And the rest of our holiday weekend…

We spent a few days with my mom.  We have made it a tradition at Thanksgiving to make Chinese food when we are all at my moms for the holiday.  It is something we all look forward to doing together.  Even the kids like to help.  This year Audrey helped us wrap the crab ragoons so daddy and uncle rexy could fry them up.  We spent Saturday at my grandparents house having our “Christmas” with the part of my family.  It was so nice to see so many of our family members.  We just don’t see each other as much as I would like to.  The kids all had fun together.  Eli wrestled with my cousin Tyler who is 10.  And then they started attacking another cousin Matthew.

Audrey was trying to put her stocking on her foot.  Uncle rexy told her to put it on and of course she did!

Eli opening presents at great grandma and grandpa’s house.

Audrey and crazy grandma reading a book

Jocelyn playing with cousin Ryder

 

 

Thanksgiving with Brian’s family

We spent Thanksgiving day with Brian’s side of the family.  We also celebrated Christmas since Mark and Deb will be with her family over the Christmas holiday.  We had a fun day playing the Wii, eating, and opening gifts that night.  The kids were very excited to open some gifts.  Eli was very excited to be getting “Thanksgiving” presents.  When we explained that these were his christmas gifts, he just laughed.  I think, he thinks, that he will be getting Christmas gifts too since these were thanksgiving presents.  He continues daily to make us laugh!!

All of us (Except Brian, he is taking the picture) around the table getting ready to eat.

Craig, Mark, Eli and Brian playing the Wii.  They were playing darts.

Brian, Jocelyn, Mark, and Craig playing darts again!  Darts was a popular game on the Wii that day!

Eli loves to play games on Uncle Mark’s phone. 

Audrey helping to decorate the Christmas tree at Grandma and Grandpa’s.

Eli opening up one of his presents.  A new dirt bike! 

Look at that girl!  She had to pose for the picture.

A night at home with mom!

The kids and I got to spend an evening together when Brian went out for a guys night.  I took all three kids with me to Hobby Lobby…I know CRAZY!…but they were actually really well behaved.  I told them that they could pick out a craft to do at home if they were good.  Some of you may not believe in bribery… but I DO!  It makes my life much easier.  They had to decide all together which craft kit they wanted.  After 15 minutes of discussion and Audrey trying to open all the packages she could reach, they found the crafts they wanted. 

Volunteering at Harvesters

Jocelyn’s girl scout troop has an annual tradition to volunteer some time to harvesters.  Harvesters is our local food donation warehouse.  Most food drives in the area are for harvesters.  As GS leaders, we try to teach the girls about giving back to our community, not just by giving items and money, but also by donating our time.  When we go, our girls have to bring/donate 10 non perishable food items for the pantry.  They always weigh how much food we donate and then send us a letter and tell us how many people we fed with our donations!  Our girls really had a good time last year when we went to the warehouse.  Last year, the girls sorted many pallets of boxes.  This year they scooped Rice Krispies in to bags that needed to weigh about a pound each.  We had 12 of our girls and 11 parents go along with us.  Thank goodness for the parents!!  We all had to put hairnets and gloves on.  We all had a terrific time!  Here is a picture of Jocelyn scooping the Rice Krispies and making a new fashion statement with her hairnet!

Another beautiful day in Kansas City!

Today was about 60-65 degrees here in Kansas City.  Can’t believe it!  When Eli got home from preschool, him and Audrey played outside on the trampoline and in the sandbox.  Here are some cute pics of them…

 

 

 

 

 

She is getting to be so grown up…

I was thinking today how lucky Brian and I are to have three wonderful, healthy, happy children.  Jocelyn is growing up so fast right before our eyes.  I can’t believe that she is going to be 8 in a few months.  I think that just over the past few months, it has seemed like she has grown up so much.  Her attitude isn’t as bad as it used to be (and those of you that have ever had a 7 year old daughter, you know what attitude I am talking about!!).  She has more of an understanding as to why we make the decisions we do.  Jocelyn is very involved in several different extra-curricular (don’t think I spelled that right) activities and very rarely does she compain about it.  Now spelling on the other hand, she does not like to do and makes that perfectly clear.  But she will still sit down and do them when we ask her to.  There have been some weeks that she has cheer practice Monday, Girl Scouts Tuesday, Dance and JAM (church) on Wednesday, Thursdays have been our family nights, Fridays are for sleepovers with friends, weekends for cheerleading games.  Yeah, I know, that is really a lot for a seven year old, but these are all activities that she wanted/wants to do.  Luckily, she is pretty high energy and can handle being on the go like this.

Here are some reasons why I am so proud of her!!!

When Mark and Deb got married a few weeks ago, Jocelyn was able to attend the bridal luncheon with us the day before the wedding.  It was all adults, dressed up, drinking wine, and having fancy foods!! Grandma Belden wanted her to go with us.  I was a little worried, but I got nothing but compliments on how polite and grown up she was.  She made us proud. 

We got her mid quarter grades and she has all A’s.  Fantastic.  I was a little worried about spelling, but worried for no reason.

She is a great help when it comes to Audrey.  Audrey adores her and Jocelyn does so much for her.  When Jocelyn is in the shower in the morning, Audrey will sit outside the shower and say “please” to Jocelyn until Jocelyn lets her in there with her.  Jocelyn will wash Audrey up and then help her out of the shower.  I don’t ask her to do this, she wants to.  What a wonderful big sister.  She also helps Audrey with her Speech “homework” every week.  She reads to her and encourages her to repeat the words that she says.  Audrey listens to her better than anyone!

Time flies by!  Cherish those moments with your children!

Jocelyn’s Cheer Party

We had a cheer and football party for all the cheerleaders, football players and families.  All the coached were awarded gifts and the kids were all given awards, trophies, and medals.  We ate, mingled, and then we played dodge ball.  Not just the kids, but the parents too.  Eli found a new game that he loves to play.  And Jocelyn already knew that she liked to play dodge ball.  The cheerleaders played against the football players.  The moms played against the kids.  The football coaches played against their players…and that one was fun to watch.  The coaches were throwing those balls hard at those players!  We all had fun and it was neat to see all the kids interact off of the field.  Jocelyn doesn’t go to school with any of the football players, so she is meeting a lot of new friends.

The football players gave each of the girls 2 roses.  All the girls were so shy when they got their flowers.  And we know that they are far from being shy!!

So cute!!!

On to dodge ball…

Eli is on the left getting ready to run for a ball!

And he got one… but I think someone caught it so he was out.

Football weather!

Jocelyn’s football team had a tournament this weekend.  Jocelyn was so excited that there were more games to cheer for (we thought the season was over until last week!)  that she didn’t even care that the weather was far from perfect!  The first game was Saturday morning at 10am.  I think the windchill was 20 degrees.  Now, those of you that have cheerleaders know that every cheerleader on the squad MUST be wearing the exact same thing.  Everything from socks to their hair bows.  I put her in leggings and then her warm ups.  I was worried about their hands.  They had ear warmers and hoods on their jackets, but nothing for their hands.  She has a wonderful coach that was up early Saturday morning, went to WalMart to buy all the girls white gloves!  We met all the girls 30 minutes before so they could warm up and practice their halftime routine.  The wind was brutal!!!  But, let me just say that our girls were so tough!  Tougher than those football players. There were some of the football players in tears because they were cold! NO TEARS from the cheerleaders.  Not even any complaints!  Us moms (and some dads) were sitting on the sidelines all bundled up in our blankets, hoods, hats, gloves, etc!  At the end of the games, Jocelyn’s cheer squad was presented with medals and a trophy for having the most SPIRIT of any other cheer squad out there at the 10 am games!  They were pumped and their team also won.  Which meant a 6 pm game that night.  We left the game and headed to a birthday party for one of Jocelyn’s friends.  Guess where… ICE SKATING!!  cold again!  And again, no complaints from Jocelyn!  She came home and rested for a while and we were back outside at 5:45pm ready to cheer again!  They did great again!  There were only 8 and they impressed the refs during this gam!  They complimented the girls all throughout the game!  (I forgot my camera.. sorry no pictures!  I was too worried about staying warm!!)

This was one of those moments, when as a mom, you get tears in your eyes because you are so proud of your child.  Jocelyn has grown up so much in the last few months and it shows in so many ways!  I am a proud mama!!!

The Spirit of Giving has begun!

I made it decision this year that before the holidays, my kids needed to go through their own toys and decide what they still played with.  We started in Audrey’s room and packed up all the “baby” toys for cousin Ryder.  Then we went to Eli’s room… he gave some things to Audrey and decided that some things were just for boys, so those would be saved for Ryder when he gets to be “old like me” as Eli puts it.  Then on to Jocelyn’s room.  This girl keeps everything!  She has so much storage in her room full of every little thing she has made, has gotten, has won, etc.  But we threw away 1 entire garbage bag full of STUFF and then gave some things to Eli and some to Audrey.  Their rooms look so good.  I was actually able to see their carpet so I could vacuum their rooms…even inside the closets are clean!!  What a good feeling!  It is Sunday now and I am so proud of all three of them, they have continued to keep their rooms cleaned up!  YEAH!!!

Finally… some pictures from the wedding!

Here are all of us at the wedding.  It turned out to be a beautiful, sunny day for an outside wedding.  The colorful leaves were the best backdrops for the pictures!

Mom, Me, Eli, Audrey, Jocelyn, Brian, Rexy, Jami, and Ryder!

 

Cute picture of Brian and Jocelyn dancing.  Audrey and Grandpa are also in the background dancing. 

We are a dancing family!!

These are just the pictures from my mom’s camera.  I will get more soon from Brian’s parents and Mark and Deb’s wedding pics when those are ready!