Christmas Journey

I thought I'd walk you through some of the joys of Christmas with our family.
Obviously, we just bought our REAL Christmas tree (Glenn insists) from Home Depot. Yea. You read it. Home Depot. I'm completely satisfied with driving only 5 miles from home to pick out "the tree" among 100's. That's about as close to the woods or tree farm as I get. Needless to say, the kids were fascinated with the prospect of carrying a tree home on top of our car! In the course of tying down the tree to the rooftop of the car, a Home Depot employee climbed up on the car too. Having never experienced any of this, Caden shouts excitedly, "Are we taking him home too?!!" As if the Home Depot man comes with the tree! I love my Caden.

Daddy and McKenna putting the tree stand on.

Let the decorating begin.

Our tree Christmas morning. Notice that most of the ornaments are "up north"? It's due to a toddler's (umm ummm...McKenna) nonverbal communication methods that lets us know where the ornaments should be placed.

Caden and Conner both recieved Max's Draganoids (bakugans) for Christmas. It's something I never heard about prior to 2 months ago, but it was the number one thing on their Christmas lists.

Grandma Carey visited. It was nice to have most of my family gather for Christmas at our house in Oklahoma. It was a bit crazy with the blizzard-like weather that hit. Roadtrips for relatives took quite a bit longer than normal. Hopefully, family time made it all worth it.

My brother Colby and his wife Sarah plus kids visited too. Pretty good smiles for early morning.

This is my brother Chad and his wife Kenda. They stayed a couple of nights too.

Conner checks his stocking out.

Ben with his stocking.

Busy December

Christmas Program Our family enjoyed watching Caden and Conner perform in their Christmas Program at school on Monday. They sang 5 adorable songs, all about bears and Christmas. Each class 1st thru 2nd represented a different kind of bear. There were brown, polar, teddy, and panda bears. I don't know how to sew, so the hot glue gun is my best friend.
I can appreciate the holidays around here because it's not so PC (politically correct), and people still say "Merry Christmas" to eachother and the "Christmas" word is still used in the children's school. In fact, the children's spelling words for this week included "Mary" and "Jesus".




Benjamin turns 5!!! I wish you all could be here to celebrate Ben's birthday. He has been looking forward to it for a long time. Unfortunately, Ben misunderstood and thought that he would be in kindergarten, like right away. He was all ready to switch from his preschool to kindergarten class. Since December 14 is a day to celebrate Ben, I just want to share with you what a really special kid Ben is. For all of you who know Ben, he is the most mild and even-tempered child in our family. Considering we have some strong personalities in our family...umm...umm, Ben is refreshing to be with. His biggest offense of his whole life is aggravating McKenna and even that has improved. Ben is independent, friendly to everyone, affectionate, yet creative, and outgoing. He has been a blessing to our family and balances everything by being the kid "in the middle" between the twins and McKenna. Anyway, I just thought I'd dote on him for a minute. He had a few friends over for cake and ice cream on his birthday. It was easy and fun for everyone.

Uh Oh McKenna!!! Here's a couple of pictures of McKenna. On Tuesday, McKenna tried to climb on the bench that goes to our kitchen table and instead she pulled it down on herself and it pinned her head. Her nose bled for about 1 minute and then immediately swelled. She looked worse than this. We took her to the ER just in case she broke it. 5 1/2 hours later, we learned everything should be fine. As a mom, it is super scary and traumatizing watching all this unfold, especially to your baby.

Just including a cute picture of McKenna. She likes to have her hair fixed and actually lets me style it, only to rip it out later! None-the-less, her hair is growing!!!

Highlights

Day After Thanksgiving Our family traveled to Texas the day after Thanksgiving this year to visit my sister. It's always a fun place to go. On Saturday we visited the Dallas Zoo and had a fabulous time. The best part is, we still had our membership from the Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Mo. and it could be used as a free pass to the Dallas one. Yippee!!! Not to mention the weather was 70 degrees outside. There was so much to see, we didn't have time to walk everywhere. Anyhow, here's some pics from this adventure:

Carving Time!!! I know it's been a bit since Halloween, but surely ya'all can't be upset that I'm uploading pics from the past. Ever since the twins were 2 years old Glenn has always taken upon himself the role of "master pumpkin carver"; his prodigies are the kids. After each child picks out his own pumpkin, we bring them home and they get to use a permanent marker to draw their designs/faces on. Yes, I emphasized the word permanent marker, because for all you who know how excitable Caden is over the strangest things you must understand how elated he was to be entrusted with a permanent marker.

I must say, celebrating holidays or enjoying your baby's 1st times are such neat experiences as a parent. I couldn't begin to tell you how full are lives are because of the children Glenn and I have.

Conner is removing the gooey stuff from his pumpkin. See Caden's expression? This definitely was a sensory issue for him, that he had to have Conner help him unload his pumpkin too :0

I told you Glenn liked this kind of stuff!

Random

Don't mess with my babies!!! McKenna is very possessive of her baby dolls! Could it be that they belong to her and only her? There's not a day that goes by that she doesn't play with her babydolls. Brace yourself for a high-pitched scream if you touch her babies! Ask her brothers. That same high-pitched scream can also be heard in any store if McKenna even lays eyes on a babydoll there.

Nature Center Walk Every Saturday our family usually takes a walk somewhere like at a park, trail, or lake. It's a good release for all of that kid energy.

Boys are so curious. They love everything from from flowing creeks,bugs, slimy moss and sticks to planes, trains and automobiles:)

Conner and Benjamin dressing up while at the nature center.

Finally a picture with all of us in it! Taken at the Chickasaw nature center in Sulphur, Ok.

Chocolate and Foil

On Wednesday all the boys were out of school before the Thanksgiving break. I hate to admit it(not really) that I am one of those mommys that doesn't look forward to having the kids out of school on the weekdays. None-the-less, I learned a long time ago not to expect to get my regular daily chores done on these days and instead turn it into a day of projects or activities with the kids or else we'll all go crazy!

The kids remembered they had been gifted a chocolate coin maker 2 years ago on their birthday. I seriously DID NOT want to do this predictably messy activity, but once the children discovered we did in fact have chocolate chips (I tried to get out of it by suggesting there weren't any), we proceeded. Little did I know, it would be a 3hr project!

The kids had a fabulous time...I guess that's the most important thing...right? I should've taken pictures, but it was so messy and involved. However, I did get this one. Ben was eating his gold- foiled chocolate coin, when he comes to me and asks, "Mom, are we supposed to eat the metal?"

School Days

Here's the boys before school. Within forty-five minutes we are all out the door! Of course me having my hair done or McKenna being changed out of her pj's doesn't count.
Caden and Conner are both in 1st grade this year. They are both doing well. Caden's best subject is reading. He is reading at nearly a 3rd grade level! Conner is very good at P.E and math. The twins ride the bus to and from school and they're always full of funny stories. Caden is fascinated with the Jr high kids on his bus. His conversations with them are humorous. (So far I don't detect any problems or bad experiences from them being on the bus with older kids) Let's just say Caden has no boundaries when it comes to inquiring about things and Conner is very good at suggesting things for Caden to say. They're quite a pair!
Benjamin is in a Pre-k class for half a day and he is learning a lot. He finally has learned all the sounds that each letter of the alphabet makes and wants to spell words so bad. Apparently Ben is the funny kid in his class. He always says to me, "Why does everyone love me so much?" or "They always want me to keep making them laugh" The demands of Pre-school extend beyond academics. Who knew?

At church today we were singing the closing hymn and Conner offered me a hymn book. I whispered, "No thanks. I don't need one" He said, "You know this song?" I said, "Not really" He was perplexed because I was still singing without a book. Again he asked, "How do you know the words?" I pointed out that I was reading over the shoulders of the couple in front of me. He was quiet for a few seconds then he very disappointingly said, "But that's CHEATING!" I'm so glad he takes the typical rules so seriously! I'm glad church was almost over since I was laughing so hard.

Cuties

Don't you love it when the kids help eachother or play sweetly with one another? This picture was taken back in August at grandma Carey's house. Man, our family misses being around my mom!

I know it seems like I post a lot of pictures with McKenna in them but I can't help it. She's my only girl and we're home alone together during the day that I find her doing such cute things. In this picture she is so curious about the breadmaker. I just started it so the dough is being mixed. This is as close to homemade bread as I've gotten. Maybe some day I'll make some from scratch.

On another note, McKenna is beginning to say a lot of words. She's my fourth child but you never grow tired of the new emerging developments of certain stages. McKenna runs to the cupboard repeating "nandy. nandy" (candy) or "nack. nack" (snack). I've also noticed that when I point at a picture of our family, McKenna does the same thing that Ben did at her age; she recognizes and will verbalize everyone's name "da da, ma ma, en (Ben)" but for Caden and Conner she is indifferent, or doesn't bother to distinguish between the two. She just says "aden" for both of them. Yet, when I say "Where's Conner?" she'll point to him or "Where's Caden?" she'll point at just Caden. It's strange. Benjamin used to use "onner" to name both of them.

Dressed Up for Halloween

They're literally Ninja Twins (Caden and Conner).

Yea, lots of little boys want to be vampires for Halloween, but have you ever met one as fierce as Benjamin with GREEN teeth?
McKenna is "Little Red Riding Hood"

We went to "Aunt Bebo's" for Halloween in Frisco, Texas. The kids had a fabulous time. In this picture is cousin Raven, River, and Marina, with my boys Benjamin, Caden, and Conner. I think this last-minute trip was well worth it, considering all the candy my kids got after only trick-or-treating about 4 streets. I won't have to cook dinner for a week now!!! We'll just have candy for dinner. Oh come on, I'm not that bad of a parent. Who lets their kids eat just candy for dinner??? I'll make a casserole. First a layer of smarties, then red licorice, smothered in ooey gooey milkyways...etc.

Extra Clean!

#1 I had just bathed, diapered and put McKenna's pj's on when before I knew it she made it back into the bathtub.

#2 One week later: Glenn and I realized it was awful quiet...again, Ben forgot to close the bathroom door after his bath so McKenna seized the opportunity. Daddy startled her when he found her. Don't you love that look? She's trying to read Glenn's expression to see if she's in trouble. Of course not!!! Too funny!!!

My Boys

It's rained so much here in the last 2 months that you have to give up playing inside all day. Caden, Benjamin and Conner have so much fun in the sand pit out back. Thank goodness for our yard!!!

Glenn just got off work from a Saturday rotation at the hospitol and couldn't wait to teach the boys how to shoot the new pellet gun. We went round and round on the issue of owning ANY kind of gun...I lost:(

Glenn turned 31 on Sept. 29th!!! I always like it when he has a birthday because for 4 months we're only 2 years apart, well, sort of. I am 33 but will be 34 in February. I often wonder what it must have been like for my mom to have had my brother Colby 11 months after having me!!! See the beautiful cake? I have some friends that can decorate cakes perfectly, but knowing that IS NOT a talent of mine, than being a Carey you gotta run the opposite way and at least be GOOD at creating the opposite effect. The 3 boys helped with this one though!

Caught!

One guess what McKenna's doing...?! Ok I think I've finally figured out how to upload pictures more easily. That's why I haven't been blogging. Someone once told me "don't bother blogging unless you've got pictures to share". That sounded reasonable to me since I know I would rather read a blog that had a picture accompanying it. Anyway, I'm posting again and plan to keep up with it more now. Family life is great here in Oklahoma. Of course we all really do miss seeing family and friends. If it wasn't a nightmare travelling with 4 kids I'd have visited Missouri by now.

"Our dog"

So it's been a real treat moving to a new house in Oklahoma. Glenn and I have been promising for some time now to get our kiddos a pet once we did finally move AND if we found a house with a big fenced in yard. Well, we got a house that is fenced, but Mama Berry (that's me, of course) never really wanted a pet to begin with. I don't like animals! Sorry, but it's true. I could tell you all the millions of reasons...Anyways, upon our arrival, the sweet dog in the picture showed up in our yard regularly. It didn't take long to learn from the neighbors that her name is "Pumpkin".
She was a dog that had been found wandering in a pumpkin patch, so a neighbor rescued her and brought her home. It's really somebody else's dog down the street, but the beauty of it is they just let it roam freely around the neighborhood (It's ok. We live on the outskirts of town. It's pretty safe from heavy traffic). The neighbor feeds it. The neighbor gets the poop on her lawn. The neighbor has to care for it. My family just gets the benefit of a loyal dog that they treat as their own as pumpkin greets us every day. Having a pet doesn't get easier than that. I may really be off the hook now.