Julia's School Award and some other school stuff

Julia with her medal and certificate.

The completed ginger bread house. She kept telling me not to move her "masterpiece" from the dining room table which I thought was a little dramatic until I figured out she meant "centerpiece"!

Lilly, Juju and Hailey

I think this picture is cool because it shows how different their eye colors are! Alex's eyes seem to be staying pretty blue!

AJ's new way of sucking on his passy. Notice his bottom lip poking out. He started this when he cut his teeth, I guess it feels good on his gums. It looks really funny!

Yesterday morning, I went to Julia's school to help her class make ginger bread houses. I haven't gotten to interact with the kids much yet so I was very excited to see Julia in her classroom setting. When I got there, the teachers informed me that Julia had won the "Student of the Nine Weeks" award! It is only given out 4 times a year to one student in each class. It means she was the best student all around and was a "good citizen" and well behaved, too. She got a special medal, a certificate to Dairy Queen, and will get her picture in the paper. We are so proud of her! Hopefully it's first of many awards at school! I also had a blast helping the kids make their ginger bread houses, they were so sweet and cute and excited that I was there. The only problem was keeping them from eating the candy instead of putting it on their ginger bread houses!

I also have tell a little story that shows just how sweet she is. Many of you know and some might not, but we have had major issues with the pitiful kids that live next door to us. They are dirty, neglected and have behavior problems due to a dysfunctional home life. I was less than thrilled when the girl ended up in Julia's class and really less than thrilled when Julia decided to take her under her wing. It seems sometimes like it hinders Julia from hanging out with the other kids because the girl is so needy and emotionally messed up. I have tried to suck it up and not say anything to negative about it to her. But a couple of weeks ago, Julia told me that the girl is basically bullying her out of her lunch, saying she won't be her friend anymore if she doesn't give her things out of her lunch box. We were infuriated to say the least and told her do NOT give her any of her lunch and also spoke to the teacher about it, who was upset about it also and promised to keep them separated as much as possible in the lunch room. It may sound silly, but I work hard to make JULIA and only Julia a special lunch every day and the thought of this nasty rude kid eating her food just burns me up. Anyway, they haven't sat together much since then but it has happened a couple of times and Julia claims she "forgot" to tell the girl she can't have any of her lunch. She said this today and it made me really mad and I said, "If she says she won't be your friend anymore, don't worry about it! WHO CARES?" and the reply she gave was, "But, Mommy and Daddy, if I'm not her friend anymore then she won't have any friends." It was so profound and selfless coming from a 4 year old. Matt and I both teared up and praised her for being such a sweet friend. I guess I will not keep harping on it because Julia really just wants to share what she has and to be a good friend. She knows she will not go hungry and that it makes the other girl very happy. It was one of many lessons she teaches us every day and made me prouder than any award ever could. FYI the girl I am talking about is not in any of these pictures in case you were wondering.

Christmasy Stuff

Out of order, of course. Here is the finished product!

Intense decorating going on. All of the ornaments were concentrated in one area!

Alex was very fussy and had to hang out in the playpen. Now we know he was about to start teething! He cut 2 teeth over the weekend and didn't sleep at all.

At the beginning

Julia earnestly telling Santa what she wants. Alex was fascinated! Santa has kind of a weird look on his face!

Both kids having fun with Santa

She's a pro already!

She's really belting out this part. This is definitely the chorus!

Sitting with her class on the floor. They were wearing their new school shirts which I thought looked very cute.

As usual, things are totally nuts this time of year. But I have to post these pictures of Julia at her school program and the kids with Santa. We went to the country club (Grammy and Pa are members) and did not have to wait in line and it was a great looking Santa. For the first time, Julia was not scared of him and told him everything she wanted. She thought it was very cool when she told him she wanted an Easy Bake Oven and he told her he loves cupcakes and Easy Bake Ovens, too. Alex was not scared at all and grabbed his beard and put it in his eyes and mouth.

Julia has had 2 Christmas programs, one with her school and grades pre-k thru 2nd and one with all of the pre-k classes in the county. The first one was at night and was in the gym without bleachers and it was very hot and crowded. We were way in the back and couldn't see anything, and her class only sang 2 songs anyway. The 2nd program was at a different school during the day and it was a much better set up and was very cute. Julia was one of the few who knew all the words and choreography. She did a great job!

Julia's "J" Playdate

Julia and Jaidyn

Jessalyn, Julia, Jaidyn and Victoria

Some antics on the trampoline. Check out the staticky hair!

Juju and Jaidyn swingin'

A couple of weeks ago Julia and I did something fun and different- we went to her friend's house for a girly playdate! We don't get to spend that much time together alone and it was really fun for her to get to play with someone besides the kids at school and to be around so many girls! The friend's name is Jaidyn (she is a precious little girl from dance class), her mom's name is Jessica and her sister's name is Jessalyn, so Julia fit right in with her "J"name! They have a huge yard with a swingset and trampoline and the girls had a blast. They are all very sweet and I hope we can go back again soon!

Thanksgiving 2008

Alex and Daddy

Some of the boy cousins. There are a LOT of boys in Matt's family!

Alex loves his new teether from PatPat! It is especially good now because he cut his first tooth last night!

Cute picture of Juju

Juju, Jane and Dylan playing Cornhole. I've never heard of it, but evidently is a very popular bean bag throwing game. It was really fun to watch everyone play!

We have been so busy this month that I just haven't had the time or energy to do many blogs. But at least I'm doing this one before Christmas! We had a very nice Thanksgiving at Matt's Granny's house. The food was AWESOME and we all ate too much but it was worth it. We didn't get that many good pictures but I'll post a few anyway.