Face Plant

It finally happened...we've been worrying about this (and Dr. Draehn has warned us about it, yes) for months and this morning it finally happened.  James got up earlier than I did, and Noble was in bed with me.  At 6:59 AM, the house seemed to shake and I woke up to what felt like a giant CRASH...Noble had fallen off the bed.  Or so it appeared.  Looking back, now that I'm fully awake and Noble obviously has no injuries, I think the truth is probably more like Noble climbed off the bed, then fell part of the way.  Because he's such a climbing little monkey, we've taught him how to lay on his tummy and back off of the couch/chairs/etc. until his feet touch the ground.  From the way he fell and the fact that he's still intact, I suspect this is what he was doing and just isn't tall enough to get all the way to the ground from our bed (it's an antique iron bed with modern mattresses, so it's a long way to the ground).  Anyway, he's fine and James and I neither one suffered a heart attack.  Noble recovered much faster than we did, by the way--he cried for a minute then was down and playing in the living room, which was probably his goal all along.  What a mess!  **We're now stepping up our resolution to get him to STAY in his own bed, not only for our sake but for safety's sake now, as well.  Wish us luck!!!

Dom

First Things first...

Sorry if this is a duplicate...we're having technical difficulties, apparently...

Our goal going into Christmas this year was to keep the first things first: faith, family and friends. I think we've done pretty well...we haven't been in a mall once since the beginning of December, and I haven't logged much Target time at all. :) The gifts are all wrapped and under the tree, and except for James', have been for a while. Our friends are receiving/have received gifts of goodies rather than gift cards, time rather than money. (Sorry if I just spoiled it for you, btw). We've had the pleasure of having Hannah with us for the past couple of days, which has kept Kayci busy and given me a chance to play candymaker. Well, cheap and easy candymaker--I've pretty much just been dipping things. And yes, I'm hooked...I finally had to stop today when I ran out of chocolate and almond bark. Probably a good thing, as the laundry was calling. Anyway, we've celebrated with Nana and Dan, and will see Jhido and Najwa, GoGo and Angus after Christmas. All that's left is Christmas here today and tomorrow, and our Clarkson Christmas tomorrow.

But I digress...our focus this year has been on our faith, our family, and our friends. While we've not done so well with getting to church on Sunday mornings, I'd argue that this year more than ever we've all (James, Kayci & I) really been able to remember why we have Christmas in the first place. I won't go into that here, because you guys know what it's about.

What's funny, and ultimately why I took a minute to post this morning, is HOW the 3 of us have been able to focus on the reason for the season. We started off this month reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" to Kayci. It quickly turned into Mommy reading to Kayci, Daddy and Noble every night...and every night we'd just laugh and laugh at the Herdmans. But you know, what's funny is that seeing Christmas through the eyes of those little heathens has really made it STICK with us...thinking of Imogene saying "My GOD!" in church can make me giggle still. I guess that's the beauty of it--seeing Christmas through the eyes of the unchurched made me/us realize just how blessed we are that God gave us his only Son at Christmas (or whenever your church calendar says...you get the point). So that's what we're celebrating today, with grateful hearts.

That's not to say there wasn't a little dancing and singing this morning when Kayci realized that Santa Claus comes tonight...but at least this year, she gets that he comes because HE came.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

First things first...

Our goal going into Christmas this year was to keep the first things first:  faith, family and friends.  I think we've done pretty well...we haven't been in a mall once since the beginning of December, and I haven't logged much Target time at all.  :)  The gifts are all wrapped and under the tree, and except for James', have been for a while.  Our friends are receiving/have received gifts of goodies rather than gift cards, time rather than money.  (Sorry if I just spoiled it for you, btw).  We've had the pleasure of having Hannah with us for the past couple of days, which has kept Kayci busy and given me a chance to play candymaker.  Well, cheap and easy candymaker--I've pretty much just been dipping things.  And yes, I'm hooked...I finally had to stop today when I ran out of chocolate and almond bark.  Probably a good thing, as the laundry was calling.  Anyway, we've celebrated with Nana and Dan, and will see Jhido and Najwa, GoGo and Angus after Christmas.  All that's left is Christmas here today and tomorrow, and our Clarkson Christmas tomorrow.  

But I digress...our focus this year has been on our faith, our family, and our friends.  While we've not done so well with getting to church on Sunday mornings, I'd argue that this year more than ever we've all (James, Kayci & I) really been able to remember why we have Christmas in the first place.  I won't go into that here, because you guys know what it's about.  

What's funny, and ultimately why I took a minute to post this morning, is HOW the 3 of us have been able to focus on the reason for the season.  We started off this month reading "The Best Christmas Pageant Ever" to Kayci.  It quickly turned into Mommy reading to Kayci, Daddy and Noble every night...and every night we'd just laugh and laugh at the Herdmans.  But you know, what's funny is that seeing Christmas through the eyes of those little heathens has really made it STICK with us...thinking of Imogene saying "My GOD!" in church can make me giggle still.  I guess that's the beauty of it--seeing Christmas through the eyes of the unchurched made me/us realize just how blessed we are that God gave us his only Son at Christmas (or whenever your church calendar says...you get the point).  So that's what we're celebrating today, with grateful hearts.  

That's not to say there wasn't a little dancing and singing this morning when Kayci realized that Santa Claus comes tonight...but at least this year, she gets that he comes because HE came.  

Merry Christmas, everybody!!!

Guess Who...

...has a tooth?  

Noah is so 3!

The Headleys are over playing this afternoon.  Noah's birthday is today, so it's even more fun! He is SOOOOOOO a 3-year-old boy, as illustrated by this conversation  (overheard as they headed into Kayci's room):

Okay, let's play Hannah Montana.  I'll be Miley, you be Jackson and you get to be Hannah Montana.

(And Noah, running behind the "big kids"...)  And I'll be the superhero!

P.S.  Paula, I don't know who fed your kids a whole gingerbread house.  Seriously, that would be wrong.  

P.P.S.  The next person who gives us a gingerbread house kit is on my list.  Apparently I have the wrong degree to construct the stinkin' things, much less decorate them.  I'm officially out of the business!

Family Fun

I won't even say we've been busy lately; everyone is, right?  :)  I just logged in and saw it's been a week since we've updated our blog.  Which stinks, because we never caught up on parade pictures.  Oh, well.  

Last night we had some of Kayci's friends over for dinner.  One of the girls is in Kayci's class, and the other is in 2nd grade.  All 3 of them sat on the bench so everyone could sit next to Kayci (sigh), and it was fun to listen to them talk about school.  The 2nd grader was telling us about her teachers, which led to a conversation about her daily schedule.  When she said that they did "English, Language Arts & Reading" in the afternoon, her sister broke in:  "But Jessie, you ALREADY speak English!"  

This morning was fun, too!  It was pretty icy here, so schools opened 2 hours late and it made for a relaxing morning.  We were sitting around (except for Daddy, who still had to go to work at 8) in our PJs, watching PBS and eating oatmeal, when Sherry called.  She was already in town with the girls and had just found out their school was closed until 10.  So she came and hung out with us for a while--Kayci and Noble love both of the Bogan girls, so it was a fun morning.  And I'm always glad for an excuse to visit with Sherry!  It got a little hairy for a while when I told Kayci to get dressed for school, and I have to share my horrible parenting skills with you guys.  We're going out for dinner tonight and lately, Kayci's clothing choices have been a little...orphan-ish for my taste.  So, for ONCE (are you proud of me, Lynn?) I suggested an outfit.  I did pick things that she likes, but she really, really gets grumpy when James or I try to pick clothes so of course things went downhill from there.  So she's in her room, saying she can't find the shirt I suggested, and I'm standing at her door, on the other side of Noble's gate, getting madder and madder that she's acting like she can't find the shirt I want her to wear.  Of course I think she's just not finding it because she's being difficult, so I tell her, if there are SO MANY CLOTHES in your closet that you cannot find the ONLY black long-sleeved shirt in there, then I guess I'll have to make a trip to Higgins Branch today to make room in your closet so you can find your clothes.  She still can't find it, so now I'm worried that I may have played my cards wrong...sure enough, I get into her closet and I can't find the shirt.  

Yep.  Turns out it was a PINK shirt--I'd gotten it confused with another one.  

Mother of the year, here.

I did apologize to her and hug her and tell her I was wrong...but I still looked like a giant a**.  Good thing Sherry's a good friend.  Of course, I won't tell you what HER daughter did next--I thought that was pretty funny, but she wouldn't laugh if I posted it here.  You'll have to ask her!

Hope you're hanging on to your sanity a bit better than I'm managing these days...

It's Only One...

Noble has been a bit off this week, and this morning when he woke up with a fever it was like, and there it is.  You know your kid's a frequent flyer when the doctor looks up and says, "well, the good news is, this time it's only one (ear)."  Hey, we'll take all the good news we can get!

Okay...

...now it's snowing.  Not giant Iowa drifts, I know, Paula :), but enough that our deck is white and you can see it coming down.  I hope Bitty gets to see it!  The Houstonian in me is struggling to break out--as soon as I saw the snow, I thought, do we have enough bread?  Milk?  :)  

Snow?

Some of you have already called or e-mailed, but I'll break it to you all gently, all at once:

It may have snowed somewhere in Brenham (we did see snow on a car driving by), but it did not snow here at the little green house.  It IS cold and wet, though, if it's any consolation.  Sami's snug in her house with the lamp and her hay...we even put food inside for her this morning so she doesn't have to get out if she doesn't want to.  Noble is bundled, warm in his bed (okay, he's not asleep but he should be).  Kayci went off to school bundled up in a sweater, her puffy coat, scarf, hat, mittens...I have to say, she got burned by the whole snow thing last year so she could really care less that David Paul said snow in Brenham.  I don't even think she looked out the window this time...that's how little she cares.  Cynical already...must be our kid.  

Stay warm!  :)  

First Look...the Parade!

I know we're running behind and there are tons of photos we should probably post, but you know I don't know how to get them from the camera to the computer, so we'll go with what I have from e-mails.  (Thanks Angus!)  Later I'll post cute pics of the kids helping Daddy with the float--those made his week!

What's here:  Saturday before the parade, we went to the Holiday Open House up at the Giddings Stone Mansion--Kayci had a BLAST with the different crafts, and Noble was just in awe of the high ceilings.  :)  Then there's the parade, which is self-explanatory, and finally a couple of pics from Sleepytime Storytime at the library last night.  In the group shot, you can see Kayci's headband next to the blonde Scheffler in the front right.  

If anyone else has pictures, please e-mail them to us and we'll put them on the blog!  

Oh, and P.S.--congratulations to James and the Parade Committee--they won BRIGHTEST FLOAT this year!  

Big fun in Brenham this weekend!

This is one of the BEST weekends of the year to live in the big ol' town of Brenham--it's the annual Stroll and Lighted Christmas Parade!  If you're interested, here's more information.  We'll be out at the square tonight for the Stroll, and we'll be on the Germania float tomorrow night at the Parade.  Afterwards we figured whoever's in town can meet up at Must Be Heaven for some cocoa--feel free to join us!  :)  

Snow on Stone St.

When we talked about our Advent activities, the one thing Kayci requested every time was to make "snow."  This is an activity I used to do in my classroom, and our first winter here, when we had the big ice storm and James got stuck in Austin and we were homebound for a few days, I introduced it to Kayci and now it's one of her favorite "winter" activities.  So, today I kept our afternoon clear for snow...

Here's Kayci, working hard at making the tp pieces small enough...

Here's Noble, being Noble--he just moves too darn fast for the camera...

What's cool about this year is that it's the first time Kayci's actually used the snow dough as a sculpting compound...the past 2 years, she's just played with it like play dough (it's fun to put it in a ziploc in the fridge so it gets cold!!).  Today when it was all mixed up, she went right to work making a snowman...then went back and forth to the office and kitchen gathering materials to "dress" him.  She even clipped the ends of the satin ribbon to look like a scarf, which I thought was genius!  So, meet Tra Li La Li, or Tra Li La for short.  :)  He's now sitting on a fun snowman plate as the centerpiece on our dining room table...darn it, Grandma, we had to move that gorgeous gingerbread house into Kayci's room.  Shucks!  

100!!

Kayci reached a major Kindergarten milestone today...she became a member of the 100 club!  We have been working on counting to 100 (I won't bother you with justifying why she could all along, just hadn't done it at school...) and this morning, she counted to 100 without pause as she was finishing her breakfast.  So we clapped and hooted, and I put a note in her folder telling her teacher that she's been counting to 100 consistently at home.  This morning, when it was time to "try out" for the 100 club, Kayci was the first kiddo to go...and she MADE IT!  Mrs. Bolcerek just happened to e-mail me before I left to pick up the girls from school, so I had time to grab a fun card so Kayci would see it when she got in the car.  When they got in, there was the normal jostling and commotion, then I said..."who's the proudest Mommy in car line?" and she said..."who's the proudest KID in car line??"  What fun!  Here she is, showing off her "I made the 100 Club!" sticker...

Little Boy Heaven

Noble loves wheels...anything with wheels or anything resembling wheels. Today we had to make an unexpected trip to Discount Tire to get something checked out, and I have to admit, I was a bit chapped at the unexpected stop that was throwing my schedule off. But we walked into the store, and the awe in Noble's face was just...breathtaking. He looked so intently at everything, from the tire displays to the big industrial lights and fans on the ceiling...he was just fascinated, and SO happy. We walked around and I let him touch the tires (of course, after he touched the first one he bent over and tried to put his mouth on it, so I kept him close) and smell them (ugh). He discovered a Michelin Man cut-out, and played peekaboo and giggled for several minutes, then I decided to let him down and snap his picture. My phone doesn't move fast enough to capture his big grins, but it's still a cute picture and a reminder to me that every interruption has the potential to be a blessing. :)

Christmas Fun

When Kayci was 3, we wanted to do something to make sure that she'd understand what Christmas is really about, and to spread out the fun over the whole month of December.  So that's the year that many of our "Pharaon" traditions were born.  More like begged, borrowed, and stolen, but hey.  So, some of you have asked about the different things we do...here they are.

1)  I told y'all about Taylor last week.  She moves to a different spot overnight when she returns from the North Pole...Kayci looks for her first thing each morning.  :)

2)  Advent Calendar:  ours is a box thing from Target with a door for each day...I put a small index card in each day with a note of something Christmas-y we'll do that day.  I have to be very honest here:  for the past 2 years, I really worked hard on this, sitting down with our December calendar and trying to coordinate the activities with what we had going on, and match the books (see #3) the activity to our calendar...and it was really overkill.  Does Kayci care if the day has a theme?  Not so much...so this year I stopped, and we're winging it!  So far, we've had:

1.  Brainstorm (she told me things we've done in the past that she wanted to do again--first on her list, make SNOW!) and Dress for the season (she'd been waiting to wear her Christmas t-shirt and I made her wait until the Monday after Thanksgiving for the first day back to school, and we also bought a pair of fun socks to match that we put in the 1 box for her to find that morning.  Definitely helped ease that transition...)

2.  Visit Miss Lou-Lou at the Library!  (we do this most Tuesdays, but it seemed silly to try to plan something on top of it...where would we have time, with homework, etc.?  Besides, Miss Lou-Lou does Christmas stories and songs in December, so it was totally a Christmas activity!  BTW, Noble danced to Miss Lou-Lou's banjo version of "Jingle Bells"--too cute!)

3.  Work on the float!  We went up to Germania so Kayci could help Daddy & the committee work on the float for Saturday's parade.  :)  She asked to stay for the last hour after I took Noble home to feed him, so she got some bonus Daddy time.  Awesome!

4.  Snow!  Today after school we'll make Ivory soap snow...in her book bag this morning (see #3, again), I included a bar of soap, our art grater (an old cheese grater we use solely for crayons, soap and other art stuff) and a roll of toilet paper. 

In the coming days, the cards will be for tomorrow's Stroll, Saturday's Parade, visiting the Book Fair at school, buying a gift for the Angel Tree (see #4), the PTO Christmas program, making/buying/wrapping gifts and our various family Christmas celebrations with the different sets of grandparents.  This year we're not focusing so much on having a product/craft every day as much as just emphasizing what we're already doing to celebrate Christmas.

3)  Book a Day--When Kayci was 3, Family Fun or some other magazine published a suggestion about wrapping a different Christmas-related book to open each day in December.  The past 2 years, I would work ahead of time to coordinate our daily Advent activity with the book selection so there was a theme...and then wrap the books ahead of time and number them 1-25 so she'd have to identify the correct number to open the gift.  We'd put the 25 books/gifts under the tree in her room, which was really fun for her.  This year, the first day I wasn't able to wrap the stuff, so I just put out a gift bag with Kayci's traditional first story (From a Stable so Small, a Hallmark ornament set and book for the button tree) and also a board book of The Christmas Story for Noble.  We always start the first day with The Christmas Story and emphasize that Christmas is to celebrate Jesus' birth...then on the 2nd day, we'll do a Santa story and talk about how Santa makes it fun, but he's not WHY we have Christmas.  

Kayci really liked that the gift bag was right with her Advent box, and so I did it again the 2nd day, with a fun box, and she asked if we could keep doing that instead of unwrapping presents in her room every day.  Fine by me!  This way, I save time and wrapping, and I can tailor the books to Kayci's interests, activities...like on Tuesday at the library, she looked at How the Grinch Stole Christmas and wanted to read it, so I told her we had it at home.  Wednesday morning, that was the book she found in the bag (it's Nana's from 1957, and Daddy wrote his name in it in green marker when he was around Kayci's age...kinda fun!).  We include a board book for Noble each day, and yesterday for the FIRST TIME EVER he read a book with Daddy (he won't read with me, just not interested)--he loved, loved The 12 Dogs of Christmas (Daddy played the song and read it/sang it to him).  Noble stared at that book--I snapped a picture to prove it, otherwise nobody would believe me that Mr. Busy slowed down long enough to read!

4)  We also talk a lot in November and December about people who maybe don't have basic needs, like food and clothing, and about kids whose parents don't have money/extra money to buy Christmas gifts.  So each year since she turned 3, Kayci has helped me go through her toys and select good ones to give away.  The first year we filled up a big U-Haul box as she'd outgrown most of her "2 year old toys," and last year she filled up a bag and then yes, I went in when she was at preschool and took out some things she never played with (Easy Bake oven, a dollhouse set, the Dora doll she HAD to have the year before for Christmas...good stuff, to share with MOPS Moms who needed gifts for their kiddos).  This year Kayci filled up a black trash bag, and she did so well that I won't even go in and sneak anything out...also, she's old enough now that I am trying to respect that she's keeping some things for a reason, even if it's not a "good" reason to me.  I myself am a pack rat, so I let her do it to an extent.  Note:  don't ever open her drawers or armoire.  :)  

This year, Kayci's monkey bank just happened to be full, so Tuesday night on their date she and Daddy went to CoinStar and turned in the $$.  She has almost $70!  ($31 in bills, thanks to the $20 bill Jhido gave her a couple of weeks ago...she didn't even say anything to us, just went and put it in the bank...good girl!).  We'll go today to deposit it in her credit union account, where we have her college money and also the money she's saved through the coins & bills she suckers out of Grandma, Grandpa & Jhido.  Once a year, we take money out to go to the circus--she uses her money to buy souvenirs.  Other than that, we leave it alone.  

Anyway, today's the day to deposit the money, and I have asked her to consider using her money to buy a gift for the Angel Tree at her school...I explained how some kids at her school won't get any gifts at all unless people like us buy nice toys for them.  I left it up to her--I'm curious to see if she volunteers any of her money.  I've never asked her to give any of HER money away before, in years past we've shopped for different kids, charities etc. as part of our Advent activities but always with Mommy & Daddy's money.  One last story:  the first year we lived here, she really, really wanted an ironing board for Christmas and Nana wanted to buy it for her, but couldn't find it at a Wal-Mart in Houston.  So I said I'd pick it up for her.  The day we went to Wal-Mart with our list of gifts to buy for the State School & foster kiddos, I had Kayci pick out the toys that were on the list and I told her that one little girl wanted the same ironing board Kayci wanted.  She didn't say a word, just put it in the basket.  I was so proud of her for giving away the one thing she really wanted for herself...I thought for sure the green-eyed monster would come out, but it didn't.  Not that's she's perfect and always giving, because she can be downright selfish...but moments like that show me that we're doing the right thing to keep pushing charity and sharing our many blessings.

Alrighty...this was going to be a quick one, but it's for you Mommys out there who've asked.  :)  And no, Boy, I'm not morphing into a Mommyblogger.  I hope.   Hope you guys have fun, and would love to hear what YOU do!  This doesn't even touch our family traditions, but we'll do that another day...I'm off to shower before Noble wakes up.  He's slept well this morning...between what I got done early this morning and since he's been down, I'm doing great in all 3 jobs today!  That doesn't happen often, so I'll cherish this a bit...crap, he's up.  Oh, well!

Knock Knock...

As we're walking in from Storytime at the Library, Noble says to Kayci (with some help from Mommy), 

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?" says Kayci

"I don't know, I'm just a baby."  

So Kayci immediately comes back with...

"Knock, knock."

"Who's there?" says Noble/Mommy

"Jokes!"

"Jokes who?"

"You have GOT to get some better jokes!"

I just had to share...her Daddy will be jealous of how quick on her feet she was!  :)  

What's Important This Christmas

8:38 AM...Noble's been asleep for 38 minutes.  I've showered and dressed, put a load of laundry in, and heated the tea I started making an hour ago.  Now I'm going to sit down--actually SIT--for a few minutes and drink my tea instead of letting it get cold on the counter like every other day.  

There's something that's been on our (James' & my) minds for a while, and there's just no great way to say it that won't sound tacky.  But here it is:  please, please don't buy us a Christmas gift this year...chances are pretty good, we won't be buying one for you.  For years we've been trying to downsize our holiday spending frenzy, but every year, I get so INTO the shopping and wrapping and finding the perfect thing for everyone we know...well, it's just gotten out of hand in previous years.  This past year, we didn't distribute our last two Christmas gifts until AUGUST, which is just ridiculous, and I'm quite sure the receivers thought so, as well.  

For the past 6 years--it started before we even know she was a she, back in 2002--we've just gone overboard with Kayci's Christmas.  Even Santa has gotten in on the act, bringing the special items she's asked for and more.  So while Christmas morning in our house has been a lot of fun, and we love to see our grateful girl open gifts, the fact remains that 3 hours after we start, we're left with a pile of STUFF that she doesn't need...much of which she didn't want as much as we wanted her to have it, if that makes sense.  Then multiply that by 4 different sets of grandparents who spoil her, as well, and yes, you aunts & uncles & friends & Godparents out there who do the same...it turns into a month-long celebration of getting stuff.  And I hate to break it to all of us, but Kayci doesn't play with most of the things she gets after the first day or so...she spends more time in the office with paper and markers and glue and stickers than she does in her room, which is any other little girl's dream.  

The fact is, if we want something or need something, we go out and get it.  It's not like when we were kids, and Christmas was the BIG GET...you know, when we got the toys we'd been eyeing for the past year, and the special clothes items that Mom & Dad just couldn't justify for school clothes shopping.  None of the four of us NEED anything, and truthfully, we have very few wants.  Kayci, of course, has a few special things she'd like this year, but we've been talking to her for quite a while about how we HAVE so much, we don't need to GET as much for Christmas as we have in the past.  Does she understand?  Probably not.  Will she be disappointed Christmas morning?  Probably.  But I know kids who get a lot more than she does who are still disappointed on Christmas morning, so that can't really be a factor.  The thing is, we all (the Pharaons, at least) need to appreciate what we have a bit more.  A lot more, actually.  

It's one thing to say we're going to change our focus, and another thing to do it.  God stepped in this year and made it a lot easier for us to focus on what's important this Christmas--the people in our lives.  To that end, we'll say it again:  please don't buy us a gift this year.  Instead, let's make time--not in December, crazy--to get together for dinner, or even to go see a movie.  We're always saying to our friends, we need to get together...well, let's do it.  Easier said than done, I know...so let's say we'll do it sometime in 2009 and leave it at that.  :)