The Best Christmas Program Ever...if you're me

Oh man, are you ready for the cuteness?  

Okay, so Robby's preschool did a little Christmas program.  The several weeks leading up to the program, as I'd pick him up and drop him off at preschool, the music teacher and the classroom teachers, and the preschool director would each tell me how great Robby does at music class; how well he knows the words, how great he does the actions, how happy he is to participate.  At first, I didn't think much of it.  I assumed that they gushed like that to all the parents and I kind of thought, "well yeah, all kids like music class and have fun, I'm sure."  It wasn't until I actually watched the program that I understood what they were talking about.  Here are a few pictures and videos to help me explain:

Here he is.  Little handsome man, so cute and happy (as ALWAYS).

 Here he is as the singing began.  Notice no one around him is singing.

 Still singing...and loving every darn minute of it...

 ...aaaand still singing.  No, my kid did not have a solo.  He just seems to be the only one up there singing his little heart out.  Man, I could just gobble him up he is so cute.

And now, if you'll indulge me with a few vids of the kid doing his thing.  Seriously, can you see the look of pure joy and excitement?  So excited that he was ready to keep going with verse three (while everyone else quit after verse 1).  They repeated the song once and Robby was ready to go again.

And this little gem.  Off to his right is another class that I didn't even pan over to because the kids were kinda crazy.  They were shouting, making weird noises, and jumping around.  Sweet Gus is doing his best to sing his song, enjoy it, and ignore the crazy.

Okay, and one last one.  I didn't record the first verse of this one.  Bummer.  He knew it perfectly and sang it with tenderness and all the love in his little heart.  Here is the second verse.  He may not know the words, but he is feeling it- from the smile on his face to the sway in his body.

John and I couldn't stop smiling.  That Robby is just something else.  It was fun to see his sweet personality shine through on stage.  Funny thing is, I originally told John not to worry about making it to the program.  I figured it was just a few songs and not worth leaving work in the middle of the day for.  John insisted on coming, and I'm so glad he did.  Afterward I told him that I was so glad he was there for the performance because there is no way I could have described to him how funny that whole thing was.

Eight

This December,my little boy turned eight.  EIGHT!  Holy cow!  It's so funny to look back over this blog and see how he is totally exactly the same spirited, goofy, sweet boy he was when he was three.  John and I sometimes joke about how we watch old videos of him when he was little and he really hasn't changed all that much.  And yet, in other ways, he has changed a ton.  He is respectful, obedient, hard working, and oh so intelligent.  

This year I wanted to kick the system a little bit and I'm so glad I did.  I'm so tired of every time there is a birthday in Tyler's class, the parents bring in cupcakes with an inch and a half of frosting and a juice box.  Seriously, people???  I'm sure they then go home and celebrate with pizza, soda,  more cake and ice cream.  I don't consider myself a health nut, but I'm a little tired of how blind our society is to the crap we're feeding our kids.  ANYWAY, I didn't want to ruin my kid's birthday over some platform that I want take up, but when I talked to Tyler he was totally on board.  I emailed Tyler's teacher and asked her if I could come in and use the 15 minute allotted birthday treat time at the end of the day to play a game with the class instead.  She was happy with the idea and so was Tyler.  He realized that his birthday would be special and different because we were going to DO something fun instead of EAT something fun, and because it was so different from the norm, it might be more memorable and cool.  So the day before his birthday, we went to the bookstore and bought three books to donate to the class library and then I printed off stickers that said, "this book donated to Mrs. House's class in honor of Tyler Carson's birthday" and stuck them in the front covers.The next day, on his birthday, I brought in a few balloons and the family birthday hat for Tyler and we played four corners for 15 minutes (and of course, the birthday boy got to be "it").  Success!  Tyler felt totally special and the kids had a fantastic time.  And I absolutely love Tyler's book choices: a book about reptiles, a Lego book, and a Magic Tree House series book.  These three books are sooooo representative of Tyler (and I got them for cheap at Half Price Books, none the less).   

After school, we headed to the trampoline place with Tyler's best bud from school.

Tyler and his friend thought they were so cool because they thought of this game all on their own, where they jump across and slap hands every time.  They did this for honestly about 10 minutes straight.  It just made me laugh.

And then it was back home for cake and ice cream and presents.

 

I'm so grateful for this great kiddo in my life.  I still smile when I see him tucked in his bed at night, fast asleep and I still plant a kiss and nuzzle my nose in his soft cheek.  He will always be my little boy. I'm also grateful that he still gives me hugs every day when I pick him up from school and he knows that sometimes I like to hold his hand.  It's hard to watch your babies grow up, but there is also something so rewarding about seeing who they become.  And I am quite proud of who this boy is becoming.  

Thanksgiving

Life has been non-stop fun since November, and I'm just now getting a chance to get caught up.  It was a fantastic holiday season and I want to remember some of the great memories, so I'd better get started.

In November, my parents and brother came for Thanksgiving.  We always have so much fun when they come, and this trip was no exception.  Here are a few of the highlights, in no particular order because I'm kinda in a hurry.

We showed them our Thankful Tree- which was a new favorite family tradition during the month of November. 

 We had inadvertent matchy, matchy Sunday.  Oh how I love me some synchronized dressing and the fact that this wasn't even planned just made me happy!

 We took our annual trip to Stockyard station to see the cattle drive (no pictures of the cattle, that's old news...just pictures of us having some fun).  I am kinda bummed that I didn't get a picture of Spencer sitting on one of the longhorn cattle with the sign he made for his girlfriend that said, "Keddie Linford, will you marry me?"  He took that and a few other pictures of his trip here and put them together in a slide show for her and proposed the day he got back home.  That's good stuff right there.

 

 No visit from Grandpa Bob and Grandma Marcia would be complete without a little bowling. 

 Tyler knows the best place to bond with grandpa is at the bowling alley- smart kid

 Robby liked trying out all the video games, and he didn't even need any coins because he makes his own sound effects, which are waaaay more fun than the real thing.

 We played games

And made wishes.

We ran in the neighborhood turkey trot (Tyler's first full 5k)

We rode scooters...man, did we ride scooters.  Thankfully, the weather was nice and we got out several times. 

 I promise one of these days, I WILL do a post about the scooters- they are seriously that fun, people. I mean just look at those grins.  You can't fake this kind of happiness.

 

And of course, we baked...and ate.

 Man, it was a perfect holiday.  We did fun activities, stayed home, took naps, cuddled, watched movies, ate good food and enjoyed being together.  There is just something so rewarding about seeing your kids interact with their grandparents.  It makes me just so darn happy.  I am more than a little bit sad that Spencer will most likely not be joining grandma and grandpa on their next visit, as he will be married and living far away.  We were spoiled to have him visit so many times, and I'm glad we had those memories.

And then everyone left, so we set right to work getting ready for Christmas so that I wouldn't feel sad about them leaving.