It's begining to look alot like Christmas!

These are some of Abby's Pictures of our Christmas decorations:

2010's Christmas Tree. This year the kids did all the decorating by themselves. It goes a lot smoother now that they can reach the top branches.

Peanuts nativity set


A mixture of some new and old decor. I don't remember Christmas without my Christmas mouse. :D The Santa is a nesting doll we got last year on clearance then forgot about. It was a nice surprise when we opened up the boxes today.

Mistletoe. I've got kisses all day long from the kiddos thanks to this little guy. :D The noel sign was one of Target's Dollar spot finds.

This is the nativity set that I have been wanting for years. My work used to give me $1 vouchers for riding the shuttle bus every morning and I saved them for almost a year and I got the nativity set and wise men set. I think I ended up paying about $20.00 between them both. The Stars we got in a Christmas Store in Jim Thorpe.

An army of M&M's. The kids get these every year in their stockings. The M&M's have long been eaten.

Christmas Ball Bowl. Currently sitting on the coffee table.


And so there you have it. A little mini tour of our Christmas decor this year. :D

Memories we will have for ever.

Today we decorated our house for Christmas.


At the end of the day, I gave Abby the camera to get some pictures, so we can remember these moments forever.

You know, cause one day I may forget how silly Caleb can be, and how an ordinary Christmas ball can become an impromptu Rudolf Nose.



or I might have to have to have photographic proof for Lilly in the future when she denies that she ever tried to throw up Christmas Ornaments




I just wish I had a camera handy when the kids were creating dances for the different Christmas Carols we had playing. Since I don't you will have to read and use your imagination:

Performance By Abby & Caleb:

Silent Night (Finger to the mouth in "shhh" position)

Holy night (Angelic poses with hands in folded in front)

All is Calm (hands now are spreading out in front of them)

All is bright (Hands now Circle around their cute little faces)

(Abby now picks up Caleb and holds him in her arms like a baby)

Round yon virgin Mother (Caleb points to Abby)

And Child (Caleb, still in Abby's arms does Jazz hands)


There was more, but I don't remember it. I busted up laughing at the thought of baby Jesus doing Jazz hands during a moving rendition of Silent Night....

Perhaps, you had to be there.

But for me, Jazz hands Jesus will be one of my favorite Christmas memories of 2010.

One foot in the looney bin, the other on a bananna peel...

Antagonizing.


I'm forever telling one child to stop bugging the other child.


Take this for example:


Lilly makes a lovely paper turkey in school:


She wants to take a picture with it so I did.

I wanted to also get a picture with Caleb and his new glasses & hair cut. Lilly suggests he hold the paper turkey as well, after all it is thanksgiving week.



So he holds it. And proceeds to give the turkey bunny ears.

Lilly starts to flip out.

He is energized by her annoyance and takes it a step further. He tries to eat the paper turkey.





At which point, Lilly flips out, Caleb starts cackling, and Abby jumps in with her two cents about how the turkey looks like a big butt.

Lilly melts down completely now.


And I loose my mind.

This is the boy's last year in elementary school. Next year he will be heading to middle school. He and Lilly won't be in the same school again until he is a Jr. in High School and She is a freshman.


This seems so far off, but it's not. Based on how quickly time has passed so far, and factor in how every year seems to go by faster than before, I'm thinking we'll have a few blinks of the eye and there we will be with 2 kids in high school at the same time. And I don't even want to go into the fact that while this is going on Abby will be in college!

But I digress. Last week, the school board announced their intent to close the school. Caleb will be the last class in our district to have completed all of his elementary school years at Lausch.

We don't know what this means yet for Lilly. The district will be reorganizing and so she may go to the new school, she may be sent to one of the other existing schools. We don't know and probably won't until the spring/summer.

And so next September, I will be Sending all three of my children to new schools. Abby to high school, Caleb to middle school, and Lilly to a new elementary school. I may be rethinking my normal summer vacation countdown to school this year.

Change is hard.

It was inevitable really...

Jim and I both got glasses around the age of 9.


We both failed our eye test performed by the school nurse & had a note sent home.


Just like Caleb did this past weekend.



He's looks so handsome and grown up. :D

Miss Smarty Pants

Abby with her Gold Eagle.

What is the criteria for getting a gold Eagle you may ask???

Why, I'll tell you.

You must have a GPA of 97% or above for the entire 7th grade year.

S0 yeah. We're just a little proud.

A labor day hike

This year we decided that we were going to hike on labor day instead of picnic

It was a capital idea. Although we weren't the only ones- it was pretty crowded.

Caleb overlooking the first view of Bushkill falls

We are always worried about this one when we hike- she's either happy (as above) or whiney and miserable.

The two explorers ready to start their adventure.

Pappa Bear, leading the way.

Caleb and Lilly with the falls behind them.

The boy at a lower falls.

She's still going strong! No whining yet.

Abby at the lower falls.

Here they are at the foot of the big falls

Funny thing about this tree. Jim took one look at it and saw a lounge chair.

Caleb on the other hand saw a snow speeder and proceeded to drive it.

This is the back portion of the falls trail.

Daddy and Lilly. She's still smiling!

I love this picture. :D

At this point we were only about an hour into the park and we already did the short trail.

So after some discussion, we decided that we were going to hike the long trail to the bridal veil falls. Even Lilly agreed.

This is the bridesmaid's falls (which was little more than a trickle), The kids are actually standing in the dried up water bed.

Looking down from the Bridesmaid falls to the bridal veil falls.
We didn't really get a picture of the brial veil. It was so dry you could barely see it.

Even so, we had a awesome time.



Even this one. There was not a whine out of her all day.

We'll make a hiker out of her yet.

Darth Caleb, Lord or the Dorks

For the record, I did not come up with this name on my own. It's all Caleb.

You see there are two things he is obsessed with the most:

1. Start Wars
2. Diary of a wimpy kid books
   

And when you mash those obsessions together,

This is what you get

Darth Caleb, Lord of the dorks.