Parade of Lights!

The annual Lake Jackson Parade of Lights was this past Saturday night! This is a day we look forward to all year, and freezing temperatures couldn't keep us away. The girls have been watching the city workers line the streets with the Christmas trees made of lights for over a month now, and it's been fun to watch Calli pick up on the big girls' excitement. We were ready for the parade and ready to see the trees all lit up!

We spent Friday and Saturday decorating the house for Christmas! It's the week before Thanksgiving, but we always put them up that early because we go to Ft. Worth for Thanksgiving week and it's just nice to come home and have all the decorations ready to go for the Christmas season! The girls had a lot of fun putting up their little trees and helping us decorate the big tree. We love Christmas!

Saturday night, we bundled the girls up and headed downtown for the parade! They were so cute in their coats, hats and gloves.

We met Michelle, Kaitlin, Greg and Kathy downtown. The city changed the parade route this year, so we sat in a different place. We were at the start of the route, so it was over a lot quicker than it has been before. Greg got Kendall all situated and bundled up!

 We weren't sure what Calli would think, and if she would be scared of all the lights and loud noises. She did pretty well! She got nervous when the horns would honk, but she loved the parade and even waved to all the people passing by!

 The Buc Band!

 The Chick fil A float!

This video cracks me up. Randy just happened to catch Calli when a fire truck drove by and honked their LOUD horn. Calli threw herself against me and got a little scared. Sweet girl!  

We loved the parade and had so much fun! We are having fun celebrating Thanksgiving and are excited about celebrating Christmas with our Calli-girl!

Kendall's Kindergarten Feast

Thursday was also Kendall's Kindergarten feast! I was worried that they would be at the same time, but Kendall's wasn't until 2 in the afternoon. So I got a sitter for Cooper and Calli and got to go help with Kendall's feast. I haven't been able to volunteer in her classroom as much as I would like, because I can't bring the little girls along, so this was a fun chance to be there, just the two of us.

She went to school as an Indian that day. Look at that cute Indian!

And the little turkey.

Trying to take Kendall's picture, the little girls had to be in it, too. :) I think the one on the right is the real turkey.

 In Kendall's classroom! They made vests with Indian symbols, hats, necklaces, and they wrote on the feathers on their hats what they were thankful for.

"How!"

With her friends, Emily and Sophie. I love the sweet friends she has already made this year!

Anna and Kendall

And there's Jase! Kendal still says she is in love with him. Check out that look!!

Sweet Jaycie! She is not in Kendall's class, but we are thankful they are at the same school and see each other at recess and PE.

Kendall said she was thankful for Calli and Friends. So sweet! Ms. Woodward made a point to tell all the parents at the feast that this was the first class she had ever had that only listed people for what they were thankful for. She had a big list on the whiteboard, and it was all different people. She said most of the time, kids say they are thankful for their Wii, PlayStation, etc. She thought that was so sweet that this class only listed their family and friends. And God and Jesus. :)

 We are thankful for these girls and thankful for a fun day celebrating Thanksgiving with them at their schools!

Cooper's Thanksgiving Feast

Thursday was Cooper's very first Wee Place Thanksgiving program and feast! She is loving school so much and was very excited about her very first feast. The classes all sang a few songs together and then we had lunch together. Look at our little turkey walking in to the program, so happy and excited. Just a little different than her big sister....

Her teachers were very proud of her, sitting on the stage and participating in the songs. They said she had been a little timid during rehearsals, but she did so well for the program!

 Then we ate lunch! Debbie came with us, to eat and to see Cooper in her program. The girls loved getting to have a "feast" of chicken nuggets!

 

We are thankful for our little giraffe and are so happy that she loves school so much. She is growing so much and learning and we just love watching!

Our Thankful Tree

During the month of November, we have been talking about being thankful. Each night at dinner, we read a verse about thankfulness and then the girls tell us something they are thankful for. The thankful verse is printed on a leaf, we write what they are thankful for on the back, and then we add it to our little tree. It has been fun to watch leaves be added to our tree and it has been a great way to help the girls focus on the many things we have to be thankful for.

Kendall and Cooper have been the ones to tell us what they are thankful for, but every once in awhile they have told us what they think Calli is thankful for. The other night, Kendall said, "I know what Calli is thankful for! She is thankful for RICE!" Ha! Randy and I busted out laughing. Kendall said, "What? She is! She loves beans and rice!" Funny that our little Chinese girl loves rice, as long as it's the Mexican variety! :)

Flu Shots

I decided this week to take all three girls to get their flu shots. By myself. Our doctor's office only does them at certain times, and none of the times are when Randy is off. And, I didn't want to go sit in that waiting room three separate times just so I could do the shots one at a time. So, I just decided to go for it.

We waited about 45 minutes in the very full waiting room. It was about 4:00 in the afternoon, and it was crowded. I just knew we were going to get sick just from being in there. The girls started getting a little antsy, Calli got fed up of waiting, and then I turned around and Kathy Pickering was standing there! She and I had been talking on the phone on my way there, and her work is just right around the corner, so she thought she would stop by and see if I needed help. So sweet and perfect timing.

Right after she got there, they called us back. Instead of the flu shot the nurse had the nose mist ready. Kendall was already freaked out because she knew she was getting a shot. She lost it before we even got in the room. Which made Calli loose it. Kathy was holding Calli, so we decided just to let her go first and get her over with. Kathy held her tight and we were able to do the mist in her nose. By this time, Kendall is crying, screaming, and just going nuts. I went to pick her up and hold her for her turn and she started rolling on the floor, screaming, kicking....it was awful. Kathy took Calli out in the hall, Cooper was standing by the door, and all the nurses and PAs started peeking around the corner to see what was going on. I could NOT pick Kendall up. Kathy handed Calli off to one of the nurses and came and helped me with Kendall. We were finally able to wrestle her and I think Kathy was the one to hold her while she got her mist. Then Kathy took Calli and Kendall outside while I held Cooper. Cooper really did the best.

Oh my goodness. I was worn out after that. But all we could do was laugh. Kathy said it brought back memories - that Jeff was the same way. I was so thankful she was there to help! She gave each of the girls some money for a treat from Sonic, so we went and ALL of us got a treat. :) Next time I will NOT try and go by myself!

And look at those girls! They look so happy and okay! Believe me - twenty minutes before this they were SO not okay. But all is better now! :)

November So Far

Here are just a few miscellaneous pictures I found on our phones from this month so far:

Trying to teach Calli how to do the peace sign. She's close. :)

Grocery shopping with these two - such an adventure!

Sarah and Caleb came over one night when we got a babysitter and went to a dinner with Mary and Nathan. They were all in our bed on the iPad!

 Calli had her 3 month check up with her liver specialist. Everything looked great! I took Cooper with me for the first time and she helped keep Calli busy during our long waits to see the doctor. I just love these two so much!

I got to go have lunch with Kendall again last week. Here she is with her sweet friend, Alivia. So thankful for good friends for our Kindergartener!

Such a good muffin!!!

 We have had a great November so far, and are looking forward to our first trip up to Ft. Worth since Calli came home next week! Also, next week on the 26th will be one year since we received Calli's referral and saw her face for the first time! Lots to be thankful for this month!

Shadow

The counselor at Kendall's school goes to Brazos Pointe with us. She is so precious and has been so sweet to Kendall this year. Kendall saw her at church last week and asked her how Shadow was doing. Shadow is a Bronco hand puppet that Mrs. Bundick has in her classroom. She said that Kendall always asks about Shadow and is always concerned about him being in the room alone. :) Mrs. Bundick asked Kendall if she would like to bring Shadow home the following weekend so that he wouldn't be alone. Kendall was so excited and thought that was a pretty special deal. She talked about it all week, and then on Friday, Mrs. Bundick brought Shadow to Kendall's classroom so he could come home with her.

When she got home, she wanted to show Shadow everything in our house. We came up with the idea to take pictures of Shadow doing different things with Kendall, then make them into a book to show Mrs. Bundick what Shadow did on his weekend with Kendall. These are just a few of the pages in Shadow's book - I think there turned out to be about 15 or so!

On each page, Kendall glued the picture and then wrote "Shadow is...." Great writing practice and she loved creating her book!

Shadow is in Cooper's lap.

Shadow is eating pancakes.

Shadow is in a puppet show.

Shadow is eating.

Shadow is sliding.

Shadow is watering the plants.

Monday when she took Shadow back to school, her teacher Mrs. Woodward read the book aloud to her class, she got to take it to Mrs. Bundick to read, and she read it to the ladies in the office. Shadow was a pretty big deal at our house and we loved the chance to spend the weekend with him! So proud of our little writer. :)

Home Reader

Kendall came home from school today so excited because she got her very first "home reader!!" This means that she has read her word list well enough that her teacher thought she was ready for a beginning reader. She was so proud of herself and we are too! She wanted to read it to me right away, and she did really well! I only had to help her with a couple of words the first time, and since then she has them down! And when I say since then, I mean the probably 15 times she has read it out loud to either me or Randy this afternoon/evening. She read it to me all through Calli's speech therapy session, before dinner, after dinner in the car while we ran errands, and before bed. She is so excited! And we are too!

After speech, I started getting dinner ready and realized that she was in their room, reading her book to Cooper. Sweet sisters!

Max the cat. He really nabbed that mad rat, using a fat ham and a pan, and now he is not a mad cat any more.

Calli even climbed up on the bunk bed to hear the story...again. :)

We are so proud of our little reader!! I love reading so much and hope that she grows to love it, too!!

Sick Day Scavenger Hunt

Saturday night, we went out to eat for a friend's birthday and the girls were home with a sitter. We got a call mid-dinner that Calli had thrown up. :( Bummer. She never ran fever, and she never threw up again, but she has had some other stomach issues for the past few days. Weird.

Since she was sick that night, I knew we couldn't go to church Sunday morning. I was sad to miss church, and sad that we would be home all day without Randy. I started trying to think of how we were going to spend our day, and then Randy sent me this on his way to church:

So fun! The girls were excited to go hunt for all these things. We came up with a list for Dad and once we ate breakfast, we were off on our walk! A few of the things we had to find were

a basketball goal,  

a turkey,

an "R,"

and some fire hydrants.

 The girls were loving it, and I only had to hurry them along from taking pictures of the fronts of people's houses just a few times. It was a great way to spend our morning!

We sent Randy a list and the girls loved getting pictures all morning. Some of the things we asked him for pictures of were

a "K,"  

a 3 for Cooper,

the Clubhouse,

and the drums.

 It was such a fun way to spend our sick day and I'm so thankful for a creative husband who helps us have so much fun!!