Favs

Have you guys started listening to Christmas music yet?  I have even though I’m sure I’ll be Christmas music’ed out by December 1st.  Here are my favorite ones:

1.  God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Barenaked Ladies and Sarah McLachlan) - Eric makes fun of me because I listen to this song year round. 

2.  Oh Holy Night (I don’t have a favorite version) - I just love the “fall on your knees” part.

3.  Auld Lang Syne (Mairi Campbell)

4.  Baby Its Cold Outside (Ella Fitzgerald and Louise Jordan)

5.  Santa Baby (Eartha Kitt) – sorry, this video was the only one I could find

Roly-poly

About 30 minutes before we had to leave to take Kenny to bible school, I asked Luke to pick up his cars that were laying around the family room.  Here’s how he picked them up:

1.  Look at the car in question from across the room

2.  Roll across the room to pick up the one car (nevermind that there were 5 other cars in the same vicinity)

3.  Stare at the car and make it fly in the air

4.  Roll back across the floor to put the one car in the basket where we keep them

5.  Repeat 49 more times

I swear I could feel my blood pressure rising after the 25th roll.

Did vs. should have done

What I did yesterday:

- Absolutely nothing (and it felt wonderful).  Well, that not exactly true.  I did a few loads of laundry, mailed some Christmas presents, went to a PTA meeting and of course, did yesterday’s post. 

What I should have done yesterday:

- Cleaned the kitchen

- Cleaned the boys bathroom

- Dusted

- Washed our sheets

- Vacuumed

- Gone to Sam’s

I guess you know what I’ll be doing today.  I’ve already cleaned the kitchen and our sheets are in the wash.  2 down, 4 to go.

Elf Yourself 2009

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

In pictures

My friend Brook met us in downtown Overland Park yesterday to take some fall pictures of the boys.  She takes amazing pictures so when she offered to do it (for free!), I immediately said yes.  She got some amazing pictures and I got to learn some of her photography tricks.  Thank you Brook!

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the pictures (she still has to touch them up).  You may even be seeing some of these on our Christmas card:   

Little Leah Tutus

If you have a little girl, go here to see what Eric’s cousin, April, is making.  Aren’t they adorable? 

Annie, at some point in the future you will more than likely be receiving one.

It’s that time of the year again…

The Sprint Thanksgiving Day 5K is coming up.  Who’s in?  If we can get teams of 5 together, it’s only $18 per person if we enroll before the 12th.  Go here for more info on the race.

You can leave me a note on here or on my FB page. 

Runners so far -

Team #1 (team Saxton)

Me – registered

Eric – registered

Mike – registered

Anna – registered

Trey

Team #2 (team McCullough)

Amanda – registered

Jennifer – registered

Kari

Erika

Ryan

Note:  Crystal is going to run too if they come to KC for Thanksgiving.  She’ll just sign up the day of the race if they do.

Renee and her family is going to run too.  They registered together.

No, maybe, yes

When all the talk of the H1N1 virus started, I had no plans to get myself or my kids vaccinated.  I knew the symptoms of H1N1 could be bad but I wasn’t sold on the safety of the actual shot. 

But, then Kenny’s school district sent out a permission slip for free H1N1 shots for any kids interested.  That’s when the maybe’s started going through my head but I still wasn’t convinced.

Then, it seemed like everybody and their brother was sick with the swine flu.  My neighbor’s son had it so bad that now, over 2 weeks later, he’s still sick.  He has missed so much school that his teacher isn’t even going to have him make up the things that he missed.  At this point, Eric and I talked to our doctor and our friend, Kevin, who is also a doctor.  Both recommended the shot.  Eric and I talked some more and decided to get the vaccination for both of the boys.  Luke got his on Saturday, after he and Eric waited in line for over 2 hours and Kenny will get his at school later in the month. 

Sometimes the decisions we have to make as parents are really difficult.

Our Halloween

This Halloween was a lot of fun because #1, I didn’t have to carve our pumpkin and #2 Luke really got it.  Luke had so much fun going up to the different houses and saying yelling “trick or treat”.  He and I went with Eric and Kenny almost all the way around the block and then Luke was ready to go home.  Between our neighborhood, Matt Ross, trunk-or-treating at Kenny’s school and the giant pumpkin cookie cake that my parents brought over, we have way too much junk in our house. 

A.J. and Amanda Mario and Princess Peach went with us to Matt Ross

Good Spider-Man (and don’t you dare try to call him Bad Spider-Man)

 

 

Happy Halloween 2009

Happy Halloween from our superheroes to yours.

#1, baby

Check out who’s ranked #1 for the 2010 NCAA men’s basketball season in both the AP and ESPN/USA Today polls.  I love college basketball.  Go Jayhawks! AP Top 25

1. Kansas (55) 0-0 1,612

2. Michigan State (5) 0-0 1,515

3. Texas (1) 0-0 1,397

4. Kentucky (3) 0-0 1,372

5. Villanova 0-0 1,347

6. North Carolina (1) 0-0 1,320

7. Purdue 0-0 1,284

8. West Virginia 0-0 1,115

9. Duke 0-0 1,064

10. Tennessee 0-0 897

11. Butler 0-0 864

12. Connecticut 0-0 844

13. California 0-0 800

14. Washington 0-0 776

15. Michigan 0-0 578

16. Ohio State 0-0 465

17. Oklahoma 0-0 410

18. Mississippi State 0-0 393

19. Louisville 0-0 335

20. Georgetown 0-0 326

21. Dayton 0-0 318

22. Georgia Tech 0-0 301

23. Illinois 0-0 282

24. Clemson 0-0 217

25. Minnesota 0-0 172

Others Receiving Votes Maryland 171, Siena 112, Notre Dame 107, Florida State 92, Vanderbilt 90, Syracuse 83, Oklahoma State 65, UCLA 63, Florida 53, Wake Forest 50, Xavier 42, Gonzaga 37, South Carolina 28, Kansas State 24, Brigham Young 21, Northern Iowa 16, Tulsa 16, Mississippi 15, Texas A&M 10, Missouri 8, Boston College 6, Pittsburgh 4, Western Kentucky 2, Utah State 2, Virginia Commonwealth 2, Old Dominion 1, Holy Cross 1.

ESPN/USA Today Poll

1. Kansas (27) 0-0 770

2. Michigan State (3) 0-0 732

3. Texas 0-0 676

4. North Carolina (1) 0-0 653

5. Kentucky 0-0 635

6. Villanova 0-0 620

7. Purdue 0-0 586

8. Duke 0-0 528

9. West Virginia 0-0 501

10. Butler 0-0 408

11. Tennessee 0-0 406

12. California 0-0 370

13. Washington 0-0 364

14. Connecticut 0-0 361

15. Michigan 0-0 279

16. Oklahoma 0-0 244

17. Ohio State 0-0 241

18. Minnesota 0-0 151

19. Mississippi State 0-0 149

20. Georgia Tech 0-0 136

21. Georgetown 0-0 134

22. Dayton 0-0 130

23. Louisville 0-0 123

24. Clemson 0-0 114

25. Syracuse 0-0 111

Others Receiving Votes Maryland 100, Illinois 83, Siena 72, UCLA 59, Vanderbilt 38, Oklahoma State 29, Missouri 28, Xavier 25, Gonzaga 24, Notre Dame 22, USC 22, Pittsburgh 19, Tulsa 17, Kansas State 16, Brigham Young 16, Florida State 15, Florida 13, Wake Forest 13, San Diego State 8, Creighton 7, Boston College 4, Texas A&M 4, Southern Illinois 3, Utah State 3, Cornell 3, Memphis 3, Mississippi 3, UNLV 2, South Carolina 1, Northern Iowa 1. Here’s another story on it.

Halloween party

Kenny’s class had their Halloween party today.  I’m one of the room moms so Luke and I helped out.  We had an hour to dress the kids in their costumes, do a parade through all the different classrooms (since they’ll miss the actual parade this afternoon), do 2 projects and finally eat some yummy treats.  The hour went very quickly but I think everyone had fun.  

 

Baby essentials

Annie asked me what my baby must haves were.  Here’s a list of the things that I couldn’t have done without:

• boppy
• SwaddleMe blankets - these were life savers
• swing
• tons of pajamas for the first few months
• running stroller – you can borrow mine when Luke starts preschool next September (and honestly, you probably wouldn’t use it before then)

What would you say are/were your top essentials?  Help her out.

Finding Nemo and the Ghost

Just out in time for Halloween…

Finding Nemo and the Ghost

By Kenny

“Where’s Nemo? ” said Marlin.

Dory said, “Look, that says Sydney.”

Marlin said, “But by the sign has a ghost.”

But the ghost was nice.

The ghost invited them to a party.

Inside were more ghosts.

Now they could find Nemo. 

Jack-o-lantern

My dad took on the *fun* job of carving our pumpkin this year. 

Here are the guys deciding on their course of action.  Kenny wanted the pumpkin to have a nose, a toothy smile, 2 eyebrows and 3 eyes. 

Luke wanted his hands washed as soon as he touched the pumpkin guts.  

The three guys and the finished product. 

Thanks Dad!  If you ever want to do it again in the upcoming years, the position is all yours.

Some other pictures from today:

Eric taught Kenny how to play chess earlier in the week.  Here’s Kenny trying to teach my mom the rules of the game.

My puppies that aren’t puppies anymore. 

Casey

Maddie

Bullet points

• Kenny had his last soccer game today.  I really can’t say that I mind too much, considering how cold it has been lately.  We’re having lunch with the team tomorrow and then we’ll all go our separate ways.
• Kenny starts basketball at the end of November.  He’s doing it with his friend J.T. (from preschool) for sure and hopefully his other friend Arden (from preschool and kindergarten).  We haven’t seen J.T.’s family as much since school started so we figured that this would be a great way to get the boys back together.
• Kenny got his first report card on Friday and it was wonderful.  I could do a whole post on just his first quarter at school.
• Take a look at Mac’s face in the picture below.  The entire right side of his face and his nose are completely swollen.  Thank goodness Eric’s friend Ben is a vet.  He told us that Mac probably either ate something he shouldn’t have or was bitten by a snake or insect.  We’ve never seen a snake in our yard so we’re thinking that he probably either ate some of the berries that are on the tree that hangs over into our yard or was bitten by some weird bug.  Ben told us to give him Benadryl and to keep an eye on him for the next 2 days.  I love not having to pay for a vet to look at him, at least for now (knock on wood). 

Eric on t.v.

One of the news stations did a story on the training that Eric is running up at the station.  Click here to see it.

He did a good job, didn’t he?

Swim meet

Mary Jo wants Kenny to swim in a swim meet in February.  His basketball season starts at the end of November.  As long as that doesn’t interfere with him going to his swimming lessons, I think we’re going to try it.

Quiz

I’m pretty good with the different countries but I had a hard time with this quiz.  I only got 11 out of 24 right.  Can you do any better? 

I’ll even give you A – Azerbaijan – because, really, can anyone spell that without having to look it up?

It’s a girl

Annie and Heath found out yesterday that they’re having a girl.  I knew it.  Congratulations!