Sam's night-night is finished

Claire just finished her first knitting project. It became too wide for a scarf so she decided to make a new blanket/night-night for Sam. Sam was all in favor of this since his night-night is full of holes. Claire learned the basic stitch from a friend and then figured out on her own how to change colors. She got a bunch of yarn for Christmas so she was all set for this fun project.

Sam models the blanket. It can obviously be a night-night or a shirt if you need one!

Claire with her tiny blanket. She is so proud and has already started making one for Emma! She is a great big sister!

We got dumped on!

So we got all the snow they were calling for and then some! We have about 6 inches of snow at our house and that makes for a lot of fun. The kids have been playing outside and have enjoyed some sledding at a local park with a really steep slope! They are having a lot of fun on their snow days! And Claire did get that book report finished in time for today-in case anyone was wondering!

Here is Sam writing letters in the snow. Mrs. B would be so proud!

Claire trying to build a snow mound on Tuesday. Much better on Wednesday!

Emma

We need a snow day

It is COLD here is St. Louis!! Today after Bible study Sam and I ran to the van, drove home, ran in the house and tried to get warm. It has been so cold that it just might as well snow. The weather people are calling for snow tonight and into tomorrow. The kids are counting on it and I pretty much agree it would be a great thing! We don't want a small dusting like yesterday. We want to get dumped on!!
-Claire wants a snow day so she has more time to work on her book report which is due on Wednesday!!
-Sam wants a snow day so he can have another day like today. We got to have a special lunch together. PBJ and banana sandwiches and hot cocoa.
-Emma wants a snow day because she is not feeling the best and just needs a day off
-Scott just loves snow but really never gets a snow day :(
-I want a snow day so I can stay in my PJ's all day, watch a movie with the kids, and catch up on some things around the house. Plus it is so cold I really don't want to leave my warm house!

Who knows what will happen. It will be fun to wait and see!

Adult vs. child

Today in the van on the way home from school Emma begins eating her PBJ sandwich from lunch. It was whole. She had obviously not eaten any of it at school. When I ask her why she did not eat her sandwich at school she replies, "(boy's name) at school said that his mom said that they aren't selling any peanut butter at the store anymore and no one should eat it!" So she did not eat it at school but devoured it in the van! Then we had a little talk about when to believe a child and when to ask an adult the truth!

Tidbits from this week:
Claire and Emma slept with their hair braided. Claire's looked nice and wavy. Emma's looked like she used a crimping iron on it and I allowed her to wear her hair in 3 pony tails yesterday. Sometimes my judgement is off in the mornings, anything is fair game when I am trying to get the kids out the door. Scott got home and said, "Emma did you wear your hair like that today?" I just pretended like I didn't hear the question :)

Sam slept until 8:15 on Thursday! I am so thankful for late start on those days. We had another fun Friday together today. I really cherish my Fridays. It is my favorite day of the week. No plans, PJ's, lunch together and Lego time. Today we built a dump truck. It is very cool.

Claire is continuing to work on her knitting project. She is knitting a new "night-night" for Sam since his has numerous holes in it. It is so cute that she wants to make him something. He is excited about it although he said he doesn't want her to tell anyone about it. I think the fact that he has a "night-night" that has holes in it is embarrassing enough for him. She is doing a great job on the knitting. Thanks to Mrs. Butte for sparking her interest in this form of handiwork.

The tooth fairy comes!

Emma has some big news and I forgot to put it in my vacation posts. She lost her very first tooth while we were in Florida. She had been wiggling it for some time and I suggested to her that she begin twisting it. So she did and it immediately began to dangle and got very bloody. Nothing grosses me out more than teeth. The fact that they are attached by roots and they fall out-yuck, yuck, yuck! Anyway on Thursday night the 8th of January in the Downtown Disney parking lot Scott pulled out Emma's tooth. She was very brave. She always has been good with pain. I remember as a baby she hardly cried when she got shots. Weird.

Then on Saturday night the second bottom tooth was very loose and she began the same routine. This time we could see her new permanent teeth already coming in "Shark Teeth", so we knew this baby tooth had to go! Scott and I had a babysitter for the evening and Scott was in the shower. Emma kept asking me to go get Daddy to ask him to pull out her tooth, but instead I said, "Claire, why don't you just pull Emma's tooth?" I didn't really think she would, but I thought it made sense since those baby teeth are so little and Claire has much smaller hands than Scott. So, Claire gave it a yank and it fell on the floor! They were both looking for it. It was really, really cute. I love that they trust each other so much. I also love that I didn't have to pull the tooth! The sad thing is that my girls don't really believe in the tooth fairy. However it is still very cool to have 2 bucks no matter who brings it to you! ($1 for each tooth)

Emma's new smile!

Here you can see that her permanent teeth are already coming in!

For MLK day Emma's class made I have a dream shirts. They got to draw a picture of something that they dreamed of doing or becoming. My Emma dreams to be a puppy trainer. That is good because we need one!

The picture is of Emma and me and our puppies. I am walking Blitzen and she has a smaller puppy! I am just glad we both have crowns on--SO CUTE!

Sea World!

On Thursday and Friday of our trip we took the kids to Sea World. We have never been there with the kids and because it is now In-Bev Anheuser Busch we wanted to make it to this park one more time just in case it is sold, not just because we wanted to visit the "Hospitality Center" (ha, ha) We did not visit the "Hospitality Center".

It is a really fun park! Not crowded and easy to cover in one day. We only did a second day because they offer it for free. Thursday we did the pet show featuring dogs, cats, birds, etc., the Shamu show (see pics below) the dolphin show and the sea lion show. We all agreed the dolphin show was the best because it also featured neat exotic birds that would fly through the audience. The Shamu show was great too! We did not sit in the splash zone. In fact, this is the part of our trip when it was starting to cool down. The highs on Thurs and Fri. were in the sixties.

Surfin' Shamu and cool killer whale tricks!

Our set of killer whale trainers!

Shamu should hold a sign that says, "Will work for food!"

All the kids but especially Claire really fell in love with the Dolphins at Sea World. On Friday we got to attend the feed the dolphins exhibit and this was really fun. Each child got their own little tray of fish and the dolphins were extra playful. They had balls they would bring to you and you could toss them back, plus they would come really close to get the fish so this gave you time to get to touch them and hear them talk. They are fascinating creatures. So fun to watch and neat to touch. After the dolphins we hit the extra cool playground again, the kiddies rides and the Journey to Atlantis ride where you get just a little wet. By noonwe had had our fill of Sea World so we headed back to our condo for some more sun and pool time before having to leave for home on Saturday!

Claire feeding one of the dolphins!

Disney World...Sea World...now back to the real world!!

Disney World!

So after having our kids home from school for 2 weeks for Christmas break we decided to plan a family vacation!! Not sure what we were thinking when we planned Scott's vacation for '09 but we did know that we wanted to go somewhere warm in January and that we wanted to go to FL to visit his grandparents who are 94 years old!! So that is what we did. We boarded a plane here in STL on 1/3 and headed to Orlando! We arrived around lunch, checked in to our condo, the kids and I hit the pool and Scott went grocery shopping. That seems awkward I know, but Scott was the only one legally able to drive the rental car and I do love the sun! We had diner at the condo that night and went to bed early since we had gotten to the airport about 6 am that morning.

Sunday morning we went to the Light and Life campground where GG&G Smout go to church and got to visit with them and their friends for a while. While we were there the kids got to see some goats and they were so excited to see these goats I was once again asking myself, "Why do we spend so much $ on Disney tickets?"

That afternoon we met the Ryders our friends from long ago at Downtown Disney for lunch and some shopping/fun. Sam already had found many souvenirs he wanted to take home from the Lego store and the make your own Light Saber section. The weather was so great. Warm. low 80's. Amazing! Sunday evening Scott drove back to get GG&G Smout to bring them to the condo to stay the night with us. On his way there I remembered our condo is on the 3rd floor and there is not an elevator! So Scott carried his little Grandma up and down the stairs and well, Chuck...he could handle it!! We had a nice visit with them. They got to see the kids swim, had dinner and breakfast with us and the adults even had a nice time chatting after the kids went to bed. They are so amazing. Scott and I can only hope to be able to remember dates and events like they can when we are 94 years old!

On Monday Scott took his grandparents back home and we enjoyed another really nice day by the pool. The kids even made a fun little friend whom we exchanged addresses with so she and Claire could become pen pals.

Tuesday was our first day at Disney. We went to Epcot first since I was pushing Scott to make our vacations more educational! The kids got to pick up these masks there that they took from country to country where they got to decorate them and get a stamp and die cut piece for their mask. It was really fun. They also liked the Soarin' ride at Epcot. It was one of the few rides that we ALL enjoyed. We did not make it to every country but we were there from about 9:30 am to 4:30 pm. Then we headed to Magic Kingdom to hit some old favorites. We did Thunder Mountain Railroad in the dark, flying Aladdin carpets and Space Mountain. Sam would not try Space Mountain the first day but after psyching himself up he did try it the next day, but I won't exactly say he enjoyed it! We stayed at Magic Kingdom on Tuesday until it closed and watched the fireworks. Although, I am not a huge Disney fan I do love their fireworks. There is something about the way they are set to music and the twinkle they put in my kids eyes that makes the fact that I just waited in lines all day to see big fuzzy mice and ride rides that make me nauseous just all fade away!

Wednesday was round two but this day we were smarter. Our kids wanted to get autographs of the characters so we bought them T-shirts and I brought Sharpies. But on Tuesday we had 2 unhappy kids because Disney said the characters are not allowed to sign a shirt when it is on a child...something about lawyers?! So Claire had worn a cami under her T-shirt and so she was okay because she could take her shirt off, Sam was out of luck completely and after about half the day Emma would do a "quick change" when she would see a character and put on my hoodie. But by Wednesday we had down the system and everyone had 2 shirts! This was also helpful because it rained! Wednesday we hit Magic Kingdom until 2 and then we went to Hollywood Studios for their block party parade until they closed at 7pm. Their parade was great! It was a party in the street and we are camped out in front of the entire Toy Story gang. The girls and I got to go out and dance in the street doing all sorts of fun mashed potato, the swim and other groovy moves. After the parade we did the Star Wars ride and then outside the ride we watched the Jedi training program where they pick 15 kids out of the standing audience to teach light saber moves to and then they get to fight the real Darth Vader! Please note I am not a Star Wars fan. I have no idea if anything I just typed in spelled correctly. The first show we did not get picked and Sam was bummed he wanted to go to the second show. In the meantime Scott and Claire went to the Indiana Jones stunt show and Emma, Sam and I just walked around looking for something fun for them to do. Just then the Power Ranger mobile started driving down the street and Sam was going wild. It stopped in front of us and we got to watch them all and get their autographs. Emma was even in to Pink Ranger. Sam was most in to Red Ranger although he would have wanted all of their autographs if we had time. But we did not because we needed to get back to the last session of Jedi training for the day so that Sam could get picked, right? Wrong. Emma got picked. Funny how that happens :) It would have been my best mommy moment if Emma would have turned and said, "Can my brother go in my place because he really wants to do this." However, maybe that will happen another time. My dreams are not yet fulfilled. She went on the stage to proudly do her thing! The Star Wars Lady was hilarious. Not scripted and very witty. I know this because I saw her show twice. Her comment to Emma as she is fighting Darth Vader was , "Darth Vader is really afraid of that pink you are wearing!" And as Emma was less than perfect with her jedi fighting moves she said, "Well, Hannah Montana can't help you now!" Even though Sam did not get picked this was still very fun for our family and Sam said it was a good thing he didn't get chosen anyway because he probably would have broke Darth Vader's light saber in half anyway! We stayed again until the park closed hitting the Muppet Show after the line for the new Toy Story ride was 80 minutes long, the Beauty and the Beast musical and the Tower of Terror drop ride (Scott and Claire only). When it was all over we went to Chik Fil-A for a very late dinner where our kids enjoyed playing on the playground and Scott and I enjoyed the fact that even though we were exhausted our kids were happy and healthy and were not fighting-bliss I tell ya!

Another great highlight of this trip was that at the Magic Kingdom on Wednesday we ran into some great friends from my college days, The Bynums. They were my Bible Study leaders during college and had a huge impact on my life. They currently live in the San Antonio area and are people that we keep in touch with but have not seen in about 4 1/2 years. They were at Disney with their entire family kids and grandkids. It was a blessing to get to see and meet them all! What a great joy it is to be reunited with good friends from long ago in a far way place! This is when you start singing...It's a small world after all, It's a small world after all!!

Emma in Jedi Training. It was pretty intense!



The Genie signing Claire's shirt at Epcot. He was the first character we saw. Sam was scared of him.


Mary Poppins was positively polite and loved by all.

The girls with Mickey Mouse. Sam was scared of him too!

I will follow up tomorrow with the rest of the trip. Check back for Sea World!!