Not a story about BKZA...

A friend sent me this and it made me smile... hope it will make you smile too.

Dear Santa,

I've been a good mom all year. I've fed, cleaned and cuddled my children on demand, visited the doctor's office more than my doctor and sold sixty-two cases of candy bars to raise money to plant a shade tree on the school playground. I was hoping you could spread my
list out over several Christmases, since I had to write this letter with my son's red crayon, on the back of a receipt in the laundry room between cycles and who knows when I'll find anymore free time in the next 18 years.

Here are my Christmas wishes:

I'd like a pair of legs that don't ache (in any color, except purple, which I already have) and arms that don't hurt or flap in the breeze, but are strong enough to pull my screaming child out of the candy aisle in the grocery store.

I'd also like a waist, since I lost mine somewhere in the seventh month of my last pregnancy.
If you're hauling big ticket items this year I'd like fingerprint resistant windows and a radio that only plays adult music, a television that doesn't broadcast any programs containing talking animals, and a refrigerator with a secret compartment behind the crisper where I can hide to talk on the phone.

On the practical side, I could use a talking doll that says, "Yes, Mommy" to boost my parental confidence, along with two kids who don't fight and three pairs of jeans that will zip all the way up without the use of power tools.

I could also use a recording of Tibetan monks chanting "Don't eat in the living room" and "Take your hands off your brother," because my voice seems to be just out of my children's hearing range and can only be heard by the dog.

If it's too late to find any of these products, I'd settle for enough time to brush my teeth and comb my hair in the same morning, or the luxury of eating food warmer than room temperature without it being served in a Styrofoam container.

If you don't mind, I could also use a few Christmas miracles to brighten the holiday season. Would it be too much trouble to declare ketchup a vegetable? It will clear my conscience immensely. It would be helpful if you could coerce my children to help around the house
without demanding payment as if they were the bosses of an organized crime family.

Well, Santa, the buzzer on the dryer is calling and my son saw my feet under the laundry room door. I think he wants his crayon back. Have a safe trip and remember to leave your wet boots by the door and
come in and dry off so you don't catch cold.

Help yourself to cookies on the table but don't eat too many or leave crumbs on the carpet. (you promised me last year you would lose some weight with me so next year you and I could be a cute size two, blonde...ok, some requests go too far, but none the less.....)

Yours Always,

MOM...

P. S. One more thing.. .you can cancel all my requests if you can keep my children, healthy, safe and of course, young enough to always believe in Santa.

Rocking & Rolling

Here's my little A-girl doing her best imitation of her daddy. For as long as I've known Jason when he's sitting "Indian-style" he sways (sorry I don't know the culturally savvy way to say that, is it the Native American style now?) - anyway we notice that A does the same thing. SO CUTE!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Kinfolk

This weekend we had the unique pleasure to have dinner with Jason's 2nd cousin one time removed (and the kids met their 4th cousins). We are blessed that Jason's mom is a computer junkie and "found" this cousin that lives near us. We have meant to get together for several months but it finally happened. She made us a wonderful chicken dinner and we enjoyed getting to know these kinfolk better!
As always here's the pictorial proof!

This is our clan with Ms. Jane & three of her grandkids

(the two boys are 10 & 8 and the girl is almost 7 - how perfect for our big kids!)

Apparently this is what happens when you meet your 4th cousins... beware!

Here is Ms. Jane with her son, David & his wife, Sarah Jane & their three kids.

Saturday Fun

Today we went to see Santa Claus at the neighborhood clubhouse. FUN!! Z & A did great, A was very intrigued with the beard and Z was so excited to tell him what he wanted for Christmas! When we left Z looked at Jason and said, "where's my Buzz?" I guess he figured there was no wait time in this whole process, you tell Santa and then you get the gift! Poor kid! Ha, ha!
K sat with him too & told him what she wanted. B didn't want to sit with him because he wasn't sure what he wanted and he wants to be surprised.
Here's the pictorial proof of our fun!

I love the look on Santa's face here. "uh, kid don't pull!"

This is a test

It will be interesting to see if anyone that I mention in this blog responds with a comment... so it's kind of like a test. :)

Lots has been happening around here lately. My friends the Krajca's and their beautiful boy, Benjamin, are now home from the hospital after a successful surgery on Monday for Benjamin. I am so happy and full of praise for what the Lord has done for this family.

While they were in Hippy Dippy Land our friends the Findley's came to see them and stayed with us. Huge amounts of fun were had by all, Z got to play with his friend Alexis, Jason & B got to play with Michael and Christi and I got to spend some time together too.
** Cute side note: B&K got to play with Alexis too. B went up to Alexis and said, "Hi Alexis I've missed you." Alexis looked at him and said, "I miss you too, what's your name?" So funny! **

Yesterday I completed my "job" of student teacher supervising. It was fun and I got to be in the classroom just enough to remember how much I LOVE what I'm doing now. Oh yea - and I did such a fantastic job that they want me to do it again next semester! Go figure!

Today Z had his friend Emma over to play for a while but during that time I did some packing for Erin. "Packing for Erin?" What does that mean - well get comfortable and let me tell you a little story. I had (up until this morning) a large black trash bag full of clothes in my kitchen floor. My sweet father-in-law, John, gave them to me this summer.
Here's the story. About a year & a half ago I asked the sweet in-laws to hold a bag of clothes for me. They were given to me by a friend for Z but they were way too big and we couldn't fit all the stuff in our car, so John agreed to hold onto them for me. Well I asked about them a while ago and he couldn't find the bag so we just figured he saw a trash bag and threw it away - bummer but no big thing. Well while we were home this summer John produced a big bag of clothes, saying he had found them, yea for him! Well I got home and opened up the bag only to find several things that indicated these were not the clothes from my friend for Z. A few give-aways were the colors - pink, purple, pretty pastel prints, the sizes - 10-12 youth and finally a very pretty ruffly dress that I was certain my friend had not put on her son! :) So I quickly realized that I had driven from Missouri to Texas with a bunch of clothes that belonged in Massachusetts!
So today I packed up a couple of boxes for Erin.

Finally, I owe my brother, Scott an apology. I teased him this week and said we were going to come to see him - I'm sorry Scott, but if you keep reading, you will see a picture at the bottom of all of this just for YOU!

So now with my stories all told I will treat you with a whole heaping load of pictures! Enjoy!

Oh yea - we put up our Christmas lights a couple of weeks ago.
Yes Mark & Scott my house still appears to be in a sink hole.

My Christmas tree decorators, notice A supervising. Getting ready for Papa Coach & Nana.

This is just a cute picture.

K enjoying some time with Alexis & Anthony.


"Wii want to play" exclaimed the boys!

Aunt Erin remember this shirt?

Here's a picture of M for Scoot!

Remember: I reserve the right to put as many grammatical errors, run-on sentences and spelling errors in my blog as I want to - so back off Jason!

Teething

A has a new tooth, top right front tooth to be exact. I am guessing that is what has been waking her up at 1:30am every morning for the last several days. Now that it has broken through I am hoping she will go back to her normal sleeping schedule, I'm sure K is hoping so too since she ended up on the couch last night.

Birthdays, parades and candy... oh my

K went to a b-day party last night at a little girlie salon, I think it was named,
Make My 7 Year Old into a Hoochie-Momma... or something like that!

We had a little fun with K, Jason gave her the what for - I mean really all of that make-up!!! This was all in fun (as you can tell if you look at K's face!).

LOVE this picture!!!!

Today we went to watch K in a parade. As you will be able to see in the pictures (that will follow in a montage) it was all about the candy for Z! Ugh!

Memory Lane:
Reminds me of B's first parade when I told him a piece of candy was a rock and they wanted you to throw them away... poor gullible child!