Breakfast with Santa

Our Parents As Teachers organization hosted a breakfast with Santa on Saturday. They had some fun, kid-friendly crafts as well as sitting on the big-man-himself's knee. Actually, the line to see Santa was WAY too long, so we skipped that part. We'll get to see him in the next few days at our town's Winter Wonderland - very fun (of course I'll post pictures of that after we go!).
Even Mallory had a jolly good time!

Elizabeth at the cookie decorating station

Mallory was pretty bushed when we got home. Ross didn't mind being her pillow.

Ornament making party

I have such a special Aunt Cathy. She is very thoughtful and fun. She invited her sisters, nieces and great-nieces over for a fun afternoon of ornament making. I'm glad Grammy was there with an extra set of hands.

Emmaline and Mallory
Cathy and Andrea making little mice ornaments

Thanks Cathy!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We were a little late setting up our tree this year (we've been so tied up with the play). We usually set it up on a family night. It's always fun to look at our ornaments and remember where they came from or who gave them to us. Most of our ornaments were given to us by Edward's dad's cousin, Carrie. She is a very special lady to our family. She never married or had children, so she has always kind of spoiled Edward and his siblings over the years. Each year since he was born she has given him an ornament. Now that we have children, she sends each of them several of their own ornaments each year. The kids love to find their own. We also have a tradition of buying an ornament on each vacation we take. So far we have ornaments representing Orlando, Bar Harbor, Maine, San Diego, New York City,and Montreal, Canada (somehow we missed one in Washington, D.C.).

Ross gets ready to put the angel on top.

Mallory's job was to make sure the tree skirt was straight.

Nighty night

I don't know about you all that have young children, but at our house, bedtime can be absolute CHAOS! Actually, Elizabeth is usually excellent, but the boys... well that's another story. It usually sounds like elephants are break-dancing above us from about 8:30 until around10:00 each night. I'm serious. Elizabeth feels left out not having a roommate. She doesn't believe us when we tell her she'll be thankful for that in a few years. So every once in a while, we feel sorry enough for her that we allow her to sleep in the boys' room, even though we know we'll need to take a couple Advil before we retire to bed.

A couple of things about this first picture. There are exactly 14 inches between the boys' beds. At the other house, we stacked the beds into bunk beds, but they still shared the bottom twin bed each night. So, when we moved here I thought I'd put the beds really close together so they'd feel like they were in the same bed, but they'd still have their own space. Wrong. They still share a twin bed each night. Anyway, when Elizabeth bunks in with them, she has to sleep in that 14 inch space. Even though there is an extra bed. Even though there is plenty of other floor space. Crazy. Also, you'll notice that Drew fell asleep sitting up. Leaning against the metal bed frame. Ahh. Now that's a good night's sleep!

So, apparently on this particular night, Drew and Elizabeth were driving Ross nuts. Of course the chaos is never his fault. He decided they were too loud, so he said he would just sleep in the closet. And he did! When we came up to check on the "quiet" we found him in the closet with his pillow and blanket. Therefore, both beds were empty that night. Crazy.

In the holiday spirit!

Please click on the link below to see how our kids get in the holiday spirit! Too funny!


http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1120020530

Babes in Toyland

Ross and Elizabeth are taking part in our little theater guild's performance of Babes in Toyland. They were allowed to choose the toys they wanted to be. As you can see, Ross chose to be a baseball, and Elizabeth chose to be a china doll.

I wasn't quite sure what to do about the baseball costume, but it came together pretty well with fabric, foam, and red duct tape. Luckily, we had a Mulan costume from last Halloween, but I didn't know how I wanted to turn Elizabeth's blond hair black. Thanks to a suggestion from my friend Emily, we found that FamilyFun.com (my favorite costume idea website) shows how to make an Asian princess wig out of black tights, bubble wrap, a hot glue gun, silk flowers, and chop sticks. It's hard to see in the pictures, but it turned out great.

The kids don't have speaking parts - they just walk in a toy parade and wave to the audience two different times and then participate in funny, choreographed battle scene. Then for the last half hour they just stand on stage and act scared, mad, surprised, etc. It's such a great production! Last night was opening night, and it runs through Sunday afternoon.

Earlier in the week I was giving the kids directions on where to go to meet me as soon as the play was over so we wouldn't become separated. Ross said, "Well, Mom... it might take a little while because I'll probably be signing autographs afterward." I think my humble little boy has seen his Uncle Ben perform a couple of times.

Mallory's new trick

Mallory has just learned to wave. In this video, she doesn't do it for long. She waves ALL the time to anyone who will humor her. At the mall the other day she was the welcome committee for all of the shoppers. Just about every time she sees my sister Andrea she starts waving. It's always fun when they learn new tricks!

Meet our little Indian

Introducing "Strong Storm." We attended Drew's preschool's Pow-Wow today. The kids decorated their costumes and made musical instruments earlier in the week and invited the parents to a Pow-Wow where they sang a song, read a story, and shared popcorn. The children got to pick their own Indian names. Some kids chose Dancing Deer, Red Bear, Princess Bel-bel, Soaring Eagle, Wild Bronco, etc. My two favorites, though, were Walking Beaver and Horse Rock.

Here we go again!

Of course we had to put the kids' crazy glasses on Mallory. We didn't leave them on long, though, because she rapidly turned her head from side to side, trying to get them off. Oh, we're so glad she's here for our enjoyment!

Elizabeth had to get in on the action too.

They wanted me to try them on too. The girls get their good looks from me, don't you think?

Proof that Edward is secure in his manhood

Elizabeth decided to give her Daddy a beautiful hairstyle. What a good sport!

Veteran's Day

We were in Cape Girardeau on Sunday - Veteran's Day. We drove past a park that had the most amazing display of American flags. It was breathtaking. I would guess there were around 500 full-sized flags lining the road. These pictures don't quite do it justice, but you get the idea.

Happy Birthday Edward!

Today is Edward's (and of course Jan Ellen's) 32nd birthday. In honor of him, I will share 32 things I love about him. In no particular order:

1. He kisses me everyday.
2. He tells me he loves me everyday.
3. He takes time to play with our children everyday.
4. He is a wonderful provider for the other five of us in the family.
5. He also knows how important it is that I stay home to raise our children.
6. He is so funny.
7. He thinks I'm so funny.
8. He shares his very favorite candy (peanut M & M's) with me.
9. He has such integrity.
10. He doesn't yell at me when I have a fender bender in our new van TWO WEEKS IN
A ROW!
11. He eats all of my dinners without complaint.
12. He has amazing faith.
13. He is very handsome!
14. He is humble.
15. He holds me if I cry.
16. He plays "beauty shop" with Elizabeth.
17. He makes me any kind of cake I want on my birthday. His strawberry shortcake turned out
amazing this year.
18. He sends me out alone to the library or to see a movie when he "senses" I've had a rough
day with the troops.
19. He still makes my heart pitter-patter.
20. He is compassionate.
21. He is a considerate boss who values his wonderful staff.
22. He is friendly.
23. He teaches Ross and Drew to respect women.
24. He makes me feel like I can do anything just when he is near me.
25. He changes diapers.
26. He would rather be home with his family than anywhere else.
27. He doesn't sweat the small stuff.
28. He cleans toilets.
29. He gives people money if they are in need.
30. He stops to give people assitance if they are having car trouble, even on holidays.
31. He is honest.
32. He is still my Prince Charming after 10 years!

I love it!

More Funny Pictures at pYzam.com

When I grow up, I want to be...

Drew is very into ninjas & spys right now. Actually he says "inja." Yesterday he was talking to me about his "inja skills" and told me, "When I get big I'm gonna be an American Family Inja." What a creative career!

Getting a jump start on Christmas pictures!

Miscellaneous Halloween Pics

Finally, the real thing! Trick-or-treating on Halloween.

All of the Wright cousins

" Jackpot! Maybe this dressing-up nonsense isn't so bad afterall!"

Mallory REALLY enjoyed her first sucker! She kept getting it stuck in her feathers, but that didn't stop her. She enjoyed a feather-covered sucker just the same!

How hysterical is this! Anna was the cutest cave woman ever!

The bone in her hair was the best! And yes, that is her real hair. I haven't yet found out how fun it was to wash that out.

Our friends, the Williams, invited us to go trick-or-treating at the state park where they were camping the weekend before Halloween. We enjoyed the candy, s'mores, chili, and good company!

Mummy-wrap Ross

Drew and his buddy Cade

Let the Halloween festivities begin!

Yesterday we went Trick-or-Treating to the downtown businesses. The kids really enjoyed a jump start on the candy hunt.

Mallory is the cutest baby chicken on the planet! She leaves a trail of white feathers wherever she goes. The chicken feet are my favorite!

Drew is a "nice" Frankenstein, according to him. He doesn't like any of the scary stuff, so he wants everyone to know he's nice. He's seen this costume in magazines and just had to have it. It was a bit pricey for me, but thanks to e-bay, we got a good deal. It's basically a fleece jacket and is perfect for picky little Drew!

Elizabeth had a lot of fun making people do a double-take. Ever the drama queen, she had fun acting like a granny. She'd stop and say in a granny voice, "Oh, my back! You guys go on without me!"

Ross has had an alien encounter! The jammied-feet are stuffed. His real feet are the alien's feet. He also enjoyed throwing people off with the get-up. Thanks for the idea Family Fun!

A very tuckered-out little chicken

Sailing, Sailing...

Drew took Mallory on a high sea adventure a couple of weeks ago. They were dodging evil pirates & hot lava left and right!
They are reading the treasure map (a.k.a. Candyland game board).