It's a Wonderful Life

So on Tuesday Jackson discovered how to text from my phone.  Not cute Jack, not cute (OK but a little funny) Our plan all along was to decorate the house for Christmas on Friday.  However, Jackson really wanted to do it earlier so Tuesday night Erik set up our tree and Wednesday morning, I lit a Christmas candle, turned on some Ella Fitzgerald and went to work. Taking down the fall, putting up the Christmas. We saved the tree decorating for last of course (by far the best part!).  I didn't realize until after I took these pictures that Anna a) still had some major bed head going on and b) DIDN'T HAVE ANY PANTS ON!  haha more proof that we are deep in the heart of potty training. I also realized that this is the first year that all of my kids understand how to decorate a tree and that we shouldn't rip all of the ornaments off the tree :) Taking a much deserved hot cocoa break!   And weirdly this is the only picture of our date th...

Wyatt's preschool program was on Tuesday.  I was so excited to see him say his part that he has been practicing and to just see him with his preschool friends and teachers.  It's especially heart warming to see Wyatt, whose identity up until this school year has mostly been "younger brother" to grow into a preschooler, meeting friends his own age and living a life totally apart from his siblings.  I can see in Wyatt's happy, glowing smile whenever I pick him up from preschool how much he loves his experience there.  I'm so grateful for Sonshine Learning Center! So yeah, the program was adorable.  The cynical side of me thinks that schools do these programs less for the benefit of the children and more for the benefit of the parents that they can feel good while their cute little kids are paraded in front of them, that the school is doing a good job.  But even if that is case, I still liked the program!  Because they really are all stinkin' cute k...

Last weekend we finally got our date night in.  While I was getting ready, I noticed that Anna was "getting ready" as well. She came out my closet and announced that she was ready to go shopping and was wondering if I wanted to come with her.  What a sweetie! Date night was dinner at a place I had never been before I. J. Canns.  It was super delicious!  It was also fun to go to a place that wasn't a national chain and had it's own vibe :) While we were out, Jackson worked very hard on his entry for the school yearbook cover.  He's not one to sit down for long periods of time usually, so I love it when he decides on his own to create something.  I think he did a pretty great job too! When I dropped Wyatt off at preschool on Monday it was cold!  Like nineteen degrees cold!  Wyatt decided he wanted to wear this old hat of Erik's.  He likes that it makes him "look like a thief."  The preschool teachers that ushered Wyatt...

Thursday evening was Catching Fire night!  I was so excited to go to the Alamo and see this movie.  Erik was in CO for the day and temporarily I thought I was going to have to waste the ticket I bought, however Brittany and I decided to trade kids so she and Derek could see it as well! :) My friend Lisa who was going with a group asked me to go, but I when I ordered my ticket their screening room was already sold out!  But since Amanda ordered hers later as well we were in the same one at least.  It wouldn't have been quite as much fun by myself!  And when Amanda, earlier this week, told me she was trying to figure out a "Katniss outfit" I jumped on the dressing up bandwagon so fast, I think I may have pulled a muscle ;)  First stop was amazon to get one of these fantastic $4 mocking jay pin (sadly the pin fell off me right before I left, and I couldn't even find it! Maybe for the best?).  The olive green pants I was planning on wearing didn't wor...

This year I was really excited to run my fourth half marathon.  A half marathon is the perfect racing goal for me: it challenges my fitness level, but won't leave me feeling too wiped out.  So anyway back in August, I started figuring out which local race I wanted to set as my goal.  First one I wanted to do was the Diva Half Marathon in Leesburg (only 40 minutes away!) that would be in September.  That one however, was sold out.  Next idea was to repeat the Freedom Half Marathon like I did last year.  That was my plan for a while (oh by the way, if you haven't already figured out, I'm going through all of the boring details of my racing plans this fall.  Feel free to skip this post) until we found out that Austin Staker was getting baptized that morning.  Missing his baptism was not an option in this house, so I looked for a new one.  Next choice: Richmond half marathon.  That dream was short lived however as Erik pretty quickly told m...

Finally the time arrived for Erik to come home from his hunting trip! Hip Hip Hooray! Hallelujah! And whatever happy exclamation one can think of!  We missed him so much.  He had a great trip.  He shot an elk, so I'm sure that made him pretty happy.  Between the four of them they got a bull and a cow-- that's a lot of meat!  We've been running really low on our elk meat too. :) He got home at about 6:30 pm on Sunday.  And by 6:31 pm the kids were enjoying their special presents that Erik brought home.  A doll sippy cup and bottle for Anna and cool compasses for the boys. She loves her babies! One of the (smaller) reasons I was missing Erik was because he is our resident barber!  The boys were looking pretty shaggy.  The plan was for Erik to trim them Monday evening, but Monday morning, I thought I could just clip Jackson's wings that were sprouting by his ears, but obviously I couldn't.  I totally botched his ha...