Our Big Christmas Announcement!!

On Christmas day we let the boys know that we had received an amazing gift from God and are going to be having baby #3 in July (you will note a countdown ticker on the side now)!! We also made the announcemet to our families. For my parents, we gave them a Christmas card with an ultrasound picture. Then, later in the day, when all of Dan's family arrived we let them in on the excitement too. I have spent the last couple of days letting other in on our news and now it has become official on here! We are very excited and feel very blessed!

A Wonderful Christmas Day!!

The boys were up by 6:10 this morning excited to go downstairs and check out if Santa had been here. We began our day opening many wonderful presents. Caleb got his treasured Lego "Mars Mission" set he asked Santa for and Elton got his crash up cars (among other things). Dan's big gift was a flight simulator remote helecopter. I got a cool new tiny little camera that I can keep in my purse.

After all the presents were opened, Dan was very busy with assembling toys for the boys. I cooked up a huge breakfast skillet for breakfast and we all enjoyed "Candy Cane" coffee. After breakfast, Papa Jack took the boys to the garage for one more surprise - a Jeep for them to drive. They both loved it, but Elton spent most of his morning in the garage with Papa Jack practicing his new driving skills. Not a long break before preparation began for Dan's family to come over. By noon we had a 17lb prime rib cooking. In the afternoon I made us all a "Christmas Cream" Latte.

Dan's family joined us around 3:30. By 5pm the prime rib was ready as were all the fixings to go with it. We had a wonderful meal!! We then opened a few more presents and were faced with dessert. The choices were a fruit trifle (I made) and strawberry cheesecake. In the end most of us ended up sampling both.

Now get this, the boys were totally excited to take a bath when everyone left because they received bath sets with foam soap. They went to bed eagerly with new stories to listen to with their TJ bear they got last year and new Baby Einstein books. When I checked on them a little bit ago they were passed out side by side in Elton's bed with flashlights still on from looking at their books. It was too cute.

We Are Ready!

We are ready and excited for Christmas! Nana and Papa Jack arrived this past Sunday afternoon for the holidays. Caleb had his last day of school and party yesterday. He brought home his #5 reading book and the teacher informed me that he fixed one of their computers that they thought they were going to need a part for. We don't let Caleb use our home computer often and we were quite surprised by this. When I asked him how he knew how to fix it he said from watching "How It's Made"!

I have been excited each day to check the mail for Christmas cards. We finished our shopping a few weeks ago and all of the presents are wrapped. We are just going to hang out and enjoy the next few days so I will try to update a little more often.

Of Singing And Gingerbread!!

Last Monday I delivered surprises of little Christmas boxes with some of the sugar cookies we made. On Wednesday evening, Caleb had his school Christmas concert where they shared Christmas songs telling the Christmas story of the birth of Jesus. He also sang again in church on Sunday. On Sunday afternoon, Dan and I took Caleb to the movies to "Enchanted" and we all loved it. The weather has cooled off and we have gotten a couple of good snows with things really starten to slicken the roads up. Last night we broke out the gingerbread train kit and had a fun. Caleb loved helping to decorate, but all Elton wanted to do was eat the candy. This morning he snuck downstairs, got the stool up to our counter and helped himself. When I came down quite a few of the candies were gone off our decorating!!

More Reading Progress!

Today when I dropped Caleb off for school the teacher wanted to talk to me. She said that Caleb is doing so well with his reading (book #5), that she was wanting to start him on a special workbook that she showed me. I couldn't believe it! I am so proud of how he is doing. When I picked him up he had completed his regular work papers as well as 3 pages in the new workbook with no mistakes!! Way to go Caleb!

The Countdown Has Begun!

I got our advent calender set up the other night and the countdown has begun! On Friday I made sugar cookie dough and on Saturday cut out, baked, and decorated over 100 sugar cookies with frosting and and crushed peppermints! Caleb helped me a little, but with the quantity I was doing it worked best to let me do the majority of it.

This afternoon the whole family went to the festival of trees and then to "Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium" at the cinema. We liked the movie and Caleb can't wait until it comes out on DVD.

Kick Off To The Christmas Season!

When the boys and I came downstairs this morning, as we looked out the window we saw snow coming down! Caleb has been asking for a couple of weeks now when it was going to snow so they were both very excited! It was quite appropriate too considering Dan just got our Christmas lights up yesterday afternoon and that last night we made a visit to the mall to see Santa. We got our Christmas tree decorated on Saturday and have lot of activities planned in the next few weeks to get ready Christmas and am sure we will keep very busy!

Reading Update

The day after my last post about Caleb reading, he came home with a certificate of achievment from school for a free volcano drink at a local confectionary! He was so proud and finally got to go today for his drink. He is reading his 3rd book from school and doing great!

Caleb Can Read!

A few weeks ago at school, Caleb's class was tested for their reading skills to know where they were at now and where they needed to be at, at the end of the year. Caleb scored above where he needed to be at by the end of the year. Last week his teacher told me that he was "this" close to reading his first book. Yesterday Caleb brought his first book home from school and read the whole book to Dan and I! We are very proud!

Happy Halloween!

Here we were right before we went trick or treating tonight. Elton wore Caleb's Woody costume from a couple of years ago and looked totally adorable. Many of the houses we went to, he received extra treats and thus his bag was heavier when we got home. Caleb was Optimus Prime from the Transformers and was a total cool dude! We had tons of fun and the weather was great this year. Nana and Papa Jack are getting ready to head out tomorrow and will be back for Christmas!

Happy 5th Birthday Caleb!

This past weekend we celebrated Caleb's 5th birthday! We are so proud of the amazing little boy he is growing into. He has such a focused and determined little mind with an amazing passion for building and creating things! That is why Dan and I gave him the marble tower toy you see him with in one of the picture. When asked which was his favorite present his response was the marble tower. This was the first year we invited school friends to his birthday and it was so cute to see their excitement and how they all wanted Caleb to open their gift first! We had also been telling him that on his 5th birthday we would let him graduate to the top bunk. He has been very excited about this and so Dan snuck out on Saturday and picked up the mattress. After his party, Dan and I went upstairs and set up the mattress and ladder. He seemed quite proud to move up top and has done well the past 2 nights. We left the option open for Elton to stay in his crib bed or move to the bottom bunk. So far he has chose the bottom bunk the past 2 nights and is also adjusting well.

Cappucino Break!

After Papa Jack's hard work helping to clean up the leaves I decided a cappucino break was deserved. I got to break out my new cappucino cups and show them what a cappucino was. Caleb got to enjoy a choclate coffee.

Pumpkin Patch Tradition

It seems like going to the Pumpkin Patch has become an annual tradition in our house over the past few years. The boys had a ton of fun in the maze, on the bale pyrimid, the mini train around the patch and picking out a pumpkin to decorate.

Leaves

We love our backyard and the wonderful shade we get from our trees in the summer. However, the leaves in the fall are quite the job. Dan spent one afternoon raking the leaves into piles and Papa Jack spent 2 afternoons bagging them for a grand total of over 40 bags of leaves!! As you can see, the boys had lots of fun so at least it wasn't hard work for some.

More Hours In My Day!!

That was the theme of our women's retreat that I attended this past weekend. The speaker (Sheri Torelli) was wonderful! We got lots of great information and ideas on how to organize our homes and make the most of our time. It was good to hear that I was already doing some of the things she recommended, but at the same time got lots of new ideas to help me improve on. I am already starting to implement some of the new things. I have always liked structure and organization to a certain degree and so this really helped reinforce things. She also talked to us about the upcoming holidays and I loved some of her ideas for traditions. With the kids being young, now is a perfect time for us to start to make some memorable traditions in our family. Her husband also spoke on why he is still married to his highschool sweetheart (30 years), which helped give us some great insight and hope in a society where the divorce rate is so high. In the title above, I have included the link to the website if anyone is interested in seeing more information.

The food was great and our accomadations were wonderful up in the mountains. There was no cell phone service or public phone so it truly was a retreat!

Thanks To Nana & Papa Jack!

Thanks to Nana and Papa Jack for coming down to Idaho (to watch the boys), I am packing to head to my church's annual women's retreat at Living Waters Ranch in Challis. The last time I was able to go was 6 years ago when I was barely pregnant with Caleb. Every year it seems to hit Dan's weekend to work. I will be leaving tomorrow morning and returning Sunday afternoon. When I get back, I will post details on the retreat.

8 Years!!

Last Monday Dan and I celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. The day after our wedding we headed to the mountains and spent our honeymoon at Dan's parent's cabin. Thus, this past weekend we headed up for one last trip to the cabin this year. It was our first time there in October since our honeymoon. However, there were a couple of additions to our trip - Caleb & Elton! Funny to see how time flies and the changes in our lives. Eight years ago Dan built a fire in the fireplace to help create a romantic environment for his new bride. This time the fire was used to roast smores with the kids! Sunday morning the boys got up quietly and played for almost 3 hours before they came and insisted it was time for us to get up for breakfast!! I guess that was our anniversary present to us and I have to say I can't remember when the last time I got to sleep until 9am! Thank you boys!

I'm Impressed!

This week when I was picking up Caleb from Pre-K, his teacher told me that she is extremely impressed with Caleb's building skill. She said that she has seen him build things that some of the 6th graders even have difficulty with! Just a few minutes ago he brought this to me (picture above) that he built from Dan's Capsela (from when he was a kid). He did this completely on his own, wired it, and it works!! I can say quite honestly that he doesn't get his building and creativity skills from me as I have always been week in those areas.

Finding Our Groove

I know I haven't posted much on here lately and I think it is because we have just been finding our groove for the fall. We are all about a routine around our house and find life just flows so much better with one. Elton and I have been taking advantages of our mornings together when Caleb is at school. We have been taking 3 mile walks on the canyon enjoying the cooler weather and of course getting a coffee at our (my) favorite place: Moxie Java. This morning I wore my pedometer to see how much ground we covered and by the time we picked Caleb up, I had put on just over 11 000 steps.

Elton settles down perfectly after lunch for his nap and Caleb has finally transitioned out of his nap. He loves focusing on his building skills, watching "How It's Made", and working on reading skills while Elton is asleep. He is bringing home work sheets from school every week with stickers and his teacher says he is doing great. We are also trying to take advantage of our new library cards with reading lots of books. The last 2 weeks we have been making it to story time at the library and our goal is to either make it to story time or rhyme time each week.

I have been meal planning our dinners a week ahead. On the days Dan works he doesn't get home until at least 8:30. The goal has been for him to be able to tuck the boys in bed when he gets home unless they need to be in bed by 8 or unless he is even later getting home.

Elton loves calling Caleb "Eeoh" even though we know from the rest of his vocabulary he could say Caleb if he wanted to. It seems like a nickname of endearment for him and we have told Caleb it is Elton's special name for him. Caleb is very excited about his 5th birthday coming up and Halloween. Also, my parents will be coming down for a visit in a few weeks.

"Scared"

Tonight we all went to Target just to walk around. When we got to the halloween section, Dan headed right to the scary stuff (with the boys in the shopping cart). The first button he pushed, Caleb started to freak out. I have to back up first and tell you about last fall. Daddy and Caleb used to find it fun when we were in the mall to check out the lights and stuff at Spencer's. That is until they set up their freaky zombie halloween stuff. They had a zombie that talked and moved at the front of the store. It freaked Caleb out so bad that he was afraid at night for months (until after Christmas when the boys got their TJ bear to tell them stories and keep them company). For months I had to spray monster spray around his room and put up a monster gate every night to ensure there was no way of entry into the room. I had to pass the rule that daddy and Caleb weren't allowed to go into Spencer's and for months Caleb had to hide his head as we passed the store.

Thus, tonight when Caleb started to freak out I took the shopping cart to get them out of the scary stuff. That is when Elton started crying and saying "scared" over and over again. The only thing is that the further away we got from that aisle the more Elton cried and said "scared". It took me a couple of minutes to figure out he wanted to be "scared" and wanted to go back. Thus, daddy and Elton headed back to the scary stuff while Caleb and I went to gather the items we were at the store for. Caleb had me make new rule that daddy couldn't take him through the scary stuff at Target. When Elton and Dan rejoined us both were quite content they had their fill of scary stuff so it seems they will have to remain a team!!

(Next day: Caleb can't stop talking about how now he thinks daddy needs to take Elton to Spencers as he is amazed that Elton did not get freaked out last night. However, he makes it clear that he can't go anywhere near there.)

Hanging Out

This weekend Caleb was on a lego building mission. He spent all day Saturday building and late Saturday afternoon he asked for me to come take pictures. Sunday afternoon he was right back at it and by Sunday night he had created a whole lego village. It is amazing to watch his little mind at work and I wonder where it will take him.

Elton and Bingo were quite excited to hang out and watch Scooby Doo when they weren't outside playing. I managed to get quite a bit done around the house and even made some home made choclate chip cookies!

The Fair

It has taken me a few days to psych myself up for this post as the fair was a pretty huge dissapointment for us this year. I wanted to put in the title of this post "The Great Rip Off Scheme". You won't see any happy ride pictures this year after the boys had gotten totally psyched as it is unreal that they could think one should pay $30 per child (ages 2 and 4). Needless to say, no ride passes were purchased and 2 little boys were very sad.When you see the carnies and hear the lovely stories of them putting rides together and not knowing where all the pieces are supposed to end up it makes you wonder. We soon discovered that after the wonderful summer we had that the West Edmonton mall was cheaper for rides, water park and food. We are considering just heading to Lagoon next year and not even going to the fair. I always hear all the hype about going to the fair for the food and I just don't quite get it as everything is fried beyond the point of disgusting and also way overpriced. Once again I pass!

Now, on a brighter note, the boys did get to enjoy their annual treat of cotton candy. We checked out the petting zoo and Elton sat on many different tractors. The boy's favorite thing was the train hall. However, when it was all said and done, Caleb got heat exhaustion and spent the rest of the weekend with a headache and feeling dizzy. Sorry this post couldn't have been more positive!

Pre-K!

"I have taught for 34 years in Kindergarten and Pre-Kindergarten. I am one of those lucky people that gets to do what they love for a career! I have the best job in the world!! It's my job, my mission, my love! God is good!" These are the words from Caleb's teacher in her letter from the open house last week. I mentioned last year how you can see it in her eyes and face how much she loves what she does and loves the kids. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful teacher!

Caleb started Pre-K on Monday and loves it. He goes Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday mornings from 8:20 - 11:20am. He know that his first responsibility of the day when he wakes up, is to put on his clothes that I have layed out at the end of the bed and has done well with it this week. The hardest part has been that Elton is really upset he doesn't get to go and it isn't fun for him dropping off and picking up Caleb. This will be a good incentive for him to potty train by next year so that he can go to Mrs. Gallagher's class next year!