Semi-Dance Recital

Audrey's dance class is so different from last year.  Just one year makes a difference in the skills these girls have.  They really do a great job of imitating the teachers!  I am really looking forward to the big recital in May!  Before the Christmas break, parents were invited to come inside the room to watch!

Of course, one of teachers sometimes stands right in front of her!

We are so thankful Audrey's cast was cut off the Friday before Christmas!  Praise the Lord her arm healed so fast!!  She was such a trouper when they cut it off!  It did take a couple of days to remember to use her right arm!  She kept forgetting the cast was gone...I'm sure I would have done the same thing!!

A Big T-Rex Birthday Party

That is the answer we were getting anytime we asked Paxton about his upcoming birthday.  That was all he wanted!  It proved to be a very dinosaur birthday!  Thanks to a friend of a friend, we had an awesome T-Rex cake that tasted yummy too!

Paxton wanted to eat the dinosaur right away but I made him wait until the next day so we could celebrate with family too!  The cake did not look so great after riding home in our car...but it still tasted good!
We just played with a few friends at McD's after school.  I think everyone had a good time!
Paxton received dinosaur books and toys, among other things! 

We are so blessed to have such great friends!

 

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Birthday Celebrations

It is so hard to believe my 'baby' is 3 years old!  In some ways he is so big (the way he talks, counts, sings, climbs, figures things out) but he is still catching up in other ways (forever un-potty-trained??)!  He is my sweetheart, cuddlebug, reader, and family clown.  He kisses, hugs, and rests his little hand on my arm!  His hair still sticks out in a lot of places!  He has difficulty blowing out of his mouth (and can't blow his nose at all).  He tries to blow through his teeth with his mouth closed!  You'll see. 

He loves to wear boots (maybe because of Grandaddy).  If I was his dinosaur t-shirts, I should hide them or he'll just wear them the very next day again!  He even refused to wear pj's to his class pajama party-had to wear the t-rex shirt!  He thinks baby Jesus is a rock star!  In the car, at night, when he saw some Christmas lights, he started screaming "BABY JESUS" (like people have for the Beatles or Justin Bieber)!  Then he would whisper "Baby Jesus" and then scream it again.  It's not as funny in the telling but we were laughing so hard our sides hurt (Audrey too).  After that Audrey was trying to get him to do it again.  She kept saying "Scream, Paxton!"   But he hasn't been in the mood yet!

Here is Paxton's class celebration:

It's Just a Gingerbread House

Sometimes I forget things.  It's possible that I decorated a gingerbread house at some point in my 37 years but I don't remember it.  As a result, I didn't think it would be that hard to do.  Did I mention I'm not very artistic??  The other problem I didn't anticipate was that the kids would only want to eat the gingerbread house, not decorate it!  Once we resolved that...Audrey helped some!  The first issue we had was the bottom layer (base) was broken in several places!  The thing the entire house is built on (multiple tangents available here)!  So we used some icing to "glue" the pieces back together.  The instructions suggested we decorate the walls and base before assembling them.  That was a great idea!  The biggest help of all was our adopted student Allie!!!  She helped tremendously!  She is the reason it looks so good!  Whew!  Glad that's done!  And I'm not sure I'll do one next year...maybe it will be Daddy's turn!

Did I mention how quickly Audrey lost interest??  And Paxton wasn't interested once he found out he couldn't eat the gingerbread boy!  Thank you Allie!

Another Zoo Visit

I will try not to post the pictures from every zoo visit we make...because we go all the time.  I can't think of anything my kids love more than going to the zoo.  I am so thankful the Waco zoo is close and so well done.  Audrey's preschool class has a mascot named Ernie.  Each child gets to bring him home for a long weekend(obviously this was pre-cast).  Then we document his visit in his journal.  Most of the other kids had already taken Ernie home so it was fun to read his journal and hear about all he has experienced.  Most of them included pictures too.  We took Ernie to the zoo and to the movies. 

This musical square is their favorite part of the zoo, hands-down!

Our computer crashed in the middle of our weekend visit so I didn't get to include the picture of us at the movies.  Audrey was pretty upset and continues to ask if we can still put it in the journal.  We saw MegaMind and it was a lot of fun!  Our adoped Aggie, Ali, came with us.  Paxton even did pretty well!

Be-Dazzle Me

While Audrey's cousins were here for Thanksgiving, they beautifully decorated her hot pink cast.  They added colorful jewels.  Samm did some fabulous artwork on the inside.  She wrote Audrey's name and drew a fairy, lips, girly-stuff!  So cute! Everyone we see tells Audrey her cast is beautiful.

She also has a jeweled "A" behind her elbow.  I almost wish we could keep the cast but I already know it will stink inside and be pretty yucky!  Oh well...at least it's well documented!

We went to a birthday party today and the parents could not believe the cast was not slowing Audrey down.  She was running and climbing as much as the other kids!  She even climbed this incline where you hold onto a rope- one-handed! 

Extra-Large Dogs

I have a sister who loves Great Danes.  I had never spent much time around one until she brought home her first one.  They are actually pretty great.  If you don't mind really large dogs!  That sometimes act like children or cuddly cats.  Their first Great Dane was Samson.  He was a rescue dog who was very happy in a house with 4 kids.  He put up with a lot of junk from my kids...and never seemed to mind.  My kids loved him and were only a little afraid of him.  Sadly he passed away last year in the Spring.  This past summer my sister found another Great Dane who needed a home.  He is a different color and maybe possibly even bigger!  His name is Boaz but we call him Bo.  He is younger than Samson so he acts more like a kid.  He sometimes gets too excited, but who can blame him?  My kids love him too.  It cracks me up when he tries to sit in your lap or lay on the couch but he's almost as tall as I am and probably weighs more than I do!! My parents live next door to my sister and when I'm in my parents' guest room I can hear Bo's deep bark through the window.  There is a large divider between the houses but it's not too tall for Bo. 

 This is Bo peeking over the wall.

This is my 8-yr old niece standing on her toes to reach the top of the wall.  Bo wanted to know what we were doing in my parent's backyard.  I guess we were having too much fun!  At least he can't get over the wall...yet.