Trimming the tree, Part I

Mom came up with the idea to let the kids make the decorations for the tree this year since I was complaining that they break my ornaments and I never like how the tree looks. I have visions of a perfectly decorated tree. Since our tree is always somewhat crooked and always manages to have bare spots, that never happens. Also, the kids help put the ornaments on the tree and they don't quite have the eye for it yet. We decided to start with a paper chain to put around the tree.

I thought it would be fun to start with the strips of paper and let the kids decorate them with stickers and crayons. Sariah decided to write a song on hers.

Becca decided to use 3 or 4 squares of stickers on one strip of paper.

JD needed help. I think it ended up being fun for them. I did get him to color a bit and put a few stickers on some. Even with putting plain papers between the decorated ones, it wasn't big enough to fit around the tree but it was still cute.

Tree Hunting

Last weekend we went with Jeremy's family to pick out our Christmas Tree. Jeni and Josh and their families were missed but I'm sure they had a nice weekend too. Brian let Tyler come, which was nice for the girls. I think they really enjoyed hanging out with him over the weekend. Although, I do think I'm going to need to have a chat with him about my girls and Santa Claus because as of last night, he's not real and Tyler's name was mentioned as a non-believer. Oh well, it was bound to happen one day. Sariah said she still likes to pretend but she was pretty upset when Becca went around the house saying " Santa isn't real"

The girls picked out the tree, I wasn't really worried about what it looked like this year. It seems like every year I look and look for a really good tree and when we get it home it still has bald spots. So, I figured, why worry about it and let the kids have fun.

It's crazy how all the little kids aren't so little anymore. It seems like just last year they were all just babies.
I wanted a cute picture of the three kids together. The big sticks they are holding are supposed to be guns. I don't know what they thought they were shooting. Tyler sure was funny though. I think he called his a bazooka.
Here is the group pic, minus Taylor because he took the picture and we didn't figure out how to use the time until afterward. Apparently all you have to do is hit a button on the side of the camera. Duh! Oh well, we know now for later. Serves me right for buying an expensive camera and not bothering to learn how to use it.
Here is our lovely tree. It looks pretty full here, we'll see how it looks once it gets in the house.

JD really liked Uncle Junior. He didn't want to leave him to go pick out a tree.

I thought this picture of JD with the hat over his eyes was really cute. Unfortunately by the end of the day the hat was covered in leaves and pine needles.



The kids throwing "bombs" at the "bad guys"

Big Boy Bed

I've been meaning for a few weeks now to post about JD's new bed. We bought it from RC Willey (so glad they've come to California!) It has drawers underneath where we can put clothes and toys and he just loves it. We decided we needed to buy him one once he started getting his leg up over the crib. I'd rather him fall out of bed than the crib.

He's been pretty good about napping and going to sleep at night. We got smart with him and bought the little doorknob covers so he can't keep escaping; but, I haven't really heard him try. He does knock on the door if we forget to open it during nap time.

I guess this means he is officially not a baby anymore. I'm not sure how I feel about that. I am glad that he likes it and that he's been good about staying in bed. I remember when we were trying to get Becca and Sariah in bed we used to be up hours getting them to go back. Actually, they still don't stay in bed! I think I fall asleep most nights before they do.

Such a slacker

Okay, so I haven't posted now in what, two weeks? There's been a lot going on in the Musser household. We had parent teacher conferences on Thursday. Sariah is doing very well, she just needs to work on subtraction but her teacher said the rest of her class needs to work on it as well. Ms Dettman said she's very bright and helpful and said that the next time they test reading levels she'll probably be at the level that you need to test to in order to leave the third grade. Sariah's been pestering her teacher for a special reading workbook they have; so now she has it to work on during vacation.



It was no suprise to us that Becca's review was not as stellar. Although she knows her shapes and colors, she is having difficutly sorting. And although she writes "Rebbecca Mae Musser" all over everything, when her teacher gave her a list with her name spelled several ways, she couldn't pick the right way. She's also not getting the concept of rhyming. Well, sometimes she does and sometimes she doesn't. She gets it confused with words that begin with the same letter. The last academic thing is that she doesn't quite have the "print concepts" they've gone over like parts of a book and parts of a sentence. I guess I need to read with her more and go over those. The teacher also said that all of her social skills need improvement (suprise, suprise) although she had no suggestions on what to do except for give her goldfish crackers when she's good like they do at school.

Let's see, what else has happened this week? The kids have managed to break JD's bed already (and I haven't even posted the pictures yet!). RC Willey is coming out to fix it next month. Becca thought it would be fun to hang by the ceiling fan blades in her room. Jeremy tried to take the bunk beds down but the room isn't wide enough to fit the beds and the dresser. He did take the desk away though because they keep getting on the desk, opening the window, and popping out the screen. He hasn't decided what he wants to do about the issue with the fan. I guess we'll see if she does it again. Maybe she'll learn if she rips the thing out of the ceiling and falls flat on her butt. They also took my Halloween pumpkin, got it open somehow, and spread the seeds all over their bedroom floor. Oh, and yesterday when we went to the store Sariah tried to swipe a pack of gum.

Those are all the reasons why I haven't posted in a while. And I bet Mom is real surprised that I haven't called her crying and tearing my hair out yet this week. I'll get some pictures posted soon.

Halloween at Nana's

I like it when Halloween falls on a Friday or Saturday because it means that I can stay up and have fun, not needing to worry about getting up at 3:00 the next morning. Usually we go to the mall to trick or treat because that happens earlier in the evening and since Jeremy works at night, that's easier for me. When Halloween falls on the weekend, we get to take the kids to Nana's and have some fun.

Jeremy's mom found a fun recipe for "mummy dogs". They are pigs in a blanket but wrapped up like mummy's for Halloween. Even hot dogs can wear costumes. By the way, I had never had this particular brand of hot dog, "Casper", from Costco. They were pretty good and I don't even like hot dogs.

Becca playing with her food. Such a well-mannered child.

Here they are, all ready to go in the oven. I think the kids had a lot of fun making them. Becca took some of the raw dough and pretended to make pizza. It wasn't edible after she was done with it, although JD did try eating some. That kid will put just about anything in his mouth. Jeremy's mom had some cider for us too but the kids got so excited about getting dressed and ready to go after we ate that we all forgot about it. I missed it the next day when I got home and it was cold and rainy.

Here is Tyler, my nephew, as a Jedi Knight. Sariah was a monster bride (what does it mean when they don't want to be a princess for Halloween anymore). JD was Bob the Builder and Becca was Cinderella (at least I have one princess left, even if she is a rotten one sometimes). I am an Ace of Hearts. I made the costume using foam board and cutting the letters and hearts out with my Cricut. I had to make a costume because my manager at work LOVES Halloween. Every year she picks a theme for us to make a costume. This year it was Alice in Wonderland and she was the Queen of Hearts. She needed a guard so a couple of us were cards. She had us parade around the whole building in our costumes. I even sprayed my hair red.

Candy Hunting

We bought a new lightbulb for JD's hat so that he could have fun with it on Halloween night. Problem was, we couldn't get the headlamp to stay on the hat and the hat to stay on his head. JD didn't care though, he was just happy to be getting candy. It was very cute watching him go up and hold out his bag of candy for a treat. He did say thank you though, which is more that what I can say for some other Musser children that I know. Regarding Sariah's picture, it is kind of scary for me to think that she's outgrown princesses. I think she is at a stage right now where she's really trying to assert who she is. She doesn't like Jeremy and I telling her what to do. Case in point, I let her get some play stuff for her hair: glitter, hair mascara, etc. and told her that she could play with it at home but it wasn't to be worn at school. So Jeremy checks on them when they were getting ready for school this morning and what does he see but Sariah and Becca with pink stripes in their hair. He didn't have time to wash it out so they went to school that way. She was completely unrepentant. The first thing out of her mouth after school was out was "I didn't get in trouble". Lovely. What have I gotten myself into?

Yes, here I am in my lovely costume. Come to think of it, I haven't seen that shirt since Halloween. Wonder what I did with it? I did have fun spraying my hair. I have yet to get all the red overspray out of the bathroom at my house though.

I am very happy that the girls got to go out with Tyler. They don't get to spend nearly enough time with him. I think they had fun.

Trunk or Treat

So I haven't downloaded the pictures from Halloween on my computer yet but I do have the pictures from the ward Harvest Festival.

For his birthday, Mom bought JD a toolbelt and hat so he could be Bob the Builder. The hat has a working light on it, which burnt out as soon as we got to the church. We were also an hour late because this was the same day we went to Fairytale town and the zoo. Luckily, we made it just in time for the costume parade and trunk or treat, which is the most important part to the kids anyway.
I really wanted to have a cute pic of JD as Bob the Builder but as you can see, he didn't really want me to take pictures.It didn't take the kids long to get in and find all the goodies they could. It was a long day but I think they had fun.