The Cheese Factor

Awhile ago, Ivan figured out that when I had the camera out he was expected to say cheese. :) But, what he hasn't gotten down is the smile part. Instead he looks at me says, "Cheese!" and then scrunches his face up in what looks like a grimace. Which is why in a lot of pictures he looks so serious. He's not, he just thinks that's what he's supposed to do when I point a camera in his direction.

My Ivan Boy is more quiet and more reserved than his older brother Lincoln. A lot of people mistakenly think he doesn't like them, or that he doesn't enjoy things as much as Lincoln does. For example, when we're home Ivan talks non-stop about Papa Kerry and Uncle Tanner. He always pretends to call them on the phone, and any time we get in the car he asks if we're going to go see them. But then this weekend, we were down at my mom's, and he was with Tanner and Papa, and he'd barely talk to Tanner, and he sat off to the side and quietly watched Papa and Lincoln be rowdy and noisy. My mom said Kerry had no idea that Ivan liked him so much, because he never says anything when Kerry is around. But trust me Kerry, when we come home all we hear about from Ivan is Papa, Papa, Papa.

Ivan just prefers to be an observer first. And has always been a lot more observant and careful than Lincoln who tends to just dive right in to everything. I wonder if his observing and thoughtful nature is the reason he can play so well by himself. Ivan can entertain himself really well, and seems to have a lot longer attention span for it than Linc does. I frequently find Ivan sitting in a corner by himself quietly and contentedly playing with something. Whereas if Lincoln has been quiet and by himself for too long, I know that he's getting into trouble.

One of Ivan's favorite games lately is "Car Ramp". He takes the drawer we keep his cars in and dumps all the cars out and turns the drawer upside down. Then he takes some of Aaron's extra wood pieces and uses them to make a ramp coming off of the drawer. Then he takes the cars that he dumped out of the drawer and puts them down the ramp, one by one, until they make a big pile at the bottom. Then he takes the pile and starts over. As he picks up each car he holds it up and says what it is. Dump trucks and cement trucks and the elephant with wheels are his favorites. All the Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars he calls "baby cars" and thinks they are so funny.

Mini Preschool: Christmas: Crafts

We had kind of a rough late Wednesday night/early Thursday morning with both Ivan and Adelia. So, I was pretty proud of the fact the we made it to preschool at all this week. But, I forgot to take my camera, so all these pictures I took after the fact, but I think you can still get the idea.

Preschool was at Suzy's today, and she had craft. First she did a quick run through of the Christmas story. Then let the kids each color their own nativity scene and cut it out and glue it on a blue background. Then they got to glue on one big star, and put on a bunch of little star stickers. To show the new star that appeared at the Saviour's birth. I was so proud of Lincoln, he wrote his name all by himself. He only wrote Linc because he ran out of room, but for a 3 year old, I thought it was pretty dang good. And it was Ivan's first experience using the scissors, and I had to help him a lot, but he was a good listener and seemed to enjoy it.

Next we talked about the Shepards. We talked about how the Shepards use a Shepard's crook to help gather the sheep, and how Jesus is our Shepard. Then we talked about how a candy cane is symbolic of a Shepard's crook. We made cute little candy cane ornaments out of pipe cleaners and little beads that fit together. The kids got to string the beads on the pipe cleaner and then we bent them into the shape of a candy cane.

Lincoln's candy cane is on the left and Ivan's is on the right. Ivan was kind of in and out of preschool today, and I let him be. He was cranky from lack of sleep and it was a lot easier to just let him wander and only participate when he wanted to than to try to keep him doing the projects. (This is usually my philosophy with his anyway, since he's so little still, but today I didn't try as hard as I normally would to keep his interest.) But anyways, this is why his candy cane starts out with a pattern, because I was doing it, then he came in and I let him start choosing which beads to put on.

For our last craft, Suzy gather the kids together and told them about a little boy named Matt who wanted to make a soft bed for baby Jesus. Matt's mother told him that every time he did something nice for one of his family members or friends that we was really doing something nice for Jesus. For every kind act, Matt's mother had him put one straw in the manger, so that by Christmas time Jesus would have a soft bed to sleep on. Then Suzy gave each kid a manger made of craft sticks, a large clothes pin, and a piece of cloth and a string. The kids wrapped their baby Jesus's in the cloth and tied the string around to keep baby warm. Then we put Jesus in the manger. Then the kids cut pieces of orange yarn into small strands and put them in the mangers for Jesus's bed.

Lincoln loved his baby Jesus. He played with it all afternoon. He kept taking the straw out and putting it back in, and telling me that Jesus was such a nice baby. It was cute.

My 4-Month-Old Adi Mae

Well, we've reached the 4 month mark for having Adelia in our family. Usually in these kinds of posts people mention how the time has just flown by, but that's not how I feel. My thoughts about it go something like this, "Adelia is 4 months old. Ya, that seems about right." And I feel like we lived every single hour of that last four months. If that makes any sense.

Adelia is a good baby, but she is a more difficult baby than my boys were. Things are getting better though. Slowly, but they are getting better. Her colicky sessions are a lot shorter and less frequent than they used to be. She still likes to be held most of the time, but she will let me put her down on her back on a blanket if I sit right with her and play with her. She likes when Lincoln or Ivan play with her too. She usually goes to bed between 10-11 now. We have very few midnight or later nights, for which I am very grateful. She usually gets up twice in the night to eat, but sometimes it's only once. I love those nights.She supports her head completely on her own now, which has made this possible:

We tried the jumpy seat out the other day, and to my shock and amazement, SHE LOVED IT!! She sat in it happily for a HALF HOUR!! I'm so excited about it I can hardly stand it. It's making me really excited to give her her Bumbo chair for Christmas, because now I think she'll really like it, and it's a lot more portable than the jumpy seat which has to hang in a doorway.

This last month, Adi has found her tongue. She plays with it like it's a toy, and I love it. She has a long tongue, and she sticks it out as far as it will go and then curls it up and goes back and for from side to side. It cracks me up. She's also really starting to notice toys. She looks at them, and then even grabs them and shoves them into her mouth like she hasn't eaten in a year. She really likes her monkey that hangs from her car seat, which has helped make the car seat experience a bit less painful. She doesn't scream bloody murder the entire time she's in it any more. And the other day, we even made a trip to the grocery store (and Aaron forgot the snuggly so she had to stay in her car seat, which is usually my worst nightmare) and were there an hour and a half, and she was awake and sat quietly until we got to the car. Thank heaven for small miracles.

And actually, in my mind it's more than a small miracle. Adelia is hard to take out in public because when she's screaming, the best thing to do is just finish whatever errand you are running as quickly as possible and get out of there. There's nothing I can do in the store to make her stop screaming. But there are plenty of people around to hear her scream. And they all come over and act so concerned and offer a million suggestions about what might be the matter, or say "oh, the poor baby, she's so tired" like they have any clue what's wrong with her, but the whole time they're giving me dagger eyes, so obviously they think I'm either the worst parent in the world, or the most clueless. Sorry people, she's just like that, there's nothing wrong with her, she's just crying, and I'll thank you not to touch her with your hands that have been who knows where. (Pet peeve of mine is when perfect strangers touch my children, just because they're little, doesn't give you the right to put your hand on their cheeks, or rub their head, or pat their arm, or stick your nose right into their car seat and breath on them...keep your germs to yourself, thanks.) So ya, when she chooses not to cry at the store, it's a huge relief for me. Large miracle.

It's also becoming apparent that Adelia has inherited my motor mouth. Once I get talking, I can't shut-up, and neither an she. But I love listening to her jabber and babble, like she already has an opinion on everything (heaven help us!). She still has her hair, so I'm thinking that maybe she won't go bald like I previously predicted. There is some blond starting to grow in underneath, but I hope it stays dark. More important than the color though, I hope it stays curly.

I should also mention that at the 4 month mark I am still nursing her. Hooray for me. However, during Thanksgiving break we tried giving her a bottle a couple times so I could leave her, and I noticed that she wasn't liking it very well...which is a big problem for our upcoming 14 hour drive to WA, where I'd planned on pumping so I could feed her without having to stop every 5 seconds. So since Thanksgiving I've been doing a little pumping, usually after she eats in the morning, and then giving her her next feeding in the bottle. Also, I kind of felt like we should give the formula a try. She won't touch it straight, but if I mix 2 ounces in with 4 ounces of breast milk, then she'll eat it just fine, and she's less gassy. So right now she's on a diet of about 2/3rds breast milk, 1/3 formula. She seems to be a lot happier about it. Which is good, because I think my New Year's resolution is going to be to stop nursing, since I still hate it. :) We'll see. The nice thing about this go around, is that I haven't set any expectations for myself as far as nursing goes. I haven't made any goals to feel guilty about not meeting. I haven't calculated an amount of time that I need to nurse her for. I'm kind of just winging it, and telling myself that I can stop whenever I feel like it. And so far that's going really well.

Side note: Something I've noticed about myself as a parent is that I tend to do better when I just wing it. And when I say wing it, I don't mean be clueless or go into it blindly. I do a lot of research about different areas (sleeping, feeding, potty training, discipline, nursing, educating, development, etc.) but if I try to stick strictly to one method, it usually blows up in my face. But if I take a little from here and a little from there and form my own opinions and do what feels right in the moment (aka winging it) then things seem to go a lot better for me. 

Anyways, we've made it to 4 months. I feel like it's much more of an accomplishment than when Lincoln or Ivan turned 4 months. Kids are a lot, and I mean A LOT of work. But (not to be cliche) I really do think that's why we love them the most out of anything else we could be doing. As moms, we put literally everything we've got (and sometimes more) into our kids, so it's nice that they are mostly always worth it. :)

Spastic Child

I told him to get dressed...this was the result.

The Live Nativity

Ivan, Lincoln, Adelia, and Krystal in front of the donkey

Every year at the Provo Tabernacle they put on a live nativity. They even bring real animals, but those have to stay outside.

Krystal and Adelia by the camel. The boys wouldn't go near it after it flicked them.

Tonight our little family went to see it. I think the boys liked it. At least they were quiet and looking forward most of the time. What they really liked thoug, of course, were the animals afterwards. There were a couple sheep, a baby yak (not sure what a yak has to do with the nativity, but oh well), a donkey, and a camel. You could pet all of them. Lincoln and Ivan chose to pet the camel on the bum, and it flicked them with it's tail, which startled them, and that's all we heard about the rest of the night was how the camel flicked them. It was kind of funny.

Ivan, Aaron, and Lincoln waiting to see the yak.

Mini Preschool: Christmas: Music/Poem/Story

To start off Preschool today, Misty used the Little People Nativity to tell the kids the story of baby Jesus's birth. I love the Little People Nativity (she borrowed my set) it was one of the better Christmas decoration purchases that I've made. My kids love it, and have played with it every day since we got the Christmas decorations out of the box.

Anyways, all the kids loved listening to Misty tell the story. Then she taught the kids about symbols and that a symbol is something we use to remind us of something else. She told us that at Christmas time we use a lot of symbols to remind us of Jesus Christ's birth. She had a basket full of rolled up papers, and on each paper was one of the symbols of Christmas. The kids got to take turns picking out a paper, then after Misty talked about what the symbol on the paper was, she had an activity, poem, song, or story to go with it.

I was a little bit in and out with Adelia, so I didn't hear all the symbols or what they stood for (but I'm sure I could find them online) but here's what I did see. :)

Candy cane was one of the pictures. Misty read a poem about a candy cane and then gave each kid their own little one to eat.

Candle was another one. And we sang a song about 5 Little Candles. And talked about how people used to use candles on their Christmas trees before we had Christmas lights.

Stocking was another one. Misty had a fun game for this one. Each kid got to pick two Christmas socks out of a bag, and then they had to walk around and trade socks with each other until they had two matching socks. Super cute.

Bell. We sang enough verses of Jingle Bells that each kid got to shake a stick with bells on it for a whole verse.

 Tree was another one. And I couldn't resist taking a picture of Misty's beautiful tree. It seriously looks like it came right out of a department store. I love it! We talked about how the ever green tree stays green all year long, even in the winter.

Another one we talked about was presents. Misty had the kids watch a youtube video of Big Bird singing about how all he wants for Christmas is his friend Snuffy. It was a cute song and all the kids were glued to it.

I know there were more, and I wish I had them all down here. I know I could look them up probably, but I'm way behind in the blogging as it is, so I'm opting not to spend a lot of time searching on the Internet for them all. But Misty did a great job and the kids paid really good attention. (Which in my mind is a sign that things are going well.)

To wrap up the symbols of Christmas, Misty gave each kid a Christmas tree, and pictures of all the symbols. The kids got to glue their symbols on the tree.

Both my boys need to work on glue stick etiquette. Lincoln pushes so hard on the glue that it uses up an entire glue stick with every project, and Ivan was trying really hard to eat his. But, their trees came out cute. We colored the symbols after nap time, and then hung them up in our kitchen window.

Misty did the cutest snack idea as well. She gave eat kid a folded up tortilla and had them use a butter knife to cute shapes out of it, so that when you unfolded it you had a tortilla snow flake. She put the snow flakes on cookie sheets and sprinkled them with cinnamon and sugar and broiled them for a bit, until they were crispy. So cute and so fun! I think this might become a snack time ritual at our house all winter long.

To keep the kids occupied while their tortillas were baking, Misty let them have an indoor snowball fight. She took a bunch of old scratch papers and we wadded them up into paper balls and threw them at each other. It was great. The kids had a blast, and the best part was no one can get hurt by a paper ball.

Decorating the Tree

This year was the first year that I let the kids help decorate the tree. Oh boy. We probably should have waited another year. They were very excited, which was cute, but they were so excited that listening, following directions, not touching the breakables, waiting, etc. all went right out the window, and it was about all mine and Aaron's patience could handle. But over all, the tinsel eventually got untangled (several times), the ornaments were hung, and only one glass ball was broken. (Lincoln tried cracking it like an egg because he wanted to see what was in it. The things that never occur to me!) I didn't even bother to get out the collection of Prescious Moment ornaments from my childhood...those will have to stay in the box a few more years until my kids are old enough not to break them.

Lincoln was the most excited. He just kept talking non-stop about Christmas and ornaments, and trees, and how today was Christmas (no matter how hard we tried to convince him otherwise), and the snowflakes, and the star, and the angel, and what was this, and what was that, and can he put his ornaments on the tree, and could he touch the lights, and when were we going to open presents, and Christmas was his birthday, and we need to sing the Merry Christmas Song....and on and on and on, all at full volume. (My mother will tell you that this is her sweet revenge.) But I do think that Christmas is going to be a lot of fun this year with Lincoln.

Ivan was really into it right at first, while we were still getting everything out of the box. But once that was through, he retreated to the kitchen stool and proceeded to read the Oxford French English Dictionary. It's a new habit of his lately. I don't know what he finds so interesting about the dictionaries, but just about every day he pulls one off the shelf and sits down and "reads" it to himself for about 15 minutes. Then he puts it back on the shelf and life resumes as normal. Maybe he's going to be a linguist.

Adelia was fairly well behaved in her chair for about 5 minutes. Then I had to hold her, which is how I came to be the event's photographer, because I only had one hand to help.

Eventually we had to just put the kids to bed with the tree unfinished because it was taking too long and Aaron had a lot of homework to do. I was just going to finish it by myself while Aaron worked, but Adelia had other ideas. I ended up holding her most of the night. So that's why there isn't a finished picture of our tree. Maybe some day the rest of the stuff will get put on it, and maybe it won't. Either way, at least the tree is up this year.

Lincoln Liners November

L watching the end of Beauty and the Beast: "Look Mom! The Beast got turned into a girl!"


Kyle: "Linc are we buddies?"
L: "No, you're not my buddy."
K: "Why not?
L: "Your just a Schoover....or a Goover." (He was trying to say Goober."

"Mom, I helped Jesus make you. I handed him the pieces and he made you so you won't get broken or your brains won't fall out."

L: "Mom, I need to go potty!"
Me: "Okay, we're almost home. Hold it until we get home ok?"
L: "Okay. But I just have a lot of pee in me. But it can't come out. I have a lot. Up to my head. I have pee in my head, a lot of pee. And poop..." (And so on, all the way to our house.)

L laying on his stomach in the hallway: "Mom, Look!......(long dramatic pause).......I'm dead."

L: "Mom, was Lincoln in your tummy?"
me: "Yes."
L: "Was Ivan?"
me: "Yes."
L: "Was Delia?"
me: "Yes."
L: "Was Buzz? (Lightyear)"

Me: "Is your dad the best dad in the whole world?"
L: "No...he's just at work."

A: "Linc, do you want a piece of pizza?"
L: "A pizza pizza?"
A: "No, a piece of pizza."
L: "No. A pizza pizza."

"If I squeeze too hard, the gas comes out."

"Mom, I like your cool mommy hair. Can I touch it?"

L: "Mom, what's Jesus gonna be for Halloween?"
Me: "Um....I don't think Jesus dresses up for Halloween."
L: "I think he's gonna be a pirate."

"Mom, I'm a big boy, so I can't taste those. I don't like 'em."

"Mom, you see that. This is a training sucker. Because it's flat. See. It's just flat and flat and flat."

"I just blinded your mouth."

Me: "Lincoln say something funny."
L: "What's the funny do?"

A: "Good night Linc."
L: "Ok-when-sun-comes-up-we-eat-breakfast-ok?"

"I'm gonna be a black pirate!" (Meaning he's wearing the black bandanna)

Makin' a List...

Every year when I was a kid on the day after Thanksgiving, my mom would hand us kids the ginormous JC Penney's catalog and tell us to circle all the things in it that we would like for Christmas. Of course we didn't get everything that we circled, but it gave my parents something to go off of. Once we got old enough to write our own lists, we didn't have to circle things in the Penney's catalog anymore. We could write anything we wanted on our lists, even things that we knew there was no way we would get. It was fun.

My kids aren't quite old enough to make lists yet, and I've already done most to their shopping (thank you amazon.com) but I know there are a few relatives who might need ideas, so I'm going to put together a list for the kiddos. Also, I know that even though I've been hinting to Aaron all year about things that I would like, he's still going to need a concrete list, so I'm making one for me. And because my husband is the world's hardest person to buy for (except for maybe his dad), I made him give me a list, which I will post here for anyone interested. I'll start with the kids, because they are the most fun.

Lincoln

-Lincoln's favorite toy in the whole world right now are his Trio building blocks. He got a large set for his birthday, and I think he's played with them every day since. I think it would be fun for him to get more pieces. Sets range in price from $5-$40 depending on the size.

-Anything Toy Story related...this kid loves Toy Story.

-Do-A-Dots, I have thought of so many fun activities to do with these little babies.

-Books are always a good present. You can check with me if you want ideas for good books, or to see if we already have something.

-Matchbox airplanes. My mom has a few of these at her house and my boys LOVE them. Lincoln is really into the helicopter variety, but would be thrilled with either.

Ivan

Ivan and Lincoln have really similar likes, so anything above (except the Trios because they are a little too old for him) would work for Ivan, but I'll try to give some new ideas here as well.

-A shape sorter of some sort. One of Ivan's favorite ways to entertain himself is to put things into containers.

-Balls

-Blocks, Ivan is my builder, it turns out. He would love any kind probably, but I saw a really cool wooden set at WalMart

-Upbeat kids music. Ivan is really into dancing and singing, especially songs that have actions to go with.

-A small flash light. Both of my boys are obsessed with flashlights.

Adelia

-Shaking toys that make noise. Adelia has recently discovered toys. Soft ones that she could chew on and shake that make noise are her favorite so far, but the other day I did catch her with Buzz Lightyear's fist in her mouth. :)

-Warm clothes. She's in the 6-9 month size these days. I really like this vest set in either green or azure. And this tunic. I'm a big fan of the longer shirts with leggings underneath, so cute. Adelia's best colors are purple, brown, green, and anything bright. Softer colors tend to wash her out and make her look sick.

-Bumbo Chair Play Tray. Aaron and I are getting Adelia the Bumbo chair for Christmas, but it would be cool to have the play tray to go with it.

-Some little black church shoes, you know the kind that are so adorably cute, but that I never buy for a baby this young because 1-they aren't walking and 2-they grow out of them so fast. They aren't practical, that's why they'd make an excellent Christmas present (Aaron!).

-Bows. Yup, I'm obsessed. But they are so cute and I never got to put them on my boys. Anything off of this site is adorable, and would be interchangeable with the headbands she already has.

Krystal

This list is mostly for Aaron's benefit. But anyone else in search of ideas is willing to look. My birthday is coming up in February too! :)

-zip-up hoodies, like my navy blue one, like this (does not have to be this brand)

-slip on tennis shoes without laces like this or this or this

-a kitchen timer that I can turn the dial and the kids can watch how much time they have left

-an under cupboard radio/cd player something like this. It doesn't need to be a super expensive one.

-books (or a gift certificate to buy books with)

       *What Your Preschooler Needs To Know, all three books in the series

       *Anything on my "Planning on reading list" which you can find under the Krystal's recommended reads tab.

       *That kid Science book Suzy checked out at the library a couple weeks ago, you'll have to get the title from her though.

      *The Hunger Games series, I'll read it again some day

      *The Hiding Place by Corrie Ten Boom, everyone should own that book and read it often

      *Any other good homeschooling books that Lisa recommends for the preschool/kindergarten years, not so much on philosophy, a little of that is ok, but on ideas for activities and things to teach, that's what I'm really looking for at the moment.

       *A canning cook book with step by step directions and pictures.

-softball socks, white with a stripe up the middle. The stripe can be any color.

-food dehydrator

-Texas Road House

-An apartment with a master bathroom and a back yard :) (Hey as long as we're dreaming)

-A nap

-A subscription to Family Fun Magazine, I have a coupon for two subscriptions for $10 if anyone is interested.

Aaron

As mentioned above, Aaron is the world's hardest person to shop for, because mostly he's rather I didn't spend the money. his birthday and Christmas are pretty close together so it makes coming up with ideas of I what I am going to get him difficult, let alone when other family members ask me what he wants. So this year right before his birthday I had him make me a list that was supposed to have 25 things on it that his little heart desired. Well, the list I got back only had 14 but I'll take it. Here it is

-Laser printer

-New bike helmet

-Snow gloves

-Photo shop

-Effecrtive C++ (Book)

-External hard drive. We have one, but a backup would be nice.

-Calendar with family pictures

-Metal filing cabinet with file folders

-Digital video camera

-Sled

-The Fugitive (movie)

-Start Wars (movie)

To Ryan From Aaron

 Did not shave Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, or Sunday. This is Monday morning. Enjoy.

Thanksgiving Day 2010

Ivan, Adelia, Aaron, Krystal, Lincoln, Stephanie, Kirk, Jackson, Kyle, Kelsey, Tanner, Mom, Kerry is taking the picture 

We spent Thanksgiving week with my family up in Hooper. It was a lot of fun to be up there with all those who were there.

My boys are in love with Jackson's dog Wallace. Especially Ivan, he followed Wallace around every where he went, and threw toys for him and petted him. Wallace was really patient with it all weekend long. What a good dog. 

 Everyone had something to contribute this year for Thanksgiving dinner, even Juicy B. Jackson made jalapeno poppers for an appetizer. Kelsey made deviled eggs that looked like turkeys. Steph did a veggie tray. I made cranberry sauce from scratch, rice dressing from Kerry's first wife's recipe, and cream cheese pumpkin pecan pie. Mom made pretty much everything else. And she was nice enough to substitute coconut milk into her fabulous roll recipe so that Ivan could have some. Everything turned out excellent.

In between cooking things and hanging out, we played a few rounds of Perudo. A dice game where you have to guess how many of each dice will end up under everyone's cups. It's a really fun game, although I suck at it. Probably because I'm unwilling to attempt all the mathematical calculations that would help my guesses to be more accurate. What I like about Perudo is that the little kids can "play" too, if you give them an extra cup and some extra dice. Ivan thought he was so big sitting at the table and shaking his dice with everyone else, and it didn't hinder the game any by having him play along.

 Here's Ivan with his game face on.

 Mom and Kerry working hard in the kitchen.

I had to take two shots of Thanksgiving dinner to get everyone in, but here we all are (minus me taking the picture). We had a wonderful dinner. Special thanks to me, who insisted that we use Mom's nice china dishes. She wasn't going to get the out, but I talked her into it. We didn't get to use the crystal goblets though, oh no, those are for Christmas only. ;)

After dinner and before pie, our family put on a little mini presentation for everyone. Since Lincoln had been talking about Thanksgiving so much in preschool this month, I thought it would be fun for him to tell everyone the Thanksgiving story. So we made some more spoon Pilgrims and Indians, so he'd have props, and let him tell the story of the first Thanksgiving. He needed a little bit of help in some parts, but I thought he did a fantastic job. After that, we told everyone about our new tradition of the Grateful Gobbler, and asked if they wouldn't mind if our family shared what we were thankful for. So that was fun too. 

And then we had pie. And it was delicious. 

We did not go black Friday shopping this year. Most of us had colds, and there wasn't really anything out there that we wanted. And I didn't really want to brave it with three kids. Think what you will, but I'm not that adventurous. 

Friday night all the girls (minus Adelia, who is too young) went to the Nutcracker ballet. It was so fun. That's a tradition my mom and I have had forever. The boys got their deer hunting weekend, and we got to go see the ballet. But then life gets busy, and we haven't been since before Aaron and I were married. After the ballet, we went out to Farr's ice cream. It's one of those deals where you put whatever you want in a cup and pay by the weight. I was delighted to have mine all to myself. Usually Aaron and I have to share a cup, and I am not very good at sharing my dessert.