Photo Story Friday: Santa Comes To Preschool

Aaron's preschool class had their Christmas party yesterday.







Pretty much you typical Christmas party;

BINGO, a craft,





snacks













and a cute little program in which none of the kids really sang but still looked cute.














The funniest part was when there was a knock on the door and Santa came in to visit.


Keeping in true Aaron personality, while the rest of the kids looked at him in wonder, Aaron ran up to him with open arms (all the while getting scolded by the teacher to stay in his place....I was with him...go give the big guy a hug!)








But then, while all the rest of the kids were waiting at their tables for the candy canes that Santa was distributing, MY SON was at the window.

Why? You may ask

He was searching for the sleigh. He was absolutely convinced that the sleigh just HAD to be outside somewhere.



So then he went up to Santa to ask him and Santa pointed up to tell him that the sleigh was on the roof with the reindeer.









And this:




is how I found my son took for the rest of the time that Santa was visiting his class.













This week was full of some major stresses of which I have kept out of the blog this week, but I hope next week will be better and the problems we are facing become less daunting than they feel at the moment.

Have a great weekend.

Thursday Thirteen: Twelfth Anniversary

This Sunday, my hubby and I will be celebrating our 12th anniversary. It's been an adventure. We began as buddies, then stopped talking for awhile, and then became best friends. I always joke that I fell in love with his singing voice long before I fell in love with him. I thought I would do my Thursday Thirteen about a milestone from each year of our married life together.

I only hope I can remember...

1. 1996
We got married on December 21st, a week after college graduation. Your typical white trash wedding. Cold cuts and homemade decorations. My in-laws were appalled, but it was all we could afford...still is.

2. 1997
We picked up and moved to Wisconsin, three states away from all of our family. We still believe to this day that it may have been the best thing for us as we started our married life.

3. 1998
After a year and a half later, we moved back to Michigan so we could start our family near our own family and friends. We settled in the Grand Rapids area since it was within an hour of both our families...just the right distance

4. 1999
Moved out of the ghetto house in which we were living into a "real" apartment.

5. 2000
Started my first full time teaching job. Steve worked for a utility locating company.

6. 2001
We take our first and only vacation as a childless married couple to Disney World with my brother and his girlfriend (now wife) and my parents. Wonderful trip and we look forward to our trip with the boys this March, the exact same week as in 2001.

7. 2002
We bought our first (and current) house and had our first child, a beautiful baby boy named Noah.

8. 2003
How sad is this? I can't think of a single memorable event in this year. We were busy struggling, learning how to be parents and dealing with the guilt of having a child in full time day care.

9. 2004
We added a second son to our household, a sweet baby named Aaron.

10. 2005
Steve loses his job, throwing us into the world of unemployment and panic.

11. 2006
Steve falls of a ladder at his new job (after being unemployed for seven months), suffering severe injuries to his ankle and giving us our biggest challenge as of yet. We made it through with prayer, friendships, and Mike's Hard lemonade.

12. 2007
Steve returns to work as a warehouse employee. I began teaching piano at a music store as an employee, versus self employment.

13. 2008
A year of major ups and downs, but with two people who still love each other and are happy to see each other at the end of the night and when they wake up in the morning.

Happy Anniversary Steve. I Love You!

Old School Punishment

In keeping with my policy, I will not give details. I will just say that the emails between myself one of my children's teacher were a-flyin' yesterday. Yelling and punishments don't work. So I thought I would try the "old school" way.



(update: just got an email from teacher...much better day so far today)
















I guess we'll see what happens today...

Looking Ahead

I just have to blog about my worries. I often read the blog of our local weatherman Bill Steffen when a big storm is expected. We're in the little circle of red in Michigan. And Guess what I just read?

They even had a 10% chance of 12″+ north of GRR for the Thurs. night storm. Click to see the 120-hour total snowfall from the GFS model and the 84-hour total snowfall from the NAM model (note because the NAM is only 84-hours, it will have less snow than the GFS, which goes out 36 more hours). Here’s a wider view of expected snow. Get the plows and shovels ready…and get set for some possible school closings on Friday!

Is he serious? Will the last day before Christmas vacation be cancelled? No parties, presents, etc? Will the kids be bummed or thrilled? Will I? Already this year, they have predicted storms that have not developed. Should be an interesting week.

Stay tuned...

Weekend Top Five

A busy weekend. Next weekend will be the Big Kahuna of busy.

Pretty much the story of the weekend centers around the two early Christmas gifts the boys received.




5. Friday Night Christmas Shopping Complete

I do believe this Friday night trip with Deb will be the last. I am done and the boys are going to have a great Christmas. Everything is wrapped and ready for Christmas Eve delivery.

I don't think we'll stop the Friday Night trips though...they are the best outlet after each long week...especially since this week I discovered the joys of Wendy's chocolate cookie dough frosties. Oh Yeah, Baby!

4. Family Christmas

We had sledding, eating, family time, and presents. What else can you ask from a family Christmas?

The boys bot got several presents that they LOVE...


Daddy and Aaron with his guitar/microphone. Most parents would be annoyed by this present, but not us. As a matter of fact, we are adding a drum set to the mix come Christmas morning. And all of them will reside downstairs in the playroom where he can make noise to his heart's content.














Noah and Cousin Odin star gazing in the bathroom dark with Noah's new constellation globe. On the way home Saturday night, Noah's biggest concern was how many days he has to wait until he can take it to school for show and tell.








And the traditional pajamas from Grandma and Grandpa went over better than ever. All of the boys got superhero pj's that light up and the girls all dressed up in the fairy clothes that Cousin Piper got as a gift. It turned into a mass frenzy of fairies and superheroes that had us all rolling in laughter.

I love Noah's pose in this one...




3. Church

My cherubs, including Noah, sang a Happy birthday Jesus song for the service, complete with playing tone chimes. They did great.

I did get upset during bell practice though. As we are getting ready for the big concert next week, I found out that several members of the adult choir think that I shouldn't be directing the bells at the same time that the choir director is leading the choir. They don't realize how much the bells need me and I found myself steaming about it all day.

2. Rock Concert...Noah and Aaron Style

I am sure that the pictures of our rocking boys will only expand when one more microphone and a drum set are added to this mix on Christmas morning. But for now, they're rocking the house pretty well.

I will be subjecting you to video later this week. It is just too funny to skip.






1. Messiah Sing-A-Long

I saw it in the paper Saturday morning. It's been a couple of year's since I sang it so I invited my sister to come sing it with me. She's a soprano and I'm an alto, but it didn't matter. It was fun, although quite a bit different since it was a sing along instead of a performance.

Hope you all had a great weekend. Please come back and let me know if you post about the weekend.

Happy Monday

The Many Faces Of Noah The Performer

Noah had his Christmas Concert Thursday Night. It was a little better put together than last year's and Noah participated very well. He is an amazing singer, but doesn't always strut his stuff.

In a bunch of kids, how will you Noah?

Oh, I think you'll know...





Could it possible be the only kid with his hand up in the air waving like a king?







He was fun to watch because he seemed to be having a good time...


Speaking his line to a verse into the microphone













Nice wide mouth singing "Gloria" in Angels We Have Heard On High


















Playing Nutcracker on bells with this year's BFF















Proud thumbs up when the bells are done


















Singing on the side of the stage while the third graders performed a VERY AMUSING dance










This extremely biased Momma thinks her 6 year old may be the most handsome first grader on the planet.

For a kid who doesn't like singing because "it's not cool", I was very proud of him.

I hope your weekend is off to great start.

Photo Story Friday: Anyone Want A Kitten?

He's cute, really














Really...



















Really!



This USED to be shower curtain before my shower this morning













So, you still want a kitten?





Me either.



Why can't he behave like his big sister?


















Unfortunately, he's become a beloved member of the household.















But I still have to go buy a new shower curtain and living room blinds.


Have a great weekend and come back and share on Monday.