Fun at the park

This morning we got a little bit more snow and thanks to Aunt Sue we also got some new rafts for sledding! The kids played outside in our yard for a little bit and then Emma had a play date after lunch. On the way home from dropping her off I told Claire and Sam I would drive by Shaw park to see if anyone was successfully sledding and if it looked good we would come back with all of our stuff. Well you know how that went. We came back and it was fun!

Claire perfected the "run and fall onto your belly" type of sledding. She got the fastest results this way.

Sam said the sledding was "relaxing"! That cracked me up. I am sure it was relaxing on the way down, but I think he was pretty tired after 45 minutes of walking back up that hill! It looks really muddy and yucky, but the hill was steep enough that even that small amount of snow did actually work.

Winter Wonderland- take 3

The 3rd time really was a charm tonight as we finally got to execute our Winter Wonderland plan! Though it was cold, it was a perfect night.

a really bad picture, but you get the idea. Lights everywhere!

Emma would not get in this picture as she was too busy taking pictures with her own camera!

Our carriage

We only had the top down for the slow cruise through the park, then we stopped to put it up for the ride home. It was really fun and will likely become a new tradition!

White Christmas

On Christmas morning we woke up to this! Pretty exciting considering I can only remember a handful of "white Christmases" in my lifetime. We had a nice breakfast with my grandparents and then the kids began unwrapping presents, again.

Sam got this bow and arrow that he was pretty excited about. I hope he shares it with his sister, Claire because she was sort of disappointed that she did not get one.
Every year we are finding ourselves buying less and less toys but Sam was quite happy with this Star Wars Lego ship. In fact we spend all day putting it together and he loves it!
Claire was a difficult one to buy for this year. One night at dinner she said, "Mom, I don't really know what I want for Christmas. Could you give me some ideas?" So as her practical mother I got her new gloves and a fun furry hat. She loves them! And due to the snow and cold temps she has been using them. She also got a lot of fun new games!
Emma does not need any suggestions as usual. She had a digital camera on her list and she got it. I ended up ordering her an older model off ebay and a set of rechargeable batteries. Luckily it came with a huge memory card and she has been taking pictures of EVERYTHING. Even strangers at Petsmart. Funny! We might need to have a discussion about things we cannot take pictures of!
Santa brought the kids a new basketball goal for outside. Even though it has been cold they have already been outside using it. My Santa got me a cashmere sweater and a gift card for a new bike! And I got my Santa 2 alarm/clock radios for his iphone (one for here and one for the man cave), a gift certificate to cooking conservatory for a game cooking class and a family picture for his desk. I think everyone was happy. Another good Christmas!

At 10:45 am Scott got called into work. The kids and I got ready to head to Farmington and the snow began to come down harder. After driving to Lindbergh and 40 and passing 2 accidents and no snowplows I decided to turn around. I did not want to make the trip with the kids by myself. We arrived back home safely and enjoyed the rest of the day playing with our new toys. I am a Lego master. I also love Blokus Trigon! I did not like it the first time I played it, but now I am getting it! Scott says I am like a 12 year old when it comes to games. It brings out my competitive side.

Lots of food here to eat. Happy Holidays!!

Christmas Eve

Traditions are great...except when they change. We have had the tradition of going to my Aunt Cathy's on Christmas Eve for the past 15 years or so. That ended this year with her moving to Memphis :( I volunteered to host partly because, who else would host it?? AND I wanted to begin a new tradition. You get to do that when you are the host. I also wanted to only eat appetizers, no sit down meal. That did not pass. Going to church on Christmas Eve, that passed! I grew up going to the 11 pm candlelight service when I was a kid and I cherish those memories. As a child I can remember holding that candle in my little hand just praying that the little piece of cardboard would catch the melting wax while I sang Silent Night. Churches probably don't even do that anymore because off all the liability and fires!! I have not been able to attend church on Christmas Eve since we have been back in St. Louis due to scheduling, babies, etc. This was the first year that all of my kids could be in the Christmas Pageant at CPC and I could not wait to sign them up. They were excited to be a part and my grandparents and my dad were excited to be able to see them.Emma and Sam sang in the angel choir. Emma was in the center and did a wonderful job smiling and singing. Sam sang a little and yawned a little, it was cute.
Claire had the pageant closing lines which were in a rhyme. She did a FABULOUS job! She had to memorize all the lines and she only did one deep breath followed by a gulp! I only wish I could have got better pics. My camera with the big lens is in the shop. Perfect timing, no camera when you really need one.

After we all got wet getting to our cars we headed back to the house for dinner. Tracy and Chris were already at the house prepping appetizers so we had some munchies because Papa Chas is really hungry by now!! We ended up eating by 7:15 and all 12 of us had a nice sit down meal.

Then the craziness began. It only took 20 minutes for everyone to unwrap everything!

Uncle Chris got jeans. Uncle Chris always gets jeans!

Sam got this neat Darth Vader costume from my grandparents. More photos of this are to come.

Emma got lots of neat artsy things, including glitter. Thanks Aunt Tracy!! You are coming to clean, right?! Claire got fuzzy boots and some ipod accessories she really wanted. They also got lots of games, moola and Sam got a NERF over the door basketball hoop. This was quite a hit.

After presents we had pie, coffee, watched "The Mentalist", watched Scott wash dishes and chatted with family and my friend Erica who joined us for the evening since her fam is out of town. Everyone headed home and my grandparents headed to our guest room! We finally got the kids to bed about 10:30 pm. We completed our Santa duties, finished up breakfast casserole for the morning and CRASHED. ZZZZZzzzzzzzz.

I missed my Aunt's house, but I feel like it was still a very merry Christmas Eve. I hope the Christmas Pageant can become our new tradition. It was a great start to the evening and I think it did change our focus to the Christ child, born in Bethlehem, laid in a manger, for us. He came to die, for us. That is all we need.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Jesus is the reason for the season!

If you want to declare something, a 15 foot banner is a good place to start!

And the banner reads: CHRISTMAS IS NOT ABOUT PRESENTS IT'S ABOUT JESUS'S BIRTH AND LOVE!

-Emma and Claire Smout

Love it

Out of pajamas!

Monday was a pajama day. We stayed in them until we had to leave the house at 12:30. And Tuesday morning all the kids slept in and we had no reason to get dressed or go anywhere, other than the fact that we had nothing to eat for breakfast. I mean we have cereal, pancakes, oatmeal and all the other stuff we have on school days, but we didn't have anything really GOOD!

So Mama had a plan. A plan to go to City Coffee House and Creperie! The kids have never been there and I love to go there every chance I can get. I figured since it was almost 10am we could each split a crepe and still have room for lunch 2 hours later. I also figured this is something that we would never have time to do on a school day as we are usually swallowing our breakfast whole! So we got dressed and we headed out in the cold.

Here are some pics of our blueberry/banana and raspberry crepe experience

YUMMY!

Dairy Queen

We have this little phrase in our family, that Scott's sister started, for when you get your hopes up about something and then you are suddenly let down or disappointed. The phrase is "That is a Dairy Queen!" It all began when Scott was a kid and he and his sisters were all in the backseat of the car and their dad pulled into a Dairy Queen parking lot. They instantly thought this was his secret plan, smiled from ear to ear and for that moment thought he was the coolest dad in the world. Just about that time he turned around the car and headed the other direction. He had no intention of taking his kids to Dairy Queen. He was simply turning around. Oh, the disappointment.

Saturday our whole family cleaned for 2 hours bribed with a surprise that evening. Yes Scott had to be bribed too! After they begged us to tell them, we finally told them that we were going to drive through the winter wonderland light display at Tilles Park. We drive down McKnight, no line, cool. Instead, BIG flashing sign that says "Saturday night Carriage Rides only." Dairy Queen. We proceed to carriage lot and call flashing phone number only to get MetroTix. We instantly know anything you have to purchase advance tickets for is not going to be our thing. I get out to ask the lady selling hot chocolate if you can still ride if you don't have tickets. Sure you can for $60--gasp! What to do? Promise games, hot chocolate and a return the next night. DAIRY QUEEN #1

Sunday night. Scott rearranges conference call to be able to be free for winter wonderland extravaganza. We decide to take convertible because that is way better than any $60 carriage ride! We pack blankets and are ready to go, Yea! 40 hits McKnight. Ramp is closed. Policemen with flares. Maybe there is a wreck? Maybe McKnight bridge that was just built is broken? Surely that is the case, right? We proceed to go in the back way to the park coming back on Litzinger. That is when we see it. The line. We are not scared of lines. However we are going the wrong way to get in the line and it keeps going and going and going all the way back to that "broken" bridge. What to do now? Promise cookies and games. DAIRY QUEEN #2

We are still suffering mommy and daddy guilt on this one. Hopefully before Christmas (or after) we will get to winter wonderland and we hope it will be as good as we have built it up to be. When it happens I will be sure to post pictures!

Christmas Concert

Last night was the CCS Christmas concert. When the girls arrived home a little before 4 pm they were already to get in their dresses, get their hair done and find their tights. Alright, Emma wasn't really excited about the tights, but she did manage to wear them! We had an early dinner and got the curling iron got plugged in. You know it is a big occasion when that happens around here, anyway!

Here are the beautiful children. Emma finally won the bow war and there it is right smack dab on the very top of her head. After winning tights, some things just have to give. I am not proud of this parenting philosophy. I wish I could just rejoice in her doing her own hair and rest in her "style", but alas I cannot.

Sam and the other half-day kindergartners did a rather impressive performance of Go Tell It On The Mountain. I laughed so hard it brought tears to my eyes. Sam and Stewart were front and center in matching brown corduroy blazers. Stewart especially is quite a performer and you could hear him amongst the crowd of less confident kindergartners. Being that he is Sam's friend, he does raise the bar high and so even timid Sam was belting out this tune. It was precious! You can see them in this photo just to the right of the piano player's head. My zoom camera is in the shop, bummer!
After their classes sang, Emma and Sam got to come enjoy the rest of the concert with us in our seats.
Here is Sam with his loosened tie. His hard work is over. It was a very lovely concert and an enjoyable evening for our family. We feel very, very blessed this time of year to have happy, healthy kids who love to sing praises to our Lord!

Thanksgiving weekend

This year we had the pleasure of having guests for Thanksgiving weekend. Scott's parents came to visit and therefore got to come along to celebrate the holiday with my family in Farmington. After much back and forth my Grandma hosted and I was thankful after having minor surgery on the 21st. After the typical burning of the rolls and the marshmallows on top of the sweet potatoes, we all sat down to a delicious meal. And ate too much, of course!

After the clean up we played Bingo because Grandma Lorene has one of those really cool spinning balls with the crank handle for the caller. Claire was the caller and quarters were the prizes!

And if you got bored with Bingo, you could join Emma with Aunt Tracy's very cute dog, Maggie. Emma would love to have a little dog to tote around all the time. Maggie went along with this for most of the day while still having a good disposition.

Once we got home we still had 3 more days off school so we had to have something to do. We got out all the legos and went to town. We ended up getting them all out and spread them out on the dining room table. They are still there and they get played with everyday. Since we won't need the dining room until Christmas Eve I have decided this is a great use of the dining table.

Here is Sam with the Lego City he created. He wants me to mail this in to the Lego magazine so he can get published. We'll see. Blogging is one step, actually printing out photos and putting them in the mail is an entirely different step.

Sewing. Did I ever mention that Scott's mom loves to sew? She brought all her machinery, well actually not all of it. Just 2 machines required to make cute flannel pajamas for the kids. And the best part was that her machine has a slow setting which allowed the girls to be able to sew their own pillow cases. They had so much fun sewing with Grandma.

And here they are all outfitted in flannel! They got to choose their own fabrics during multiple trips to Jo-Anne's fabrics.
Oh, and I forgot to mention that the tooth fairy also paid us a visit during this Thanksgiving holiday. Emma lost her other front tooth. So, you know how the Christmas song goes!

Emma and her gap

City Garden

I realize I am about 6 months behind everyone else in STL on this one, but I just took my kids to the "new" City Garden downtown on the 8th of November. It was a particularly warm Sunday afternoon and Scott was working. We asked the Upshaws at church if they would like to join in, we packed picnics and swimsuits and we were on our way! I know...swimsuits?! But if you are going to do this park, you better do it right is what I figured!

The kids enjoyed getting in the chilly fountains and collecting coins only to throw them back in and make lots of wishes.

E. and A.

H. and S. being crazy boys. Boys always like to splash!

The entire gang on one of the sculptures

The entire gang (minus H.) on the edge of the fountain that we were then told they are not supposed to swim in. I guess it could be a bit dangerous up on the edge!

E. and A. really enjoyed this dancing xylophone. Their music was beautiful.

We did get some stares, but for the most part it was worth it to just let the kids get wet. In fact, we started a trend. All the other kids there started to get wet too. Their parents probably hated us at the very moment, but you cannot deny that fountains are just calling for kids to experience them!

Sam's Last Soccer Game

Sam learned some fancy footwork and became quite a soccer player this year. He had some great kicks and became quite aggressive on the field. Luckily, he is still a sweet boy at home.

I think Stewart is praying that they might win this one!

Go Lions!

Saturday November 14th was Sam's last Kindergarten soccer game. It was a beautiful day, in the 70's. His team played a great game and actually won! This was the second game they won all season. It was great to end on an upswing!

Fall

I have been behind on my blogging this Fall but now that I have some "down time" I can use it to catch up. The weekend of October 24th I got to go to The Lake of the Ozarks with some girlfriends. It was a beautiful drive during the peak of pretty fall foliage! We mostly shopped and that was good. We also played a little tennis and had lots of girly gab time and movies. It was a nice trip with Amy, Audra, Sherry, Julie and Kara. Here is the view out of our condo window of the lake and the leaves.

Once we returned from a short jaunt to FL we arrived back to STL to lots and lots of leaves in our own yard. We love all the shade we have in the summer, but raking our leaves can become quite a chore in the Fall. November 1st I raked for 3 hours with a little help from Claire and Sam. I have not mastered the blower but I did what I could with a tarp and a rake. Due to having a dog this year I decided the kids could only jump in the leaves from the front yard. Blitzen is not allowed to go in the front yard so they were not contaminated if you know what I mean! There were still plenty of leaves for them to jump in considering we have 2 huge trees in our front yard that still have not dropped all their leaves.

Here are the kids in their pile!

Here is Sam with another fall favorite...a cheek full of apples!

Kindergarten did a Thanksgiving production last week. Sam was one of the Pilgrims.

"Tally ho!"

They ended the production with an interactive "Tommy the Turkey" dance. This included shaking your tail feathers, which made Sam giggle!

It also happened to be free dress day at school so we had a Pilgrim in his Cardinals jersey.

HAPPY FALL AND HAPPY THANKSGIVING!