Highlights from our year! (turn up the sound)

Goodbye 2008. Hello 2009!

Quick Post

Here is Joy to the world. You can't really hear the kids but they look adorable.

Our Weekend

We had a nice weekend, but again very busy. Saturday morning Andy was helping a friend move. Then we had the children's Christmas choir rehearsal. Kara gets a few words and then she just opens mouth and pretends to sing. Aaron, however, is quite the caroler. He knows the words to two of the four songs. The other two songs he knows most of the words and he was very good at singing. I can't wait to hear them sing at church. It will be nice.

Then we had Aaron's pack meeting. They had a cookie making contest so Friday night Aaron and I baked chocolate chip cookies. He was really a good chef. He didn't like putting them on the cookie sheet though, so I did that part. Anyway the meeting was cute and chaotic. They played a game called snowflake, where the boys eat powdered donuts but they can't use their hands. That was funny. Aaron had powdered sugar on the back of his shirt.

At the ready:

Listening to the instructions:

There it goes:

Success:

Yummy!

On Sunday we went to Landmark Park for their Victorian Christmas. They had demonstrations at the blacksmith shop and they were making syrup too (not at the blacksmith shop but in a different cabin). My favorite part was the schoolhouse. They had crafts set up where you could make your own turn of the century Christmas decorations.

Here is Aaron stringing popcorn and cranberries.

Here's us learning to make a simple corn husk doll.

Aaron hanging his doll on the tree.

Here is Kara's doll.

They also had a craft where you could make your own mistletoe decoration, but the kids didn't want to do that. For that one you took a sprig of mistletoe, a small pine branch and a stalk of cotton, then tied it together with strips of fabric. It was very neat looking.

After that we went on a wagon ride. We were pulled by a team of two Clydesdale horses. Very pretty but very huge animals. It was a very nice time.

The Wagon Ride:

Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, we have been doing tons since December started. We haven't slowed down a bit and are a wee tired.

On the 4th we went to the Tree Lighting ceremony. Because of rain it was moved to the gym. The cub scouts had to pass out programs. Aaron was very polite and just offered programs, while some of the other kids practically mauled the people to give them programs. We didn't stay for the actual lighting because it was a school night and they were already running late by the time Aaron's job was finished.

Daddy and Kara in the bleachers:

On the 6th we went to Andy's office party. That was nice. They had a jumperoo for the kids and many crafts for them as well.

The food was tasty too.

We had to leave early to go to the children's choir practice. The kids are hopefully going to perform songs before the Christmas eve mass. Not a lot of kids showed up so we shall see if it is still on or not.

Here are the kids in the car, notice Kara trying to escape

and Aaron calm as ever.

We had to rehang our Christmas lights because a storm blew them all down. quite sad. We were tired by that time so we went to Chili's to eat. Afterwards, since the mall is just across the street we went to see Santa.

The kids were adorable. Kara said, "Hi, I'm Kara Rose." Santa told her hi and asked what she wanted for Christmas. She told him, "Hi, I'm Kara Rose." Aaron looked at her, shook his head and said, "He knows your name Kara." I didn't hear the rest because I was taking pictures so I asked Aaron what he asked for. He told me star wars Lego's and a few other things. Then Aaron said, "I couldn't remember the rest of my list so I told him he could surprise me. I didn't want him to think he couldn't get me something he thought I would like, just because it wasn't on my list." Very clever that boy.

Sunday church was amusing. Kara always keeps us entertained. Aside from her normal bopping all over the place, she also sneezed a huge wet sneeze right in my hair while I was holding her. Yuck. Then the boy in front of us dropped a toy and Aaron gave it back to him. The little boy looked at Kara and said Thank You. (He didn't see who handed the toy back.) Kara looked at the boy and pointed to Aaron and said loudly, "No, tell HIM." She repeated herself several times to make sure Bubba got the credit. Ughh. What a crazy girl.

Sunday we put the tree together. It was not as advertised but a very large, nice tree. We decorated Monday and Tuesday. We still have some garland to buy and then I will show you all a picture.

Wednesday it rained something awful. Early Thursday morning Aaron screamed and ran down the stairs. He said he heard a loud noise. We didn't think anything of it until the afternoon. The last time he heard a loud noise part of the siding fell off. So I made Andy look around outside. Sure enough part of the siding is falling.

Poor Aaron, all the siding by his room keeps falling. I'm not saying that it is poor quality but we have lived here since April and including today's this is the fourth piece of siding that has come off. Hm..

Leaf Person

Aaron had to make a leaf person for art class. He told me he wanted to make the biggest smile ever and give him crazy hair.

Aaron's Thanksgiving Story

I couldn't get it all to scan but I got most of it

Just to translate:

How to make Thanksgiving Feast
First, you put the turkey in

the oven. then you make the

corn. Next, you put pumpkin pie

in the oven. Then your family

comes to your home.

Pictures, Pictures, Pictures

I have tons of pictures and stories to share, but the pictures will come first. Kara has given up napping for a few days so I don't have a lot of time to myself. On to the pictures.

For Thanksgiving Aaron had to make an Indian vest out of a paper bag. He decorated using the well known ancient Indian symbols of the Lego brick and the death star. He also wanted one for Mr. Bear too, so we made one for him as well.


Kara also wanted to create so we made a leaf place mat. I cut out the leaves and she put them on the mat.


Aaron's cub scout den went to the fire station to learn about people who help the community.



Sparky the fire dog:


The fire hose:


A helmet:


We finally got an easel so the kids can paint without dripping it on their clothes. So I was going to make a smock for them. For Aaron I just rolled up the sleeves a bit. The cuffs of his normal shirt that wasn't hidden in the smock was drenched in paint. Same thing for his pants. But his smock/paint shirt was spotless. For Kara I had to think of something different because Andy's jacket was too big.


A picture of my turkeys:


Kara's face when I ask her to do something:


Our Thanksgiving feast:


Christi and Aaron swinging:


Mike reading to Kara:

Pack Meeting

Well, once a month the Boy Scout Pack has a meeting, so all the dens and other groups get together for the big meeting. Our meeting was today (Saturday). It was a bit disorganized but very a cool experience. Aaron earned his bobcat badge so he got awarded that today.
Here is Daddy pinning on his badge:


The lady behind them is the den mother for Aaron's den:


Apparently, when the scout earns a badge the mom gets a pin of the badge, so the mom can show off her baby's, I mean, Grown Up Boy's award. So Aaron was pinning me. (he was afraid to hurt me so we pinned the bottom of my shirt)


Other kids also received awards and then Aaron's den (which has about 8 members) had a presentation to the pack about scouting life and good deeds being similar to seeds growing. Aaron reading his part.

Aaron helping out:

Then the Boy Scouts taught the youngin's a new song. It was called the little green frog. Aaron was trying out the hand motions.

It was very cute and I was extremely proud of Aaron. Very very neat!

The tooth, the whole tooth and nothing but the tooth

Well, after weeks and weeks, on Thursday morning before school we finally got that tooth out. Aaron was very excited. We had really been wiggling that tooth all week and Thursday morning, I just yanked it out. Kara didn't understand what all the fuss was about.




But as you can see, the permanent tooth has already grown in behind where he lost the tooth. So hopefully next time it won't take so long to get out.





The tooth fairy visited that night and he got five dollars. (he told us, "Yeah, it's not much.") I guess after all that trouble he was expecting more. Hmm...the economy is even getting to the tooth fairy this year.

Landmark Park

On Tuesday Andy and Aaron had the day off (it actually is a rarity), so we went to Landmark Park in Dothan. It is supposed to depict life in the 1890's, there is a general store, church and other various buildings in addition to a barn with animals and a playground. So we trekked off there Tuesday morning. We drove up to the park ranger station and paid our entrance fee. She asked if we would like a map and we said sure, and then she directed us to the parking lot. As Andy was driving off, I was looking through the papers she handed us and there was only one map. With directions on how to get to Landmark park. Now if we made it to the ranger station certainly we wouldn't need a map to get there. Hm..we were thinking it was a map of the park. Oh well. We got out and noticed the store didn't open for another 30 minutes so we wandered around. The first building was an one room school house. We were able to look from the door but didn't get to do much there. I noticed a large placard outside and thought perhaps it would have information about the school house but it just stated when and who donated it to the park. O.k. Then we went into the church. Very nice little building and we could walk around in it. Aaron noticed the pulpit and had to try it out.

First a happy sermon:

Then a serious one:

Kara also wanted her picture taken behind the pulpit, but we just couldn't see her at all. It was neat that they both wanted to try it out though. Perhaps there is a bit of Great-Grandpa Hartmann in them.

After that Aaron led us to the boardwalk. He was leading us since he had been there last year with his Kindergarten class. Along the way there were little huts that had some of the wildlife depicted. There was actually information on the placards in the huts but Aaron did not let us stop long enough to read them. Kara did like the fish that were swimming in the "pool" (which was actually a pond but she didn't believe us). And we saw a few huge spiders. Yuck.

Here is daddy and the kids on the board walk.

Next there was the park office and it had tons of displays about a cowboy from Dothan, Johnny Mac Brown. He was apparently very big in the silent movies. Interesting. There was also a tiny display about why the wiregrass was called the wiregrass. That may have been neat too but the kids decided it was time to move on so I will just have to read that one next time.

Then we went to the barns to see the animals. They were feeding them right as we walked up to it so we got to talk to the lady that feeds the animals. She was telling us the names of the animals. She informed us the sheep didn't have names because they were not friendly. So Andy made the sheep noise to see there response.



Yes, they stopped what they were doing and stared right at him. It was strange. After a while the other two stopped staring but the one on the end kept his eye on Andy.

After that the general store was open so we went to check that out. The man there was a little strange because he kept saying how are you ladies doing to me and AARON? We didn't stay there long. Finally we went to the playground and the kids had fun.

It was a nice time and we will probably go back to read what we missed the first time. It would have been even more interesting if they had placards up to explain everything but oh well. At least the trees were pretty.

The best part however was Aaron and Kara saying there favorite part. They both liked the sheep staring at daddy. Kara even did a re enactment of it. It is hilarious. She is still doing the sheep face and it cracks us up!

Here's a movie of it.: