Go Tell It on the Mountain

On Sunday the kids sang 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' at church. They did such a great job! Here are some pictures and short video.

Sunday evening we gathered with our small group to watch the Copperfield light parade. We arrived at 6:00 to get the best spot along Highway 6, right in front of our church. We walked to Wendy's for dinner then the kids played a little football and ran around waiting for the parade to make its way down to us. It arrived at 8:00 and was filled with lots of Christmas lights and loud firetruck sirens. After the parade, our church host Carols in the Courtyard. They serve hot chocolate and cookies while the choir sang our favorite Christmas songs. This is becoming one of our traditions and I was thankful for the great weather this year.

I also want to share with you Keaton's Christmas Wish List as written by him. I am so proud of his writing and reading. I am amazed with how smart he is and the progress he is already making in Kindergarten. I was surprised to hear at the parent teacher conference that we should not help him spell words when he is writing. They teach them to sound out the words. They don't want them to get hung up on the spelling at this age. Instead they encourage them to write their thoughts freely.

1. Batoon (Bakugan)
2. Bin 10 (Ben 10)
3. Books
4. Mooves (Movies)
5. Rascorz (Race Cars)
6. Cris Mis Sons (Christmas Songs)
7. Mo Gams (More Games)
8. So Wr Pepel (Star Wars People)
9. Zac and Cote (Zack and Cody)
10. Noow Baby Dog (New Baby Dog)
11. Vido Gamm (Video Game)
12. My on Paampr (My own paper)

Maybe Santa can bring Keaton a few of the things on his list, but I think Dixie and Lady will agree with Mark....no baby dog. They would be a little too jealous.

I've got a RAT!

He's a PackRat. And no I am not talking about Mark. It's Keaton! Keaton wants to get and keep everything. Anytime we check the mail he wants all the stuff I am throwing away.

"Mommy, anything you don't want, give to me okay?" He even wants to keep all of the receipts from Wal-Mart or Kroger. He told me, "I collect bills". (Don't we all!) Any where we go, if there is a flier of any sort, he has to take one.

Then he keeps it all in his boxes. It started off as his 'business box' just like Daddy. Since Mark works from home, but travels a lot to his partner's house, he carries around this box. Well, Keaton had to have one also.....only it has grown into boxes, bags (my old purses really--but we call them BAGS), sacks, anything that will hold....well let's face it junk. But it is cute and it is his. Only it grows and it becomes my mess. We sit down to 'organize the business box' and I make piles. He looks at me and says, "are you going to throw that away".......with such a sad little face. So when he is not looking I take it to the garage.

Just the other day I received a shipment of Christmas gifts. After I looked at the items, I turned around to put them back in the box. Except the box was gone. I asked Mark what happened to my box and he said, "what do you think happened to it? Keaton took it." Yes, he had added it to his collection.

One day, he asked me to write him a note. So on a scratch piece of paper I wrote:

Keaton,

I love you. I am so proud of you.

Love, Mom

It sat on the end table for a few days before I threw it away. He must have seen it in the trash because the next time we were writing letters, he told me something like 'you will just throw it away like you did last time'. Heartbreaking! I tried to explain to him that we just can't keep everything that is brought home from church, school, and daycare. We keep our favorite things.

Don't get me wrong, I don't throw away everything. I need a bigger house for all the things I do keep and we are only in Kindergarten!

The Season of Traditions

We made our annual trip to the Christmas Tree Farm with our small group. We traveled to Red Caboose Farm in Magnolia to pick out our tree. The kids had a great time although we were a little dissppointed that Santa was not in his workshop this year. He must be really busy at the North Pole!

Let's go get our tree!

Can I have THAT One?

After some searching, we found our tree!

GREAT JOB DAD!

Although Keaton seemed to be less excited about the tree, and more upset that I took away his 'Power Ranger' stick ...see previous picture. I found myself saying, 'be careful, you're going to poke your eye out' too many times.

Keaton and Cort helped Daddy tie the tree on top of our car.

All the kids on the Hayride

And the Train

Best Buds Keaton and Levi

Cort and Ella shared an apple

To complete the tradition, we ate lunch at Po's and then headed home for a nap. Our tree sits in a bucket of water in the garage until Sunday night when we decorate it....I guess this is part of the tradition?

See how nice we are being?

Where are all the presents?