Maybe Someone is Trying to Tell me Something

The past two times that I have been to the BX (like the mall, but on base), people have given me money. The first time, we were getting Elliot's haircut at the barbershop. There's one of those fancy maze gumball machines outside of the barbershop. The kids love it. I frequently bribe them with quarters if they behave well, so they can use them on the gumball machine. Well, Elliot got his gumball, then Dottie got hers, and promptly dropped it on the floor. She lost it. As hysteria approached, I was trying to calmly explain to her that I had no more quarters, so she had better get over it. A man in uniform so this display of tears, and gave me two quarters. I was too shocked to say no. So Dottie got her gumball.

The last time I went to the BX, I was once again with the kids by myself. I had to grab a few necessities, like contact solution, and decided to take them out to Subway as well. As we were leaving the store, Dottie was up to her usual tricks; she wouldn't hold Elliot's hand as we were entering the parking lot. She was screaming, Elliot was screaming, and I was holding Ruby while trying to get my kids away from the busy street. Then, a lady in uniform approached me, saying she had found a $20 bill on the ground. She wasn't fooling me; it was a crisp $20 bill. I'm pretty sure she just felt bad for me and my bad children, assuming that my husband was deployed. Maybe next time I go to the BX, I should either leave the kids at home or take Joe with me, so people don't feel bad for me and my lack of control over my children.

And this is what the kids had for lunch yesterday.

Christmas 2011

Our tree stopped absorbing water about a week ago. Most of the needles are on the ground, but we still kept the tree up. I managed to get cookies out to friends on Christmas Eve, all students survived the piano recital, and I got all gifts wrapped before Christmas Eve. So all things considered, it's been a successful Christmas.

We had our traditional Danish dinner with the McCombs. This will be the last year, because their moving this summer. I'm starting to realize that this is one thing that really stinks about being in the Air Force: all of your friends move away, and eventually, you do too.

Dottie and the BFFs. She gave them best friends forever lockets. So I tried to get some shots of them together to put inside the lockets.

The kids in Nativity gear with one of our guests, Sister Duke.

Elliot's supposed to be a wise man. That's a turban on his head, get it? And I'm not sure what Michael's doing?

Church was still early Sunday morning, but only an hour long. So we let the kids open their stocking gifts first, and the rest after church. Elliot was pretty cuckoo over these life savers. I don't think he's ever eaten them before, so he gorged throughout the day.

The other big hits: a Leapster 2, and a Barbie house. It took me 2 hours to assemble, but Dottie spent the rest of the day playing with it. Ah, I love creative play.

So no drama this Christmas. No beads up the nose. No end-of-pregnancy . . .woes. And no pictures of Ruby? I guess it's because she napped a lot, and kept herself occupied when she was awake. It doesn't mean I don't love her. I'll get some pictures of her with some toys, I promise.

M and J come to visit

Mary and Jesse, Joe's sister and brother-in-law, and their little baby boy Jordan, came to visit us last week! It was awesome. So fun. They made it to Joe's concert (of which I have no pictures, of course. But it was amazing. And I'm not just saying that because my husband's the conductor.), we ate out a lot, we took them to the Zoo and the Riverwalk, and just spent some good quality time. This is the first time the kids got to meet their cousin, Jordan. I can't believe it's been that long since we've seen them. I guess that's what happens when your nearest relatives are a 24-hour drive away.

Casa Rio on the Riverwalk. So delish.

Our trip to the zoo.

Could it be? All children smiling? Aunt Mary gave all the kids cute plush animals.

Love you, Mary, Jesse, and Jory! Let's not wait another two years before we see each other again!

Gingerbread Houses!

Still having problems with the blog. I think it must be my blogger account, because I'm posting on a different computer. If you have suggestions to solve my problem, let me know.

Anyway. I started doing Joy School with my friend Anya and our little boys, Michael and Elliot. After the first week, Michael started calling it "Boy School." It's great having these two little rambunctious guys once a week to play with!

This week, we made Gingerbread Houses out of graham crackers. They turned out pretty well! Then, the boys demolished them. When Dottie got home from school, we made REAL gingerbread houses with Michael's sisters, Dottie's BFFs.

I'm glad I've started this tradition that we used to do growing up. My mom kept the gingerbread house in a safe place and then let us go at it after Christmas. So I am also preserving the house until Christmas. Feliz Navidad!

Visit to Santa

Something strange is happening when I try to publish on blogger. I can't see any of the pictures, just the HTML code, but the pictures will still publish. I think my husband messed up the computer a few days ago. Those husbands. Always throwing a monkey wrench into things.

Anyway. Today, I picked up my camera to discover I had 127 new pictures, most of which I had not taken. Can you guess who did? That's right, the person who took a picture of his eyes. He also took the picture of Dottie on the couch. I took the cute one of Ruby. Whenever the kids are playing with friends in the backyard, Ruby likes to stand at the window, screaming and giggling, living vicariously through her siblings. You'll be out there soon enough, Rubester.

We took the kids to Bass Pro Shop to get pictures with Santa on Saturday. It's the only place around that lets you take a picture with Santa for free. And not only do they let you, they give you a free picture with Santa. It's pretty fun. There's lots of activities there as well, like the merry-go-round my kids are on. I didn't put the actual picture with Santa on, because everyone has a scary face. And my son's capris are very obvious in the picture as well.

Finally, Dottie is finding chapter books she loves. They're called Rainbow Magic and are all about fairies. There's weather fairies, flower fairies, water fairies, music fairies. You name it, and they have a fairy for it. They probably even have garbage fairies. I've been trying to get Dottie hooked on chapter books, and this series has done the trick. She's found at all times reading one of these books.