Christmas Program

edit: I meant to post this the other day but apparently got distracted.

We went to Eli's Christmas program at school. It was cute, he actually sang this year (I have digital proof). He's kind of hard to pick out in some of the shots (the rest of the kids stepped up on the risers but he didn't).

Per Nana's request I recorded part of the program. I did it all with our digital camera instead of wagging the camcorder. Makes it much easier to get it onto the computer too.

Nana, I've burned a Video CD of it for you so you can just pop it into your DVD player and hit go.

For those who want a copy of that e-mail me.

For those who are fine watching it on the computer, here's the links:

1. O, Christmas Tree
2. Gloria!
3. Shepherd, Shepherd
4. We Three Kings
5. Love One Another
6. Joy to the World
7. We Wish You a Merry Christmas

Potty Training in a Day

The title of the book caught Alicia's attention when one of her friends mentioned it. (Took her friend 2 weeks but she admits she didn't follow it to the letter). We got the book, we read the book, we thought, wow, if this works this is amazing. Apparently the only 2 kids in their study that weren't trained in 2 days were 2 who's dad's were against it. Those are a couple of guys that need a good smacking but it was written in the early 70s when some dad's weren't as involved as they are today. I'm sure you could find plenty of examples of "uninterested" dads today if you look around though.

So we ordered ourselves a doll (it was supposed to be here last Wednesday but we still haven't seen it, so we purchased on locally on Saturday). Loaded up the fridge with drinks and bought a bunch of salty snacks. We were ready to go.

Sunday morning Eli and I left he house promptly at 7:50 (yes folks, that's an hour before church starts). We got to Church at 8 and enjoyed the new Children's Library. We did church, sunday school, picked up some photos as Sam's Club, swung by Home Depot to pick up a few things, did a bit of Christmas shopping at Target (sorry no details, Alicia might read this), headed up to work to eat lunch (since it was raining a park didn't sound like a good idea), then headed home for a nap. On the home front things were going OK, Alicia hadn't gone crazy yet and the house wasn't drenched in pee.

After naps Eli and I headed back out for more Christmas shopping. Once he gets an idea in his mind as to what he wants to give as a gift it's stuck, we found it. Alicia ceased training at 4 (you just gotta know when the teaching's done for the day). Eli and I met the girls outside for some outside time. We dealt with wet pants a few more times over the course of the evening and then it was time for bed.

Overnight we decided that I would give it a go today. I've had at least partial success (we've wound up with both pee and poop in the potty) as well as plenty of failure (mostly due to not every child peeing on a precise 15 minute interval that and kids not coming with a little yellow "I'm about to pee" light). I'm sure it's not all just being me, that it was partially due to the training Alicia did yesterday.

So now the kids are napping and we're strategizing (I know it's spelled wrong but Google can't figure it out either). Gonna give it some more practice this afternoon. Keep practicing as the week progresses, hopefully it works.

He's 5?

Wow, he's 5 already? Where did the time go? Seems like just yesterday it was just the 2 of us, now there's 4 of us.

This was an off year for the birthday party. Good thing as we have a household of sick folks. Eli and I went to church this morning (left our 2 sick ones at home).


Eli decided he wanted a Mater cake (from Cars for those of you that don't know). Alicia did a bunch of research and created a good representation. The base case was chocolate with blueberries (per Eli's request).


That should do it for now. Now for some pictures.

Wooo, Pig, Soooie

Whew, what a game. I think it was the only one I actually watched this year as opposed to listening to. What a game. Everyone needs to call Shaun's cell phone and listen to his new message. Make sure you leave him a message of condolence.

LSU 48, Arkansas 50

Here's a recap for those who missed it.

In other news, all is well. Well, mostly, Eli's sick and the rest of us will probably have it within the week. Last Sunday the nursery workers at church painted Emily's nails. They apparently had to all but force feed her cheerios to keep her thumb out of her mouth while it dried.


Also on Sunday we went and checked out the Two Rivers Park. It was pretty nice. We took Eli's bike and Emily's trike. Both enjoyed riding on the relatively flat terrain. While there they got to see a herd of deer. They were unafraid enough that 4 kids running and yelling and such didn't spook them. We also got to see an ultralight plane. It was rather loud. I went out on Monday and rode a fair amount of the trails. Looks to be a good place to ride.

Fun filled, action packed

Wow, what a weekend.

We took the kids to Memphis Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon. It was 24 hours of fun. We spent the afternoon/evening with Alicia's aunt and uncle who moved to Collierville (hope I spelled that right) over the summer. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or the great-aunt and uncle. It being the night with an extra hour the kids had an extra hour of playtime. They both seem to have taken to the time change pretty well. Both were exhausted by the time bedtime rolled around but they both slept decently for being in a strange place.

Sunday morning we headed over to the Memphis Zoo to meet a couple of Alicia's high-school friends and their kids. They served as wonderful tour guides for the visit. Eli and Joel hit it off. Both kids tell us their favorite part of the Zoo was the Pandas.

Well, enough of my yacking, onto the pictures.

They both enjoyed watching the pandas. They were in their day-rooms eating breakfast (or maybe a mid-morning snack) instead of outside but that was OK.


Emily decided to imitate Eli while watching some monkeys.


Too cute to not grab a picture of. Siblings strolling along holding hands. It didn't last long.


Trying to get a better view of the rhino.


Kicking back for a rest.

I think they were looking into the polar bear pool. They were sunning themselves instead of swimming though.


The three musketeers

Who needs animals. Matt and I considered just buying a pay-per-use binocular thing. We'd treat is as a time-share. Alternate houses. Then our wives reminded us we would have to transport it. Oh well...


The baby (1 year old) giraffe was cute.


Mesmerized by the alligator (or maybe crocodile, don't remember which)


A tired girl enjoying her lunch.

We failed....

Well, despite our best efforts we failed to take 500 pictures with our new camera in it's first month of ownership. We only managed to take 499. We'll try to better in the upcoming months.

Halloween was successful. The time change not occurring until a week later works out pretty well for folks with young kids. There was a gang of 8 kids (Eli being the oldest, Emily the youngest) working their way around the street before 6:30. It brought back memories of how Halloween was supposed to be. In recent years it's been rather sparse.

Anyway, onto what you all come to the blog for, pictures of the kids.

The pumpkins at night


The kids enjoyed sorting the candy


Ready to go


And the pumpkins during the day

Pumpkins

Halloween is almost upon us. And that means it's time to carve pumpkins. Emily decided her's needed to do a headstand, but she put the eyes, nose, and mouth in the right spots (assuming it is indeed doing a headstand).

I'm gonna have to slow down. You guys are going to start getting used to daily updates :).

Pumpkins make a pretty decent seat


For those that don't know, Emily is a tomato connoisseur. At least as long as they are grape tomatoes and in the box.


Putting the silver stripes on his costume.



Ewwww, slimy pumpkin.


Lid off...


Cleaning them out



Looking inside

Drawing on the face.


Punching a starting hole for the saw.


Pooh needed somewhere to sit while Eli played in the swing.


Guess that's enough for the evening, look for more tomorrow.

Catchup continuted

OK, this should get me caught up on pictures.

Emily is a big fan of the giant Pooh that Rachel gave Eli a few years ago. The thing is as big (or bigger) than she is.


If she can't talk someone into reading her a story (usually not a problem) she'll thumb through a book on her own.


Alicia and the kids hit the pumpkin patch. As usual they had a good time.


"I want that one"


Emily hauling her gourds around.


Alicia had gone inside to make dinner, Emily stood at the window saying "Mom, mom, mom".


Tinkertoys, the universal toy.





Ring around the rosie...




Emily was waving at a monkey


And here she's waving at some fish


Alicia made Eli some new dinosaur overalls.


Emily talked Paw-paw into reading her a book. Took lots of persuasion.


Eli talked Paw-paw's brother and his wife into helping him build a fort.


Sam modeling the top to Eli's Halloween costume. More pictures of that to come later.

Pictures, finally

I know, I know, I promised new pictures a month ago.

So here they are.

first, is there anything cuter than two kids playing together? OK, maybe playing in the street isn't best setting but you take what you can get.


Enjoying an ice-cream sandwich on a warm fall day. Alicia found these mini-sandwiches, Emily ate about 1/2 of hers and decided to swap it for some cheese.


Later she went for some grapes.


I think she was laughing a Whitney, not certain though.


Pig-tails and cheese, isn't she cute!


Eli's packed and ready to go for the trip to Oma and Opa's


Emily's making sure we don't forget her favorite books or bears.


On the way we stopped and visited with Ethan. He did very well sharing his toys. He even let Emily play with his balls, though he got rather protective about a few of them. All in all a good stop.


Ethan giving goodby hugs. Emily was more cooperative than Eli but....


Emily enjoyed the blowup punching bag


Deep in thought about a puzzle


Eli helped Oma clean out the fish pond.


Emily tried out the trike when Eli wasn't using it.


Emily found a crokay (sp?) ball. Glad she didn't drop it on her toe.


Eli and Opa constructing a lego plane.


Emily the center of attention.


She even let Ben hold her.