An Old-Fashioned Hi-Tech Slideshow

My brother-in-law, Mark, took all of Great-Grandma Nosek's slides and had them copied onto a DVD. These slides encompassed all of her married life, dating from 1944 on. We all gathered at our cousins' house (Pat and Carrie) today to watch the slides projected on a screen, just as they used to do. However, now the memories are better preserved. Hats off to Mark for such a thoughtful gift to Grandma, his technical know-how, and his dedication to preserving family history!

In the picture, you can see Great-Grandma in the chair, and her great-grandchildren lounging on pillows on the floor, watching pictures of their grandparents and parents when they were kids.

Sledding, Birds and a Light Show

Those would be the highlights of today. Somehow, despite really sloppy weather conditions, our kids and some of their friends convinced Dave to take them sledding at the local sledding hill. They came back a couple of hours later very wet, craving hot chocolate and with some excellent sledding stories to tell.We then cleaned up, got dressed in Christmas-ey outfits, and headed to a neighbor's house for a Christmas party. These neighbors own three cockatiels, and much to the kids' delight, they were able to hold these birds. There were lots of giggles, much excited chatter from Evan, and even a few pirate poses. Wish I would have brought my camera!

We topped it off with a drive over to a local nursery that does an amazing Christmas light show. They actually broadcast music on the radio that coordinates with what the lights are doing. We were all very impressed, and probably stayed there at least an hour watching it, and would have even wanted to stay longer if it weren't getting so late! Here's a short clip...it was AMAZING!!!

On the very short drive home, the three older kids all fell asleep, so tired from their busy day. Evan, although he looks relatively bright eyed in this picture, joined his siblings in their slumber moments later :)

It is nice to be loved

Tonight I went to my friend Shannon's house for a girls' night out, and that meant that Dave was home with all four kids, responsible for getting them all to bed. Whenever I come home after being out, I usually ask right away how things went. This time, Dave answered, "Well, Caroline did well." I asked him to expand, and he told me that Evan was fussy, and asked for me for a while, but he did settle eventually.

That left our oldest sons. Wondering what they did, I asked Dave if they were naughty. He said, "Not really. They were just upset that they didn't get to say goodnight to you." I immediately started feeling guilty...I didn't say goodnight to them before I left because Evan was so on edge. I didn't want him to be upset, and thereby giving Dave a hard time. They asked when I would be home. Dave said that I would be at least a couple of hours and that they would not be able to stay up that long. They said they wanted to wait up. Thinking that they would fall asleep soon enough, Dave left the room only to hear what he thought was fighting coming from their room a few minutes later. When he went to check on them, it turns out that they had been exercising... Seth informed Dave that he had already done 100 jumping jacks, and Henry was doing push-ups in his bed! They reasoned that exercising would help them stay awake until I got home. Dave put the kibosh (?) on their late-night calisthenics, and promised them I would come in to kiss them when they were sleeping.

I love my boys (and, of course, my girl). :)

Caroline the Red-Nosed Preschooler

Yesterday, which would be the day after I posted the picture of our family with the reindeer, Caroline came home from school looking like one! Dave picked her up from preschool, and apparently Caroline's teacher had the kids crawl out of the classroom looking like this, pretending they were reindeer. Too cute!

HOWEVER, Caroline does have a rather long-lasting red nose that no amount of soaking is taking completely off. I'm sure it'll be gone in a couple of days, but for the time being, if she is going to have a red nose, 'tis the season to do it. We watched one of Caroline's friends from preschool today, and their noses matched, so I guess she's not alone. At least none of her reindeer friends will make fun of her!

We've been Elfed...

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

To play the clip, click on the arrow. To replay it, move your cursor to the bottom of the clip screen. A "play" arrow will pop up so that you can click on that to watch again (and again and again, as we have in this house, per the request of our elves).

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KAREN ANNIE!!!

You won't believe it...

...but get this...WE MET A REAL LIVE REINDEER!!!!! Coming home from work, Dave met us at the Christmas Stroll the other night. You should have seen the kids running up to him to tell him
that we had seen one of Santa's reindeers. It was one of those moments that I want to remember forever. The kids were enchanted, and of course, they wanted a picture with him. Not sure if this is Donner or Blitzen...

We'll miss you, Reilly.

My parents' dog, Reilly passed away today. He was an old dog, and lived a full, happy life. I told the kids about it, and after a few tears, we decided to make cards for Grandma, Grandpa and Reilly. While we were coloring, we shared some of our favorite Reilly stories...

Henry said, "I liked when Reilly was a puppy in the pet store. He was so excited to play that he was running super fast and crashing into things, and eating my mom's and Uncle Bill's shoelaces."
Seth said, "I liked when I threw the ball, and he could chase it down the hallway and catch it sometimes."
Caroline said, "I will miss you forever and ever. I love you so much. I am blowing kisses up to you in heaven."

Our condolences, Mom and Dad. We love you.

Welcome to Monday Morning...

Sometimes you have to laugh at the timing...
My poor, sweet Caroline. We had her completely dressed and were working on putting her hair up in cute, little pigtails about 5 minutes before we were leaving for school. The older boys were getting their snow stuff on, and Evan was all ready. Out of the blue, Caroline said to me, "I don't think I should go to school. I don't feel good." And then she threw up.

To look on the bright side, here are some things that are working for us...
1. Not much of a mess...we were in the bathroom.
2. My friend, Julie, was home to pick up the boys and bring them to school. (Bless her heart!)
3. We are T-18 days until Christmas. I am thinking positive because I think we have enough time to fit in stomach flu for everyone and recover before Christmas. :)
4. My daughter is very kind-hearted. She just told me that she was glad that she was not going to school today because she didn't want her friends to get sick.

And here's my poor sweet pea, cuddled in a blanket with her purple bunny, minus the hair bow we were working on when the action started...