Lauren's Christmas Program

 This is Lauren's 3rd year at Calvary.  She loves it there.  K3, K4, and K5 put on a great performance.

My Mom

I am usually always blogging about being a mom!  But don't spend much time Blogging about my mom!  So this Blogs for you mom!  

I am very blessed to have the kind of mom that will give me advice...but only when I want it.  She is constantly there to  listen to me with love and encouragement.  She sympathize with me but doesn't let me have a pity party.  And she has never stopped parenting me even after moving into adulthood and getting married..  My mom has taught me to be a good mother by being a good example.  She teaches me everyday to have patience, to only look forward and to count my blessings.  We just got done celebrating another wonderful Christmas together.  She opens her home to us.  Which always looks and smells so nice.  She fixes us yummy treats, and best of all she is a great giver.  The kids all loved every, very thoughtful present they received.  She is so generous and always considerate of what my sister and I need.  

I  love you MOM!!

Christmas pictures

Central Illinois was hit really bad with tornadoes about a month ago.  So this year instead of getting pictures taken and sending out Christmas Cards I decided to use the money I would have spent and donated it to the tornado victims in Washington.  But that didn't keep me from dresses my kids up and taking their picture!  They are at such great ages this year.  Luke so cute and excited about everything...decorations, lights, and presents!!  Lauren finally gets the idea of not just receiving but giving Too!  She really enjoys Peanut. She is pretty sweet with him most of the time.

Thanksgiving

 We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving at my mom's with my family and my sisters family.  Luke is at such a cute age right now and so funny.  He tends to get into this dump truck every time he is at my mom's.  His favorite saying "DUMP IT".  He thinks his big cousin Jay is pretty cool.  Lauren and Nick played pretty well that day too.  We never know, but lately they seem to do pretty well together

Kindergarten Tee Pee

 Lauren is having a great Kindergarten year.  She has a wonderful teacher who does all kinds of fun things for the kids.  This is the tee pee they have to crawl through to get into the classroom.  I even had to climb through it to drop the snack off.  She makes them hot cocoa when the temperature is below 40 degrees.  I am able to go in about once a month to read a story to the class.

Seseame Street Live

 Lauren really enjoyed watching this show.  Luke did ok for about the first 5 minutes then he had more fun playing with the seat.  They both wanted cotton candy that cost like 7 dollars and neither of them liked it very much.  All in All it was a pretty fun time.

Lauren's birthday

 On Dec, 3 Lauren turned 6.  We took a girl trip to Chicago on the train to the American Girl Place to get Lauren's first doll.  It was a lot of fun.  She really wanted Caroline but I was afraid of Caroline's hair.   So she picked a look a like doll and named her Caroline.

 We had lunch there and cake and ice cream.  It was so cute.  My good friend Amy and her daughter Avery were able to join us.  What a great and special day.  I hope she will always remember it.