When I'm....

As birthday season approaches, so does the additions of some freedoms and responsibilities. Nathan's always asking when he will be permitted to do this or that, so we've starting assigning ages to it, so that he stops begging to do those things...

Here's a combination of what we've agreed upon...

When he's five, he'll sleep in his own bed at night (my idea)

When he's five, he'll get to have school at home (both of our ideas)

When he's five, he'll will make his own food (his idea)

When he's five, he'll make a pb&j (my idea)

When he's five, he'll have to work on the house with tools (his idea)

When he's six, he can cross the street to play with my friends.

Last night, he couldn't sleep, so he started talking about marriage. He said that when he's six, he'll get married. I told him that, when he's 25, he could get married. He said that he has to marry me, but I told him that I'm already married to daddy, so he decided he'd marry one of the neighbor girls. I told him that when he got married that he'd have to have his own house, and he told me that he'd live next door to me. So sweet....I hope to remember this conversation when he's a teenager and trying to get away from me.

Also, one that he brings up.....when he's 100, he'll get to go to Heaven and see Spike. I had to assign that an age, because he kept telling me that he was going to go to Heaven soon....so we told him that you have to be 100 to go to Heaven, and that he's only 4, so he has a long time to wait =)

End of Preschool Angst

We pulled Nathan from preschool. Let' s just say that his teacher was an idiot, and we didn't trust her. The woman really shouldn't be a preschool teacher...we were hoping that things would be better when she went on maternity leave, but really, we couldn't wait that long. I don't really want to go into all the details on the blog. Nathan wasn't happy with preschool and when we told him that he didn't have to go anymore, he said, YAY!! I'm sad that we don't get to go on more field trips, or to mom's night, or to preschool graduation, but I'm kinda happy that we don't have to get up to the alarm clock anymore!!!

Resolutions...

Now that I'm finally caught up with Christmas, I can focus on the new year! My resolutions are....

1. blog more. I like reading other people's blogs and I want to keep up on this.

2. continue with last year's goal of getting organized. I've made great strides with this, but I haven't totally conquered the clutter monster.

3. return my library books on time. Right now I have a giant fine, so I haven't checked out any books in awhile, but boy do I miss the library.

4. Track my spending. Mark and I do a good job of spending less than we make, but we seem to not be able to save as much as we want to. I've started a spending journal to see where the money goes.

5. Teach Nathan to read (and teach them both how to write). That's the first step of homeschooling, and once we conquer that, I feel like we can do anything.

What are your resolutions??

Christmas Funnies....

Some fun stories from our Christmas....

--On Christmas Eve, I decided to get an early start on present-wrapping and assembling, so I decided to begin during the kids' quiet time. They NEVER get out of their rooms (unless it's to sneak to the other's room) during quiet time without asking so I knew that I'd be ok. I also told the kids that we weren't playing in the basement that day and stayed upstairs instead.

SO, as I finish assembling Becca's dollhouse and am messing around with one of Nathan's toys, Nathan pops downstairs and asks if he can help me wrap. I quickly try to hide his toy, and say no, go back upstairs, and then he asks if he can play with "that green and blue thing" (his leapster) that I had tried to hide. So much for trying to keep the presents hidden.

Then, later that night, he cannot sleep....he stayed up til at least 10:30 (we put him to bed at 8) trying to wait up for Santa. He even stuck his head down the laundry chute and saw more presents. He told me about them....a yellow lego box and a green game. He was still ready for Santa to come, and wasn't disappointed at all the next morning.

--Becca decided she had to have a teddy bear because she saw one in Santa's sleigh in 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (which Nathan memorized). Mark and I weren't thrilled with the idea of another stuffed animal that wouldn't be played with, but I found a set at Hobby Lobby that had 2 teddy bears and 4 princess costumes (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, and Tinkerbell) and I figured that at least, she could dress up her dolls in the costumes. But, she does love her bears and now does everything with her princess teddy bears.

--Becca got so wrapped up in her presents that she didn't finish her stocking until yesterday.

Christmas

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile. Christmas season was busy for us! The kids loved seeing Santa, not shy at all. They were very anxiously awaiting Christmas, I think we had 3 different countdown calendars going. I can't believe how big they're getting...it was fun to buy big kid toys for Christmas though!!

Nathan's favorite gifts were: a Leapster, a Marble Run, a remote control airplane, and hot wheels track. Right now he's playing his leapster in his bed tent.

Becca's favorites were her dollhouse, princess teddy bears, and her Tag books. And right now, she's jealous of Nathan's bed tent, so I had to build her one over her bed.

One accomplishment I'm proud of this year: I finally caught up on our Christmas stockings! Becca's is finally done and added to the collection!

Here's Nathan walking in with his preschool class. All the kids had to carry a canned good to donate to the food pantry. The teacher collected the cans at the beginning of class, but randomly distributed them before the program, so Nathan ended up carrying a can of fruit cocktail, which is something he rarely gets, but loves a ton. So as he's walking in front of me, he asks me if he can take it home =) The other video I had from the program didn't turn out well, so I won't post it.