Merry Christmas!!

Colby and the t.v.

A few weeks ago Colby discoverd the power button on the t.v.. What joy is mine. If he is wake we dont get to watch a show or a movie without it being turned off. And no amount of talking or telling him no or smacking his little hand can stop him. He hears you saying no and will press the button anyway and then turn and look at you like "what are you going to do cuz I already turned it off!"!! So totally annoying! We also hear lots of "Colby!" and "Colby NO!!" from the kids followed by groans when he does it anyway. They get all mad and ask why he does that so I just tell them that we had to live through all of them doing it so it is only fair that they have to deal with it too! So Lacey had come up with a solution. It works most of the time-unless he presses on her hand in the right spot!!

Lacey's Dance

Totally just realized that Lacey's video didnt work! I flipped it because I filmed it sideways-whoops!! But apparently the whole video didnt make it when I flipped it so had to redo it. So here she is!

Holiday Dancing!

(Abby is a couple inches taller than how she looks but I had her get closer to Lacey so I could get a pic!)

The girls had their Holiday Recital today! They both looked so cute and they did awesome!! But I have to give myself bad mom points because I was so focused on trying to find Lacey (they had 3 tiny tot classes up on the stage so about 20 little girls) that I totally forgot to check to see it the camera was switched from pictures to video so I missed her dance!!! So so mad at myself!! The only thing that makes me feel better is that it took me half her dance to even find her and then she was behind another girl and you could only see her some of the time! Still I feel really bad about that! But she did awesome! I was afraid that she would just kind of do her own thing or that someone would make her mad before they went on stage and she would just stand there with her arms folded and a scowl on her face! So to make up for not getting her on video on stage we had her do her dance at home since we had the music and she did it way better at home! Abby did great of course and she loved being up on the stage. She was watching her dance and told me that she wasn't watching the other girls to see what to do next she was watching them to make sure they were all together! She is so funny! We are always telling her that she doesn't need to look at anyone else because she knows the dance so she should just do it!!

So at the end they sing "Santa Claus is coming to Town" and then Santa comes out and they can all go and sit on his lap. Knowing my kids and their fear of Santa I was really tempted to just get them after Abby was done and then leave but they both wanted to go out and sing. I told Abby to just find Lacey after they sang and then come to the end of the stage and I would get them. So they sang and Santa came out and they started lining up the little kids first and I could see them putting Lacey in line and a look of panic came across her face and I knew I had to get up there before she started freaking out! She ended up in the arms of one of the older girls and they brought her to the edge of the stage where I got her. Man the look of relief on her face when she saw me was way funny! She kept giving Santa side glances to make sure he wasn't anywhere near her and she told me over and over that she didn't want to see Santa. All the kids are so funny when it comes to Santa-they are all afraid of him! The only Santa they will see is the one at the Christmas party at Church because they know that it is just Papa in a Santa costume! So I had Lacey and we tracked down Abby, who was a safe distance away from Santa!) and we were out of there!

Funny real fast!

I forgot to add this to either concert post and didnt want to go back and put it in because then I would have to rearrange all the pictures and this was just easier! I was asking Abby and Dylan what row they were standing in so I would have an idea of where to look for them. Dylan was in row 4 and Abby was in row 2. They line them up according to height so shortest in the front and tallest in the back. When Dylan said what row he was in Abby's mouth fell open and she screeched "WHAT?? Thats not fair! I am in row 2 and I am taller than you!" She was all mad (but still laughing!). So I explained to her that while she is taller than Dylan, for kids her age she was short and for kids Dylans age he is tall. And that she will probably always be in the front and Dylan will probably always be in the back-sorry but thats the way it is! She was all "oh man, thats so not fair!". Then I told her that more that likely she will be the shortest in the family so she should just get used to it! She thought that was funny, but I was being honest! I really do think she will be the shortest of all the kids!

Abby's Christmas Concert

Abby had her Christmas Music Concert tonight. She did awesome! It was really fun to watch her really get into the music and do all the actions and the facial expressions! It is fun to see how much she has grown in her performing since she was in Kindergarten. She really had a good time. Her concert was also about snowflakes and realizing that everyone is different and special. and they also sang Silent Night and then signed it. It was really neat to see all the kids up there signing! My camera was being stupid and some of the videos are short but oh well!

Dylan's Winter Concert

Dylans concert was about Snoozy Snowflake-a snowflake who didnt want to be a snowflake like all the others but then she learned that all snowflakes were different and special. It was a really cute program! Dylan was fun to watch. He was a little timid at first but then got into it. I had a hard time getting a picture of him smiling! The little stinker! At the end they sang the 1st verse of Silent Night and then they signed it. That was really awesome! He did such a great job with the signing! But man trying to get a picture with him smiling just so didnt happen! Then he kept putting his hands all over his head and in front of his face-it was pretty funny! So here are a couple of pics of me trying to get a good one of him!

The many faces of Dylan---

A Group Picture?

So I thought we would get a couple picks of the kids in thier Christmas finery before somebody spilled something on themselves and they all still looked nice! Well we attempted anyway-you think it would be simple and quick right? Yeah-not so much!

"All right everyone smile!" "Lacey next time look at the camera-Colby where are your smiles?-Dylan put your hand down"

"Lacey look at the camera!" Colby before the skittles.

"Lacey look at the camera!" and Colby after the skittles!

"Lacey please scoot toward everyone else and join the family!" But hey good smiles everyone-well except Colby and Dylans tired eye look!

"Lacey look at the camera!" Oh well I give up! This is as good as we are going to get! A huge hug and a thanks to Abby and her ever camera ready smile! So on to trying to grab a pic of the girls!

"Smile real fast girls!" ok good job-just one more-

"Lacey good smile-try not to blink your eyes!"

and there we go-thats as good as it is going to get this time-and a pic of the boys? Do we dare?!

Yes. Yes, we do-armed with skittles! Tried to get Colby to smile but he really wasnt having any of it! But we got some great shots of Dylan!

and here was the keeper!

Note to self-next time take pics when Colby isnt cutting 2 molars and Bryan isnt holding skittles in his hands!

The Park

We went to the park over Thanksgiving weekend-we were mostly hanging out around the house because Bryan had just gotten back and was still adjusting to the time change. It was really cold and windy but the kids needed out of the house---badly! So anyway, we get to the park and we were the only ones there (big surprise on that kind of a day!) and the kids took off running! Colby was excited to be able to walk around a little. I wish our parks had the rubber flat top like the park we went to in Ohio instead of the stupid mulch!!

After some talking we got the kids minus Colby of course on the tire swing. They were laughing and loving it until Lacey and Dylan wanted to go faster and Abby was like get me off! Dylan and Lacey are more on the daredevil side of things and Abby likes to stay on the safe side but they enjoyed it "with in reason!!" !! The definitely would not have survived with my dad turning the marry-go-round while we braced ourselves against the rails and held on for dear life while begging him to make it go faster!!

Modge Podge

Doesnt Colby look super cute in his winter finery?!! It is actually nice to have mittens on him because then it is harder for him to pull off his hat! And then Abby, Dylan and Lacey crowding around the computer skyping with Bryan while he was in India. There is an 11 and a half hour time difference so when it was 7pm our time it was 6:30 in the morning the next day for Bryan which worked out pretty nicely so the kids could talk to him alot!

We have music on alot at our house and the other day while Abby and Dylan were at school and Colby was sleep Lacey heard the TinkerBell soundtrack come on and just had to have her Tink umbrella-she totally had a blast! She keeps asking to play with her umbrella but I am trying to keep it a "special" thing so it will still be fun when I need to distract her!! I think my fave is the one where she is laying behind the umbrella.