IT'S ALL ABOUT FAMILY

Of course what is a day of thanks without spending it with two of the cutest things we give thanks for. Calli and Colson asked all day long when it was time to go to Christina's so they could see these two rugrats. Calli likes to get there before Grammie so that she can hog Camden before Grammie takes him away.

And Colson likes to teach Hudson everything he knows! We are working on only teaching him the good things. But sorry Christina, there is no way around Colson teaching Hudson to be destructive. That's just who Colson is.

So this year my sister recently moved into her new house which made her the slave for the day hostess with the mostest! It's alot of work to host a meal for 16 plus kids. It was delightful! I wouldn't say she lives in the middle of town so the navigation for some was a bit challenging. But they were T-Sippers...we knew they'd have trouble finding it. And speaking of T-Sippers....how about that game? I was trying so hard to be a 2%er and go to bed so that I could get up at the crack of dawn to shop but my fingers would not turn the game off. And Colson, our in house T-Sipper, was laying in bed with me so we had our own little rivalry going that we wanted to settle. And he won. But man what a good game!

Most Thanksgivings we celebrate with my mom's side of the family....my aunt Carol and my cousins. My cousin Harris and his family are usually with Jenna's family at Thanksgiving but this year they joined us. We were missing Mark and his family though so it wasn't a complete family gathering, but we'll take what we can get. I didn't capture a single picture of the adults because I'm a horrible memory documenter in that sense but I did capture the kids, who got along beautifully, decorating their turkey cookies.

And I happened to snap this picture of Camden and Harris' new boy Austin having a stare off. But I think Cam got his feelings hurt....either that or his neck got tired holding his head up.

And the Schubert's were supposed to join us at Christina's but they both had colds and didn't want to get the babies sick. But of course we had to stop by and get their dessert because Calli can't live without her Grandma's mini cheesecakes.

One more holiday to go!

ANOTHER GREAT IDEA

Guess who had another great idea? Surely it only took you one guess....Colson! I've mentioned before that Colson often comes up with things that I often say "what made you think that was a good idea?" It's my go to line because most of the times I'm speechless and have a hard time coming up with words to express my feellings. And sometimes I don't know whether I should laugh or cry. This great idea made me want to cry!!

A couple of months ago Colson emptied all the cards out of a kids game that we had so that he could obtain the metal tin that he wanted for a secret box. He took the box and filled it with things. I didn't have any idea what kinds of things were in it and he told me it was private. I didn't really pry because it was keeping him occupied and seemingly very happy. Given his track record...I should have pried.

He buried the tin container in the middle of the yard. Then a few days later he dug it up and hid it somewhere else and then a few days later.....it went on and on. Every few days he would fetch the tin and "hide" it somewhere else. And I think he even switched it out with different belongings every once in a while. The last place it ended up was no hiding place but instead on the bricks surrounding our front flower bed with the lid off. And then it rained. A few days after it rained and the 50th time that I had passed the tin box but not picked it up I decided to remove it from its spot. My heart skipped a beat when I noticed one of the video camera tapes inside the box. UGH!!! He had somehow gotten his hands on the video tape of him when he was 12 to 18 months and placed it in his time capsule.

I stormed inside asking "what made you think this was a good idea?" And he had no answer...as usual. I told him we would never get to see him take his first steps. He replied, "why would we want to do that?" I quickly left the room so that I wasn't taken into police custody.

On the good side, it has prompted me to convert all the tapes into DVD's to which I'll make a copy of each. This will never happen again! Or at least it won't be an original he gets his hands on.

GOBBLE GOBBLE!

It's definately a day we can look back on what has happened this year and be thankful! Wes just had his 11 year CANCER FREE check up. The rest of us are in good health. Work is good. The kids are doing great in school. And there is LOVE in this home. I'm so thankful for all that God has provided for us.

Here are my kids top 10 list of things they are thankful for.
They are in the order that they came to their mind...

CALLI
1. My family and friends
2. My cheer team
3. My school and great grades (I'm thankful for that one too)
4. My protection
5. Jesus dying for me
6. Food, water and shelter
7. Church and the ability to learn about Jesus
8. My teachers
9. Electronics
10. ME!!!
I like the last one....do you think she lacks in confidence?

COLSON
1. Mom-because she is sweet
2. Hudson-becuase he's fun to play with
3. Daddy-because he gives me Dr. Pepper
4. Camden-because he spits up on Calli
5. Mrs. Martin-because she is nice
6. Hunting-because I like to kill deer
7. Our house-because I'm not homeless
8. Christmas-because it's Jesus' birthday
9. I have friends
10. I can play baseball-and I'm good

So I hope you have (or had) a wonderful day enjoying lots of food, family and fellowship!

MONEY, MONEY!

Colson likes to take his wad of money everywhere! He takes it with him places. He plays with it while he eats. He takes it in his bed. He counts it every few days. He's got a lot and he's got a lot of ones so I'm sure there has been some gone missing. The other day he decided to be artistic with it.

SHAKE THE NERVES

We had parent's show a couple of weeks ago and our first competition the next Sunday. The team (and Calli) did awesome during parents show! No falls, and for just kicking the season off, the timing and execution of everything was pretty good. I think I've mentioned before that Calli is a flyer this year. It's a little more nerve racking not because I'm worried about her safety but more because she has a lot to do with staying in the air and not falling! I know she has 3 people holding her but she's really gotta fight to stay in the air. And if she falls they say "Calli fell". Not that they think it's her fault...but that's just how it is.

So she did awesome at parents show and despite a 2nd place on Sunday...and we were only against one team...she did great on Sunday. One stunt group fell but it wasn't hers. She did have a bobble though, meaning she started to fall and then didn't complete one of the poses. But hey-she didn't fall! I think she got the nerves out of her system though...I'm pretty sure she'll pull it together from here on out. My aunt came bringing my cousins little girls who were excited to watch all the flipping.

And her friend Lauren came to watch her at parents show which really made Calli happy.

I SHOULD GET AN "E" FOR EFFORT

This time of year just gets plum crazy! I can't believe that it's already November...and mid November at that. Willis is out ALL next week so it will be so nice to sleep in on Monday. I know I'll be able to sleep in. I just hope the kids will be able to. Colson had his "Ugly Turkey" play in the classroom on Grandparents Day. Somehow I didn't get the memo of the time change. Last I saw, the play was going to be at 11:15. From past experience I know that if you come at 11:17, you miss it. These plays are about 3 minutes long and they don't wait for late stragglers. So I showed up at 11:10 and looking through the little window only two see my two friends looking back at me mouthing "It's over". WHAT?!?!  Yea, it started at 10:45. Luckily Colson has one Grandma who is ALWAYS early and another who happened to be early and they both saw it. Well, my mom walked in when Colson was saying his line so that counts. Me? All I get is an E for Effort...I really tried. And if I hadn't stopped at Sonic to get a drink for me and the teacher, who knows?!?!  I was there to snap some pictures though.

Colson really didn't care until it was bedtime last night. In our prayers I mentioned something about the play and he immediately went into pout mode. I could feel the pouty face through my eyes closed. I knew it was all a show....and a different way to draw bedtime out. I'm no dummy.

I also knew I was forgiven when he climbed into our bed at 4:30 this morning snuggled up so close to me and whispered in my ear "I love you mama".

PREPARE TO BE SCARED

I've decided that the below story is what crosses Colson's mind every night as he lays in bed for an hour (or more) trying to go to sleep. I've decided that the below story is the vision he sees when he hears that I have to drop  him off at a birthday party. I've decided that the below story is the panic he feels when he thinks about staying the night at a friends.

It was a full moon every body was trick-or-treating except one mean kid. He made people cry. No one liked him. The next Halloween, he walked to school every one was talking about some scary ghost they saw at a spocky house. He told every body he would beat up these ghosts that Hawalheen he went to the spoocky house and knocked on the door. It opened he walked in suddenly the door closed. He jumd up and tryd to get out but the door wouldent open. He screamed HELP! No on answered. It was a trap. All of a sudden a ghost jumped up and almost grabbed him. I think he got away. But we never saw him again.

Now what I can't figure out is who did they never see again? The ghost? Or the boy? If it's the boy....we really may have issues. I'm sure that means something.

And while we are on the topic of scary and Halloween, here are our two kids....Dorothy and a warewolf. I told my dad they both fit their part well. Sweet Calli as Dorothy and then there is our terror, Colson. Of course I was kidding (Calli when you read this don't go tell your brother I called him a terror)! I told Colson not to look in the mirror because he would scrare himself. And I wasn't kidding.

Hudson and Cam were our two Aggie football players although Cam probably needs to work on his aggression.

We enjoyed Halloween night riding around 7 Coves on a little hayride that Paul, our neighbor and friend, pulled with the Rhino. I actually enjoyed myself. We started at the Caperton's who not only handed out candy but cupcakes...at least to us!

We also ran into Frankenstein. And I think so he wouldn't get shown up by all the McDonald GIRLS Colson went and took his picture with him. As you can see Hudson wasn't so fond of the giant.

And Camden....

he wasn't really phased by anything.

I don't think either of my kids really went trick or treating because we hardly had any candy. I think they had more fun running house to house. Oh well...better on my waistline!

MRS. MARTIN'S 2ND GRADE PICTURE

I thought our class picture turned out so cute for Mrs. Martin's class. This is probably the last year we can get away with doing something kinda cutesy. I love Sophia and Taylor on the far right by Colson and how prissy they look. Those two mom's fought over it. And the girl on top won! Only because she asked the other mom to please stop bidding and she'd make a copy for her.

I'm really grateful for Mrs. Martin this year! Even if Colson is struggling a little bit with lots of careless errors. I've decided her expectations are high...which I'm okay with. She's wanting to do everything she can to help him do better and I see she's doing that with all her kids. We are blessed! And this group of kids are pretty terrific too. Everytime I'm up there they all run to give me a hug (how many more years do you think that will last?). Friday I walked in and one little boy saw me and said in this monotone voice "Here comes fancy mom". They all looked up and squeeled as they came running to me. It was cute. And I'm not fancy really. Occassionally I come up there in my work clothes but most of the time I just have on jeans. They are just cute!

6TH GRADE FIELD TRIP

Let it be known....well it is already known....that I'm not fond of field trips. I've never been up for educational things anyways and since most field trips involve museums and educational outings, they don't rank high on my "let's go do" list. In years past I have suffered through them because I usually have other parent friends that go and we ride together and make it as enjoyable as we can. As Calli entered 6th grade, there was many things I was dreading, but not taking a field trip was not one of them. Until I found out that I should have inquired before I got too excited because 6th grade does take a field trip. And even worse, as a chaperone you have to pay the full amount AND you have to ride the bus.

Trust me when I tell you that I tried every way to get out of going...Calli even began laughing at some of my excuses and always had a reason as to why my excuse was not valid.

The trip consisted of a trip to the Aquarium. If you have to go to something educational, I think the downtown aquarium ranks at the top of one of the more non educataional which makes it enjoyable. I was in charge of 5 random kids plus mine and lucky for me, none of them caused any trouble. Since school starts at the crack of dawn, we left in time to get there before they even opened so we had the place to ourselves for most of the day. 

We had a little private class on genetics, touched the starfish and stingrays, viewed the huge snakes, drove the train through the shark tunnel where we saw divers cleaning the tank with their bodyguard friend divers protecting them and of course posed with the white tigers.....through very thick glass.

The weather was beautiful which was wonderful except for the hour that I sat on the park bench watching the kids ride rides and fighting off the really bad urge to curl up and take a nap. And I was delighted to hear that we'll again be taking one next year. Didn't they get the memo that we have budget cuts? 

I THINK I WAS SCAMMED

BY MY OWN DAUGHTER!

Sometimes this summer Calli would tell me that things were blurry when she looked at them. Being the overly paranoid and caughteous mother that I am I told her that it's probably from all the chlorine (we have a salt water pool) from swimming so much. That seemed to be a good answer to her so she too thought the pool was the cause, yet she kept telling me. Then school started and she was no longer swimming really and she would continue to tell me that some things were blurry. So this time I listened a little closer and prodded a little more. She couldn't tell me when it happened (close? far away? little print? numbers?) so I just didn't give her an answer and she was ok with that. Then one Saturday she stood over my shoulder at my office desk and asked what time it was. When I replied with "I don't know" she wiggled my mouse for my computer to come awake and walked to the other side of me and stuck her face right up to the screen and said "1:35" It was then that I made her a Dr. appointment to get her eyes checked.

She was so worried about them giving her a shot in her eye because that's what Grandma Schubert has to get. I reminded Calli that Grandma was sixty-something and that she was only eleven. So the conlcusion was that she is far sighted which means she can't see far away. Apparantly it's rare in kids (or maybe rare in general...I don't know). He said she only needs to wear her glasses if she wants to see better. I hope my face didn't show the "Well that was profound Doc" look that I was thinking. But then I realized he meant she's not really dependant on them but if she wants to see better, she can wear her glasses.

So after the $350 price tag being dropped to $136 (thank you Calli for pulling the sweet card) we walked out of there with these.

But if you see her, ask her how many times she's worn her glasses. Well if you don't count the times she put them on just to show others how she looks in them, ZERO. And THAT'S how I got scammed by my daughter. I guess she doesn't want to see better.