Joy to the World!

...Jenn is back to blogging. :)

Since my last blog I have sold the house, moved all of our belongings into storage, moved all of the kids and pets into a rental, reunited with Spence for two weeks, traveled to Houston for most of a week, finished 90% of my Christmas shopping and designed (though not yet printed) my Christmas card. In the next two weeks I have multiple events, a long trip to Virginia, Christmas and two 5 year old birthdays. All I want for Christmas is a clone of me! :p

Claire has started preschool. What a doll she is! One day a week she joins her brother and sisters at school. She just toddles in there, hangs up her jacket, picks up a toy and doesn't look back. Ask her what her name is and she'll tell you HAPPY FEET! Often she will jazz it up with a peppy little version of modern tap and a big smile. Ask her to say 'Claire' and she says, 'MY!' as in 'That's MY name!'

Katie, John and Allison had their preschool Christmas program today. For the first time ever there was NO crying! (I have had to pull Katie off stage in previous years to save the program from complete disaster.) All three of them enthusiastically participated. I was so excited to watch them. They were thrilled to get a cookie after... Priorities!

Katie's taste in music warms my heart. Her favorites these days are from The Sound of Music and Mary Poppins. He most requested Christmas song is Little Drummer Boy. What mommy wouldn't be proud?

John is quite pleased with our rental house, circa 1854. He finds things to fix and collect and create daily. His outdoor collection consists of old bricks, large sticks, an old bucket and a few other cast offs her found in his yard. He does refer to the pile as his 'collection'. His most recent creation (which he does refer to as his 'creation') consists of different sized mailing boxes and packing tape. He tapes the flaps up and out or tapes a few boxes together. His current fix-it project is matching the 50 keys we have found here to the doors in the house. He is a boy who doesn't need toys; he makes his own fun.

Allison is still walking around everywhere with a thumb in her mouth and a couple of fingers twirling the front of her hair. She recently added a small soft blankie to the mix. I know that someday she will outgrow all of those things; I hope it isn't too soon and I hope that I will always be able to conjure up that perfectly innocent and sweet image of her.