Our little Joseph

About 2 months ago, Ms. Cicero passed out parts for the Christmas play.  Her class was acting out the Nativity Scene and Brody was assigned Joseph.  She needed someone who could stand up there the longest and she felt Brody was the one.  No pressure right?   No lines just stand there and not act up!!

Here's our little Joseph all ready for the play

He and Mary, Ansley Johnson  (her dad and I graduated from high school together) came out with the 2 year old class as they were shepherds and then headed to the back to wait for their class to come back out

Thankfully, I knew someone on the front row who let me squeeze in to take pictures.  When Brody's class came out they were dressed as wise men, donkeys and presents.  They sang a couple of songs and quoted John 3:16.

Poor mom had Trevor to deal with.  He just couldn't stay still.

All of the classes came out at the end and sang a song or 2.

Nini and Papa with Joseph

They did so great and I was one proud mom

Brody's Christmas party

Nothing like finding out the day before that Brody's school party is the next day.  That's what happens when he's been out 2 or 3 days the week before - we didn't get the memo.  Oh well, thankfully I only had to bring 2 liters and that I have a job that allows me to be flexibile with my schedule.

The kids had worked so hard to get the room just perfect for the party and they were all pretty excited - maybe it was all of the sugar they were to soon eat.  Lots of parents were there ready to party with their kids.

Brody & Cody

Getting his present from Ms. Cicero

Brody & Nick

Brody & Ms. Cicero - she is one of the sweetest teachers and loves her students.

Ms. Cicero had all of the kids say their Bible verse that they would be sharing at the play that night.  She wanted to make sure we knew they knew in case they got nervous that night and didn't say it.

A wet game

Dec 11 was a Jaguar home game.  Well, it was kind of a dreary and cold day.  There was a chance of rain so I had pretty much made up my mind that I wasn't going to go.  However, after church we ran into Stephanie and Adam.  Stephanie and I kept going back and forth on what we were going to do.  We ended up talking ourselves into going to the game - what good wives we are.  We were just praying it wouldn't rain.

Since there were a lot of empty seats we were able to sit right behind Steph & Adam.  We didn't have to break out the ponchos until about half way through the 3rd quarter.  Stephanie was really hoping it wouldn't rain since she didn't come too prepared but thankful Adam brought something for her - she's in there somewhere.

Here we all are enjoying the rainy game.

Upwards 1st practice

Brody will be playing Upwards basketball this upcoming year at our church.  This is where kids from age 5 to 5th grade have the opportunity to play basketball or cheer.  The purpose of Upwards is to provide a fun and safe environment for kids to play basketball.  At the young ages, score isn't kept - it's about allowing everyone to play.  There is also a devotion so the kids and parents can learn about God's love for them.  We usually have over 100 kids playing and Jason has helped coach since our church started hosting Upwards about 8 years ago.  He has coached  3rd grade, 7 & 8th grade, and now he is coaching 5 year olds - yeah what a difference this year will be.

A few weeks ago, they had their first practice.  Brody was so excited and ready.

There are 5 kids on the team - 4 boys and 1 girl.  He had a lot of fun, however, I think it may be easier for Jason if Brody was on a different team.  You know your kids perform better for someone else than you.  Oh well, we will see how these 8 weeks go.

 

Taking a break and listening to Coach Brown tell about David and Goliath.

Back to some drills

Trevor growing up

Since Trevor was born he has always used one of these except his was a pale beige color. 

This is the paci he received from the hospital.  I never really tried a different type because I kept thinking he wouldn't really use it, but oh well.  Thankfully, he only used it at night to go to sleep.  I really never had to go and find it in the middle of the night to give it back to him.  As he got older he liked to hold onto it as he slept or bite on it.  The poor thing looked pretty pitiful - it had lost it suction because there were holes in it, so it was time to say goodbye.

I am thankful to say as of the beginning of December we no longer have any pacfiers and they were pretty easy to get rid of.  I never really wanted my kids to use pacifiers because I've heard it can be pretty difficult to break them of the habit.  Yeah, for no more paci's!!!

Decorating at the Singley's

You never know how much 2 boys will get into decorating trees, so we are always in for a surprise.  In the boys' playroom, I have set up a small tree on top of a ledge for all of their ornaments.  They were so excited to open up each ornament and put it on the tree.  I let them put them on and kept telling myself I would keep them exactly where they put them.  But I just couldn't once I put the tree on the ledge and some of the ornaments were in the back - so at least I only moved those.

We were then off to decorate our family tree.   A few years ago when Brody was younger we decorated the tree at night so he didn't see us touching the tree - we were hoping that he wouldn't mess with it since he never saw us touching it - AND actually that worked.  This year I just knew Trevor would mess with the ornaments but I said I'll just go with it.  Brody LOVED pulling out the ornaments and putting them on the tree.  He really was a huge help. 

Trevor wanted to help too and hung a few ornaments himself - but I think his kept falling so we had to redo them.  Lately, he is into taking his shirt off which is why he is shirtless while he decorates the tree.

I'm happy to say that Trevor did not play with the ornaments on the tree and didn't even touch the presents under it except for the occasional falling into them.

The perfect tree

Our annual tradition is for all of us to go pick out our tree together.  We have always had a real tree and I love the tradition of going together to pick it out, however there are times when I wished we had a fake tree.  Because of Brody's birthday party and him not feeling so good, we had to wait a couple of days to get our tree.

The boys were pretty excited to be going to pick it out - even though I don't think Trevor had any idea what was going on - he just likes to repeat whatever Brody says.  We were off - trying to corral 2 boys around a bunch of trees - sounds like fun right?  Well, they weren't too bad just the typical hiding behind trees and chasing each other a little. 

On the search for the perfect tree

They actually got to step on the pedal to shake the tree.

We picked out the "perfect" tree and were off to the house to decorate - or at least get it in the house.