Christmas Is Here!

We have so many different Christmas traditions up here, I don't know what we'll do when we are gone. This past weekend was full of fun festivities.

First, Thursday afternoon the kids had me pull out their little Christmas tree and they decorated it with Bianca and Mateus' help.

Then, Saturday morning we went up to the mall to have breakfast with Santa Clause. Radio Disney was there and Chick Fil A gave away free chicken biscuits and juice and coffee. Mia had a ton of fun dancing and playing all the games the Radio Disney people organized and Lennon mostly hung out at our table with Shelby laughing and coloring and blowing bubbles from his goody bag from the event. I somehow didn't manage to get a picture of the kids with Santa when he passed by, but I did get one of them with the Chick Fil A cow in his Santa suit. Also, Lennon informed us that HIS cow always wears a Santa suit, so that may have actually been his cow.

Mia won several little prizes. Three of which were identical posters from the new movie Tangled. She also volunteered me for an air guitar contest, which I can tell you at 8 o'clock in the morning in front of a bunch of strangers at the mall was not the most awesome thing I've ever done. I didn't even win.

Lennon and Shelby goofing off at the table.

The kids with the cow. Lennon ran up to him and hugged him ever time he saw him. As we were leaving the mall it snowed just a little. Enough that the kids were super excited and Lennon was trying to catch snowflakes on his tongue.

When we got home from the mall, Shelby and Lennon headed out to the next town over for an event called Home for the Holidays where local businesses were giving out goodies and having pony "reindeer" rides and a trolley ride around the city. They had a blast and even got to see Santa who gave Lennon a lollipop. Lennon "I don't know why Santa thought I would want a lollipop. But I hid it where no one will find it and I'm going to sneak like Swiper and eat it later." We also have an advent calendar that our kids get a new note or treat or something each morning. Their coupon saturday morning was to get to choose their own snacks all day long. Lennon chose what to pack for his little outing with Daddy, carrots, an apple, grapes, a fruit leather and a juice box. Shelby said after each bite of his fruit leather he insisted on eating a carrot to make sure he was healthy. We have considered making every day choose your own snack day if this is how the kids will handle it.

Having a snack and waiting to load the trolley.

Riding the "reindeer"

Saturday night we had a Polar Express viewing at our house for our kids, Mateus and Bianca in preparation for our ride on the Polar Express the next morning.

They couldn't be much cuter all snuggled together in their Christmas pajamas. Bianca is actually wearing Mia's old Christmas nightgown.

Sunday morning we got up and went out to buy our tree. We didn't cut it down this year because all the farms were just too expensive. We ended up with a really nice tree though and it was sooo cold on Sunday that I'm kind of glad we weren't out there in the cold wind trying to find that perfect tree. We came home put it up and got to work decorating it.

Mia had fun pulling out all the ornaments and choosing where to put them on the tree. This has been one of her favorites for years. We've actually been through about 4 or 5 of these things cause they seem to get broken by any child who touches it. This one has lasted now a year or two and we've told Mia, no more, so if this one breaks it's gone.

I agreed to help Mia put the angel on the tree and then Lennon freaked out. He's never cared at all before so I just wasn't thinking. We decided we'd have to start keeping track and doing every other year for them from now on. He had a total break down though and it was really sad so we came up with a compromise to let him put a star way up toward the top.

Here he's reaching as high as he can to put his star on the tree.

We thought this was a pretty cool action shot. I'm dumping him backwards off my shoulders.

After lunch Sunday afternoon, we headed out to Melrose to board the Polar Express. This was the fourth year we've done this and it's always a big hit with the kids. We've also always gone with The Lima's. The train departs and the total trip is about an hour. During the ride they read the story The Polar Express, play Christmas songs, serve milk and cookies, give out goodie bags and coloring books and Santa, reindeer, elves and several random other characters walk through and wave to the kids. At the end each child gets a bell "from Santa's sleigh."

Lennon gave each character who walked by a giant hug with a huge smile and several high fives.

It's almost impossible to get all four kids smiling at once. I thought this one was pretty good even though Mateus looks like he's snuggling up to have a nap with Santa.

Mateus and Lennon have been playing really well together lately.

Giving high five's to Rudolph.

Mateus trying to get his candy cane in his mouth and his nose at the same time. Awesome!

Enjoying the scenery.

Thanks for the jammies Papa and Nana!

The Lima's

Yadda Yadda Yadda

There is about to be lots of words and no pictures, so reader beware.

Lennon said to me tonight: Mommy, what is "one two?"

Me: Huh?

Lennon: What is "one two?"

Me: Well...one and two are numbers buddy.

Lennon: No, like "you look like a monkey, and you smell like 'one two'"

Laugh, pause.

Lennon: And Mommy, what is dazoo?

Me: Dazoo? ...(then catching on) You mean "the zoo?"

Lennon: No, I mean "you live in dazoo."

The other morning I pointed out two little cuts on Lennon. He wanted a very explicit explanation of what exactly a cut was. So, I guess I told him something like it was a tiny little hole, but that it was all healed up once it stopped bleeding. He suddenly got very serious and asked me, "Mommy, does that mean I'm dying?" I'm not sure what made him come to that conclusion. We certainly don't talk a lot about dying around here. He's a strange little man.

He's really into space shuttles and rockets and everything involved with space travel right now. When he plays with his toys that he is pretending are rockets blasting off he says things like, "Countdown, 3, 2, 1...countdown to discovery blastoff! Neeeeeerrrrrrrrrr Pshhhoooooo!" And then flies around the kitchen which is where he normally is running around underfoot.

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Mia may have strep throat. My throat has been bothering me for what seems like two weeks now, but just slightly, in the morning and at night and stuff. Mia started complaining of hers hurting a couple of days ago and when I looked in her throat this morning and saw big white patches on her tonsils I called the doc. The rapid test came back negative, but the doc (who was not our usual doc) said she thought it was most likely strep. She suggested we treat for strep even before getting the more official test results back. Luckily for us, Jackson is now going to an awesome doc in Dallas who promotes natural remedies to his patients. Jackson also recently had strep, so we knew exactly what to get. We went by Whole Foods to get all the stuff and I figure if she doesn't start feeling much better pretty soon we can always go ahead and do the antibiotics then. She hasn't had a fever at all and she's not been slowed down much either. At night she seems to be a little uncomfortable, but she's been eating normally and up for playing about as much as usual, so if it is strep, it's a very mild case.

Mia just finished her report on Frederic Chopin, but wants to make it look a little more official or something before we call it complete. At school last year when they did reports they attached them to a colorful piece of construction paper and pasted a picture or something on there with the report. As soon as it's all put together I'll see about scanning in it, or more likely, have Shelby see about scanning it in.

Mia thought it was a riot today and asked that I put it on the blog, that after we went to Whole Foods to get all her meds Lennon was asking if he could please just have one "pr0duct." It took me a while to figure out that he was meaning probiotics.

Mia is reading so much and I love it. Some nights instead of reading to her, she and I just snuggle up in my bed and we each read our own book for half an hour or so. We both love it, and I think Shelby loves the peace and quiet he gets to himself downstairs while we're all upstairs too. She finished the first Harry Potter book and is about a hundred pages into the second. Oh, plus she got ahold of the third before she got the second so she read the first hundred or so pages of that before starting on the second. A couple of nights ago when we were reading together I noticed that she was turning pages at a higher pace than I was. When I told Shelby this story she was so sweet. She looked at me and said, "Well, there might have been some harder words in your book." She's always looking out for everyone's feelings.

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What Would You Do For A Googleplex Dollars?

For some reason we got on this topic in the car the other night. The kids would come up with ridiculous scenarios and ask us if we would do the mentioned horrible thing for "a googleplex dollars." Of course, we pretty much said yes to everything, but the conversation went downhill fast. At one point Mia asked if I would stick my head in a toilet filled with no water and just really runny diarrhea that was poisonous and would make me have the runs for the rest of my life...for a googleplex dollars. To that, I had to say no.

Baby Theo

My friend Sue (aka Anderson's mom) just had her baby about 6 or so weeks ago now. We have seen him a few times already and even got to keep him for a couple of hours last week while Papa and Nana were here. Of course, Nana held him the whole time. This photo below was taken a few weeks back when Mia was holding him at Sue's house. He just laid there and stared at Mia for what seemed like an eternity. It was so precious. He's such a cutie. He looks just like Anderson and is a very sweet, easy baby so far.

Random Fall Pics

Just one of our many tea parties. This one was held in costume.

A friend of Dusty's sent us a bunch of her kids outgrown Halloween stuff. The kids had a blast dressing up in it and running around the house.

Mia especially liked the many weapons.

Lennon made an apple tree

Working hard wtih paste

Mia saved up $26 and some change to send to St. Jude's. This is the letter she included.

He's so big.

Mia and Miranda made beds in this bush with blankets. It was much cooler in person, but I think you can still tell from the picture that they are up off the ground.

Okay, so this one is probably more like super late summer than fall exactly, but I still hadn't posted it and it was too funny. Quite the look I thought.

We went to Old Sturbridge Village for their home school day and had a blast. Here the kids are playing some old fashioned game with Shelby where you try to keep the wooden ring rolling by whacking it with a stick. It was actually really hard.

In front of an old farm house. There are actors there actually tending the farm and the house all day long. They make cheese, milk the cows, cook both breakfast and lunch and are around to talk with you and answer questions.

Mia took a cooking class and they used this tin reflecting oven to bake the cookies. It was pretty cool.

Here she is putting in her designated ingredient.

Granmommy and Grandaddy's Visit

A few weeks back Granmommy and Grandaddy got to come for a short visit. Almost every morning we met them up at their hotel to take advantage of the free breakfast in the lobby. The kids love getting to choose what they want to eat from all the different options. Their hotel also has an indoor heated swimming pool, so we got to extend the summer by a couple of days.

Their flight got in kind of late Wednesday night so they went straight to their hotel. We met them for breakfast the next morning and then went for a swim. Grandaddy had an appointment so he headed out and the rest of us came back to our house for Lennon's nap. Friday morning after breakfast we went out to Concord. There is so much history there that we had to just choose a few different places we were the most interested in seeing. All in all, we loved Concord. It is such a beautiful town with so much history. We toured Louisa May Alcotts house, saw Walden Pond and a replica of the cabin Henry David Thoreau built for himself and lived in for two years, visited The Sleepy Hollow Cemetery and The North Bridge (the site of the first battle of the Revolution.) Saturday after Mia's ballet class we went up to New Hampshire to check out a mini van. It didn't work out, but we did get a yummy lunch at Cracker Barrel out of the trip. Sunday we went into Boston for the morning and most of the afternoon before taking Granmommy and Grandaddy to the airport. It was a fun, but too fast visit. Luckily, we get to see them again in just a couple of weeks.

Lennon and Granmommy walking back from the North Bridge. I think he was asking her to "talk more about DisneyWorld" his current obsession

The North Bridge in the background

Mia instructed Lennon to yell "FREEDOM" as I took this picture in front of the North Bridge monument

This was taking seconds before an evil Chipmunk attacked Granmommy by throwing a very sharp acorn at the top of her head. She screamed so loud that Grandaddy thought she had been shot. A few minutes later a park ranger walked by and said "Acorn attack, huh?" I guess she wasn't the first victim of this kind of violent act.

At The Alcott house

Our last day of their visit we went into Boston after breakfast and did a Duck Tour. Afterwards we had breakfast on in the Back Bay at a little cafe called Stephanie's on Newbury. We spent a while walking through a park on Commonwealth Ave and finished the day off with some ice cream at Ben & Jerry's.

Lennon trying ice cream with sugar in it for the first time.

The food at Stephanie's was super yummy. The kids shared a fancy grilled cheese with three different kinds of cheese, tomato and avacado.

We walked through the Boston Public Gardens. The swan boats were gone for the year, but everything was still very colorful and we lucked into pretty great weather the whole weekend pretty much.

Lennon took a turn driving the duck boat

Mia actually got to steer the boat under a bridge. Every duck tour is different and on this one in particular we learned that the man who designed the original duck boats was a designer with the last name of...Francis!

This is the Boston County Jail house. Can you believe that? What a view right?

Waiting for the tour to take off. We had trouble finding parking, so Grandaddy and Shelby had to practically run from the parked cars to the duck boat to not miss the "launch." Good thing they are both in pretty good shape.