The Peach Parents: Wrapping things up

We are wrapping up a lot of things lately....presents..mostly handmade this year:), school, teaching, fixing, cooking, finals...and looking forward to a long holiday in Alabama.

The kiddos have been enjoying the BEAUTIFUL weather. Almost everyday after school they have an hour of trampoline time....that has to be one of our best purchases ever. The sun is out and its been in the high 50s low 60s. They love jumping, playing games and shooting hoops from the trampoline. Baby Boy did fall and hit one of the poles thus chipping his tooth. The x-rays at the dentist show no root damage so we are good to go with Mr. Snaggletooth until it falls out. Thankfully, an early christmas present of a new net showed up on our doorstep and the trampoline is once again super safe!!

We have been enjoying lots of Christmas parties, which means the kids have had lots of babysitting. They LOVE babysitters. One because we always combine with other families which means lots of friends to play with and two because they always get to watch one Wild Kratt or Veggie Tale towards the end of the night. Most of the time when Adam and I come home they are not happy that the babysitters have to leave :).

We are going caroling tonight with our Sunday School group and I think the kids will really enjoy blessing others. We hope to visit several local friends and blast them with our spunky versions of christmas carols.

The weather has also caused some sickness in our home..its really hard to gauge what to wear too. My runs have been really frustrating as I am either DYING of sweat or NUMB by the time we are done. I always check the weather but the wind can really change how cold it feels. This past Saturday we did a 7.5 mile run and all of us were in shorts..I had on a tank top for crying out loud. It felt super weird to run through christmas lights (it was still dark for our whole run) in shorts while wiping away sweat. The up and down in temperatures has meant a lot of sinus problems for everyone and we are all sharing the Delsyn and cough drops. I have completely lost my voice which tends to happen at least once a year. I don't think anyone minds though that I am not so loud ;).

We have really enjoyed our new Advent book this year by Ann Voskamp. Not that we didn't enjoy the Jesus Storybook bible but we needed a new one after 3 years. I love that it has questions at the end and that its very descriptive and has beautiful illustrations. The kids KNOW exactly whose turns it is to hang the ornament and most of the time they know the story pretty well.

Big Girl is doing exceptionally well at school. I thought my heart may burst yesterday when she whipped out two beautiful pieces of art work. The first was a NUTCRACKER. Nutcrackers are by far my favorite way to decorate for Christmas....it floods me with memories of my Nana Dudgeon who decorated with teddy bears and nutcrackers. I even repaired one of my nana's nutcrackers and gave it to Micah and Chris to help them decorate for their first Christmas. Big Girl's nutcracker was beautiful and even Goober stopped and said "WOAH, that is a good nutcracker". The next piece of artwork was a big orange heart and underneath she had written "I LOVE YOU MOM"....in beautiful handwriting and spelled perfectly. This is a huge deal for our little one who struggled all least year with spelling and handwriting. She IS READING...she passes all of her sight word tests and she reads to us off of billboards, signs, the TV, anything she can find. We are constantly praising her because she mentioned to Adam the other day that she is still "embarrassed" in front of her friends who went on to first grade..breaks our heart.

Goober is a violin machine..I HAD TO MAKE HIM STOP PRACTICING the other night and go to bed. I mean the boy loves to practice and see how far ahead in his workbook he can get. He made us laugh so hard at his concert..he stood really close to his friend and I mean if he would have been a millimeter closer would have taken the boys eyes out with his bow. EVERYTIME he hit a high note that bow got super close to his friends eye and Goober was completely unaware. His grades are coming up gradually and he is taking initiative to show his grades instead of cramming them all in his locker or hiding them elsewhere.

Baby Boy is just our little snaggletooth crazy child. He is constantly making us laugh, challenging us, repeating us, asking for snuggles, asking for kisses as he stands under the mistletoe and shaking all of those curls. He is always amazed at the new "tricks" he learns and asks us to watch him open his yogurt all by himself, or button a button or spit into the sink and not on the countertop. He is actually starting to sleep through the night without waking up 2/3 times and yelling out. He is a good eater and will try just about anything.....but he wants a dessert after EVERY MEAL, including breakfast. His most common questions are:
Can I have dessert? Can I play on the iPad? Is today church or school day? When is Miss Tootie gonna babysit me? Can we snuggle? Can I play with Bubba or Nolan? Can I have some chocolate milk or hot chocolate?

3 days left until our official Christmas Vacation begins!!

One of my new favorite meals. Spaghetti squash, spinach, turkey pepperoni and light alfredo sauce.

Some of the many creative Advent Calendars by my awesome 8th graders this year. They LOVE using handtools!!!

Logic Honor Society serving at Operation Christmas Child

Advent Begins!

Many more advent projects...I love the ones that are personalized for the family!!

Our best bud Kason..just eating cheese pizza after school

We couldn't help ourselves. We know how Super Ribbit is so we wanted to really celebrate her turn to be Super Kid at school. She and I worked hard on her beautiful poster.

They all want to hang the ornaments as high as they can!

My latest painting party was for all the faculty/staff at our school. 60 participants and many beautiful takes on an ornament!! WHAT A FUN NIGHT!!

On our tippy toes!!

My lunch almost every day is a sweet potato, apple and craisins...SO YUMMY!!

Someone got an early Christmas/Birthday present...and someone else is getting her kitchen remodel finished a lot faster now :). WIN WIN

Running at least 7.5 every Saturday as we prepare for more races in Feb/March!

Cheesing it up at Breakfast with Santa!

This may be our 4th year to eat pancakes with Santa...we skipped last year but I'm so glad we went back. The food was great, pictures were cheap and fast and the friends we went with were FUN!!