Sayings of My Children

I figured we'd end the year with a final rendition of 2020 Sayings of My Children. 

Avery: I really want to watch Snoofy. The pumpkin one. Then after, it's Carious George.

Noah: You're almost big enough to drive!
Michael: Yeah! When I'm..... twelve!

(During prayer, Avery wants all of us to hold our own hands together in the prayer symbol)
Michael: I hold my hands like this and I look like an angel.
Avery: I hold my hands like this and I look like a zebra.

Avery: What's the wind doing?!
Me: What IS it doing?
Avery: It's dancing!

Avery: Mom, what's your favorite color?
Me: Pink.
Avery: Oh, ink. 

Avery: Mom, you have.... superpower!
Michael: Yeah! The power of.... chores!

(After peeling a clementine)
Michael: Mom! That smells delicious!
Avery: yeah! That smells like wishes!

(Looking at our pineapple ornament)
Avery: I know what this is! It's a pineapple. They have this on cocomelon (a show). We should watch it.
Me: Okay. I'm not sure which episode has the pineapple.
Avery: (holds up 2 fingers) This is what you do. Click it. And find it.

(Looks under the Christmas tree)
A: Did Santa take our presents?
Me: Santa brings some presents. And mommy and daddy bring presents.
A: (gasps) From that closet? (Looks at the coat closet)
Me: Nope
A: (gasps) From Santa's bag?!
Me: (nods)
A: Yaaaaaayyyy!

(I handed Avery a new pair of shoes from a hand-me-down bag)
A: Oh wow! These shoes are amazing!

Avery: What's that?
Aaron: A fire box
Noah: I hope it's not filled with fire. 

Avery calls pinecones "corn nuts." I think she's mixing pinecone with acorn.

Noah: Good night. Rest in pieces.

Avery calls chocolate cobbler "chalkit clobber."

Avery says "leave my door cricket" instead of "leave my door cracked."

Michael: Did you know that the first bread was made from wheat? Not flour.

Avery: (looking at a droopy flower) Oh! The flower is sad! The rain made it fall!

Avery reading a story to us:
"The crut-nacker" (instead of nutcracker)

Noah: Does Tuscaloosa have elephants since the first four letters of Tuscaloosa are tusc?
Me: Yes. Yes they do.

Michael: Can we go to Bethlehem?
Me: Pennsylvania?
Michael: No. Where Jesus was born.
Me: Some years from now.
Michael: Why?
Me: Because they don't always really like Americans
Michael: Thats ok! We can say we're Korean!

I want to remember the way Avery walks up to me, lifts her arms, and says "I want to hold ya!"

When Avery is upset at any of us, she'll tell us very loudly "you ruined my family!"

Noah: Oh! I didn't know you had soda!
Me: I just bought it today
Noah: (gets a cup of soda) Oh! Well, if you bought it today, shouldn't the bubbles be spicy in my mouth?

Noah: I'm dreaming of a wise Christmas

Michael: If food gets stuck in my throat, I hit myself in the chest to help myself out.
Avery: My throat punched me and killed me.

Here's to all the fun things they'll say in 2021!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Our Own Little Christmas Party

Since the boys are doing virtual school, they missed out on having a Christmas party with classmates so they were a bit bummed out.  We had a "Zoom" family Christmas party/STEAM event last week on Tuesday night but it wasn't really a party at all. It was more of a "sit down and do an engineer activity over Zoom with other 3rd graders, etc."  Sweet Michael thought it was going to be more of a party and wore his pajamas & brought his Christmas stuffed animals to the Zoom call. Needless to say, he was disappointed and my momma heart was breaking. It was then we decided we'd throw our own Christmas party as a family. I added some items to my Walmart grocery pickup and we planed to have our party on one of these days that we had left leading up to our official Christmas break (we're officially out on Wednesday).  

Aaron has been working lots of long hours (like 16 hour days) and even had to work yesterday and is at work today too. So... we needed a little holiday cheering up & decided today was the day. I handled Children's Church by myself this morning and we knew that once we got home from church, then our official obligations of the day were over & we could think of things to do at our party. It was just me and the kids, so we planned it for after Avery's nap. I found some Christmas plates & trays and arranged some treats & planned out some games. I really wanted to make it as special as possible for them. Around 2:15, I started some Christmas music & invited them to choose their special snacks & make their hot chocolate order and we'd get started!  We played four games. The first was "Pin the Nose on Rudolph." The next was "candy cane fishing." The third game was improvised-- I hid 6 candy canes in the backyard & the kids each got to find two. They LOVED this! We then returned inside and we played a dice game to draw a snowman (where each number on the dice equals a snowman part to draw and the first one to draw a complete snowman is the winner! Michael won!). 

Our party lasted about an hour, which was the perfect time frame. We're watching "The Polar Express" while I write this post, and we'll have ham & bean soup for dinner. It's turning out to be a great winter day...it'll be perfect when Aaron gets home!

Here's some photos of our fun:

This is my improvised fishing pole (see the candy cane on the end?). 

This is our cup of canes to fish from. 

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Friday Favorites 12/18/20

Today I'm linking up with Andrea & Erika for Friday Favorites!  

We've been keeping pretty busy this month! 

Noah lost his first tooth!

One day, Avery decorated salt dough ornaments while her brothers did virtual school. 

All three kids opened a "stone work shop."

My mother-in-law caught a rare kind moment between my sons. :)

Avery was very impressed by her gingerbread decorating skills. 

Michael conducted a science experiment one day for his virtual science class assignment. 

Last night, the kids and I ventured to a nearby neighborhood to see their Minion Christmas light show!

Michael received a white board & dry erase marker from his teacher and all three kids have loved drawing on it.  Michael usually draws comics while Avery and Noah choose to draw me "with curly hair."

One morning, our elf left ornaments for each kiddo (I'm pretty sure they were more pumped than this photo lets on.) :) Noah received a police ornament (with boots, a badge, and hat), Avery received a unicorn, and Michael received a Greninja (Pokemon character). 

 

Today is an e-Learning Day for us (all kids in the county are doing virtual school today) and I must admit, this is a favorite too!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

What I Want to Remember...

My kids are at such fun ages!  Michael is 8, Noah is 6, Avery is 3.  They're all at the ages of truly believing in the magic of Christmas and the wonder of the season.  Being their mom is such a treasure and I'm really trying to work hard at not letting the stress of the season affect how I present myself to them.  They are all such wonderful people and I love seeing them grow and come into their own!

Michael: Age 8

Michael is still very much involved in Mario characters and Pokemon characters.  He enjoys playing video games (but did recently give himself a three-and-a-half-week hiatus of all games, which I think enabled him to use his imagination more and made video games more of a treat once his hiatus was finished).  He enjoys drawing and will write out comics complete with full story lines.  He began writing a Christmas play, but didn't quite finish yet.  He is like me in that he second guesses himself a lot and doesn't finish all projects based on whether or not he thinks he'll be successful.  He is so much a firstborn (which neither Aaron or I am) so it's kind of fun to see how he acts like our older brothers.  I can see the manipulation of his younger siblings and creating rules for pretend games where only he wins. :)  He is also very cut-and-dry, everything must be black-and-white which is very much "first born" behavior.  He is a growing boy whose foot is just a half size smaller than mine.  He's an avid reader and board game/card game player.  I think are such great qualities to have!  We have been making our way through the "Jesus Storybook Bible" and we pick out a Bible story or two from it to read each night.  I'm so grateful for his interest in the Christmas story and in who Jesus is.  The Bible really is an adventure book that can speak to the adventurous spirit of little boys!  I absolutely love who Michael is and it's a joy that God chose me to be his mom. 

Noah: Age 6

Noah is a middle child through and through.  His emotions are big, his spirit is big, his exuberance is big.  His stature is tall and skinny (he still wears some 5T things and actually fit into a 3T vest that he pretends is a SWAT vest).  He still loves all things police, firetruck, ambulance, school bus, and garbage truck.  Out of the three kids, Noah's imagination is the greatest and best.  He is constantly playing pretend.  Cardboard boxes get turned into delivery trucks. The loveseat gets turned into a garbage truck.  The couch gets turned into a jail.  Multiple Hot Wheels make their way into the living room to create traffic jams that have to be monitored by helicopters, etc.  It's always a "go go go" scenario with Noah.  He literally jumps up and down with excitement at the simplest things and just has a joy that radiates from him.  He's pretty easy going but can feel left out if he's interrupted or if his big brother or cousin don't want to play the games he invents.  He needs lots of snuggles and smiles.  He is a good big brother to his sister, and I can tell that his personality is going to be snarky but sweet.  He enjoys listening to stories, but prefers to stay active while the story is being read.  He has an easy smile and I'm so blessed that God chose to create this middle child role for Noah in our family. 

Avery: Age 3

Avery is spunky, animated, and joyful.  She is understanding the concept of holidays and is very excited about all of the decorations and lights this time of year.  She has kind of rolled Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas into one big holiday and will constantly say phrases like "Today is Halloween.  Trick or Treat!  Don't open your presents!"  I guess she knows that Halloween occurred, but Christmas isn't here quite yet so we can't open our presents but we can keep saying it's Halloween. :)  Each kid got to pick out gifts for their siblings this year and all of them were super thoughtful!  (Actually, the things that the boys picked out for Avery happen to be the only things she says she wants when I ask her about Christmas gifts-- and the boys hadn't heard her say these things before choosing her presents!)  She, in turn, was thoughtful with her choices for her brothers and I think she picked things for them that are right up their alleys.  She loves a good story and is pretty good about sitting down and listening to them!  She can tell if we're skipping parts of the story, so she'll say "no no no.  Tell the letters!" She is doing very well at potty-training.  She fully wears panties during the daytime, and wears a diaper only at naps and overnight.  One morning this week she woke up with a completely dry diaper and was able to tee-tee on the potty first thing in the morning.  She'll usually wake up from naps dry, but we are keeping a diaper on her during nap time and overnight for a while longer.   She was certainly the puzzle piece that our family needed in order to be complete and I'm super pumped that God sent her to us as our third child. 

I love all of these little treasures so much and I know that motherhood is hard and tiring and at times mundane, but these are the moments that create their childhoods and I'd really like to do a good job of giving them the best childhood foundation that I can.  

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

A Fun, Easy Lunch

Today after church, I whipped up a fun & very easy lunch for the kids. They loved it so much that they've requested the same thing for next Sunday after church too! I included a variety of things we had in the pantry & in the fridge: a few Ritz crackers each, some American cheese torn into squares, Swiss cheese torn into strips, some pepperoni, some turkey lunch meat, some craisins, and a dollop of peanut butter. Each of them got a butter knife to practice spreading peanut butter on their crackers if they chose.  It was so simple but they loved it so much!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

Making Spirits Bright

On Thursday, I received an email from the front office at school saying I had a Christmas gift in the teacher workroom.  I went to get it on my planning period that day & was blown away by the kindness of this family! It was such an encouragement and really made my day. 

It included a coffee cup, a pack of coffee, 3 candy canes, a little baggie of candy, and a note. 

Inside the coffee cup was chapstick, hand sanitizer, and some Clorox wipes! 

It was so thoughtful & appreciated!

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba

The Masked Teacher

Since I have to be masked everyday in my classroom, I thought it would be fun to take a few pictures as the Masked Teacher. (All masks sewn by my Aunt!)

Until Next Time, 

Much Love, Reba