Christmas 2011

I was so caught up in the excitement of Christmas morning, I only took a few pictures and videos.

One advantage of buying pjs a few sizes too big is that they get to wear them two Christmases in a row. 

This was Fletcher's face after he realized the really big present was for him. 

They sat still long enough for a quick picture, then it was off to play with new toys.

These videos capture the personalities of our children when they wake up. We later found out that Fletcher had been up since 4 am (but didn't come out of his room until 7). We had to wake Luke up a little after 7 for fear that his brother might burst with anticipation!

Luke


Fletcher

Merry Christmas!

From all of us on Snickelfritz Lane!
Thanking God for family, friends and the best gift of all - Jesus!

The Christmas Story

According to an 8 year old...


And according to a 3 year old...

We are happy to report that the angel has only a mild concussion and is recovering nicely.

Jedi Training

Disney Hollywood Studios offers Jedi Training for kids who want to become Jedis. We thought it would be fun for Fletcher to do and Luke decided he wanted to do it too.

Luke was fine with the training part, but when the real Darth Vader came out he was terrified. He started crying and backing away. The helper was trying to get him by the hand to take him to Kevin but Luke thought she was trying to take him to fight Darth Vader and he started screaming and crying even more. Kevin and I felt terrible. He quickly recovered in the safety of Daddy's arms and enjoyed watching Fletcher take his turn battling the Dark Side.

Fletcher thought it was one of the coolest things we did at Disney (besides riding all the big rollercoasters).

Jedi Training


Practicing with Darth Vader

Epic Parenting Fail

For those of you who were curious how the boys reacted to the Disney surprise, here is the video.

Let's just say I probably need to work on "reading comprehension" with Fletcher. 

Not exactly the reaction I had envisioned in my head.  I didn't expect much from Luke because he doesn't even know what Disney is.



I'll be posting some pictures and videos of our trip in the days ahead. We had a great time (in spite of the rough beginning).

Neat Idea

Isn't this the neatest idea?  I made one of these for one of our former college students who got married.  Of course, I was so excited that it turned out so cute (since I have limited crafting abilities) that I mailed it to her and forgot to take a picture of it.  The photo below was my inspiration.  In case you can't tell, the strips of paper inside the glass ball are pieces of a wedding invitation.  Isn't that cool for a first Christmas together?  Makes me want to go find one of our old wedding invitations and make one for us too. 

Are You All Ears?

If all goes as planned...
Today the boys will wake up and eat breakfast. 

Kevin will act like he is getting ready for a normal Friday workday.

Then we will get all serious and call a "family meeting". 

Fletcher will read this poem*: 

 Then they will each open a package that has matching Mickey Mouse shirts and hats, a Mickey plush doll and the Mouse Ears hat we bought for Fletcher when we took him to Disney when he was 3 1/2. 

We are going to try to discretely video tape Fletcher reading the poem so we can catch his reaction.  Luke has never been to Disney World so he has no idea what awaits him.  We've been working for months to plan this trip while keeping it a secret from the boys. They have absolutely no clue. We packed most of the car last night.

Not sure what posting will be like next week since I'm not sure of our internet access at our hotel. 

Just know that we will be having so much fun in mid 70 degree sunny Florida.

Oh and that our house is guarded by a killer attack beagle and is surrounded by three former NY police officers.

*I must give credit where credit is due.  I found this poem by a mom on the forums at intercot.com named "rjmdds".  I modified it a bit to fit our trip. 

More December Love

I was part of our puppet team when I was in our youth group at church.

Puppets have come a long way since then.

December Love

Thought I would post a few Christmas-y things on the blog over the next few days. 

This song is wonderful and the video that goes along with it is really neat (the whole thing is done in sand).

Phases

We love our boys. We love being parents. We are not perfect. We don't know it all. We sometimes wish our kids came with "How To" manuals so we could figure them out. What we have realized is that kids go through phases. And just when you think that particular phase is going to do you in, they move on to another phase. Thank goodness!

Luke turned 4 in August. He is cute, loving and funny. He is also very opinionated about how his world should work. His way. Always. (I would use the term "strong willed" or "stubborn" but I want to avoid labeling my child). Lately, he latches on to something that he does or does not want and WILL NOT LET IT GO. Same question over and over. Not doing what we tell him to do no matter how many different ways we say it. We've tried redirecting, distracting, giving choices, time outs, other consequences, and even spankings. He still isn't getting the fact that he is not "the boss" (yes, he used these words with us -- "I'm the boss!"). It is sort of cute at 4, but it wont' be cute at 14 and it will definitely be problematic at 24 so we are trying to prayerful guide him. And it is wearing me out.

But I know this is just a phase. Just for posterity's sake, I am including this brief video as a reminder to me. We were coming home from the beach a few weeks ago. We have a DVD player in our van. Sometimes we let the kids choose the movies they watch. Other times I choose for them when they can't agree on something. I had chosen a movie (Veggie Tales Jonah which they had seen before and like very much). Luke decided my movie choice was unacceptable. For thirty minutes...30...half an hour...26 miles...this is what we heard over and over again.   In case you can't understand it, he is saying "I want a different movie" over and over again. 


He told me the next day, "Mommy, my throat hurts."  Hmmmm...wonder why.
I'd like to say this was a one time occurrence, but yesterday after church, we went to lunch with some friends. Five of the seven of us were already seated eating our food when Luke decided he wanted to sit somewhere else in the restaurant. He proceeded to scream when we didn't move so Kevin took him out to the van and strapped him in his carseat (which he can't unbuckle). Kevin sat out there with him. We ate our lunch inside and came out about 30 minutes later and he was still screaming. Screamed and cried all the way home too. Part of me wants to just give in, but I know that giving in to his every ridiculous whim is not the best thing to do. 
Like I said, I love being a mom. I am really hoping this phase passes very, very quickly. I heard someone say once that the Bible uses the phrase "and it came to pass" many times. That's because whatever trial or circumstance we are going through will pass eventually otherwise God would have used the phrase "and it came to stay".

*sigh*

I was out of the room for maybe 5 minutes.

 (At the breakfast table)

 Me: Luke, why is your hair wet?

 Luke: It's milk.

 Me: Milk? How did you get milk in your hair?

 Luke: I stuck my head in my cereal bowl.

Someday I will miss this!(I kept repeating this to myself as I was washing the milk out of his hair at the sink.)

What Do You Want To Be When You Grow Up?

Bob Dylan is getting old.  I think we may have found a possible replacement.
Still makes a mama proud.


This guitar has served us well.  Remember this?  Fletcher was about the same age as Luke is now.

Let It Glow, Let It Glow, Let It Glow!

Makes a mama proud!
Science Fair 2011.  We have a video but you can't hear Fletcher on it.  Too much other noise going on the room.  Here are his note cards he used for his oral presentation.  He learned lots of new things (and we did too). 

 Luke was listening attentively (at least for the first minute) to Fletcher's presentation.

Sesame Street Is Brought To You Today By The Number 10

In the car driving home recently, Luke started counting.  He likes numbers.  He does great through about 29 then he starts saying random numbers in a very random order. Drives. Fletcher. Nuts.

Luke:  (counting) 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 53, 65, 34,

Fletcher:  Luke, why don't you count all the way to 100 by 10s. 

Luke:  10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10....I have to say a lot of dem because 100 is a long way away.

Fletcher:  (exasperated) Luke!  I mean why don't you try counting BY tens.

Luke:  (I am not making this up)  By 10, by 10, by 10, by 10, by 10, by 10

I had forgotten how very literal 4 year olds are.  Fletcher tried to teach him how to do it, but it wasn't clicking yet.  I kinda like Luke's way better anyway at this point. 

What A Difference A Year Makes

Remember this from last year? 

Here are two clips from this year's performance.  I was so happy and proud that I completely zoned out for about 15 seconds in the middle and then realized I didn't even have the camera on Luke.

Now That's A First

Kevin and I have started teaching the college and young singles Sunday School class at our church.  It is a very small group, but we are enjoying being around this age group again.

We invited them over to our house for lunch Sunday.  Kevin made gumbo.  Many of them had never had it before and didn't even know what it was.  After we told them it didn't contain anything weird like alligator or opossum, they were all willing to try it. 

One of the class members is from Nigeria.  He hasn't been in the states very long.  This was the first time he has been invited to an American's house for a "home cooked" meal.  Later he told us that he wasn't sure if he would be able to eat American food.  He thought it might make him vomit.  I had to laugh because I always wonder this same thing when I am in another country eating their food.  I never thought the reverse would be true. 

Since I grew up in Louisiana, I've seen lots of ways people eat gumbo.  Some people put their potato salad in the gumbo.  Some throw in a few eggs and have hard boiled eggs with theirs.  Others put in something called "file" which is dried sassafrass leaves.  Some crumble up saltine crackers.  Others throw on jalapeno peppers.  None of that has ever surprised me.

Until yesterday.

I was doing some stuff in the kitchen and K asked if he could have a banana.  I just figured he wanted some fruit to go along with his meal.  I feed fruit to my kids all the time at almost every meal. 

But I looked up and K had cut up the banana in slices and spread it on top of his gumbo much like one would cut up a banana and put on top of cereal.  Then he ate the whole bowl and said it was absolutely delicious. 

Hmmm.  Sweet.  Salty.  I guess it could work.  But I don't think I will be trying it any time soon.

Not Good

I think Tank is going to need a good lawyer.

Fill 'Er Up

I'm not sure how this whole thing started, but I love it.

Our bedtime routine with the boys is pretty standard:  baths, teeth brushed, Bible time, prayers, tucking in bed, hugs and kisses, music on, and lights out. 

When I lean down to hug and kiss Luke, he says, "Let me see your Love Tank." 
I open my mouth for him to see (like I said, not sure where this game came from). 
He says, "Nope, not filled up."  Then he starts giving me numerous hugs and kisses to fill up my Love Tank.
He asks to see again and says, "Yep.  All filled up now."
Then I say to him, "Let me see your Love Tank." 
He opens his mouth as wide as he can and I say, "Nope.  Not filled up.  You need 7 more kisses and 4 more hugs."  And he giggles as I count them out. 
I look inside his Love Tank again and tell him, "One more big hug to fill it to the tippy tippy top."

We both go to sleep with a full tank!  Of course, we have to do it again the next night because Love Tanks leak during the day! 

So the next time someone around you is feeling grumpy, ask to see their Love Tank.  They may just need a fill up from you!

Bonfire Party

Pirates!



 Leaf pile.  (Luke said this was his favorite thing besides eating s'mores.)

Instead of bobbing for apples (way too cold and wet) we hung apples by their stems from a tree limb and tried to get the kids to bite into them without using their hands.  It was much harder than it looked!  The little ones just gave up and grabbed them with their hands.  I think Luke had whacked himself in the eye right before I took this picture.

Tucker is making a valiant attempt - look at that tongue!

Fletcher was trying to get the entire thing into his mouth.  That's what I love about 7 year olds.  They live by the "Go big or go home" motto.

 Finally, everyone decided they were hungry and used their hands.  We did leave the apples hanging in the trees.  We thought it would be really funny to put a night vision camera out there to see if any of the deer tried to play the game too. 

Next up was a golf cart treasure hunt complete with a map (not drawn to scale which added to the adventure!).  Of course the treasure was candy....lots and lots of candy.

We finished the night with pizza and s'mores and some great memories. 

Down on the Farm

Luke's preschool had a fall farm day instead of having any "Halloween" festivities.  They got to go on a hayride, pick out a pumpkin and see some live animals. 

I've never seen a cuter farmer!

We are going to a Not-A-Halloween party tonight.  The kids will still wear costumes and we will eat pizza and have a bonfire.  There were a few families who decided to get together instead of trick or treating this year.  Some people around here go all out in trying to scare the little kids to death and we just didn't want to have to deal with that.  Our friends live in one of those neighborhoods where the houses are acres apart so they never get trick or treaters out their way.  The kids will have a blast.  Pics soon! 

The Big Reveal

Family Room - Before

(Bought the chairs off of craigslist knowing that I was going to have them recovered.  We've had that denim sofa for almost 12 years.  I love the style and the height and the comfort of it, but the denim was looking very worn and faded.)

 Another angle.  The walls look green in this picture, but they are really just a beige color. 

 The beloved purple chair in the playroom.  Made by Ethan Allen.  Again, the perfect size and comfort level, but the embossed purple palm tree pattern didn't go with our playroom.  The kids love that chair (I do too) so I knew we had to keep it. 

 Some friends of mine gave me the name and number of a guy who reupholsters furniture for a very reasonable price.  I got in contact with him.  He came and loaded up all of my furniture and the fabric I picked out.  Then brought it all back four weeks later. 

Drum roll please.....

Ta da!!!  (I didn't get the job taking photos for House Beautiful or Southern Living.  When you see the pictures, you'll know why.)

The furniture guy made the ottoman based on a picture I gave him.  It is huge - 4' x 4' and covered in a chocolate brown faux leather.  We love it!  I found the sofa table against the window at a consignment store. My friend Teresa helped me find the accessories for it.   I'm taking a risk putting breakable items on the sofa table.  The book ends are wooden fleur de lis - a salute to my Louisiana heritage.  The balls in the bowl each have a word and scripture verse on them - a reminder of our spiritual heritage.   (Don't look too closely.  I still haven't taken the price tags off of everything). 

Since Kevin likes playing his electric guitar and leaving all the equipment out, I found the smaller chair by the fireplace to be a perfect accent. The fabric goes great with everything else. 

I love all of it, but I think my favorite things are the chairs.  The fabric is just so fun and funky and bold.  We played around with the arrangement of the pieces which is why these chairs are in a different spot.  Kevin was just thrilled when I asked him to move them back to their original position.  (See Luke having his snack in the background and the bags for all the accessories on the kitchen snack bar.)  My friend is painting the little accent table for me.  It is a little too gray. 

 

This is the playroom chair.  It is now covered in denim which will work great in the playroom!  I found the fun pillows at Pier 1.  They remind me of giant hacky sacks.  Can you tell Luke loves his new chair?  Fletcher and Kevin decided that the chair would still be referred to as "the purple chair" even though it isn't purple anymore.  The ottoman was taking up too much prime floor space in the playroom so we moved it to Fletcher's room.  I think it does double duty as a boat, stage, Star Wars battle ship and kung fu platform. 

Breathe On Me

I had a flashback in church on Sunday morning.

We sang the hymn "Breathe On Me" during the service.  Fletcher was standing right next to me.  I was wearing a knitted sweater.  Suddenly, I felt some warmth near my side through my sweater.  I looked down and Fletcher has his entire face in my side.  I whispered as I pulled him away, "What are you doing?"  He giggled and said, "Breathing on you." 

I was immediately transported back to the church I grew up in.  It was easy to get distracted in church any time my older brother David stood or sat next to me.  When we would sing that same song (which seemed like every other week), he would blow on me.  Drove me nuts.  He tried to be very discrete when he did it so mom didn't see.  But I could feel it (and smell it - it always smelled like wintergreen Life Savers because mom would give us those in church to keep us quiet).  I would tell him to stop and he would keep doing it.  Then I would get in trouble.  It was a vicious cycle. 

Luke doesn't come in "big church" with us yet.  I'm sure Fletcher can hardly wait. 

Growing Up

The firetruck and firemen came and visited Luke's preschool last week. 

Luke:  Mommy, guess what I want to be when I grow up?
Me:  What do you want to be?
Luke:  A fireman! 
Me:  Wow!  That would be really cool.
Luke:  Mommy?
Me:  Yes, Luke?
Luke:  What do you want to be when you grow up?

Let My People Go

Let me start by saying that I am truly blessed to be able to stay home with my children and not work outside the home.  Kevin and I came to that decision early on in our marriage long before we had kids.  When I did work when Fletcher was a baby, it was only part time and I did most of it from home so he was never in daycare

Kevin has always been very supportive of our decision.  Although there are probably some days when he comes home and the house is a wreck, dinner is not on the table and I still haven't showered and he wonders just exactly what it is that I do all day. 

Why is this important? 

Well, we've been reading through the Bible during our Bible time at night.  We started in Genesis and are going through the major stories (Creation, the fall, Cain and Abel, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, etc).  We've been reading the story of Moses and the Israelites and the ten plagues.  Last night we read about the plague of locusts and darkness.  We try to ask Fletcher (and Luke when he is cooperating) questions about what we've read.  Here was a snippet of last night's conversation. 

Kevin:  Why do you think Pharoah kept changing his mind and saying only the men could go but the women had to stay in Egypt.  Or the livestock had to stay.

Fletcher:  Ummm...

Kevin:  What would have happened if all the men left to worship in the desert and the women and children stayed in Egypt?

(Kevin was trying to get him to see that Pharoah knew the men would return because their families were still there.  If they all left, they would never return.)

Fletcher:  (still not getting it)

Kevin:  If the men left and the women stayed, what would happen?

Fletcher:  The women would have to go to work???

Kevin and I exchanged a very brief glance in that moment and it was all I could do not to laugh.

Apparently, in Fletcher's mind the Israelite slave women didn't have to work either.

Prank Calls

I've done my fair share of prank calls in my lifetime.  Of course, most of that came to a screeching halt once Caller ID was invented.  Caller ID takes the fun out of everything...sometimes. 

Last Monday was Columbus Day and our area public schools had the day off.  Fletcher was at school (since they don't have school on Fridays, they don't take all those Monday holidays).  Luke and I were at home just hanging out doing our Monday stuff like laundry.  Around noon my phone rang.  I didn't recognize the name on Caller ID, but it was a person's name not a business or telemarketing name so I answered it.  After I said "Hello", no one said anything.  Our home phone number is unique in that the last four digits are all the same number (easy for our kids to remember).  However, because those digits are all the same, we get wrong number calls all the time because people dial incorrectly. So I figured it was just a wrong number so I hung up. 

Not even a minute later, the phone rang again.  Same person.  This time when I picked up and said "hello", I heard girls giggling on the other end.  One of them said something like "your butt's on fire".  (I checked, it wasn't.)  It was then that I realized these girls were home from school and bored.  Mom or Dad was probably either at the office or working upstairs not paying a bit of attention to what the kiddos were doing.  My guess is that they were trying to call a friend/enemy of theirs.

Obviously, these girls knew how to dial a phone, but they didn't know about Caller ID. 

They called one more time.  More giggling.  More silly talk that I couldn't understand.  And they hung up. 

I happened to be at my computer.  I'm really not sure what came over me.  If they don't know about Caller ID then they certainly don't know about reverse phone number look up on the computer.  I looked up their number and found their address.  They live in a neighborhood not too far from us. 

They called again.  This is the fourth call in less than 5 minutes.  This time I answered and said in a freaky, menacing voice, "You live at 2204 Magnolia Drive* and I am COMING TO YOUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW!  I am coming to 2204 Magnolia Drive NOW."  I hear them stop giggling and suck all the oxygen out of the room they were in.  Then they hung up. 

I know.  It was so wrong.  I shouldn't have done it. 

I hope they totally freaked out.  I was imagining them cowering in their bedrooms terrified of every car that drove by.  They really were in a bit of a dilemma.  If they told their parents, they would have to admit that they were prank calling people.  If they don't tell their parents, a deranged housewife might show up at their door any minute. 

I think they must have told their parents.  The next afternoon I got a message on my answering machine from a little girl.  This time she was calling from Dad's cell phone.  She said very nervously, "I'm sorry for that calling we did yesterday.  Wrong number."  She sounded a little tired, like maybe she didn't sleep much the night before. 

Let that be a lesson to you, little girl.  I know where you live!

*I changed the address to protect the innocent.

One Final Surprise

Our last surprise for the weekend was a trip to the NC Zoo in Asheboro.  We've never been to this zoo before and we had no idea how spread out it was.  There are two sections:  Africa and North America.  We didn't get to the North America section.  Of course, I forgot our stroller so Luke got a little tired of walking.  He never rides in a stroller anymore, but this would have been a time where we could have used it.  It was a gorgeous fall day.  There were so many people there.  It was hard to get up close to the fences and glass to see all of the animals. 

Both boys wanted to wear their Lego nametags from the night before.

 Poison frogs.  I've never seen blue ones before.

 All throughout the zoo there were these metal animal sculptures.  Fletcher and Luke thought they needed to climb on every one.  These are the elephants.

 The rhino.

 They called these the "swamp ghosts" - albino alligators.

Giant (man made) beehive.

 Giant bee.

 Giraffes - always one of my favorites. 

 We took this picture as we were leaving since we forgot to take a group photo when we got there.  I think we all look a little worn out. 

We really enjoyed the baboons.  They were putting on a show.  I think their mom got tired of all the antics.  Notice what she does at the   minute mark.  Guess they won't be playing in that hole anymore.

 

More Surprises!

When we knew we were going to be in the Raleigh area on Saturday, Kevin thought it might be fun to go to a work site and let Luke drive a real excavator.  He is still fascinated with big machines.  He loves playing with his dump trucks, bull dozers, skid steer loaders and tools.  One of his favorite things to play is "worker" at the "working site."  Kevin's friend knows how to operate the big machines so we met him there.  His son got to go first and Luke was mesmerized watching this other little boy drive the track wheel excavator up the hill through the dirt and then dig a hole.  Since it was somewhat loud, I wasn't sure if Luke would want a turn.  But as soon as Kevin asked, Luke was ready to go.  He loved it.  I couldn't zoom close enough to see his expression on his face.  Let's just say that he thought the Lego Fest was cool, but driving the excavator was way cooler in his book!

But we had one more surprise before we came home!