Santa's Lap

Every year about this time we visit Santa at Oxmoor Mall.  He is the greatest!  Kyle gives me the business about taking my own camera, but I'm never the only one in line with camera in hand.  And I didn't feel too bad about it this year because as soon as we got to the front the lady gave the the protocol for taking my own pictures.  My photos aren't as good, but at least it saves me 30 bucks.  The kids surprised us and Santa by asking for totally different toys than had been on their lists when we left the house.  Isabella asked Santa for a science crystal kit, Zachary wanted a mario chess game, and Vincent asked for a Latches puzzle board.  After our Santa shoot, I plopped the kids in front of the big Christmas tree to take a kid pic and some random dude offered to take a family picture.  It came out pretty nice too.

                                     Having a Chat with Santa

              Vincent was a little scared by the bearded man...and it was past nap time.

                                                                 Best Buddies!

 

Nutcracker

About a month ago I won tickets to the Nutcracker.  Isabella and I couldn't wait to go to the ballet for the first time!  The performance was absolutely magical!  Our favorite parts were the Four Seasons, where the dancers performed for the young girl and the nutcracker prince, the magic of the Godfather, the Rat King, and the snowfall in the audience!!  I hope we get to go again as a family.  I know the boys would love it too! 

Dancin' N the Holidays

Vincent wanted his share in the limelight.  I've been on a video uploading run and since Vincent had been left out he decided to have his own Christmas special....Happy Holidays!

Christmas Play

My Little Lamb

Wednesday night was the SSM Kindergarten-1st grade Christmas program.  Isabella is in the front row dressed as a cute little cotton ball lamb.  It was so fun seeing all of the adorable kids in their homemade costumes!  She loved performing with her class.  It was quite a difference from the ballet recital just a week ago where she was so nervous.  This time she ran to the back room and said "Mom you have to leave!".  Her line, which she practiced religiously was "I'm as sure as sure can be, the baby is a lamb like me". 

Piano Recital

Saturday was Zachary's first piano recital!  He was so very proud!  He played 3 songs, including The Crawling Spider, Boogie on Broadway and Silent Night.  Zachary has been taking piano lessons for over a year now.  At first he took lessons at home and was instructed by our church pianist, who is an amazing piano player.  After about a year of lessons, his teacher decided Zachary wasn't ready to study piano.  His main concern was that Zachary was distracted during lessons.  I was especially upset and didn't know how to tell Zachary that he would no longer be taking lessons.  Kyle and I discussed it and after a lot of consideration, we decided that we were most likely contributing to the Zachary's failed first attempt at piano.  First, during lessons there was the dog and two kids running around while we did dishes and chores...not helpful for concentration.  Then there was the method of practice.  It was always rushed!  So, we slowed things down and let Zachary play around more during his practice at home, then we got him out of the house for lessons. He began taking lessons at the Louisville Academy of Music.  The results were amazing!  He enjoys playing so much more now and he has really progressed tremendously in the past 3 months!  We were all proud of him too! 

 

 

Winter Dance

Today was Isabella's first ballet recital!  Isabella started ballet over the summer and has really enjoyed taking ballet.  Her teacher is so great with the little girls and Isabella has shared her love for ballet with the whole family!  She loves to teach me the "positions" and all of the ballet terminology from saute to fondu..and no it's not the appetizer!  She looked sparkly and beautiful in her spring flower costume, and although she was very nervous about being backstage without mom, she did a fantastic job!  We are so excited to go to the Nutcracker Ballet in 2 weeks!  I found out about a contest to win free tickets and when I entered I knew we were destined to win!!  We were both so excited when we found out we were chosen!  So here are the pictures from the recital and I will try to link the video of the rehearsal also!

Christmas Trees

On Saturday, after calling around to a few Christmas tree farms, we decided to take the leap and go for a real Christmas tree this year.  I had to let go of my frugality for the sake of evergreen smells and the experience of going to chop down our own tree.  Kyle also convinced me that it was more "green" and so I guess that's another plus.  The greatest part of our tree hunting adventure was the excitement of the kids and Isabella shouting how "proud" she was of herself for picking out our tree...and the living room smells so great!  We found our tree at Meyer's Christmas tree farm, off of the Paoli exit on Interstate 64.  It was run by some friendly folks and we actually paid about 15 dollars less than similar sized trees at Lowes.  So here are our pictures from that day.  We hopefully started a new family Christmas tradition!  

 Our tree...picked by Isabella!  She found it right away and after lots of searching we came back to this one!  

A cute smile!

Mom and the kids

Kyle sawing with the saw! :)

They gave us the hard sell on the Christmas puppies!  Actually all they had to do was take them out of the cage and we all wanted one...well, maybe not Kyle!

Vin enjoying his hot cocoa

The tree is loaded but the kids aren't.

Hauling it in the house!

A Thankful Turkey day

There was lots to be thankful for this Thanksgiving.  We continued the tradition of watching the parade and cooking for our families.  The food was delicious and the kids had a lot of fun spending time with family.  Looking back at the pictures, I wish I'd taken more...but here are the good ones I did get.

Breakfast with an Indian girl

Vincent playing with his birds

Mom reading the newspaper

Great-grandma showing off Vincent's beautiful handmade stocking!

Toby nosing the turkey sandwich, while Isabella is goofy with the camera.

Kyle doing something in the kitchen!

Zachary playing break the wishbone with Vincent

Vincent sleepily enjoying one of Great-Grandma's cupcakes

Icing side up plastered on the bib.  Gotta love those cover-all bibs!

Say free!

Try to get 3 kids to pose for a Christmas card shot and this is the best that we come up with.  So much for everybody looking at the camera picture perfect.  I didn't even notice Isabella had her hands in her mouth in every shot.  I was too busy trying to pin down Vincent for more than 2 seconds. 

This weekend was teacher's appreciation weekend at all of the Louisville Museums.  Since we didn't have every minute of Saturday booked, we decided to cram 3 museums into one day.  I think I was the only tired one at the end of the day.  Originally we were just going to go to the Frazier Museum.  They had a toy story exhibit we had heard about.  The kids loved it, especially Isabella because they had a lot of drawing/art spots to go along with toy story the movie.

Here she is drawing Mr. Potato head.

   Connect 4

A tasty ornament! He has been doing well this week, despite a new back tooth coming in.

playing old fashioned toys at the toy exhibit.

 Next, we walked by the Kentucky Arts and Crafts Museum.  It was a real downer, because they had an art therapy exhibit from Kosair and there were lots of pictures of sick children and art related to kids with cancer.  The other 2 floors of art didn't contain very much at all and it was my least favorite museum.

Finally, we went to 21C which was really cool!  This museum is free, even on non teacher days, and the kids loved it.  Modern art, although sometimes creepy, can be really fun too.

This interactive piece was of falling letters that you could bounce off of your head and arms.  The kids had a blast with this one!

The red penguins.  Isabella looks a bit frightened.

Other stuff this week:

 Isabella shows off her own artistic skills by painting a pilgrim turkey pumpkin.

Vincent has really gotten into books.  I was a bit afraid that he wouldn't like to read because he was always pushing books away.  But now, he sits and "reads" on his own and even talks gibberish as if he is reading!  It's cute.  His absolutely favorite book is "brown bear, brown bear, what do you see?"

He also loves looking at the "Sibley's Guide to Birds"!  Don't ask me why!  He's always pulling it off of the shelf.

Other Vincent facts:
favorite activities - bathtime, dancing, climbing stairs, playing piano, brushing teeth
favorite words - Up, Mommy (directed at everybody), dog,
                         B (translated "I want that")
new words - Thank you, please, cookie, eye (and he points to his eye),
                    belly (and he tickles his own belly)
shoe size - 6.5

Zachary made a comic book and was so excited he wanted me to take his picture with it!