Holiday Madness

I love this time of year. I love eating like crazy, being with family, listening to Christmas music, decorating the tree, wrapping presents, trying to deal with a crazy schedule etc. Most of all, I love to shop! I love to sniff out bargains! This year, we were able to buy a bigger TV (still not huge, just 32 inch). We started at Target and got there at 4:40 but were not able to snatch up a deal, so we high tailed it to Walmart and got one. We went back to bed, got back up and did some more shopping!! I also went out Thursday morning before I cooked and snatched these FREE items!! (and I hope to get more today). Boy, do I love CVS and Walgrees who pay ME to shop with them!!! (two candy bars, two toothpaste, one tooth brush, two deodrants, two bottles of shampoo, and some lotion)

My Pilgram Girl

Jenna's class had a play today at school for their Thanksgiving feast. The kids are out for the rest of the week and are very excited. I didn't get to go, but Jack did and he taped parts of the program for me.

Civil War Field Trip

Joshua was much better so we were able to drive to Petersburg, VA for the field trip. This by far was the best field trip I have been on. I'm not a history buff, but this trip was very interesting. We had a FABULOUS tour guide! (I should have gotten his picture). You could tell this was something he was passionate about. It wasn't just a job to him. He made it so interesting and the way he could answer the kids questions amazed me. He was very patient with them too. They had a drummer that went with us part of the way. He showed the kids how the soldiers loaded and shot the guns and even let them have "hands on" with "fake guns". He then took us over and showed us how the soldiers life would have been like. After all this we went and saw a brief movie followed by going out where part of the war took place. We ate lunch and then visited a real plantation house and then took us out and showed us how the slaves worked in the field, and showed us what a slaves "house" would look like. I was amazed that 12 year olds were "taxed" back then and they were expected to hoe or plow an acre lot in a day!! The end of our field trip was a museum with 9 rooms which was really nice! The boys loved the room that showed the soldiers fighting. You could feel the floor shake and a bullet breeze by your head. The incredible part is that when you pull up, it doesn't really look like a lot, but we didn't even see everything that was there. Hands down an incredible field trip!

Civil War Fair

Joshua's class had a civil war fair yesterday. His class has be studying it. It was so nice to go in there and see how some of them dressed, and all their wonderful projects. I think his Harriet Tubman project came together very well. Tomorrow is the BIG field trip to the Civil War Museum in Petersburg, but pray that Joshua feels well enough to go. He isn't feeling too hot today, so I kept him home. No fever, so hopefully he'll be ok to go!

Joshua

Where do I start with Joshua? Joshua is my fearless one. He is going to camp this summer. He can get in front of a crowd and speak without it bothering him. He LOVES sports. He is gifted in soccer (one of only 3 this year on his team of 14 that scored a goal). He loves football and can't wait to play in the fall (not sure how I feel about that, even though it is flag). He makes friends very easily. He gets upset when things are perfect (like making B's instead of A's). He likes to read. He's overcome a lot of obstacles and is a great joy to our family. We love you!

Jacob

Jacob is such a joy to us! I sometimes think it must be so hard for him to be the middle child. Josh gets all the privileges, Jenna the attention. Jacob loves to joke around and have fun. If he isn't active, you know something is wrong. Jacob loves to hug me (although not in front of his friends). He loves to play with Josh and Jenna. He is very good with playing with little children. He makes good grades with little effort and doesn't even know that he is. He has an A+ average in spelling, and I don't study with him!! He is very tenderhearted and very photogenic. We love our Jacob!!!

Jenna

I decided to do a post about each of my children. Jenna is so beautiful, but shy. Jenna is 5, but seems like she could be 8. She does anything her brothers can do. She LOVES school, LOVES her teacher. She has the desire to learn and to push herself harder. She is determined. She wants to be like mommy (scary scary) when she grows up. She loves soccer. She scored every game she played in. One game she scored 5 goals!! She adds a lot of joy around the house. One of my biggest desires growing up was to be a mom. I wanted at least one girl and one boy. I look back at when I found out I was pregnant with Jenna. I kept wondering why God allowed me to get preganant again, and so CLOSE to Jacob. I'll always hear Jack's words in my ear....."honey, it's your little girl".

family

Jacob's field trip

Monday I went on Jacob's field trip to see the play "The Little Red Hen". I enjoyed spending time with Jacob. I think he enjoyed going to McDonald's after the field trip more than anything!!

fall festival/game night

Josh with his friends Zack, Sutton and Madde

waiting to play

the big race

Last Friday was pretty busy. I took the kids over to Southside to their fall festival. They had games, free hot dogs (red) free popcorn, free nachos and drinks. They had a lot of games to play and a hayride. I liked some of the games because there was Bob and Larry, a tree of life game, the wall of Jericho etc. I liked the theme games. They also had a trike race which was very funny to see. My kids raced each other and Jenna won.

After that we headed over to church because our small group had game night. I was a little unsure about going because I could only imagine some in depth games that I never seem to understand. It was so fun. I learned how to play Apples to Apples. We also had pizza and dessert. So, our weekend was VERY full!!