New Years Eve Countdown 'till Noon.

Today at our Science Museum they had a New Years Eve party. There were crafts for the kids to make, cookies, Sprite in toasting glasses, and at 12:00 noon, a huge balloon drop. 

It was pretty crazy busy, but still fun. 

The best part is that now I have zero guilt about not letting the kiddos stay up until midnight. To be fair, I had almost zero guilt before this. We tried to let Connor stay up last year and he made it until 10:15 and then fell asleep on his dad's lap. 

Here are a few pictures from the event. 

 Waiting for noon. 

 Connor thinking about 1000 balloons dropping from the sky. 

 10, 9, 8 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1...

 The dropping of the balloons. 

 Then the popping of the balloons commenced, at which point we had to leave. Sophia wasn't a big fan of that. Connor and Sophia each rescued a balloon to take home. 

Motor City

Last Friday we took a little road trip with the kids to Detroit to visit the Henry Ford museum. I'm not sure what I expected Detroit to be like, although I did think there was a very small chance we could run into Eminem (based on those Chrysler commercials), but it turns out that it kind of feels like every other biggish city.

I did find myself saying to Ben the same thing that I say every time we drive through Michigan and I see all the trees and the lakes: "I would be okay with you getting a call here."

The Henry Ford museum was really neat. Ben and I think it is one of those places that you can go to with young kids and have one experience and then go back to without any kids and have a totally different experience. It is a museum that appeals to a broad range of ages and that is the best kind of museum in my book.

 Connor really enjoyed the train exhibits that were open for Christmas. They had both a Lionel display and a Lego display. After looking at the trains we were able to do some playing in a train playing area.

 Sophia was less sure about playing in the train area. She liked the concept of playing on the train toys, but not really the execution of it. She wanted out, she wanted in, she wanted back out...you get the general idea.

The museum had a number of really neat exhibits. Other than the trains, we probably spent the most time looking at the airplanes. Connor really liked to pretend to fly them and he also thought it was really cool to read about the different types of planes they used to make. 

 The Rosa Parks bus was on display at the museum. We tried to explain to Connor the significance of what happened on the bus, but he seemed a little confused that there ever could have been a time where people didn't just sit where ever they wanted to on the bus. The idea that people were treated so differently based on their race seemed completely nonsensical to him.

 My favorite part of the whole museum was a 1941 house design that never took off. It was a two bedroom round house that didn't sit on the ground and was suspended in the air by cables. (I know what you are thinking...How do we not live in these now?) The best part to me was the advertising campaign about how great the house was. As you can see, I especially liked this advertisement.

Here is a picture of the house. It had such fancy things as a rotating closet to make getting to your items so much easier to get to. The amazing advancements in the house also included round corners in the bathroom, making cleaning a breeze! This is the only model that exists today.

 They also had a Wizard of Oz exhibit that was very hands on and the kids could play different areas. By the time I snapped this photo, the little ones were pretty exhausted. Also, they were pretty much over me taking pictures of them.

 Lastly, we visited the section of the museum that had the thing that Connor had been looking forward to the whole trip. That's right, the highlight of the trip for Connor was the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile. I have to admit, a giant traveling hot dog is pretty cool.

It was a great trip and we all had a wonderful time. The highlight for me was stopping on the way home at IKEA to get some goodies. This was probably the low spot for my wallet, but we grabbed some pretty cool things. We also kept telling ourselves that we may move to a part of the country this summer where an IKEA is much further than just a couple of hours. The horror.

Merry Christmas to All.

The kids were being pretty cooperative at last night's Christmas Eve service. I snapped some good pictures of them.

 Connor and Sophia

 Our sweet girl. 

 One handsome boy. 

 A pregnant Mama.  24 weeks and counting. 

Me and the kids. 

Things that go bump in the night.

I've been having trouble lately with some night time waking. I'll wake up every morning around 3:00 am and cannot get back to sleep for an hour or so.

It turns out that there are a number of things that go bump in the middle of the night in our house.

1. Connor kicking his wall in his room. Seriously. This kid sleeps right up along the wall and evidently attempts to kick his way through the wall all night long. 
2. Sophia throwing animals out of her bed. Every night before bed time, Sophia demands that a series of babies, stuffed animals, and blankets be put in her bed. Then she proceeds to throw them out of her bed at random points in the night. 
3. Elinore. I was thinking that she is a really calm and kind of lazy baby because I don't feel her move a lot during the day. It turns out that she is just saving her acrobatics for the night time. (Coincidentally, this may be way I keep waking up and having trouble getting back to sleep).
4. Our screen door. Even though I make sure every night that it is latched, at some point in the middle of my awake time I will hear the screen door slam shut after the wind has ripped it open. Also, every night, without fail, this scares me half to death. 

It doesn't really amaze me that there is so much noise and activity during the wee morning hours at our house, but I am kind of amazed that I can ever sleep through all this activity. 

My handsome boy.

I realize that all parents think that there children are good looking, but mine seriously are. No really.

I think that if this kid could follow two rules in a row that our future would be bright. Surely he could be in a commercial or two. As it stands, he can't really follow even one rule at a time - so there goes our big shot at fame, fortune, and the like.

I guess I'll settle for his mischievous smile and adorable freckles.

Little Miss Attitude.

Do you remember back when Sophia was born and I said rude and crass things like "she was the most agreeable and sweetest child to ever walk this planet"? Remember that? Also, remember how you all said things like "just wait for it"? Well, I guess that all of you get the last laugh because my sweet and agreeable little girl has turned into a temper wielding monster of a child.

She can still be sweet when the fancy strikes her. Lately, however, she has been all about proving to us the amount of will power she possess.

To prove that the infantile bliss is dead and gone she now does the following on a regular basis:

1. Refuses to eat dinner and instead routinely dumps it on the floor. 
2. Will not, except on extreme duress (the kind only Daddy can provide) say I'm sorry to anyone about anything. That is unless she accidentally bumps into the wall in which case she will very promptly apologize to said wall. 
3. Screams "No thank you Mommy" when I try to subject her to such harsh and cruel punishment as eating a snack...in church. And by screams, I mean screams in a way that makes it sound like she is fearful of me beating her. Again...this happens very loudly in church.  
4. Pulls my hair if she is not getting the amount of attention she feels like she deserves. 
5. Has on more than one occasion thrown herself on the floor for a good old fashioned tantrum. 

Yes, you all did warn me that even if a child is calm and docile, I can't expect that to last forever. You warned me, but was it wrong of me to hope that after raising Connor, God would take it a little bit easier on us? It turns out that was mostly just our practice round. 

Ben and I hope that this is just that stage called the terrible twos, but also remember that it took us four years to get out of that stage with Connor. Honestly, who are we kidding? Depending on the day we are still very much in that stage with Connor. 

We are certain however that this too shall pass. In the meantime, I try to take cute adorable pictures of her that I can look at on those days...you know the ones. 

New to us furniture.

Here are some photos of the furniture that I snagged a month or so ago at the Clothing Coop on seminary.

Sophia felt the need to model the chair for you. We got two chairs like this, one in the family room and one in Ben's office.

 Full size couch. We can fit our whole family on it!

This means that if we invite you over for dinner now or if you come for a visit, you will actually be able to sit down. Pretty impressive, no?

Baby brains.

I had a doctor's appointment yesterday. It went well, and Elinore still appears to be doing just fine. My doctor spent the better part of the appointment looking at a sonogram of her brain, then he took her heart beat, measured her head, and pronounced us good to go for another month.

It hit me as I was driving back to work how completely crazy it is that we have a machine that enables us to see into a mother's womb to the extent that we can look at an unborn baby's brain.

That's crazy, right? And also amazing. It is amazing that we have this technology and people smart enough to use it. Doctor Wheeler said her brain looked "beautiful" and "perfect". I wouldn't know what a perfect brain looked like for anything.  I am also skeptical that a brain could ever look beautiful...but I'll go with his professional opinion.

As amazing as this technology is, I know that the information it provides can be, and often is, used for bad purposes. The doctor looks at the unborn child and the womb and tells the parent that there is a defect in this child and the parents choose to abort their baby, instead of dealing with the burden of raising a disabled child. This is the downside of the amazing ability of the human brain to invent new and wondrous machines.

But for those of us who have had trouble in the past delivering a baby to term, there is nothing more beautiful or reassuring than seeing a little tiny baby brain, the movement of an arm, a beating heart, and a little face on that sonogram machine.

Craving Red Lobster.

I have been craving Red Lobster for two months. I'm not kidding. Everyday around lunch time I think about what I am going to eat and all I want is Red Lobster. Not just any Red Lobster food, but the following delicious combination.

A Caesar Salad. 

Some Cheddar Bay Biscuits.

And Red Lobster's Cajun Chicken Linguine. 

There are two small problems about my unquenchable desire to have Red Lobster. First, Red Lobster is kind of expensive, so I don't really want to take the kids with me (Sophia is at that I would prefer to wander about the restaurant and not stay in this chair stage anyway). The second problem is that Ben has a very short lunch break every day. On Tuesdays and Thursdays he gets approximately twenty minutes for lunch and on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday he gets an hour. An hour seems like it should be enough time to eat a yummy lunch, but by the time you drive there and back you really only have thirty minutes to get seated, get your food, and eat. 

Thus my craving continues. 

So come on dear friends, come to Fort Wayne, and take me to get some ding dang Red Lobster food. Seriously. Now. 

Little Saint Nick.

We don't do the whole Santa Claus thing with our kids. And no...we don't think that you are an evil person if you do this with your kids. (Well, not any more evil of a person than we already thought you were.)

Ben and I have chosen not to do the Santa Claus thing for various reasons. 

1. There is a pretty good reason to celebrate Christmas without having to bring Santa Claus into it. 

2. Instead of focusing on the good gifts we receive from Santa, we can focus on the gift we were given in the birth of a Savior on that Christmas morning and the salvation we received on the cross come Good Friday. 

3. Not buying into the Santa Claus things helps make Christmas in our house less commercially driven. 

4. We figure it is healthy for our kids to have something they do, that not everyone else does. 

Even though we tell our kids that Santa Claus is not real and that the presents they receive on Christmas morning come from us, we do participate in Saint Nicholas Day, which is tomorrow, December 6th. We do not tell our kids that Saint Nicholas is going to come and bring them gifts, but instead talk about the real person behind the Santa Claus myth and what we know about him. 

We tell our kids that Nicholas was a pastor who lived a few hundred years after Jesus. We tell them that Nicholas loved the people in his village, taught them about Jesus, and cared for them. We also read to them the most popular story that circulates about Nicholas - the story of the the poor man and his three penniless daughters who had no dowry. We tell them that Nicholas took three bags of gold to the poor man's house in the middle of the night and left them by his daughter's shoes. We tell them that this gift made it possible for the three girls to get married. 

Then we talk about the wonderful gifts we receive from God that we do not deserve, how blessed we are, and how much we are loved by our family and Lord. Then we put the kids to bed and tell them that if they leave their shoes outside their door that we will put a surprise in them to remind them of how much they are loved. Ben and I put a piece of fruit and some candy in their shoes and in the morning they are so excited to see their goodies. 

It is one of our family traditions.  

Connorisms

I post many of these stories on Facebook, but my mom doesn't use Facebook, so I am re-posting some of my favorite Connor moments...or Connorisms, as I affectionately call them.

Here are some recent conversations.

Connor: Mom, why does my toothpaste say call poison control immediately if you swallow it?
Me: Because if you swallow too much toothpaste it can make you sick.
Connor: What happens then?
Me: You have to go to the hospital and they give you something to make you throw up.
Connor: Is it peas?
Me: No...it's not peas.

Connor: Mom, do you want to hear a really awkward joke?
Me: Sure.
Connor: What did the ghost say.
Me: Boo?
Connor: No.
Me: Well, what did the ghost say then?
Connor: He said no, that was the awkward part.

Connor: (being increasingly wild and knocking over Ben's drink)
Ben: Connor, you need to calm down and mind your p's and q's!
Me: (In my head....10, 9, 8, 7, 6....)
Connor: What does mind your p's and q's mean?
Me (not in my head) laughing.
Ben: Arghhh... I should have known better.

Connor: Mom, I love you more than all the other moms in the world.
Me: Thanks Connor. That means a lot to me.
Connor: Yeah, it is probably because you are my only mom.
Me: I sure am. I'm glad you love me so much anyway.
Connor: I think I probably love you too much. I'm gonna work on that.

Connor: Mom, does Elinore like ice cream?
Me: No, not really. I usually get sick when I eat it.
Connor: We should probably go and get some just to see if she likes it tonight.
Me: Nice try buddy.

Connor: Hey Mom! I'm in Dad's office with Dad.
Me: Yeah...I know.
Connor: So, would you mind bringing me a fresh drink?
Ben: Ha, ha, ha.
Me: Would you mind getting your own fresh drink?

Sleeping.

I have been super exhausted these past few days. As proof, I submit the following evidence.

1. Almost fell asleep at work during the afternoon....twice.
2. Nearly dozed off during Ben's advent sermon when I was one of the four people attending the noon service.
3. I have fallen asleep every single evening on the couch for at least twenty minutes.
4. I choose sleeping over reading in bed.
5. My kids have done a number of hilarious things, and I haven't blogged about any of them.

I'd write more...but I'm getting kind of groggy over here.

Sophia loves Buddy.

Sophia loves her brother. A lot. She follows him around, yells at him when he gets too far ahead of her in a store, constantly tries to sit on his lap, and hugs him every chance she gets. She also calls him Buddy. I don't know why. We often referred to him as Brother when she was little instead of Connor, so I am guessing that has something to do with it.

It is pretty cute the way that she loves that boy, but tonight on the way home to Fort Wayne from Topeka, it was just flipping adorable. Connor had fallen asleep and was laying his head near Sophia's car seat with his hand resting there as well. Sophia starts giggling like she just won the lottery and says "Mama, Buddy hand." I turn around to look and see that she is very sweetly holding his hand in hers with one hand and gently patting him on the head with the other hand. She is also grinning ear to ear because she knows that if he was awake, there is a 60% chance that he wouldn't be letting her do either of these things.

And I am kicking myself because my camera isn't in my hands where it should be to capture this adorable moment, but is instead, locked securely in the trunk.

The origins of a name.

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a child in the womb must be in want of a name.

Ben and I really only have one rule when it comes to naming our children. All names must be agreed upon. This one rule is really all it took for us to come up with such gems as Connor and Sophia. The spelling of agreed upon names has no such rules. However, it is a battle that I typically choose not to fight.

Very early on in this pregnancy, I was reading Sense and Sensibility. Note: by reading, I actually mean watching the BBC version that came out a few years ago on television, but reading makes me sound smarter. Additional note: I have, however, read Sense and Sensibility before...and I mean the book. While watching the movie I realized how wonderful all the daughter's names are in that book. I promptly paused the show and went to make a grand declaration to Ben.

I told him that if this child was a girl, I would only agree to one of the following names, Elinor, Marianne, or Margaret. He agreed that they were all lovely named, but that he most preferred Elinor. As we both agreed on this name, and because we all know that Elinor Dashwood is a very sensible and lovely girl, this child's name was set.

Then came the spelling part. I wanted to spell the name as Jane Austin does, Elinor. Ben however, felt like the name seemed incomplete like that and wanted Elinore. I offered several reasons why it should be spelled without the last 'e'. They are as follows: 1. That is how Jane Austin spelled it and she probably knew what she was doing, 2. Spell check thinks Elinor is a perfectly fine, but thinks Elinore is misspelled, 3. I wanted Sophia to be named Sophie and he wanted Sophia. He won.

After a few days I realized that like many spelling battles, I wasn't going to win this one. The problem was this - Ben took debate in high school and I didn't. It is that simple. Honestly the problem is this - Ben doesn't care if we don't sort out how to spell this name until the day this child is born. I, on the other hand, feel a compulsive need to know right now how we are going to spell her name so that when she is born I don't have to think about it.

So, I have already given up on this one and have firmly wrapped my mind around this daughter of ours being named Elinore. Plus, the little 'e' at the end does add a little flair.

She looks kind of like an alien.

When I showed Connor the pictures of his new sister he promptly let me know that she kind of looks like an alien. He is pretty much right. A sonogram picture of a baby almost always looks a little bit like an alien, but hey, she's a really cute little alien.

And there she is...our own little alien baby. To be joining us in late March or early April. We are very excited that she is doing so well and hardly believe that we are already almost to the halfway point of meeting this little one.

Is that a milestone?

For the past six years there has been a standard operating procedure when it comes to sick kids. This may sound kind of familiar to many of you. Essentially I woke up to the sound of Connor crying in his room. I went in to check on him and he told me one of two things, either a) I just threw up all over the place, or b) I'm going to throw up all over the place. In which case I did one of two things, either a) began to clean up vomit in his room, or b) rushed him to the bathroom. The rest of the night could be summed up in one word: repeat.

Last night I encountered a new experience. I woke up to the sound of someone puking in the bathroom. A quick check indicated that this person wasn't me (which lately it would have been) and it wasn't Ben. Since Sophia hasn't figured out that she can crawl out of her crib yet, I got out of bed to check on what could only be Connor throwing up in the bathroom. As I was leaving the room, he was coming in to tell me that he was sick and that he needed to throw up some more. He then calmly left the room, got sick again, left the bathroom, and crawled into bed.

I followed him to him room to check on him and asked him if he was okay. His response? "Yeah...just sick, Mom."

It suddenly hit me in this moment that my little boy is actually a little boy, not a baby, not a toddler, not a preschooler, but a little boy. A little boy that doesn't need me so completely anymore. This transition has taken six years, but also feels like it has happened in an instant. It makes a mom proud and also makes this mom feel that, like my son, I must be getting older.

Stationery card

Getting a jump start on Christmas.

Flourishing Noel Religious Christmas Card

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Book Sale Time...Again

It was that time of year again last week. The time of year where Lynne and I take a week away from our regular work and go home sore, bruised, dusty, and battered. It is book sale time.

Here are the pictures to prove our worth.

Before

In the process of setting up.

Ready to go.

Isn't it beautiful? (Just say yes).

 Auction Table

The masses arrive.

The shopping commences.

Great deals are had by many.

A Spooktacular Knight, a Jaguar, and a Scary Little Monster

It is Halloween time again. I always have mixed feelings about Halloween. Should we participate or should we be one of those families that stays in the house and uses that night to do something fun together. We continued our tradition of celebrating Halloween in a very modest fashion. Or in other words, visiting a trunk or treat and walking around the neighborhood for half an hour.

Last year we went to Lynne's house for Halloween, had dinner, did some trick or treating and then called it a night. This year I made Lynne and Ila come over to my place for dinner and treats.

We had an Ockree family favorite of.....

Chili

and....

Cinnamon Rolls

So these aren't actually pictures of the chili I made or the cinnamon rolls I made, but they basically looked exactly like this. We just kind of gobbled it up before I thought to take any pictures. Both were pretty delicious (if I do say so myself). Then it was on to the trick or treating. 

Sophia was mad because I made her stand in the picture. I'm not sure why Ila is trying to sit on her pumpkin bucket, and as typical, Connor is doing whatever he can to make sure that we don't see even a hint of a smile. I know you are jealous that you didn't get to take these kiddos out. 

The kids actually did great and Sophia stopped crying as soon as I stopped trying to make her do what I want instead of just letting her do whatever she wants. I'm a mean mom like that. 

More pictures. Enjoy. 

 A happier monster.

 Ila's best jaguar pose. 

My very serious knight.

Forget the women and children....it's every man for himself.

There are moments in life where one's true character is known. These are the times where there is no putting your neighbor first - the every man for himself moments. You expect these moments...just maybe not from your five year old.

Allow me to set the stage. It was a cold and windy Tuesday morning at the Ockree house. Tamara had already left for work and Ben was packing the kids up to head to daycare and then on to seminary. He had shut the door behind him only to realize that his keys were still inside the house. Ben checked the door only to find that it was indeed locked. His cell phone, unfortunately, it also inside the house mocking him with the keys. Ben goes to the neighbor's house to see if he can borrow a phone and call me for help, but the neighbor kid says that his parents don't leave him a phone when they leave in the morning or in his words "they don't trust me with a phone."

The great thing about the Ockree house is that we are often forgetful. As such, Ben starts searching for an open window or a way to break into our house. He takes Connor and Sophia to the back yard as he conducts his search and makes Connor aware of the situation.

Ben: "We're locked out of the house and my car keys are inside."
Connor: "We'll just climb up on the roof and get in."
Ben: "We don't have a chimney, so there isn't any way to get in from the roof."
Sophia: "Baby" (Because honestly, we know that is what she was thinking)

Connor runs to the car and grabs a blanket, he then proceeds to line up our chairs in the back yard and lays down on them.

Connor: "Well, if we have to live in the backyard then this is my new room. You people are on your own."
Ben: "We won't have to live in the backyard, Mom will come home eventually and let us in."
Connor: "Well if she doesn't, this is my bedroom now. You and Sophie can live in a different part of the yard."
Ben: "Really?"
Connor: "Yeah, it is actually pretty comfortable here."

Yes...my five year old is this self centered.

On the plus side Ben found an unlocked window in Connor's room, took the screen off, and then Connor climbed in and opened the door for his dad. Crisis averted.

Teaching Sophie.

Today on the way to church Connor was trying to teach Sophia some new words. The conversation went something like this.

Connor: Soph can you say happy?
Sophia: Happy....baby.
Connor: Can you say turtle?
Sophia: Turtle...baby.
Connor: Can you say dog?
Sophia: Baby dog.
Connor: Can you say cat?
Sophia: Baby cat.
Connor: Can you say intentional?
Sophia: Baby.

Turns out that Sophia can say a whole bunch of words now...but baby is still one of her favorites.

The terrible...not so good...very very awful twos.

Both Connor and Sophia decided to enter the terrible twos somewhere between birth and eighteen months. The exact timing is a little vague as I think they had been in the terrible twos for quite some time before Ben and I realized this is what we were dealing with.

Sophia is firmly in the grips of this lovely parenting moment. She is doing things like refusing to sleep, getting into everything, and responding to our scolding with the following:

On the plus side it only took us roughly four years to get Connor out of this stage and more into the "I'm going to try the old terrible twos routine, but you are probably not going to buy it anymore" stage.

Ah parenting. Not for the faint of heart...or those who don't like to listen to crying.

I went to college...I really did.

A couple of months ago my friend and coworker, Lynne, and I had a very important meeting about our very important book sale. This was a meeting wherein we were brilliant. We solved all the potential problems that we had ever encountered with the book sale and thought of new and amazing ideas.

On Friday we decided it was time to have another high powered, very important, totally amazing, gift book sale meeting. Lynne said "Bring your notes from the last meeting, we had some really awesome ideas and I don't remember what they were."

So I dug deep down into my inbox and found my amazing notes from this stellar meeting. They were as follows:


1. Signs
2. Auction Bands
3. Poster
4. BWB
5. Community Wide
6. Flow


Yep....that's it. For the whole meeting I wrote down six things (although, check out that fancy numbering). Those are my totally amazing notes that I took from our meeting where we solved all the problems we had ever encountered with the gift book sale. Wow, right? 


If I was still working in corporate America, my reaction to this utter failure to take decent notes on my part would have been excessive crying, worrying, and new job searching. However, in my secure and safe little library world the reaction was...extreme giggling. My second reaction was to email Lynne the notes, call her up, and participate in some more fits of laughter. 

Our new meeting on Friday afternoon was nearly as brilliant and my notes are a couple of pages long. See, I can learn from my mistakes.

Empathy.

When I was pregnant with Sophia I kind of kept the fact that I was giving myself a shot everyday a secret from Connor. I didn't want him to freak out about the fact that this was going on or be worried about me.

This time around I have not been nearly as discreet. I figure between the constant puking, the falling asleep while sitting upright in a chair, and the refusal to eat just about anything, he has figured out that a lot of rough stuff is happening with me. As such Connor is fully aware of the twice a day shot routine.

Thus far his sympathy has been purely with the baby.

Connor: "Mom, that must really hurt the baby when you give them a shot."
Me: "Nope, the baby doesn't feel anything, it only hurts me."
Connor: "I'll bet the baby does feel it. I hate shots."
Me: "The baby doesn't feel a thing."

A couple of nights ago I finally received a little bit of empathy for my shots. Connor was taking a bath and he heard me heave a giant sigh after giving myself a shot in the other room.

Connor: "Mom, are you okay? What is bothering you?"
Me: "Nothing, I just got done giving myself my shot and I don't really like it."
Connor: "Oh Mom, I am so sorry that you have to give yourself a shot every day."
Me: "Thanks buddy. That actually makes me feel a lot better."

How did he get so sensitive and caring all of the sudden?

What a difference a year makes.

By this time last year Connor already hated school. He would wake up with stomach aches, sore throats, and any manner of ailments. If we let him stay home because he was "sick" we tried to make him as miserable as possible.

What a difference a year makes.

Last night Connor was up coughing half the night, and wasn't much better this morning. After very little deliberation Ben and I decided to keep him home for the day. We let Connor know that we were keeping him home and there was much...crying? Huge sad tears. He begged and pleaded with us to send him to school because he didn't want to miss anything.

Another small victory!

Halloween and Monsters and Knights. Oh My.

Connor's birthday is on October 27th. Those of you who are pretty good at math will notice that this is pretty close to Halloween. As such, I like to get a jump start on Halloween and get our costume ideas settled.

Sophia is going to be a very adorable little monster. We felt like it was the most true to life costume for her at this point.

Connor has decided to be a knight. Which isn't all that true to life for him, but I thought it would be a good idea as opposed to a mummy or skeleton which were his other two suggestions.

Now on to Birthday planning. Ideas for that so far include an upside down party, a road trip party, and a map party.

A rare moment of forethought and inevitable snarkiness.

In a rare moment of forethought I was browsing through the Catholic supply catalog to find an advent wreath for our family. Although I didn't really find any that I liked for the family I did stumble across these for the kids.

Cute Right?

You had to buy four of them, but they were $2.99 each so I went for it. I figure I'll have one for each of the kiddos and then I gave the fourth one to a friend for her daughter. 

Since I found something kind of neat that I wasn't intending to buy, I decided to continue my perusal of the catalog to see what other treasures I may be missing. Then I stumbled upon this gem. 

Now, according to Autom Catholic Supply catalog, the purpose of this Adoring Santa Ornament (yep, that's its name) is to help people remember the true meaning of Christmas. It seems to me like the true purpose of this ornament is to confuse the snot out of kids. I can see the conversations now. 

"Wait Mom, so Santa was there when Jesus was born?" 

"No, he is just adoring baby Jesus." 

"Because he was there, right?" 

"No, not right."

Ah the joys of Christmas. Don't worry - at $0.99 an ornament, several of you will be getting one of these for Christmas...or maybe the Adoring Santa stickers...decisions, decisions.