Christmas Tree!

Ok so I know I am a bit late getting our tree and getting it up but I DID get all my greeting cards, most of my shopping done, and sent and all but 2 packages on time!

 We love to go to this Pick-your-own tree farm. We found it last year when we lived in Mooresville and it was just down the road from there. So this year it was about a half hour away but well worth it. The man that runs it is super friendly and great with the kids. The trees aren't super expensive (most are $30) He even gave the boys all the materials to make their own wreath! Niels and the boys really enjoyed doing that and I loved having the smell of fresh pine needles in the van the whole way home. Niels is always trying to convince me to get an artificial tree but I just love the live ones. It is so much fun to go pick it out, and cut it down, take it home etc. The other thing is I feel a bit more enviornmentally friendly this way since we only take one tree and the rest are there until next year.

Blogger is being weird about my pictures posting so here is what the pictures are top to bottom:

Starting on the top: 

Finished decorated tree w/ presents from Grandma

The homemade wreath (which is a little skimpy on the bottom now because the wind has blown quite a few branches out)

The Rudolph Ornament:

Christian- "Mom which way is North?" as we are decorating the tree. 

Me "Um, I think our house faces North why honey?" (Tree is on the south side of the living room)

Christian "Because I need to hang this ornament right." (a Rudolph ornament)

Me "how is that right?" Rudolph is facing INTO the tree (his nose pointing south)

Christian "Well he has his Booty facing North so he can head out of the North Pole with Santa to deliver all the presents!

Me (dumfounded) "Yeah honey that is great!"

Boys decorating the tree,

 Calinda and the boys by the tree, 

all of us by the tree, 

boys heading out to find the "right one"

Bottom one is a video of the boys cutting down the tree! DAD click the PLAY button it's a video!!!

Aricin's Preschool Program

Check it out. Aricin singing for his Christmas preschool program this last Friday night!

Aricin's Fieldtrip: Pizza and Plaster

This is Aricin on his field trip. For this part they were at a place called Plaster Creations. They painted their own Christmas Ornament and then another one to take to the nursing home with them on a different field trip. In this one he is holding up a Santa ornament.

Aricin before painting

We started out at a pizza place called Cici's Pizza. The whole class was given a tour of the whole kitchen and restuarant (no pictures of the kitchen allowed) and then they all got to make pizza and then of course eat it! The poor little girl that he shared with hardly got any pizza. Good thing she was a typical girl and didn't eat very much. After 4 pieces I told him he couldn't have any more until she was finished. She finished and he at one more for a total of 5 pieces! This was at 10:30am in the morning. He had eaten scrambled eggs and a yogurt at about 7:30am. Makes me nervous for when they get older!

Ok so here he is right before making his pizza when they just had their drinks. What did he choose? Sweet tea of course! A chip off the old block! What parent doesn't want their kid to have caffeine & sugar at 9:30am? Luckily he didn't drink much of it until after he ate his pizza!

4 year old sincerity

So last night my little monkey boy Aricin is getting ready for bed and he is standing ON the edge of the tub in the bathroom while his brother is cleaning his teeth. "I can't clean my teeth until he is done" Aricin says. As I proceed to tell him to get off the tub because he could fall and crack his head open Christian chimes in. " Yeah Aricin it would be like the time I was at Costco and cracked my head open." While Christian did crack his head pretty good off a bench at the Costco food court when he was three, he survived and wasn't even hospitalized, just had a HUGE goose egg on his head for a few weeks. But that was our close call. Anyway so I am leaving the bathroom when I hear Aricin with 100% sincerity pose the question "Did your brains come out of your head?" Got to love 4 year olds. They can talk about brains coming out of your head with 100% innocent curiosity. That must be the difference between the adult parent brain and the kids' brains. They really just DON'T get it when you say stuff like that. Point taken...

Thanksgiving 2008

There are many things I am thankful for this year. Just to name a few that come to mind:

1. Time (which I don't seem to have much of lately)

2. Family, those here living with me and those that are far away. I don't know what I would do without my wonderful family. My mom that always saves my behind for church projects, and my sister that is always there for me to lean on and get support. My dad for always checking in on me and making me laugh, and my brother for his never ending tech support! Of course I couldn't live without my family here either. Niels especially, he is awesome! And the boys have taught me so much that I never would have learned any other way.

3. Friends that are such a great support, even if they do live halfway or all the way across the country!

 I am grateful that in this hard economic time that Niels has a great job, and grateful especially for him and the love that he shows me and the kids daily.

I know this is short and sweet but I really did run out of time the last couple weeks. Here are our Thanksgiving Pics.

This is Aricin after the big dinner (more like lunch because we ate at noon) helping put up some outside Christmas decorations.

Christian enjoying tollhouse chocolate chip pie. I made this one just for him but it ended up being almost everyone's favorite. We also had homemade pumpkin pie (made with homemade pumpkin puree from our Patterson Farms pumpkin) and ice cream pie. I mean really, what is Thanksgiving without really good desserts?

Here is everyone before the meal!
And here is the food. Boy was it yummy. From our Turkey to Uncle Laren's stuffing recipe and homemade bread this meal was awesome!