Birthday Photo Shoot

I always get pictures of the kids around their birthday. But for some reason this year I kept forgetting to take Caitlin's pictures. So a few days before Christmas I had two different opportunities for pictures and now I can't decide which ones to use. So I'm going to put several of them on here. Maybe you can tell me which ones are your favorites.

These first few were taken when we got home from church last week.

 

 

 Love Dominic's hat.

 The rest of these were taken when we met my parents and sister at Opryland Hotel.

 

 She's getting so big. It kills me!

 Oh boy! I'm going to have some problems in a couple of years when the girls discover this kid.

 Who knew you could get SO dirty at a hotel.

 My parents taking a quick rest. Kids can wear you out.

We had fun on our annual tour of the hotel. 

We finished off with an awesome supper and some shopping.

Christmas

Christmas was really low key and relaxing this year. At least for Jon and I. The kids were a bit crazy and excited. 

We bought Dominic a new bike this year. He's growing (silly kid won't stop) and was begging for a bike with gears. So Jon and I splurged and got him a new mountain bike with gears.

He was a little dramatic in his excitement. =)

 

Caitlin's gifts weren't as large, but she was just as happy.

Even kitty got a special treat.

We had a special Christmas dinner. We'd planned to have some guests over for lunch and I forgot when Christmas was =) and waited too long to ask them. Someone beat me to it. Since it was only a few days before Christmas we decided to just relax and spend some family time together.

We MIGHT have stayed in our pjs all day. It was wonderful!

School

Dominic has had a couple of things going on at school that I went to take pictures of. But they somehow didn't make it on the blog. So I'm going to put them together.

The first one was when his teacher revealed what she was having. The kids have spend the entire school year guessing about it and they all had their assumptions based on the most hilarious reasons. One boy thought it would be a boy because he was a boy. One girl (whose mom is a nurse) was sure it was a girl because she'd heard that you get more nauseous with girls. 

Beth-Anne chose a cute way of revealing it to them. She had several of the upper grade kids spray her and Matthew (her husband) with silly string. They would know when it came out either pink or blue.

The anticipation was killing some of them.

 It's a boy!!!

 Dominic was thrilled!

 The kids LOVED the silly string.

 It MIGHT have made little man a tad bit crazy. =)

 This last week Dominic had to prepare and give a presentation on a country. He chose Thailand. He had to research and then present a talk about the food, clothes, major religion, and one of their festivals or holidays. Typical boy he really got into the food and holiday part. But he totally blew off the clothes. When asked to talk about it by his teacher he made the comment -

"This is what they wore in the 19s and this is what they wear in the 20s" Then he moved on to the more interesting topics.

When someone asked a question about Buddha he went into this long story about Nebuchadnezzar and the golden statue. He seemed to be under the impression that they were the same. When Beth-Anne realized where he was going she corrected him. He recovered very quickly with -

"Well you know how they bowed down to the golden idol? Well that's how they bow down to Buddha." It was a very well played save. =)

 Showing everyone Thailand on the map.

Caitlin wants so desperately to be in school. So she loves these opportunities to visit Dominic during school. She seemed to think she was helping him with his presentation.

Dominic got extra credit for bring some food from his country. Part of his presentation was about how they eat food differently. His examples were the black beans in ice cream, coconut milk in spicy soup, and sweet mixed with sour.

So to help illustrate this he gave them spicy mangoes. The kids were NOT impressed. He followed up with lychee candy and chocolate Pocky sticks. That seemed to go over much better. Caitlin helped pass everything out.

Good Kids

So many times parents will lament the fact that children usually behave better for others than they do their own parents. My kids fit firmly into this category. I get compliments on their behavior frequently. I do get the occasional wild child comment too. =)

But tonight I need to brag on my sweet kids. These past few weeks have been a bit rough on them. We had guests for parts of two weeks. For 8 days Dominic had to bunk in with his sister. Our schedule has been completely thrown off coarse. And this past week Jon and I both got sick. It's that yucky lingering stuff. So we've been feeling pretty grumpy.

Despite the major adjustments my sweet babies have been so helpful. They've done their chores, offered extra help, brought Jon and I things while we were down, and played nicely together.

A few nights ago Dominic wanted to make supper since I was feeling crummy. He did really well for his first time making pancakes. I had several heart stopping moments because he's so short that flipping the pancakes became dangerous. But overall he did really well and supper tasted good.

Pancakes with Christmas Sprinkles

The next day Dominic read the scripture for church. I was home recovering, but Jon said he did really well.

I have the best kids EVER!

Christmas Letter

Every year I have these great plans to write a Christmas letter, get our pictures taken, and send out Christmas cards. And it happens about once every 3 years. =)

So I'm a little late (they are still on the counter), but I actually made it this year.

I thought I'd share a few of the pictures to give you a sneak preview.

Merry Christmas!

Happy Birthday

This past Thursday was Caitlin's golden birthday. She turned 5 on the 5th of December. We had a really great day celebrating with her.

We've had company all this week. They've been wonderful to have and I've threatened to lock the doors so they can't leave us. But it does mean that I've been a bit distracted and had some extra things on my plate. I'd fully intended to post this blog on Caitlin's birthday and say a little something about baby girl on facebook. That didn't happen. But we had a fun day and that is what counts.

Caitlin opening her presents. She was pretty excited about it. Wouldn't even look up at me.

 I asked her if she wanted to help me pick out the decorations for her cupcakes and then help me make them, or if she wanted me to do it while she was asleep and surprise her. She opted for helping. It was super fun trying out different designs with the pearls she'd picked out.

 Bear bear helped out a bit.

Most of the completed cupcakes.

 Goofy girl!

She was really messy after making those cupcakes. So I let her have a bubble bath and then we painted our nails.

 

 Caitlin chose to go to Cinco's for her birthday meal out.

All day she told every person she talked to that it was her birthday. 

So when we got into the restaurant she told the hostess guy, the guy who brought our chips, and the waiter that it was her birthday.

Our waiter really went all out with singing to her (by himself), putting whip cream on her face and making her feel special.

She isn't usually a big dessert person. But she managed to eat the entire thing.

 

One final picture with her birthday sombero.

 

Her meal of choice for supper was pigs and broccoli. Not very shocking when you hear her ask for it almost every night for supper.

 After supper she FINALLY got to try out the cupcakes. They tasted as good as we'd hoped.

Happy Birthday Caitlin! 

Daddy and I are so proud of the big girl you are becoming. While we have a little bit of sadness over losing our baby, we are so excited to see how much you are growing up. Your infectious laugh and zest for life are a fun blessing to our family.

Christmas begins. . .

Every year right after Thanksgiving I have my sweet husband drag the Christmas stuff out. We play Christmas music and set up the tree. This year we Jon even put up the outside lights.

We are now ready for the Christmas season to begin. It's my favorite holiday.

 Apparently it takes concentration to work the nutcracker.

 Lights! Probably the least favorite job.

 Our nativity scene. Read a blog once where the mom mentioned that she'd purchased an inexpensive nativity scene, because she wanted her children to play with it and feel a connection to the story.

So I followed her example and have really enjoyed watching them play. This arrangement is Caitlin's latest.

Thankful Shots

Someday my life is going to slow down. But in the mean time, I'll be shoving some random shots on here to let you  know we are still alive.

And since November is ending I'll also post a few blessings.

Caitlin fell and hit the corner of her dresser drawer. So thankful that the only damage was this bruise.

 Dominic had special music for church last week. So thankful for his great school and teachers.

 Last week we went with some friends to the lake. So thankful for friends who drag us out for exercise in the cold. We had so much fun.

 Thankful for my adventurous little guy.

 Thankful for my silly little girl.

 Thankful we were able to spend Thanksgiving with family.

 I have been so very blessed. And I'm very grateful for those blessings.