sneak peak

Okay, this picture is on our Christmas card (which I think will actually get out before Christmas this year...), but it is so cute I had to post it too...

All I want for Christmas is...

An attached garage...

We are beginning to experience our first IL winter... First, on the 1st, an ice storm that knocked out our power for about 4 hours. We had fun in the candlelight though, and Pizza Hut even delivered. Then, last week, we got some snow and it has stuck. Its beautiful, and I don't really mind the cold, or bundling the kids up a bit. But I do mind our long trek to the van...

Let me share with you my fun Friday morning... So, I'm supposed to be at the church at 9 AM for Mom2Mom... I'm already running late because all the kids slept in (imagine that)... but its not too bad. I get everyone ready, and then take Caleb and Aidan out to the van, trudging through the snow. Mind you, last weekend, our automatic door on the van broke (the one we load the kids through), and its not just normal manual opening now, but extremely hard, put all your weight into it while grasping the freezing handle, hard. Anyways, I get them in, and then go around to the other door to buckle Caleb, and that door is stuck. Won't even budge. Frozen shut. Well, I decide that I'm going to pull up closer to our back door to get the twins, who are still in their seats in the kitchen. I park closer, run into the house (going up and down the icy 5 steps), get the babies, and head back to the van. I have to put them in through the one door, and buckle Caleb from there, which is an acrobatic feat. Finally I get everyone settled, and I go to pull out, and the van is stuck in the snow. It won't move. Meanwhile, kids are screaming, I feel like screaming... I call Weston, he comes home. He pushes the door, it opens fine. He pushes a little button (TCS), which I hadn't even noticed before, and the van backs right out. Ugh. I get to church about 45 minutes late, but it's chocolate fountain day... so its all good once again.

P.S. Weston figured it out and fixed the other door too! Hooray, my hero!

so smart...

We had our first "Parent-Teacher Conference" for Caleb's preschool. I was so excited! It felt wierd to be on the parent side of the table for the first time... Anyway, he is doing really well. Ms. Graves (who we know from church) said that he is doing excellent in all areas for a 3 year old (He's the youngest in his class). We got a report card type form, but its pretty basic since its just preschool. The one area he got the highest 'adjective' for was his gross motor skills, which if you know Caleb, makes sense. He knows his letters (including many of their sounds, they use jolly phonics), his numbers, shapes, colors, can write his name pretty legibly, can count to 30 (for the most part) and so on. He's pretty squirrely, but follows rules and listens very well. We were also glad to hear that he doesn't whine in class, or let himself get pushed around by the other kids. Anyways, it was very fun to begin this part of our parenting journey.

Hope I don't sound like I'm bragging too much... He's not a whiz kid by any means, and we always will be more concerned with his character/spiritual development than his academic... But we are proud of the little guy!

One cute thing he said recently... somehow the number ten came up in our conversation, and he thought for awhile and said, "that's my both hands number!".