It's not you, it's me....

There is no good reason for me not blogging other than I haven't seen my camera since the Virginia trip. We are pretty sure Charlie squirreled it away somewhere like he does most things. I can't blog without pics- I can't record my life without the camera- it's tough stuff. I hope we can find it. We've had the best advent- lots of reading stories, baking, working puzzles, going to the park, advent wreath, Jesse tree, holy hour, etc.  This is the time of year I LOVE LOVE LOVE homeschooling and having my chicks under my wings.   All this fun is how it goes when I make myself get the shopping done early.   (I also want to plug as I do every year that we love Classical Kids Christmas- and we listened to it many times up and back to Virginia).

We had our 3rd annual huge Christmas party (advent party technically)- and it was AWESOME! No pictures- but it was beautiful- we put the downstairs bar on the side porch and it became another room- mainly the men hung out there where the beer was served. We had around 60 guests and had wonderful carol singing and a skit/reading with five women. I leave you with our Christmas card photo shoot- it would have been great but for the fussy baby who woke up too early from his nap and wouldn't cooperate. :)



Cute, right?  Where's the baby?!



I really almost used this picture and called it "Keeping it real this Christmas"-   :)






Maybe he'll do better outside....







Okay- sit down and see it we can get it that way-



WORK WITH ME, babies!!!!





Oh- now you are smiling, but you are blocking Marky!  :)



What we used-

















Those are very kissable cheeks Charliebear!


Next year I will do better.  :)

We stay busy

I have so much to blog about- we took a trip to Virginia and Pigeon Forge, Tn, last week.  So much fun- had a great time- but Charlie brought back with him a double ear infection.  I picked him up from Moms Day Out and he didn't even make it out of the driveway of the church- I knew he was sick-


Now it's one o'clock when I get him and the doctor is closed from 1-2. So I play at a park for an hour and then head towards the doctor's office and call at 2:00 sharp from the parking lot. Their first appt. is 4:00- so we head to the McWane center to kill the time b/c we are nowhere near our home. By the time I get to the doctors office- I am physically exhausted- this picture was taken after I'd said for the sixth time for the boys NOT to get on the dirty doctors' office floor. I texted it to Marc and said, "wish you were here!" :)  

Poster Contest entries

Every year our parrish has a "Keep Christ in Christmas" poster contest- our entries this year-

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St. Nicholas' Day

Today is the feast day of St. Nicholas!  We had a very special morning- Daddy took the kids to see the Alabama Symphony's winter wonderland concert with a special ballerina and cirque de soliel performer.  Marc said it was AMAZING!



Then the children went to art class where Julia drew the most beautiful angel and crucifix.  I'll post those later.  Then we had lunch and came home to find that the slippers the children had left out that morning had been filled by St. Nicholas with gold coins and they each got a book!  :)



Memaw gave each child three St. Nicholas statues from her huge collection last Christmas so we put them here on the mantle where he visits.   :)





Tucker come downstairs- St. Nicholas came!  :)












Charlie didn't care about the gifts- he just wanted to play with his basketball-





We are going to watch the video and read the books on St. Nicholas' life today.  Fun, fun!  (P.S. Marc said, "these coins came from Rite Aid and these books came from 2nd and Charles- I don't think St. Nicholas did this"- the gig is up!)

Compliment or offensive?

Tonight at Chick Fil A, Tucker walked up to an Asian man in the playroom area and said,
"Why do you have laughing eyes?" 
Then Tucker showed him what they looked like by doing an imitation.  (The man laughed) Never a dull moment.

Georgeous, Gorgeous!

Last night, my little chorister had his first Christmas concert and it was AMAZING!!!!!  Unbelievably gorgeous- just beautiful, beautiful!





It's so much fun to see the boys before the concert- they are running, laughing, having stare contests-







But when it's time to get to work- they get to work and are angels.  When I walked back there I said, "stand up so I can get a picture" and he said, "we were told to sit down, I cannot get up."  :)  They have those boys very disciplined and organized.





Marky is  Jr. Chorister.  That's made up of 29 3rd through 5th graders that are learning to sound awesome.  They have their own little section of the concert.  The Sr. Choirsters are about 60 5th through 8th graders and they have a few high schoolers too.  Here are the Jr. Choirsters about to sing- (Marky is far righ- tall kid -he's one of the youngest out there)












We were all SO PROUD of our little guy- he did a perfect job!




And here are a few of the Jr. Choirsters songs-







I wish I'd gotten video of the Sr. Choir- oh my goodness- it brought tears to my eyes- just like angels.  Even when we'd all be singing a hymn they would be singing the high notes to accent the song and it was just breathtaking-

This and That

Well it's December today.  I'm feeling the push to be DONE with Christmas shopping and am 85% there- I've bought all the presents, but I'd hoped to have wrapped them by now.   Four years ago when I was 9 months pregnant with Tucker I got ALL of Christmas shopping done before December and it was the best Advent/Christmas I had had.  Ever since I've done it the same way.  This year I am behind on Christmas cards, but hopefully I'll be able to do that tonight- even though our photo session today went awful due to a one-year-old who would NOT sit still for two seconds.  : )  I did manage to wrap and ship all the Florida family members' Christmas/Amber's birthday presents- it felt so good to have that completed.

Tucker found the froggy umbrella I had found for him.  When we got back from DC and Julia had her horsey umbrella all Tucker could do was cry that he needed his own umbrella.  I found this one and had it hidden, but I'm glad he found it- he and Sissy had a big day playing with them-

I found Charliebear with blue marker on his face the other day-

When he sees a camera he starts saying "cheeeeeeese, cheeeeeeese, cheeeeeese"





I think Charlie found a marker himself, but there is evidence he had an accomplice-

Speaking of Tucker- him being able to read is making for funny situations.  Tonight we were in the car and he said, "Huh-OOOOOOOO-T- ers".."Hooters"- "Hey- that says Hooters- I want to go to Hooters!   I WANT TO GO TO HOOTERS!"  :)

I took the older children to see Peter Pan Thursday- it was AWESOME!  They were flying across the stage- the props and costumes were amazing- it was a real treat.


By the way- today at lunch Charlie INSISTED on trying Daddy's corn on the cob- and then he ate the whole thing.  That makes four babies in a row that love corn on the cob-


And lastly- here is a beautiful hawk that sat on the playhouse for well over ten minutes yesterday morning- just enjoying the day-