It's beginning to look a lot like christmas

We've been very busy around here.  So in a lot of pictures and a few words, here's what we've been up to:

Mark started reading Harry Potter to Taylor.  In return, she reads her fairy chapter books to him.





Charlie spent last Friday with his Grandpa and the girls helped me to decorate the rest of our house for Christmas.




Taylor cheered her first game last weekend.








There weren't enough first grade coaches so she cheers on the second grade squad with her cousin, Grace.


I have not spent nearly enough time photographing the sights of Christmas, but I will work on that!


I did manage to orchestrate this photo.  I met a photographer when I was doing soccer pictures in the fall and have been following her on facebook.  When she first started promoting these Santa Mini Sessions, I hesitated.  But I decided it would be a fun, more magical experience than your typical mall santa encounter.  I spent the week prior to this brainwashing Morgan.  I'd point to images of Santa and tell her "you looove santa".  It worked.  She went right up to him and sat on his lap with no hesitation!  Unfortunately, it took a little longer for us to coax a smile out of Charlie.  Long enough for her to wonder how she got herself into this situation.  Still, I love the photo and can't wait to see the rest.


Morgan loves Mondays.  It's the one day I get to answer her request to go to school affirmatively.  Afterwards, we usually catch up on our grocery shopping.


Charlie helped me prepare sugar cookie dough so we could bake christmas cookies with his cousins.


This was his first time operating the mixer.  He seemed to enjoy the responsibility.


On Tuesday, I watched my sister's kids so she and my mom could set up the Santa Shop at Taylor's school.


Mmmm....




The rest of the week was busy with me working the Santa shop all day Tuesday and Wednesday.  I hate to say it, but I've snapped very few photos as a result.


This little guy joined our house on St. Nick night.  I had been boycotting this Hallmark tradition, but Taylor got the better of me.  She tried to tell me that magic wasn't real.  Then she said "well, if we got the elf on the shelf, and he moved on his own every night, and none of us moved him, then maybe magic is real."  That plus I heard her whisper to Santa that she wanted elf on the shelf.  So meet Elfie.


I absolutely love this time of year and will post more exciting photos soon, but for now, here's some of my littles in front of our tree.

Giving Thanks

The past ten days have been so nice.  We've been preparing for Thanksgiving.  This year, I started a new tradition- our Gratitude Garland.  We started by printing leaf outlines onto some paper.  Then I let the kids use sponges to paint them fall colors.  After they dried and were cut out, we wrote things that we were thankful for on them.  It was a lot of fun.  We left some blank so we could write in them when the gratitude struck us.  It was easy to tell who belonged to each leaf when they said things like "my ninjago box", "battleship", "photography", "Grace", and "snuggle time with mom".


Last Friday, the big kids were out of school, but Aunt Jessica still had to work so I got to entertain five children for half a day.  Luckily, I had a stash of Thanksgiving crafts ready to try.




Later that day, Charlie's aforementioned Ninjago box transformed into this.  He was quite grateful.


Morgan has been watching Sesame Street clips on the computer in the loft.  For reasons unbeknownst to me, she is a big fan of Bert.


Last Saturday Mark and I decided to treat the kids to McDonald's breakfast.


We then went to the verizon store to upgrade my phone.  I have never owned a smart phone, or anything close, so this was quite a jump for me.  I've only had it for about a week but so far I like it quite a bit.  I did tell the kids that there was a reason I hadn't bought a phone like this and to remind me if I turn into one of those people whose eyes are always on their phone.


On Sunday night, I was quite tired and Taylor said "don't worry, mom.  We only have two days of school this week and then we are off for 5 days."  It was very cute, because she did not realize that a break for her does not always equate to a break for mom.  Quite the opposite, in fact.  Still the three kids did great together for their five day weekend.


My Aunt Jan finally got me to try Pinterest and I'm glad she did.  In addition to our gratitude garland, we also made these cute little cookies that I found on the site.


Charlie had a Thanksgiving Feast at preschool which Morgan and I were able to attend.






Taylor has found a new favorite activity.  She's always enjoyed reading, but she has now reached a level that allows her to read big girl books with ease.  I can't articulate how proud and happy it makes me to see this.




Last Wednesday, Mark decided to celebrate my birthday early.  My sister and brother-in-law graciously agreed to keep all three kids overnight so we could go to dinner and a concert.  It was a wonderful night out and inspired us to reinstate our monthly date nights.  My sister and I are going to alternate months while the other keeps the kids for a sleepover.  I am very excited about this.


Finally Thanksgiving arrived.  We began by watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.


The kids enjoyed seeing some of their favorite characters, but did not make it through the whole parade before losing interest.  Maybe next year.


We started our celebration at my sister's house.  I coerced the family into one group shot upon arrival.


There was quite the spread of delicious food.


Coupled with good company.




After dinner, the girls organized a show.


The kids had prepared a short play the friday before when they were all at my house.  I was so impressed by it that I encouraged them to perform it on Thanksgiving.  It was adorable.


Then my mom and Charlie did a dance number and Morgan and I sang "If You're Thankful and You Know It".


No family talent show is complete without "Pracilla".


Finally, the girls had spent the entire day tracing everyone's handprints and numbering them.  Next came the contest of guessing who each one belonged to.


Next, we traveled to Grandpa's house to celebrate a Williams Thanksgiving, which meant more good food, good company, and this year, two baby showers, too!  I ran out of steam a bit, and did not get any photographs there.  I will do better on Christmas.

Following Thanksgiving we had three more full days with no school or work obligations.  I guess Taylor was getting a little bored, because I found Charlie dressed up like this on Friday.




For the past twenty years, the Saturday after Thanksgiving has meant one thing- my mom's craft show. Her show has grown over the years and her combination of high quality items and low prices has created quite the following.  Many people come every year, getting there as soon as the doors open, to complete their christmas shopping.  Luckily she has an army of helpers.


Finally on Sunday I got to put up my Christmas tree.  The kids were big helpers and loved seeing all of their ornaments.








Oh, and did I mention that Sunday was also my birthday?


Honestly, I feel like the luckiest mom/aunt/wife/sister/daughter on earth!