Picture of the Day - 1/3/10

C getting ready to go to Sunday School in his new Greendog overalls with little puppies on them - too cute! Thanks Aunt Diane!

2010 Pictures of the Day

Ok, I'm going to try this, we'll see how well I can do at it. The goal is to post a picture every day in 2010 .

Jan. 2, 2010: D with her Paperroni Elephant creation she got for Christmas from her cousins B, K & L.

Since I just heard about this challenge today, I'll have to back track with yesterday's picture.

Jan. 1, 2010

Downtown Dallas on New Years at midnight with fireworks over the American Airline Center. Taken from the 21st floor of the Renaissance Hotel.

Ok, so far so good. Just 363 to go :O)

Some pix of Christmassy Things we've been doing . . .

D's Christmas Countdown chain. We had to hang it way up high so little "helping hands" can't reach it! We can lower it tonight since it's getting ever shorter!

Little Stinker!

Christmas Party at School on Wednesday.

Early morning Christmas Baking Session with Mommy

Step One: Try and get baby brother to cooperate.


Step Two: Just do it yourself.

Step Three: Let him go and smile and look pretty.

Oh well, maybe next year!

D's Piano Recital

D had her first Piano Recital this Thursday night. She did really well. We are so proud of her.

D and her piano teacher.

Please forgive the rocking motion of the video, I was rocking C's stroller back and forth trying to keep him calm and quiet and didn't realize I was also swaying the camera! You can hear him call out, "Dah Dah!" in the middle of her performance. Another girl played "Deck the Halls" and he started singing Fa La La La La La La La La. We went out into the corridor after that and listened through the door!

You'll need to turn up the volume a bit to hear it well.

Caught!

C has "mostly" left the tree alone, I don't think we could expect more from a 16 month old. BUT he has found the power strip and many, many times each day I have been finding the tree dark. You'll notice the lack of "ornamentation" on the bottom part of the tree (it's much more noticeable when the lights are off) and yes we do have gifts, but they're stacked up in the office out of reach from little hands. We'll put them under the tree Christmas Eve night after the kids are in bed :O)

D playing piano at church last night

In the beginning, the prayer was still being said. That is why she's sitting so still - she's praying :O)

This is her first time to play in public. She has only been taking lessons for 3 months. We are very proud of her!

When you see her looking out after each song, she's looking out at me.

Christmas Fun Weekend

This weekend we went to see Santa at Bass Pro Shop, like we did last year. We went on a Saturday and it was much more crowded than it was last year on a Tuesday night! C did really well not being afraid of Santa, I was worried he may be. D shot the Red Rider Laser gun and played remote control cars and did a craft. It was a really fun day and a great place to visit with Santa. The pictures are complimentary and they'll take as many as you want.

C had fun "riding" on a 4-wheeler:

More Disney - Day One

Waiting for the Magic Kingdom to open. They had hula hoops out to keep the kids entertained. We went to the Magic Kingdom on Tuesday, D's actual birthday.

The park was decorated with pumpkins and fall colors.

D upon rounding the corner and seeing the castle for the first time.

After passing through the castle, the Bibbidi Bobbity Boo helpers sprinkled D with Pixie dust.

Meeting Mickey and Minnie

C got his first haircut at the Harmony Barber Shop on Main Street in the Magic Kingdom. They put stickers all over him to keep him entertained and pre-occupied.



I didn't let her cut all his curls off, I just wasn't ready! They gave him Mouse ears and on the back it has embroidered "First Haircut."

D had her birthday dinner at the Crystal Palace Restaurant with the Pooh Characters
Here she is with her birthday cake in a pink treasure box.

And lastly a view of the castle as we left the park that night

On this day we visited Fantasy Land; Tomorrow Land; Frontier Land and Mickey's Toontown Fair.

P.S. I don't know why the video in the previous post isn't playing for some. Here is the URL for it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDJGgLSs6d0 maybe that will work.

"The Time of Our Lives"

Last week we surprised D for her birthday! We told her she would get to skip school Monday because we needed to take Daddy to Dallas and we'd stay in a hotel. We went Sunday night and stayed in the hotel and when she woke up Monday morning we let her open her birthday present a day early. This is what the "card" said:

She was pretty much in shock and asked when we were going. I answered, "as soon as we get dressed we're going to the airport!"

*I'll write more later. Baby brother is having a hard time with "re-entry" and is crying in his crib.

Fall Festival Pictures

Jeannie

Bamm Bamm

Here is an extra that I took a couple Sundays ago in front of our fall decorations at home. I couldn't get C to sit still so he's in action.

I thought he looked like such a big boy in this picture!

Happy Adoption Day sweet D

Today is D's adoption day (and also Grandma's birthday)! Her Daddy made Chicken Kiev; Russian-y mashed potatoes; Russian Rye bread with Provolone melted on top (the nearest we can find to the cheese we loved in Russia); salami and Mommy made her favorite (for right now) white cake with chocolate frosting.

We hung the Russian flag out in honor of her heritage. We watched the video of when we first met her. It was a sweet time. I think she really enjoyed it and couldn't quite wrap her head around the fact that that baby was her :O) She asked a few questions that were a long time coming and I think it was good to talk about them. Our stance is to answer when she asks and to always let her know that she can talk and ask anything and we'll always tell her the truth.

It was a great night. Her video choice was to watch Charlie Brown - The Great Pumpkin first and then we watched First Trip to Russia - Meeting D.

D - the BIG reader!!

A couple weeks ago D brought home a library book. It was huge! Remember she just started third grade a little over a month ago! At her school, they do a reading program called Accelerated Reading and after they read a book they take a test on computer to evaluate their comprehension of the book. They earn points for each test when they make 80% or better. Usually she brings home books that are worth 1 or 2 points. This book was worth 16 points! I must admit, I was a little worried that she'd read the whole thing and then forget on the test. So, after a couple weeks, she finished her book Saturday night. She took her AR test yesterday and made 100%!!! Her Daddy and teacher and I are very proud!!

I took some pictures of her getting near the end and finally finishing the book.

Our Morning with the Duggars

Here are C and I with our new friends, the Duggars. Michelle and I were talking behind smiley teeth. We only had a minute with them, but they are so "real." The Duggar kids in this picture are Jinger, Joseph, Jason, Jeremiah and baby #19 :O). Michelle is 16 1/2 weeks along with this baby. The other kids went to the bus and were resting and putting the little ones to bed.

The Duggars were the speakers at Chapel today at the Seminary where hubby went for his Master's Degree. Jim Bob Duggar's uncle John was once the president of this Seminary. Which led hubby and I to realize that John Duggar was also once the Pastor of our own church (where hubby has been on staff 15 years this month). I never would have imagined it was the same Duggar family.

We sat on the very back row in case C was too noisy (and he was, hubby spent most of the time with him in the foyar) so my zoomed pictures are not too sharp. Michelle said that the older girls had violin lessons and have taught the younger kids how to play. You could tell Jana (the girl on the far right top row) was the leader.



All the kids were there except Josh (he and his wife are expecting their baby on Oct. 18) and John David who was at the home school camp in a volleyball tournament.

Jim Bob and Michelle shared their family story by taking turns talking. A lot of it was familiar from watching the show, but much was new to me. They shared from a much more Christian based approach today than what we usually are allowed to hear.

I've got to go pick D up from school, but when I get back later I'll upload some video.

Edited this evening to add:

I just took several small snippets of video. Like a dork, I didn't check my memory card before we left (I did charge the battery though!) and I didn't have much memory left.

In the video snippet below, Michelle is talking about how she teaches the children scripture from the Bible. You can see Johanna scoping out how to climb up that pulpit. A few minutes later she started scaling it - I missed that on video :O)

Here the kids are reciting the whole verse of Exodus 20 (the chapter with the 10 commandments)



Here is just a tiny bit of them playing Onward Christian Soldiers on their violins.



Ok, here are just some things that I observed. Michelle is short - on tv she looks taller, but she's really about my height (I'm 5'4") or maybe an inch shorter. I had on heels and she had on flats today. Jim Bob is really quite thin and tall - much thinner than he looks on tv. They told us that there are not a ton of people in their house at all times filming them. There are generally only 3 men and they've been with them for the entire time, so they're like family by this point. Michelle's eyes are super blue, they almost glow. Jinger really looked different in real life than she does on tv. I almost didn't recognize her. Jennifer is still really a baby (she's the second youngest) and Jordyn (the youngest) looked bigger/older in real life, but that is probably because babies change so quickly and the shows are probably at least a couple months behind.

I'll probably think of more little things like this later, but that's all I can think of right now. I've got to get to bed :O)

Here is a link to the news interview they did right after the program. We were standing very near them, we could hear the entire interview - she left a lot out.

This morning, C was so seriously doing his "work." He spent at least 20 minutes just dragging this basket of toys all around the house. Every now and then he'd stop and smile and I'd tell him what a good job he was doing! He was so proud of himself :O)

Pictures and video for Grandparents

Grand-parents are clamoring for something new :O)

On open house night at school D wanted to show us how she can climb to the top of the monkey bars and hang upside down and then flip backward off it.

D started piano lessons about a month ago. She is doing really well. Her teacher came out to the van last week to tell me that she is doing great and "is a natural."

D at church before a presentation by her group, Out of Darkness. They do correography with glow in the dark sticks to Christian songs. They did a great job.

Yesterday afternoon, D was making drawings of all her horses. She has an idea for a new video game she is creating called Adventure Pasture.