O Come, O Come Emmanuel

Another Christmas Story

Our church had a Christmas program on Sunday night. It was a really sweet program. The kids did almost everything themselves. Not only did they sing and act out the first Christmas, we had pianists, violinists, organists, and even a bell choir!

Dylan helped out as the director's assistant. She also played in the bell choir and was the "scene change" girl.

Katherine played the part of Mary, Mother of Jesus. Besides acting and playing the bells, she also had a solo performance singing "O Come, O Come Emmanuel". Of course, I think she did an outstanding job!

This was a simple, sweet program. A good reminder of what Christmas is really all about.

A Christmas Story

Isaac has so been excited about his Christmas program. But, as soon as his teacher put his little lamb ears on, he started bawling his eyes out. He was a sad little sheep. I just knew he wasn't going to go up on stage.



But Daddy did some mighty heavy coaxing.



And Isaac began to reconsider.




He made it up on stage and, once there, became quite comfortable. And...he was mesmerized by the star on the nativity scene.




He may not have stolen the show. But he tried to steal the star.

Once the music started, he was in his element and thoroughly enjoyed himself.

Singing "Mary Had a Baby" and rocking the baby. So sweet.

Our sweet little lamb chop pulled it off. When the final verse of "Go Tell It On the Mountain" was over, he didn't want to leave the stage. And, of course, we celebrated with ice cream!

An Artistic Girl

We were excited when Dylan's art project was one of three chosen from the middle school to be displayed at the board of education!

She was also great at her band concert on Monday night, which gave us an excuse to celebrate with a trip to get ice cream and milkshakes. Hooray Dylan!!

Yes, Virginia, There is a Scary Man

I love Christmas! Everything about it is great! And this year has been even more fun experiencing it through the eyes of a 3 year old. From the time the first lights were up (not ours, but some more efficient neighbors), Isaac has been pointing and squealing and laughing. This weekend we did finally manage to do some decorating of our own, and Isaac is in heaven. His favorites are the train around the tree and the "cracker nut" soldiers! His least favorite? That creepy old man in the white suit who looks fun on a 4x6 inch Christmas card, but is a nightmare come to life as a 6 foot tall white bearded "elf". I have to admit, I kinda see his point.

This picture was taken with Santa at Macys in New York City. Isaac is trying really hard to be a big boy and not cry.

All I Want for Christmas...

Katherine has developed a strange phobia about losing her baby teeth. When she gets a lose tooth, she freaks out. You can't touch it or look at it or even discuss it. She was so upset when the last one fell out that she wouldn't even put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Because of this, she has somehow developed an ability to will them to stay in her mouth. No joke! Teeth that are lose one day will be stuck like glue again the next time I check. It has became such a problem that the dentist had to actually pull 4 of them today. Oh the drama there. If she had just wiggled them out the normal way, she could have avoided shots and pliers and all sorts of unpleasantness. But that would be too easy, wouldn't it?

Thanksgiving 2008

Steve, Lisa, Elizabeth and Emme came for a visit the week of Thanksgiving. They left behind 80 degree Texas weather to be greeted with our freezing temperatures! For weeks, Steve kept saying he wanted cold weather when they came. Well, he got his wish, and then some! (Note the ice in the water behind them. This is at the park by our house.)




Despite the cold weather, we spent the week touring the area. This picture was taken when we walked around Princeton University just before we stopped to get coffee and hot cocoa to thaw out.



We saw some of the sights in Philadelphia. This was particularly interesting to Elizabeth because she has been studying Benjamin Franklin in school.

For some reason, New York City always colder than New Jersey. In this picture, the kids are standing in front of the New York Public Library.

We saw A Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall and then walked to Rockefeller Center. These crazy girls actually wanted to get out on the ice and skate!

This is the view of the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan Skyline from aboard the Staten Island Ferry.

On Thanksgiving Day, our friends Brian, Stacye, Amy and Alex joined us for dinner as well. When we were too full to move, the gals enjoyed beating the guys in Catch Phrase. (Even their cheating didn't help them win. Ha!)

And, to kick off the Christmas season, we continued our tradition of going to Palmer Square in Princeton for caroling and the lighting of the big Christmas tree! Ho! Ho! Ho!

Celebrating Katherine

Katherine. Our sweet girl. Special in so many ways. Kindhearted, funny, fun. There are many sides to her, and I love them all! It's especially funny to see how she pulls it all together. She loves to cook, and she loves to accessorize, so it's not uncommon to have her helping me in the kitchen with her oven mitt on one arm and purse on the other. But she makes it work. She leaves me little notes on my pillow and makes me cards "just because". One day, she may outgrow those little notes and pictures, but I hope not. They make me so happy. But for today, we're celebrating her as she is. 9 years old. Full of love and fully loved.

For her party back in November, she wanted a spa themed sleepover. And it has taken me 2 weeks to recuperate. The energy level of a bunch of 8 and 9 year old girls is something to be feared!

Iron Bowl '08 36 - 0 !!!

Cher, Part II

We had a little issue at Halloween regarding my choice of costume for Mister Isaac. Mom chose cute little cowboy, while son wanted "skeery monsoor man". With the help of his Mawmaw, who convinced him that cowboys get LOTS of candy, and with my promise that NEXT Halloween he could be a scary monster man, we resolved our problem.

Yesterday, on a whim, I decided to go darker with my hair. The stylist obviously mistook my "slightly darker" to mean "jet black". I tried to convince myself that it wasn't all that bad. Until I picked up Isaac from school. He looked up at my hair and excitedly asked, "Can I be a skeery monsoor now?"

No Isaac, it's not Halloween again. Just a very bad hair day.

Lunch in New York

We spent Saturday in the city visiting old friends, Chris, Bethany and Catherine. Bethany has been living there for a few months now and has a really cute apartment near Central Park!

After lunch, we went to the Children's Museum where Isaac discovered a firetruck that he could sit in and "drive". We couldn't drag him away from it to look at anything else.

ROLL TIDE!!!

We got home early enough to see the second half. We're celebrating now, but it was nerve wracking to say the least!!! I'm celebrating now with a Krispy Kreme doughnut bought from a stand in Penn Station. Can you believe we have to go to New York City for a great doughnut???
Anyway, I can go to bed tonight a happy person for two reasons!

No Spoilers!

The kids are off from school today and tomorrow...and it's raining. Yuck! Right now, I've dimmed the lights in the den, popped some popcorn and put on a movie. That should last for about an hour or so while I try to catch up on laundry. Again, yuck!

Okay, so we're going to NYC on Saturday to see some friends, so we're going to be taping the Bama / LSU game. So hold off on the calls, texts, etc! I know all you Bama fans will want to spread the joy, and you LSU fans will need a shoulder to cry on, but it's got to wait 'till Sunday. And you Auburn fans...try to behave! Roll Tide!!

An Answer For Everything

This morning after Isaac used the potty, I was making a big deal of it. (His Stubbornness is still resisting.) He was playing with his firetruck, so I picked up "Bob" the fireman and said in my best Bob voice, "That's great, Isaac! You tee-teed in the potty like a big boy. Firefighters don't wear diapers. We tee-tee in the potty, too, because we're big!"

Without missing a beat, Isaac walks over and takes Bob from me. Holding him up for me to see, he said, "Mama, Bob's not big. He's little. See?"

Happy Halloween

We had a ninja...a cowboy...and a hippie chick.

And the cowboy...well, he was a little pokey, but Dylan hung back with him.

And the beat goes on with Sonny and Cher. Peace!

A White October

When I left home this morning, it was raining and sleeting, with a few snow flurries. I dropped Isaac off at preschool and then went to Michael's to pick up some craft supplies for Katherine's Halloween party. I shopped for about an hour or so and walked out into a blizzard. I mean heavy snow! The weather report hadn't predicted snow - only rain.

When I got to my car, there was a light on indicating low tire pressure in the rear passenger tire, but the tire looked fine so I decided to try to make it to Isaac's preschool before going to the tire shop. Scott was way off in Indianapolis, so he couldn't get Isaac for me. I drove through heavy snow and sleet, hoping not to slide off the road or have a blowout. It didn't help that, less than a mile from Isaac's school, the road had flooded and I had to detour another 4 miles out of the way. I finally made it to his school and we made it safely to the tire shop.

But when we left the tire shop the weather and road conditions were even worse. Traffic lights were out, and when we got home, we didn't have any electricity.

The electricity finally came back on and my fingers have thawed out, so I can now report our earliest snow since we've lived here. The updated weather report, given after the fact, said that we got 3 inches. Three inches of snow, three days before Halloween. Trick... or treat?

Fun Fall

We are complete again! Dylan is back from spending the weekend at a camp in New York. It's just not the same without everyone here, and I especially did not enjoy being so disconnected from her. I spent all day Saturday thinking about her and repeating, "No news is good news." Which proved to be true. She had a great time despite it raining on them for most of the trip.

I wanted to get some fall pictures of the kids because the trees have been beautiful. But the weekends have been so full that I actually couldn't get us all together at once! So this is it for this year - a few pictures taken in our front yard last Sunday.

Our Sweet Girl

Katherine was upset when she came home from school yesterday. Another little girl in her class had brought 4 snow globes from home from her prized collection for "sharing" time. While getting her coat from her cubby, she knocked the box of snow globes to the floor and they all broke. That poor little girl was devastated and in tears.

Without a second thought, Katherine went up to her room, picked out one of her own snow globes, wrapped it up nicely, and took it to school with her today to try to help that other little girl feel better. She has such a caring heart for others. More than any other, this is the trait that I love and admire most about her.

That Time Again

It is 27 degrees outside right now! BRRRR!!!!

Guilty Pleasures and Insomnia

In the summer, it was sweetened condensed milk. I could open a can and eat it in one sitting. I never had the nerve to look and see how many calories or grams of fat I was consuming. Let's just not go there.

Now that fall is here, it's everything caramel. I can't get enough of it. As far as candy goes, I'm pretty much hooked on Werther's Originals. I just can't decide which I like best. The soft, chewy ones are truly my favorite. But I can eat about 20 of them at once. So I guess I should stick with the hard ones. They last longer, therefore I don't consume as many.

These are the things I ponder at 1:00 a.m. when I can't sleep.

A Bad Boy

As a mom, and as a former teacher, I know that look. So when I showed up to get Isaac yesterday at preschool, I recognized that look and I wanted to find a place to hide. The teacher saw me arrive and made her way to me with that look that says that she's got something to tell me...and it ain't good.

Seems that Mr. Isaac took it upon himself to sneak out of the classroom and get in some extra time at the playground. Seems that this is the first time in 15 years that a child has managed to do this in Mrs. Goodman's class. (Her words, not mine.)

Whaddya gonna do?

Boy Wonder

Life with Isaac... Never a dull moment. Right now, everything either goes fast and crashes (loud, slobbery sound effects included), becomes a weapon (I gonna git-chu!), or has super powers (the new favorite, Keeta-bowl-huck, AKA Incredible Hulk).

Yes, he has a vivid imagination. And he is stubborn. Both of which explain why I'm not concerned that he wears a potty on his head when he's being a robot. You see, it's a clean potty. Never been used. At least not in the manner in which it was intended.

Dylan

I had a big scare yesterday when Dylan had an asthma attack. After she was diagnosed with asthma last year, it's never been a big issue because she only had some exercise induced coughing. But that has all changed now.

The girls happened to be out of school yesterday when it happened. It started with a severe coughing fit. Then she couldn't take in air and her face got puffy and red. When her lips turned blue, it scared me to death!! I had a nebulizer here that she had never used. We used that and things went from bad to worse. She broke out in hives, and the doctor, who was on the phone, had me standing by with the epipen, which we've also never had to use. Thankfully, she responded to benadryl and I didn't have to use the epipen.

Talk about a nerve racking moment. I'm still shaking today.

Apples

We went to pick apples on Saturday and got a little carried away. We came home with over 20 pounds!

There's, um, apple kebabs, apple creole, apple gumbo, pan fried, deep fried...

Maybe not. But I've got to come up with something more than just baking a pie or two.

Trip to the Farm

I'm back from my unplanned break. No excuse - just busy with life and sick kids - one after another.

Today, Isaac had his very first field trip! His class went to a farm to see the animals and pick some pumpkins. It's the third largest dairy supplier in NJ, so there were lots of cows. (I guess you would call them Jersey cows. Ha! Ha!)