What I did at naptime...

I remember when Tina was about 5 or so, she decided she didn't want her braids anymore. So she snuck Mom's scissors and cut off her braid. She hid it in the bottom of the toybox so Mom couldn't find it.

Fast forward to the present. We've been trying to grow out Anna's bangs. Had them long enough that we could pull them back pretty well, but they had a tendency to come out. This afternoon at naptime, Anna snuck a pair of scissors into her bedroom. Did a little bang trimming. Yay! Glad we did pictures last month.

Tooth #2

So at bath time last night, I'm in the kitchen cleaning up for supper and I hear this:

"Mama! My tooth came out!"

Can you believe it? She's still two months shy of her 5th birthday and she's lost two teeth.

I think one of the top ones is a little loose...

Thanksgiving Feast

Anna's preschool had a Thanksgiving feast this Monday. They made indian costumes out of Daddy's old t-shirt, headbands with feathers, fmade macaroni necklaces and (Anna's favorite) got to paint their faces. We picked everyone up early and went to Burger Kind for the Feast.

This is Anna's buddy Preston. Next to Anna is "Big Caleb" from school, and you can also see Barrett, one of her buddies from last year. He's in the other class.


It was fitting that they were dressed up as indians - they were rowdy. Someone started banging on the tables saying "We want food!". Not sure if it was Anna, but the proof may be in the picture...

How can you not be thankful for a meal that includes a toy?

Caleb, of course, had to come inspect everything. He loves getting in the middle of things.

The "Thank You" Meal

The Sunday night before Thanksgiving, our church has a big Thanksgiving potluck. We bring the sides and desserts, the church provides ham, turkey and bread. It is always delicious!

This year, our youngest children's choirprovided a Thanksgiving program as our entertainment. They sang about 5 songs, and it was so cute!

Having known many of these kids since they were very little, it amazes me how grown up they looked. They really aren't babies anymore. Time sure does fly!

Anna is always happy to have a little stage time.



Caleb goes to choir, too, but he wouldn't get up and sing. He was mad because he didn't get to sit in a chair.

Since he's only 2 1/2, he's not officially old enough to go to choir. Problem is, I'm the older children's choir director, so he either goes there or we have to provide a sitter for him. One of his favorite people, my good pal Teresa, is one of the leaders of the younger choir, and she's nice enough to let him join in. He loves it. Actually singing in front of a crowd - he's not there yet.










My first attempt to upload video - here's one of my favorite songs they sang. It's called the Recipe Song. BTW - if it doesn't work, don't blame me. I'm new to this and my video card doesn't handle this kind of video well at all on my computer. I can't tell if I got everything formatted right or not.

Dude!

Sunday mornings, we're usually rushed to get to church on time. This past Sunday, we weren't. So the kids piled in Jerry's lap to watch a little more "Auto B. Good". His favorite spot is with both kids snuggled up in his lap.

Anna has on her new jacket (acutally a vest, because none of the jackets had sleeves that fit well) and her hat and scarf that we got at Old Navy Saturday morning after she took a class at Sci-Quest (about building things) and we ate lunch with Jerry at Cici's Pizza. Caleb has is "Brother George" glasses on just for fun. He calls them his "sunglasses".

Caleb has just figured out how to really do a good "thumbs up", so I took a picture of my three favorite people while they actually had nice clothes on. Instead of saying cheese, they said "DUDE!". One of Caleb's favorite expressions.

A gap-toothed smile

Anna had her latest dental check-up mid-October and they took a few x-rays before sharing the news with me that Anna was going to be losing some teeth pretty soon. She's got some big 'ol teeth waiting to come in, and her bottom front incisors were both slightly wiggly. The dentist's prediction was that we'd lose a tooth or two by Christmas. By early November, she had one tooth that was very wiggly. She enjoyed showing the wiggly tooth to everybody.

Saturday, Nov. 10, Daddy made an attempt to pull it, but he couldn't get a good grip on the tooth.
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The next day, during Children's church, it came out! Anna told Jerry, "Daddy, I felt something touch my mouth and it was God. God pulled my tooth!". She also pointed out that while Daddy couldn't pull it, God could. Her teacher was afraid that someone had knocked it out, and we assured her that no, we were expecting it to come out. They said as soon as it happened, all 14 other kids in the class started trying to wiggle their teeth.

Can you see the gap?

When we got home from church, Anna got her tooth fairy box and Daddy took the tooth out of the kleenex it was wrapped in.

Anna was so proud! That night, about two hours after she'd gone to bed, she hollered for us and asked when the tooth fairy was coming. She was informed that she had to go to sleep first. She was very pleased with the "gold coin" and the doll she got.

I can't believe she's growing up so fast!

Soccer party!

To celebrate the end of a season of soccer, we all met at Chick-Fil-A to play on the playground and have a "soccer party". This is Anna's entire team, the Tigers.

Brianna was our most aggressive player. She's in Kindergarten. Like the teeth? Courtesy of Coach Christy, who bought a soccer ball cupcake cake. They all wanted black cupcakes, and it turned their teeth a really gross color.

Anna had been playing in the indoor playground when we called them around to get their trophies. The trophies are actually banks, too, which all 4 kids thought was really cool. I'm not sure what happened to her hair...

Preston was our best defender -he could take the ball away from everybody. Anna knows him from church - his family moved here recently. I apologized to my parents for the wierd mouths, but they had fun and when we saw Preston at church the following Sunday, he was back to normal.

This is Connor, who it turns out lives about 4 doors down from us in the new subdivision next to us. He and Anna will start at Creekside next year. He's a sweetheart - and always very excited about playing soccer!

Of course, we can't forget our mascot! Caleb provided the entertainment between quarters, running onto the field yelling "My turn!" every time we came over for a water break.

Note to self...

Don't give kids markers on the 4-5 hour drive home.

They get bored.

Then they do this:

and this:

What we did at Granny's house...

Our usual last stop in Knoxville is Great-Granny's house. This time, we were surprised to find she had an extra visitor. This cat was so interested in the food she was eating she didn't mind Anna's attention at all.

Yeah, Daddy, we do play chase when you're not around. Even at Granny's!

I can't even begin to describe this chair. The kids love it. They get it out every time they come over. The teapots were new this time.

This picture is for Granny. She loved seeing Anna with this veil on.

Don't worry Daddy, we cleaned up before we left!

Staying at Skunk Ridge

So while were were in Knoxville, we "stayed" at Skunk Ridge. It's a real treat for the kids, and was even cooler because each one got to spend the night "away" from "home" - Anna at Gracey's and Caleb at Grammaws. So for two nights, I only had one child with me - weird! Caleb took advantage of it and had Meemaw explore the farm with him.

Caleb was so funny when Aunt Tina came for a quick visit. He asked her the question he learned (and loves) at the family reunion - "What's your name", and then told her "I love you" and gave her a big hug.

Aunt Tina brought a little something to show off - her new car! It's a Honda Fit, and it's a cool metallic blue. I'm jealous -it has an MP3 player built in! Congrats Sis, you and Jason deserve it!

Not to be outdone by the presence of a new car, Caleb had to show off his truck...

Skunk Ridge has lots of cheap entertainment. For instance, these bamboo sticks make great swords.

Anna spent a considerable amount of her time at Skunk Ridge trying to convince my folk's cats that the was not dangerous and could be trusted. She'd climb up on the cat's favorite sofa and holler "Momma, I'm sitting VERY still!" She was quite proud when the morning we were supposed to leave, she sat still enough that Abby hopped up to take a nap with her.

The last thing Anna and I did was stop by the Museum of Appalachia to look at the gift shop. Anna was much more interested in chasing the chickens outside. It's what she looks forward to the most about this stop. Maybe we need to look into getting some chickens as a source of cheap entertainment...