Sleep--the best present!!

If anyone is still looking for that perfect gift for Adam and I...well look no longer....give us 1 maybe 2 hours all to ourself with a queen bed, heck we will take a twin and just let us sleep :).
In the last 48 hours we have worked, cleaned the house, hosted 19 7th grade girls, had the cops visit our house (thanks to a phone prank), re-cleaned the house,  gone to a 7:30 am flag football game for Goober, shopped for Christmas presents, rode camels (yes a Sallie the Camel has 1 hump kind) and attended a Pajama Christmas Party.
It would take a warehouse of Red Bulls to keep me up another minute (after I finish this blog of course :)).

Goober got the first and last touchdown of his game this morning. He caught a ball from 1/2 way down the field....talk about being impressed. Yes, I do have videos of it, and No, I didn't scream like a banshee this time. Goob made me promise not to scream before we got out of the car this morning. We promised Goob a milkshake if he got a touchdown and therefore we pulled into Sonic at 9 this morning and got our two kids shakes....like I said, we are aiming for the parents of the year award!!

Ribbit has been learning all of the christmas songs and sings " Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells". She also has learned " Rise and Shine and Give God the Glory Glory" except her version goes like this " Glory Glory, God, Glory Glory, God". She has yet to unwrap any of the presents under the tree and instead of taking ornaments off the tree she just touches it and then yells " mommy I touch it"!!!

Her last day of preschool is this Wednesday. Then she will be with us for 2.5 weeks and then start a new preschool when we get back from Christmas break. I am so excited that she will be even closer to me now and that she will be in a Christian environment. We also found out that she will get to be in the 3 yr old class at our school next year.....HALLELUJAH!!!! I will have both of my kids with me!!!!

Here are some funny Gooberisms...
#1-As we pass a pink Volkswagon Beetle Goob says " that car looks like a booger, its lame".
#2- He was trying to teach Ribbit how to say Hallelujah. He broke it down like this HA, Lay, Ew, Jahwah....he was so proud of himself.
#3 Goobers new favorite joke goes as follows.
Goob: Dad, say something mean to me
Dad: Your booty smells
Goob: I know my booty smells but what are you? your booty smells too!
Followed by hysterical laughter from Goob, Adam and myself---he is trying to do the joke of "I know you are but what am I?....he thinks he is super funny which makes it even better!!!!
#4 Goob at Christmas Party: Mom, can I have one more cookie?
Mom: how many have you had so far?
Goob: only one
7th grade girl: Mrs. Harvell, but he already had 3 brownies
Goob: she didn't ask how many brownies as he scowls at the tattletale :)

Here are some pictures from our exhausting yet not over yet weekend :)

Mommy and Ribbit ride the camel. The man made me sit on the hump to keep her locked in. It was kinda scary, especially when the camel growled at us! Ribbit kept saying "Animal walking, Animal moving"

And here is big boy Goober, who wanted to ride without parents :)

Last but not least pictures from Breakfast with Santa last weekend.

Meeting Santa

First things first....GOOBER GOT A 99 ON HIS SPELLING TEST!!!!!  He only missed a point for making a letter backwards. Can you say mom and dad happy dance? We both were standing in the kitchen when we saw the test and broke out into white girl and white boy dance times 10!! Then Adam started rapping and we sang a song about how smart Goob was. Both kids just looked at us and I bet they secretly wondered who these crazy people were. It makes that one night of heartache almost worth it.....almost.
We are continually making friends here in Bedford, thanks to Mrs. Ribbit. She charmed everyone in line at the bank yesterday with Adam. He said she flirted with everyone. Today at Wal-Mart she sang Happy Birthday to each passing person. The lucky lady in line behind us also got "Mary Lamb" and a rendition of Jingle Bells. Me and the kids went to an 8th grade girls basketball game the other day and and took our dinner with us. The minute we got there Ribbit grabbed her french fries, ketchup and hiked up the bleachers to sit with Mrs. Arce ( i have both of her daughters in art class) and offered to feed her french fries. Then she got her book out of her happy meal and took it to a mom from the opposing team and said " read it" and started turning the pages saying " mommy killy--translation Mommy Kitty", "killy sleeping", killy go nigh nigh". The mom was smitten and when Ribbit closed the book and said " De End" she laughed out loud...that girl will never have any enemies.
We have lots going on this week. We are hosting all my 7th grade bible and art girls here for a party on Friday night. Don't worry we haven't gone crazy but now that we live so close we can do fun things outside of school with my sweet students. So far 19 of them have RSVP'd so sounds like a full house :). We are having a Cookie Swap and a Tacky Christmas Sweater contest.....should be lots of fun! Goober has football practice and a game this weekend. We also have our new sunday school class Christmas Pajama Party and Kids Book Swap....we are very excited to go and get to know our new church family better.
Here are some pictures from a Christmas Party we went to last weekend......it was hosted by one of Goober's very best friends. They had Mr. and Mrs. Clause there and all kinds of food and crafts and games for the kids.

Enjoy the pics!
Making a pink reindeer ornament. This child is going to love us for the pictures with all of her chins!

 Goob got mad at us for not letting him slide in the mud outside....such mean parents!

 Ribbit's finished ornament!

 See Mommy, I paint!

This picture shows their true colors....the three amigos!

 Carols with the Mr. and Mrs.

 Raise your hand if you know " Silent Night". When we started to sing not a one of them sang!

 Mrs. Clause shared a story about Jesus with the children....awesome! Ribbit paid a lot of attention :)

 I wouldn't post the same picture this many times except to show you what we go through to get a nice smile out of Goober...check out all of these great faces ...bwa haha ha.

 Really Goob, Really?

 Almost?

 Goob lasted about 2 minutes and then went off with the boys....Ribbit stayed to chat a while.

 Our first family Christmas picture with the Clause's ....Doesn't Adam look like a rich white boy?

 Just charming away.

 Look at how happy Goob is to be with his bestest best friend!!

 All those sweet little boys!

Through my kiddos eyes

Christmas season is a lot more fun when you have kids. Adam, you rock honey, but I have never seen you get as excited as Ribbit did today about getting her "silly face" painted on her cheek. I have also never seen you dance with as much delight as Goober did during " Winter Wonderland" yesterday in the car. I still love you but kids make everything new again and exciting!!!! (poor adam, he doesn't write blogs...but maybe if I talk about him enough he will :))
Anyways, we have been going full force all week long...recovering from thanksgiving break that is. I almost, almost forgot how much of a booger those darn 1st grade spelling tests are. Goober and I ended one night in tears from both of us over these two horrible horrible words, that should be deleted from our english language anyways....insect and brisk.....urrggh. We ended up hugging it out but there for a minute I thought we would never speak to one another again.
We also have been trying to send out Christmas cards ( look for Goob's awesome stamp work on the back of the envelopes), buy everyone's christmas gifts, make everyone a homemade gift and keep up with Advent--so far we have learned that Jesus is coming and that Ezra and Nehemiah are declaring a Savior...but he has yet to come...due to our schedule. Hopefully Jesus will be born this week and we can see who comes to visit him while in the manger.

This morning (saturday) we went to eat breakfast with Santa. It was really neat and a great idea for little ones. We ate pancakes and sausage (goob ate twice as much as I did..and he had already eaten at home too :)...can you say GROWTH SPURT). Then they went and visited with Santa and got their picture taken. Goober told Santa that he wants a "Nerf Gun" and Ribbit told him that she wanted a "Princess".....whew, thanksfully Santa is going to be able to follow through on those :). Then we got "silly faces" face painting done. Goober got a christmas tree and Ribbit got a "twinkle little star". We came home and cleaned out Goober's entire closet and dresser....the kid has way to many clothes...1/2 of which don't fit. So we sorted them, made a donate stack, a throw away sack, and a yardsale stack. His room likes a completely different world now. Then we watched some football, napped and went next door......

We are truly blessed. Not only did we move right beside my work, into a huge beautiful home ( with an island) but we moved right beside some very energetic, preach the word Messanic Jews. They invited us over tonight to celebrate the end of Shabbat (their Sabbath) and to watch a movie that their home church just finished making. We participated in Hebrew prayers, communion (their way), dinner (rabbini kosher with homemade hummus, pita, hallah bread) and then dessert. Our kids played with the kids from their home church and we just got loved on. Adam took over some of his artifacts and had the attention and awe of everyone as he spoke with such knowledge and intelligence about this land that they have such a longing for and connection to. Ribbit also put on a show during the movie..she went and stood in front of the TV and danced....shrugging her shoulders and stepping really high...she had everyone in stitches..i was sweating so bad because i was both laughing and praying that people would think she was being more cute than annoying.It was awesome. They are great neighbors and we can learn a lot from each other.

Tomorrow we are going back to the church we visited last week and fell in love with....Thank you God!!! Then we have a birthday party to attend and then we will hopefully go see one of my students in a walk through Bethlehem tomorrow night.
As if this post wasn't already long enough, I am going to attach some more pictures of my parents visit with us over Thanksgiving!

                                                      Making cookies--with our neighbors!!

                                                             Final product--oreo turkeys!

                                  Goob likes to act like hot stuff when his friend is over :)

                                         Goob's new best buddy and our new neighbor.

 So papa and ribbit would fix each others booboos the whole week. He eventually pulled out some tape and started covering her "boo boos". This is what walked into the living room next.

 Goobers turkey. He named him Bob Bobby Thom....thats a logical name for a turkey right?