The kids-2011

Over the past several weeks Heston has been working on his "collection" from Toys R Us. He's been cutting pictures out of the catalog to show Santa (whom he is terribly afraid of) and stuffing them in his CARS backpack. He calls Toys R Us...TOYS ON RUST! He is so cute.

He loves to Kiss on the lips and give hugs. Out of the 3 kids he is the cuddle bug. I can't believe he is about to turn 5. He still sleeps with us. He starts out in his bed, just ends up in ours. We hope to change this in 2012.

Katelyn is a mess. She continues to excel in school. She has yet to make below a 120 on her spelling tests. She is getting so big. The other day she asked Jon "daddy, when are you going to take me out to show me how a man is supposed to treat me?" We both melted a little. She still gets scared by being alone or in dark places and has weird dreams...sometimes they are good sometimes they are bad. This year Heston has started realizing he has dreams and once had a bad one. I told Katelyn to tell him what to do if that happens again. She proceeded to tell him - Heston--you pray and ask God to take away those thoughts and for Jesus to send Angels to be with you and then you go ask mommy to turn on Noggin or some TV show to help get your thoughts off the dream so you can go back to sleep. I thought she did a great job telling him what to do when he's scared. Katelyn still wets the bed, almost every night, this too, is something we plan on really working on in 2012.

Josh, is well....Josh. He is doing great in school making all A's and 1 B- (in his "struggle subject"-English) He loves to read and his favorite subject is Social Studies. He also does well in math and science. He plans on trying out for baseball this spring. He is involved in the church youth group and we are trying to give him a little more freedom--like having a cell phone. The kids are just growing and the time is going by so fast. I have one about to start kindergarten and I have started to place little notes around the house to remind myself to ENJOY the kids, who cares if the house is messy etc. I have a whole list of New Year Resolutions! That is another post!

A NEW "to us" CAR

Well the time finally came when we HAD to replace the Tahoe. It was a 1999-The Tahoe was bought in June 2002, one year before we were married. We took that car on our honeymoon, we brought our babies home from the hospital in that car...we had LOTS of memories made. It was a little sad to see it go.

We traded it in for a Honda Odyssey. (its a minivan) It is a 2003. The kids are super excited and we are excited that we have something that holds us all comfortably. It is NICE. It has leather interior, a DVD system and other extras. I absolutely love it. The kids really like the fact that the doors open with the push of a button.

On another note, I was right about the boys surprising me with their answers to the "what are you thankful for" question. Heston said God and Jesus (left out the Holy Spirit, but he's only 4)

Josh said family -- and that is all I could get out of him--he's in that stage where he is just too cool for stuff like that. On thanksgiving we went to mom and dads and had a simple lunch and dinner while watching football and making a game plan for Black Friday. It was a nice time. Kate had us all taking turns saying one thing we were thankful for while we ate-that too was nice.

We are all ready for our trip to Gatlinberg for Christmas this year, we just have one or two more gifts to buy and wrap. We hope to enjoy our friends, family and get some rest this holiday season. We also strive to remember the birth of our Savior and teach the kids what the real meaning of Christmas is all about. It has been a WONDERFUL 2011. We are so blessed and so thankful for what HE has done for us this year and always. Here's to expecting great things in 2012! Blessings to all!