitals for Julie and Russell.

Then it's band and orchestra concerts. We had 3 this year to attend.



Julie and Russell had been outside playing in the snow just before it was time to leave for their recital.
We had to hussle out the door.
Julie still had wet snow hair.















Janelle had to be fitted for a band uniform prior to her performance.

She also had to borrow shoes from the band closet.
The High School Band performs in their marching band uniforms and Janelle did Colorguard during marching season.








Rachel sat 1st chair 2nd violin for her winter concert.

You can see her on the front row, 3rd person in, just left of the conductor.



We also had friends over for our traditional holiday sing-a-long.

I think the kids were more interested in all the food than the singing though.

Snow!!!

These pictures are to prove that it actually does snow in East Tennessee.

This snowfall came the first weekend in December.

On a Saturday.

The kids love the snow but they'd rather it come during the week. Then there's a greater chance of school getting cancelled.

To date, we've had 2 days of cancelled school, 1 day with a delayed start of 2 hours, and 1 early dismissal day. (Not all a result of this snow fall but a combination of this snowfall and the one we got last week.)

Christian

Russell and Spencer

Hannah & Spencer waiting for a sled ride.

Rachel & Julie with the garden variety snowman.

The kids were up early before their piano recital to play in this stuff. We have a great sledding hill at the bottom of our yard. A lot of the neighborhood kids come to sled there.

The kids made the snowman and used remnants of our summer garden for the accessories.

Tomatoes for the eyes.

Green peppers for the buttons and nose.

Corn stalks for the mouth and arms.

That snowman was as tall as I was.

It was sad when later that day I looked out to see that someone had walked through our yard and knocked it over.

A New Shade of Green

Choosing a color to paint the house was not as easy as I thought it would be.

We had several samples.

We even painted several swatches at the back of the house and asked the neighbors for their vote.

This dark green was the color that was most liked.

It took some getting used to for me.

View of the kitchen addition and covered patio.

The shudders aren't on but they're black.

You might be able to see that the front door is also dark green.

That won't stay that way.

We just ran out of warm days to get it painted and I hadn't decided 100% what color to go with.

That will be another post for another day.

Halloween in February

This post is for my mother-in-law who wanted to see pictures of the kids in their Halloween costumes.

We finally got the pictures downloaded.

So, here you go......

The whole crew

Prince Charming & Snow White

Spencer's tunic and belt was the only costume I made for this year. We were originally all going as Snow White and the 7 Dwarves but we already had Hannah's dress and I really couldn't get into dressing up this year, so only the little ones carried that theme.


The older kids "recycled" other costumes.


Christian & Julie dressed as Star Wars characters.
Rachel as a Spanish dancer.
Janelle wore her Wicked witch costume from last year.
Russell was a vampire.


I had to use my thinking cap for his costume. But we used his lion tamer vest (from the circus year), his sunday shirt and pants, and the Darth Vader cape from the toy shelf. It turned out just right.


Who knows what we'll do for this year.....