It's Beginning to Look A Lot Like Christmas

I've been singing that song in my head for the past few weeks as Christmas trees, decor and carols slowly started appearing. I held fast to our "Thanksgiving first" rule but officially as of today, it looks a lot like Christmas in our house. 

Why do they all (especially Rowan) look so big??

The boys set the Nativity up by themselves. They did a great job.

We have a new tree this year! After using our other one for 8 Christmases, some of the lights were beginning to go out. Turns out some friends of ours were planning on getting rid of this one so they gave it to us instead. :)

Sweet Cruz is growing up so much. He was so helpful in setting up the Nativity and putting ornaments on the tree with minimal supervision.

Rowan helped Roger separate the branches, oversaw the work on the Nativity and was truly helpful with the ornaments. He made sure the glasses were filled with ice for lunch and that the table was set. He is truly such a helpful little boy a lot of the time. I can't believe how big and capable he is becoming.

Coco enjoyed poking at the branches and giggling.

Traditional pizza lunch! Coco is learning to eat her pizza like a big girl. 

Special peanut butter cracker lunch for Cruzy.

My big boy.

The boys divided the ornaments into piles in the media room while Daddy finished the tree. There was a pile of Rowan's ornaments, Cruz's, Cora's, Daddy's, Mommy's and misc. Cora had fun undoing the boys' work as she moved the ornaments around looking at them and even breaking one. Her brothers were not amused.

Cruz's Curious George ornament was the first to be hung. He loves this ornament and so does Coco. 

Coco got to hang the non breakable ornaments including the sparkly baby carriage ornament which she really liked.

Rowan can hang them higher without help! He loved remembering the year he got each of his ornaments and talking about the accomplishment that inspired the ornament. As he gets bigger I see more of myself in him. :) 

This isn't the best picture of the tree. It looks so gorgeous right now but I'm too tired to get up and take a better picture. :) 

So excited to celebrate this wonderful time of the year! As the kids are getting older, its getting even more fun. 

Thanksgiving 2014

Rowan was a big help in a lot of ways this year. He made the place cards, set the table and read Psalm 100 before dinner for us. 

We watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and then some football. Cruz enjoyed the parade the most out of the three kiddos. 

I found these lego instructions online to make a lego turkey. It gave a list of all the pieces needed so Rog and Rowan sorted through Rowan's stash to find the appropriate ones.

It turned out super cute! This boy loves his legos.

We officially kicked off Christmas by watching A Very Mickey Christmas. This year watching our Christmas movie was extra fun because we got to do it on our big projector screen. That always makes the treat of watching a movie even more fun. I can't wait to watch more Christmas movies this season! :)

Happy Thanksgiving. We have so many blessings and it was fun to remember them yesterday. It was also a great chance to discuss remembering those blessings and being grateful every day. 

"Give thanks to the Lord for He is good and his love endures forever."

1 Chronicles 16:34

Rowan Fall Chess Tournament

Rowan was busy playing in a two day long chess tournament this weekend. 

There were games and other activities including life sized chess, face painting and more.

All three kids loved the face painting.

We saw a new maturity in Rowan this tournament. The two days consisted of nine rounds of chess. After the first day of the tournament, Rowan only had 1.5 points out of a possible 5. He was frustrated BUT when his coach told him that he needed to slow down, take longer at making his moves and study the board more diligently, he took that to heart and scored 3 out of 4 points today.

Rowan ended up placing 86th out of 187 kids in his division. His division includes 1-3 graders. He placed 13th out of 43 first graders. So proud of him.

Cora Grace: Ballet 2014

Cora has been a challenge lately. Since we moved her to her big girl bed, she hasn't slept much or napped at all. Cora is a very stubborn, fiesty little lady. The mix of that and no sleep was not pretty. Its been a rough couple of weeks to say the least. Watching her on stage today was so encouraging. I watched her follow directions and focus her energy into dancing her little heart out. I was just so proud of her. She is the youngest little girl in her class and probably the one who danced their choreography the most exuberantly. She was so entertaining to watch. Today was a reminder to me that her tenacious energy can be used for good. I was encouraged as her mother and reminded of the big plans God has for her. Way to dance, Coco! 

Doing her passe

There are ton of pictures but I couldn't resist her little face- tongue sticking out and all.

Cora is second from the end! Roger's iphone ran out of battery right at the end so we missed the last few seconds. :) 

Thanksgiving Program: Cruz and Cora

Beautiful Girl!

Sweet Handsome Pilgrim!

This picture was torture to get, haha. Coco was NOT in the mood for photos.

Cora has only been in the class for a couple of weeks so she didn't really know the songs they performed but she went up on stage anyway and was a little bit naughty. :) I'm not sure who she was smiling at in the photo but my guess would be Rowan. He seems to think so.

I am so incredibly proud of my sweet Cruz. I was brought to tears several times during the program today. My sweet, timid, clingy toddler has turned into a little boy who can memorize lines, say them in a microphone and sing his heart out. He has grown up so much this year.

Rowan's class did the same skit when he was in preschool. Rowan was the G.

Here are a couple videos of sweet Cruz:

Dress Rehearsal

Cora had her dress rehearsal for her dance recital on Saturday. They practiced performing in small groups so I think this video is going to be the best I get of her routine. We're sitting a little ways back for the recital and I'm not sure that Cora will actually perform in front of a big crowd. I guess we'll see. :)

Up on the Housetop

Cora is the little girl in the middle. 

Cora Goes to School

The kids' school has been working hard to get a special education program up and running. The school isn't big and the immediate needs aren't huge but we are hoping to be able to open our doors to more kids by offering more services. We have the largest need in Speech and in Reading right now. We have a speech therapist who is coming to school to take care of those kids and I am going to be helping out in the area of reading. As of right now, I'll just be pulling out a couple of kids and tutoring them a couple times a week. While I am working with these kiddos, Cora will be attending the Preschool 2's class. She had her second morning yesterday and absolutely loved it! She is so excited to get dropped off with her brothers- she's been waiting for this for a while! :) 

I love that the sweet teachers at our school take time to send pictures of the kiddos during the day. I often get a Rowan or Cruz update... and now a Cora one! Her teacher said she was so ready to be there.

November Updates

The kids got special Halloween mail! They were so excited to open their goodies:

Special treats from Grammy and Grampy

Special treats from Grandma

Coco enjoying a ninja turtle sucker from Grandma.

The boys had baseball games at the same time the other day. Rog and I split up but they were so cute in their uniforms together. 

Cora's loves Ninja Turtles. Here she is sharing her favorite one- Donatello.

Cora is getting really fast on her balance bike that Grandpa and Deona got her for her birthday. She's such a brave little girl. 

Cruz's class sang in Chapel a couple weeks ago.

The kids had Monday and Tuesday off this week. We had Chick Fil A for lunch, made road maps with chalk, went to ballet, took a walk, went to Rowan's baseball game and just enjoyed relaxing.