Jessie's Birthday

Jessie's birthday cake

Jessie just turned six already. How could that have happened? Just yesterday she was a little baby in my arms. We had her family birthday party the weekend before her birthday. She got lots of great things, among them two new dolls.

Elizabeth and Emma

She also got a bike basket and some art stuff and a necklace with a diamond J from Brandon.

We had a girls day on her actual birthday after she got off of school. She got a crown and Happy Birthday sung to her at school and then Mom and I picked her up from school and went to the mall. We ate at Subway and she played on the little playground they have there. We didn't intend to stay there as long as we did but a friend of hers named Ashton, who has a crush on her, showed up and they played together forever. She said he offered to help her into the school that morning so she didn't slip on the ice (there was no ice). When we got home she posed for her six year old pictures in different dresses. I will post those later, they haven't been fixed yet. She was going to do more by changing hairstyles and jewelry but she was getting too tired by then. I guess we just have to have a fashion show later. Brandon came home and she opened her card from Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim. She had a good birthday but now she is sad that it is all over and Brandon is already talking about his.

Some of her decorations


Puzzles



car seat carrier for dolls

Christmas

Scott's blade

Jess's pic

snow white doll

GG's plate holder

dad's pic

basketball hoop

Brandon's pic

So Christmas is over. Everyone had a really good time. We went to Chris' house for Christmas eve. He really goes all out with decorating. We ate pizza and then opened a few presents. We tried to start earlier so I wasn't getting the kids home so late but it still was almost ten before I got them asleep. They were up at 6:30 the next morning checking out the presents. They get to open the presents from Santa to keep them occupied until it is time to go to Mom's house for stockings and breakfast. Then we come back here and sort out the presents while Dad gets GG. We open for a while then eat Christmas dinner and then finish. We take turns opening the presents so it takes longer and makes Christmas last longer that way. Some of the highlight presents for everyone were: GG got a new really soft lap blanket, a gift card from Aunt Pat and Uncle Jim, a watch from Avon that she wanted and a paper plate holder that the boys made and I painted. Brandon got a RC monster truck that can go outside and new cowboy boots from Santa. He also got a lot of other cool toys like spy stuff, a basketball hoop that hooks onto the back of a door, things like that. Jessie received a prince and princess doll and a Rudolph doll that sings and the nose lights up from Santa and she got Barbie and princess stuff mainly for her other toys. I gave them both a painting that I painted, Brandon a fire scene and Jessie an ocean/dolphin scene. Every time I was doing a painting Jess would ask me for the rejects. She finally got to the point that she was intentionally trying to make me mess up so I promised her I would make her her own painting for Christmas so I had to make one for Brandon also. Scott's favorite presents were his fleece pants and the chainsaw blade I painted a fire scene on, and his drill. Chris' was probably his ipad Rachel got him. He also got some things for the house and some pretty knick-knacks. Rachel's was her ipod from Chris and her stuffed goat because she loves goats and music. She is really good at making the goat sound. She also received some scentsy stuff that she loves. Dad said his was the pizza and ocean paintings I painted for him. There is a story behind the pizza. My first painting I did was a fall one and it had a basket of leaves sitting on a chair. Chris and Dad have made fun of it for years saying it looks like a pizza. I finally decided to paint an actual pizza for him. I also made an ocean scene because he liked the one I did for Chris' birthday. He also got a plug in mug to keep his soup and tea warm when he is working. Mom said her favorites were all the jewelry she got, her granddaughter statue and the charms I got her for her bracelet. My favorite gifts was the new camcorder everyone pitched in to buy. Also my fuzzy robe and pjs and pretty much everything else I got. The camcorder was the big surprise. My best gift of all was having my family healthy and all together. The kids didn't fight and it was a nice pleasant white Christmas. After dinner we got to play with our gifts and watch a Christmas movie. It was one of the best Christmases we have had in a while.

Christmas break continued

We went to electricritters at the zoo last Sat. It wasn't too cold so it was fun. We had to park quite a ways away but it was worth it. We make our own hot chocolate to bring and that saves a lot of money right there. It's so cool how they make all the animals out of lights and every year we try to pick out the changes. This Sat we went to the riverwalk to walk around there. We went on the boat one year but it is very cold and they drive so fast it isn't worth the money. It is more fun to walk anyway. This year we took the dogs with us. BJ is better with the crate but he still would still rather go with us. Fearless did pretty good but now he is crabby. It was worth it to see the happy face on him though. Who says dogs can't grin? Chris and Rachel had their Christmas party so they did not go with us. Dad has shingles. Luckily it isn't too bad so he is making it through okay. I hope that is our only bad luck for this Christmas. The kids are getting really excited. Jessie is still questioning Santa occasionally but I think that is because she thinks that if Santa isn't real, then she doesn't have to be as good. Brandon is questioning also but he doesn't want to know the truth so he won't ask. We already had a present issue. Jessie bought Brandon a couple of gifts at the santa shop. There was a teddy bear there she wanted that said love Mom on it. She said she wanted it so she could feel close to me at night when she had trouble sleeping. Brandon was supposed to get it but the person helping him didn't know the story and talked him out of it. We got some stuffed dogs in and she fell in love with a golden retriever. I put one aside to have Brandon give it to her. What I didn't know is that a little boy Joey, who is in her class and his mom was also helping out, wanted to get it for her. They bought it for her also. So now I had two of the same dog. I ended up donating one to the toy drive but I still didn't have something for Brandon. We finally found a little bear that says "Jesus loves me" on it for him to give to her. I hope she likes it as well. Now he just has to do some chores to pay it off since he spent all his money. So the rest of the week is just finishing up the wrapping and goodies and keeping the kids out of the presents.

Santa Shop

We went to Carmen and Kurt's last Saturday for their Christmas party. It was fine except for we didn't know anyone other than our family. The kids did well considering that they had nothing to do but they were really well behaved. Rachel felt bad that they were bored but we knew that they would be. We had a choice to go to theirs or Chris and Rachels next week and we decided to do Carmen's this year. Next year we might do Chris'.

I worked the Santa shop at the school all this week. It was fun but tiring. Jessie loved helping out for a little while when she got out of school. Next year will be easier because they will both be in all day. All the kids get into buying presents. As predicted, some of course tried to buy for themselves but for the most part they stuck to the lists. It is fun to see what they pick. Many tried to buy toys for their family members and we had to steer them clear of that. They were all pretty good bargain shoppers. I think we only had one child this year that had so many names and only like $10 to spend that he ended up being able to spend only 75 cents a person. That makes it interesting. It was so popular that we kept running out of bags to wrap the presents in. I helped Jessie with her gifts but Brandon was on his own. He did pretty good but went off his list to include the pets, which I told him not to because then he went cheaper on some of the others, namely his sister. He did however put a lot of thought into his gifts and his heart was in the right place. I think next year if I am able to work it, I am going to have them come after school and shop together so we won't have any issues hopefully. They also participated in the blanket drive for the homeless (we did get some blankets) and the food drive and the toy drive. All in all it was a good week. Next week they only have two days of actual school and Wed. is Brandon's school party in the afternoon and Jessie's in the morning. Thursday they have literacy testing so no official school. Then break for two weeks. When they come back they only have one semester to go. Where did the year go? Wasn't it just Halloween? They went to see Santa at the mall last night and we ate Subway and walked the mall and they turned in their letters to the special mailbox in the mall. Tomorrow we do Electricritters at the zoo. More on that later.

getting ready for Christmas

The Christmas holiday is upon us already. It seems like I was just at the kid's school for their Halloween parade and now to help with Christmas. Where did the time go. The kids started bugging us to put up decorations on Thanksgiving, we agreed to bring in the boxes but didn't start until the day after. Every year we have the kids buy toys for the toy drive and this year when Scott and I were at Hobby Lobby the other day we found $24.00 on the ground in the parking lot. There was no one around that it could have been. We decided for that little of money no one would look for it at the police, so we made the decision to use it for charity since it wasn't ours to begin with. Yesterday we took the kids toy shopping and they were able to buy quite a few presents for the toy drive with it. Brandon was so excited he wanted to put the bags in the box before we even paid for them. The kids are also having a food drive and a blanket drive through the school. The food goes to families in the county so it stays close to home and the blankets are going to the local homeless shelters. We didn't have any old blankets to donate so Mom put in a request at work so hopefully we can get a few at least. They also are having the yearly Santa Shoppe at school that I volunteer at. That is where the kids get to shop for their own gifts for their families. It is fun to see what the kids pick out. Sometimes we need to direct them and a lot of times to keep them from buying for themselves. They can be pretty adamant about what they want to give though. The big problem is when they have $10 and twenty people to buy for. That is next week so I should have some good stories after then. It takes up a lot of time but it is worth it. I just have to work a little harder the week after to get all of my projects done before CHristmas. We are supposed to go to Rachel's mom's for their Christmas party tonite but it is snowing really good so I don't know if we will want to chance it or not. We have lots planned over the next few weeks and I will try to post about all of it as we are doing them. I love being able to blog about our family adventures especially at Christmas it makes me feel closer to all of my extended family and that you all can be a part of our traditions as well as us a part of yours.

BJ

First things first. We finally were able to get high speed internet. Yay! They finally have service out here and we were able to get it at a discounted price through the school that ended up being the same cost as our dial up. It came just in time too because Jessie has a reading program through the school that they give access to from home and when I went to download it, it was like 487Mb. It took 30 minutes on high speed, I would probably be still downloading on dial up. Since our computer is so old, they said our speed might still be a little slower but compared to dial up, I don't notice. Now I can do more stuff during the day instead of waiting until night because I didn't want to tie up the phone line during the day.

On to BJ. He is the most sweetest loving dog with brown eyes that will melt your heart. That is the only thing keeping him alive. It is like having a hyper toddler around that you have to watch every minute. He has separation anxiety really bad so we had to get a crate for him because he was tearing things up when we left. We got a fold up metal one but we can't fold it up any longer because he was popping the latches and getting out. He managed to open the locks so we put carabiners on them. He broke the carabiners and got out. Once, we aren't even sure how he did it because we came home, he was out and the door was closed. We finally got some latches that seem to keep him in but he keeps destroying his bedding. We give him a toy that you put peanut butter in and we freeze it and he manages to eat most of that also. He is getting better but on Halloween we came home and found he somehow managed to get the mat in front of Scott's chair into the crate and chewed it up. We have to keep all the doors shut because he likes to shred stuff. I can tell when he is not getting enough exercise because that is when is starts to get destructive. The problem is lately all he wants to do is play with Fear, who is getting too old to play. I wonder if dog's can sense another animal's time is short? We are hoping Fear will last through the new year at least. He is getting better at not herding the kids, at least not nipping on them as often. We are still working on that. He is really good on a leash but when you take him off and he gets really excited, then he doesn't listen, so we are really working on that right now. Sometimes I wonder why we were supposed to have him now when our life is already chaotic enough without adding a hyper dog to the mix. I wouldn't trade him though. He has also brought a lot of happiness into our lives and he can really cheer us up. It is impossible to not love a dog who is so happy to see you, even if it was just five minutes ago. He follows me everywhere and just lays down beside me wherever I am. Makes you feel loved, but also guilty if I am moving around a lot. I guess God knew we wouldn't send him back no matter what and I am really getting good use of my mending skills.

Halloween

The kids took skating lessons for five Saturdays at Skate City to learn to roller skate. We don't have anywhere out here in the county to practice, no sidewalks etc., so they were pretty much limited to just skating at the lessons. Jessie was the smallest in the class and couldn't even see over the wall. She was funny to watch because she took such small steps that she barely went anywhere. Brandon did a little better but he looked like a robot at first. We found him some inline skates at a second hand store for $3.50 and Jessie some of those plastic skates that go over your shoes on Craigslist so they could practice on our kitchen floor. Brandon was getting good at home and then he would fall back at practice. On the last day, the 29th, they had a graduation skate and Halloween party where they could wear their costumes and parents could skate too. Jessie was content to let me pull her around. She has a princess mentality, which means she thinks everything should be done for her, including skating for her. Anyway, I helped her and Brandon was slow for a few rounds and then he just took off. You would think he had been skating a lot longer than five sessions. The school offers discount family skate nights every couple of months and they are looking forward to those skating sessions now that they know how to skate.



So Saturday they went to the Halloween skating party and then in the afternoon we took them to the children's museum where they could trick or treat around the art gallery and they had a magic show. The kids had a great time. Monday Jessie had her school Halloween party in the morning, and Brandon's was in the afternoon. In between I went to the grocery store. Then we went to GG's and Chris' and then went trick or treating. This year Jessie went as half angel half princess, although she pretty much just looked like an angel but don't tell her that. Brandon was a cowboy. We usually go to the mall to trick or treat, but last year didn't go well, they got bored, so this year we went out in the "real world" as Jessie put it. She had us make a separate bag for the safe candy that came from family etc., and a bag for the to be checked candy. They didn't actually get much of that because by the time we got going, the neighborhoods we went to didn't have that many houses that still had treats, but they just liked the experience anyway and we went to Rachel's Aunt and Uncle's house again where they do the spook house and really decorate so that was fun too. The only bad thing, besides constantly running all day, was having to crate BJ several times. If we don't, he tears things up because of his separation anxiety. More on him later. That's a whole story by itself.