'Tis the Season...

For acting out the Nativity....

Last Saturday our family was asked to help out with the Nativity play at our ward Christmas party. I'm the donkey if you're wondering what I'm doing just sitting there, Mer rode onto the stage on my back. Mer is Mary, Max is Joseph, and Jack was a king with his friend Jake.

For Making Gingerbread houses...

Our friends the Lewis' came over to make them with us for FHE last week. Everyone had way too much candy and Hot chocolate but loved every minute. Plus we got to visit with friends we haven't seen in a while

For Dancing...
Max danced in his Holidays Around the World concert last Friday. His class did a dance from India. It was awesome. I tried to upload a clip but after an hour and a half I gave up. Max, added "After we were done with all the songs, we had juice and cookies in our classroom. It was fun"

For Caroling...Last night we carried on the family tradition of caroling to neighbors and friends. The requirement was that everyone participate in the singing and you could have hot chocolate. Max and Jack pulled it off and proudly earned there cocoa. We sand Away in the Manger, Silent night, and We Fish you a Harry Christmoose while we were walking away. We gave out delicious Cream Cheese Pound Cake

Merry Christmas!! We are super excited for Santa and are wondering what he'll bring

The End of an Era

Doug finally gave in to his baldness and buzzed his head tonight. It is an end of an era. He asked the kids to do it for him and told them to put on clothes that could get hairy. I thought it ironic that Mer put on her big shirt with Doug's high school picture on it. A picture of Doug with a beautiful, lustrous, thick head of hair. The one that says "Sorry guys she's taken" that Micah and Laurel so lovingly made for me in college.

The kids had fun cutting Dad's hair. Even Jack took a few swipes.

What do you think?? Nice huh? I love it.

World Race day

We participated in World Race Day today. Our friend Annee in Korea organized it. Doug is training for a marathon and ran 15, Sarah ran 5 and Meredith ran 1 mile. Doug is clearly recovering from waking up early to do it. Too bad for him we woke him up as we were whispering around him. Jack to the pic. and needed a bit of instruction.

An Look Liz!! Thanks for the idea. I love it.

Its a day for Christmas Parties, We are going to Doug's work party and later tonight our family is helping put on the nativity play at our ward Christmas party. Me and Max will be Mary and Joseph. Jack's going to be a wise man even though he really wants to be Joseph

Our Thanksgiving

Okay, so since it's been over a week since thanksgiving happened I thought I better share some of our photos. We drove to Atlanta to visit Doug's family. Grandma Bev was able to join us from Utah and finally meet Luke. It was fun to see everyone. The night we came in we had dinner with Mike and Sher.

The next day was Thanksgiving.

Doug started out the day early running the Atlanta Half Marathon!! He ran it in 1:37!

We brought a banner that Max and Mer made to decorate.

Meredith set the table and made placecards and napkin rings.

Everyone helped make dinner. Check out that turkey!!

We gave thanks and had a feast.

Later we went on a walk. Mer and Max were so excited to be able to crunch in the fallen leaves, something we have few of in Florida.

Doug even got in a little skate time

Friday morning Grandpa made his puppy pancakes

We went to the mall and rode the "Pink Pig", Grandpa and Luke sat out, no babies allowed. Doug was a little humiliated that a ticket was purchased for him to sit by himself.



Later the kids played outside, raked leaves to jump in and rolled down the hill in the back yard. Brandma Bev even got in on the action and pitched a few to Max.

All said and done it was a great thanksgiving vacation!!

The car ride home was a two hours longer than expected (just like on the way up) ugh!! This was the view in the back seat as the kids watched their one movie before the laptop battery wore out.

We had tons of fun but are glad to be home getting ready for Christmas.

The Horse

Last week Jack and I read a story about a lost mitten and Jack decided he wanted a hat like the one the kid in the story was wearing. Well we found one in the dollar section at target and got one for each of the kids. Jack has wore his for practically three days straight. It's been cute to see him running around the house at all hours of the day with his new hat on.

The chill has left though now and the kids went to school again today without jackets.

Luke turned 9 months old. He has had a cough for the last couple of days, but he's doing fine. He is getting so expressive with his looks. Mer and Max saw him raise one eyebrow as he looked at them yesterday. They tried their hardest but were sad that they couldn't do it. One more reason for Mer to call him "a very educated baby". She calls him that whenever she sees him do a new "trick" or claims that the noises he makes were actual words.

He actually pulled himself up to standing a few times this weekend. It's really funny though because he'll scream out like he's hurt or sad and you go to get him and he's trying his hardest to pull himself up. Doug said he's like an olympic bodybuilder screaming out as if he's lifting some incredible amount of weight.

For the last photo...here's a glimpse of some of the kids extracurricular activities on the mattress. The game: "The Horse" The object of the game: attack the horse and try to avoid getting bitten.

Cold Snap and a Flat

Last Wednesday we were wearing Swimsuits.....

1 week and 20 degrees later....today we wore Jackets.

We are three days into a typical Florida winter cold snap (Highs of 63-still very nice tonight will be in the 30's). I'm sure it will be back to the 80's next week, no need to put away the shorts and flip flops. We met some friends at a playgroup at the park today. As we were leaving to pick up a donut on the way home, some park workers pointed out that I had a flat tire. (I thought something felt funny as I was driving there today, Good thing it didn't blow out on the highway) Thankfully, the workers had time to help me change the tire. It was a little tricky, the bolts having been freshly tightened at the shop. Also thankfully, the kids sat patiently in the car while we took care of it. We arrived at the donut shop as our friends were leaving and they were nice enough to give Jack a chocolate one to eat on the way home. This was my view as I pulled into the driveway.... a sleeping chocolatey Jack.

and a snoozing Luke

"Ahhh, peace and quiet for and hour before I get the big kids from school", I thought. Alas, I was wrong, the nap didn't take and they both woke up as I tried to transfer them in the house.

Mischief of interest: See that shiner on Luke's forehead?? Mer had pulled out a couple of mattresses to jump and do tricks yesterday. They were so proud of Luke for being able to climb on and off of them. Unfortunately, one was pushed a little close to the tile area of the kitchen and Luke face planted onto the tile floor as he was rolling off. There are not many "safety zones" in a house with four children.

Circus Time!!

Monday night we went to the circus. It was a small traveling circus that came to our town this week, in a striped "big top" tent and all. We had so much fun. Luke's eyes were glued to the show the entire first half. Everyone's were actually. I was so fun to see the wonder and awe in their eyes as they watched all the acts.

We saw acrobats, camels, motorcycles riding around inside a big sphere, camels, dog tricks, clowns...you know, your basic circus stuff. It was so cool because we were sitting only about 50 feet away from all the action and could see everything so well. Here are a few acts we saw.

This acrobat kept balancing on this thing as it spun around and around.

The elephants were one of the kids favorites.

Here are the Motorcycles

The best part of the evening for Max was when he got to buy this light up sword. He remembered them from last year and was talking about how "he wanted to buy one of those light up swords this time" with his own money. After Max got one Jack wanted to spend his birthday money on one as well. Mer got some highly desired cotton candy.

The show ended with a Human Cannonball. We were right next to the cannon. It was cool...see for yourself.

Recognitions

Highlights from our week...

This is a picture of "baby Jack" sleeping in his crib. This week we played a lot of "baby Jack", pretend train (where we build a train and ride on it), and pirates (where we of course, build a boat and act as pirates).

Thursday we had a busy day. We took a trip to the Dentist office for my teeth cleaning. Jack and Luke came with me and did very well. Luke sat on my lap and watched the whole thing and Jack sat in the corner and shied away from everyone who talked to him. Jack let the Dentist count his teeth after the dentist asked him about what he was for Halloween. After some lunch we stopped by Mer's school for an awards assembly where she was recognized for getting all A's so far this term. (Max also had an award's ceremony on Friday where he earned the RESPECT award)

Then we zoomed over to the Doctor's office to have Jack's leg looked at. He jumped off the ptop rung of the playest ladder in our back yard the day before Halloween and has been limping on and off. But no worries, he's fine. They wouldn't even xray it to check.

Luke tagged along being his cheery self.

Check out those chompers finally starting to show. If you look closely at the next pic, you'll see the bottom ones. He has 5 now. (he got a 3rd one on the top last week)


I listed the Thanksgiving banner that I made last year to sell on etsy and Lookiloos posted it on their blog of great thanksgiving decoration finds. I was excited about that. My etsy shop is called blueSusan. I've only put a couple of things on it. It's an experiment.



And lastly last night we did a fun thing the kids were looking forward to all week. We chopped up all kinds of Halloween candy and made our own ice cream like Cold Stone.

Don't worry we didn't use it all yet. See the bowl full we still have.