Twenty Winks Till Christmas

Brayden, second from the left, was in his school play last night.

He had two speaking lines.

Mystery of the Manger

In the middle is Brayden during Roscoe UMC's Christmas program, Mystery of the Manger. All the kids did a really great job.

Here's Brayden as Joseph in the play.

This is Lacey signing one of the songs.

Move over Amy

I don't like to compare myself with the Jones, but I will compare myself with Amy. On her husband Kirby's blog, Amy was praised for being such a great mother ... it truely put a lot of us mothers to shame. But here's my shout out to myself for sled riding with my kids (and walking up one of the biggest hills of my life .. four of five times). My friend Ann also gets a shout out ... she really got in there and made the first snowfall of the year special for the kids and they think she's the coolest for doing so.

So here's me with the boys in the back.

And here we are hiking the hill for the last time.

Von loved it and wanted to do it again .. and again .. and again..

We don't know what happened to his hat so we had to borrow one of the girls .. but he does like pink.

Here we are almost back to the top.

The kids wanted me and Ann to take a ride together. We were sure we wouldn't stop with all this weight.

But we hit a grassy part and did a 180 and only made it half way down the hill .... which was fine. See those trees in the back (which are actually at the bottom of another dropoff in the yard) ... that's where Ann landed each time with the kids .. in the neighbors yard.

Yes, Von is on there .. behind Ann and in front of Rolland who has his head sticking out.

Von called the sled a boat.

Here's Brittany taking Von and Brayden for a ride.

OK, so Amy sounds like a really great mom ... and I know she is ... but for someone who absolutely hates being outside, doing this for my kids really felt great!

A different Santa

After Friday nights visit with Santa at mom and dad's house ( next post ) we ran in to him while participating in the Secret Santa Shop at Triplitt's. Brayden is going to make sure he gets the two packs of Pokemon cards he wants.

Here's Brayden talking to Santa outside the Secret Santa Shop (Tammy is in the background peeking in .... no parents allowed Tammy!!!)

SMILING! I can't believe Von is smiling!

Here's Nela while waiting for Von to get done shopping.

Ho, Ho, NOOOOOO!

The kids were soooo excited to be seeing Santa Friday night at mom's and dad's house. Santa made a special visit to see how the kids were doing (and to get pictures taken). While the pictures didn't turn out too great, and while the kids (all but Brayden, Derek and Lauren) were in tears, we all had a wonderful time with Santa. Von is still talking about sitting on Santa's lap .. and it seems to be a good memory for him.

The ring

For those of you who have asked, here's a picture of my ring.
For those of you who don't know, I'm getting married next weekend! We're having a small wedding with immediate family with a church wedding to follow in two years after Kujo graduates from nursing school and I'm skinny.

Mommy's angels

Before church Wednesday night, Brayden wanted to play in the snow. They only got to play for about 10 minutes before grandma came to get Brayden, but they had fun.

Mixed emotions

First Von cried because he gets snow on his face.

Then he eats the snow.

Then he cries again because while eating more snow he got snow in his face again.

Not no!

Nela got emotional the first couple times I tried to teach her no.

At least I think that's what happened in these pictures.

OK, I don't think I was teaching her no in the high chair, maybe these pics were just ones I wanted to snap to show how cute Nela is even when she's crying.

Coloring with Santa

This was one of the cutest events I've ever taken my kids to in Roscoe. The only bad thing was we got there for the last 15 minutes or so. Santa was coloring pictures and talking to the kids. I was surprised but Von even sat beside him and talked to him. I decided not to be one of those pushy parents and shared Santa with the other kids, althought I really wanted to get a picture of him with the kids.

West Lafayette Santa Parade

It was cold but I took the kids out to enjoy the West Lafayette Santa Parade. I was really surprised that more people weren't lined along Main Street. I heard they may have been farther up by the care center.

Photographer caught

This is Ty. I caught him taking pictures at the West Lafayette Santa Parade.

He even jumped on Santa's truck.

and took pictures