It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

I have had the inside of the house decorated since just after Thanksgiving, and a week or so ago we got lights for the house (Brian has been wanting some for years) and then we finally got snow, and lots of it, this week. The icing on the cake is that Jen's mom is here and we will be having an early Christmas with her and Jen's sister and grandparents on Sunday. Now the kids are out of school and more than ready for the holiday.

Our tree!  Decorated by the kids.

One of my new shelves, with all of my Christmas books and my Holly doll.

Stockings

The Christmas lights on our house and our kids all dressed up.

We are so excited for Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. After Pie Night with Jen's grandparents on Wednesday, we picked her sister up Thursday morning and headed to see Brian's family for the holiday. We had a great time playing games and enjoying the dinner. The kids had special turkey plates that were so cute. They also enjoyed just playing at Grandma's house.

My sister and I 

Brian's mom is so excited for our big trip to Disneyland after Christmas.  She made Disney ornaments for everyone one.  The kids are excited to pu tthem ontheir tree.

Meg and Nemo

Liz and Dorie

Nathan and Goofy

Michael with Donald.

I got Minnie and Brian got Mickey.

The kids enjoyed a treat of Toaster Waffles for breakfast.

Playing on the blowup bed while it deflates.

We played football with the kids on Friday.

We got home Friday and Brian and I put up the tree.  Saturday morning the kids got to open a few early Christmas presents.

Mom got Christmas movies for the whole family.

WOW!

Liz and Nathan really wanted to participate in the PTA Reflections contest at school, so they came up with ideas and did! The teheme this year was "Wow!" and so they thought of things that make them say, well, "Wow!" It was fun to listen to them reason and watch them work. Last week was the awards open house and we got to go see their work on display.

Nathan made a neat picture of a rocket in space. the astronaut is saying "WOW!" and he made the earth small so "it would look far away." I thought he did a great job. He won an honorable mention medal and look at his grin! His smile faded a bit when he saw Liz's awards, but he is doing better. He put everything on display on his desk and was so proud of it all!



Liz wrote a poem and drew a picture inspired by the whale watch in Maine. She drew a whale, then painted on vellum, tore it and made it the water. I thought it was a fun thing for her to do. Sure enough she was a school winner in both categories. Her stuff will move on to the district level (or whatever comes next).



Whales by Elizabeth Chantry

Wow!
Humpback whales are really big, bigger than huge.
Amazing! Whales swim in the Atlantic Ocean.
Leaping is whale’s favorite thing to do in the ocean.
Exciting to finally see whales!
Spouts of air let whales breathe.

They both did a great job and we are so proud of the work they did!

Emma

This summer I fell in love with the Masterpiece version of Emma. I saw the Hollywood version years ago and enjoyed it, but liked this new version even better. There were a few parts that left me a bit puzzled and wanting a little more background/explanation/detail so I decided to read the book. I am glad I did.

Though there were a few slow passages to muddle through, I enjoyed this a great deal. I think that the end made the book meet my expectations. The detail in the accounts of what occurred between Frank Churchill and Jane Fairfax, as well as more detail as to the thoughts of Emma concerning Mr. Knightly made the ending so fun to read. I enjoyed watching Emma learn and improve.

Rilla of Ingleside

So today I finished Rilla of Ingleside, the eighth and final book in the Anne of Green Gables Series. I was a little skeptical going into the last three or so books because I had heard they focused more on Anne's children than they did on Anne herself, but I must say I thoroughly enjoyed each of them. I particularly like the last book. It focused on Anne's youngest daughter and child and how she grew and developed as her brothers went off to war and as her world changed. I loved watching the growth of her character. It was just a wonderful read.

I must say though, that I am the kind of reader who wants to always know what happens next. I love details! I could read on and on about just what happens to each and every character once a book is done, and the last three Anne books fulfilled this need. Watching Anne as her children grew to adulthood, and even watching them grow was such a thrill. This is a series I hope to read through again.

All she wants for Christmas . . .

So I can hardly wait for Christmas this year.  I have been planning for months, and my shopping has been done for weeks. Christmas time is one of my favorite times of year, and that excitement begins the instant Halloween ends, but I try no to let it set in too much until after Thanksgiving.  

Anyway, Liz has decided to get into the holiday spirit in her own way this year.  Two days before Halloween she lost a front tooth eating pizza at school, then on Halloween the other front tooth came out during dinner.  She is "toothleth" and sings "All I want for Christmas" with extra meaning.  What a funny stage!

Halloween makes me lazy

So I am feeling lazy today. On Friday our ward had a Halloween party. It was really fun and the kids were thrilled to dress up. We even got Brian and the bishopric to all dress up together. For more information follow this link to my family's blog. The kids, and everyone looked great.

http://eprocrastinator.blogspot.com/2008/10/who-ya-gonna-call.html

Happy Haunting, but be careful, the Ghostbusters might get you!

Happy Halloween!

Here are some fun Halloween shirts that the kids gor from Brian's mom. They would wear them EVERY day if I let them. They are sure looking forward to Halloween, and it all starts tonight with a Halloween party with our ward.

Bunch O' Birthday Cards

I made a stack of birthday cards for my Grandma. It was sure fun to try out lots of different stuff. I think my favorites are the cards with the animals for the great grandkids. There are a bunch, so bear with me. Next week I am going to try out a scratch and sniff card. We'll see how it goes.

Nathan's Glasses

So after waiting very patiently, Nathan got his glasses on Saturday. He is so amazed by how he can see everything again. I think that he looks very handsome. I am glad that he is excited about them and that I don't have to remind him to put them on in the morning (we'll see how long that lasts!We are so thankful that a simple pair of glasses correct his vision perfectly.

Our Good News

Some of you may know that Nathan failed his vision screening at school. I found out through a letter in the mail from the school. So I got the earliest appointment possible and we took him in this morning. I never really worried about him having the optic atrophy that I have (as well as Liz, my dad, my siblings and my nephew) but I had one small moment of panic this morning as we were waiting to go to the doctor. Brian and I have been looking forward to Nathan's 16th birthday since we found out about Liz's eyes! Anyway, the report was good. His optic nerve his healthy and the right glasses correct him to 20/20. He was really a good boy and is excited about glasses.

On a different, yet related, note we think we have a diagnosis for what Liz and I have. Her doctor gave us this diagnosis 5+ years ago, but truthfully I didn't think much of it. I wrote it ona piece of paper, and have come across that paper countless times in the last five years. My younger sister has been living in Boston and earlier this year saw an eye doctor. He gave her a dignosis as well and it was the same one Liz's doctor gave her. So I have thought more about it. The name of it is Kjer's optic neuropathy or dominant optic atrophy. Here is a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kjer%27s_optic_neuropathy

Now ona completely unrelated topic, here are some cute pictures I took of the kids a couple of weekends ago. Enjoy!

Fishing

Here are some pictures of when Brian went fishing with his dad and two of his brothers. You can tell which pics were from the second day because they are all pretty red from the sun.