Christmas 2008

So, two weeks late, here are our Christmas pictures!

Ace got a bow and arrow as his Santa gift. It’s not a “real” one but it did come with arrows with rubber tips. I thought it was pretty though.

Just a cute Josiah picture.
Zoe asked for a scooter from Santa for her Santa gift this year. In fact, she’s been asking for a scooter since last Christmas. She was doing pretty good on it…the fifteen minutes she had to ride it before it started raining again.
Liam opening gifts and talking and generally grumpy because we were out of our routine.

Josiah’s Santa gift was a ball pit. This, obviously, is not the inflatable kind but a Playhut one that can fold up. We added one hundred balls to it, but it still needs about a hundred more to really make it fun. Josiah didn’t care. He loved it!
Zoe showing off gifts.

Liam’s Santa gift…it was three toys with lots of parts to put together with either a hand turned screwdriver or a battery powered one. He really enjoyed taking the toys apart (the screwdriver had reverse on it) and putting them together.

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Much Better and Happy New Year!

Josiah’s doing much better. I almost called Dr. B back on Tuesday he was still feverish and just plain not himself. However, Wednesday dawned with a continued fever that came down on it’s own and he played, laughed, and was generally the old ‘Siah. The only thing was he didn’t eat as much as usual…that’s changed today and he’s eaten a little more. His nose is still a little congested but he seems to be doing much better.

On that note…Happy New Year! Not much planned for today except a real lunch or dinner cooked by moi and cleaning to get ready for an in-law visit (and because we need to clean). Hopefully, I can get lesson plans in for this month since we start back on Monday…and I’ve only got two in the computer!

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Welcome Winter with a Cold!

We’ve had our first visit to the doctor, unscheduled in over 9 months yesterday. Josiah is sick with a double ear infection. He’s had a bad runny nose for a few days and it just escalated in to crying fits on Sunday night until about midnight on Monday morning. This also included a nice fever. Mama’s instinct (God-given, of course…and yes, I do believe God gives mama’s insight into their kids) kicked in and we headed to the doctor in the morning. He’s on a mild antibiotic for 10 days and if that doesn’t help, we’ll swap to something stronger. So far, I can’t see any difference. He’s still acting sickish and has a fever, but he did sleep good yesterday afternoon and last night. He is a pitiful sick little boy…and this is the first time he’s really gotten bad sick…except for a sinus infection or two.

Off to work on lesson plans…I think!

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Happy Birthday Liam!

Liam actually celebrated his birthday nine days earlier than the actual day…so I’ll post birthday pics later. He had a fireman’s party at our fire station headquarters. These guys were great and so friendly with the kids (and the men who asked all sorts of questions and drooled over their equipment!). Lots of pics so little typing here!

They gave us hats, badges, and coloring books for all the kids…didn’t know this in advance so I have a dozen fireman hats that I ordered…anybody need them??


The birthday boy, Fireman Liam!
Playing hot potato!

The fireman came in and gave a fire talk to the kids…a very little fire safety stuff.

And just to add a thrill, we allowed the fireman to scare the kids to death by dressing in their fireman garb!

Watching the fireman dress up…getting a little apprehensive.

Wide-eyed at the fireman equipment!

All ready to fight a fire (and freak out the kids)…actually they (being the fireman researchers, etc) just realized that kids were hiding from them when they went in to get them causing many of them to be injured or worse…they were hiding because they were scared. So, this was a good thing, the kids have seen a fireman dressed up now and know what to look for. They also let his equipment go off so the kids could hear all the weird sounds it made.

Trying to coax the kids to come up to CJ, the fireman dressed up. That was a hard one for Liam and he wouldn’t actually do it. He loosened up as we went on a tour of the station and watched them slide down the pole!

And played in the firetrucks…until Liam turned on a flashlight and made the air compressor somehow go off!

Liam was thrilled with the gifts and loved his cake (which I didn’t include in here for some reason). He was showing his cake to K, a friend, and said, “‘Dis is my birfday, TA DA!”






So, the firemen told us this was our station (paid for by us) and that anytime we wanted to bring the kids by for a tour to feel free to do so. I’m not sure, but I believe all stations are like this. These guys work so hard, do so much, for so little reward, or pay. We were all very grateful for them, especially since they let Liam invade the station with a few friends!

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Mommy and Ceili Rain!

My first ever maternity pictures! Am I thrilled at how they turned out??? Oh yeah. Everybody sing, “I feel pretty, oh so pretty!”

It was great having pictures of what my pregnant belly looks like. I really wanted Mark in the picture but he just wanted pictures of me. If there is a next time, maybe I can coax him to get in the pics! Again, these are Portrait Innovations. I’m just saying…if you want professional pictures without all the “professional” expense, this is the place to go!

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The Football Story (or why there is a football in all of Liam’s pictures)


Yeah, I know that’s a long title but the story is kinda funny.

When the photographer started taking pictures, Liam decided it wasn’t what he wanted to do so he threw himself down and started frowning. Mark grabbed a stuffed animal and tried to get him to smile. Our photographer didn’t seem to confident in her entertaining and picture taking skills so she got another photographer to come in and try to get him to smile. He put a feather boa on his head and Liam looked at him like he needed to see a shrink. I kept looking and searching all the props, etc. I tried a puppet…all hope seemed lost.

Then I spotted it. It was brown…hmmm, could it work??? I began to wonder. It was worth a shot though. I grabbed the big brown “pigskin” and showed it to Liam.

“What’s this Liam?”

“Football” and a grin spread across his face from ear to ear. Thus, the football got the kids group shot and then we went on to individuals, etc…I didn’t dream of taking the football away!

When she got to the boys’ shot she asked us if we wanted the football in the picture.

“Why not?” we replied…it’s part of our family!

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Family Pictures

We get family pictures done every year. I would love to be one of those mom’s who does the pictures like every six months, etc…but we just can’t afford it. I have a friend who told us about Portrait Innovations a few years ago and we willingly make a trek to one each year as the pictures turn out awesome and they are very reasonably priced. Recently one opened up where my parents live, however, we could not get schedules to coincide with going there so we had to travel to another one! They take a ton of pictures and Mark and I were really brave in letting the photographer know what we wanted this year. Without further ado…the pictures.

I just pulled these from our cd, so I didn’t get a chance to crop any…sorry!

This year, we picked out pictures to keep that really went with each child’s personality. However, there was some other really good ones I wanted to share. I’ll point out the ones we actually bought, though as wall pictures (since they’ll go up on the wall for a year!).

Zoe’s picture to go on the wall!

I’ve always wanted a picture of her twirling since that’s what she loves doing!

Contemplative…we didn’t choose this one because she was playing with her wiggly front tooth…I still like it though.

Ace’s flirtatious wall picture!

We just had to get this one. I think I’m going to put it up in the boys’ room.

Does this say All-American or what???

My football lover!

Liam’s wall picture…gotta have that mischievous grin.

The, “What did I do now???” look

Full force loveable boy (and our wall picture)

Yeah, he was a challenge to sit still…but he liked this rocking chair so we threw it in.

Aren’t they beautiful!?! I love my kids and all the great photographers at Portrait Innovations.

Stay tuned for the football story and maternity pictures!

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All I Want for Christmas

is my two front teeth!

Zoe lost her other upper front tooth tonight. I noticed, much to my disgust, that it was hanging a little off to the side.

After supper tonight, Mark started to pull it and I heard the screams and intervened.

So, when I laid down after baking, Mark got the boys’ and Zoe ready for bed and apparently he pulled it then. It must have not been too bad because she didn’t wake me up (of course, I don’t think a freight train could’ve gotten me awake!).

I’ll try and get a picture soon, but honestly, I think we’ll have one at some point since Christmas is so close!

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Happy Birthday Zoe!

Zoe celebrated her sixth birthday on Saturday with an Art Party. It was her choice and (when things slow down) soon I’ll post her invitations that she designed/created. She seemed to have a good time.

The girls (she didn’t want to invite any boys) made ornaments, however, they were glass ornaments and involved paint, so we didn’t get any of that on camera…too much for the adults to take pictures and help at the same time. They also did a scratch art activity to make window sun catchers. A big thanks to Tracy, Hillary, and Ge for helping and having fun creating your crafts and helping the girls!

They also created their own cupcake masterpieces (with different color icing and sprinkles) and their own tacos!


Scratch Art…using a wooden stylus you scratch off around a stencil and the paper is a colored see through thingy…very cool and pretty!

Gift time! She “racked up” and enjoyed opening presents with friends!

Hmmm???

Getting ready to decorate ornaments. Glass ornament balls squirted with paint and then swished around.
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