Is there an Elf on your shelf?

Well I finally broke down and bought an “Elf on the Self” ploy. The kids and I were shopping last weekend for a birthday gift and Julianne, my persistent and loving child, really wanted to have an elf in our house. All her friends had one and she did not understand why we did not have one. So I ended up purchasing the 30 dollar elf and book and the kids have enjoyed it. I have been hesitant about purchasing it just for the sheer fact that it enhances the are you “naughty or nice,” “Santa will give you a lump of coal if you are not good,” etc (do I need to go on? We all have heard these sayings). That drives me nuts and I think it is actually a bad parenting strategy. We all have our naughty sides when we were children but did we ever receive a lump of coal or less gifts then our siblings? No. So it drives me nuts when people ask my kids this. Oh well, I guess it is more the tradition of Christmas than adults really meaning what they say. So anyway, I do not talk about being naughty or nice when talking about what Santa will bring the kids. However, the book emphasizes this fact, thought not too much, so it is a small enough amount that I have accepted our Elf and what it stands for in our house. It stands for a mystical figurine that travels to the North Pole each night and ends up in a new place in the morning. The kids have enjoyed finding the elf’s new location as much as I have enjoyed trying to find creative shelves/TV/Lighting fixtures for it to call home for the day. The kids are still intrigued about how it actually gets to the North Pole each night and why it does not talk to them and why they can not touch it (it looses its magical powers if you touch the elf). So I love the creativity it adds to the Holiday Season so for that fact I am glad the Elf (named Chris) is in our house and a part of our Christmas tradition.

We found out a week ago that Julianne did not pass the 3rd grade reading assessment test. She failed it by a measly 6 points so that was a little frustrating but I remember not passing my planning certification test by one point so I can relate to the pain, frustration and feelings of it being unfair. However, as we all know, life must go on and not everything is fair and just. So we shared this news with her and since she did not pass it she has to take it again in the spring. Her teacher told us before we found out the results that most the kids that do not pass it do so mostly because they have never completed a test like this. The wording and directions are sometimes more difficult and foreign to the kids. So I think that may have played a part but I do think that it is mostly because Julianne hurries through work and does not take her time. She swore that she took her time and I am sure that she took more time then she usually does knowing that it was a test. But she also misses main themes/words/information when she reads because she is always moving onto the next sentence. She rushes a lot and misses minor words that have important meanings. So the next day we got a letter from a reading resource teaching stating that she should probably get additional help for reading. So I was thrilled because I have been wanting her to get extra help for reading but she has not qualified in the past. So this will give her extra time and attention and someone else who is more qualified than me to help her out. I, quite frankly, get frustrated reading with her because she does make such small mistakes and does not really “sound” out the word and instead just guesses. So we are hoping that this extra help and her awareness that she just needs to slow down and take her time will help her in future reading tasks. She has been really excited about meeting with her special teacher. There are several other kids in her class and another class that are also in the program she is in. So she loves that the teacher gives her treats and checks up on her. I am proud of her for adjusting so well and for putting in the extra effort.

Julianne is also having a hard time going to sleep. She has always had weeks where she claims that she can not fall asleep after having been asleep for awhile. But this is the longest episode and is probably going on 1 month. She really does not go to bed until 10 or 11. Which I think that for her 10 would be the latest but the 11 and beyond are a little late. Mallory and her play until about 9:00 then she does things in her room but she has been coming down every evening around 9:30 or 10:00 stating that she cannot fall asleep. So we keep telling her different strategies and we have even given her Melatonin for a few nights and the does not seem to work. So I feel bad for her because she always says that she is tired at school and she wants to go to bed but she is having a hard time falling asleep. I can relate to the fact that it is annoying when you have spurts of not being able to fall asleep. Then you starting thinking about all the sleep deprivations that is going on and that just makes it worse. So we are trying to help her but also not make her reliant on us for solving all her issues. Hopefully it will work itself out and we will not have to really do anything drastic.

I just dropped Nathan off at school for his last day of school before the winter break. We got his teachers flowers and a card and he was so excited to give his teachers his present. It was really sweet. In the car he said, "I can't wait to give Ms Caroline my present." He ran into the classroom and gave it right to her. It was really sweet to see him care that much about giving his teachers a gift. He is really excited for Christmas this year and keeps talking about it. We finally got our tree up so that that has helped. It will be fun to see him really excited on Christmas.

Our room addition is in full swing now. They have removed the back wall of our house and now we have all these temporary walls up. It is becoming a little drafty, especially with the single digit temperatures, but it is great to see the progress they have made. they are suppose to get it done before the baby is born so we will see. I am not too hopeful but I will be pleasantly surprised if it is. They have been working hard so I know that if it can be done they will do it.

Pictures of the house (this was actually about a month ago so I need to take updated pictures)



Grandma Marci brought over gingerbread houses and cookies to decorate. The kids and their cousins had a great time. Everyone got a chance to decorate and add their personal touch to the goodies.







We went bowling a couple weeks ago and despite the high cost of bowling we had a great time. We played one round and ended up paying almost 50 dollars. what ever happened to bowling being a low cost activity. We will wait until coupons arrive before we go again.










Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-listening to Mallory read on her own (she loves to read)
-hearing the kids go downstairs before we get up so that they can find the Elf
-Nathan telling us that he loves us.
-Julianne and her love of snow (she was outside yesterday laying on her belly licking the snow for quite a long time)

I'm still hear...

I am just unmotivated to write anything. Nothing much is happening and I have not really taken any pictures. I took pictures of my friends kids, a friend of mine and my own kids for some holiday cards. I do love my friends pictures but I am not as thrilled with my kids pictures. I am sure it will turn out wonderfully, but we are our greatest critic.

The girls soccer is over so that has been nice to have some more free time. I am getting started on shopping and organizing for the holidays. One thing I dread is composing our calender and Christmas card. It is just time consuming and I feel like my time is so limited. I am also against the entire Christmas card giving. What do we really do with them after the Holidays? I actually do keep the picture cards and put them in my yearly folder to keep but the others I shamefully recycle or give away. It is nice to see pictures of everyone else's families that I do not see all the time so I guess that is the point of sending them. I am sure others feel the same way but enjoy seeing our family. It would be nice if we all decided to not send cards and instead send a holiday e-mail or some other way to share our family updates besides buying 80 cards and stamps. I just dread when the first cards come and it reminds me that I have to get started on the entire process. Usually mine are the last to go out so I am trying to be more proactive this year.

I am also working on a quilt for Mallory which if it was my choice I would spend all my time on but with all the other things going on I have to divide and conquer.

We have started renovating our house so we now have a large mud hole in our back yard where our screeened in porch used to be. They are pouring the foundation for the crawlspace this week and the next. So when I get those pictures up I will share them on the blog.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-using my limited "me" time to work on a quilt
-giving thanks to everyone who is supportive and responsive in my life.
-The kids giving me 10 minutes to blog while they are coloring at the kitchen table.

Halloween fun

We had a great Halloween with great weather, a little cold, and great company. My next door neighbor always cooks a pot full of chili and we bought over chips and cornbread. Our city celebrated it on Thursday, which I disagree with, but I guess the point is to not have the kids running and out on the streets during a weekend. Anyway, the kids went as a 70's hippie chick, a cowgirl and a Star Wars figure and I went as a pregnant women and D was a dad. Mallory woke up on Thursday morning at 4 in the morning and threw up she threw up again two more times. Needless to say she did not go to school that day and I was a little bummed because I knew she was going to miss her school parade and party. She was better in time for trick-or-treating. D stayed home with her since I had a conference and he worked on Friday and I stayed home half day.

Nathan was really cute while trick-or-treating. The first 5 to 10 houses he kept up with the kids as they ran between houses. After that he complained that his stomach hurt and wanted carried but only for a few seconds before he saw the other kids running up to another house. He hung in there for most of the night. Julianne went the entire time with our neighbors and Mallory and Nathan stayed with me at our neighbors house.







Off they go...

A neighbor's display

The high school band came around and played on our street. It was great and definitely added to the community theme.

I took Nathan to the zoo this week and we had a great time. He loved it and he talked the entire time. He was not as into the animals and wanted to leave each animal after about 30 seconds of viewing the animal. I on the other hand wanted to stay and watch the animals but I guess he was the boss that day. He really loved the train and was really excited when we got to ride it. It was a great morning at the zoo and it was nice to spend some one on one time with him.

Cheesy face


I tried to get him to lay on the floor and have him looking up at the bear like the bear was about to eat him but he was not into that picture. I think he was afraid that the bear would actually take a bite out of him.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-getting good looking maternity pants.
-my new spinning bike now located in my basement.
-Watching my kids run between houses gathering treats

Wow it has been awhile

Well I have been slacking on my blog. It is harder the longer I go between posts because I dread having to write a long post to cover everything that happened. But I always feel great after I do it and it kind of releases some memory in my brain because I was finally able to write all these activities/thoughts down.

So... the last few weeks... where do I start. Well I can start with our trip to the local state park in the southern part of our state. It was great. We stayed in a cabin near the area and took the kids. It was nice to be in the wilderness and to appreciate it more than we usually do. The kids loved the cabin because it had a loft where they all slept in. It was also made of real wood so they were interested in the process of making a real log cabin. Outside there were some trails, fire pit, corn hole and woods. The kids made a house sign made out of twigs and rocks and we decorated acorns to look like little people. I forgot to take pictures of these activities but they really had a great time creating art with nature. We took the kids to see some caves and a waterfall, which was dried up. They really enjoyed the hike and we had minimal complaining.




Nice face Mallory.

Here is another try, but Julianne and Nathan are looking the other way. I can never get a great picture of all three of them together.

Julianne in a dark spooky cave.


Large pulled up tree.


Nathan did not get into the highlighted area. Not enough time to edit.

Nathan fell asleep on the way home so I brought him in the cabin and he slid down the futon. He stayed like this for quite some time.

The kids were obsessed with these caterpillars. We had lots of them in plastic containers before we convinced them that they would not like to be stuck in a plastic room.


Log cabin joints. Pretty cool how they are stuck together and what prevents them from slipping out.

The "men" tending to the fire.

On Sunday, our departure day, Nathan began his barky cough. He coughed pretty much the entire morning and afternoon. I did not bring his nebulizer since he just had one a few weeks before so I felt bad that I did not have anything for him. We were on our way home so I knew that we could do a treatment around lunch time. He was coughing so much and so hard that he threw up in the car like 5 minutes after we left. We got him home and gave him a treatment and went to Mallory's game. He was hot and tired at the game from coughing so much and having his body's antihistamines all revved up that he took a nap on the way home. We gave him another treatment and some Zyrtec and that seemed to help. He still had a little bit of heaving breathing that night but not too severe. So I think it was all the fall leaves and the surroundings that may have triggered his asthma. There is definitely a difference in his episodes of when he has a barky cough and just a regular cough. I am not going to make an assumption but I do have a hypothesis that his barky coughs are due to allergies and the regular coughs are due to colds/viruses. So I am going to observe this and see if it is true. I seem to concentrate on his heaving breathing and trying to figure that out but there is also some differences between the coughing that occurs beforehand.

Julianne had her soccer tournament last weekend and they played really well. They ended up winning second place within their little division. The great thing about that was she really earned her first trophy. She loves it and will not let Nathan touch it because she does not want him to break it. I think that all the teams get a trophy but she is especially happy about hers. She played defense most of the time and really likes that role. She was playing goalie for the first 5 games and she started to not like soccer. I kept thinking that the coach would switch her around but he did not so we finally talked to him and told him that she does not like play goalie every single game. Since they are so young we want her to still really like the game and to move to different positions. This talk did not go as we planned and the coach came back and said that he will not put her on goalie anymore. Which was not our point, and we tried to emphasis that, but she has not played goalie since that talk. So we are not really worried about it she still enjoys it and likes that she is not goalie anymore.


Some pictures of the kids while at Julianne's game.


My little nature girl.

She is cleaning out the pond.


More pictures of Julianne (she's white number 10).

Mallory's soccer is going well. It is great to see her play. She really enjoys it and still bounces all over the field with a smile on her face.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Hearing Nathan say, "It's froggy outside." (instead of foggy)
-Enjoying nature with the kids.
-Having my husband home after 5 days of not seeing each other.