Letters To Santa

The kids decided it was time to write their letters to Santa Claus tonight. I love watching their little minds work as they figure out exactly what it is they might wish for this year. Rachel knew exactly what she wanted and set right to work. She made all the letters of each word herself, while I spelled them for her. She only has a little trouble remembering how to make a couple of them like M and W. Noah had a couple of things he knew for sure that he wanted, like Harry Potter legos and books, and then decided to pour through the toy catalogs for more ideas. Kate kept herself busy for the most part of the letter writing, but decided, she too must get her wish list on paper. She made her wishes known when she came to the table asking "Paper? Colors?", so we set her up in the chair with her own supplies. After finishing writing his own letter, Noah decided he would translate Kate's for Santa, letting him know what she wanted. I love these little people. So much!

Basketball 2010-11

Basketball has begun for the 2010-2011 season. Noah is on the white team this year, with Coach Napier. All his teammates are new, and once again, he is a head taller than all the other boys. He has been remembering all the things he learned last year and seems to play defense the best so far. He plays hard at practice and gets better every week. I was happy to see the coach doing some drills and working on skills practice. Last year was interesting to say the least... it looks like this year is going to be much, much better. We're looking forward to seeing the boys play in their first game.

Thanksgiving 2010

Happy Thanksgiving! We began our day at Doug's parents house for a wonderful Thanksgiving lunch of turkey and all the fixings. It was so yummy! The kids all played - running around playing hide and seek, riding bikes and cars, going on a 'hike' or 'hunt', depending on who you asked. ;) It was great to spend time with Don, Darla, Donny, Dodie and their boys. The kids all play so well together. The food was terrific and of course, there was football. Later in the day we headed over to Mom's house for our evening meal of turkey, ham and more Thanksgiving treats. The kids played outside on the play set and kicking the ball around. When it got dark they colored, read books and played hide and seek inside. It was good to sit and talk to everyone - and again, more football. Uncle Brian joined us at Mom's, along with Chris, Christina and their girls. It was a wonderful day shared with the people we love. Amie, we missed you! We are sending love to Little Rock and are hoping we'll get to see you at Christmas. We all have so much to be thankful for...

The food today was unbelievable! Thanks Mom and Darla for all your hard work!! We appreciate you both so much!

We wish all of our family and friends out there a Happy Thanksgiving filled with the ones you love. I hope you all had too much to eat, played, laughed and loved on this special day.

Happy 5th Birthday Rachel!!

Tonight we tucked a very happy five year old into her bed. She was the center of attention all day and she enjoyed every minute of it. Bless her heart, it's her favorite place to be. She was watching cartoons when I came down the stairs this morning (her daddy turned them on when he got home from work and after he took Noah to school). After I sang her the birthday song, she opted for her last Strawberry Shortcake cupcake for breakfast (this is not a usual occurance ;). She asked that we stick a candle in it - because it was her birthday. So cute. After breakfast we played with her princess jewelry rub-ons and talked about what she wanted to do for the day. She decided she wanted to go play at the mall playground again this year, so we called up Aunt Chrissy and Lydia and also had Mom join us for a while to play. While we were there Mom got her some cookies - because it was her birthday. Little Stinker. Soon we had to go home to wake up Daddy and to have lunch - she chose a cheese omlette and oranges. After we picked up Noah from school we headed over to Grammy & Papa's house to play for a while before dinner of her choice - Olive Garden. Good choice, Rachel! She enjoyed her dinner of alfredo and we headed home to let her blow out her candles and enjoy cake and ice cream. We read her new Pinkalicious book, had some snuggles and tucked our sleepy girl in. I would say she had a happy day. =) Love that little girl. So much. Happy Birthday, Sweet Girl.