A great day!

I truly have felt loved today. There have been so many people to make me feel special on my birthday, starting this morning with cards and presents from my family. My girls are so thoughtful and cute. I just feel so blessed to call them my daughters. And what can I say about my husband? He did small things throughout the day that just really made me know he was thinking of me and made me feel very loved. Then I never check Facebook, but I got lots of birthday wishes there and phone calls from family near and far. A friend from church stopped by and gave a really sweet gift, and I even got carolers at our door who took a break from their Christmas carols to wish me a happy birthday. It was wonderful! Nikki wrote me this note in church yesterday, and it just made me laugh:

"Dear, Mom
I wish you a happy Almost late birthday. I hope you have a good last day working. when are you going to give your job to Kelly?

Love, Nikki
P.S. merry cristmis too!"

For Family Night Activity

The kids saw Julie's Elf Yourself video, and they wanted to do it for our family night activity tonight. We had so much fun finding the craziest pictures of each other we could.

These kids make me laugh

Yesterday morning I asked Hannah if she had completed her morning jobs. She said she had. "Did you do your hair?" (It was clear to me that she hadn't.) She gave a weak kind of yes. "Did you brush it?" She gave this huge sigh and said with disgust, "I have to brush it every day!"

Yesterday I told Ryan to come lay down so I could change his diaper, but he said, "Daddy did it!" Sweetheart, your daddy has been gone for five days. Once a week just doesn't cut it for diaper changes.

Nikki asked me one day this week if I would crochet a little kite for Hannah's Christmas present from her. Umm, okay, I told her I would see what I could do. A little later she came and whispered in my ear that when I was finished I should just go put it in the orange gift bag under the tree that said To: Hannah, From: Nikki.

2010

If you can't see the video, try this link.

Pre-gingerbread houses...

Decorating a gingerbread house is one of my favorite traditions at Christmas-time. Nikki decorated one at school last week made out of graham crackers, and Hannah asked if we could do that for a school activity, too. Of course, but she couldn't wait through the weekend until the next school day. So, on Saturday Nikki got to make her second one this year, and this doesn't count as a real gingerbread house to me. I still plan on making a gingerbread house (not a graham cracker house) before Christmas gets here. For some reason, I don't think the girls have a problem with that. Ryan didn't care about putting the house together, he just wanted the candy!

School clothes?

This is how I found Hannah when I came to see how her work was coming along the other day. Hmm... Maybe I should turn up the heat? It has been really cold lately, although when I think about the pictures my friend in Montreal posted on her blog -- 3 feet of snow on their patio furniture -- I think I have nothing to complain about. I just might do it anyway! I don't like to be cold, and I don't think Hannah does either!

I'm here...

No, I haven't crashed my tank of a van yet, and Hannah and I haven't pulled each other's hair out ... yet. Ha Ha! I keep thinking I need to update the blog, but when?! Nikki was in a Christmas concert at school tonight. It was really cute. Hopefully I'll have a chance to post the pictures of it tomorrow. I think I know the songs just as well as she does with how much she has been singing them around the house this past week.

Hannah is doing really well with the homeschooling. She works so hard and is just a wonderful girl. I love having this time with her, and Ryan does, too! All day long he asks, "What's Hannah doing?" It's really cute.

Okay, I'm ready for bed. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures up tomorrow, but in the meantime... things are going well.

Changes...

So, now that our third child is two years old, we are finally owners of a minivan. While having Ryan backhand Hannah in the face any time he thought she was encroaching on his space was a great motivator to make the upgrade, sad to say it wasn't the catalyst. A few weeks ago Nate was sitting at a stoplight and some guy slammed into the back of him. Nate thinks he was texting because his explanation of what happened didn't make any sense. Thankfully none of the kids were with him, as the impact was hard enough to deploy both airbags and give Nate a pretty sore neck for a few days. Nate is going to be traveling for quite a bit the next few months, so we were thinking we would just try it out as a one-car family for a while. But he found a really good deal on a used Honda Odyssey. He has been keeping tabs on what's on the market for a while because we knew this would be our next big purchase, and we thought we would wait until the spring to save up what we needed to pay for one. We were excited when this van checked out to be in fairly good condition. Anyway, we are really grateful that we could get it now, even though I feel like I'm driving a tank after driving a Honda Civic for so long!

The really big change will come next week. I'm going to start homeschooling Hannah for a variety of reasons. When the thought first crossed my mind that I could just homeschool Hannah and leave Nikki in school, I was pretty surprised by the idea. I tried to homeschool Hannah for a little bit in the first grade and failed miserably with it, so I know it is because of a lot of prayer and inspiration that I can honestly say I am excited about this. I think it will be so good for her, and I am looking forward to having some time to focus just on her. I ordered a book of art lessons and it came in the mail yesterday. I asked her if I could be a student along with her and go through the book, too. It looks like a lot of fun! My dad and my sister are great artists, and I've always wished I could be, too. I know you can't teach talent, but I can at least have fun trying. So, I'm sure I will lose my mind here over the next few months. What a ride this life is!

Nikki, Nikki, NIKKI!

We were heading out the door last night, and Hannah called out as she walked into the kitchen, "Umm, Mom, I don't think we can go to gymnastics tonight!" This was the lovely sight she saw. Clearly, Ryan doesn't have that much artistic talent yet - he even had earrings painted on. What is all over him? Fingernail polish. Yep. I only took a picture because one day I hope to be able to laugh at it, and it's really not so bad this morning as it was last night. On the upside, Nikki did admit to doing it the first time I asked about what happened. That's an improvement, maybe she has been listening a little bit to me. Also, it just so happened to be children's fingernail polish that wiped off of his body with just a warm washcloth. She is so lucky!! I'm not sure if the shirt can be salvaged, though, and it is one of Ryan's favorites. He loves the monkey on it. We'll see how it comes out in the laundry today, but I am no good with stains.

Nikki's Monster Story

This one made me laugh. I'll transcribe it for you....

by Nikki Robbins
If I took a monster to school... He would either do his homework quietly... or... eat the principle. And then I would take him home and .... Eat, sleep, play with my monster at home so he doesn't eat anyone. And what do you think he would do next.... Yep he'd play piano! So he would wake up my baby brother. And then mom would come and take that monster and put it in the trash can. But when Mom is sleeping I would sneak outside in to the dark at 10:00 pm. I would get my monster and tuck it under my bed just in time. I love my monster. the end