FORSIGHT

Yesterday after we got all of Christmas up around the house, I decided I would take the kids to see a movie. The movie of my choice? Old Dogs. Last week a friend of mine mentioned taking some kids (younger than mine) to go see it and I thought, 'what's that about? I don't remember seeing a new kids movie coming out with that title'. It turns out she took them to see something else but I never asked why she changed her mind. So, I got online and read the Christian review of the movie. It was PG but it was a Disney movie and from the quick once over of the review, I thought it was palatable for me and the kids.

Here's the part that stuck out at me on the review.....
Back in the day, when I was about 7, I used to schedule my weekend around a show called The Wonderful World of Disney. It was stocked with middling children’s movies that, for an adult, were painfully predictable. But they induced plenty of giggles in kids like me. Among them: The Cat From Outer Space, The Shaggy D.A., Herbie Goes to the Republic of Andorra.
Old Dogs reminds me, for better or worse, of The Wonderful World of Disney.


So, we enter the theatre about 5 minutes before the movie started. I got the kids situated and went down to get popcorn and drinks (Isn't that the whole reason you go to the movies?). So, there we were all settled in, Calli is cuddled in her blanket, Colson is slurping his icee and I'm slamming down my popcorn when the movie starts. After the first 5 minutes, something triggered my mind that maybe I didn't read the review very good. As I looked around there was not one other kid in the movie. I turn to Calli and say "Calli, I'm not sure we should be in this movie." She immediately says "I told you Mom. I don't think this is a kids movie". My skills in tuning out must be mastered because I vaguely remember the conversation. So she says "It's ok right now let's see if something bad happens." At the next scene Robin Williams strips down to his underwear while a good looking blonde prepares to give him a spray tan and Calli grabs her stuff and says "Yea, let's go...we can't watch this". Of course I was already halfway down the aisle with the rest of our stuff agreeing all the way with Calli. What did Colson do? He walked as slow as he could trying to whisper NOOOOOO.

I wonder who I have to worry about in my future years???

THIS WILL NEVER MAKE THE CHRISTMAS CARD

......BUT IT SHOULD!

Hudson is thinking 'Stop acting stupid in an effort to make me smile. You're not funny!'

Calli is thinking 'Don't cry Hudson, they'll make you sit in someone elses lap'

Scott is thinking 'Wow, his tonsils are big'
Wes is thinking 'My kids never act like that'

Colson is thinking 'Can I stop smiling now? They told me to always be smiling, but they want a real smile, not a fake one.'

I'm thinking 'I hope I'm not flashing someone'

Christina is thinking 'Oh Hudson, can you please just cooperate for one picture'

GIVE THANKS

All day yesterday, that catch phrase (Give Thanks) kept popping in my head and immediately my mind would sing out this song.

Give thanks with a grateful heart

Give thanks to the Holy One

Give thanks, because He's given Jesus Christ His Son!

I am sooo blessed! What an amazing family I have, wonderful children, a husband that loves me to my core, I want for nothing, we've had wonderful health (especially this year with the swine and every other sickness that has struck all around us). God is so good and I AM so grateful that He gave His Son Jesus to die for all of the bad I've done and will continue to do.

I'm not sure I can be thankful that my son is a T.U. fan but I can sure pray that this phase will pass.

We spent yesterday just how it should have been. A nice relaxing day among family, friends and food. Visiting the Schubert's at lunch, we saw some family that we hadn't seen in a while. Including Uncle Eggward who strolled down for a tearful hello. He has cancer and Colson prays for him EVERY night, "please help Uncle Eggward to feel better". And of course it's not a Thanksgiving without a little shooting practice and dummy roping.

We had all of my family over around dinner, including my cousins and aunt and uncle. It was a little sad because we had one BIG piece of the family puzzle missing....my dad. He's finishing up a job in California and couldn't make it home. Hopefully he'll be home in a week or so and get to spend an extended Christmas with us. My kids miss their Grandpa. We were also missing my cousin Harris and his wife and girls but we'll see them soon. My aunt took pictures of everyone...she's sooooo great.....and it's exhausting! We kid everytime we do pictures with Colson because Christina and I have flashbacks from our younger days. Calli is very photogenic (like myself) and Colson has some difficulties in making his face look like he's naturally happy(like Christina). I know...he's 6 and he's a boy...he's probably not NATURALLY happy about getting all dressed up and smiling "pretty". You wouldn't be able to tell it now, but my sister used to have SEVERE meltdowns in this area. She could never get her smile down which would then result in tears and face spasms which really didn't help the smile.

Of course everyone on my cousins side (except my cousin Liz) wore burnt orange and were anxious for 7 pm to roll around so we could watch the Aggie/T.U game divided! I burst into laughter when the Aggies scored on the third play. Great game by the way, and I'm glad for the horns. Based on their season, they obviously deserved the win. When you enter into Kyle field though and play a football game, especially one with such rivalry as there is between Texas and A&M, you can just never tell.

It was fun to see the little ones running around. My cousin Mark, above, has this little beauty below, Layne, who is about 6 months older than Hudson, who isn't happy in this picture.

And of course, my little mother Calli, couldn't get away from Layne.

So, thanksgiving is over, which means Christmas is just around the corner...AAAAHHHH! Where has the year gone?

KINGERGARTEN FEAST

Today was the oh so anticipated Kindergarten Feast. As moms and dads we sat down around the Pilgrims and Indians among us (although I think there were more Indians than Pilgrims...real ones too) and feasted upon Stone Soup and some pumpkin dessert that the kids, I mean Pilgrims and Indians had made for us. Yesterday they spent the morning chopping up all of the ingredients for the soup like the celery, potatoes, carrots, etc. Colson informed Mrs. Arnold that he probably shouldn't cut anything but maybe just do some scraping instead, since he did almost cut off his finger once. In reality he's not lieing. He did go against my orders to wait for me and decided to try and carve his pumpkin by himself. I found out he had an injury when I noticed him trying to hide the very poor bandaid job he had done and then followed the blood trail throughout the house. I do think it's funny though that HE HIMSELF has limited himself from all knives at all times.

Anyways, the soup was delicious but what made it even better was the several songs they sang for us before our feast! On this occassion, Colson belted out all the words with a smile on his face. I had a small oversight on my part in communicating to Wes' secretary to mark it off Wes' appointment calendar months ago when I knew about this. I called his office on Monday and spoke to sweet Peggy asking her if he had the time marked out. That's when I found out that I had never told her. I know this was an error on my part because Peggy is very good and if I had told her, she would have marked it out. No big deal except Wes was supposed to be at a clients in Trinity all day and it was difficult to get out of that appointment. So I told Colson yesterday that Daddy may not be able to come to the feast and explained that it was my fault and the circumstances. He was sad but ok with it. Wes later informed me that he would come to the feast and would just leave right afterwards. This morning as we walked into school, Colson looked up at me and said, "Mom, you know Daddy's coming to my program today right?" I nodded. He continued, "I think it's cuz of that long talk I gave him." Too cute!

GOT AIR?

Check out this toe touch!

GO MASTER CHIEFS!

Yesterday was Calli's cheer competition and so the season has officially begun. I had high hopes for this team going in because it's a much larger gym with access to really great coaches, lots of great athletes and a winning record. But as I watched several of the practices recently, I thought we may not hit our groove until mid season. And I fully prepared Calli for that yesterday on the way down to the competition yesterday. I told her that this was the first one to get their nerves out, get the excitement out, work out some kinks and you know get warmed up.

These girls rocked it! All of their stunts went up rock solid, their tumbling was good and they were pumped. Their hard work payed off.....FIRST PLACE (out of 6 teams)!!!!

Do you think they were excited. They took out one of their level of difficulties and part of their routine needed some work but we had a GREAT start!!!

Congrats Master Cheifs!

We'll see how we do this weekend!

AND HE WALKS

My awesome nephew, Hudson is WALKING!!! He's 16 months and just decided on Tuesday that he was tired of hearing everyone talk about how he couldn't walk and said I'll show you....in between those looks of why are you screaming and hollering, it's just walking!

Check out my sister's video....

HERE WE GO AGAIN

New gym, new team, new colors, new coaches, new friends but here we go again! Calli kicked off her competition season with a show off performance for family and friends. They did good but they are all glad they have a couple more weeks until the first real competition. Calli does have her back tuck good now but I'm not sure if she'll get to use it in this competition. Each team is leveled and so they will only let you do certain skills at each level.

The irony in this day was that she looked like she was 20 and was ready for all the glitter, glam and makeup and definately the chance to show off to all. But they had the event at a High School and when we pulled up Calli commented that the school didn't have a very good playground for recess. I gently informed her that in High School you don't get recess. "What? No recess? Really?", went her lips with a voice 2 octives higher than usual. I had to remind her that she couldn't cry because all her make up would run as I watched her face turn to disbelief. Poor kid thinks life is one big recess for the rest of her life!

I keep telling her she really doesn't want to grow up as fast as she thinks she does. Now she may believe me!

GAME BALL

One happy boy on Tuesday when he was given the game ball for making 2 outs at 3rd and getting 3 hits. He's finally got this baseball fielding thing down...sort of!

I NEED A PARTY BREAK

So by the time Halloween night rolled around my kids had been to 4 parties and were kinda tired of their pirate get up. So Halloween night, a last minute costume change transformed them into.....

A transformer and a cheerleader.

I think Calli wanted to be a cheerleader so she could wear all the sparkly glitter makeup and since Calli was changing, Colson said 'what the heck, I'll be something different too'.

The weekend before, we had a Halloween party at Ms. Cathy's with a full blown haunted house, hayride and lots of kids to play with. Colson then had his party at school. Friday night we had another full blown haunted house, hayride, costume party at Karson's house (the friend Colson clobbered in they eye...yes they still speak to us). Saturday morning we headed to Cline's 5th birthday party...a Halloween costume party. Saturday night we went trick or treating early and then I dropped the kids off at Grandma's while Wes was hunting and I headed to a costume party of my own with my friend Debbie.

Somehow in all of the scariness of Halloween with it's Haunted Houses and crazy stories, Colson is not any more scared than he usually is. Which if you know him well, you know that on the scale of scariness there is not much farther down that he can go. Which is a post all of its own.

Lots of fun! Not too much candy (whew!) and of course loved that extra hour of sleep!