Ready for it?

I have a confession; I've been listening to Christmas music for 2 and a half weeks now.

I am the one who fights Christmas music. I normally refuse to listen until a couple of weeks before the blessed day.

It seems that Christmas is coming early this year.

And, not just for me...

It all started on October 12th, at the Walmart in Mesquite, NV. As I stood in line at checkout, I realized I was humming 'Ding Dong! Merrily on High'.

Why was this the song stuck in my head? They were playing it over the PA system.

October 12th!!!

And now, my dad - Mr. 'No Christmas until Christmas Eve.' - suggested to my mom that they get out the decorations.

I theorize that we are pretty desperate for something to take our minds off of the state of our world.

I'm not going to claim to be an expert here, only that I know how I feel, and I think I have a good sense for how those around me feel. I have to say, its a mixed bag. Christmas is something solid, reliable, in this crazy rollercoaster we've been on. No matter how much gas costs, no matter who is elected, no matter how dark the night (Knight? lol), Christmas will come.

And with Christmas, behind all the commercialism, underlying all the merrymaking, comes love, hope, and the knowledge that long ago a star shone so brightly that three learned men were compelled to follow it.

We are like those learned men, early seekers of the hope, the love that accompany the season, because they draw us to one another. Seekers of Christ, who will quiet our fears and open our hearts.

He is our Savior.

My Savior.


I beg your pardon for this, since it is only the beginning of November, but...

I wish all a wonderful, peaceful, happy Christmas this year.

Boxtops

Just a reminder to anyone who visits our blog:

Hannah is collecting Box Tops for Education to turn in at school. I have found them on Huggies boxes, as well as some General Mills foods and some Betty Crocker foods as well.

They look like this:


If you collect any, please let us know and we will come get them.

Thanks for your help and support!

Vacation in California!

Our California vacation was a blast! Thanks for inviting us, Ray and Sylvia!






We visited the beach at the Hotel Del Coronado! The kids loved the sand, but hated the water.





There were dolphins really close to shore that were kicking up a lot of fish activity. The pelicans were diving like crazy!

We also did a day in the Happiest Place on Earth, and have decided to go back for a longer visit as soon as we can.

We saw Mickey mouse at Candy Corn Acres:

We didn't get to see any of the princesses up close, only in the parade. It was kind of a bummer, but we're determined to see them next time!

The kids loved The Pirates of the Carribbean ride, and the Nightmare Before Christmas theme in the Haunted Mansion.

Sylvia's cousin met us at Disneyland, and brought her cute granddaughter Ainsley. She and Hannah really had a good time together!

The end of an era

Michael has now been a full 48 hours with no bink.

Its been a bit rough, especially in the middle of the night, and at naptime...basically when he wakes up and needs to be lulled back to sleep.

He kicked the habit out of necessity: he lost his only one.

Not that we miss it too much.

UPDATE:

It has now been a week and a half! He was even sick for part of this time, which would have been a binky-all-day time before!

Looks like binky is gone for good!

R.I.P. Rita

Well, we lost one of the Ritas this morning. We flushed her, then had a family prayer to help Hannah feel better. She's pretty broken hearted. =(

Lately

For the last 2 weeks, I've been watching Amber's kids while her mom was in California! We had fun, but I'm sure her kids were sick of us by the time Gramma got home. Amber decorated her house with Minnie mouse heads she made from cute Stampin' Up paper, and I pitched in with these cupcakes. (Sorry for the blurry picture.)





I had to be at Amber's by 6:45am, which is a couple hours earlier than my kids and I are used to getting up, but it wasn't really a problem except the very last morning...I'd been up until 2:00 making a couple of scrapbook pages for Hannah's school class, and then her teacher didn't even take them out of her backpack! Well, I called her teacher and she said it was ok to just send them on Monday.





Thanks to all of you who helped me get Hannah to and from school last week! I owe you all foot massages or something. =)

Hannah is doing really well in Kindergarten, and really loves it! She's just about got writing her name down!








Hannah wants everyone to meet Rita, Rita, rita and Rita:





And Michael wants everyone to see his faux-hawk. Mommy did it while Daddy wasn't around to
veto the hairdo. =)

Oh, and Staci...Hannah drew this picture of you and says thanks for picking her up on Friday!

The real first day of Kindergarten

We walked to the school, which takes about 5 minutes, but for some reason I made us leave half an hour before school started, so we were WAAAAAAAY early. Oh, well. We had fun anyway.










Afterward, the PTA hosted a kleenex party, where we moms could all go and cry. I almost did.