School Christmas Program - 2014

This year was the first time we had two kiddos in the school Christmas program, so it was especially adorable!  Wallace has been walking around singing Jingle Bells all month and he's actually quite good at it, so I was all prepared to watch him rock it out up there.  Well, I have no idea what the song was that they sang!  I'd never heard it before.  "/  He seemed to know the words though!  So now I have no clue where he picked up Jingle Bells.  

He turned around for most of the group picture time...  This kid marches to the beat of his own drum....

He kind of half turned around at the end. :)

I took Anna in for a doctor's appointment earlier this week and decided to peek in on Wallace's class through the 2-way mirror while I was there.  I'm not sure why I torture myself like this.  It has never panned out well for me.  Each time I peek in on one of my kids they are misbehaving!  Or at least they appear to be...  One of Wallace's teachers managed to break her foot during class one day recently.  

No judgement here...it's apparently pretty easy to break your foot in the most ridiculous ways...  "/

Anyway...his other teacher has been pretty much left to fend for herself with about 10 2-year-olds.  So, when I peeked in the first time she was trying to get all of the kids to sit around the table to play with puzzles and stuff like that.  Every child in that class was sitting in their chair doing the activity she had given them...except mine.  She was attempting to carry him over to his chair to get him started on his puzzle, and he was doing the whole limp noodle thing on her.  "/  I just shook my head and walked away.  

So, I took Anna on over to her class to drop her off, and on my way back to my truck decided to peek in one more time...you know...maybe the limp noodle child was just an anomaly.  This time all of the kids were sitting around Ms. Jennifer on the rug for circle time, and Wallace was actually participating, but he wasn't sitting on the rug....  Instead, he was sitting up in a chair just a little outside of the circle.  She assured my Mom, when she asked about it, that he wasn't in any kind of trouble...that's just where he prefers to sit for circle time.  I can only imagine that he has just slowly worn her down... 

I know this looks cute and all, but in reality.....

...Ms. Jennifer has enlisted the help of her daughter to keep Wallace in line.  "/  He would try to get up during the program, and she would reign him back in.  Haha!

Anna's class sang The Little Drummer Boy.  She's been rehearsing it around the house for a month!  I'm so glad they got this song.  Every year I see one of the classes preform it, and it looks like the most fun one to do!

Because they get sticks!!!

And they get to beat them on the steps!!!  How fun is that!

I am so super frustrated with the lighting in the church.  I honestly don't know how my wedding photographer managed to master it...with film no less!  Guess it was something to do with him being a professional and all.  I had a really rough time with it this go around.  All there are are halogen lights, some sky lights (it was a cloudy day), and a bunch of stained glass windows.  The white balance gets all confused.  So, rather than show a bunch of yellow-orange children, I was pretty much forced to convert everything to black and white.  "/  Boo!  

Bath Time for Meredith!

Bath time with Meredith is getting to be a lot of fun!  She's sitting up on her own, so I can just sit back and watch her play now.  :)  When I start to draw the water I'll have her in my lap, and as I undress her, she literally is trying to throw herself into the tub!  Hard to believe she's the same kid that hated her very first bath so much.

Lately, in an effort to save time in the evenings, I've had Wallace sharing bath time with her, but since it is Saturday and there was no need to rush, Meredith got to have it all to herself tonight.

She's always chewing on the foamy letters.

Always!

She's been watching Wallace lay down and splash around, so tonight she gave it a try for herself.  It was super cute!

She's been pulling up in the tub this past week.  It's a little nerve wracking because I know she's going to end up slipping and nailing herself, but it's kind of fruitless to try to fight her on it.  I remember Anna standing up through her entire bath for months when she'd mastered that skill.  

Anna's first camping trip!

Anna and I ate and ran at Granny's on Thanksgiving so we could go camping with my sister and her girls!  Every year we all go to Canton to shop, and since Sarah and Kevin have a camper, they always stay at a park.  Jen and I have been going on this annual trip for about 8 or 9 years now, but since she's in Alaska, it seems a bit crazy to ask her to come back to Texas for a day-long shopping excursion and a couple of nights in a tent.  It only makes sense to start taking my kids.  Anna's finally old enough for all of the walking that's required, so the timing was really perfect.  I have been looking forward to this, and so I started getting her prepped earlier in the week by talking about camping.  By the time Thursday rolled around she didn't even want to bother with Thanksgiving dinner, she just wanted to go straight to the campsite.  Next time I will just hold off on telling her where we are going until we are in the car and headed there.  ;)

It was dark when we got there on Thursday, so I was really glad I'd sent my tent up ahead of us, and Sarah and Kevin had found time to put it up for us so I didn't have to try to do it in the dark.  I was even more thankful after I heard that one of the poles had broken on them, and so they had to find a way to get the pole together without the tension string.  "/  There was some duct tape involved, but I can't say I'd of been able to do that.  Kevin is super handy!  And he even set us up with a light and had a heater running in the tent when we arrived.  How sweet is that?!  

The next morning we got up early and headed to Canton for some Black Friday madness!!!

These girls were ready to shop!

Our first stop....funnel cakes!  And insanely hot hot chocolate!  Sure, we'd already eaten breakfast, but who can walk by a perfectly good funnel cake vendor at 9:00am and not buy one?  We all burned our taste buds with the hot chocolate...  In fact, the roof of my mouth was still peeling this morning.  "/

Anna was super interested in handing the vendors money.  She saw the girls doing this and wanted to give it a try.  Too bad she doesn't wait around for the change or get the concept that she's handing them cash in return for something...  Maybe next year.  :)

This is how she rolls!  I don't think Anna really understood what we were going to Canton to do, but she quickly caught on.  She's quite the shopper.  Our $200 didn't really last long with things like Indian head dresses, toys, bracelets, and sunglasses to buy.  

This was lunch time.  Can you tell it was insanely windy!  

I brought the wagon just in case Anna's legs started hurting.  Good thing I did.  She didn't really sleep in it, but she and the other girls used it extensively the second half of the day.  

Oh yeah.  That's my girl.  :)  I love me some turkey leg!  She, Carson, and I devoured that thing.

The next morning the girls had a short-lived tea party.  :)  

And they made some Christmas ornaments.

This is what it looks like when you try to do anything crafty with 5 little girls.  It may not look like it here, but it was a little bit chaotic.  

Since Cora and Anna tend to fight a lot...Sarah and I took Cora to the play ground while the other girls went fishing with Kevin.  The wind made for some rough fishing weather, so I think Cora ended up getting the better deal. :)

I learned a lot about Cora this weekend.  She talks WAY more than I thought she did, and she's ridiculously mischievous.  :)

Anna's already asking when we will get to go camping again, so I'd say the trip was a success!  Thank goodness she wasn't a grumpy camper, even with the first night being fairly cold.  So, it looks like I've found my new shopping buddy!  She might cut into my personal spending budget, but oh well.  I'd say it's a win-win.  

Scouting

Today I managed to get the whole family to go outside and take pictures for a Christmas card!!!  I am determined to get one sent out this year.  I think it's been about 3 years since we last sent one.  "/

Before we could do that though, Anna helped me scout out a good location to take them!  

And who would scout out locations without their handy pool float?  Not this girl!  

I made her sit on it.  :)

And orthotics....

Anna got her casts off!  It all happened on Thursday, but I just now got a chance to get some pics of her this morning.  

I was excited to see that the straps are also printed!  The ones I'd seen online weren't.  The guy at the orthotics store said they do them by hand there.  I thought it was a very nice touch!

Just like the casts, they go almost up to her knees.

I initially thought slipper socks would suffice for getting her around the house at night if she needed to get up to pee or something...but she busted her butt a few times, so we've moved on to old man house slippers.  :)

I didn't get a shot of her fancy new shoes, but I'm sure I'll get them in a pic eventually.  She's supposed to wear these things for 6 months... She hasn't decided if she loves or hates the AFOs yet.  She goes back and forth just like she did with the casts.  

Other than that....Meredith has gotten crazy mobile!  She's crawling all over the place and even pulling up on stuff!

She's learned how to photo bomb!  :)  She seriously just plopped herself down right there in front of Rachael and James as I was trying to get their pic.  :)

She's also been getting adventurous and trying a couple of new foods!  I think we are literally up to 3 that she'll eat now.  I'm fairly certain she's sensitive to all things dairy, but I'll be testing that theory pretty soon with Thanksgiving coming up fast!  Her blood tests didn't show any food allergies, so whatever's going on with her isn't nearly as serious as it could have been.  I think I can deal with a sensitivity.  

Her skin is crazy sensitive though.  I bought her some new clothes yesterday and put one of the shirts on her when we got home...her skin started to react to it.  "/  So, now I'm pre-washing everything.  Guess that's not a bad habit to get into.  I've just always been lazy about pre-washing.

Wallace took a picture with her!  But he didn't know it....

Wallace is nuts!  Do all kids do this?  He gets in the fireplace and proceeds to cover himself in soot.  This was actually very tame compared to how I've found him in the past.  Anna never did this!  

And.....

The puppies are off to their first round of hunting school...  

They aren't really puppies anymore!

Although he's cute, I can't say I'll miss Hoss all that much while he's gone.  He's such a handful, and he was wreaking havoc on the back yard.  He actually tore a section of the gutter off the side of the house!  How is that possible?!  

Hilde, on the other hand...  :(  She's such a sweetie.  I will miss her.  I guess we'll be visiting them frequently to keep up with what they are learning though.  So, it's sort of like they are off at college, or maybe boarding school, but we get to visit on the weekends and see what they've been up to.