Christmas Eve Eve Breakfast

And the new traditions continue! Chris and I made the kids breakfast this morning for Advent. We had Christmas Tree Waffles with "ornaments" (M&Ms). This is SUPER special because I never let them have candy for breakfast (a constant request by Ramona) AND I let Chris put green food coloring in the batter. (Last time, Max had blue poop.) They loved it! Max kept banging his empty plate and begging for more. Ironically, Ramona decided she didn't like candy on her waffles. But wanted to know if she finished her waffles, could she have dessert? Um, this IS dessert! I am spending the rest of the day making Christmas presents...yes MAKING, Handmade Christmas, baby! Hopefully Chris can keep the kids entertained. Good luck!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

For the past couple of weeks I have been entertaining the idea of never telling Ramona and Max that Santa is real. Last year, Ramona HATED Santa. See a proof here. As a result, I came to terms with never having "Santa" bring gifts to our house. And then this year, Ramona started asking who Santa was. After putting her off for awhile and talking to Chris, we decided that we would try to tell her that Santa is just a fun Christmas cartoon, like Dora. That seems to be working so far. Hopefully she won't shatter any other children's Christmas dreams in the years to come.

Anyway, on our Advent calendar the other day our activity was to "write a letter to Santa". No way! That would just confuse her. Instead, we made Jesus a birthday card. She immediately asked how we would give it to him? Uhhh.... I don't know. After talking to our sunday school class about their Christmas traditions, we settled on air mail. Tie a balloon to the letter and send it straight up to Jesus! Awesome, right? Ramona thought so. And HEB gives away free balloons to kids. BONUS! This activity was free, baby!

My favorite part of our trip to HEB to get the balloon was the elderly woman in front of us in line talking to Ramona.
Woman: Are you excited for Christmas?
Ramona: YES!
Woman: Have you seen Santa yet?
Ramona: (Confused look...)
Woman: Have you written him a letter?
Ramona: (Confused look again...)We made Jesus a birthday card.
Woman: Oh! (Awkwardly turns around and proceeds to check out her groceries.)

I promise this actually happened. Poor woman, probably thought we weren't celebrating Christmas at all. Oh well, I thought it was funny that she got all weird around a 3 year old who mentioned Jesus. Go Ramona, speak the truth! This is Jesus' holiday!

She let go of the balloon and we all screamed,
"Happy Birthday, Jesus!"

This will definitely be a new tradition. Happy Advent, Everybody!

Band Trip!

We hit the road with Price Hill again last Wednesday. Max as per usual got sick as soon as we left. He has high fevers, vomiting and a nasty cough. So, we were lovely house guests to the Salas family that hosted us for 2 nights. We pretty much took over that house. Max was afraid of the dogs, so they had to stay in their kennels. Max got sick and fearing that it was a stomach bug, I kicked Chris and Ramona out of our room the second night to sleep in the game room. But, our hosts were so nice, they gave us their another one of their bedrooms so that we would be more comfortable. Their poor son had to sleep on the couch. Best house guests EVER! Thankfully we spent the third night in a hotel and their family got their beds back. Aside from the sickness, we had fun! One of the best parts of Chris' band playing at churches is that there are playgrounds, instruments, nursery toys and sporting equipment to play with. Otherwise the children would revolt and this would never work.

Guess which one's gonna be the drummer.

Ramona introduced Max to slides!

He loves the danger.

We had to skip out on the second half of the trip this weekend. Hopefully Max will be better by tomorrow, if not it's off to the doctor!

It's Halloween Night!!!

For as long as I can remember, my Dad and his good friend Billy have called each other every Halloween night and screamed at the top of their lungs: IT'S HALLOWEEN NIGHT-A! No, that is not a typo. My Dad adds an "A" sound to the end of "Night" for effect. You know, like the count on Sesame Street. One-A-A-A, Two-A-A-A...well you get it. I don't know how this tradition started, but it always makes me smile. I'm pretty sure they call each other on St. Patrick's Day also and yell, "TOP OF THE MORNIN' TO YA!" Again, I don't know why. But who cares, they've been doing it for 30 years!

What does this have to do with my kids' Halloween night this year? Nothing! It's just a fun story.

Ramona designed the Jack-o-Lantern this year.
This is what she wanted us to carve.

This is what we actually carved.

Princess Ramona

Froggy Max and Fisherman Poppy

Step 1: Knock on Door
Step 2: Say, "Trick or Treat" and accept candy

Step 3: Sit down, make yourself at home
and befriend the whole neighborhood
while ransacking their bowl of candy.

Hope you had a wonderful Halloween! We are slowly eating all of our candy...the kids are, I mean. I am, of course, pounding back handfuls of fun sized candy bars all day long. Stupid chocolate.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

Get ready for pumpkin picture overload...

Super handsome!

Max tripped over quite a few pumpkins.

This one's perfect!

Yep, it's the exact same size as my belly.

Put me down!

Oh yeah, Max walks now...no big deal!

And bear crawls.

Max couldn't be bothered with family pictures.

Tiny orange balls, FUN! Do they bounce?

Mom, they have tiny pumpkins!!!

A lady never goes anywhere without her purse.

As I mentioned before, Ramona goes to her Cubbies Class every Wednesday night. We were practicing her Bible verses this morning. Chris and I hear her talking to herself in the kitchen with what sounded like her reciting her own, made up verse:
"Ramona will obey her teacher. Ecclesiastes 6:8-toot" Chris laughed till he cried.

J&M Salvage Yard

Hello, Friends and Family! My friend, Justine, and I have been super busy the last few weeks crafting our little hearts out. We signed up for a booth at our church's craft fair with hopes to make a little extra cash doing something we love...CRAFTS. This quickly turned into a small business we named J&M Salvage Yard. Most of our products are made from everyday materials, either found at home or in garage sales. We then upcycle those materials into beautiful items for you. Our main focus is recycling. We want to cut down on waste and cost, thus keeping the cost low for you! If this sounds interesting to you, check out our Facebook page (search J&M Salvage Yard) and you can see all of our products and shop online! Just message us or comment on a product picture to buy. Most of our products are one of a kind. Our products will change from month to month (maybe week to week). So if you see something you like, act fast! We have 3 craft shows coming up also: Central Baptist Church's Craft Fair, MOPS Home Based Business Fair and Jonestown Street Festival. Thanks for all of the positive feedback we have received so far!

Sweet, Tiny, Newborn Baby Jesus

Ramona has been learning a lot about God and Jesus in her Cubbies class on Wednesday night. She has memorized the following verses:

1. God loved us and sent his son. 1 John 4:10
2. All have sinned. Romans 2:23
3. While we were sinners, Jesus died for us. Romans 5:8
4. God is love. 1 John 4:8
5. And of course the Cubbies motto: Jesus loves me!

I am absolutely amazed at how quickly she learned these. She loves to stand in front of the mirror in her Cubbies vest and say, "Hey, Cubbie, what's your motto? Jesus loves me!"

Ramona is also learning how to say her prayers. The other day, she asked Jesus to forgive her for sinning when she disobeyed me earlier that day. And then last night while we were saying her nightly prayers, she thanked God for her family. There is nothing sweeter than hearing a 3 year old pray.

And on a low note for Jesus, Ramona was vacuuming her room earlier and I hear her frantically yelling, "Baby Jesus is in the vacuum!" Apparently, she was cleaning too close to her doll house and her tiny Jesus doll got in the way.

Ramona with her new Cubbies vest and book.
Also, notice her new haircut!

Max's love affair with fish continued at the San Antonio Zoo.