Fun in the Snow

Caleb takes his shoveling job seriously.



Camille sleds down the hill



Even Daddy had fun in the snow

Cute children

For the Unbelievers

This video is for those who cannot believe Rob is finally finished with school!



(And for the record, we totally don't even know the man offering career advice to Rob!)

Parades, Pretties, and Peas, Prunes and Pancakes

Saturday was a fun day for us. We went to the Christmas Parade, a birthday party and a Christmas Party. Here are some pictures from the parade:

Mommy and the kids

Daddy and the kids

My favorite part of the parade. They were called the Showstoppers - three cars like this, with drivers revving their engines and driving with their feet out of the open car doors. I'm not sure if they were hard pressed to find folks to fill up space in the parade, but perhaps next year we'll see the local high school kids driving their cars in the parade all crazy...who knows?


Here are some cute pictures of Camille




And some of Chloe working on dinner:

Bobbing Tomatoes

This video clip is a few weeks old, but still funny enough to share.

The kids wanted to play bobbing for apples and when I said no they improvised using the last of the tomatoes from our garden...




(The rotten tomatoes Caleb refers to are old and shriveled...not really rotten...rest assured.)

They didn't really say that did they?

My kids have come out with the funniest things lately. Today Caleb got off the bus holding a mysterious black object. When I asked him what it was, he replied, "It's for Chloe when her wrist gets bigger." I asked him to let me see it. "It's a bracelet," he explained. "Amber made it for me." (Amber is the little black girl down the street. She comes over to play sometimes and she and Caleb sit together on the bus.) What was the bracelet? One of her hair extensions had fallen out and she had tied the ends together. So my kid came home with a little girl's fake hair. Nice.

Camille has (finally) decided to use the potty full-time. Hooray! And, on top of that, she has graduated from the little potty to the toilet. We have made sure to give her a lot of encouragement and praise. How much? So much that she feels the need to return the favor. Every time she catches me going to the bathroom, she gets this amazed look on her face and exclaims, "Wow! I'm so proud of you!" It kills me every time.

Caleb has become the little reader and writer at our house. He is quickly figuring out how to sound out words and is able to communicate some thoughts in writing. Today he came home from school with a drawing of a scene from the Gingerbread Man. It showed the old man, the old woman, the boy and the gingerbread man. On the back he wrote (and this is his spelling):
I liket that the Gingerbred boy rund u wa from the old lady and the man and the boy. Yum! Even better was the letter he wrote to my folks this past week when we spent the night at Auntie Gail's house on Thanksgiving. It was all about "Oone Geal" and her "champlne"...figure that one out!

Chloe has reached some milestones too. She sits really well, claps her hands and has almost cut a tooth. She has become very aware of other people and is more interested than ever in talking with people (no real words yet) and playing.

Perhaps I can get the kids to cooperate for pictures tomorrow!

A new 'do

Our day included an impromptu trip to the hairdresser when Camille decided to do this:

(She sneaked into my bedroom and found a pair of scissors in the nightstand drawer - which, incidentally, has a child latch on it...she gave herself one snip, put the scissors back, hid the hair in her step stool and waited for me to discover the damage.)

Since I didn't want it all to come off, we were able to do this, which sort of camouflages the damage, but we're stuck with leaving it down for now. It's cute, but can you say "magnet for lollipop, boogies, peanut butter and anything else sticky, gooey or otherwise nasty"? Perhaps I'll invest in some head bands.

She does look cute, though - don't you think?