Starting again a new....

I received my wonderful camera that I love five years ago and have never really learned how to use it.  I finally took a class a couple of weeks ago and am trying to get the hang of 'manual' mode.  I am going to use my long lost blog to record my photos and track my progress- here goes....

Tank!

Chase loves to draw Army tanks.  One day before Christmas I heard on the radio that the Marines were having a toy drive and had a tank that the kids could check out, so Chase and I headed to town one day after school.  Chase loved meeting the soldiers and having the chance to check out a tank up close was a total treat. 

Tis the Season

Christmas Programs

 

We had a lot of fun watching the boys school Christmas Programs this year. I recorded Chase's and took a lot of pictures, but the phone I used died and I lost the pictures.  I am very sad, but I am hoping his teacher has some she can share with me.  His class did a very cute rendition of "I am a little teapot" which included a funny line about being a sugar bowl at the end.  They also did a song called "Christmas Bells" which was so pretty.  Chase chose to wear his dress shirt and tie for the program and he looked so handsome.  It was a special treat that Aunt Kay, Grandma, Grandpa and Mom, Max  and Dad got to come and watch as it was during the school day.

 

As for Max, what a difference a year makes.  Last year Max cried and wasn't so sure about being up in front of an audience....that is the case no more :)  Max couldn't wait for his turn to get up on the stage.  When his teacher called up his class, he ran up there without any hesitation.  While the teacher was handing out little stretchy gloves with jingle bells sewn to the finger tips, Max "whispered" very loudly, "Hi Teagen!" out to us in the audience.  His class sang "Jingle Bells" first and they did a pretty good job for 3 years old, but it wasn't all that loud.  As the chorus of the song got to "...in a one horse open sleigh," I saw Max start to crouch low and when they got to the part of "HEY!" he jumped straight up and yelled "HEY!" as loud as he could!  He was the only kid who did that and the audience loved it.  They all started clapping and laughing and Max beamed (so did his family in the audience :)  Next his class sang "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and before the song started, Max whispered very loudly, "Shandy, we are going to sing Rudolph!" out to his Grandma in the audience.  It was too cute.  By the way, for some reason, Max calls Grandma Sandy, "Shandy" and though we have asked and reminded him to call her Grandma, it never seems to stick.  Grandma is ok with it, so we will just keep working on it with time.  

 

Annie

 

Our talented Teagen auditioned for the play Annie presented by the Warehouse Theatre and she got the part!  Teagen played Tessie, one of the orphans and the play was really good. Max ended up falling asleep, but Chase loved it.  He asked me great questions afterwards and it was such a fun thing to do as a family.

 

Cookies!

A couple of days before Christmas, the boys and I got busy making Christmas Cookies.  It was so fun to cut out all of the shapes and let the boys lick the frosting off the beater.  We had so much fun boogying around the kitchen to Christmas music and using our spatulas as microphones.  The boys did a great job cutting out the cookies and decorating them, but I think their favorite part was licking the beaters!

Happy Heart....

I haven't posted since Halloween, so it is about time I start playing catch up. 

I tell you what, these two little boys make my heart sing.  I just look at this

picture and I can't help smiling.  They are so beautiful and I am truly blessed

they are so loving and mine.