A is for Applebee's

 Last week Hannah was all smiles as I picked her up from school. She proudly showed me her reading list and a coupon she had earned to Applebee's Restaurant for passing off her last reading list for kindergarten before we got in the car. She is way ahead in her reading and writing at school which is so amazing. She works hard on her schooling and loves to learn. Way to go Hannah!

  

Little Moments

 Look at this adorable face! He’s all ready to potty train!

Getting ready with Grandma

My boys

Hannah fell asleep on the stairs waiting for her cousins to arrive at the house. All the kids couldn't wait to see their cousins, but they got in late so they didn't get to play for very long. She didn't want to stay in bed and miss all the excitement!

Hannah got her hair cut short since she decided to cut it herself for a second time. She's always wanted curly hair, so we braided it and left them in overnight. She loved it.

I told Grayson he couldn't have food in the living room, so he came up with this great idea. He sat on the edge of the carpet with his snacks on the tile so he have it both ways. Smart boy!

Best friends

I love that my big boys still love to snuggle with me from time to time

Grayson’s Trip to the ER

 Grayson ended up in the ER one night a couple of weeks ago all because he didn’t want to go to bed, haha! He was sitting on the ledge of the window to the play house area under the stairs. Dad came downstairs and told him it was time to go to bed and, in his haste to get away, he somehow got his his feet caught up in the wall as he was trying to run and ended falling and hitting his head on the corner of a chair. He started crying, but it wasn’t anything I hadn’t heard before. I was sitting on the couch waiting for Stephen to get him until Zander peeked in the doorway and said, “Mom, Grayson’s bleeding!” I get up and sure enough Grayson has blood running down his face and neck. 

I get him in the bathroom and start cleaning him up, and then out of the blue I start to get light headed and nauseous, so I hand everything over to Stephen so I could get some air. I took Grayson to Primary Children’s Hospital in hopes that they’d do stitches, but they ended up gluing his head instead. He ended up peeling the glue off in the middle of the night two days later. Then scratching it a few days after that. I couldn't get him to keep his hands off of it, so I put a band aid over it to keep it safe. He'll definitely have a small scar there.

Mom and Sons Night

 Zander, Lucas, and I got to attend their school's mom and sons movie night last week. We spent the night in Paris watching 'Ratatouille'. We ate lots of snacks and snuggled until they got bored and started finding friends to play tag with in the back, but we had a good time together.

Ice Castles

We took a trip to the ice castles again, but this time we had Grandma and Grandpa come with us. The kids were so excited to have them there. It was fun to get there while it was still light out, but then it got dark so we could have fun with the snow all lit up with lights. They had a lot more ice slides this year and reindeer, and a snow princess. Even Grandma and Grandpa went down the slides! Then we had dinner dessert afterwards.

 

More Little Moments

During Christmas break Zander and Lucas broke the tv. So they have to do chores for the next several weeks to pay for a new one. I asked Lucas to shovel the driveway one morning after it had snowed. I looked out the window and saw him in his pjs and boots. One thing about Lucas, when he is asked to do a chore he might whine about it sometimes, but he does the job and he does it well. He's a good little worker. 

"Mom, can I hold Jesus Christ?" Any time Grayson wanted to hold the doll we use as our baby Jesus under the tree this is what he asks me. It is the cutest thing because he'll ask using his whole name.

Hannah cut her own hair....again. I took all the scissors out of the basement the night before because I was tired of finding them and picking them up every day when I would go down there. So I decided to take them away. Unbeknownst to me, Hannah had a pair of small scissors in her bed that night. And those are the ones she used to cut her hair and Grayson's. So we had to chop her hair and give her some bangs to try and mask it the best we could. Grayson needed a hair cut anyway, but boy did he throw a tantrum at he salon. It took me 10 minutes to try and calm him down so he'd sit still. 

Zander and I finished the third Harry Potter book during the winter break, so we got to watch the movie. He finally admitted that the book is way better than the movie! So we started on the fourth one. We're trying to read as much as we can before we go to Harry Potter World at the end of the school year. We probably won't make it all the way through the seventh book, but I really look forward to reading with him every night. It's one of my favorite things. I like reading with all of the kids. 

 

Little Moments 2022

 Between Thanksgiving and Christmas last month Hannah had her Christmas dance recital. She worked really hard on it. I wasn't so sure she'd actually dance, but she did phenomenal! Way to go Hannah!

Grayson wanted to try out baby Jesus's cradle for himself. It didn't work out so well for him.

The boys had been at the table for hours that Sunday playing Risk together. It was glorious. There was minimal fighting and when there was a disagreement they were able to work it out without yelling. I just loved how great they were getting along.

Oh Hannah, what am I going to do with you? I took her to school that morning dressed in pants and a shirt. I picked her up from school dressed like this in her dress up dance clothes. Apparently she snuck her dress up clothes in her back pack and changed at some point during the day. She is not even wearing shorts under her dance suit!

I asked Hannah to make a Christmas list. Here is what she wrote. She showed it to me after asking me what I wanted for Christmas and Dad. Dad replied  with "I don't know" so he got nothing. She drew pictures instead of writing it down. I asked for earrings and bath towels. And then she told me she added some things to my list she thought I'd like: peace and love, children listening to parents, and having the kids sharing and playing nicely as a family. I have to admit, I wanted all those things more than bath towels, lol. Hannah asked for her own computer and printer so she can print off all the coloring pages she wants, and a unicorn with wings.

The boys earned their orange belts! Way to go Zander and Lucas!

Pop tart gingerbread houses!

Hannah and I spent two hours cleaning up Zander's room for him as a Christmas gift to him from Hannah. We did it all before he got home from school. Hannah wrote a note to him on his chalkboard: "Merry Christmas, I love you. From Hannah. I hope you have a merry Christmas."