Christmas Time :)

Don't you wish it was Christmas again? Well, it'll be around the corner before you know it! At least that the way it seems. The older I get the faster those months fly. I'll take Christmas again, but NOT December. It was the worst December on record. Schmoo was sick twice for a total of 9 missed days of school, 3 dr appts and 4 rx. Then I got Pneumonia~ 2 appts and 5 rx. Then My dh got pneumonia, same rx as me. I had to take big bad teaching exams while on codeine. My dh was furloughed, twice. We had to cancel our IVF cycle. We missed every party, event, and all good stuff.

Phew.

It ended well though! Right before Christmas my parents flew in and celebrated the holiday with us. It was a lovely lift of our spirits and we had a great time.

Schmoo and granny making the Gingerbread house

Schmoo acting out the Nativity on Christmas Eve with the awesome set his Primary teacher made for him. So sweet!

So excited on Christmas eve. We ate, read the scriptures, watched Mr. Krueger's Christmas, Schmoo opened a couple of presents, and off to bed.

We had church, as usual, at 10am. We told Schmoo that he could open all his stocking stuff before Church, but no opening presents til we got back. He was fine with that, and was even great on Christmas morning. We were all laughing as he was sitting fully dressed in the hallway with his shoes on 1/2 hour before we needed to leave for church. When we got there he kept on asking me every 5 minutes if it was time to go home, so finally I just handed him the program and he painstakingly scratched off each entry the moment someone said, 'Amen.' You have never seen someone exit the building so quickly!

Handing out gifts

Happy to see he wasn't really getting Crispix as a present.

Granny and papa opening gifts

Have you seen a happier kid? He was soooo excited to get these Legos from Grandma and Grandpa!

Santa brought lots of tracks to put together, a la Mario Kart.

Day after Christmas he wanted to eat this so badly. I told him it wouldn't taste very good but to be my guest...


This was the year of the penguin! He is obsessed with the little guys right now and they were around everywhere.


Some of his track set up

His "dia de los reyes magos" present. I like to celebrate 3 kings day, so he always gets a little something. (usually with the cashback from Toys r us.) Our upstairs neighbors gave him the red bird for Christmas, so we got him a pig and bluebird. He thought it was hilarious when he woke up on January 6th and found his presents and the "level" that we built that for him with his blocks :)

Scientist of the week

I'm so glad that at schmoo's age they are already encouraging them to do little science projects. And I'm doubly that glad that I married who I did so that when the projects get more complicated than this that I can bow out!

Home

Shmoo was cranky this morning bc he had to quit playing a game and go to school. He started ranting and raving about how much he wanted to stay home and then he busts out with, "Mom, HOME is where the heart is. Not school. Not work. HOME!" Hahahahaha! It would have moved me if he had been sitting on my lap reading a book, but since he was just hanging out with his pals Mario, Toad and Sonic, I just smiled as I escorted that little boy to the bus stop.

He says...

Schmoo frequently asks what things I love him more than. Example... I love you more than Chick fil a. I love you more than sleeping in. I love you more than chocolate. On Sunday he asked and I made him a list and then he started on his. He made a list of things that he loves me more than but then said, "Mommy, I don't think I love you more than Bacon." When I expressed my (mock) sadness he said, "but don't worry, I love you more than Spam!" (Daddy just fed him some out of the hurricane supply kit :)

Tonight he was walking around saying, "I have dentist breath." When I finally asked him what that means he explained, "My dentist has really bad breath, so instead of saying 'I have bad breath', I just say, 'I have dentist breath."

Apples!!!

Well, it was time to do something with all the apples we got on our trip up north so last Saturday was official Apple day around here:

We started by trying to duplicate the amazing apple fritters we had at one orchard. Good, but no where near as good as what they made.


moved on to crockpot applesauce.

3 pies to freeze


Cute helper :)
An apple crisp to freeze

And 9 pints of Apple butter

It was a long, messy, drippy, sticky, delicious day :)

Articles of Faith

At the beginning of every year, Primary asks the kids to memorize the 13 Articles of Faith. Schmoo did a couple then decided it was "too hard". In August, he decided that he wanted to do it again so he just...did it. Each week he would memorize one on his own...from reading the card and playing on the Friend website. We offered to help him but he said, "I can take care of this BY MYSELF!" ooooookkkkkk!

A few weeks ago he passed off the last one. We are super duper proud of him :) There are only 3 other kids in our Primary who have done it.

He is pictured below with one of his "scripture snakes". Each time he passed off an Article of Faith he got one of these. (they are full of gumballs.)

Halloween

One day in early October, I pulled out all the Halloween decor. The next morning I woke up and found that Schmoo had done some decorating of his own while we were asleep. I love his drawings!

A ghost that looks suspiciously like it should be in a Super Mario Bros game:

His snaggly toothed jack o lanterns :)

And the variety pack: the tombstone that says "RIP here lies our house" (I LOVE IT, hee hee!) Frankenstein, witch, mummy, skeleton, spider and vampire bat.


At his kinder Halloween party



The school parade. Coming...

And going.


And all ready to Trick or Treat!




I'm glad that he actually ended up wearing his costume. He begged to be Sonic, and then once we got the costume, he said he looked ridiculous in it. We told him we could return it and get a different one but he insisted on keeping it. On the weekend before all the activities were to begin, we wanted him to try it on so we could hem it, but he refused to put it on. He made daddy type out a sign that said, "My mom bought me the costume I wanted, but I refuse to wear it, so now I'm a ghost. Boo!" He punched holes in the top for string and said that was all he was wearing.

When we saw the signs for the trunk or treat at church, he got really excited about decorating the trunk. I told him I had no intention of decorating the trunk, but if he wore his costume, I would. Well, we struck a deal and he ended up loving his costume. (it didn't hurt that a lot of cool big kids made nice comments about it.)

We did a lot of trick or treating in our neighborhood last night and it was fun and just the perfect temperature...cold enough to keep you moving, but not to freeze you! We went out around 6:30 and stayed out til 8:00. It was a great night!