24 Days of Christmas Kickoff

Our 24 Days of Christmas Ornament tradition kicks off tonight.  I am so grateful for this time of year!  This year I completed a first book draft of the ornament tradition, with photos, and will be coming out with Version 2 in the next year.  To view, go here: http://www.blurb.com/books/2739753

***For a free download of the 24 Days of Christmas Tradition and accompanying paper ornaments, go here:

https://sites.google.com/site/kevinandrinna/ ***

Maddie's 4th Birthday

Our little spunky Moo turned 4 on November 29th.  She was looking forward to turning 4 all year since her friends in preschool have turned 4 recently.  She didn't want breakfast in bed - she came downstairs wrapped in a blanket and ate her pancakes "with lots of butter and syrup" with Allie and Collin before they headed off to school for the day.  

We then had preschool - and we did the celebration of life.  She loved listening to her birth story, then special things she did at age 1, 2, 3, and 4.  Of course, she came in her princess pajamas.

 Then for lunch she chose to go to "Red Ramen (Robin)" (she sings the Red Robin jingle - "Red Ramen...Yum!").  For weeks she talked about going there with her cousin Travin and friend Isa.  Isa happened to be sick that day, so it was just Travin and her -plus me, Zane, and her grandma Lorraine.  She opened more presents (squinkies that she requested).  She was swimming in squinkies by the end of the day.

 Then for dinner we had pizza and had Pop and Grandma come over for cake and ice cream.  I was super duper busy that I bought a cake from the grocery store (but I promise I would never ever do that again! - it was not good, but Maddie didn't seem to notice. I felt a little guilty not making her cake but I had a crazy, busy schedule with photo edits, RS Mtg presentation + book, on top of Thanksgiving and all that goes with it, poor girl. I vowed not to be busy with other things before her birthday next year - she is already talking how cool her 5th birthday is going to be).   The rest of the night was pretty fun for Maddie - even got thru the birthday line for some spanking - she thought that was pretty funny.   We love this little spunky girl!

4 Things We LOVE about our Moo:

1. She is so funny - she always says the funniest things and there is not a day that goes by that she makes us laugh or smile.  She loves to ask "how about hugs and kisses?" and loves to snuggle still!

2.  She is such a pack rat - she carries around a suitcase or purse ALL THE TIME.  It is packed ready to go to Grandma's house in a moment's notice.  Even if she knows she isn't going to grandma's house, she lugs it around the house for easy change of clothes, tooth brushing, and the like.

3.  She still pronounces some words funny - she says "cu-price" for surprise, "flamily" for family, "ba-le-ley" for ballet, and "sings" for things.

4.  She is the best helper around - she can clean our wood floors, vacuum, and clean the toilet.  And really, I don't even have the temptation to do it over.  She is a super awesome babysitter who loves her baby brother and is never mean to him.  She always talks in a funny baby voice when she's talking to him and just loves to carry him around (scary sometimes).  But she really keeps him out of toilets and trouble when she's with him.

We've got a cheerleader!

Allie tried out to be on cheerleading squad and got in - and for two months now they have been practicing three days a week after school, got their super cute uniform and pompoms and patiently waited for basketball season to start.  Their school plays in the charter school league (AZCAA) against other charter schools across the valley (some of their games are as far as Scottsdale or further out).  This was their first home game and ALA won 51-28.  It was fun to watch Allie cheer, and look so cute with all the girls on the squad.

The squad and their coach, Coach Cook. 

 

Rush after the game on Tuesday - and since there was no school the rest of the week (for Thanksgiving), she got to go to a cheerleaders only party that night.  Middle school is so fun!

Collin the Cub Scout

First day in his cub scout uniform

Collin got to go to his first ever den meeting on his birthday, then two weeks later he went to his first pack meeting - and being new to Cub Scouts, he and I - we had no idea what to expect!  Kevin was out of town that day so we missed him at pack meeting. Anyway it was a real neat pack meeting with a Science Exploration theme - Exploring Liquid Nitrogen, which ended in ice cream treats (frozen by the liquid nitrogen).  It was so fun and Bro. Zoller the cubmaster did a really good job - thinking of hiring him for Collin's next birthday party!  Collin won the early bird prize, which they have to do a howl (sounds more like a bird saying "cuh coh" to me) to get the prize - and you have to do it really loud so everyone is cheering at the end. 

Collin has this thing for winning random contests - and this time it was no different - he got picked to do this crazy howl in front of a ton of people.  And it was his first time there!  A webelo scout showed him how to do it -  flex your arms/muscles and yell "cuh coh".  I was a little nervous that he would get really shy in front of all the people, but he did it three times and got a lot of cheers at the end.  He was glad to get his prize and  also earned a good manners belt loop.  Cub Scouts has a way of getting boys to be boys! 

At the next pack meeting, which was a week and a half, ago, he earned his Bobcat.  The cubmaster didn't have all the chalk to draw on their faces, so we skipped that and did just the pinning.  I love that they have all these little badges and loops to earn - makes it so fun and so rewarding for all of them.

 

Trimming the Tree

After Thanksgiving dinner is all cleaned up, the tree comes out!  We love this tradition and the kids had fun decorating while Christmas carols played in the background.  It marks the beginning of Christmas at home!

 Zane loved the ball ornaments and would pull them off the tree!

 He has to taste them too!

 I had to get a shot of this limb, decorated by Miss Maddie. She always has a "favorite" branch to hang most of her ornaments.

A couple of hours later,

Merry Christmas!

Thanksgiving 2011

Thanksgiving seemed like it came and went too fast!  We hosted dinner at our house, and had the Harris and Merrills over.  None of my family made it into town, it was all the in-laws' turn this year!  - So the kids kept asking why no one "came home" for Thanksgiving.   It is definitely quite the party when everyone is in town.  But a party it still was even without our out of town guests.  We enjoyed yummy food (as usual, except for the pit turkey that didn't turn out quite as expected) and we did lunch at noon instead of later so we had the whole day to enjoy the food and each other's company.  For our "thankful" activity, each one chose a card with a letter of the alphabet - everyone was supposed to write something that they were thankful for that started with the letter on the card.  I read all the cards before everyone left to go home.  It was fun and I think it would be fun to do it again next year - of course I haven't taken pictures of the A-Z Thankful List - but I will soon. Here is Thanksgiving in pictures:

Zane loved all of it - the fried turkey, mashed potatoes, noodles, corn, and even ate a whole roll all by himself.  

 

 The kids table

 Maddie Moo waiting for lunch to start

Food line with Allie and her cousins

 Todd

 Kristie, Adam, and Lance

 Jack and Lorraine

and us, below:

Day 338 - Zane's First Thanksgiving

It's so hard to believe Zane was not even here last year - he was still cooking!  Zane had a very smooth sailing First Thanksgiving - took his long nap in the morning and woke just in time to eat his Thanksgiving lunch.  He loved the fried turkey - which he ate quite a bit of, mashed potatoes, noodles, and even ate a whole entire roll all by himself.  This baby can eat!  After lunch he settled down for a long afternoon nap, and didn't wake back up until everyone left to go home.  Happy Thanksgiving from Zane!

Day 336

Zane is a good napper.  Today, Wednesday he napped while I rounded up the rest of the Thanksgiving stuff.  I am really grateful that he naps so well during the day.  I am taking advantage of it and hope he keeps napping good til he's 2. ha ha.  I know, I'm dreaming.  Just when I typed that, he woke right up.  I could hear his voice from upstairs.  I love that he still jumps up and down in his crib, holding on to the rails and gets so excited when I open the door to get him up from his nap.  Everytime he wakes in the morning he is so excited to see me, and when I leave to go downstairs to make him his first bottle of the day, he cries.  He loves to give me drooly kisses on my face.  And he laughs when I laugh.  He is such a good little baby, we love him so much!  I couldn't pick just one photo today so here's three:

Anyway, these photos were taken right after we all watched Game Plan on TV.  The kids are home for Thanksgiving break, so we decided it was going to be chore day today.  We cleaned out toys in the theatre room while we watched TV.