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.