The Circus Came to Town...

...and we should have skipped it! We were all excited to take the kids to the circus this past Wednesday. This would be the first time we had taken them to anything big. It was 1/2 price night, so we didn't feel like we had a lot to loose. On Wednesday I had the kids take a nap because it was going to be a late night. When they got up, I told them I had a surprise. I took them upstairs and showed them pictures of the circus. Their facial expressions did not change and then Carter said..."I don't want to go to the circus, I don't like the circus...let's just stay home and play." I started laughing so hard I nearly wet my pants. I explained that we were going to ride a train in Charlotte to get to the circus, but that didn't improve his outlook on things. Then Ella Claire chimed in and said if her "broder" didn't want to go, she didn't either. OH BOY! We picked Lance up from work, grabbed dinner and off to catch the train. What we didn't realize is that the train ride was going to be the highlight of the night. We now know that we should have spent the $6 for the train, rode uptown, got out...walk to a store, bought a Sprite, get back on the train and come home. Their night would have been complete. We get into the circus and Ella Claire starts crying because she wants to go down on the floor and be "in" the circus. I had promised Carter if he would go, we would buy circus popcorn and Sprite. We don't ever give them soda, so this was a treat for them. The souvenirs were $20, so needless to say, we did not buy one. Two drinks and one tub of popcorn cost us $13....the cheapest thing there. A bag of cotton candy was $13, a lemonade was $9, etc. The circus began and they were not impressed. Within 30 minutes, they had both asked to go home about 5 times each. We stayed until intermission, by then it was almost 9:30 and we knew we needed to get home. You can look at it this way....it was the worst $60 we've ever spent or the best. We had planned a trip to Disney World for the Fall, but now have changed our minds. It will wait another year or two...so it could also be the best $60 ever spent, by saving our money and sanity from Disney this year!

The Faith of Children...

In the Bible, the book of Mark talks about having the faith of a child. I know as an adult, I am convicted that I try to figure things out myself and make things happen my way instead of just having faith that God will take care of it. We are seeing more and more examples from Ella Claire and Carter of that child-like faith talked about in the Bible. The past 2 weeks, our church has entered a series of sermons on prayer. We are learning as a congregation exactly how to pray and how meaningless repetition is pointless in prayer. We talked in our SS class about having our children say the same blessing and nighttime prayer over and over each day. As parents we all discussed the value in teaching our children to pray and they need these "God is great" and "Now I lay me.." prayers to start learning. We have started this past week to do away with the "God is great" prayer at meal time. Now we go around the table and the kids have to pick something from their plate to pray and thank God for...that way their prayers are more specific. The same thing at night time...we ask them what they want to thank God for from the day. It never fails...Carter is always going to say.."I want to pray for you mom." Even though it is repetitious, we know Carter's heart and he is truly thankful for his mama and wants to thank God for me each night. He always adds something else he is thankful for too. Last night, he was thankful for going to Aunt Wendi and Uncle Mark's to play with Banks, and on his own he prayed and asked God to help him be a good listener. Ella Claire usually wants to pray for her bunny that she sleeps with and thank God for it and she chooses a favorite part of her day to thank God for as well. As we ended our prayer time last night, Lance was closing and in his prayer he was thanking God for Ella Claire and Carter and thanked God that Carter has begun to have a heart for prayer and for God to draw him closer to Him. When Lance said "Amen" Carter said..."God can't draw me Daddy." Again...the faith of a child...their minds are so simplistic. So Lance had Carter stand up in front of him and he reached out his hand and pulled him into a hug. He explained to Carter that this was what he meant to "draw" him in.

We were upstairs in the playroom on Saturday morning and the kids were playing with their new markers on the dry erase board. Ella yelled for us to come and look at what she had drawn. She had drawn a cross and began to tell us the story of how Jesus died on that cross for us. Again...the child like faith.

Carter got a new part for his train table for Christmas and he and Lance were going to set it up on Saturday night...we had promised him this would happen. Well...Lance was on call with the hospital and got called into work, so they did not get to put his train together. At our prayer time, Carter was heart-broken. He realized it was bedtime and his train was not put together. Lance sat down in front of him and explained that as the head of our house, he is required by God to have a job to provide for his family. Part of his job, is working as unto the Lord and when they called him, he had to go help the people at the hospital. We aren't sure if Carter understood what he was trying to explain, but he went to bed and that train set was put together Sunday afternoon!

Lots of This and That....

This blog is going to be mostly for the benefit of Carter and Ella Claire. These are just some things that they have been doing that I want to remember and get written down. It will probably seem like rambling to you, but it's things I wanted to write, but don't fit into a "story" per se, but just a lot of their personality coming out.

As you all know they turned 4 last week and it was a big milestone for them. When they woke up that morning, Ella let me sing Happy Birthday to her, but Carter stopped me and said it wasn't his birthday until we got to Monkey Joe's...so I had to wait!

Ella Claire has used the "I'm 4 years old" line a lot lately. She went to get something upstairs and she usually needs one of us to go with her, but she turned to us and said..."I'm brave now...I'm 4 years old." Carter told us he didn't like being 4, he just wanted to be 3...and I told him I felt the same way...I just wish they could stay 3 for a bit longer. Usually when we eat pizza, Ella Claire just likes cheese and Carter takes pepperoni. If Ella can see any red sauce she won't eat it, but we went to Johnny B's recently and she told me..."Mommy...I'm 4 now and I like sauce....4 year olds like sauce you know!"

For the longest time they have used the term "scoop over" when they mean scoot. Each morning they wake up and come get in the bed with us....they will both say...."scoop over so I can get in..." We have not corrected them because it is just too cute to mess with. The same thing with Ella Claire and the doctor's office....she always said..."octor doffice" and we can't bring ourselves to correct her just yet.

Games have become a big hit in our house. For the past few months, we have been playing Uno and they love it. We usually play right before their bedtime. Carter got an Uno Spin machine for Christmas and I can't even count how many times we've had to play Uno Spin. They also love to play Monopoly. We do not follow the exact rules. We just role the dice and they have to move that many spots and whoever gets to the end first wins. It is just so much fun to see their competitive side come out.

It seems like their imagination just grows and grows each day. They got a McDonald's cash register for Christmas and those kids have played over and over that they are taking our orders and getting our money...it is quiet funny to sit and listen. Yesterday on the way to church, Carter decided he wanted to play Monopoly and Lance told him we didn't have a table in the van and he said.."I'll pretend I do." All the way to church we had to take turns like we were throwing an imaginary dice and moving that many spots.

We went to Home Depot yesterday afternoon and I always try to find them some type of book to look at while in the buggy. I picked up a pamphlet on swing sets and they began looking and reading. The next thing I knew, Ella Claire was holding up her book and asking me to repeat after her..."Dear God...with love, and for all the people, togeder, to show Him our love and read his book, and make others special, Amen." She has gotten to where she loves to "pray" all the time or "read" scripture. She was doing this so loud and having me repeat each word, we had quiet an audience going down the isles in Home Depot. This is how she says it....togeder...not together.

I had to take them both to the doctor this morning and now all 4 of us are on an antibiotic. Ella Claire still has a touch of pneumonia and Carter has an ear infection. You would never know their sick, but they are coughing horribly, especially at night. While we were at the doctor, he had them sitting in a chair to listen to their lungs. Carter was first and while he was listening to him, Ella Claire puts her hand up on his head and just rubs him while he is getting examined...she is a mother hen!

The picture below is a family story. For years, my daddy has cupped his hand behind his ears when he is trying to hear something or someone. The other night we were in the van and Carter was asking us a question and when I turned around to answer him, he had his hand cupped over his ear and I thought I would fall out of my seat laughing....he looked just like my daddy. So, it has become a joke when we are showing others when he does it. This picture was at Christmas and we had taught Graham what to do as well!

We all go back to preschool tomorrow...as Carter said..."our vacation is over." I just hope that means our sicknesses will soon be over....we have been sick basically the whole time we've been on vacation. Bring on the Spring!

Where to even begin...

We celebrated their 4th birthday at Monkey Joe's

All the cousins at Christmas... I don't remember December ever being so busy before...and now that it is January 1, 2009 I am sad it is gone. The kids turning four this year bothered me a lot. To me, four sounds a lot older than 3. At three they learned to read, use the potty and dress themselves. I am anxious to see what the 4th year brings, but sad that my babies are growing up way, way too fast.

Christmas was a little different this year because all of us, but Carter was sick. Ella Claire was so sick, she didn't even care to look at her gifts for an hour or so after she got up. Lance took the week off work and ended up in urgent care with a horrible sinus infection/sore throat. For the first time, we actually stayed home all day on Christmas day. Kim and her family didn't come home until the 26th, so we had a laid back kind of day...which was very nice.

We also had a suprise retirement party for my dad on the 30th, so we are really partied out by now. Today is a day of cleaning...I am taking down all my blinds and washing them, dusting and cleaning my windows and baseboards. How does one family create so much dust!

I will update more later...just wanted to get the Christmas pictures and stories up.

Santa brouhgt Ella Claire a new high chair, stroller and swing for her babies The next generation of Star Wars...

What is a vacation?

Lance decided to take the entire week off for vacation this week. We are also on vacation from preschool for two weeks and dance class. So this morning at breakfast the discussion was "what does vacation mean..." All I had to say is "Daddy is not working this week, he is on vacation," and that was it, the questions started shooting from Carter's mouth! That boy can wear you out with the questions, but he is always learning. When we explained that we don't go to school or dance or any of our "regular" places this week because we are on vacation. That's when they both started talking about getting on an airplane. I asked why and they said you have to go on an airplane for a vacation...this is straight from Curious George in case you missed that episode. George and the man with the yellow hat fly to Hawaii for "vacation." I asked them where they wanted to fly and Carter said, "Texas." Now, do you think the boy is brain-washed or what? Ella Claire said she wanted to go to DisneyWorld. I asked them what would we do in Texas and Ella Claire said..."Daddy will play football and get a trophy!" Now....in Lance's world, that would be a vacation!

To start our vacation, we were at the doctor with Ella Claire this morning. She wasn't herself yesterday and ran a little fever. Turns out she has a urinary tract infection, a touch of pneumonia and apparently a stomach virus. After the doctor's visit and her nap, she seemed to feel some better. We loaded up and headed to the grocery store tonight to buy ingredients to make some goodies this week. As she and Lance were checking out, she threw up all over the floor...then when we got home, she got her bed and the bathroom floor. She is now asleep in our bed which has no covers from where she threw up in it last night. Hopefully all this will be out of her system in time for Santa Thursday morning.

Just too sweet....

Last night was Ella Claire's Christmas dance concert. She just loves to dance and was so excited to get all dressed up for her big night. We decided Carter would have much more fun staying with his Aunt Lea Ann and Uncle Mike, so he packed a big bag of toys and off he went.

The concert was beautiful...when those lights go out and all those girls come out in their costumes, it is just magical. This year, Ella's cousin Megan was dancing as well and they were smart enough to put them side by side so we could watch them both dance. After the concert, I went to the back to get Ella Claire and she couldn't wait to go find her daddy and see if he had brought her flowers. This is something most of the daddy's do, and at her first concert we didn't realize it and felt horrible. She did get flowers last Spring and apparently remembered the protocol and was expecting them. Of course, her daddy was waiting at the end of the hallway with her flowers! We left and went to pick Carter up. It is very rare that when we are in the van, that it isn't all of us, so it was good to get Carter and put him in the van with us. He was so excited to see us and the first thing he said when he got in the van was..."Ella, your flowers are nice and Ella, you look pretty..." I just started crying...he is such a sweet, sweet boy and he loves his sister. We ended the big night at Cracker Barrel eating pancakes....what a sweet night!

Who will you marry?

This past Sunday, Lance and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary. We talked to the kids about it being our anniversary, so of course they had a lot of questions? Ella Claire got very excited because she thought she and I were going to get to put on "a beautiful white gown..." We explained that anniversaries are like birthdays sort of. Then we asked them who they were going to marry when they grow up. Ella Claire is going to marry Carter....Carter listed several people, but when we told him he had to pick just one, he said he wanted to marry Page. She's the little girl in the pictures from our BBQ square dancing a few weeks ago. We are all getting excited about Christmas...this is the first year in our new house, but it also causes a dilemma. Their bedrooms are on the opposite side of the house from our bedroom, so when they get up, they will see what Santa left in the great room before we can see their reaction. Hopefully, they will get up around 6:30am like each day and it will still be dark and they won't notice and come straight to our room. Yesterday, the kids took a longer nap than normal. They don't nap each day, but when they do, I make sure to wake them up by 3pm or they will never go to sleep at night. Well, I accidentally fell alseep with them and when we all woke up it was 3:30pm. So, we put them down last night with our normal routine, of devotion, brush teeth, go to their rooms and say their prayers. It was around 8:45 when we got them to bed. Around 9pm I heard a lot of talking. I went to their hallway and as I peeped into Ella Claire's room, they were both in her bed under the covers and Ella Claire was reading a book to them..."DW Rides Again.." I just stepped in and reminded them it was bedtime and they were to go to sleep. I walked Carter back to his room, got him tucked in and then went and checked on Ella once more. I knew they were not sleepy, but it was 9pm. A few minutes later I heard them again. I went back and they were talking across the hall to each other...so I gave in and gave them both 2 books a piece to read in their own beds. Some time passed and I assumed they were asleep until around 10:30 when we heard them again. I told Lance it was time for him to go in and see what was up. It took him a while and when he got back he said they were both up, lights all on, in Carter's floor just reading. Ella Claire said..."Daddy can you finish this book for me?" The kids love, love, love to read. They get this from Lance because I have no reading drive in me. We have a busy weekend coming up with Christmas gatherings and such. They will celebrate their birthday at school this week, since we will be on break on their actual birthday. For some reason them turning four is really bothering me. Somehow four sounds a lot older than three. I have cried thinking about my babies, not being babies ever again. Time does fly...too fast.