Husband Points

I'm going to tell you right up front--I'm bragging on my husband. Fair warning.

I think he has heard me say the last couple days that I'm trying to do too much. I got this idea in my head that I wanted to bake a whole bunch of cookies for gifts and those gifts are to be given this week because of various events.

Jeremy provides for us every day and in the evening he is home and involved. But tonight he went over the top just for me.

Josiah and I went grocery shopping. Josiah was due for some Mommy time. I had made 2 batches of cookies, helped my Gramma do online ordering, done laundry and had school finished before supper. When I left for the grocery store the supper dishes were in the sink, laundry was still in process and I had one more batch of cookies that I wanted to make tonight.

When I got home I immediately thanked Jeremy for washing the dishes. Then I realized that he swept and mopped the kitchen and dining room. And then I realized that the laundry was folded, taken upstairs and put away! AND then I realized that while I was baking that last batch of cookies he was upstairs picking up toys!

Wow! What a great guy! I got everything done I hoped to today and more. Thanks only to Jeremy pitching in without being asked.

I just fell in love with him again. =)

Stone Soup

 Over the last 3 days Aliza has read a play of Stone Soup in her reading lessons. It was only fitting to have stone soup for supper tonight. I've been hearing from others, who were traditionally educated, that they also made stone soup in first grade. That makes me feel like we are right on target!

Now Aliza has very literal interpretation of projects so there was no skipping the stone. She and Anna gathered up three stones. I told her they had to be big stones--not gravel out of the driveway!

It was Josiah that helped me with the preparation. We scrubbed the stones.

Just the proof that, in fact, I did cook soup with stones in the bottom of the pot.

 Josiah cut 3 potatoes into bite sized pieces. It was hard work. He had to really stick with it! I LOVE the pampered chef safe cutter. That is a worthwhile purchase for any child that desperately wants to help in the kitchen.

 Our stone soup and hot buns as dictated by the story!

Decorating

 I'm pretty sure we decorated in record time tonight. Aliza and Josiah knew what we were doing and they were sure excited to DO it!

Anna promptly started singing Happy Birthday when she saw the lights. She will be the one rearranging decorations this year. She was busy!

 Josiah grabbed all of the nativity characters and stock piled them beside him. This did not make Aliza happy. He was also very excited to put his dump truck decoration (from Chrissy) on the tree.

 Aliza was so excited she could not contain herself...literally. I hope that she pursues some sort of supervisory position some day. She'd like to manage our house hold at this point in her life!! =)

 She determined which decorations were hers and put them in a lovely clump in the middle of the tree.

 It's all good. Christmas is most beautiful through the eyes of children.

The tree got decorated so quickly because our traditional Christmas Kisses were waiting and they could hardly wait to get their hands on them. In fact, I had them up high and Josiah came out carrying the tray. No fancy presentation. They didn't care! We all love these treats and enjoyed them while watching a Charlie Brown Christmas movie.

 During the movie, Anna was getting tired to the point that the only thing she wanted to do was jump from the chair onto the couch. I took her up to bed and tucked her in. When the movie was over we head her calling for Daddy and quickly realized the sound was coming from the top of the steps not from her room. Yup. She figured out how to climb out of the crib. There's a video on facebook. I'm not ready for her to be unconfined in a big bed!

Amazing Things

It is December and we have had picnic lunches 2 days in a row! The reprieve we get here and there from stay inside weather makes me so happy.

Anna is using the potty! This is truly amazing to me. I do not have a good potty training record. I have not had a child initiate potty training. Maybe the third time really is the charm. I don't know. But I bought pull-ups tonight. I had no intention of potty training one week after her 2nd birthday, but it looks like the training has begun.

That's all I wanted to say!! =)

West Virginia Fun

 My grandparents were so kind (and brave) to let us use their minivan to travel to WV over Thanksgiving. We fit, sortof, in our Accord, but that would have been a looong trip! We figured out what a cassette tape deck is good for--as long as you have a small iphone case.

Karen worked Thursday night so we spent some time at Joel and Brandi's house on Friday so she could sleep. It was so fun to see their new house. They commented that it was the most their whole house had been used at one time. Haha. There is no containing our family in one room! Brandi got some cuddles from Anna.

 There was a day of warmish weather. Josiah spent some time outside. He drew roads with chalk on the driveway.

 He played hopscotch. He also tried out skateboarding! And he helped Grandma trim some bushes.

 Aliza gave Grandma a narrated tour of the American Girl catalog.

 Anna started calling Joel "man" while we were at their house. She called him all the time. "Man, come." "Man, sit." "Where Man?" And as soon as she woke up she was calling for "Man" and saying "Hi Man."

 Brandi and I had our first ever chance for sister time. It did my heart good to have a hot drink and a long talk. We got to walk around a few stores which was fun too!

 The ipad. I was ready to throw that thing out the window. Anna was constantly asking for the "ah pahd." If Anna didn't have it, Aliza did.

 Aliza was obsessed with a My Little Pony game where you set up a city and then take care of it to earn coins to buy more things to build up the city. The game occurs in real time so it is slooow. She explained that game in detail to Brandi (who patiently listened and even asked intelligent questions). Jeremy finally hacked the game to speed up the process.

Grandpa said our visit was too short. We'll visit again soon!

Thankful

 30 things I'm thankful for...off the top of my head:

 1. The view from my seat at the Sheats family Thanksgiving table. I'm thankful for every person around that table and all the little ones who had already run off to play.

 

2. My 3 children

3. Car insurance. Our minivan is not totaled. The 3 littles ones who are crammed in the back of our Accord can't want for it to be fixed!

4. Jeremy. I can't think of an adequate way to put into words how thankful I am for him so I'll just leave it at that!

5. That moment when I was loading the dishwasher way back in 1999 and I turned around and my eyes met Jeremy's and I knew he wasn't just a "friend." 

6. My Heslop family. I love them and would not be complete without them.

7. Educating at home. It is a privilege and responsibility I do not take lightly.

8. Grocery shopping in the evening--alone.

9. Texting. It was invented for Mom's--I'm convinced.

10. My voice. It was 8 years ago that I did not have a voice and did not know if I would ever have a voice again.

11. In that same vein, I'm so thankful for synthetic thryoid!

12. Scrapbook Saturdays!!!

13. Loyal and long lasting friendships

14. Getting to take my Gramma to do her Christmas shopping

(This is getting hard...and it's getting late!)
15. It's still safe to burn a candle on the stove. That makes me happy.

16. Books. In this phase of my life reading makes me feel intelligent. lol.

17. That I am becoming increasingly confident and secure in who I am

18. I have friends who are completely different than me. That makes my life so much richer.

19. The many ministries and organizations that my helped to shape my faith today.

20. I have 3 living grandparents. What a privilege!

21. I'm thankful that I figured out (quite a while ago) that my Dad and Mom are the smartest people on the planet!

22. My children sleep every night. Thank you God!!!

23. And I smile every morning when I see them--an even bigger miracle!

24.Hugs and kisses and cuddles and reading books

25. AND "patience development" (for me)

26. My little sister is going out with a guy who is a goldsmith. He can expand my wedding set that I have not been able to wear since I was pregnant with Anna!! So excited!

The top of my head has become the bottom of my brain. I can't think of another remotely interesting thing! So we'll leave it at 26. Good night!

Celebrating Anna

Anna's birthday was on Thanksgiving Day this year. I decided not to have a formal party, but just celebrate at our Thanksgiving dinners. It was easy for me and Jeremy's family didn't have to travel. We took the party to them!

Anna got to open her present from Mommy and Daddy in the morning before we left for Grandma and Grandpa's house.

Grandma made a yummy butterfinger ice cream sandwich cake. Uncle Josh was on skype to sing Happy Birthday and Anna was a pro at blowing out candles.

She got books and a dolls. She promptly undressed the doll.

Finally we celebrated Anna with my family on Sunday. Aliza was the designated helper. She brought Anna's gifts to her. I believe Josiah was too busy with Legos to even notice that Anna was opening presents. Anna got her sleeping bag from Grandma and Grandad, but was not at all sure about the puppy face looking at her. She finally petted the face, but she was not laying in the sleeping bag. Aliza laid down saying, "I'll give Anna an example."

It wasn't much of a theme birthday party, but I bought Little Golden Book plates and napkins. The cake was in the shape of a book and I gave each of the children a Little Golden Book as a favor. Anna does love books!

Hugs from Aliza.

A hug and a kiss from Josiah.

Anna is such a happy little girl. She is friendly and charming and independent and curious and can still make the biggest messes I've ever seen! It seemed like her vocabulary doubled this weekend. Tonight while we watched a Christmas parade we heard her saying Merry Christmas. I'm so so so happy that she is still a cuddlebug.