Avery KNOWS!!!!

So in my fast track catch up, I forgot one minor detail. Well, not really THAT minor. WE TOLD AVERY ABOUT SANTA. Yeah, so while you are thinking , " Isn't she already too old to still believe in Santa?" and trying to remember how old she is exactly, I'll tell you. She just turned 11!!! I know. It is very old to still believe in the old guy that dresses up in a fat red suit and delivers millions of packages every Christmas Eve. But....she did. Until about 2 weeks ago when she came home from school and told us how embarrassed she was because she was the only one that still believed in her class. I asked if she actually told everyone that she still believes and she said no. OK. WHEW!!!!!!! That would've been WAY worse for people to actually KNOW that she still believed. ha.

When Glen got home and heard the news about her embarrassment, he was quick to want to tell her AND all the other kids. (He is so ready for our kids to be grown) SO.....after a little sadness I got the video out and called her in our room. She TOTALLY thought she was in trouble. So I just matter of factly told her and she matter of factly couldn't have cared less!!!! She wasn't mad. She wasn't sad. She was silly beyond words and just said ok and thought that she was cooler than the other kids in the house.

I have told her that she is going to get to be my helper this year while we do Santa, and while I don't know exactly that will MEAN....she is WAY excited. I think it is cool that we share the secret with just her this year. I know she feels special and I LOVE making her feel that way.

She has been warned not to say a WORD about it to the other kids. She hasn't and I think it is again because she thinks she is too cool for knowing and it being a secret between JUST US. I don't look forward to ALL the kids knowing. I think it would be easier on me and Glen, but I don't care. I love playing Santa and now...... I have a new helper!!!! :)

Fast track catch up......

I have been so bad about posting. Honestly, my life has been too busy to sit down and write it all down. I am sure some of you feel the same way. (you are just better about doing it) Here goes.....

We had our Thanksgiving Feast at school and it was great. Jude had his too and he looked so cute in his turkey hat.
Here is me and the little man at HIS Thanksgiving Feast.


Thanksgiving was great. We went to Ruidoso. It snowed, we went sledding...it was a BLAST!! My brother was the only one that had a camera, so I don't have pictures of me flying off of the sled with my dog. It was hilarious though. I was so scared that I ruined my jeans (You know the important things...not that I almost killed my dog! :) We stayed inside a lot, so here a few pictures of us all watching a Ratatouille together.

Parker

Avery

Bailey

Jude laughing AND eating

We also took the Christmas picture of the kids while we were in Ruidoso. It was so pretty because the trees were covered in snow. We did try and get one with the dog, but it just DIDN'T work out, so.........

here is the Christmas picture of the kids that we used on our card this year.

We got home and within the next few weeks, Parker got LICE at school. I have never been SO devastated in my life. I seriously had to keep telling myself that some children have cancer and this was NOT a big deal. It was just so overwhelming. We did 22 loads of laundry at the laundry mat and still had more laundry at home. It was just so expensive and time consuming. We had to wash everyone's hair with poison. It was just not lovely. It took about 2 and a half weeks to feel like we were done with it. I am still braiding all the girls' hair and spraying it with hair spray everyday. They say that deters the lice from getting on the hair. We'll see. I have several funny stories about the whole lice thing, but I'll save them for another post.

Avery's 5th grade class has been singing all over town and had their Christmas program too. They sang downtown before the Christmas parade, so after we listened to them sing we all went outside to the parade (for as long as we could handle it - it was FREEZING!!)

Jude, Aunt Becky, Nana Sue, Bailey, Avery, Farryn, and Parker

Next was Avery's 11th birthday. She had a movie party at Grandmama's house because they have a big projector that comes out of the ceiling and a huge screen that rolls out too. So Avery wanted a High School Musical movie party and it was a blast. She invited 5 girls and they had so much fun quoting the whole movie and singing along.

I made the cookie that says, "What time is it? It's Avery's 11th birthday" If you know HSM2, you know "What time is it" is a song from the movie. Sadly HSM2 come out ON her birthday, so we just watched the 1st one. We made CD's called Avery's mix to give as party favors and they got to decorate their own CD case. We also did HSM tattoos.

Avery got an iPod from us and my parents. This was Avery's reaction when she saw what it was. It was SO fun to see her SO excited about something.

The birthday gang

Here is the picture that our 6 year old took for our Christmas card. So this is the second picture on our card this year. THANK YOU PARKER!!

THEN...of course Christmas and all the parties started after that, so here we are. Glen and I are fixing to go shopping for the rest of our gifts. Thanks to our friend Cindy for keeping the kids so that we can go shopping ALONE and even go out to eat. YEAH!!

I hope I didn't forget anything. If I did, I'll go back and write about it later. It's good to be back. Whew!!!