Free Weekend!

This is our first "free" weekend in a long time. Because of the birthday thing yesterday, we decided to go out for breakfast this morning instead of me making the usual pancakes and bacon. We slept in and got to IHOP around 9:30am. While we were waiting for our food, Patrick grabbed Eric's hand and guided him into writing "Eric". I could see Eric's face start to light up as he started recognizing that was his name they were writing. He loves to show off that he knows how to spell his name. He actually started writing his name by himself in this picture.

Since the kids are on their Christmas break now, they need something to do when they're at home, so we went to the library after breakfast to get some books. Alex stayed home, which surprised me, since he usually loves books too. He's been reading some books recently that we already own, so maybe that's what he has planned. Eric was very interested in "buying books" that were Christmas-themed. I read him some books at the library and I read him some books at home. I love that he still fits very nicely on my lap and I can hug and hold him while I'm reading to him.

I guess I'm still catching up on sleep from the past week, because when we got home, I promptly cuddled up in bed and took a nap. When I awakened, Patrick took Anthony to his friend's house to hang out. His friend is moving to Dallas soon and he was having some friends over before he leaves. Alex was trying to catch up with his lace of PS3 time this past week. Natalie played with her neighborhood friends. Eric played outside for a bit too, as did both of his brothers.

All week we've been planning to go to Santa's Railroad Wonderland at the train museum. We've been going every year and Eric has been asking to go for a couple of weeks or so. Patrick and I figured that with this being our first free weekend, we had to go there today, since they're only open a few more days this year.

Anthony was still at his friend's house and Alex wasn't interested in going, so it was just the four of us. Natalie was pretty wired when we went. She was jumping around and being very chatty. Eric was just taking it all in. He was totally fascinated with all of the trains. He and Natalie even got to visit with Choo-Choo Claus. I love seeing the excitement in their eyes. Where the big boys are more concerned with their usual lives, these two are getting more and more excited the closer we get to Christmas. To be fair, the big boys are more restrained with their outward emotions. Alex did say today that he couldn't wait for Christmas. It's just nicer to see and it's therefore easier to feel Natalie's and Eric's excitement about Christmas. I feel like I'm already in Christmas vacation mode with this free weekend, except that I still have to go to work on Monday.

Sweetness Overload

I had a great day today. I went to work, hoping for a short day. I worked with a very capable resident and my three cases went very smoothly and quickly. I was allowed to go home at about 11AM, but I stayed a bit longer to chat with others. No one made a big announcement on the overhead intercom like they did last year, which was nice. Everyone was SO sweet to me--I got quite a few nice birthday wishes. One of our PAs even wanted to admire my cool red purse (I love that purse!) and asked to touch it. :) I was going to miss the department holiday party, which I was sad about, but not enough to pass up having lunch with Patrick and Eric.

I met Patrick and Eric at The Cheesecake Factory. Wow, it was super crowded and I had to wait a while just to valet park. Even the valet parking got full but luckily, I got the last spot. They were already seated and I had my favorite dish there, the Chinese Chicken Salad and then had the Kahlua Cocoa Coffee Cheesecake for dessert. I had lots of leftovers that I'm planning to have tomorrow. Yum!

Because we had lunch at The Cheesecake Factory, we missed the Chinese parade that Natalie's class was putting on at 1:30pm. The whole third grade class had been studying China and the parade was a sort of culmination of the study unit. We got there shortly after that and I was greeted with this beautiful reaction from Natalie. The fact that she was so surprised and excited to see me really lifted my spirits even more.

Because of the China studies, the theme for their party was a Chinese New Year. The room mom organized a meal that included some fried rice and egg rolls. They also had McDonald's Chicken Nuggets and cookies. Even though Eric had eaten a little mac and cheese at The Cheesecake Factory, he ate three chicken nuggets and half a cookie.

Natalie also got a goodie bag with a "chinese" bracelet and two jelly candies. They even passed out red envelopes to the kids with another "chinese" bracelet inside. Natalie shared everything with Eric, including her seat. She was so sweet to him and he ate it all up.

Almost all the kids were being signed out early from school so they could go home with their parents who had attended the holiday party. At first Natalie hesitated, because her school bus driver had told them that he was going to be passing out candy canes on the bus ride home. Patrick had already given Mr. H one of the Ghirardelli chocolate bags that we gave all the kids' teachers in anticipation of not seeing him in the afternoon. Natalie ended up going home with us since we already had candy canes at home from the Breakfast With Santa event last weekend. As we were leaving the school building, we saw Mr. H standing near the front doors. He knew that several kids would be picked up early from school and wouldn't be riding the bus, so he waited at the school to hand out candy canes early. How SWEET is that? He even gave a candy cane to Eric and said that Natalie was his "doll" because she always greeted him with a smile. It's nice to hear about the good things that your children have done.

We went home and then later, Patrick picked up Alex from the nearby middle school. He always loves to take the bus instead of being picked up at his school. I picked Anthony up from school. Before I picked up Anthony, I went to Starbucks to pick up my free birthday drink, a Mocha Frappucino. I didn't have the coupon I had received in the mail. When the lady manning the counter heard that today was my birthday, she said that she would buy me one. How sweet is that? I've seen her there a few times before. Each time she asks for my name to put it on the cup, I reply "Melanie" and she says, "That's my daughter's name!" This time I told her that is what she always says. I certainly don't expect her to remember me, but she was still sweet to me.

We went to P.F. Chang's for dinner. We ordered entirely too much food, but it'll be great to eat that for dinner tomorrow. Eric had brought a piece of a candy cane from home. I let him eat it before the food arrived, to keep him busy, and he ate the rest of it after dinner. I told him I wanted to take a picture of him eating the candy cane and he made the biggest show of it! He kept opening his mouth really wide and closing his eyes as if to savor the candy. He was cracking me up with his antics.

After dinner we were too full to go out for ice cream, my original plan, so we're going to postpone that to later this weekend. So much sweetness already today! We went home and I got to open my presents from Patrick and the kids. I already opened my presents from my sisters and in-laws earlier when the boys weren't home yet. I figured they wouldn't care about seeing those gifts and I was too excited to wait. Patrick was so sweet and got me a couple of items from my very specific list. I was very happy!

I also had lots of wonderful friends and family post birthday wishes to my wall on Facebook. How sweet is that? My day was filled with lots of sweetness and other good things. That's all I could ever ask for. :)

Back To Normal

Patrick took this picture of Alex for me before taking him to school this morning. He may look happy, but that is an exaggerated smile just for the picture. He kept doing his frown that he does for pictures. Patrick would take a picture and see that he was frowning and tell him to smile. He would smile in the next picture. Patrick took about four pictures like that. We are just glad that this project is over. Now on to the next one!








Alex's favorite thing to do is play Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 for the Playstation 3. He finally got to play tonight after a week of not playing it at all, and he only got to play for a short period before getting back to work. All is well now. :) I thought he and Eric playing games while sitting on the living room sofa made a nice picture. :)

Tomorrow is party day for Natalie (at school) and actually for me too (at work). I'm hoping that I'll be able to get out early so I can attend Natalie's party. That would be a nice birthday present.

Castle Wrap-up

Here's the finished castle complete with flag flying. Patrick spent his day painting and repainting the outside because he ran out of the "stone" paint spray and the paper outer layer of the foam board started buckling and warping. He finished up with some acrylic paint. I think the different colors on the outer wall adds to the texture and looks nice.

After Alex finished his other homework tonight (luckily he didn't have that much other homework tonight), he put together the buildings on the inside (stables, armory, eatery, and barracks) as well as the keep and a well. He labeled all of these areas and painted the inside "floor" a grass green color. He did a lot of work tonight and hopefully he'll get a good grade.

His friend from the carpool made his castle out of wood. Patrick found himself wishing that he had made this castle out of wood too. The foam board would have been easier for Alex to work with, but we hesitated when he cut himself with the craft knife.

I feel like I'm not going to get any time to work on my December Daily album. I'm not even doing a lot of Christmas related activities. I spent my time tonight driving around. I came home after work, picking up Alex and his friend on the way home from the nearby middle school. They like to take the bus even if they get home at the same time or later. I spent a little time at home then I took Eric with me to pick up Anthony. It was a lot of driving, but at least I feel like I spent more time with my family.

Castle Progress

I miss my family! Today, Anthony and I didn't get home until 6:30pm. It was just like yesterday except that today, only Alex was at home. Patrick had taken Natalie to swimming practice and with no one to baby-sit Eric, he took Eric along and put him in the gym childcare area. When he got home around 7pm, everyone was super hungry. Natalie had eaten a PB&J before swimming practice, but when she saw that Alex was making frozen pizza, she got hungry again. Eric had eaten too, but he also wanted pizza when he got home.

Patrick has been working hard on Alex's project. Alex designed the castle and measured out the parts, but Patrick has been the one cutting out the parts and gluing them together. This is a picture of Eric watching Patrick gluing the castle together. He was completely fascinated and luckily he was just watching instead of "helping". It was funny because, at one point, the glue that Patrick was using made a squirting sound. Eric laughed and said, "The glue tooted." He's such a boy! :)

Alex had lots of other homework to do, which is why he wasn't doing all the gluing. His teachers are all supposed to work together, so why do they give so much homework knowing that there's a big project due on Thursday? Patrick and I still think the school is good, but if the projects are this much work, we hope Natalie doesn't end up going there like she says she wants to. On the plus side, we're getting some bonding time with Alex--maybe?

Project Update and Teacher Gifts

Anthony texted me at quarter to 8am this morning to tell me that he had soccer practice scheduled after school. Thanks for the warning! He told me an hour, but it ended up being two hours! We didn't get home until almost 6:30pm.

Patrick ran a lot of errands today with a three-year-old in tow. He spent a lot of time cutting pieces for Alex's castle project out of foam board. They finally started gluing it together tonight. When I took this picture, Patrick asked me, "Are you taking pictures of MY project?" Alex is so lucky that Patrick is helping him with this and I hope he appreciates it. For our part, Patrick and I feel like we need to help him because we're afraid Alex will cut himself with the X-acto knife again.

Between the four kids, especially the middle schooler and high schooler, they have about 22 teachers. With so many, we really can't spend a lot of money for each one. The exception is Natalie's main teacher, because she spends most of the day, everyday, with her class. I decided to dress up the packaging for Natalie's teacher gifts because Natalie might actually care about it and notice that I did that (in contrast to the boys). This was so easy that I would consider doing it for all of the packages if I had started earlier. She'll give these out tomorrow.

Homework Sunday

After having been on call for the past two Sundays and soccer and other kids' activities on the weekends before that, it was nice to not have anything officially scheduled today. Instead, everyone worked on homework or homework-type activities. That meant that today wasn't exactly fun, but it was definitely productive.

Alex had some homework in a couple of classes plus he worked on his big project for this quarter, which is building a castle. He had already measured out the walls and drawn them out on some foam board. He did try cutting the walls out himself, but he cut himself with the X-acto knife, so Patrick went ahead and did the rest. I haven't helped at all with this project yet. I'd like to keep it that way. I had my own "homework" to do. Alex still has to do quite a bit of work on the castle this week. It's due on Thursday, so time is running out.

Natalie is laughing here because I'm taking a picture of her while she's making her own PB&J sandwich for lunch. She didn't have any school homework, but she did have some "piano" homework. She usually has lessons on Mondays, but she had an extra lesson yesterday to make up for the lesson on the 20th when her teacher will be on vacation. She has another lesson tomorrow, which makes three lessons in a week. During her lesson yesterday, she was in "la-la land", meaning she couldn't focus, so that meant a wasted lesson. Today I wanted her to practice a lot so she can actually show some improvement for her lesson tomorrow. She ended up practicing about 30 minutes and she spent most of the rest of the day outside playing with her neighborhood friends.

Anthony also has a big project due this week. It's a group project for Chemistry. They had to create a game about the Periodic Table. They used the board game Trivial Pursuit as a model for their game. He finished his project today and the best part was that his group didn't have to meet today to finish it.

Eric didn't have any homework, of course, but I couldn't exclude him from this post. He seemed tired--all he did was stare out into space during church instead of playing with the cars he brought, but of course he didn't take a nap. He played indoors and out today, so maybe he'll sleep well tonight AND take a nap tomorrow.

What was my "homework"? I had to make ten more Christmas cards, I wrote in a few of them, and I put address labels on most of them. I still can't believe that I made all 100 cards and I think I'll need more next year! Here the kids are applying the return address labels, while watching one of our "No Ordinary Family" DVR tapes. They look rather mesmerized, don't they? I also worked on my December Daily album. I hope I'll have some time this week to catch up in that album so that I can finally post some finished pages.

Because we had taken over the sofa with all of the label stuff for the cards, Eric just stood there and said he was "looking for a place" as in a place to sit. Patrick put him on his lap instead. I love how Eric looks so relaxed on his Papa's lap. We were all pretty busy today, and my poor boy didn't have anyone to play with. He'll be "playing" with his Papa all day tomorrow, though. Hopefully he won't prevent Patrick from mailing all of those cards and getting some teacher gifts. That's this week's project--teacher gifts, then we'll be all done for Christmas.

Breakfast With Santa

The big boys were at a debate tournament all day today. Alex was actually competing and Anthony was getting some service hours being a judge. The rest of us went to the gym that we belong to, Lifetime Fitness, for their "Breakfast With Santa" activities.

Their setup wasn't nearly as nice as the one at the mall, and the lighting was horrible. They had Santa sitting in this cardboard thing that was supposed to look like a sleigh. Eric had to stand in order to be seen behind the front part of the "sleigh". Eric and Natalie had the most fake-looking smiles ever for the "official" photo. I figured that I already got a good picture of Eric with Santa, so I didn't mind that the photos today weren't good. I still like this picture because it shows Eric hugging Santa.

We went to see Santa as soon as we got there, then we ate. Eric ate a lot--two pancakes, half of a link sausage, and almost two mini-muffins. Natalie ate ate two pancakes, two sausage links, and two chocolate-covered strawberries and a marshmallow. She was so busy cutting her pancake that she didn't even want to look up for this photo.

After Eric was done eating, he wanted to go home. He wasn't interested in any of the crafts, although he watched me make a reindeer out of a candy cane (pipe cleaners for the antlers and scarf and glued-on eyes and nose). They had these bunches of balloons for decorations, so he did play with one of the bunches. He would pull on them until they bounced down to him and then up again. He also rummaging through the goodie bags and eating the candy. Luckily, he patiently waited for his sister to get through all the craft activities, because she pretty much did all of them.

Natalie went to every craft station, except the one where they were making snowflakes out of gumdrops. I thought that was way too messy and sticky and I was glad she didn't want to do that one. She made a wreath ornament out of a pipe cleaner and beads. She mixed together reindeer food. She decorated a sugar cookie with red and green M&Ms. She made the candy cane reindeer that I described earlier, and she made another ornament by gluing rhinestones onto a piece of tree-shaped paper. She enjoyed herself so much!

Besides the Breakfast With Santa, Natalie had piano lessons today and Patrick and I went to see "9 to 5" musical at the Majestic Theatre. I actually had time to take a nap this afternoon! Hopefully the schedule will relax a bit more in the next week or so. Patrick and I need the break!

Simple Pleasures

The kids always love to throw pennies in the fountains at North Star Mall. I love getting photos of them from behind like this. I gave Eric and Natalie about seven pennies apiece, so for once they didn't ask for more pennies once they finished throwing them in. Sometimes it's easier when they're young. Giving them simple pleasures like this is enough to make them happy.

Eric, Natalie, Anthony and I went to North Star Mall tonight for dinner and dessert (at Haagen-Dazs, of course). Alex was at a debate tournament and Patrick was hanging out at home after taking him there. I don't necessarily go to the mall to shop. I like to go to the mall in order to get out of the house and walk around for a bit. Usually it's just me and the little ones, but Anthony seemed to want a break from working on a school project.

While we were there, I noticed that Anthony seemed upset. He's not very demonstrative, so it wasn't obvious, except maybe to Patrick and me. I asked him if he was upset and he said "yes" but he didn't elaborate. I don't like to pry information from him because I figure that if he wants to tell me, he will. Usually he ends up telling Patrick, which is good enough.

He told Patrick at home later after Patrick got home from picking up Alex (who went to a birthday party for about an hour after the tournament). Apparently, his girlfriend told him tonight that she just wanted to be "just friends". Anthony has said before that although he's younger than most of his friends, he feels like he's more mature than they are. Patrick and I can only agree. I told him that I wished that he would be like Eric. All I have to do to make Eric feel better is let him play on the iPad or give him a lollipop, or even just kiss the boo-boo and put ice on it. That doesn't work so well for Anthony. Simple pleasures and simple solutions aren't the case anymore.

Busy Boy

Remember when I posted pictures of Natalie's and Eric's advent calendars? Well, notice something odd about the advent calendar in this picture? Several of the windows are open. I took this picture on Monday. There should only be six windows open. Today the windows are almost all open. What's a curious, antsy three-year-old to do but keep opening windows so he can play with the toys inside?

Yup, one of Eric's favorite pastimes right now is playing with his Playmobil advent calendar. Patrick and I have decided that as long as he leaves Natalie's advent calendar alone, he can do what he wants with his calendar. He's really enjoying it and we would hate to squelch his excitement. We've left both calendars on the formal dining room table for now because we don't have anywhere else to put them. Eric brings his stool in there just so he can turn on the lights, then he plays with his new advent calendar toys.

Tonight, Eric was also playing with his "Fridge DJ" that I think Grandma got him for Christmas last year. There's a powerful magnet on the back so it stays on the refrigerator even when we open and close the door. It plays music that I think is pretty catchy sometimes. Patrick must hear the music more than I do, because he wishes that the batteries would run down. I thought Eric was pretty cute sitting in front of the refrigerator tonight in his Thomas PJs grooving to the beat of his "Fridge DJ".

When he saw me with the camera, he started crawling to me on his belly. Then he got up and saw some leftover Smarties candies on the counter. The leftover Halloween candy is still on that kitchen counter and we often see Eric rummaging through, looking for candy he wants to eat. He likes to sneak sweets like his siblings before him. In another few days, I'll probably throw away any Halloween candy they have left or take it to work, so that we can make room for the Christmas candy.

I wanted to post this picture of Eric looking adorable in his Thomas PJs. He was supposed to sing in a Christmas program at his school tonight. It was only supposed to last about 10 minutes, but he said he wasn't going to sing and we still remember when Alex had a Christmas program there when he was about the same age. We still remember having a hard time finding a parking spot, then after we found one and went to the program, we stood there for only 10 minutes watching all of the other kids sing. Alex didn't sing at all. We decided that he sings for us at home all the time. We can skip the official program. It's not like we weren't doing anything tonight. Natalie still had her swimming practice and Alex had his soccer practice. I'm looking forward to the holidays partly because we won't have all of these practices to go to!

Happy Birthday, Patrick!

Yes, this is my dear husband's 45th birthday. Here he is with his margarita in hand, saying "hi" to his best bud Gary. Eric looks like he's a bit "juiced" as well! *WINK* More on that later.

Five years ago when Patrick turned 40, we had a big dinner with family and friends at this same restaurant, El Mirasol. Because of the very stressful year that followed (mostly because of health-related issues--cardiac cath and stent, hospitalization, appendectomy, etc.), he does not want a repeat of that year, so he wanted a low-key dinner with his family at his favorite restaurant.

Anthony just keeps getting taller and taller, although at a slower rate than the couple of years before. After he leaned in towards his Papa in order to get in this picture, I made a comment about how Anthony looks shorter than Patrick in this picture. Of course after I said that, Anthony wanted another picture where he was sitting up taller.

I managed to get only one picture of the kids, albeit not a very good one. Natalie was doing some sort of pose. Alex did not want to smile for the picture per his usual routine. Anthony was feeling silly and leaned down to make himself shorter than Alex. He then tried to entice Alex to be in the picture by saying that Alex would seem much taller than Anthony in this picture. At least they got in the picture!

The temperatures today were 40s to 60s and windy, so it got just a little nippy after the sun set. As we were leaving the restaurant, Eric sang something about being cold to Patrick. Patrick laughed and then recounted what had happened earlier in the day. Patrick had the Christmas tunes playing as he was going around the house cleaning up. They heard the song "Baby, It's Cold Outside". Later, when they were having ice cream, the same song played again. Eric made the connection and started giggling as he sang the lyrics. He was doing the same thing tonight, as he sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside" all the way home from the restaurant. At least he was able to provide his Papa with some entertainment on his birthday!

Okay, I hope the above post makes sense. I took some allergy medicine and I'm starting to get very sleepy. Happy Birthday, dear Patrick!

Creative Day

First of all, if you usually receive a Christmas card from me--STOP LOOKING NOW! :)

Today was a creative day for me. Some of it wasn't exactly by choice. Patrick finished the Christmas newsletter, so we printed them and adhered them into the cards I've already made, then stuffed the envelopes. This design is just one example. I used big pad of different papers, so I mixed and matched them. This card used a very decorative paper on top, so it doesn't need further embellishment. On some of the others I added a snowflake with some bling on top to dress them up a bit. I didn't get a chance to take any photos of those before Patrick sealed the envelopes.

We should have reevaluated our list before now, because I made 90 cards and we currently have 94 on the address list. I do have some plans to make the last few easy to make, but I guess next year I'll have to make 100.

The rest of the day was spent decorating my December Daily 2010 album. I finally decided how to decorate the cover. It sort of came together and I'm more or less pleased with it. I felt good doing something creative again after my months-long dry spell.

I'm currently working on how to fit all the pictures I've taken every day in there. I'm following Ali Edwards' example by using a lot of large photos. I figured that I took that photography class this year and really improved on the quality of my photos. I might as well show my photos off! Unfortunately, my printer is acting up, so I'll be sending out the photos to be printed and Costco and I'll try to share them here once I put them in the album.

After doing all of this all day, this evening was filled with the usual picking up and dropping off of children from school to home and to their various activities. Alex is getting stressed about his usual homework combined with a big project due next Friday and a big debate tournament this weekend. Natalie was frustrated with her homework that required her to think a little instead of having the answers laid out for her. Eric wanted to go with me to take Alex to his soccer practice, and he fell asleep in the car on the way there. He woke up when we got home and I thought he might stay up for a bit, but he was still pretty groggy and cranky when I changed his clothes, so I put him to bed at 6:30. So goes another night at our busy house!

Eric Meets Santa

Look at that face! Patrick was getting out all of the little Santas, and he got this one out that dances to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town". Eric had so much fun pressing that button over and over again. I'm so glad I was able to capture him mid-laugh. I definitely want to remember the pure bliss on his face! Patrick wasn't so sure it was a good idea to put in fresh batteries, but I loved hearing the song knowing that the little guy was enjoying himself.

Eric asked to go to the playground at the "outside mall" so I decided to take him there for lunch. As we were walking through the food court, he saw Santa sitting in his little picture-taking area. There were no kids waiting in line, just Santa with two helpers. Eric hesitated when he saw Santa. Santa waved and said, "Hi" of course, and Eric waved back. He looked interested in visiting Santa, so I asked him if he wanted to go over to him. He shook his head so I told him we should go ahead and have lunch. There was an area next to Santa that held some of those mall rides where you put some coins in and the vehicles move in place. He changed his mind and told me he wanted to play inside instead of outside.

After lunch, we went towards the mall rides, which were separated from Santa's area by only a rope. At first I thought Eric was heading for the ride that was next to the rope. Once he got there though, he went past the rope, making a beeline for Santa. I couldn't believe it! The other kids were never interested in seeing Santa at all, but Eric went right up to him and gave him a hug!

I hesitated pulling out my camera (which I usually carry with me at all times), because I wasn't sure if the helpers would stop me and insist on taking pictures for payment, but when I did pull it out and start taking pictures, one of the helpers asked me if I wanted them to take pictures also--but she let me keep on taking pictures. I didn't think Eric was going to stay on Santa's lap for long, so I didn't bother. If he expresses interest in doing this again, however, I might go ahead and let them take an "official picture". Maybe he'll smile for me next time. :)

The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show

I'm on call today, so I'm posting these photos I took on Friday night. Our DVR was full, so I was looking for things to watch and/or erase. I found the tape of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show that aired last week. Anthony had turned on the TV about halfway through the show and he and Patrick decided to tape it as they watched it. It was interesting to hear the conversation between my "little" boy and his Papa. Patrick was trying to entice me to watch by saying that there were bare-chested male gymnasts on the show for the female fans to watch.

Fast forward to Friday night when Anthony was spending the night at his friend's house. I asked Alex if he wanted to watch the tape and at first he said that the show should be available online for him to view any time. I decided it would be better if he saw the show with his parents in the room. He was texting during the show, but when he wasn't, he looked pretty much like he does in this picture. I'm not sure what the pillow is for, but he used to always hide his face behind a pillow when a woman (fully clothed or not) would walk onscreen. There was no face-hiding this time. He didn't even want me to fast forward through the commercials.

Patrick and I cracked up when we saw Eric's face, though. He was just as mesmerized by the show. Of course Patrick said, "That's my BOY!" I think he was more mesmerized by the lights and colors and music rather than the models strutting down the runway, but I certainly saw some glimpses of what will be in this little boy's future. Grandma's going to have to start buying more than one Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Calendar every year! *WINK*

Christmas Music

Today was a day about music for our family. For the past couple of years, Natalie has performed at a Christmas Recital. Today she played "Joy To The World". We were a little late to it, but luckily, we got there before anyone started playing.

We had been shopping and partly because I have this allergy thing going and I was trying to get as much rest as possible before being on call tomorrow, we got off to a late start. We went to Hallmark to pick up that last musical snowman. I forgot to take a picture, so I'll have to remember to do that later this week. Now we have the complete set. Either Natalie or Alex turns them on at least once a day to hear them play Christmas carols. Eric would do the same except that they're out of reach on the fireplace mantel. We also went to one of the local scrapbook stores that is having a big 65% off sale. I "saved a lot of money", which always worries Patrick because he knows that to save money, I had to spend it. *WINK*

I love the top picture the most because Natalie has that "nervous" look, but she doesn't really act nervous otherwise. She just goes up there and usually plays better than during practice. Her teacher even noticed that she had made some improvements since her last lesson on Monday.

The bottom picture is of Natalie and her teacher. Natalie is always so affectionate with her teacher and her teacher seems to enjoy it. Mrs. L has two daughters of her own. Her oldest daughter is three years old and younger than Eric and she played today at the recital too.

Anthony spent last night over at his friend A's house and this afternoon they both went with another friend to the Tran-Siberian Orchestra Concert. His ticket cost us $83 and we hope he feels privileged to have been able to go. Patrick and I went to a party with some work friends this evening. We've planned to go to this for a while and this week, Anthony tried to get us to get another babysitter so he could spend tonight at his friend's house again. Um--remember the price of that ticket, dear?

I would have loved to go that concert too. I love Christmas music--I've even bought a couple of Christmas albums recently and I might buy a couple more before the year is done. I could play Christmas music year round, but Patrick usually takes it off our music playlist. Alex has me sing "The First Noel" to him as one of his bedtime songs all year long. Natalie has only recently added Christmas songs to her bedtime ritual. Eric doesn't like Christmas songs yet. It's only a matter of time.

Eric and Christmas Ornaments

This December Daily album that I'm trying to work on is described on Ali Edward's blog. She's emphasizing one story per day instead of the "day in the life" angle that I've described in the past two days. I like that idea so I'm going to try to emphasize at least one seasonal story every day. Today, the story is about Eric and the Christmas ornaments.

Eric has constantly been fiddling with the Christmas ornaments. He loves looking at them, he touches them, and he presses the ones that make noise or music. He is as gentle as most four-year-olds, which means that he is not gentle.

He also likes to go all around the tree messing with all of the ornaments equally, not just the ones in the front. In this picture, he's stepping over the fireplace thingy (what do you call that?) to climb over to the back of the tree. He actually asked me to take this picture. He was like, "Mama, look at me!" Doesn't he have the most mischievous smile? He just cracked me up when he did this!

The result of Eric fiddling with the ornaments--broken ornaments. Sigh! This is a small pile on Patrick's desk that he plans on fixing. There's a shepherd without a head. There's a Santa riding on a train with the front bumper broken off. This besides the fact that Eric will accidentally take the ornaments off the tree and then he has trouble hanging them back up.

We haven't put any presents under the tree yet. We're afraid of what will happen then!

December 2

As part of giving a speech in front of his Biology class today, Anthony wore dressier clothes. I'd forgotten about this until this afternoon when I saw him coming out of the school.

This is a photo I took from my car through the front windshield. Notice that Anthony is not walking towards my car and notice that he isn't even looking at me. He was, however, looking around like he was trying to find me. I thought I saw him look at me, and I thought that maybe he was delivering some of the cookies he was carrying (a fundraiser for his soccer team) and that's why he passed me up. I had to call him to get his attention. He had see my car but he didn't know it was my car because we recently had to get new license plates. Apparently you have to get your license plates changed every seven years in Texas. We usually end up trading in our cars at about six years. In any case, he was looking for the previous license plate number.

I was only home for about ten minutes when we had to leave again to take Natalie to her swim practice. Patrick and I both went this time since Alex was catching a ride to soccer practice with a neighbor. I've been feeling a little run down, probably due to allergies, but I made myself exercise and I'm glad I did it. Someone at work brought some white chocolate with mints mixed in and I overindulged a little today.

Natalie told me on Tuesday that her coach timed her doing the 50 meter freestyle and her time was about 1 minute and 1 second. I don't know that much about swimming, but Patrick says that is a pretty good time for an 8-year-old. When she was on the neighborhood swim team this past summer, she only had to swim 25 meter races. She's definitely going to have better stamina next summer if she keeps this up. By the way, she didn't forget to take her underwear off when she put on her swimsuit today. *WINK*

I barely saw this little one today. He was at school all day and I saw him this afternoon only long enough to get my hug and kiss then I was off with Natalie. This scenery is part of his Playmobil Advent Calendar and includes a door that you can open. When I put this together upstairs, I had put Maya the Dog in the middle of it and pretended that she was peeking out of the door. He got the biggest kick out of this. I took this downstairs to place near his calendar and decided to go ahead and take a picture in slightly better lighting. Eric got up on that table to look at his stuffed dog that was peeking through that door. He also made Maya the Dog look through the window. Isn't he adorable?

December 1st

I realized today that I'm going to have a hard time keeping up with my December Daily album this week. I don't even have the foundation or cover pages done yet. I decided to just take a bunch of pictures and play it by ear. Just like the last time I did this album two years ago (see HERE), it's more of a "month in the life" than strictly about our holiday happenings.

This first photo is of the two trees that I got for Eric and Natalie. The dark triangular thing in the lower left hand corner is the slide on the bunk bed. Natalie has a pink tinsel tree while Eric has a blue one. The blue one is actually more of a turquoise color and might have been Natalie's usual first choice of colors, but she was much more excited at the thought of them both having a tree. Pink for her and blue for him just made sense to her.

I also got both of them slippers to keep their feet warm this winter. I know that it doesn't get that cold here, but it's better than going barefoot anyway. Eric looks so adorable in his Lightning McQueen slippers, doesn't he? Tonight Patrick also put him in these emergency vehicle pajamas that match just perfectly. He even posed for me!

I also took a couple of other photos of the mess around the house. The theme for tonight was cleaning up the clutter. It's a big job and it will be ongoing for the next couple of days at least.

Advent Calendars

I really didn't think I would have a chance to take photos of the Advent calendars I got for Natalie and Eric today, so I took the photos yesterday. The toy store had several of them, and Eric chose this Playmobil Police one.

I reminded the two of them of the Advent calendar "rules" last night. I knew Natalie would already know these, but I was worried about Eric. I told them they could only open one window per day. We've been worried about Eric trying to open presents under the tree lately. As it is, he's been fiddling with one of the musical ornaments that makes funny noises and sings several tunes. It's one that Alex got last year or the year before. He's constantly pressing the button to turn it on and we're afraid he's either going to break it or wear it out.

This is the Lego Advent calendar for this year. Natalie professes to love Lego City toys, which is the theme of this calendar.

I left these in their room last night and apparently they opened their windows as soon as they got out of bed. Eric's was a robber and Natalie's was a snowman. I might try to take a picture of each day's toys for my December Daily album. I didn't think to do that until just now. The big boys don't seem to miss having something to open every day, but I can really feel the excitement building with the little ones. Heck, I wouldn't mind one of these calendars too--they're so fun!