Our Bubble World

Doug brought home this super cute coat for Alexis and it fits perfectly.

She can be so angelic at times

I've been waiting all year for her to wear this dress.  She calls it her Tinkerbell dress for some reason.

Cutie pie

I love this girl sooooo much.  Sometimes though I forget.  She can be trying (I have a head of gray from her), but I love just the same.  I hope she always feels my love as I try to be a good mommy to her.

Look at that belly!

Ben and Chris went too but I wasn't able to get a picture of them.  Chris was too fast and after getting Peter down I was too slow to capture Ben.

Last week Peter started doing this:

And with help from daddy he played some peek-a-boo too

Chirs was a little more reserved, but still happy

And I had to make faces at Ben to get him to smile.  He was very reserved and when everyone else was given permission to do silly poses he just stood there and shook his head at me.

My kids are growing up so fast, too fast if you ask me.  Ben is in fifth grade and chose to join band.  Yesterday was his first concert.

Lex and Peter

Alexis

Peter

Evan

Chris

Ben

Sunday was a snow day for us.  Yes, I admit here and now for all the world to see that we skipped church.  Now in my defense the snow was piled high and there was no way my van would have made it out of the driveway let alone down the road to church.  Instead I let the kids go play in the wet white stuff for about an hour.  They've been wanting to do it since it started especially Lex since I haven't let her out in it yet.

I'm stuck!

I should amend my saying to most of the kids got to play in the snow.  November was Ben's month to shovel snow and so he had to work first.  I think he got the end of the stick on this.  Here it was the last 5 days of the month and 25+ inches of snow falls.  Next moth is Chris' turn wonder how much he will have to shovel?  I did help out just in case any of you were wondering.  I don't believe in total child labor :)

After dinner it was snow cones (or in this case bowls) for dessert.  This is also something that the children have been wanting forever, at least since last year.  Most times I take it easy and just add flavored syrup to snow but if I'm feeling fiesty I add cream and make ice cream.

As you can see they love it.  Not sure he really tasted it.  He ate it too fast and then had seconds.

Last night it started snowing.  I don't know who ordered it, but I do know that it wasn't me and I wish they hadn't.  At 5pm I had Ben shovel the porch clear and a path to the shop. 

This morning I woke up to this:

I took a ruler out and measured 6 inches of new snow over night!  Where's my car?

Unless I can get someone to come plow me out there will be no leaving the house anytime soon.  Good thing I have lots of food stored up.  And even if I do get the driveway plowed there's no guarentee that the roads will be safe.

It sure does look pretty though when I take a deep breath and just decide to enjoy.

There is something satisfying about watching your son shovel deep snow.

They made it and now the walk back to the house for warmth and comfort.

Looks like a couple of long days in the house ahead.  Who needs church?  ME!   It calms me and allow my children to live one more week.  Here's to hoping I can get out.

I pose a question to you:  Does any family function truly start on time?  Well, not with my family that I know of and this year's Thanksgiving was no different.  Food wasn't ready and people were late, but we managed somehow.  As we were killing time Chris sat on grandpa's lap and Lex came to say that he was her Christopher and not grandpa's.

Two of the three table settings

My sister made this turkey vegetable and cheese ball platter.  Very cute and delicious.

Afterwards and before pie time my boys put on a music/dance show.  I make a disclaimer here and now:  I had no part in this or any idea as to what may have been performed.

Lex decided to join in the dancing

Then she needed a massage by Uncle Jefferey

A good year.  Glad it is done and really want my husband home for the next one.  This was his second year in China on Thanksgiving.

Last Thanksgiving was hectic.  Doug was in China, my back was throwing fits, and Thanksgiving dinner was to be held in my house.  The holiday came and went and while waiting for the wishbone to dry, I herniated my back and ended up on bed rest.  Needless to say the wishbone got pushed in a corner and semi-forgotten.  Only semi because I kept seeing it when I cleaned the kitchen and Chris kept asking when he was going to get to break it.  Well one year later and today was the day.

Ben and Chris are ready

On your marks, get set, pull!

And the winner of the wish is.......Chris!

I hope we don't have to wait another year for this year's wishbone pull.

Horrible pictures I know but I still had to post them.  These are 3 of Chris' teeth that he got pulled yesterday.  The boy is scared of bleeding teeth and refuses to pull them out, so we either go to the dentist if his big teeth are in yet the baby ones not out or we jsut hope that rough housing will knock them out.  Those two long ones are canine teeth.  Wow are they big!  I don't remember Ben's being that big so what happens?  I'm not sure, but it is still cool to see these suckers.  I placed a regular paper clip next to them for size comparison.

My oldest has been bugging me for some time to teach him how to sew and of course if you teach one to sew another will want to learn too.  So, I finally caved and thought of a fall way to begin sewing lessons.  I remember when I was in about 4th grade "sewing" a scarecrow so why shouldn't they.  I bought some burlap and make some template, cut out the shapes and thus the sewing began.

First they sewed the patches on

Then the pieces together

Of course once we started they wanted to do more and more, but I 'm only crazy enough to do one project at a time.  The younger ones got to paste small version of these to cardstock to make their own scarecrows.