Singing, Singing All the Day

Tanner has been in a singing mood lately, loving especially to listen to The Little Drummer Boy. Whenever he hears it he says, "That's my favorite song! Turn it up!" We often have a radio station from back in Idaho turned on through the computer, because they are playing Christmas songs all day until Christmas. If you are interested, go to www.klce.com and hit the "listen online" button. We have also been singing a song for Family Home Evening called "The Shepherd's Carol." The words are as follows:

"Mary, Mary, hush see the child.
Joseph, Joseph, look! see how mild.
This is Jesus, this is our King.
This is our Savior, His praises we sing."

Well, Tanner has learned this song and sings it all the time, although the wording is a little slurred. Here is his rendition.


Of course, Parker can't be left out. Everything his siblings do, he wants to do, too. So here is him singing something.



Here are also some pictures of Tanner in the tub, because seeing them on the computer would "make me SO happy!" His favorite thing to do in the tub is to take up all the room and spit water on his brother.

Holy Frostbite, Batman!!!

As I sit here typing, I can hear the wind howling outside. Yesterday was beautiful; sunshine, warm (for December)weather, no wind. We cleaned the garage yesterday and Shane was in shirt sleeves. Of course, he's tougher than me and I had to wear a sweatshirt, but it's halfway through December for Pete's sake. Well, Pete got even last night and the wind started to blow. Right now it is 0 degrees, and the wind chill puts the temperature at -26. Brrrrr!!! There is a chance of snow tonight, and that could make driving really fun tomorrow, if we can get the cars started. My car is in the garage, sheltered from the wind, thank you Shane, but his is not and that could be awfully cold tomorrow. I think the high is only supposed to be 7 degrees, so we're going to try and stay inside. Except that I have very little food in the house and need to go grocery shopping, so me and the little boys will probably have to face the wind tomorrow and risk being turned into popsicles so that we can eat. Oh well, adversity is good for you, right? Makes you appreciate what you have, like a warm house, heat, money to pay the electric bill. I will not complain because we are blessed with so many things.

We had a church Christmas party on Friday night, complete with a talent show of sorts. Kaitlin sang and played her trumpet with a friend, which sounded pretty good. Her trumpet is the one you can hear playing the melody. We are impressed with how far she's come since the moose was dying when she started. After the show, we had a jolly visitor, and all of the kids but Parker got to sit on Santa's lap and account for their behavior for the year. Tanner was the first in line, no fear at all. He's just started figuring out what Christmas is about, and boy was he excited. We tried to get Parker to sit, at least for a picture, but as soon as we got about 3 feet away, he sensed what was going on and started to cry like we were trying to give him away, and he started to climb my head to get behind me. Needles to say, Parker didn't sit on Santa's lap, so no picture. He wouldn't even let Kaitlin hold him close to Santa for a picture.

December Nights, December Lights

Tonight was Joshua's third grade Christmas program and boy, was he cute!! He is the one in the middle front row with the red hat. It was so fun to watch him do the motions and sing. The lights were a little bright, and a lot of the kids could hardly look up, Josh included. He warned me before the program, "Mom, if I don't look up it's because the lights are too bright. They make my eyes water." I took Kaitlin and Luke, because Parker was sick and Shane kept him and Tanner home. I love that he likes to sing, and hope that he doesn't ever lose that. It would be neat to have a son that sings. He didn't necessarily like the dancing parts, though, because on the way home, Kaitlin was talking with him about the bouncing part in the last video. She was kind of teasing him about that move and he said, "I'm too old to be doing this kind of stuff!"

Our First Nebraska Snowfall

We got our first snowfall of the year Monday night. The kids were very excited, and couldn't wait to go out and play in it. It started while we were out looking at Christmas lights for Family Home Evening, and even got pretty hairy for a while. The wind was driving the snow, and the flakes were big, so in some places it was almost white-out conditions. All the next day, Tanner kept asking me if I would come out and "have a snowball fight with gloves" with him. He had learned the night before how cold the snow was with bare hands. He and Parker were trying to hard to get themselves dressed to go out and play in the snow. Now I have slick roads to traverse everyday taking kids to school. I have been worried about not having a white Christmas here, so I'm hoping that this bodes well for having snow on Christmas day.

Luke's Birthday

My little Luke turned 7 on Tuesday, and was so excited. He has been telling anyone and everyone who will listen when his birthday was. He got to take treats to school, got a "pocketful of wishes" from the kids in his class (which was a small card from each one in his class), and had a movie day. Then at home we did presents and cake. He even had his friend, also named Luke, come over for the evening. (Now tell me how fun that gets to have two Luke's in the house!) Anyway, I think he had a fun day and is one year older now. He has gotten so much better at expressing himself lately, and is trying harder to share with Tanner. He is a great lego maker, and we just love having him in our family. Happy birthday cutie!!

Projects

Shane and I have been busy planning some projects around the house, trying to make things work better for our family. The biggest problem has been that our kitchen is too little to hold our table, so the table has to go in one end of our living room. The problem with that is that the living room is carpeted, and we have 5 children who spill at least one glass of milk at each meal, not to mention all the food that gets dropped, thrown, spit, flung with a fork, etc... all the time. And to make matters worse, the carpet is very light colored. So, since we moved in, we've had a piece of plastic under the table, trying to keep food off the floor. It's worked well, but it was starting to get torn and tripping everyone, so Shane and I decided it was time to put new flooring in. Our local home improvement store, called Menard's, had a super sale on laminate floor the day after Thanksgiving, so we stocked up and got ready to have a normal floor. After a couple of minor problems, we got a great looking floor. Shane did really well at planning it out and cutting all the pieces just right, and it only took us about 3 hours to put in. I think it would have taken us less time, but we were both suffering from big head colds, and we were pretty fuzzy the whole time. Anyway, here are some photos of the transformation:






Now the only problem is that the floor is really slippery, and if the kids aren't careful and run onto it wearing only socks, someone goes flying. Well, I take that back, there are two problems. The other is that as loud as my children are, now they sound louder because the room echoes now at that end of the room. Tanner figured out how well cars drive on it, and spent one morning send cars soaring across the floor. Parker likes to lay on it, on his stomach, and push himself backward. It has been a great change.

I have also been working on painting a couple of rooms, namely the bathrooms. One was gray, and the other was deep purple and light mint green stripes. They were driving me crazy, so I finally did something about it. Here are the photos:

"Hello, My Name is Tanner, and I Love to Dance!!"

Those were Tanner's words to me last night as he ran past me holding stolen legos. He loves the boys' legos, but Luke doesn't like Tanner to play with them. Josh and Luke both have several "ships" that they have put together on a shelf in their room. Tanner discovered that he can open their door and reach their shelf, and no ship has been safe since. He loves to hold them, and play with them, and sometimes that leads to the ships breaking, which of course drives Luke crazy. I'm thinking that it's time to invest in some little sets for Tanner, or have the boys build 2 or 3 ships that are just for Tanner to have.

Anyway, back to Tanner's funny saying. That got me thinking about all the dancing he and Parker have been doing lately. Parker asks all the time for music to be turned on, and then he and Tanner dance away. We have several videos of this, since all the kids think it is so funny to watch. Here is one of the latest.



We also put up the tree and my children, and cat, have discovered a great hiding place. The tree is right in front of our front window, and one of the heater vents. I put curtains up over the window, and if you pull them in to the sides of the tree, there is a wonderful, covered, warm hiding place. This picture is of Luke and Tanner taking advantage of this wonderful space. The only time they get along lately is when they are hiding together, waiting for me to find them.

"This is the Best Christmas EVER!!"

Those were the words said over and over again by Tanner last night as we decorated our tree for Family Home Evening. We decided to get out the lights and ornaments and let the kids go to it. The tree is a little lopsidedly decorated, lots of loaded spots and lots of bare spots, but the kids did it mostly themselves. Every time Tanner would come and get a new ornament to put up on the tree, he would say, "This is the best Christmas ever!!" He had a ball. Even Parker liked putting things on the tree. Of course, I don't think that Tanner has realized that presents will eventually be under that tree, will which make it even better, but he loves looking at the tree and trying to move ornaments around on it. I would post pictures, but I have misplaced my camera, so as soon as I find it, pictures will be posted.

Potty training is going pretty well. Tanner can tell us when he needs to go, and hasn't had an accident for days now. Now if we could just get him to pull up and down his own britches, we'd be making more progress. He keeps telling me, "I can't do it, Mom!" The problem is, I know that he can, he just chooses not to. Parker watches him all day, and he wants to sit on the toilet as well, so I'm hoping something clicks inside his head soon as to what is really going on and will want to potty train, too. I know, wishful thinking, but I can hope, right? I have been changing diapers for 8 years now, lots of those years with 2 in diapers, and I am ready to be diaper free.

Speaking of Parker, he has been talking up a storm lately. We are understanding more and more words. He asks "I see" when I'm cooking, he asks for music in the car and right now his song of choice is "I've got a lovely bunch of coconuts," he says "nigh, nigh dada" when its time for bed, he asks for his shoes, and to ride his bike, and so much more. Of course, a lot of it is gobbly-gook still, although he knows what he's saying, but we hear more and more each day and it is so fun to hear. He loves to play with cars, and carries them around everywhere he goes. He loves to turn on the Shrek CD and dance in the living room, and it has to be a certain song, "I'm a Believer" or it's the wrong one. He is so fun to have around.

Kaitlin got her haircut - added some bangs, and also got contacts, so she is looking like a new woman lately. I need to find my camera and I will post some pictures. The eye doctor said that putting her in contacts would help to slow the decline of her eyes, so in order to help her avoid the coke-bottle glasses that I have to wear, we decided to do it. She has done very well with getting them in and out, and has adjusted pretty well. She is doing very well in school, and has started drama club (which those of you who know her will realize how well that fits her personality.) She has been asked to babysit by another lady, a teacher at her school, so she is in heaven. I can't believe how fast she is growing up.

Well, I need to blog about Josh and Shane's trip to a cool museum, but because Shane went with him, I will get him to do the telling. Hopefully that will come soon. They got to spend the night at the Strategic Air Museum for a scouting trip, and from what I hear it was pretty cool.