Tuesday: Christmas performance

Joshua had a Christmas performance tonight.  His mouth moved, so he was singing.  I've heard him sing his songs once or twice, so I knew that he knew them but wasn't sure how much he would sing.  He never found us in the crowd though.  :(  The best part was when they were singing 'shout' and all the kids shouted.  I wasn't expecting it for some reason.

I have a few more pictures of him afterwards.  All the grandparents that were in town came, so I think that helped make it special.  He said that he enjoyed it, which surprised me a bit.  I expect the cookie helped too.

Isaac stayed home with Aunt C.  It's been a while since they've been able to have some one-on-one time together, but I also didn't expect Isaac would enjoy it.  I remember that Nathan and I had a standing "your stuff is probably really cool, but I don't really want to sit through it" pact.  (It's not that I never saw Nathan's stuff, but only if I wanted to.)

Monday: Lego projects

I've finished a few small Lego projects recently.

A flower.

The loot we got on our vacation

Sunday: in pictures

We found Tornado in the Christmas tree.  While it looks like he's all in it, only half of his weight is actually in the tree.  The rest is on the speaker behind him.

We finished our Christmas decorations today.  I really should get enough strings of lights so that at the very least we can have the same type of lights throughout the house.  It's a bit crazy, but Christmasy.  I also finally took down this fly on the wall.  It died there a week (or two?) ago and it took me this long to get it down.

Isaac made up new rules for Ben's new game and Ben and I didn't want to play.  We told the boys they could play.  A few minutes later I hear Joshua say, "You, me, and Grey Bear!  It would totally work!  Grey Bear could play the good guy team."  Needless to say, it looked involved and took at least two hours.  I was glad that I had chosen not to play, but was glad they had fun.

I made Christmas tree PB sandwiches for lunch.

Jaq showed up, as always.  He got to be a little higher in the tree this year to protect him from the cats.

Friday: dishwasher

Yesterday as one of the boys' chores I had them load the dishwasher.  I wasn't really expecting too much from Joshua, but I figured that Isaac would be able to do a pretty good job.  After all, he has to put away a lot of it as a normal chore.

Well, Joshua did about as expected.  He did a good job, but needed a lot of prompting.  Isaac did about the same as Joshua, which surprised me.  Maybe it shouldn't have.  We had to talk about where to put the cups and how to use the space as efficiently as possible.  I had to remind him where the bowls go.

I think this means they need to do it more often.

Isaac had a good time at the lock-in last night.  I was expecting him to call by 10am, as the after breakfast time sometimes drags and I told him he could call when ready.  I ended up going to get him at 11:30.  I think he was awake until about 2:30am, but stayed happy all day.

Thursday: Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Thessalonians 5:18: give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

This was the passage at church today.  It was a good one.  There have been some things this year that have been hard.  Don't get me wrong; there have been a ton of things that have been really good too.  The good far outnumber the hard, but the hard always seem to be ...more on the mind.  I'm not sure that's really what I mean, but I think everyone understands how it goes.  Anyway, give thanks in the hard seasons and give thanks in the good seasons of life.

After church we put up the Christmas tree.  It's unique.  It's also the first time the cats have had a Christmas with decorations, so we'll see how it goes.  I'm at 30% that the tree will get knocked over.  When we got home after Thanksgiving today there were four ornaments on the ground.  None broken, and most not even breakable.

We had Thanksgiving with Ben's family, and it was a lovely time.  I feel like it's been a while since we've all seen each other, and it was nice to get caught up again.  The food was also delicious.

Isaac is at a lock-in tonight.  He hasn't been in many of the pictures that have been posted but they've run the obstacle course (his favorite), made a fort with the obstacle pieces, and then several other things (but I didn't see him in the pictures, so I don't know what he was doing).

Wednesday: half day

Today Isaac had a half day of school.  Joshua also chose to have a half day of school, even though it meant he'd have to do some cleaning at home.

After cleaning Isaac made a checker board.  He added an extra rule into the game which I didn't love, but it was at least a simple rule so it wasn't too bad.  His strategy needs some work, as he got a little bit stuck and then just went back and forth between two safe spots while I ruled the rest of the board.

Tonight the boys started out with a sleep over again and there was lots of laughter until there suddenly wasn't.  Isaac was in his own bed.  Joshua was sad.  I think they were annoying each other and didn't handle it by just going to sleep.  Tomorrow night Isaac will be away, so maybe it'll be a good reset.

Tuesday: Happy Birthday

It was Ben's birthday today!  It was a rather normal day though.

We got him a Lego set, surprise surprise.  (Joshua had a pajama day.  He's apparently grown about three inches since last Christmas when he got the pajamas.)

Also, do you want to know how a Venus flytrap and an alligator ...hug?  When Joshua asked us this yesterday it was not the question I was expecting.  Apparently they use their mouths.