McKelle's Preschool Christmas Party

I was so excited to go to McKelle's Christmas party to watch this sweet girl sing!...but I was late! (picking Emory up from school). I only caught the last song. I felt terrible! She was soo excited when she saw us walk in. But she did great! She knew all the motions and words an stood so still. She's the best listener! 

I think she quickly forgave me when I let her pick a plate full of candy to decorate her gingerbread house ;) So fun! She has really loved her preschool! When I pick her up and sign her out at school, she can't wait to empty out her book bag and show me everything she made that day. Although, when I asked her what she did and learned at school that day, she always seems to forget. She can usually remember one key thing they did :)

I can't get over how much she looks like me in this picture! 

Emory's sports class ends

Emory finished his sports class. McKelle would go to class with Jeremy & Emory and for several classes ended up join in on the fun. They had a good time during the track class which was basically just different relay races and obstacle courses. Emory also impressed us during the Tball weeks. He was actually pretty good and hitting.

He was probably most excited at the end when he received his red ribbon. What a cute boy!

Gingerbread houses & Christmas ornaments

I wanted to capture the kids hand prints this year, especially Harrison's since he's a cute little baby. So, we made salt dough christmas ornaments and I loved how they turned out! I guess I've been on a painting kick since Halloween and painting our pumpkins but we all had a great time! I painted McKelle's hand print after a movie, Trolls, we all really like. I was going to paint Emory's too, since their hand prints are so special to me, but Emory really wanted to do it himself. So, I told him where to put each color and he did the rest. I was so impressed by how well he did! And I love Harrison's Santa and reindeer. So fun!

We bought a gingerbread making kit this year and I like it. It was pretty low on frosting but it was nice to have all the candy ready for you. It was another fun night of eating more candy then actual decorating :) 

Elf on the Shelf, Emory's missing Gingerbread man & the Ward Christmas Breakfast

We had some fun experiences to get us ready for Christmas this year.

Jeremy decided to begin a new Christmas tradition this year and bought "The Elf on the Shelf." The basic idea is that the elf watched over the kids each day and at night reports back to Santa how they behaved. He tells Santa if they need to be put on the naughty or nice list. I wasn't too excited about it since it just added another thing for me to remember to do each day but the kids loved it, of course. The first night the elf came to our house, he brought everyone a present, Christmas PJs! Emory was in heaven because he got Star Wars PJs & McKelle got reindeer jammies. After opening our gifts, we named the elf "Eric." Before leaving the house everyday McKelle would say, "Bye Eric!!" Emory wasn't too sure about the elf. He kept saying, "He's weird." You could see his little wheels turning in his mind. He knew he wasn't real but wasn't sure about the whole magic thing. He asked a lot of questions about him.

This goes right along with what Emory's Pre-K teacher, Mrs Godfrey, told me. In their class they made a big gingerbread man together and before going out for recess they put him in the oven (of the pretend kitchen). When they came back from recess, he was gone! He left some crumbs throughout the classroom and down the hallway too. The class was all very excited and surprised about what they found...except Emory. He was very skeptical. He kept looking at the play kitchen thinking, 'Wait a minute, that's not real (the oven). I don't buy it or do I?' The class excitedly went all around the school asking classes and teachers if they'd seen a missing gingerbread man and all the kids were loving it, well most of the kids :). Emory just couldn't wrap his logical brain around the whole situation.

Another fun event we participated in was our ward Christmas breakfast which included a special visit from Santa! The kids wore their Christmas PJs and Emory even wrote Santa a letter this year. Inside it said, "Santa come early." He asked for a logging truck this year and McKelle asked for "paint nails" or nail polish. Harrison did pretty good meeting the big guy, at least for a little bit. I'm not sure what happened to make him start crying but at some point, he had had enough!

Such a fun time of year with these cute kids!

Harrison is 6 months!

How is my baby half a year old already?! He loves to cruz on his walker and I swear he learned how to do it in like 2 or 3 days, way faster than the older kids! He tried some rice cereal and loved it. I have not been as strict about food with him so he's sampled some other foods at random times. He can't sit up quite yet but is army crawling! He's still always so happy and never crys.

 Emory and Harrison had wellness check ups at the same time (Emory 5 yrs, H 6M). Harrison was ...

McKelle goes to the Emergency Room

After 5 years of being a mother, I made my first trip to the Emergency room today! I thought it would be for Emory but turns out it was for McKelle, most likely because of Emory.

We were leaving our gym and the kids were getting on their shoes when Emory pushed McKelle or she tripped or something (I didn't see it) but she hit her head right on the edge of the shoe cubby. I think I had a mild panic attack when I saw white fleshy stuff inside the cut. I literally did not know what to do. I went out on the gym floor where my friend was and almost in tears I asked her to come look at it and basically tell me what I needed to do. Thankfully the gym was not busy so the workers helped put ice on it and gave McKelle fruit snacks while I called the pediatricians office and ER. 

Poor Emory felt terrible. He was so sorry and kept asking if McKelle had to go to the hospital. I think he was really surprised when he saw the blood and cut on her. McKelle, on the other hand, after several minutes of everyone panicing around her said, "Let's stop talking about it." She was obviously fine.

Thankfully there was an ER right down the road. It wasn't busy but the wait and the whole process took forever (right during lunch and nap time I might add!). However, the kids were champs! They all did amazing. The doctor said the cut wasn't quite deep enough for stitches although she could do them if we wanted or she could just glue it back together. Since glueing did not require any needles, we went that route. McKelle was just excited she got purple soap and pink glue. Overall, it turned out fine. (Although, it's been about 3 months now and I am not happy with how big the scar is! I think next time I'll do the stitches! The one upside is where the cut is located. It's a pretty common place for scars. I guess a lot of kids hit there heads there :). I'm hoping with time it will continue to heal and go away!) My poor baby girl!

Kids Book Drive

I wanted to find a way for the kids to do some service during the Christmas season. I found an easy way for them to get involved on the justservce.org website by participating in a book drive for foster kids. I wanted them to do as much of the work as possible. So, I printed the flyers, they cut them out and stapled them to grocery bags. We then spent a day or two walking down two streets and knocking on our neighbors doors. If they answered I explained what we were doing and the kids left them a bag. They also passed out the flyers to the kids in their preschool classes. We were able to collect more than a garbage bag full of books! The kids were so cute explaining that they were collecting books for kids that don't have any! I think it was a success and great experience for them.

Thanksgiving

We had an interesting Thanksgiving this year. Jeremy was in his window for possibly being audited at work so he didn't feel comfortable going anywhere incase the auditors showed up. So, we stayed local. We had a brunch with my Aunt Corrine and her son Dallas and his wife. It was a great morning hanging out and catching up. We also managed to snap a few family photos while we were there. What cute babies! (Emory 5 yrs, McKelle 3.5 yrs, Harrison 5M)

We planned on going to a restaurant for an early Thanksgiving dinner before taking the kids to see a movie later that day. However, on the way back home while looking for a restaurant, we discovered that all of the restaurants were closed! Mimi's Cafe was the only one open but the wait was ridiculous. So, we ended up buying hot dogs and popcorn at the movie theatre for our Thanksgiving dinner. It was a very untraditional day and a bit of a let down but also very memorable. I ended up cooking more of the Thanksgiving fixin's a few days later so that helped a little to make up for it ;)

McKelle

We went to a Christmas tree lighting this last weekend and McKelle got her play cell phone and said to Grandma, "we're going to a Christmas thing and Santa is going to be there, yipee!"

She loves when Jeremy and I tell stories and has turned into quite the story teller. Lately, while we're eating, I give Emory & McKelle each a choice about something and then I have to incorporate it into a story. Then we each take turns telling a story. McKelle told a pretty funny one that made Emory and I both laugh. It was something like this:

Once upon a time, there was a little girl named McKelle and a purple butterfly and he popped out his eye, then put it back again (Emory and Mommy start laughing).  There was another butterfly but he couldn't pop out his eyes. "Hey no laughing, it's not funny. You're ruining the story!" Then some bad people put her in jail. But, a nice person put her out of jail. The End.

This little girl has had a lot of changes in her life lately and we've experienced a lot more emotional highs and lows with her too. We're in the thick of learning ideas regarding sharing and taking turns, problem solving and conflict resolution. It's a lot for a little three year old to practice. So, we've been enjoying the emotional highs when they come and spending some alone time when the lows hit. Thankfully, she's just as cute as ever!