Recent Videos of the Kids

Here's some fun videos of the kids we've taken in the last week. There's one of Luke throwing a hissy, Luke playing with his new Busy Ball Popper, and the last one is of the kids trying out some new science kits we were sent to review. Enjoy! **UPDATE: If part of the video is chopped off on your screen, click on the link below the video to view it. Sorry!**

http://s954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/MyFourMonkeys_photo/?action=view¤t=2009-11-22115315.flv



http://s954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/MyFourMonkeys_photo/?action=view¤t=LukeysNewToy.flv



http://s954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/MyFourMonkeys_photo/?action=view¤t=SteveSpanglerScience.flv

We Have ChickenPox!

Yes, earlier this week we were at the pediatrician's office because John David wasn't feeling well. He ended up having a double ear infection and bronchitis! Now both our boys have chickenpox!! I guess it's that time of year, huh? It seems every year around this time we can't seem to get everybody healthy at the same time. It usually gets better around the middle of December. I'm just praying for some good cold weather to kill the yucky germs!!

Why Am I Surprised?

I found myself experiencing honest to goodness, jaw-dropping surprise last night. We're on our way out the door (the girls and I) headed for a quick trip out to the Dollar Tree and Walmart. Kylie can barely contain her excitement as she has $2 that are burning a hole in her pocket. Caitlyn doesn't have any money, but she's not pouting and actually sharing in her sister's excitement as they talk about what Kylie's going to spend her $2 on. Then from the corner of my eye I see John David hand a dollar bill to Caitlyn, the only dollar he has mind you, and say, "Here, now you can get something." Caitlyn just looked at me. My first instinct was to tell her to give it back to him (after I got over the shock), but I realized that doing that would rob him of the pleasure he was feeling by giving the money to his big sister. I didn't want to rob him of that blessing!

As I was driving down the road to the Dollar Tree, the girls busy giggling and talking in the back seat, I was replaying the event in my mind. And then something occurred to me. I should not be surprised. Not because John David is some magically perfect child, unselfish in every way, but because isn't this what Jeremy and I are constantly trying to teach our children? Don't we spend everyday trying to teach them and live by the example that sacrifice and giving unselfishly are the best ways to show love? I realized that it's not that I'm shocked that something we're saying or doing is actually getting through, but somehow surprised that my work as a mom is really making a difference in the lives of my children. Sometimes, I get lost in my "mother" work, drowning in the repetitions of "Don't touch that!" and "Keep your hands to yourself!" and "No, you may not have candy for breakfast!" I forget that all this prodding and teaching that we do does eventually yield results.

As I reflected on this during our car ride, I started recollecting numerous other events very similar to this one. Times when our kids had brought us a drink while we were sitting on the couch when we hadn't even asked for one, took mine and Jeremy's dinner plates to the sink after we were done without being asked, and so many more. It made me so proud of my children and I also found myself admiring them and wishing I was more unselfish at times. Maybe it's just the fact that the holidays are quickly approaching, but I appreciated being reminded by my five year old what it means to truly love.

Kylie the Photographer

I always think it's fun to let the kids have the camera for awhile and take some pictures of thing around the house and yard. We let them do this every so often and it's always interesting to see what things they decided are worthy of a photo. Most of the time, there are fingers in the photo, or they're fuzzy because they are moving the camera as they push the button. But they don't care. Kylie had my camera yesterday and did a photo shoot with the dog. She took pictures of him walking, eating, and sniffing. Exciting, huh?! :D Chewy, our black lab, is one of Kylie's closest friends so it seemed only natural to her to document his every move. As usual most of the pictures were black and fuzzy, but here's a few from her adventure. Love the up close of her face!

Dressed Up for Sunday School

John David got a new black suit, and he looked so cute all dressed up for church that we just had to take some pictures! God has truly blessed us with beautiful children!

Great Wolf Pictures

We had a great time at Great Wolf this week! Here's a couple pictures from our trip. Sorry for the bad quality. It was dark outside when I took them. :( We will definitely be going back!

A Molar Event!

After all the fussing and drooling Luke's been doing this past several weeks, he has finally managed to cut two molars! They are the top two, and by the looks of his swollen gums the bottom two are close at hand. Thank God for teething tablets and Motrin!

Wordless Wednesday - I love dimples!

Ms. Pacman and the Skunk

So, I promised a picture of me in my Ms. Pacman Costume......


No laughing!! Chewy, our big black lab, chose a simpler approach to Halloween and went as a skunk.

Doesn't he look happy about it?!

Halloween Bash

Saturday night was our big Halloween Costume/Birthday Party at our house! We had so much fun, and the kids and I spent the whole day preparing. I posted last week (over at My Four Monkeys) about all the fun food ideas the kids and I were going to try. You can read that post here and compare our results with the originals. What do you think? Pretty good, huh? We may not have gotten perfect results, but the kiddos were a big help and so proud of all their hard work. I took all these photos before the party, and then in my "sick fog" forgot to take any pictures of the actual people at the party! But I promise there were really people here! Here's the spread before it was devoured...

Our Forked Eyeballs

Our Ghost Brownies - Kylie thought it was funny that her ghosts ended up looking like they were throwing up! I guess that added to the Halloween charm. :P

Our Witches Brooms - I sacrificed myself for these delicious cookies, burning my fingers while heating up the chocolate. Again in my "fog", I forgot and left the spoon in the bowl while I microwaved it!! By some miracle, it didn't blow up my microwave, but I grabbed a hold of the spoon without thinking and now have a nice imprint on two of my fingers. Ouch!

Our Halloween Pops - My mom helped us make these cute cookies on a stick while she was visiting. Everyone took a couple home after the party.

Our Witches Hats

Our Moldy Bones

Our Birthday Boy - Happy Birthday Sweetheart! Go Yankees!! Sorry, couldn't help myself ;)

Another thing that we worked hard on and I forgot to take a picture of was our party favors. I saw this post on Living Locurto and knew this would be the perfect project for the girls and I. We made all the women attending the party a Cookie-in-a-jar Favor. (This picture is from Living Locurto.)

Living Locurto has a link in her post to download a free template and recipe, but we created our own, printed them out, and backed them with orange construction paper. The girls did almost the entire project themselves, measuring out the ingredients into the jars, cutting out the tags and recipes, even hot gluing the bows on. This would be an easy project to adapt to any occasion. I am planning on making more for favors for my Christmas Cookie Swap Party next month. You can find more cookie-in-a-jar recipes here at allrecipes.com.

Costume Success

Even with being sick this week, the kids and I managed to finish everyone's costume in time for our church's Fall Festival on Friday night. Minutes before we walked out the door, we hot-glued the last bits together. You can see the original post with our costume picks here. Compare our creations to the originals! Not bad! {Somehow, I managed not to get a picture of me in my Ms. Pacman costume, but I'll put in back on and get a pic sometime this week!}

Kylie the Ice Cream Cone

Luke the Tiger

Caitlyn aka Cave Girl

My Little Yoda

What a wild and crazy bunch!

Pumpkin Carving!

While we didn't wait till Halloween night this year to carve our pumpkins, we only managed to squeeze it in a few days before! Thursday after everyone had a bath (hence the wet hair and weird clothes), Jeremy brought in the pumpkins from the porch and away they went. Over the years it's been so fun to watch what faces they create. Of course the whole process starts with cutting open the top.....

Success!

I think Caitlyn had forgotten what was inside!

Now, time to clear out the pumpkin guts!

While Caitlyn wasn't so thrilled about getting her hands messy, Kylie seemed to enjoy it. In fact, she wanted to make sure she got every little bit.

Then the carving commenced......

This is last year's pumpkin picture.

Wow! They've grown up so much!

The girls put earrings on theirs, while John David added vampire teeth!