Thanksmas 2014

Lots of pictures for our short week of celebrating Thanksgiving.  Elizabeth, Kent and Ardis came to this year and we had a wonderful few days together.

Elizabeth and Kent arrived Tuesday afternoon.  That morning I was cleaning up the house and every time I turned around, Colin had dumped out whatever I just cleaned up.  No wonder I always feel like I'm picking up! 

Ardis arrived Wednesday and while the boys went grocery shopping, the girls got pedicures.  They always go above and beyond to pamper Alison and she soaks up every minute.

Thursday morning, the kids colored and played games while the food was being prepared.

When Colin got up from his nap, we had an early Thanksgiving dinner.

 

After we ate, the kids attacked Granddaddy.

 

Then Alison turned into a princess and begged daddy to come give her a kiss.

 

Then she turned on him too. 

 

Alison taught Granddaddy how to play 'banana split' and then we all had dessert.

 

Nothing better than coffee and pumpkin pie by the fire.  Except the kids and I had cookies and milk and we were pretty happy.

Friday morning, we celebrated Christmas and the kids could not wait to open presents.

 

 

Everyone was so generous and the kids had a great time playing with their new toys the rest of the day.  I loved how a lot of their new things, they could all play with...which is a challenge with different ages and different genders.

That afternoon, Kent took our family pictures.  I'm really looking forward to seeing them!  I took a few shots after we came inside.

Photo by Alison

Some time in the midst of all the craziness, Alison decided it was time to be a bride and have a tea party.  She's going to be a beautiful bride some day.

 

Everyone left yesterday and I thought it was funny how the kids readjusted to "normal".  Alison realized that she had my undivided attention again and attempted to set a world record for how many things she could get me to do in a day.  Eli came out of the shell he had been hiding in the entire time and was excited to play with his toys all by himself.  I can't even type all the noises I heard from his room all afternoon, but he was in make believe world most of the day.
  Colin realized that he had slowly been getting away with more and more while we were distracted and decided to test how many melt downs would get his way.

Detox is never fun, but worth it to see family.  I do really love how our kids can jump in and connect with family they haven't seen in a year (which is a really long time in their short life) and I love how affectionate they are to people they've just met.  I was proud of them this week and I pray that these are traits they will always carry.

 

putting the new puzzle together again this morning

This week

Alison fell in love with being able to make her own hot chocolate...thank you Keurig :)

 

Colin wore a hat and gloves around the house most days.

 

Even on the potty

 

Eli is still the lego master.

Alison and I played in the leaves one afternoon.  The boys wanted no part of the fun, which really surprised me.  Maybe if we had taken light sabers out they would have come.

We were running some errands and it happened to be the tree lighting night in the shopping center we were in.  So we spontaneously joined the festivities.

 

Watching the tree light up

Standing in the "snow zone"...but she couldn't really get under the snow maker

The evening was all around unexpected.  While waiting for the tree to light up, Alison asked if she could see Santa, who was sitting by the tree.  There were only a few kids in line, so we agreed.  For the first time in Alison's life, she met Santa.  Colin was highly confused what was going on and Eli hid behind Ben's legs until it was all over.

 

Meeting Santa: check.

Funny part: Alison thought Mrs. Claus was Santa's mommy.

This week

Ben had off Monday and Tuesday and we got a lot done!  He got to experience grocery shopping with 2 kids and the craziness of taking kids to school.  He took Alison lunch at school and we started working on Christmas presents.

Tuesday, we enjoyed the last nice day of the season.  It was warm and sunny and we knew the cold was coming soon.  We only have about 30 minutes after Alison gets home from school before it gets dark so we spent every minute we could on our bikes.

Wednesday, Alison had Girl Scouts and Ben was in DC so the boys had to come with me.  We had a coupon for a free frosty at Wendy's, so we used that up while we waited for Alison.

 

 The boys were not as excited about our outing as I thought they would be.

Thursday, Alison asked the boys if they wanted her to teach them how to do yoga.  This is yoga with Alison:

Friday we went on a date with the Boomer's while Hannah babysat the kids.  It was a great arrangement!  While at dinner, we shared with them that we were considering homeschooling (they have always home schooled their 4 kids) and George jokingly said, "You haven't started sewing too, have you Jen?".  I laughed and said, "Actually, I have!".  Oh no.  We already are the stereotypical home school family; we make our own bread and sew and buy eggs from a farm down the road.  Now I just need to start wearing long jean skirts and I'm set.

But in all seriousness on that note, we have officially decided to home school.  This is Eli's last week at preschool and we'll pull Alison out after Christmas (we'll have her finish this semester in school).  I'll do a post on all the reasons why, but for now, I thank all of you for praying for us.  I am confident that this is what God wants for our family.  I fully know it will be hard, but I equally know that it is the job God is calling for me to do.

This week

Monday I went on my first jog since the half marathon.  After a month of resting, I was nervous but knew my sanity needed to get out there.  So when Alison got home from school, she jumped on her bike and rode along side of me.  Ben told her to come back home and get him if I collapsed.  I didn't :) and we had a great little outing...except for being chased by the ducks looking for food.

When we got home, the kids drew pictures of animals.

And this is what happens when you give Colin a cup of milk:

Thursday we had a picnic dinner while we watched a movie.  I tend to do this a lot when Ben is gone.  I thought it was cute how the boys were snuggled together with blankets.

This week, my life was made.  In the middle of the movie, Colin walked over to my chair and said, "I nuggle you momma".  We have started calling Colin our little tornado and when a tornado stops to ask for a snuggle, it is the most precious thing.  

I also attempted round 2 of the 'eat as much as you want' theory that night.  It's not an all around bad theory.   They get to try all different kinds of candy they've never had before and then are completely sick of sugar.  No one got sick and they all went to bed just fine...but I still have some candy left and sadly it's all the stuff that I bought to hand out.  Note to self: next year, be more generous when handing out candy!

Friday, it was Eli's turn to make my life.  He asked if he could help me make bread and then said, "When I grow up, I want to be a cooker like you".

mixing up bread together

Saturday, Ben and I ran together for the first time since the race and I'm happy to say that my foot felt 100% normal! The trail was full of beautiful leaves and it was the perfect fall morning to be out for a run.  Now I just have to soak in as much as I can before winter hits!

This week, for me, was titled "ruffle everyone's feathers".  I uncharacteristically had to say things boldly to several people and found myself running against everyone elses current.  I think it was good for me...a chance to learn how to stick up for myself, but it wasn't the most fun.  A big ruffle, that we would love prayer over, is the kids schooling.  I gave Eli's preschool an official notice this week that we will be pulling him out on the 20th (when our payment is up).  There's a slew of reasons why we made this decision and although most other parents would agree with the "wrong" being done at this school, no one else is making the choice to take their kids out. 
I've also grown concerned about Alison's schooling.  The past several weeks, she's been consistently asking me to print information pages off the internet and for new notebooks.  She started filling her backpack with extra work, notebooks and books so she would have something to do, because she's bored out of her mind at school.  She's asking me to pick her up early from school and comes home complaining that the day was so long and she just spent the whole time waiting.  She finishes her homework in a couple of minutes and then will make up her own extra work.  This isn't typical of her at all and I'm afraid if she continues to be bored that she'll lose interest in learning.  I was persistent with her teacher to get an application for the gifted program, but my gut tells me she won't get in.  Tonight, she said that she was dreading going to school and made a comment how she feels like she doesn't get enough time with us.  All this to say, Ben and I are starting to feel that maybe homeschooling is the best option for our family.  I've been through a season of God clearing my plate and I've come to a place that is open to what he wants me to do with my time (except for chasing our little tornado).  I'm pretty excited about the idea of homeschooling and I think that there would be some great blessings of it.  There is a tiny part of me that is scared too.  It is a sacrifice and it would mean a lot of change on my part and I would have to build a lot of patience.  So please be praying for wisdom in this decision :)

Halloween '14

Alison and Ben both got home early on Friday, so we had the whole afternoon together before our Halloween party began. 

Alison dove into scooping out the guts while the boys wanted no part of being dirty. 

The kids designed the face and each took a turn helping me carve the pumpkin.

Doesn't he look older?

Ben was making pizza while we worked on the pumpkin and shortly some friends came over to join our party.  We ate dinner and then took turns passing out candy and taking the kids trick-or-treating.

 Alison decided to make her own Halloween costume this year.  She was Elsa and I am so proud  of her creativity.

The kids did great saying "trick-or-treat" and "thank you" and had a blast running around in the dark.  My favorite part was watching fearless Colin run up to houses by himself and then park himself on the porch to carefully put the piece of candy in his bag.

 We lost count how many suckers Colin had...suckers are his favorite!