Trimming The Christmas Tree

Before we put the ornaments on the Christmas tree, we made gingerbread cookies. We read a book last night that had a recipe for gingerbread cookies in it, so I told the boys we would make them after school today. They all had a lot of fun.

Justin (above)

Brenden (below)

Olivia

Brenden, Justin, Mommy & Olivia

After baking the cookies we all gathered around the tree and put the ornaments on. This is the first year that Olivia has done this. We did it last year while she was sleeping. We figured the less attention we brought to the tree, the better. We figure this year it isn't going to matter, she is going to mess with it no matter what we do. We will just have to make sure that any of the really breakable ones are towards the top.

Mommy (above)
Daddy (below)

Brenden

Justin & Brenden

Olivia

Justin

The Joys of Potty Training

Olivia loves to go on the potty. She isn't doing it on a regular basis yet, but it's a start.

As you can see, she loves toilet paper. We can't take our eyes off of her for more than 2 seconds or she has atleast half of the role on the floor. Daddy made a big mistake tonight and told her to go in and go potty, but didn't go in with her. We now need a new role of toilet paper in the bathroom.

Her newest thing is getting all of her rubber ducks and putting them in a row before she sits down to go potty. She is such a goof! I guess you could say that she has all of her ducks in a row. LOL!

Thanksgiving

We have done something new for 2 years now on Thanksgiving. Our church has a dinner for those in need or just those that are going to be alone on Thanksgiving, and we have gone to help with that. It has been such a blessing to give thanks by serving others.

After the dinner at church we went to Don's dad and mom's for awhile. The kids had a lot of fun playing with the other kids.

To end the day, mom made dinner, and we looked over Black Friday papers.

Justin

Brenden

Olivia

I almost didn't put this picture on here because her face is so dirty with chocolate, but she looks so cute. She has glasses on from a big stuffed rabbit Mau-Mau has. She thought she was pretty cool!

Brenden

We have a chalk board in our kitchen that I write on what we are having for dinner each day. Brenden has been doing the honor the last couple of weeks to give him practice with writing. Well tonight when he asked if he could write down what we were having I told him we were going to Mau-Mau's church for a dinner. So he decided that is what he would write on the board, "We are going to Mau-Mau's church". He is such a funny kid!

Blood Drive

There was a blood drive at the boys school today. If they get someone to give blood they get a shirt. Mau-Mau and I went to give blood so they would each get a shirt.

Justin, the reason that I give blood.

A short time after Justin was born at 28 weeks gestation, he needed a blood transfusion. Luckily Mau-Mau was the same blood type that he was and she was able to give her blood to him. Since then I have become a blood donor so I can give someone else a chance at life.

Brenden in his shirt. He wanted to put it on as soon as he got it.

Along with the kids shirts, we also got Paula Deen aprons. Mau-Mau put hers on Olivia, and she loved it. She was in by her kitchen within minutes, cooking us dinner.

Scouting For Food

Keeping Warm! Justin & Brenden (left) / AJ & Trenton (right)

The boys all had fun going from house to house looking for bags.

All the food was taken to the Arnold Food Pantry.

The Election

The election has been a pretty big subject at our house for awhile, as I'm sure is true with a lot of homes. The boys have been talking about it at school a lot. Justin has been upset because a lot of the kids in his class keep saying Obama is going to win. In fact, Obama did win in his class election today. McCain won in Brenden's class, so he was very excited about that. Yesterday Don and I were talking about the election and I jokingly asked Olivia who she was going to vote for, and she said Moses. We are studying Moses in BSF (Bible Study Fellowship), so she has Moses on the brain. Don said that he would probably do the best job.

Olivia's First Haircut

Before

She was really excited about getting her hair cut.

Everything changed really quickly after Mau-Mau started coming toward her with the scissors.
She was not happy AT ALL!

Once Mau-Mau put the scissors down she calmed down.

After
Much better! Now she can see.

Six Flags

Mau-Mau, Brenden & Justin on the Scooby Doo ride.(left) (We had just been on the Log Flume, so Mau-Mau is wet.) Brenden, Scrappy & Justin(right)

<--Olivia on her favorite ride, the swings

Justin & Mom->

Justin got to ride the Super Man ride for the first time today. He was so excited, but very nervous. There were a couple of times I thought he was going to get out of line. He stuck to it though, and he loved it. I want to point out the fact that I, mommy, am the one taking him. Daddy, the man who is scared of nothing, won't ride it. He got on it one time, and won't go again. I love giving him a hard time about it because I am the one that is always scared of things.

Going up!Us at the top!

After the drop!

The Lady Bug

We decided that today we were going to go for a drive to see all the pretty trees, stop by a park to eat our lunch, and then go to Six Flags for awhile. Well I went out to clean up the van a little before we left, and Olivia came out with me. After a few minutes she decided to go back inside with Daddy. All of a sudden she started screaming. She runs over to me, and I picked her up to see what the problem was. When I looked at her face, there it was, a lady bug in her nose. I tried to get her to blow air out of her nose, but she didn't understand what I was talking about. Instead she rubbed at her nose. Well I thought that the lady bug had gotten out and flew away, but I think when she rubbed it she just pushed him the rest of the way in there. When we were getting in the van to leave she started screaming and holding her face, then her throat. We called the hospital to see if we should bring her in. They contacted our doctors office, and they said that if it was hurting her to bring her in so they could get it out. By the time we got the call back we had gotten her mind off of it, and she had stopped screaming. We decided that it must have gone the rest of the way down, and didn't take her. She was fine until we went to try to put her to bed. I think she was overtired and just scared from the whole thing. We laid on the sofa with her until she fell asleep, then put her in her bed. This was definitely an interesting day. I feel so sorry for her because she is so scared now. Hopefully the bugs will all die soon, and she will have forgotten about it by spring.