Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Preschool Christmas

Today was Ethan's last day of preschool until after Christmas Break (I'd like to note that preschool Christmas break is especially long...Ethan didn't seem too thrilled when I told him how many days he had off!).

We had Ethan bring an apple pie as a Christmas present for each of his teachers. The reason behind the apple pie is that my mom would make an apple pie for all of my teachers every year. The teachers in the school all knew who had myself or one of my siblings in their class...I think there may have been some bartering for the pies. :) Anyway, I thought it would be nice to carry on the tradition and make pies for Ethan's teachers. I dropped Ethan off at school and flew home to peel and cut the apples and quick roll out the pie crust. Thankfully I made the pie crust last night. I almost ran out of time! I wanted the pies to be warm when I brought them to school...I wasn't thinking as fresh out of the oven as they ended up being, but it did make for a nice aroma wafting around the school. Maybe next year I'll put them in the oven before bringing him to school, just so I'm not so close on time! Here's the end result...



Jason wasn't too excited to hear that there were two pies leaving the house and none staying home (just the aroma to taunt us!). I think I'll be making another pie this week, especially after he sees these pictures!

Ethan's class had us come to a mini program. They sang some of the songs that they do in class, as well as some Christmas carols. It was so cute! Most of my pictures ended up being blurry because of the squirming toddler in my arms. I kept trying to get better pictures until I realized I was missing the singing. So, I enjoyed the kids singing, but that resulted in not having good pictures to share. I did get a little video (which shakes in quite a few places), but you can hear the kids singing and I think it's really cute. The parents all had a good laugh when the teacher asked the class whose birthday we were celebrating. The whole class shouted "Hannah" because it was her day to celebrate her birthday. The teacher eventually got them to understand that she was talking about singing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. I love kids.



And last, but certainly not least in my book, is our very first school Christmas present. Ethan came home with it on Monday and couldn't wait for us to open it. I barely convinced him to wait until Jason got home for us to open it together. Jason walked in the door and we had to immediately open our present. I love having the kids' hand prints on things, so I think this present will be a favorite of mine for many years to come! They also dated it nicely and put the name of his preschool on it. Ethan even signed his name on the bottom (you just can't see it because I cut it off in the picture so you could see the angel better). Isn't it cute?

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Does Santa read blogs?

I'm not sure if Santa reads blogs, so here's hoping Santa has some extra time to surf the web.

Dear Santa,
I wasn't sure how to reach you this close to Christmas, so I thought I'd try to catch you via my blog. I think that if I wrote a letter to you at your address in the North Pole it may have trouble getting to you. I'm sure that you receive a lot of mail there. Jason and I did Google your phone number, just to see if it was your direct line, but I think that your elves give out their numbers instead of yours.

I wanted to let you know that your package arrived today, just in time for Christmas. I know it was addressed to Ethan and Micah, but being a parent I had to open it and check it...for safety you know. I don't want to be on the naughty list, so I'll come clean and say that the hole in the wrapping on one of the presents really was there when I opened the box that it came in. I didn't make it that much bigger. A little tape should fix the problem easily. Although I'm tempted to check everything...you know, for safety...I promise not to unwrap and re-wrap the packages. I guess I'll just have to trust that your elves knew what they were doing. We both know that I wouldn't really be checking for safety anyway.

Santa, thanks a lot for thinking of the boys this year. Their mom and dad appreciate your love.

Janna

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Top Five

Top five reasons why you shouldn't give a toddler a pudding cup and walk away...

5. Because you don't know how the pudding is getting from the cup to the mouth.
4. Because you won't want to touch the spoon to help after the toddler has been doing it himself.
3. Because you can't catch the spoon full of pudding before it clatters to the floor.
2. Because the high chair will need to be wiped in places that usually don't get messy.
1. Because you have to clean up this:



Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Common Courtesy

Today I made a quick stop at the store on my way to work. I wanted to be in and out quickly, so I was doing it when I didn't have the boys with me. I was all checked out, and as I took my bags off the counter, I knocked a little display box of Chapstick off the counter. Since I was turning as I pulled the bags off, they pretty much scattered in a half circle around me. So, I bent over to pick them up as I was responsible for knocking them down. I tried to pick them up quickly, since I was holding up the line. I loaded them all up, set them on the counter, and then loaded my bags into the cart. As I was walking out the door, I thought to myself "wow, maybe at least one of the 3 or 4 people that were standing and waiting for me to get out of their way could have helped me pick them up". No one even offered, though one gentleman did say "Uh-oh" when they scattered on the floor. Nice. Do me a favor, next time you see someone picking up something they knocked down, bend over and help them. Yeah, they could probably do it on their own, but maybe they'll smile when they leave the store instead of thinking how sad it is that no one has any common courtesy left. Stepping off my soapbox now.

Monday, December 10, 2007

It's all fun and games until somebody does a faceplant

Here's a glimpse into life at our house. The boys play nice together some of the time...and then as it seems to do with siblings, it can go downhill quickly. However, this night they were having fun. Even the crying at the end of the video didn't last longer than the amount of time that it took me to give Micah a hug. Sorry for the few times where it gets blurry...the camera had a hard time keeping up with the spinning children. Oh, and for interpretation, the boys kept saying "cheese" because I had the camera out.

Tuesday, December 4, 2007

Outnumbered

I am severely outnumbered at my house. Most of the time, being the only girl is not so bad...I'll admit I'm rather spoiled. However, lately the phrase of choice coming from the three boys has been "tickle mommy time!". I can't win that battle when it's three against one. The sad thing is that even Micah, in his own toddler phrasing, is able to declare "tickle mommy time". Somehow, they all know my ticklish spots. Ethan even likes to take my socks off so he can get to my feet better (and then he hides my socks, which is a whole different issue). I guess the fact that "tickle mommy time" fills my house with laughter makes it somewhat OK...I just wish it wasn't me being tickled all the time.

Saturday, December 1, 2007

Yes, that's the correct time

To some of my girlfriends...yes, the time is correct on your blogs/websites. I was really commenting at 1:30 in the morning. I figured if I was up anyway hanging out with Micah, I might as well have fun reading blogs. :)