A good Christmas tradition gone bad

So for the past three or four years we have had the Christmas tradition of going to the tree farm and cutting our own tree. So we went late this afternoon since the kids were still out for Thanksgiving break.



But we just couldn't find a tree!!! We were looking for a tall,skinny tree to go in the living room in the corner in between the two couches. It was getting dark and the kids were "all done". Micah picked up this pittiful little tree that he found laying on the side of the road and said " can't we just take this one home? It's tall and skinny." (and also see through)



We went inside for hot chocolate while Aaron continued looking for "the perfect tree"



We looked and looked and could not find a tree. So we left... All three kids bawling and I was so mad that I couldn't even talk. We were all so disappointed. As we exited from the interstate Aaron said "Hey doesn't Home Depot have Christmas trees?" I said I think so but tell the kids that we are not sure. ( I could not stand anymore tears of disappointment) So we go in and in under a minute we found the perfect tree!! At least the story has a happy ending.



Thank God for Home Depot!!

So much for Cyber Monday

Since my Black Friday shopping was hindered by a brief illness this weekend, I decided to make up for lost time on Cyber Monday. In my pajamas and armed with my laptop, credit card, and a large cup of coffee, I set off into cyberspace. (Do people even use that word anymore?) I spent much of the cold, wet morning looking for deals online and made zero purchases. I was only looking for a few specific things and was overall unimpressed with the deals. That was disappointing because my Christmas list is still rather long!

I put off the Christmas shopping for another day because I still needed to get groceries and new shoes for Nathan. Hoping to avoid a trip to the mall, we headed for the New Balance store that is about 5 minutes from our house. We got his feet measured (he's up to a 2 ½!!), and he quickly found a pair that he liked. As I was going to pay, I saw a sign near the register that read: "Buy $100 gift card and get $25 gift card free". Since 3/4 of our family could use new tennis shoes, I asked about getting the $100 card and using it today. This guy rudely told me that I could use the $25 card today but the $100 card wasn't good until January. Huh? Isn't that backwards from the way these promotions usually work? Whatever. We had new shoes without a trip to the mall. I made my one purchase of the day - no gift cards or cyber deals involved - and was on my way home.

This one is for you big sis....

So today Racheal is sick so I took her kids to Mom and Dads house. Their neighbor brought their pony down for the kids to ride and I took pictures and am going to attempt to put them on the blog with my iPhone......we will see if it works........







Ashley and Lily waiting thier turn!




Two cowgirls!




Go Vikings! These were mine and Racheals cheer leading costumes when we were little.

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Girls' Day Out / Boys' Day Out

On Wednesday before Thanksgiving Eve dinner, we divided up by gender for a Girls' Day Out/Boys' Day Out. Renee, Amanda, Mandi and I took the girls to see the new Disney movie "Tangled" which we gave mixed reviews. (Sorry, no pics). Jeff, Aaron, Josh, and Jonathan took the boys rock climbing. Other than one injury - Micah, of course - they had a great time!

TGE10 - Random Pics

Photo Shoot

Mom tries to get a yearly picture of all (or at least most) of us together for her Christmas card. This year, we messed around until it was almost dark and then tried to squeeze in a group photo. Jeff had not arrived yet when we started, so we took one without him and one with Jonathan as a stand-in. Jeff literally ran and jumped into the final shot. It's far from perfect, but through the magic of digital photography, everyone has their eyes open and is looking in the general vicinity of the camera.

Take 1:

Take 2:

Take 3: (see above)

Other pics from the photo shoot:

Brandon and Mikayla

Papa and Fisch

The Adams Family

The J. Johnson Family

Dance Party!

Everyone came over to our house on Tuesday night. After some pizza and Wii, the kids begged Jeff to let them have a Freeze Dance Competition. He started this with them a few visits ago, and now it's become a new thing. Jeff is always the DJ, and he really mixes it up with everything from old country classics to Usher. Here are some pics of them all practicing the tango. I'm sure there's a joke in there about coming to Arkansas and dancing with your cousins, but for now, it's cute.

Happy Reunion

Our entire family was home for Thanksgiving this year! We think the last time we were all together was Christmas 2008. I'm not sure though. I'll have to look back at old blog posts to verify that. The Johnson and Stacy families both rolled in on Monday afternoon. They drove a combined 35 hours and 2000+ miles to be here. Impressive, don't you think? And that's just one way!

We all gathered at Mom and Dad's on Monday night for dinner and to make up for lost time. Since all of the boys had recently celebrated their birthdays, we started by exchanging a few belated gifts. Nathan got one of these Star Wars blasters for his birthday, so I bought 3 more for the other boys. It was on! Foam darts were flying everywhere!

The girls immediately got into the dress up clothes. I got them to stop bouncing on the trampoline long enough for a quick pic. Mikayla is so glad that the little girls are both finally big enough to play with.

After dinner, Mom let everyone open their Christmas stockings. It was a fun surprise. Birthdays and Christmas all in the same day!

Is this how you do it?

Will you take a dollar for this?

I don't usually get attached to things. "Gifts" are definitely not my love language. However, I parted with a few beloved items in today's garage sale. First was my Sit-N-Stand double stroller (which I nicknamed "The Dub"). It was one of the last baby items I had left. Getting it was sort of a rite of passage in becoming a mother of two. Even when I just had Nathan, I was very much pro stroller. When we expanded the brood, I found it to be a necessity. It's in good hands though. Stephanie will be using The Dub for Piper and their latest addition Paige.

Another beloved item we sold was the Buzz Lightyear costume. Nathan and Will both dressed as Buzz for Halloween 2006 (I think). Many kids have spent happy hours playing in that costume, but even Micah has outgrown it. I hope that some other little boy will enjoy it as much as our boys did.

Much of the other stuff that we got rid of was pure junk. It is AMAZING what people will buy. Audry and I joked about some of the things that we were selling, and some of them were the first to go!

Nathan set-up a doughnut and hot chocolate stand this morning. Who could resist a doughnut and cup of cocoa from this kid?

He was eager to get up and start selling this morning. He drew pictures of his items on the sign along with this text: "Doghnuts + Hot Choco 75¢ each : ) Yum!"

What A Bunch of Characters!

Anyone who knows my kids well knows how much they LOVE to wear costumes! Seriously, they wear some costume (or more often, pieces from several different costumes) at some point every day. Well, today was "Book Character" day at their school. Nathan wanted to be "Nate the Great", so he and I have been working on his costume for over a week. If you are not familiar with "Nate the Great", he is the main character in a children's book series. He is a detective, has a dog named Sludge, and eats pancakes for every meal.

Nathan's first grade teacher got him started on these books to open the door to fiction books for him. If he is left to choose on his own, 90% of the time, it will be non-fiction. He wanted to get every detail just right; he even wanted the lettering on the back of his jacket to be in the same font! To prepare for the role, he had pancakes last night for dinner and again this morning. Yes, I know it's going a little overboard, but any excuse to eat pancakes is fine with me!

The hard work and attention to detail paid off. Nathan won 1st Place in the 2nd Grade contest! Ashley's teacher decided that they would have a theme for Book Character Day. The teachers were the Cats in the Hats and the kids were Thing 1, Thing 2,...up to Thing 20. They were numbered in alphabetical order, so of course A.A. was Thing 1. They were so cute!

The only official prizes were for individuals, but since Ms. Jefferson's class looked so adorable, they got a special prize for "Class Participation" and got to march first in the parade.

It was a really fun day at school. Most of the faculty and staff were into it as much as the kids! One PreK teacher did not dress up, and she whispered to me, "Note to self: Book Character Day is a big deal here." I bet she dresses up next year!

Principal and other staff as the Wizard of Oz characters.

I loved the "Yellow Brick Road".

Fancy Day

Ashley's PreK class studied the letter "Ff" this week, so yesterday was proclaimed as "Fancy Day". They were supposed to dress up in fancy clothes and were then escorted by the boys to the Dining Room and announced to the crowd. Afterward, they enjoyed a fancy snack of finger sandwiches, fruit, and fruit punch.

Oddly, it was hard for us to come up with something to wear for Fancy Day. Ashley, by her own choice, dresses up more than a lot of the other kids most days, but it's not "fancy" - jean skirts, knit dresses, etc. They were not allowed to wear princess dresses, so those were out. I still have her flower girl dress, but I thought that would be a little excessive. So I just put her hair up in a bun, and she wore a petticoat skirt, strappy sandals, and a BUNCH of necklaces. She looked very cute, but maybe a little bit like Cyndi Lauper. We just needed a side ponytail instead of the bun.

I thought it was especially funny that she had to dress up just after I posted this picture and caption on Facebook:

I'm under attack! Quote from my four-year-old baby girl: "Surrender or die!" This from the same girl who only wants to wear dresses and skirts! :o)

Happy Halloween!

We wrapped up our busy weekend with trunk-or-treating at church with Jenna S. (the cute cupcake above). Ashley was an adorable Sleeping Beauty. And for the 3rd year in a row, Nathan was a Star Wars character. This time, he was Jango Fett.

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BTW, thanks to my brother-in-law for posting this picture of his kids in costume on Facebook. Micah was also Jango Fett, but he had the deluxe costume which Nathan noticed right away.

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We met up with the Krebs Family at the Fall Festival. I tried unsuccessfully to get a cute picture of all 6 kids:

Ashley also ran into her good friend Brooke from school, and they posed for a quick pic.

This was the first year since we've been at Fellowship that they've done anything for Halloween. The older people hosted it and did a fantastic job. They were as excited as the kids, and some of the booths were amazing!

Nathan with his former Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Cooper, who helped with the Cupcake Walk. (Notice the the cute apron.) We trick-or-treated at a few houses on our street on the way home and called it a night!