Orange belt and broken board!

On Friday, Dylan had his first testing for martial arts.  In the beginning he had been really nervous and not to willing to even to talk about testing but as he saw other kids getting different color belts, he started to come around. 

On Friday, I think I had more nerves than he did....more about how he would behave and handle the situation.  He made me soooo proud and he loved being out on the floor with his Daddy!  I enjoyed watching him watch the older kids...he sat there and grinned the whole time.

Dylan really enjoyed spending time with Jason at martial arts......

Concentration pose......

"Taking a knee" while waiting his turn....he didn't last like this for long without losing his balance but he tried awful hard!

Getting ready to his basics with Daddy......

PUNCH!

Grappling.....

Ready to break his board!

Waiting "patiently" for his orange belt!

"Mommy!  I have my orange belt!"

Snuggles.....



Christmas creation

Kira has been bugging me to makea Gingerbread House for a couple of years and honestly, we just haven't had time to do one.  I know how much time they take and I have a feeling if there were "issues" getting it to stay together it would be meltdown central around here so this year when I saw a Gingerbread Tree I figured it would be a hit!

Here's the kids creation!



Snowflake Ball

Kira was so excited about the Snowflake Ball at her school again this year.  They had been practicing a lot of dances in PE class so she was ready!  She had a great time but didn't even last a hour before she was tired.  We were taking a break and I told her that she could dance to 2 or 3 more songs....she asked i she had to because she was ready to go! :-)

And last year......yes, she's wearing the same dress! :-)



Still liking martial arts....

Dylan is still enjoying martial arts.  For some reason, he has a rough start a lot of weeks for about the 1st 5-10 minutes but then once he's going, he's fine and loving it.  He does a great job and will be testing for his orang belt later this month.  He's been asking when he gets to so I'm praying that it's a good experience for him.

No one peek......

'cuz Eema and Bumpa are coming up the steps with your Xmas presents!!

Magic wands and dress-up headbands....all have gotten a lot of use!

Very excited about her flannel sheets!

A new Car Movie 2 bedspread which he says keeps him "the most warm ever" at night!

Now Eva has a sleeping bag for movie nights....thank goodness! :-)

Such a sweet look!  She's wearing her clothes, the new ladybug dress-up outfit and her new robe!  Couldnt pick just one!

Modeling their new robes!!!



He loves his Corn Cake!!

The only thing that Dylan REALLY cared about at Thanksgiving, besides pumpkin pie, was his corn cake!  You know, the one with Jiffy Cornbread mix, corn, creamed corn, butter and sour cream in it!  He was determined that he could make it by himself and he pretty much did.  I got everything set out, he dumped it in and stirred.  The only thing I said Mommy had to do was get it in the crock-pot......I didn't want to be cleaning it up off the floor! :-)

He was so stinkin' proud of himself!



Just some cuteness.....



Can I sit by you Eema?

As close as I possibly can, on the same couch cushion and then can I flop my arm around you and grin???

YES!  He can!



Wacky Clothes Day!

Kira was so excited that her school was doing Wacky Clothes Day again the day before Thanksgiving!  She planned her outfit by herself....and what you can't see is that she had on 2 different socks too! :-)  And yes, those are pj's!



Decorating early for Xmas!

The kids were all really excited to decorate the Xmas tree this year.  Normally I start decorating the house the day after Thanksgiving but since we were planning on doing an early Xmas with my parents over Thanksgiving weekend, I got an early start this year!  It helped that Jason was out of town the weekend before Thanksgiving too! (Love you honey!)

Eva is really enjoying all the decorations this year and keeps asking if we can decorate the tree again.  I thought, very briefly, about taking the decorations off and doing just that but then decided it wasn't something I should probably start! :-)

As I was handing the kids ornaments to put on the tree, I realized I didn't see most of the candy canes I had given Eva to put up.......once I looked, I found 3 different spots where she was "piling" them!  She was so excited about how she had done it...I left them alone for awhile but after she was in bed, I did some rearranging!

Dylan's "cluster" of snowflakes........those have been left alone since when I would move them, they would magically end up right back together!  He LOVED that I had so many green ornaments!!

What I love about our Xmas tree is that a majority of the decorations were made by my Grandma.  The rest are either ones that I had a child or were given to me by special people in my life or they are ones that the kids have been given.  It's so fun to talk about where they all came from each year.  It's not how I always pictured the "perfect" tree but it's perfect for us!