Christmas Program

If you haven't heard, Caleb was "Joseph" in the Christmas program again this year.  He had two whole lines that he had to recite and he did a great job.  We worked on them at home and did a lot of role playing.  They also practiced on Wednesday nights during Bible school.  So on Sunday morning, as the kids got dressed in their robes and were about to go out and perform, Caleb grabbed Gracie's hand and said "Come on, Gracie, let's do this thing!"   He said it with such conviction, like he'd been preparing for this his whole life.  The kids did a great job!  Even little Owen got to be a part of the program - they had the babies ring Christmas bells while the older kids sang.  Most of the babies chewed on their bells (like mine did), but it was still cute.

Mary and Joseph

Victoria, Owen and Amelia (Simon was there somewhere) ringing the bells.

The smaller children's program - the older kids did a program at the evening service.

Baby O and V playing on the floor.  Doesn'the just look monstrous? He goes for his 6 month check-up tomorrow, so I guess we'll find out.

If I don't get anything poster before Christmas - Merry Christmas!

Santa Claus is Comin' Town

The Christmas season is upon us and so begins our crazy weeks of concerts, performances and places to be!  I think my friend April posted on FB that in the month of December we had 12 concerts to attend, perform at or direct in the month of December! You must admit, that's impressive.  So here are some pics of our Christmas happenings (none of which, strangely, include any of the concerts), but here is what we've been up to:

Caleb celebrating his birthday at Avanti's before one of April's concerts.  They brought him a cake and we sang to him, which he just thought was the coolest thing ever.

I had forgotten about a huge Bob the Builder tent that our friends gave us about a year ago.  So we got it out (now that it's a little chilly to be playing outside).  Caleb had fun building a fort and playing his new computer.

Speaking of Bob the Builder

Oh look, and here's Bob's little helper!

First snow of the season! We had to eat some!

Decorating...finally! The tree had been up for weeks, but we hadn't decorated the house or the tree.  Perhaps we have too many things going on in the month of December!

A little elf in his favorite spot

Making the cool gingerbread train that Grandma gave him.  We've enjoyed stealing goodies off of this for days!

Santa and Mrs. Claus - the best kept secret in town! They come to BroMenn one night in December.  There are no lines, they always remember us, and they give the kids Beanie Babies.  And the Santa is surprisingly (and a little creepily) in character  at all times!

Christmas party at Preschool - Caleb is writing a letter to Santa with his two big kid buddies (Kelsey and Brooke).  He threw us a curveball by informing both Santas that he wanted a remote control robot for Christmas.  He was going to get a bike.  Hmmm..what to do!

Preschool Santa - no questions about why they were different - thankfully!

A Bad Trip

On more than one occassion I've tried to upload a video of Owen laughing and it just will not upload, so I'm giving up and moving on.  I was going to post this a few days ago, since that's when it happened, but I've been so caught up in getting that video going that I've put it off.
   So I went to Wal-Mart the other night to do my general grocery shopping.  Gabe had taken Caleb to the Madrigal Dinner dress rehearsal, so I was feeling good that I only had one kid with me.  The shopping trip began like any other shopping trip.  As I headed towards the actual grocery part of the store however, everything sort of took a turn.  As I was rounding the cereal aisle I nearly took out a blind woman with her seeing eye dog with my cart.  I felt terrible! I didn't actually hit her due to my cat-like reflexes, but it was close.  Then I headed to the checkout...the dreaded Wal-Mart checkout.  Three, count them, three lines were open.  Really? I huffed to myself and picked one of the three and hunkered down.  "No big deal," I thought to myself, "I have a sleeping kid and nowhere to be. I'll just be patient."  Just like that, a nice young man offered to open another line.  Perhaps this trip is shaping up to be okay.
  Not so fast.  As I start to unload my cart (I was the second one in line) I noticed that my box of diapers has what looked like pizza sauce running down the side of it.  "Ewww....wait, is that pizza sauce on my Christmas bows? on my yogurt?" I quickly grabbed my baby wipes from the diaper bag and try to wipe everything down, but he's now ready to check me out.  I explain what I've found and he graciously offers some paper-towels (the cheapest, 1-ply paper towels known to man!).  Given that there is pizza sauce on more than one thing, I begin searching for the culprit.  There, at the very bottom of my cart, is a small jar of GreatValue pizza sauce.  As I picked it up I see a large gaping hole at the bottom of the jar with sauce just oozing out.  Hmmm.  I have to believe it was busted when I picked it up and I just poured it all over my other items as I put it into my cart.  However, this also means that I've been dripping pizza sauce all over the store and have been subsequently walking through each drip with every step I took.  Lovely.
   It's not over.  So the guy asked one of his associates to go get a new jar of sauce.  She looks at me and says "what aisle is it in?" I kind of just stared at her for a minute and said, "umm, the one with all the pasta and noodles." "Oh," she says, "about where in the aisle is it?"  Do you work here? Seriously. Meanwhile, all of my groceries are piling up on the little lazy susan thing at the end of the check-out because I'm wiping all of my groceries down.  I then explain to the guy that I'm going to need a new cart because this one has pizza sauce everywhere.  "Oh yeah," he says.  Yet another associate shows up with a cart.  I'm causing a ruckus.  I move Owen to the new cart, park the saucy one aside and begin putting my groceries in the new cart.  He hits the total button, I pay for them, and done.  But I had another transaction to do of Christmas gifts.  I explain that I need a gift receipt for one of the items.  During this transaction is when I realized that I had about $7.00 worth of coupons in my pocket that I forgot to give him during the first transaction.  Argh!  And now he's telling me that he forgot to push some button to get a gift receipt.  I wave my hand at him and say "don't worry about it, just run it through." Well, now my debit card won't work.  Swipe. Error. Swipe. Error. He's got to do it.  Deep breath, deep breath.  And we're done!
    But wait, I need to go to Customer Service.  I've already spent a crazy amount of time here, why not spend more.  Normally, if I had forgotten about my coupons I would have let it go.  Saving 75 cents is not worth it.  But this was $7.00! So I went up to the counter and she told me that she could just give it to me in cash what I would have saved.  Score! Well, in that case, can I get a gift reciept? Yes, I can.  Sweet!
   Still not done.  As I'm leaving the store, I spied what I thought was the backend of my Jeep and walked briskly toward it.  Only to find out that I was walking to someone else's car and literally passed my Jeep 5 vehicles ago.  Oh my! How embarassing! At least I know that the lady I almost ran into earlier didn't see me!
  

Happy 4th Birthday, Caleb!

Today Caleb is 4 years old! I know all moms say this, but seriously, where has the time gone? I commented to Gabe about how easily I can take myself back to that day in the hospital. I suppose all mothers feel that way. It was a pretty eventful day in our lives - he made sure that December 2nd was all his - my water broke at midnight and he was born by 5:39am. He made quite an entrance!

 
To my son: You are an amazing gift from God.  You are sharp - each day you teach me that you learn so quickly, pick up so much and are smarter than I ever give you credit for.   You are particular - you love rules, especially when you are the one setting them, and you love things to be in order and in their place. I admit that your Daddy and I probably had a little to do with that OCD behavior.  You are funny - you love to make up silly words, tell jokes and when in a comfortable setting, be the center of attention. You are a negotiator - You definitely have your Daddy's gene for finding the loophole in almost everything.  While this is frustrating to your mom sometimes, I know it will serve you well as you grow and think "outside the box".  You are handsome - never have I known a cuter little red-head in my life! You are kind and patient - we worried about how you would react when Owen was born and you have been nothing but loving.  You are so kind to him and love to kiss and hug him everyday.  He couldn't ask for a better big brother.  We love you, son.  And I'm looking forward to this next year with my 4 year old - oh the things you will teach me!