My Biggest Tree Ornament!

Every Monday we have Family Night; a wonderful institution we have practiced since the beginning of our marriage so it was in place before any of our children arrived.  It’s part of the glue of family life for us and has been a huge blessing to us with all that pulls our family in different directions these days.  Everyone contributes to the evening right down to the very youngest.  After going over the weekly calendar we sang a Christmas song in a round dividing into three groups to help hold parts, Nathan found the Baby Jesus in the Nativity as we retold that story with all of its little characters, of course there were treats; brownies that Kaitlyn made, and most importantly we had the opportunity to take the evening and decorate our Christmas tree as a family.  We enjoyed placing our eclectic collection up on the tree and recalling memories and times and people from each one as we placed our most fragile ornaments up top and tried to fill the bottom out with soft un-breakable ornaments.  Then we added a little excitement as two new participants to Christmas entered the room; our two newest members of the family.  

    

This is my largest tree ornament; she didn’t want to be forgotten about and must have heard that I have a cat theme going on with the ornaments that I cherish in my collection.

    

Kitty’s first Christmas and she knew just what to do when a tree appeared suddenly in the house.  You can see the mischief in her eyes.

     

Although younger, Spooky climbed under the branches and curled up contentedly on the quilted tree skirt I made 15 years ago now as a R.S. project.  This brought back tender memories of Samantha who always loved Christmas and could be found each December in this same spot.  He is a good boy. 

Perspective…  And yes!  She did make it to the top before we were done!  Trying to pull her out in the midst of the tangle of light strings is a real trick when combined with claws. 

Sweet boy heads in for a kiss!  He always kisses our kittens and they usually kiss him back. 
This idea did not go over so well at the park last month when he wanted to kiss someone’s dog that we met on a walk.

Reindeer Boy!

The tree is decorated; my little country angel goes on top last.

Five happy but tired children gather around the Christmas Tree. 

My biggest ornament left the tree alone finally in favor of a warm spot on top of the heating vent.

Goodbye November

Nathan began matching and fitting shapes correctly this month.

Kaitlyn played house and learned her own home phone number.  It’s easy to learn when you learn it with the phone number song.  She also learned to print her name this month without any help.

Nathan took his baby Alex shopping for Thanksgiving food.  Nathan is a very sweet daddy to his baby Alex and makes sure baby has his quilty and lots of kisses.

Kaitlyn, Nathan AND Sandy are learning about cause and effect while having loads of giggly fun with the ball popper.  Nathan gets so excited with this toy.  And I have frequently found Sandy trying to turn it on at 11 p.m. on her own!

 

 

Nathan loves fitting things together, including lacing strings through beads.  He needs a little help to catch the lace but he’s got the hang of it.  Sandy is always very interested in this activity too. 

Nathan doesn’t mind.  I mind when I keep finding laces everywhere through the house.  Sandy actually stands up and gets them out of the toy bin herself and carries them around in her mouth.  Every morning I collect them from around the house.

Nathan continues to learn body parts and loves reading books.  He has a good attention span for the books he chooses to look at or bring to you for reading with him.

Kaitlyn enjoys setting her table for an elegant tea party with Bitty-Bitty; fun practice for our up-coming Thanksgiving holiday.

Kaitlyn and Nathan can finally play on the seesaw together as they are within 10 pounds of each other, Nathan weighing in at 22 pounds.  He is 31 1/2 inches tall now.

Beautiful November days for playing in the yard, Nathan loves going “up and down” and Kaitlyn enjoys her brother as a playmate finally.

    

We spent time with a friend for a play date… something I don’t often find enough time to do…

  

 

… and ended with a delicious pre-thanksgiving “feast” for lunch… at least one appealing to three year olds.

    

We visited with grandparents over the holiday who brought frozen banana treats which were enjoyed.

And of course we talked about pilgrims and Indians as Thanksgiving approached and we read plenty of books about Autumn as well.

With Thanksgiving passing we offer our farewells to the season of fall in anticipation of new excitement.

Goodbye November!

Lindsay Rides Again

Lindsay presented this video from summer horse camp at her Talent Show back in October.  Somehow we forgot to post it.  You’ve seen the pictures but the seeing the action is different.           -Enjoy!

Do You See What I See?

Kaitlyn was so EXCITED Wednesday morning and told me as soon as the kids left for school that we had to hurry and get ready to go outside.  “I can’t wait to go outside and play.  I just can’t wait”!  I told her I had a few things to do first but she was persistent.  She just couldn’t wait… as she had stated so I asked what the huge hurry was.  She told me in a huge whisper in the most expressive face ever “because it’s SNOWING”.  I had to smile.  Indeed it had been snowing for the past 15 hours (they warned us at church as the snow fall began the previous night) and it hadn’t quit even yet.  So I assured her that we would get our coats on shortly and go outside in the yard.  Kaitlyn told me that “we need boots and scarves and hats and mittens and SNOWPANTS too”.  I looked out the window once again and assured her that we did NOT need the snow pants.  (I usually reserve hunting for the hand-me-down snow pants for the extreme occasion of a snow day).  Judge for yourself.   

I thought mud pants and mud boots might be more appropriate actually since the ground was quite mushy-squishy from all the recent rain. 

I heard Kaitlyn excitedly call “Mom!  Look!”

She was so proud of the snow ball she made and warned me that she was going to throw it at me!!!  She did!

It is still snowing during our outdoor time.  It looked pretty but I don’t think you can see it in the pictures.  I think you really need a microscope to see the flakes which for me doesn’t count as a real snowfall.  Growing up in Michigan and Upstate New York where they don’t bat an eyelash at the snow we receive here annually when they get it overnight,  I have a hard time getting too excited about this “snowfall”.  As a side note, I got woken up by one of my older kids before 7 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving who brought the announcement to my bedside that it had snowed and I should come and look out the window.  I told them I would see it later and I was not disappointed with that decision when I LATER looked out.  On occasions like this I still feel like a foreigner, even in my very own home.

Cuddle Bunny

Our “kitten” is settling in just fine with his new family.  He and Sara can eat right along side each other now. 

He can comfortably fall asleep in the middle of everything at any time of day or night.

He enjoys playing active games of “hide and seek” with Sandy in our basement during the “evening frenzies” followed by watching caroling cats on the TV with her as they settle in for the night.

    

And he is an absolute angel when allowing this three year old to cuddle and snuggle with him. 

    

   

There is never a bad time to cuddle with him.  This is a very good kitten.

 

   

While Spooky looks kind of big for a kitten he was just 4 lbs. 11 oz. as a five month old cat as of 2 weeks ago.  However I can attest to you that he has gained some weight since then.  I could feel his bones two weeks ago but he is quickly filling out and gaining weight and with some medicine is feeling much better and much happier.  I think he’s going to be a big cat.  And Spooky is working out just fine in this household.

Dapper Boy

Tristan is on his way to the Symphony at Music Hall with the entire second grade at school this morning.  Lindsay had a turn yesterday to go.

Neither child was happy about being told to dress “appropriately” for the symphony but the school also encourages a dress code so their friends usually dress up too and makes it a little easier on the kids.  Tristan decided he could not contest the “church clothes” any longer and ended up thinking long and hard last night about which tie to choose with which shirt and made his own decision on “suit coat or sweater vest”.  At the last minute I found him with sneakers on!!!  I didn’t mind that for taking the recycling out; one of his chores this week.  Then he tried telling me his black shoes were lost but I told him EXACTLY where to find them and there they were!  He looked very dapper walking out the door this morning, though I’m thinking that it’s about time to hunt down a suit coat in a larger size.  Giving my secrets away I will tell you that this suit coat is a $60 suit coat from The Children’s Place which I bought with the tags still on, at a second hand for $8 a few years ago.  I know some people would still find that expensive but I think it’s great.  It’s brand new!  I love to find great deals.  It is how I afford to nicely clothe all five children on a single income.