100th Day of School...

Today they celebrated the 100th day of school....

I am pretty sure she was excited!

Welcome, little one!

This is my new little nephew...

We are so happy to have him here ~

Welcome to the world, Mason!

Happy Hearts Day...

We always begin our day with pink heart shaped pancakes...

A tradition we had when I was a kid!

We spent the afternoon making Valentine Cookies...

Yummy!

The Pinewood Derby

We had fun with our first ever Pinewood Derby.

He designed the shape of his car, learned to use different power tools with dad to get the right shape, painted and dried the car (with moms hair dryer), and was able to use mom's cricut to put his initials on his car.

His car didn't do well running the track (dad took the blame for forgetting the graphite on the wheels), but he had such great sportsmanship! He is a great kid, we had fun with him and are proud of the Scout that he is!

We learned that we need to spend more than 10 minutes aligning the wheels, some people spent nearly 4 hours on the wheels alone!

The Snow Party

With six of his friends and his dad,

he spent some time in the snow fort and sledding.

It was a great day for an outdoor snow party!

Seriously, check out that cake ~

I know, I know... I am amazing!

His last single digit...

He is such a great kid and we were happy to celebrate him today.

We made his favorite cinnamon rolls while he was at school.

He is having a snow sledding party on Saturday so the cake will have to wait.

~

My pregnancy was pretty easy with him. The labor and

delivery was not easy at all (and I am pretty tough).

He was posterior...which explains all the back labor.

It was a natural childbirth, all natural except for the

pitosin that was used to speed things along!

He was born on his due date and shares his birthday

with his cousin (same year, different time zones).

Today was a much more enjoyable day

than it was nine years ago!

Happy Birthday, Kiddo!

A Snow Day ~

The kids were home from school today... our first snow day of 2009!

Technically, they closed schools because of the ice and freezing rain ~

Here are some photos we took in the snow during the holiday break.

The kids love it when their dad snow blows the driveway - He does it so

all the snow lands in one big mound. Then he goes in with a shovel

and carves out the pathway and bench seats. One time we were out,

and came home to find three kids (not our own) playing on the snowfort.

I guess our kids aren't the only ones who love it!

A Fancy Nancy Party

She wanted to start her special day with her favorite breakfast... crepes!

Her brothers were very excited about her choice -

it seems to be a family favorite!

A party is not complete without a fancy pinata!

(I know I am a pretty fabulous mom... She loved it)

I painted 100 little fingers today ~ more actually...

some girls needed sparkles so it was more like 200 little fingers!

Fancy cupcakes being made...

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FANCY SIX YEAR OLD!

Again, check out the fanciness of the cake...

Christmas 2008

"I like everything."

(He is much too busy playing MarioKart with his dad to talk to me about Christmas!)

"My favorite thing about Christmas is to see my friends on the Christmas cards and to make cards for our family on the presents under the tree. I like to see all the colorful lights outside on the houses. I love the presents people gave to me and I like the Tinkerbell things Santa gave to me. I like the candy and cookies. I want to leave the Christmas tree up forever."

This little guy was patient this year and would wait his turn to open a gift. Once the flashlight was opened, he wasn't interested in much else!

Christmas Things...

The Holiday Choir Concert

This year the 3rd, 4th and 5th grades combined for a seasonal celebration. They sang songs about Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanza. We've known for a long time that he enjoys singing... We found out during the concert that he is a pretty great performer. I wonder where he gets that from?

Christmas Caroling

The Daisy Girl Scouts sang their way through the hallways of the local nursing home and hospital. Her favorite part was "seeing the sad people in wheelchairs become happy!" She came home and told us a lot of the people looked just like Grandma Houston (her spunky 93 year old Great Grandma). She had so much fun and sings the songs all... day... long...

Away in a Manger

We bought the Fisher Price Little People Christmas Nativity toy for the kids and they have loved it ~ After playing around with it for a while, this is the way our little rascal set up the manger/stable scene. Take notice of the pig where the Angel should be... we've made some progress - at first the Angel was a butterfly, then became a fairy and is now properly called the Angel.

Frosty... our Snowman!

The kids were home from school today because of bad weather... Freezing rain is something I've become quite familiar with living on the Eastcoast. We did have fun playing in the snow and building this snowman together!

The snowman is taller than me. It is quite a workout trying to get balls of snow on top of each other ~ building a snowman isn't as easy as it looks!

Birthday ~

The little guy has been talking about a Handy Manny cake for awhile -

although when it came time to eat it, he said he didn't like it.

I did what any good mom would do and ate it for him!

Listen closely to the video below, as we sing "Happy Birthday dear..."

He says, no - Handy Manny! He likes it when we call him Handy Manny!

The kids were happy that Grandma came down to visit!

Cute card, huh?

We celebrated my 33rd and the little one's 3rd birthday!

If you didn't know, he was born on my 30th birthday ~

He recieved three of this exact same card in the mail.

(perhaps there was a sale at Costco?)

He thought it was the funniest thing ever - well, almost...

For him, the funniest thing was listening to his Aunt sing over the phone!

Thanks and Giving ~

At Thanksgiving time, we often share with others all that we are thankful for. My family has so much to be thankful for... we are VERY thankful for all that we've been blessed with - family, friends, health and happiness.

The list goes on (click to see last years list). One of my sisters suggested

we focus on the giving part of the holiday, so we are trying to focus

on how we can GIVE more of ourselves this holiday season.

How can you give of yourself this time of year?

Don't just count your blessings, make your blessings count!

My little students

"She is off to a wonderful start in Kindergarten! It is a great pleasure to have such a special little girl in my classroom. I enjoy her quiet, observant nature and her calm, friendly personality! I am so pleased to notice how much she enjoys her school environment, school activities, and even school work. She always does her best and is a lovely listener and participant! She is well liked and well behaved. I am enjoying her drive to learn, she is an emergent reader now. I look forward to a great year of fun and learning with her!"

"He is off to a great start in Third grade. He has

fantastic comprehension skills. He is a very interesting

and creative writer. His understanding of math skills and

concepts far exceeds that of a typical third grader.

I would like him to work on letting me know when he is ready

to move on to something more challenging during our lessons.

He works hard towards a positive atmosphere in our

classroom. Keep up the great work!"