Elfie

Meet our Elf on the Shelf, Elfie. The Elf on the Shelf has been around since before this year. I have heard other mothers speak glowingly about it as they pressure their kids into being good for a month. (I hope that it worked better for you than me.) Honestly, I wish that I was the brilliant mom that came up with that idea and is now profiting from every young household in America. The reason that everyone heard about it this year is that they came out with a tv special that has played during the holiday season.

I can already hear some of you saying, "What is it?" The Elf on the Shelf is a tiny elf (like the one you see above) that Santa sends to your home to keep an eye on you and make sure that you are being good (for the low price of $29.99.) He comes with a book that explains his role and after you read his story, you must name him, never touch him or he loses his magic, and behave all the time so that your elf has a good report for Santa. Every night while we are sleeping, the elf flies back to Santa and gives him a report for the day. Then he flies back to the house and lands in a new spot (a.k.a. Mom and Dad better remember to move him every night.) On Christmas Eve, the elf flies back to Santa to wait for the next Christmas season to come back and spy for Santa. (I forgot to have Elfie fly away and we nearly had big problems when the kids found Elfie Christmas morning.)

The elf thing has always sounded cute when others had talked about it, but I wasn't really going to get one for us. Then, everyone at school had one. By everyone, I mean 7 or 8 of the kindergarten through 2nd grade teachers (by the way, that's a lot!), our school had it's own Elf that moved every day, and many of the kids' friends had one at home. When Hayden started seeing the Elf in random spots in our house (and we didn't have an elf), Gibson was nearly getting into fights at school over whether we had one, even though he hadn't seen it yet; it was time. Sigh...

The kids were elated when Elfie appeared magically on the bookshelf. Dad could not have been more of a humbug. (He did better than I did about remembering to move that thing every night!) I stressed myself out a little trying to move him to a different spot every time.

Welcome to a new family tradition that will be around for a little while.

Fa-la-la

Christmas music has been playing in our house and in the car since the day after Thanksgiving (with many protests from Shane.) It has been fun to hear the kids sing all of their favorite holiday songs and carols and it is also really funny to hear them sing what they think are the lyrics. ;)

I caught Hayden singing "Deck The Halls," except that it was not the words that I am used to hearing.

Up the mousetops to be Charlie...fa la la la la...la la la la...

My Old Stomping Grounds

Our family loves the adventure of going to a new area and we have had lots fun exploring our new city. What you may not know is that technically, Houston is not so new to me. I was born here and lived in The Heights until I was seven. In fact, we moved on my seventh birthday. Once, after I was married, I came back to the area that I had grown up in and visited it with my parents, but it had little meaning to me at the time, besides just remembering little bits about living there and reminiscing.

In an effort to continue our efforts of eating organically and locally we have found a little market called Revival Market that is not far from us. I had visited once myself and Shane had been up there a couple of times to pick up stuff for me. When I was up there, I was really struck with how familiar everything looked. A couple of weekends ago, we ran out of coffee and took the whole family on a run to get more coffee (they seriously have the best stuff I have ever tasted.)

While we were driving in the area, I was once again hit with deja vu and googled my old address for grins and giggles. (My parents were good parents and I will forever remember my first address: 1419 Dorothy Street, and my phone number, 869-8534.) The market is 3 blocks from where we used to live. I did remember from having visited with my parents awhile back that our old house was actually not there anymore, but we ended up on the street anyway.

This was my old elementary. Love Elementary. Mrs. Pierce was my 1st grade teacher and I thought that she was beautiful. The PTO used to sell pickles on Fridays right by this gate and my dad would give me a quarter so that I could get one. He also used to drive his truck right beside me while I walked to school in the morning so that this big, old mean dog wouldn't eat me alive on the street.
This church was right across the street from my house. I used to ride my bike and tricycle up and down the sidewalk next to the church. I also remember bouncing a tennis ball against the wall. They have done some extensive remodeling since the old days.
These trendy condos are now across the street from where our house was. Back in the day, The Heights were not the trendy, cool place to live that it is now. I remember houses, but they did not look like this.
This tortilla factory now fills the whole city block where our house was. Try to imagine a cute, white and blue house with a big, blue porch and two holly bushes in the front of the house. There was a long driveway that went up the side of the house with a little garden off the side. Next door was Mrs. Hattaway and she hated me. Especially, when I would stand outside naked with the water hose and fill up my little swimming pool in the summer. She would come outside and glare at me and then huff and puff as loudly as she could while she swept her driveway for the umpteenth time a day.

I really had a great time walking down memory lane as we drove through the neighborhood. My first best friends lived on that street. I learned how to play kickball there and also learned the injustices of the older kids being team captains and me always getting chosen last. We caught tadpoles in the big puddle on the old lot that is now a house. Oh, and the street was a lot shorter than I remembered. I could have sworn that the walk from my house, to the school, to my friends house, was miles long. Even though I was only there until I was seven, that little area will always carry a significant weight in the memory of my childhood.

Tae Kwon Do

Hayden started Tae Kwon Do this last fall. It was something that he had been asking to do for quite some time and he has enjoyed it very much. Master Jenny is his teacher and she loves Hayden and he loves her just as much. He had been working through his white belt and mastering all of the steps. A couple of weeks ago, he was able to test for his yellow belt and he got it! One of the requirements was that he must be able to break a board. Master Jenny had told Shane the week before that he was going to be practicing at his next lesson, but we were afraid that if we told Hayden, it might stress him out. He walked into his lesson and she walked him through what he was going to do and he did it. I love this video.

This second video is his second try and he conquered that board with no trouble.

We are very proud of our little yellow belt!

From the wilds...

Our youngest, Landry, attacks life with zest, vim, vigor and extreme enthusiasm. With this much force behind her, she constantly has bumps, bruises, cuts, etc. that I have no idea where they come from. (Case in point, as I was coming into the room to tuck her into bed, she was behind the door, twirling like a ballerina, and slammed her head into the door knob. She rubbed her head, said nothing and climbed into bed like nothing happened. I have to hand it to her, she rarely cries and is tough as a boot.) With all that said, she has made me laugh this week. She came in with a pretty big boo-boo on her foot. It was a big cut with a bruise as well. I was looking at it as we were taking baths and asked her what happened. She looked at it, sighed a little and then said, "Well, that tiger bit me while I was in the jungle." Then that was the end of that.

The next day, she came in with another bruise on her arm. Again, I asked her what happened. She looked at it, looked at me and then sighed, "That tiger got me again..."

SnowFest 2011 and City Parade

Buckle in, this is a long one!

As part of the holiday festivities, Shane and his staff have an event called SnowFest. They have food vendors, a little bit of fun shopping, Santa brings Comet, a whole slew of bounce houses, climbing walls and fun activities for the kids and sledding down the snow hill (which is why it is called SnowFest.) Of course, since we are so far south, there is no snow naturally, so they bring in great big trucks full of snow and make us a snow hill. It was SO wonderful! Because we happen to know the guy in charge, we got to come early and sled the hill before it was opened to the public for the night. (We were also supposed to test it and make sure that it was safe for everyone else. We can't sue if someone gets hurt.) Shane's boss has two girls as well as our four, plus Gibson brought a friend, so we had plenty of kids to try out the hill.

When we got there they were still very busy getting everything just right.

It took a lot of prep to get that hill ready. We waited and waited...

In the meantime, we admired the beautiful tree...

The kids jumped all over this stage. We finally had to calm down since the big wigs were looking outside and wanting to know who these crazy kids were.

This was Gib's little friend, Joey. I know. I'm nuts. Take a weekend when Shane is absolutely tied up and can't help me at all and I'm the crazy one who gets the bright idea to add another kid to the circus as I try to navigate all this by myself. We had fun anyway.

The boys hassled the staff and tried to get into as much trouble as possible as we were still waiting...

This one was pretty good. He just waited patiently and was a trooper.

Finally. After all of that waiting, we grabbed one of these and headed to the top!

The boys wasted no time. They were ready!

Whee! I can't even tell you how fun it was! The look on Hayden's face says it all!

The only thing to do once we got to the bottom was to grab our inner tube and head right back for the top.

We all got a chance to ride and it was so fun! Shane came down once and then he was all business.

Landry and I rode over and over again. Grace told me later that I looked like I had an accident because I was so wet from the snow.

Pretty soon it was time to get off so that they could get the hill ready for the public that was coming. We were all sad. :( The night was chilly and we enjoyed some hot chocolate and chatting with Santa before the tree lighting. When the tree was lit, there was a fantastic fireworks display. All of Shane's staff outdid themselves. We had a great night.

The next morning was the Christmas parade. The parade route was right down our street, so I just walked the kids over to see the fun. We brought bags for candy and weren't disappointed.

We grabbed our seats and settled in for the action.

Shane was one of the drivers. The kids got a huge kick out of seeing him in the parade.

There were all the usual groups. The Girl Scouts and the Boy Scouts, civic groups, horses, school ROTC groups and bands.

Grace got to ride with the Grand Marshall of the parade: Santa! The kids started to holler when they saw Grace. Thankfully, the distraction of a friend kept the crying to a minimum. We are very blessed to live in such a great town and doubly blessed to have a husband and dad who keeps us set with very fun and cool things to do!

Shhh...Be Still...

I love that when we get home from school my kids run straight for the backyard. It helps when we find things like this. This beautiful Monarch was injured and landed on Gracie as she was running around the yard. Of course she shared and the rest of the kids loved getting a chance to hold the butterfly.

We put the little guy in the tree and that was the last that we saw of him. We had to convince Landry to leave him there and not try multiple rescues.

Field Day

Last week, my three older kids participated in Field Day at SJE and I can say that it was a success! There were relay races, dashes, tug of war, and sack races. It was pretty exciting. As a specialty teacher, I was outside helping as well. It was a nice perk to get to watch my kids participate. Our computer/technology teacher took pictures of the day and she did a great job! These are all her pictures.

Gibson is settling so well and loving school. He had a great Field Day placing 1st in the sack race and second with his class for the tire roll relay and first with tug of war.
Hayden loved every minute of his day. He was a little upset that he got only purple ribbons (participation), but he still had lots of fun.
Grace is an athlete and had a fantastic day. Kindergarten through 2nd grade have a fairly relaxed competition. Everyone competes in everything with 1st - 3rd place ribbons handed out and participation ribbons going to everyone else. The competition is very friendly. 3rd - 5th grade is a little different. 1st -3rd place ribbons are still handed out, but point values are added for each place and each class is competing for a trophy for that grade level. Teams have to decide, together, who is going to compete in which event as they try to get the highest number of points for their team. The competition is fierce!

With all of that being said, I was so proud! Grace placed 2nd in the 75 yard dash and her team placed first in the flag relay. She is fast and it was so fun to watch her run with all of the other kids. Middle school athletics is going to be fun! :)
We had a great day out of the classroom and it was fun to watch all of the kids show off their skills outside of the books.

Turkeys and Memories

This month, we all get the chance to take a long look at what we are thankful for in our lives. Number one on my list is my family. I am thankful that God has blessed us with four healthy kids and I take that responsibility very seriously. As a very busy, working mom, I find myself constantly juggling my family and my work. (I'm sure that I am not alone in that.) Someone told me once that we aren't the ones that determine what is a memory making experience for our kids. We give them quantity and they decide what is quality. With that in mind, I am constantly looking for activities that can be meaningful, pull us together, and make memories! I have made up these little kits for Thanksgiving and I have them ready for my kids and would love to make some for your family.
Each little turkey comes with a tag that can be used to write the child's name for a cute turkey place setting, or something that they are thankful for and set out as a decoration. Grace has already put one together and I can say that they are kid approved!
Each kit comes with little beaks, small circles for the eyes, turkey "gobblers," blank tags, feathers, cards for mounting the turkeys and circles for the turkey bodies.
You will need a marker to draw the legs and fill in the eyes and a glue stick or Elmer's glue to put it all together. These little kits are perfect because everything is pre-cut and ready to go. All you have to do is assemble and have fun! Each kit makes four turkeys. I will be drawing a lucky winner to win a kit of their very own on Monday. To win, leave a comment here or leave a comment on my Facebook page, or favorite the turkey kit in my Etsy store. Comment on all three to increase your chances! :) Good luck and happy memory making!