Santa Letters

Dear Santa,
I love you. I want to send you a thank you note. Our Christmas tree looks so pretty. I already told you I want Barbies for Christmas. I want real Christmas icecream on Christmas day. Let's play together. I want a pink carseat. Claire also wants a matching pink carseat.
love, Lily



Dear Santa,
I've been a good man this year. This Christmas I need love, dog food for the dog, a Christmas coat, and I want a art books, lots of paper to draw on, and learning books about animals.
love, Ollie


p.s. Our Christmas tree looks pretty.
I can't wait for you to see it!


Dear Santa,
I've been a good baby this year. This Christmas I need new diapers. I want princess walkie talkies for my older brother and sister. I want a new baby doll.
love, Claire


Ollie helped Claire decide what to say. He's been learning about wants/needs in school so he differentiated between the two. He also started out his letter by saying that he was a good boy but than changed it to a good man. I love life with a seven year old!

Halloween

We had lots of Halloween fun this year! We had two fun parties for the kids. Ollie got to have one with his friends and Lily got to have one with her preschool friends.




Lily sweeping a pumpkin. At Ollie's party we played a relay game race where the kids had to sweep pumpkins. It was a fun game that they all liked.



Lily playing pumpkin bowling. Another game from Ollie's party. Yes, it was Ollie's party but he was too fast and all over the place so we have pictures of Lily doing the activities and not Ollie...



Lily's preschool Halloween party. We played a beanbag game, bingo, and had yummy treats.



Raggedy Anne and Andy (aka Shreann and Spencer)



Mummy wrapping game from Ollie's party.




Ollie was a dragon this year. He knew exactly how he wanted his costume. I had a hard time finding it but he really liked it! I didn't get any pictures of him with his mask on.




Tinkerbell Lily. She got to have glitter in her hair which she LOVED!









Claire was a duck. She wasn't sure about having something on her head, hands, or feet. :)




The best picture of the three kids together. Taking pictures of all the kids together is hard work!




We made some fun food for Halloween and the parties. Here's some teeth made out of apples and almonds.



Pumpkin cupcakes




Mummy hotdogs




Pumpkin pizza



Spider crackers- made by Ollie




Pumpkin carving... Claire loved to feel it and taste it. She didn't mind getting slimy but the older two were hesitant to touch it!



The finished product- a cat pumpkin

Family Pictures

A few months ago we had family pictures taken at the Waco bridge. They turned our really good! Here's a few for your viewing pleasure. :)

Ollie Quote

Every night the two older kids take turns choosing which CD they will listen to as they fall asleep. Last night it was Lily's turn to pick and she choose the musical "The Fantastics". Ollie then said, "Now remember Lily how I was teaching you about consistency and moderation." It's sure wonderful that he will teach her these things and I wish him luck!
(I did explain to him that four year olds like the same thing over and over and over again.)

Lily's Birthday

Lily had a fabulous fourth birthday! (over a month ago... sorry for the delay) She talked about her birthday coming up but she didn't want to know when it was because she wanted it to be a surprise. We woke her us by singing "Happy Birthday" to her. Then we let her open her presents. She was thrilled with all of them! She got some "Pinkalicious" books, a tinkerbell costume, a new quilt, some crafts, polly pockets, a new shirt, some tights, and some money. She was fun to watch open everything because she gets so excited! She wanted to wear her new shirt and tights and she had to have her hair in "pinktails". Then she headed off to preschool (which she LOVES). I made her some "pinkalicious" cupcakes for her to take to preschool to share with her friends. She was super excited about having cupcakes for the treat! After preschool we spent the afternoon playing with her new toys. After a dinner of hot dogs, which was Lily's choice, we had CHOCOLATE cupcakes and then went to Ollie's soccer game where we shared more cupcakes. Lily had a great birthday! I just can't believe that she's already four! I don't know where the time has gone. She is a delight to our family. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. She brings us great joy!

P.S. Lily is into "Pinkalicious" right now but I don't think her favorite color is actually pink. When you ask her her favorite color she will say "all of them" but from watching what she chooses to wear I would have to guess that it's yellow. She really does think that pigtails are called pinktails and I don't want to tell her otherwise. And she loves CHOCOLATE. :)

Lily Quotes

Here's a few funny quotes from Lily.

This morning after giving Claire a hug- "Claire, you're a part of our family so we won't let you get in the shark pool."
I'm not quite sure where the "shark pool" is but I'd guess it has something to do with Ollie teaching Lily about sharks eating people.

Lily begging for more sweets...
L- "Pretty please?"
Mom- "No."
L- "Pretty please?"
M- "no."
L- "Handsome please?"
I laughed pretty hard but the answer was still no. :)

So Lily has this fear of slides. I think she has a hard time balancing so they scare her. I feel that once she learns how to do it she will love them so I'm always making her go down the slide. Today after going down the slide THREE times holding onto Mom's hand I got her a sucker. As I was giving her the sucker I said, "Lily, you can do hard things because you are amazing. I'm proud of you." Lily responded, "Yeah, I can do hard things so I can get suckers." Not quite what I had in mind. :)

Lily gave her first talk in church a few weeks ago. She was super excited to have a turn to talk in the microphone. She did a really good job!



This watermellon was from our garden. It was super delicious. We started with many but this one was the only one that survived.



I'm sure I win the mother-of-the-year award for letting my baby put balloons in her mouth... but isn't she cute?!?



Ollie is very into drawing animals lately. Here's a picture of his jumping dolphin. I'm sure I'm biased but I think he does good for a 6 year old.



Claire is our super cute alarm clock. She gets Mom up at 6:00. Then at 7:00 she gets the other kids up. The kids get up much better when they wake up to a cute little sister. :)

Lily's first day of school

Lily is doing a co-op preschool with some children from church. She was nervous about going to school at first but we had our first class at the park and had a party so she was excited about it. I love these pictures. You can almost feel her excitement! She is loving going to different friends' houses and learning about different things.

Ollie's first day of school

Ollie's been in school for a month now... but here's a few pictures from the first eventful day! He is at a new school but he's adjusting well. He likes his new teacher. His favorite subject is PE. This year he's started more testing and homework each night. He's growing up much too fast!

This, That, and the Other

Here's a few miscellaneous pictures. Hope you enjoy!