I’m not sure I would always make the same decisions as our children’s minister at our church – but I definitely wouldn’t want her job! The kids practice the Christmas pageant once – the day before. Most of the costumes the older kids wear are their choice (notice the Christmas butterfly). Regardless it’s adorable and for the most part seems to go off without too much trouble. I do seem to have a knack for photographing my kids’ shining moments – notice yawns and monkey faces.
Month: December 2018
Is there anything better than kids in a Christmas pageant?
Is there anything better than kids in a Christmas pageant?
Ben and Kaitlyn – snuggling at church as we try to get everyone dressed for the pageant.
(Ben is wearing the outfit Granny made for Alex’s first Christmas many years ago.)
Every year our church holds an annual breakfast with Santa. We love to attend with all the chaos, crafts, and pictures. (You’ll notice Alex isn’t in many of the pictures. He has found a great group of friends at church and tends to disappear the minute we enter the doors. We see him when it’s time to leave again.)
Family picture with Santa.
(Ben isn’t crying about Santa. He wants Mom to hold him.)
If you read my other blog (the kids’ daily blogs) then you will notice that Ben does have both of his shoes. I finally found the missing shoe. I found it in the box of canned corn – in my pantry. Of course – why didn’t I look there first?!! I’m definitely going to say Ben put the shoe there and it’s a miracle I found it anytime soon. I positioned the shoe to show for a picture. It was definitely not this obvious when I found it or it wouldn’t have been missing for so many days…
I count this as a major success.
It’s a good thing I love this cute girl so much. Kaitlyn’s first self-haircut was on the side where she wears her bow. It was also rather intermittent so overall not bad and easy to hide. This last haircut is on the opposite side of her hair and fairly straight across. This one is going to take a while to grow out and can’t be hidden by a bow…
Ben is hopeful Alex is fixing breakfast for two.
Teague has the right idea.
When I started my nap, I was alone in the room. I woke up with a little girl quietly playing trains beside my bed.
Definitely Ben’s handiwork.
My kids have more than a single pair of shoes, but let’s be honest. They all have that pair that we keep at the back door and they wear 99% of the time. Well for the past two days, Ben has only had a single shoe at the back door. I’m still not sure if he hid it or if Pepper took it. I’m mostly sure it didn’t fall off somewhere outside. I’ve looked everywhere I can think to look, but I really don’t want to buy him a new pair of shoes! The question is how long do I keep holding out hope?
Alex is living the dream. Eating the last few bites straight from the carton.
I love this kid!
A new black stripe – go Kaitlyn!
A little boy in overalls is my favorite!
It appears Kaitlyn and I need to have that talk about home haircuts – again. I opened my makeup drawer to this…
What the heck!?!? I did threaten to cut her hair as short as Alex’s if I find her cutting her own hair again. She looked pretty scared by that. I have no idea when she is doing this or how to teach her this is something we don’t do. I have now moved every pair of scissors I can find to a hidden location.
Christmas books with Daddy.
Little boy favorites – cars and pacifiers.
I love the mornings when we get the big boys on the bus and the two littles and I have nothing pressing. Today we read Christmas books and stayed in our pajamas most of the morning.
Christmas Card pictures are done!
I had so much fun playing with Christmas tree lights and my lens this year. Did I mention how much I love Christmas?
Night by the tree.
Night by the tree.
Morning time.
Bath smiles.
The Saturday morning TV stare.
As you can see from the picture, both self-feeding and remaining seated while eating are going extremely well.
The last several years we have loaded the kids up and driven the local neighborhoods to look at Christmas lights. This year we added a new twist and stopped for donuts and hot chocolate afterwards. There were no complaints.
Morning chaos.
The decorations are up and the Christmas dishes are down. The kids asked for hot chocolate and Christmas music. It sounded like a great idea.
I opened up a drawer in the coffee table today and found hair. Human hair. Kaitlyn’s hair. We keep scissors in the drawer for trimming Madison’s fur, but evidently Kaitlyn decided to trim her own hair. I had thought a few strands looked a little short put hadn’t realized why till I saw this. She and I had a discussion on who cuts hair (professionals) and I’m just thankful it wasn’t a large, noticeable chunk of hair.
I tried to tell this boy it was chilly out this morning. He finally agreed to at least take a hoodie to school with him.
Popping bubble wrap was the favorite activity of the afternoon. Until it drove Mom crazy and was scaring Madison. Then you had to pop it outside.
Bendy, twisty straws make anything taste better.
Cute little guy – at least we think so.
Waiting for Teague at taekwondo can get a little boring, so Kaitlyn and Alex got a little creative.
Poor Teague got ready for his class and then had to wait for everyone else to get ready before we could actually walk out the door.
Christmas books.
Obviously these two have it all worked out and I am interrupting.
One is trying to get some work done. The other is trying to help and not being appreciated for her efforts.
Cooking. Always cooking.
My decorator needed to make a few adjustments to my tree.
This little monkey sure does love bananas.
It will be interesting to see what this ruler looks like at the end. At the end of year 1, all of my biological children are almost exactly an inch apart in height. Ben is an inch taller than Alex who is an inch taller than Kaitlyn. I’ll be curious to see if this trend continues at age 2, when Teague joins in the fun.
Alex was very keen to help me decorate for Christmas this year. I’ll take all the help I can get.
Teague – the best big brother and the best reindeer.