how very appropriate

So you know all those ridiculous catalogs you get in the mail? I love to look at them and laugh at all the funny stuff they offer. I was looking at one in the kiss-n-ride line a while back and found something pretty funny. I seriously laughed out loud in my car.

If I had seen this when Landon was a baby, I would have been VERY tempted!


here's a close up. And as the title states, so very appropriate!!

The real meaning of Christmas

I was at Spencer's school today and another mom was there. We asked the teacher if we could have a Christmas party for the kids. She said she had a Jehovah's Witness in her class so there would be no party, but maybe a winter celebration after the Holidays.

WHAT?

We were seriously so upset. I cannot believe that because of one or two students, the rest of the class cannot celebrate. CRAZY!! I don't get it. What is Christmas? it is a Christian holiday. I got a bunch of responses about it on Facebook, some of which stated that it is about family and love, etc. Yes it is, but if you don't believe or want to celebrate the birth of Christ, then don't say Christmas. Call it something else.

But really, how did Christmas evolve over time? What are the roots....easy and simple...the birth of Christ. No matter what you believe, this is historic-this holiday we celebrate in December is to acknowledge, celebrate, revere, and worship the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Then my next soap box is why it is so taboo to even mention God in school? How the heck was our country started? Seriously....what were the early settlers fighting for? How have we gotten to the point we are? This country is entirely too PC!

Yes, we are now a melting pot, with lots of different cultures and religions, faiths, etc; but in general we are a Christian country. Why do people get so offended? Can't you just sit something out if you don't believe in it? I know that if we were living in a Muslim country, or Buhdist country they would go ahead with their celebrations even with us Christians there.

I love learning about different religions. I lived with a Jewish family as a nanny. I took part in celebrations of all their holidays and attended the Bar Mitzvah of the youngest boy I took care of. I loved it. They learned about me- and even has a small Christmas tree in their house for Christmas. Of course I didn't convert, and it didn't take away from my beliefs, only strengthened my love for this family.

Ahhh.... I could just go on and on, but I'll stop for now.

Let me just finish by saying that I look forward to celebrating with awe the birth of my Savior Jesus Christ.

chairs and blankets

When I mop the dining room floor, I will often bring the chairs into the living room. When I finished mopping, Landon and I decided that we didn't want to put the chairs back....instead we had a little fun!!

We made a tent!!!

If you look close in the next picture, you can see that Landon has 2 little wire whisks in his hand. Did you know that they make grat swords?

I often wonder why I buy toys when my kids can make any household item into a toy. I just need to go to the dollar store and by a bunch of cheap utensils and they would be thrilled!!
You need a door on your tent!Are ya stuck, Landon?
the back of the tent
One more just for fun!

a post because I can't sleep

It's 3:30 am and I can't sleep. Maybe because there's a pile of phlegm in my throat and when I lay down, I can't breathe and keep having caughing attacks, or because my brain won't turn off.

Either way, here I am awake. Looked at FB, looked at other blogs, so might as well do a post now.

So what's on my mind? My children of course. It's the age old story. I worry about them constantly. I feel like I struggle so much and am I getting through to them. Lately we have had problems with obedience.

AHHHHHH....I am having majory problems with my computer. My curser just keeps skipping to where ever it wants to go in the middle of my typing...very annoying.

Landon has become quite proficient with the work "no" while the other 2 are a bit more subtle and just ignore. Well, maybe it isn't subtle, it is quite obvious they are ignoring me. So then I sound ridiculous when I yell "Am I talking to the walls?" like I said I would NEVER do because it was annoying when my mom did it.

So I try to be more calm and say "do you hear my voice?" Well, duh, yeah they do, but hearing and listening are 2 very different things!!!

I know we will figure this out, but in the mean time, I'm a bit stressed about it. For instance, I subbed in the soft play room for Zoom Around the Room classes today...well, Monday since it is almost Tuesday at this point. I had Landon with me, and it was....well....not fun. The first class went well-he was ok. A couple warnings for not nice stuff, but ok.

But the second class he let loose. At one point this very proper, immaculately dressed lady informed me that he was throwing balls at the kids in the ball pit. I apologized and thanked her for telling me, thus banning him from the ballpit. He continued to run around in a wreckless manner until I made a fort for him. The the other kids wanted to play too, and he got a bit crazy.

Then came circle time.

I was already down for the count since I didn't have shakers for the kids....

then Landon... He would not sit for me, but ran around the room. At one point he crawled in the blocks piled up and came close to pushing them over on a mom twice.....you should have see the looks I was getting from the previously mentioned mom at this pint...and she had a death grip on her child-as if to protect him from the beast roaming the room. This was during the time I was trying to read/sing to a book I had brought. I was so torn-do I take time out of the class they payed for to discipline him, or just ignore him. I opted to ignore him and hope for the best. The second time almost nailed a mom with a block, he ran he ball pit and stuck out his tongue and did a raspberry at me while all the parents looked on. How do you spell humiliation?

I have it memorized.

Most of the parents seemed fine and not bothered, but that one mother just had me so worked up inside. It was so very apparent that she disapproved of me by the looks on her face obvious lack of enthusiasm of my choice of songs/activities during singing time. Talk about embarassing!!! I was never so happy for a class to get over. Please get your kids sticker and go home. I thought I held it together pretty well, then I heard a mom say "they're used to little stickers." Ahhhhh-I wanted to say "then dont' take one" but in my stressed out state, I once again apologized for being the sub and not knowing how the other teacher did things and was nice as pie.

Come on, Moms, can't you cut a fellow mom some slack? Some things just don't matter so keep them to yourself.

But on a positive not, a few of the parents seem to really like how I had set the soft play room up and loved some of the songs I did that they had never heard before saying they would have to sing them at home. One of the classes had a mom of a little girl in Spencer's class that he sits by. So that was fun.

Oh, that reminds me of an experience I had last week. I had subbed for the same teacher on a Friday a couple weeks ago. When I was taking Landon to school the following Tuesday, one of the moms saw me in the parking lot and said "Hi Ms. Wendi. When will you be teaching the class next time. I want to put my daughter in your class."

That made me feel great. Guess I'll think of that mom instead of uptight "I don't like you" mom.

Ok, I really better try to go to bed now. I need to go to Costco to get a pumpkin pie tomorrow and I'll need lots of energy and strength for that!! Not to mention I'll be helping in Landon's preschool for a couple hours.

Ok sheep, help me out now...1...2...3...4...5..6...7...8....9....10...11..12....13.......

We made it before the rain came!

I am so happy we went to Huntley Meadows yesterday since the rain set in today. We had free time after school since I did not have a brownie meeting. I wanted to go somewhere with just my kiddos-have some time for just us. We always have someone else with us due to carpools, watching other kids, etc; so it was nice to have time to just some time for us.

So off we went to my favorite place around-Huntley Meadows. I was hoping there would be some color left on the trees, but most of the leaves had fallen off the trees. I did find some cool leaves laying around so I took a ton of pictures. I haven't really gone out to take pictures much lately since I am so busy with brownies, teaching classes, etc; so it was nice dust off the camera.


Here are a couple cool leaves I found.

I also liked this tree.

The kids have been to Huntlye Meadows so many times that they knew exactly where to go. While I would stop to take some pics, they would run way ahead. The were so excited to get the boardwalk. We saw tons of birds flying out of the cattails. the kids loved to see hoard of birds flying around.

I love to see the boys exploring and playing. I love Landon down below when his is trying to decide which way to go.
So cute-looking for critters.


We saw some fun birds-I loved the ducks. At one point I saw 2 pair swimming along-male-female, male-female in a line. I hurried to change my lens, but by that time they were in a big group. I took a ton of shots of the blue heron, but these are my favs.
We stopped at one point that had a ton of leaves and stayed for a while to play in the leaves. It was simply a BLAST!!!
More fun throwing leaves!



Ahh, time to rest. I liked this tree trunk-it looks like a triceratops to me. Very cool.
While I was pushing Spencer, yeah, why was I pushing him you ask? Well, to be honest so I can avoid his crying. When he is tired, he is sooo cranky, and he was tired and mad that we didn't go to Green Spring instead. So he rode in the stroller a while.

Anyhow he would drag his feet in this one part of the trail that was very heavily leaf covered. He was laughing so hard that I wondered what was up, then realized what was happening. He thought it was the best thing ever.
Here's the trail we left behind us as we walked with Spence dragging his feet.

During our fun time, I tried to get at least one good shot of each kid. Here are my favorites!!




Such a fun day!! Thanks for playing with me Jordan, Spencer and Landon. I LOVE YOU!!!

A bit late, but more Halloween

We had a fun Halloween! Here are a few pics.

Spencer and Landon are addicted to Mario Super Galaxy on the WII. So there was NO getting around these costumes for the boys.

So here we present:
Mario and Yoshi.

Here is Mario "riding" on Yoshi. (He rides on Yoshi, who by the way is a dinosaur, in the video game)
Can you believe that this mustache is trimmed down from the one that came with the costume? We cut it in half so he could use it twice. It didn't last too long, but it was cute at the beginning!
And here's our Super Girl! I was wanting Jordan to be Princess Peach from Mario, but Jordan didn't like the look of the dress. She saw this at Toys R Us, and there was not turning back. She HAD to have it!!

Here are the kids at our neighbors Dave and Karin. The gave our kids whole candy bars, while the other kids got little ones. Spoiled? Yup:)We just happened to meet up with the little neighbor girl and went around with her. The kids had fun. I love seeing them happy!
More Super Girl...so strong!!

Brothers

When I was pregnant with Landon and found out he was a boy, I was a bit relieved for Spencer's sake. Of course sad that Jordan wasn't getting a sister, but since they were so close in age, I thought it would be good that they were both boys so they could be close. I love seeing them grow up together and form a great relationship. I love watching them play and grow close. They really do love each other and get along so well.

Last night I left to go to JC Penny's since to do some clothes shopping. When I got home, I asked Darin how the kiddos did, which I usually do. When I had left, Darin was settling them down after bathroom breaks. He said they had insisted on sleeping together on the top bunk-Spencer's bed- so he let them. He said they fell asleep pretty quick.

Here is what we found when we checked on them when we went to bed.

Oh man, how cute is this? I just LOVE it!! Even sharing a pillow:) But notice how much space Spencer is taking up-I'm so surprised Landon tolerated sleeping with him because he moves all over the place all night. Landon rolled over while I was standing there gushing over them. But really, it is so sweet I just love these boys!!!
And here we are by morning-there was a bit of a shift towards the end of the bed. That's Landon by the rail, and Spencer is in there-his head is by the teddy bear against the wall. I was so proud that Landon actually stayed there ALL night; I thought for sure he would wake up and be scared.


And since we had a couple posts with crazy stuff Landon did, here's something so very cute! He made an Indian vest today at preschool. I made the mistake of calling it a costume to which he quickly replied "no mommy, it's a vest."

When I picked him up, he wore it all the way to the care with such pride! It was so cute. He really is doing well at preschool. I'm pretty proud!

So cute I just can't stand it!!