Run Run Rudolph

Almost!  We've been pretty busy getting ready for Christmas and our trip into town, but we still had an awesome week.  Matthew went on a field trip, Evelyn was in a Christmas play, and  I took too many pictures of Emily again, haha.

Monday:

Emily likes to wear the kids' bike helmets.

Then she tries walking around in them.

But she usually ends up falling over pretty quickly.

Little nerd.

Tuesday:

"Bring on the cold!"

Just a quick pic before school.  :o)

Later that day, Emily and I checked on the flowers.

They seem to be doing okay, i.e. they're not dead yet!

Santa Baby helped me pick up the kids from school.

:o)

The kids brought home lots of graded school work, all with really good grades.  Below is Matthew's math test, which he made a 100 on.  But I thought this answer was pretty funny.

The question says: In the box below, draw 2 triangles that are congruent. Tell how you know they are congruent and where you see them in real life.

Matthew's answer:  They are the same size.  On a seesaw.  On this paper.

Yeah, where he sees congruent triangles in real life is on a seesaw and on this paper.  Smart-aleck.  :op

Wednesday:

The kids' school had a Celebration performance on Wednesday night, and Evelyn got to perform in a play with her drama club.

She was such a cute elf!

We all went and got to hear the choir sing and the orchestra play Christmas carols.  Then there were 2 Christmas plays, and our girl was one of Santa's elves.

She didn't have any lines, but she was so excited about being on the stage in front of everybody.

She did really good and we were very proud of her. :o)

And Emily couldn't stop staring at her, haha.  :o)

Thursday:

Rudolph... I mean, Reindeer Emily says hi!

Evelyn finished a coloring page for school.  They all got to pick what they wanted to represent their holidays and she picked this one.  So pretty!  :o)

Friday:

Matthew went on his field trip!  He was so excited all week and kept counting down the days.  They got to go to the Audobon Imax Theater to watch the Polar Express movie.  He's seen it before, but told me all about it when he got home.  He said he had a great time.  :o)

The weather was kinda nice, so the kids went outside when they got home from school.

And Emily figured out how to smell the flowers.

Seriously, every time we check on the flowers, I sniff at them real dramatically.

And she finally caught on!  This is the face she makes when she's smelling/sniffing them.

Hahaha!

:o)

Evelyn's such a pro on that bike now.  She loves showing me how she can pedal while standing up.

Joshua has been practicing a lot with his ripstick skateboard.

And he's getting sooo good, he can even turn corners on it.

We sat outside watching the kids play, while Emily drew with a piece of chalk.  And yes, she did try to eat it, but I saved her, and the chalk.  :o)

I tried to get a picture of Matthew, but he was so busy digging in the dirt with his friend and his trucks that he wouldn't pay attention, but that's him waaayy over there.

Saturday:

Sorry no pictures from Saturday, but the kids spent all day outside and I got a lot of stuff done inside. :o)

Sunday:

Matthew made a Polar Express train.

He's such a nerd.  He asked me for yarn so he could connect the train cars, so I gave him the hole-puncher too and told him to let me know if he needed help.  When he finished and showed me the train, he had punched holes in all the cars, but instead of tying the yarn together to connect them, he used tape.  So he taped the yarn to each car.  I said, "Then why did you put holes?"  He said, "You gave me the hole puncher, but I wanted to use tape, so I put the holes and used tape."  :op

After church and the train, the kids played outside the rest of the day.  Emily sat out there while Chris played football with the boys, but it was kinda chilly, so she didn't stay out long.

Hi Evelyn!

Bonus Monday Pic:

This is what Matthew wore to school today:

:o)  It's Polar Express Day for 1st grade, so Matthew got to wear his pajamas to school.  His class is going to watch the movie again and have hot chocolate and marshmallows.  I don't think he's ever gotten ready for school so fast before.  :o)  (And no, those aren't the ones he slept in, hehe.)

Christmas is 6 days away!  Chris' schedule changed, so we'll be headed into town on Friday.  And I know it'll be busy, but who cares because we can't wait to be there.  It's all really exciting and we're trying not to let it get crazy, but we still have so much wrapping and packing to do. But we'll survive, because we always do, and it'll be great, because it always is!   :o)

Laters!

Most Wonderful Time

Hello all.  We had a full, but still laid-back, kind of week, very nice.  Chris and I got some Christmas shopping done, Joshua lost another tooth, and Emily started walking all over the place!  Woohoo!  But I didn't have many pictures this week, just a few of of the kids and too many of Emily, hehe. 

Monday:

Chillin' like a villain, as always.

As for the tree, Emily's doing pretty good and not messing with it, but she does like the ornaments.  I catch her touching them, and sometimes I'll be in the other room and she'll bring one to me that she got off the tree, haha.  All our breakable ones are near the top, so it's okay, just kinda funny.  I tell her no, and we take it back to the tree.  A couple of days ago she was sitting quietly under the tree, and I thought Chris was watching her and he thought I was watching her, so she managed to sneak 4 ornaments off the tree and they were all laid out around her.  :op

Emily found this chair and started pushing it all over the house.

I kept calling it her old-lady walker.  She pushed it up and down the hall, turning around when she got stuck.

The kids thought it was pretty funny.  They also realized that if you tried to sit in Emily's chair, she would start screaming and shaking the chair until you got up, haha.

I know it was bad, and the kids shouldn't have been trying to make her mad, but it was sooo funny.  When we went Christmas shopping later in the week, we got her a toy that she can push around or ride on.  She's been pushing the chair around all week, and Chris keeps trying to convince me to let her have the toy early, but we're gonna try to wait for Christmas.  :o)

Tuesday:

So Matthew wrote a book.

It's called "Outer Space is Cool."  He made it at school and it is so good that I wanted to share it.  :o)

Bob and Dob snuck into the space ship.

Bob said, "This is a bad idea."

Dob said, "I like this."

The space ship started to take off.

Bob and Dob said, "There's no going back."

Bob and Dob were going to the moon.

They got space suits so that they could breathe.

They floated on the moon.

Outer space is cool.

Yes it is, Matthew, yes it is. ;o) He made sure to point out to me that he numbered all his pages, hehe.  I love all the illustrations, and yes, he drew the solar system correctly.  Go Matt-dog!

Emily also discovered that she's able to climb onto things.  I caught her climbing on top of the pampers box, the pack of paper towels, the chair she pushes around, and she even tried to get her leg up onto the coffee table!  We got this booster chair out for her to climb into, and she seems pretty happy with herself once she gets situated.

Nerd.  :oP

Wednesday:

So, like I said, the girl is fully mobile now.

She walks all over the place!  Up and down the hall, from the dining room to the kitchen, from the coffee table to the TV.  She goes pretty slow, like she's taking her time, but she looks so big doing it.  Go Emily!  :o)

Thursday:

Emily scored a new pair of mittens.

It's pretty chilly outside, so I try to keep her all covered up when we go out, but that fool won't keep her arms tucked into the blanket, so I got her some cheap mittens.

She likes them. :o)  Really, she does - when she sees me with them, she holds her hands out so I can put them on her.  Then she watches herself open and close her fingers a lot, like it's a puppet or something, hehe.

Evie had a basketball game to cheer at that afternoon.  Yeah, the boys watched the game again, but Emily likes to watch the cheerleaders.

She claps when they clap and gets excited too.  Every now and then, we walk over to them so she can see which one is Evie. :o)

Oh - Joshua's class is studying their heritage, cultures, and how different families have different holidays and traditions.  He came home and asked me about it:

Joshua: What is my heritage?

Mommy: Well, what do you think it is?

Joshua: I think it's Catholic.

Mommy: That's actually our religion, not our heritage Joshua.

Joshua: Yeah, but we learned that your heritage is based on family traditions, and all the stuff we do is about Jesus and church.

Mommy: Okay.... like what?

Joshua: Well, we go to church every week, and when we get together with family for holidays, we always pray, and we celebrate Christmas, which is about when Jesus was born. So our family traditions are all Catholic, so our heritage can be Catholic.

The boy made a pretty compelling case, so I had to agree with him.  :o)

But no worries, we also discussed that his family is from lots of different backgrounds, so while yes, he is Catholic, he's also a lot of other things too.  :o)

Friday:

Emily got a birthday present in the mail from Aunt Mary.

Thanks for the new book!

She also went back to the doctor for more blood tests, and the doctor said that her white blood cells are back to normal, but she might still have a virus.  So we should just keep an eye on her and it should clear up soon.  She seems just fine, just a little runny nose, but no fever or anything, so it's all good. 

We spent the afternoon doing homework, bleh. :o\  Evelyn had to make a book report bag, complete with props.  Joshua had a Spanish project to do. It was kinda cool because he had to do online research, type it all up, and include a bibliography.  He's now a pro at googling, gathering info to cite websites, and using Microsoft Word.  He can't type at all, but we'll get there.  :o)  (By the way, I now know more about Argentina than I ever wanted to know.)

Saturday:

We ran to the commissary to pick up a few groceries.

Emily got her driver's license.  (Sorry for the blurry cell phone pics.)

And yes, Daddy let Matthew squeeze into the cart too, haha.

They were so cute.  :o)

Back at the house, the kids played outside, a lot.

They got the chalk out and decorated the road.

Joshua lost another molar!

And Evie worked in her CSI crime lab, checking a glass for fingerprints...

...and was very excited to find some, hehe.

She got a CSI kit from a book order and it told her how to dust for fingerprints, gather evidence, and to always wear gloves.

I know, kinda silly, but the girl had a great time.  :o)

Sunday:

Sorry, no Sunday pics, but the kids played outside a lot, again.  :o)

Before bed, Joshua studied for his Monday science test again, and dude - for the test he has to draw how energy is transferred, so here's what he drew:

It shows the sun labeled as heat energy, and through photosynthesis, the plants and trees transfer heat into chemical energy for food.  Then people and animals eat the plants and have mechanical energy to walk.  Joshua also drew how people eat animals for energy, so he got the drawing correct.

But I decided to share this because of the person he drew, do you see it?

That fool has a giant knife and fork because it's going to eat the cow!  Ahahaha!  That is just sooo funny to me!  And kinda awesome too.  I hope he gets a 100.  ;o)

Well, that's about it.  We're trying to finish up our Christmas preparations, gift wrapping and all.  I have no idea when we're coming into town, but Chris has to work on the 23rd, so we'll keep ya posted.  Have a great week! 

Laters!  :o)