Just Some Updates

Can you believe it? I've actually had some requests to update my blog. Who knew I'd be missed? Well, I've had a million things I haven't blogged about and here are just a few. Enjoy.

First up:

Brady's 4th grade class had a wax museum project back in November in which they had to research an American Hero, write a paper, devise a timeline, print pictures, facts, and titles for a display board, write and memorize a monologue, then dress as their character for an assembly at school as well as a parent night. This was truly incredible! His class worked for weeks on their characters and we were so impressed listening to their monologues and seeing their hard work on their display boards. They were all "frozen" in a position at their station and when you stood in front of them you had to say their characters name for them to come to life and recite their monologue. When they were done, they went back into their "frozen" position.

Brady chose Thomas Jefferson as his American Hero and he did all of his own research, wrote his own paper and monologue, and designed his own display board! I was so proud of him! He loved this. We made his costume the night before the assembly ... UGH! But it all came together nicely. Now, if I only knew how to upload video from my camera phone you could hear his monologue. Oh well, he's got another wax museum project in the spring. Maybe I'll figure it out next time.

Next:

My baby girl had a birthday. This sweet child of mine turned 3 years old! Either I'm getting older and the days seem to blend into each other or I'm suffering from memory loss because seriously, she was just born! I can't believe it's been 3 years ago since I had her. She is growing up way too fast. She's the caboose on this family train and there's no more baby left in her! We've grown out of those diaper days and the sleepless nights. We're growing up. Here she is at our family party. She was not liking the attention during the birthday song and covered her eyes the whole time. We finally convinced her to try and blow out her candles if we would all look away. It was pretty funny.

My friend Nichol and I had our babies on the same day. Maddie is only a few hours older than her little friend Mason. We were able to sit and visit each other in the hospital, we blessed our babies on the same Sunday, and celebrated their first birthdays together. We thought it would be fun to do another party together at McDonald's this year. The poor people who had no idea a monstrous birthday bash was going on in playland. We only had 24 children in our party with 15 cheeseburgers, 15 mcnuggets, 15 hamburgers, 15 small fries, 20 small drinks, 25 goodie bags, and a chocolate Costco birthday cake. Talk about FUN! Maddie was in heaven. Not quite my idea of heaven but it was still fun.

Speaking of birthdays:

before

after!

Jeff nearly set off the smoke alarms in the house! I kid you not, we had to get the broom out and sweep the air clean around the smoke alarms to keep them from going off! That's a sure-fire way to make you feel old if you ask me. :) I told him next year I'd go back to just putting the 2 numbers on the cake. Sorry 'bout that, hon.

And this pretty, young thang is the newest member of AARP! We wouldn't want to disclose her age on a public forum such as this one, nor would we want to put her age in candles on a cake for fear of really setting off some smoke alarms, but we would like to wish her a Happy Birthday and tell her how great of a mom/gram she is! Hope you had a Happy Birthday, Mom!

Next up:

Teacher gifts! These were fun to make! Did you know there are literally 8,993 things you can do with terra cotta pots? No kidding. This is just one idea. My kids' teachers loved them!

And also:

The preschool Christmas programs. Having school delays every morning the week of the Christmas programs put a little damper on my schedule, but we got everything done in time and the kids did a FANTASTIC job reciting their songs and poems! I have THE BEST kids and families in my preschool. Hands down. I love this job. I love these kids. They are the sweetest things ever. I feel so loved by them.

Well, that's about all I can muster up in this small window of free time. Hopefully I can get some Christmas pics up before the new year! I have to say, going to my mailbox to check for Christmas cards was one of my favorite things to do this month! It replaced going to my blog to check for comments since I haven't blogged in so long! I've loved receiving all of your cards and seeing how your sweet families have changed over the past year. (My Christmas family photo is at the top of my blog for those of you who didn't get a card. Do I have the cutest family or what?) We had a wonderful Christmas, and we hope you all did, too.

Enjoy the rest of 2008!