Cinderella

Poor Cinderella was bored one day, so I let her clean baseboards. She was actually very happy about doing this!

Random memories

One day during Christmas break, we got home from the library and Aaron got immersed in a book about machines. I walked throuh the living room and found him like this:



Claire loves her Squinkies that she got from Uncle Andy for Christmas. If you can't tell from this picture, she shares a room (and toys) with her older brother.

Claire reading Green Eggs and Ham

Let me take a moment here to just gush over my middle child.  We were always so amazed by how smart Aaron is, how early he read, learned math, etc.  But Claire is learning these things even earlier!  I honestly think it's because she's watching Aaron, and she figures whatever he can do, she can do (better!). 

She is an amazing reader.  At 4 1/2, she's been reading for several months, and she's moving to level 2 books right now.  She can just fly through the level 1 books, hardly stumbling at all.  She loves to read, and the library is one of her favorite places to go.  We get literally 40 or so books at a time. 

She also loves to listen to audio books.  I have heard this helps make better readers, and I believe it.  She loves to listen to Junie B. Jones and Magic Tree House books.  She listens for literally hours almost every day.  She retreats to her room, puts on an audio book on her CD player, and plays back there for hours if we don't have any place to be.  It's quite amazing.  (We get the audio books at the library, too!)

Green Eggs and Ham is one of her favorite books, and it is one we own.  I wanted to remember her sweet reading voice so I videoed it tonight (forgetting how LONG that book is!).  At first she didn't know I was videoing, or if she did she didn't let on, but then once she knew the camera was there she was excited.  As soon as she was finished, she said, "Now I want to watch the video."  Sweet girl.  :-)

Now, if you have the patience, you can watch almost 10 minutes of Green Eggs and Ham.  It'll be about the cutest 10 minutes you'll spend today.

Gingerbread houses and Santa!

Making our gingerbread house...




Then on to the Enchanted Forest with good friends! We go every year to see Santa there, because I always get a great picture and it's just good fun. We all piled in my van and had a blast!  Conner, Sydney, and Aaron in the way back...


Claire and Hannah in the middle, and me and Stacy up front, trying to have grown-up talk while ignoring the noise in the rear!










We got to see how gingerbread houses are REALLY done!


The train is a crowd favorite.


Hannah loved this little white bridge. If I let her out of her stroller she would run like mad over to the bridge. Once I even lost her for a minute and found her over at the bridge!




Loved this gingerbread "church".  I think it's supposed to be Bellevue.


The kids with Santa...real picture to follow. It was a GREAT Santa pic!


Aaron had taken his list but Claire never finished hers so she didn't bring it. That morning Aaron put "Wii" at the top of his list. He had never mentioned getting one prior to that morning, and I was shocked he even thought to ask for it! Thankfully, Santa already knew he would love one and had already bought it!



After the Enchanted Forest we went to a fun yogurt bar for dessert. It was so fun hanging out with our friends!

Christmas Programs

Claire and Aaron had little Christmas programs at church one Sunday night. Claire's little choir, led by me and the other Little Kids Time Workers, sang Away in a Manger and Joy to the World.

Claire looked beautiful in her pretty new dress and braids!


Aaron had fallen at Kohl's the day before and got a HUGE cut and bump on his head, hence the band-aid...


My pictures during the program are not great because I gave my camera to a middle-schooler since I was directing and couldn't take pictures. I should have specified which child to photograph since very few of the pictures even included Claire. Ha!


Aaron's choir sang a few little songs, but I don't remember what they were!


Later in the month Claire and Hannah had their program at Mother's Day Out. How cute is Hannah with her little class?


I labeled Claire for you...


Singing Twinkle Twinkle...


And Jingle Bells!


They were all so cute!

Nativity playtime

We interrupt this bloggie catch-up time to bring you some late breaking action!

Tonight we got out our Christmas decorations.  One of our most treasured items is the crocheted nativity set that Mammaw Taylor made for us. 

Just before bedtime, Claire retreated over to the nativity and started playing quietly.  Chris motioned for me to listen, and I started watching her play.  She was completely unaware that we were listening, and after several minutes I finally got out the video camera. 

When I started watching, she had all the characters lined up, taking turns looking at baby Jesus in his cradle, and saying "Awww, look how cute" and other such sentiments.  Then the characters started taking turns holding Jesus, and the little shepherd boy got in trouble for almost dropping the baby. 

That's where the video starts!  The angel flies Mary to the scene and she gives the shepherd boy a stern warning about never picking up a baby.  I captured over 8 minutes of video as the play unfolded, and there are some really funny parts!  I hope you can hear it well, as Claire had some really funny things to say.  I was filming over the back of the couch and she never knew I was there!

One of my favorite parts is about 2/3 in when the kings were about to hold the baby and the shepherd boy was really wanting to.  His sheep went over to ask to hold the baby, and Joseph told him no.  The shepherd boy said, "Aww, Beary. I don't get to hold him either!"  (That sheep does kinda look like a polar bear, doesn't it?)

Enjoy these few moments of total sweetness!  (You may want to view it at YouTube...on my screen the video is chopped off on the right and I'm not sure how to fix that!)

Saying goodbye...

Claire's best friend Alli Rae had to move four hours away, and it was a very sad time for us. Well, for me at least. Claire doesn't fully grasp how little she will get to see her friend...she is just excited about going to see Alli Rae on vacation!

Before she left, we had to have one last sleepover.




Lunch the next day...


Some friends of Angie's (me included!) hosted a going away reception for Angie at the church.


The kids got to play in the gym during the party. How sweet is this little picture?




And just days before the big move, I took Alli Rae and Claire for a girls' morning at the mall. We went to the Claire's store and bought the girls best friends necklaces and bracelets, then had lunch at Cheeburger.




They found a RAINBOW BUTTERFLY necklace! Perfect for these girly-girls!


Playing in the store...


Early shoppers!










Close-ups of their necklaces...


One final goodbye the night before the move...


We miss you Angie, Alli Rae, and Augie!!!

"Tea" Party

These pictures are just precious and speak for themselves!






Hannah doing the sign for "water".