It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

I am so happy that I found my Christmas spirit this year! The last few years Christmas has felt like more of a chore than a choice and I grudgingly put up (some) decorations and tried to get into the spirit. Thankfully this year is different! I was ready for the tree Thanksgiving weekend! We put up lights on the outside of the house, decorated the inside of the house and we're even hosting our first Christmas party in years!


Before we headed out to the Silver Oak Christmas Party I snapped these pictures of the kids. They were going to be for our Christmas cards but I ended up choosing something else


I love this picture of Henry! Look at those curls! Can you believe that Jason wants to cut them off?


She is getting so grown up!

Last weekend we finally(!) got our tree.


I sure love this man. Especially how he puts up with all of my wild ideas.

Catch Up

I've fallen behind on the BlogWagon again. Last weekend (or was it the weekend before?), I took pictures of the kids dressed in their Holiday best as we got ready to head out to the Silver Oak Christmas party. The next day I downloaded the pictures to the computer. That was when I discovered that I still had pictures from carving pumpkins on the camera! I guess life as been a little crazy!


Always a ham
Look at those curls!
She did not want to touch the "guts"
But did want to pose for a picture
He did not want to be outdone
Daddy helped Henry

Sitting on the pumpkins from Grampa

In November Cooper sang at church with the preschool.


Thanksgiving at Grammie's
There were 18 of us this year!

Having fun at the park on a sunny day in the beginning of December.
It was a little chilly
He loves the swings
Always reading

End of Summer

It is getting colder and colder here and I think I have to admit that summer is over. In fact, I'm probably going to have to put my flip-flops away and find some real shoes. (Maybe it is a good excuse to buy the new boots I've been eyeing.)

Looking back through pictures, I discovered these that I never posted. As the summer was drawing to a close, we tried to get out into the fresh air in the evenings before the time change. We rediscovered the rope swing in the middle of our neighborhood.







Everyone enjoyed it and like so many other things, it made me wonder why don't we do this more often? Of course, now with the cold weather, coming rain, and time change we will need to wait until spring before we can visit it again...

A Knight, An Angel, a Masquerade Ball & a Monkey?

We had quite an assortment of Halloween costumes this year. Each child (except Henry) got to pick their own and we ended up with Sir Cooper the Noble Knight. He was wearing the Armour of God.

He picked it out himself months ago and has been talking about it ever since.

Miss Grace picked an Angel costume out of our dress-up clothes.

I made this for Emma when she was in 1st grade in the Christmas pageant.

Emma and her friends decided to be guests as a masquerade ball.

She borrowed the dress from Grammie and made her own mask.

Henry was adorable as a Monkey, complete with banana in his back pocket.

Jason did a great job picking this one out!

Thunder

I remembered to take the camera to Emma Jo's soccer game today! This is the first time this season!

While the team was warming up, Henry played with an extra ball.


Then the game started. We did great the first half! But the 2nd half was another story. Cloverdale is always a tough opponent and they ran away with the game the 2nd half.



Cooper made sure to put on plenty of sunscreen.

What Happened to September?

What happened to September. The month was a blur. The kids are firmly settled in school. Emma has started soccer. Gracie is a brownie. Cooper is loving being an Owl. And Henry is still not sleeping!

School started the Wednesday after we got home from Santa Cruz. Gracie is in the 2nd Grade, Emma is in 7th and Cooper is an Owl.

Mrs. Williams is Gracie's teacher. I am very excited to have her as a teacher. Emma Jo had her for part of the day in 2nd and I've always been impressed with how calm she is. She works in the nursery at least one weekend a month and she and her husband have lavish loved on each of the boys while they have been in the nursery. She is also part of a prayer group at school and she prayed for us throughout Henry's pregnancy.

This is Emma's 2nd year in Jr. High. She has the same primary teacher. Her class is a combo class with the 6th graders but they have many core classes separate. She is studying History, Math, English, Science, Computers, Spanish, Latin, and Bible. This year we have new teachers for Spanish, Computer and History. I'm very happy that Emma is experiencing multiple teachers each day. I hope it prepares her for High School in a couple of years. I'm leaning towards public High School and I pray that it isn't too hard of a transition.

Cooper is an Owl this year. His teacher is Ms. Anderson who is the sister of his assistant teacher last year. He is in a small class with 7 boys and 2 girls. He seems to be thriving and he can spell his name!

Henry started walking just after his 1st birthday and now he is running everywhere. He learned how to tackle and wrestle while we were in Santa Cruz. Now it is very common to hear Jason and I telling him to "be nice to your brother, don't tackle your sister!" He loves them but he isn't gentle. One of Henry's favorite ways to express his love is to sit on your head.

Emma Jo is now fully engulfed in Soccer. She is playing for Coach Rob again on the Red Thunder. He is a great coach and she is really enjoying the season. Emma plays multiple positions but usually plays either Attacking Mid or Goalie. She also plays Defending Mid, Full Back and even played Forward last week. She is becoming very skilled at controlling the ball and not panicking under pressure. Emma has a great kick and can boot the ball past half field on Goal Kicks. I am really enjoying watching her play. Last Saturday Emma's game was at 7pm under the lights. It was very exciting game and made me hope that she might like to play for Windsor High in a couple of years.

Gracie is in her 3rd year of Girl Scouts, this year as a Brownie. She is also doing ballet this year after a two year absence. She is loving both, especially Brownies with Rhoda. Last weekend was "Fall Encampment" for girl scouts and Grace go to go to Cazadero with Rhoda and 6 other girls from her troop. They left Friday evening and didn't return until just before lunch on Sunday. Grace had a great time and I don't think she missed us at all. Cooper on the other hand continually asked when we were going to pick up Grace. They are great playmates and Cooper was bored without his "girlie".

Life can be a little overwhelming with four children. I've been swamped at work and have started going to Oakville 1 or 2 days a week. This just adds to the chaos of multiple after-school activities each week. To top it off, Henry still doesn't sleep. In fact he has become a worse sleeper over the past month. He used to go to sleep around 8pm, wake for a snack around midnight, another snack around 3am and then up for the day around 6am. It wasn't ideal but it was okay. Then he started waking around 11:30pm and not going back to sleep until after 1:30am. After a couple of weeks of that, Jason decided to step in. Now thankfully Jason puts him to bed 4-5 nights a week. It is tough on Jason but so nice for me after 13+ nights of taking him to bed every single night. Now I have the option to unwind a little in the evenings and I even have gone to a few women's events at church. I pray that someday soon Henry will start sleeping and that we can encourage it without forcing him.