HYGIENE LESSONS NEEDED

On Friday, Wes, Colson and Scott headed North to Oklahoma for a quick hunt. This was kind of last minute but Colson was up for the trip and Wes says he did AWESOME (of course cause he's not with his mama!) Here is the doe that Scott shot that Colson was very excited to tell me that he took the guts out of...if only you could hear him say it...very funny.

So, it was just Calli and I for the weekend. Well really it was just I. We had already planned for Carson, one of Calli's friends to spend the weekend with us while her parents went out of town. And with two 8 year olds and no brother to bug them...it was heaven for them. With the two of them occupied with each other, that left me lots of time to catch up on my scrapbooking (rememeber I'm all digital now) and that I did. I hope to have 2007 completed by Friday and then I'll conquer 2008 next month. I have NEVER been this far behind!

On their way home this afternoon, Colson called me to tell me that he hadn't bathed in 3 days NOR had he brushed his teeth. Colson blamed it all on me saying I forgot to pack his toothbrush. Really Wes, could you not let him use yours, or his finger, or did you know they sell toothbrushes at stores? Then when he gets home he tells me (with the biggest grin on his face) that he didn't change his underwear the whole time either. I really can't believe I'm posting this but someday his FUTURE wife may read this and may reconsider. ha ha. Going back to the phone conversation....he tells me his poor hygiene habits and then says he has a secret for me. He whispers something about 4 times before I can understand him. Later Wes told me that not only was he whispering but he had a pillow over his head. "When I get home can I sleep with you?" he whispers. I repeat back to him what I thought he said and ask him if that is right and he whispers back "yes". This is proof that the kid is one scaredy cat MAMA'S BOY!

BODY PART NAMES

Below is the conversation that was had in the back of my vehicle on the way to a movie this afternoon. This was between two 8 year olds (Calli and her friend Carson)

Calli: AAAHHHHH
Carson: AAAHHHHHH
(As they are both looking into one anothers mouths)
Carson: Wow! That thing in the back of your throat is big. I think it's called the Udable (pronounced youdable).
Calli: Really? Mine is big? Is it called your tonsils?
Carson: No, I think it's called the udable.

They move on to another highly educated topic but 3 or 4 minutes later Calli brings it back.....

Calli: No Carson, I don't think that thing is called a urinal. A urinal is one of those cups you tee-tee in and give to the Dr. to see if you have an infection.

I sat choking back the drink I just gulped in an effort not to spit it all over my steering wheel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY STEPHANIE!

No, not me.....the other Stephanie. As it is quickly approaching the change to a new day, I am wishing my sweet friend Stephanie Hood a VERY HAPPY BIRTHDAY. A Christmas Eve baby, she gets forgotten so many times by me....on her birthday at least.

This girl rocks!!! She is so fun to be around and is dependable in every way, shape and form. If you need her, she's there. As an ear, with a hand, as a warm body. I remember at A&M, I didn't have a car and I would call Stephanie up, she'd drive over in that fine Honda Accord, I'd take her back to her apartment or wherever and I'd go run my errands. For those of you that know my driving, that was a risk for her! She does amazing things for her family and she truly is Superwoman in my eyes! I don't know how she gets everything done in a single day that she is responsible for......yes I do.....little sleep right Steph?

Anyways, I feel so blessed that God placed her in my life many years ago and feel even more blessed that she's still in my life now! I love to laugh with her! I love to hear her crazy stories! I love to take trips with her...I just love this girl! She deserves the absolute best and Steph I hope you had an AMAZING and MAGICAL (guess where she's spending her birthday?) day!

I've got to scoot onto bed now before Santa comes! My kids were very worried about not getting in bed before Santa comes tonight as we were late coming home from my mom's. I assured Calli that Santa does not come until the middle of the night. Colson gasped and said "Oh no mom, I come to your bed in the middle of the night!" Hopefully they won't bump into each other because I'm pretty sure that my scaredy cat son would be T-E-R-R-I-F-I-E-D! Even if he does know it's Santa.

Merry Christmas! May you celebrate the birthday of Christ and enjoy whatever it is you'll do :)

CELEBRATION WEEKEND

Saturday morning we went over to Wes' mom house to visit with his sister from Oklahoma that comes in to visit. When she comes bringing all of her kids, her stay is very short because it makes it hard. It was fun to see them and see how the kids have grown. Shann has 3 biological children and 3 adopted children. She has a huge heart and these kids are amazing. Calli & Colson loved playing with their cousins.

Then we left there and went to celebrate Christmas with my aunt, uncle and cousins. Always a treat!

The kids decorated cupcakes....and wore some of the chocolate.

This is Harris' little girl, Bailey. She's 1 week older than Colson.

They also played a little ladder golf (cheating all the way)

This was one of the white elephant gifts. My aunts side are all longhorns and of course we're Aggies (except Colson who switches back and forth)
Another white elephant gift that of course Colson snatched up. What kid doesn't need a rubber chicken that lays an egg?

My aunt Carol who takes all of our amazing pictures. Does she look 60? NO WAY!!!
And then the cutest kid ever....Hudson was chilling at the party :)

On Sunday, Calli had two friends over and Colson had one friend to fulfill our gingerbread house tradition. In Colson style, he was finished when he did one half of the roof. His friend was really into it though so he came back after I started decorating his and he saw that Preston was doing some cool stuff.

I can't believe Christmas is JUST AROUND THE CORNER! Hurry Santa!

LOST AND FOUND

My friend Shellie gave me this really cool return address stamp for my birthday this year and it appears that I am not the only one who thinks it is really cool. Colson slipped into a long sleeve shirt on Thursday for reasons unkown to me. Until I asked him to take a bath mid morning, I really didn't know why or care why he changed his clothes....he changes frequently. Sneaky thing, he was trying to cover up his wrongful doings.

I told him that now I could leave him in a store and they would know where to return him. Or I could ship him off to Alaska!

HOW CUTE IS THIS KID?

Okay so I know he's related but he's so darn cute the whole world needs to see (or at least the 5 followers of this blog :))

Hudson is now 5 months old and at that sweet, adorable, eat you up stage! He's a really good baby! My sister left for a short work trip with Scott and left Hudson with Grammie and Grandma for the short 2.5 days. I am sure those couple of days will feel like weeks to her and Scott and minutes for the Grandmas that are spoiling him as we speak!

This was his aunt Stephanie torchering him with a crazy santa hat that sang and danced right over his face.

SCHUBERT CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS

So I thought I would document (and share) some of our Schubert family traditions because after all "the experts" say that traditions make memories, memories that our kids will someday cling too. Here are the Christmas traditions (in no particular order) that I think are special and my kids seem to enjoy. I would love to hear yours.....

1. Making buffalo balls for teachers, friends and just those that beg for them every year. As stupid as Wes and my brother in law think it is, this is a secret recipe that my bus driver gave to my mom in the 5th grade and made her promise that she would never give it to anyone else. I stopped and pondered yesterday why in the world my mother would receive a gift, which then was a basket of buffalo balls, from my bus driver? Shouldn't my mom have been giving her a gift for her great driving skills? I wrote it off as me being such a good kid that she rewarded my mother with a gift :) Regardless, somehow my mother got a hold of these buffalo balls from her, asked her for the recipe, she gave in but made her promise not to give it away. So every year my mother would make buffalo balls and it became a treat for those that received them because 1. They are delicious and 2. Noone knew how to make them so they had to come through us. One of the teachers at Calli's school told me that I HAVE to change the name. I agreed that it doesn't sound good when my 5 year old goes running down the hall with a basket full of them saying "Mrs. Jeanne, I brought you buffalo balls". Then when you get a look at one, it's not very appetizing after you know the name. All that to say, the tradition continues with us. Calli is a great helper now.

2. On Calli's first Christmas I was at a friends house who had several snow globes out on tables. Not the cheap plastic kind but the beautiful ones that are themed and/or play music and I decided to start my own tradition with her. So that first Christmas, I bought her a baby Jesus snow globe and each year after, I buy her a new one. She LOVES getting down the Christmas decorations so she can pull out all of her snow globes and lay them out in her room. We have had two break but that made for a meltdown...I mean a memory! Someday when she leaves our house and starts her own family, she'll have some beautiful decorations to remember her childhood Christmases. When Colson was about 2.5 he wanted snow globes. I didn't really start this with him because I thought when he goes out on his own, is he really going to want to take snow globes with him? Kinda doubtful. But when he was 2 and he threw big fits because he didn't have any snowglobes, I decided a cute collection for him would be an animated Christmas toy every year. Anything to stop the madness right? Although now the madness is listening to the animated chipmunks sing "We Wish You A Merry Christmas" at the same time that the animated dog is barking "Silent Night" while the penguins are singing....you get the idea right?

3. On December 1st we begin our Christmas book reading. I wrap 23 Christmas books and place them under the tree. Each night the kids take turns in picking out a book, unwrapping it and then I read it to them. All Christmas themed! Since we had/have some cheesy Christmas books, I have bought a nice new one every year to replace those not so good ones. Last year I put their handprints in them and let them write their name and date. This will make it fun to look back at over the years. This brings us to our next tradition.....

4. On Christmas Eve instead of unwrapping a Christmas book to read, we read the Christmas story from the Bible. This helps us remember the real reason that we celebrate Christmas and the real Truth.

5. Each year I let the kids pick out their own Hallmark ornament and write the year on it. I try to encourage them to purchase an ornament that reflects an interest for them that year. This will be another tradition that benefits them when they grow up because they will have ornaments right away to decorate with on their first Christmas.

Colson picked out batman this year

Calli picked out an animated elf....she's into animated

6. Each year I also buy them matching pj's that they wear on Christmas Eve which makes for cute pictures Christmas morning. This year I even bought a matching set for Hudson, my new 5 month old nephew.

7. Another idea that I carried on from my mom was decorating gingerbread houses. We make miniature gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and use all kinds of candy to decorate them up. At our house now, we invite a friend or two over every year to make it more fun. Last year I got a really wild hair and did it for Calli's entire 2nd grade class. I made 21 houses the night before, transported them to the school without breaking and then the kids spent the afternoon decorating them. This year I'm going back to the friend concept and we have 4 or 5 girls coming over next Sunday for some candy eating, sugar high, fancified decorating! I'll let Colson invite a friend too.

8. Our newest tradition began last year when our very own elf arrived that the kids named Jack. I've already posted about this but let me just restate that my kids do not forget to look for Jack every morning....it's very exciting!

These are some of the things that make our Christmas' special. Calli looks forward to them and Colson has begun reminding/asking about them. What I hope they instill is memories of togetherness and fun. Do you have any?

PRICELESS

I think I've mentioned before that Colson is for some reason scared most nights upon going to bed. He likes to call out my name several times just to make sure I am close and then say "uuhhh, I love you". I have to keep reminding myself after the 10th time in a 20 minute span that it's really sweet. He also likes to give the run down of the places that I can NOT go which include my bedroom, outside, the bathtub (he knows it's my favorite place), game room and that the places I can go are my office, the living room and the kitchen which happen to be very close to his room.

A few nights ago, he got this grand idea that I could sleep on the couch so I could be by him. I usually just go along with things like this and say okay. He mentioned it several times that I would sleep on the couch and each time I just said okay. That night I was woken at 1:30 in the morning with a tap on my shoulder and a "mom, you're supposed to be on the couch". I told him to climb in bed because at that point I was too tired. He asked me the next morning why I didn't sleep on the couch. I changed the subject....good parenting huh?

The next night he went through the same spill about how I should sleep on the couch. He even went and got me a pillow and a blanket. That night when he entered our room, he tapped me on the shoulder (a little harder this time) and made this grunting sound as he pointed his arm towards the living room as if to say 'you are supposed to be on the couch'.

Tonight as bedtime drew near he tells me that he wants me to write a note that says ONLY DADDY'S ALLOWED IN THIS BED, NO MOMMY'S. Initially I thought he meant that I couldn't go in his room to tuck him in. But no, he wanted me to put that note on MY bed. As I was recording this priceless story, he just got out of bed, brought me a piece of paper and had me write his order and laid it on my bed. Who wants to bet I'll be tapped tonight as I'm sleeping IN MY BED?

DEAR SANTA

Here are my kids' Christmas letters to Santa:

Calli's
Dear Santa,
I have been very good. This is what I want for Christmas!!!!!
*Flying reindeer (when asked this could be one of those remote controlled reindeer-Santa needs to get creative on this one huh?)
*Animal Crossing Wii game
*DS games
*Big gaint (misspelled and all) puppy! (When asked she said it could be a stuffed one)
*Teal iPod!
*5 Webkinz (Santa, we really don't need any more of these)
Love, Calli

Colson's (This one I wrote for him word for word as he said it.)
Dear Santa,
I would like a Webkinz horse and next I want a real dog just for me. I want his name to be Jake. (He already has one of those and if Santa has heard the way he takes care of him, we won't be getting one of these...see earlier post). Now I want a real horse and I want a reindeer that can fly me. And I want a real bathtub in my room and I want a real, real, real, real sweater. And I want a batman Wii game and David Crockett Wii. I'm on the good list (way to throw that one in there buddy).
Love, Colson