We have a reader!

 Piper is beginning to read simple beginner books!  She is a great reader! Sometimes she gets lazy and does not want to sound words out and just wants to rush through.  So together, we work hard on slowing down and concentrating.  When she slows down, she does a fabulous job!  In fact, this week while working on a sight word and sentence reading worksheet, she told me, "I'm not going to panic when I do this because it is more fun and goes a lot faster when I'm not!"  We have our first parent teacher conference next week.  I have no concerns but am a little anxious to hear what her teacher says!

 And this is our little distraction while reading!  Silly brother trying to vie for mommy's attention by placing the book bag on his head pretending it was a costume!

Little P!

On Friday, Piper was chosen to bring home the classroom weekend bear, Little P.  All weekend I kept saying Big P and Little P.  Piper did not like being called Big P!  She is funny about nicknames. She doesn't mind being called "Pipes" or "Pipesy" but when we call her "Big P" or "Pipper," for example, she reminds us very firmly that her name is Piper!

Little P stayed the weekend with us and he was a pretty fun house guest.  You don't have to feed him, clean him, or entertain him!  He's just there and he makes the kids happy!  Win-Win!  Piper was so excited to introduce him to her friends from the other class that came over after school!  And introduce him to some of her favorite toys!

 She asked to take Little P to a museum so we decided on the Perot Museum because our membership is about to expire and have decided not to renew it.  It has such a fun play area for the kids so Piper really enjoyed bringing Little P along!

And Little Brother enjoyed Little P too!  

32

I just celebrated my 32nd birthday and I'm starting to have a hard time remembering my age.  Am I 32 or 33? No maybe I'm 31.  These are real thoughts going on inside my head!  A few months before my birthday, I told someone I was about to turn 33 on a phone conversation and when I got off the phone, Michael looked at me and said, "No you are about to turn 32!"  Oops, didn't mean to lie to that person! And maybe I'm lying to you.  Maybe it wasn't a phone conversation.  Maybe it was person to person, but either way I know it was a real conversation!  Ha!  But as of today, I know I'm 32 and I had a pretty great birthday!  Michael and Piper made me breakfast and coffee.  We went to church and the gift of all gifts was given to me in that Briggs had a great time in his class and we had no issues!  We've been having a little bit of a hard time with him at church as of late.  But not on my birthday!  The teacher said he was so sweet and did great.  Michael and I were about to skip out of there with giddiness because we felt so encouraged!  After church, I chose Jason's Deli for us to eat lunch at and that afternoon was spent relaxing at home.  Later that evening, my girlfriends took me out to dinner!  It was so nice to go eat and chat.  Most people know I love chatting!!

Roby, Kim, & Lauren.  Lauren hung a birthday banner for me!

 Me and Kate.  I'm holding her cutie pie baby boy Bennett!  He is 3 months old!

Briggs at lunch! The closest "pose" I've captured in a while!

 Briggs and Michael.  Michael did take me on a date the night before but we didn't take a pic.  Too bad too, because I thought I was having a fabulous hair night that evening!

 Me and P! I felt special and loved on this day!  And, the theme was eating!  I ate a lot for my birthday!  New Years Weight Goals begin today!  Or tomorrow!

December Catch Up!

The Roush Family came for a weekend visit in December.  Chandra and I took the kids to see Frozen.  It was so cute!  I took a picture of all the kids.  They each did wonderful!

 Lilly, Piper, & Sophia

 Me & Evelyn

 Me & Briggs

 During Christmas break, Briggs let Piper push him around in this box with the lid closed!  He must of enjoyed it because he looks rather relaxed with his finger up his nose!

After Christmas, I took the kids to see the Trains at Northpark.  They liked it a lot.  Briggs loves trains.  The scene above is a recreation of the Texas State Fair.  I love Piper's expression even if it wasn't intentional!

Christmas #3 & New Years Day

Christmas #3 was with Grammy, Papa John, and Michael's brother's family.  Grammy and Papa John came to Texas to celebrate on New Year's Eve.  By this Christmas, I forgot to bring my camera!  Aunt Amy made a yummy meal for us and then we casually opened our gifts.  Piper got all American Girl clothes and one AG movie.  The American Girl movies are so great!  Briggs got more jumbo animals and he's been playing nonstop with them!

 Here is Daddy, Jonah, Piper, & Briggs playing pretend with the animals.  Briggs has latched on to the gorilla and the lemur monkey for some reason!  By the way, I just think Piper looks so big in the above picture.  Sad!!  We left around 8:30 pm, got the kids in bed, watched a little television, and were in bed around 11 pm!  No midnight kiss for us.  Not when the threat of your kids waking you up the following morning at dawn!

Then on New Year's Day, Daddy set up the new Christmas swings we gifted to the kids!  Piper was thrilled!  Plus, it was a beautiful day to enjoy them!

 He set up a disc swing on the tree in the backyard and a regular seated swing on our patio, which is not pictured.

Christmas #2

Our annual Christmas tour resumed the day after Christmas when we drove to Fargo to celebrate Christmas with my side of the family at Grandma Judy's & Papa Roger's home.

 Mr. Serious had to think through his unwrapping strategy!

 Piper was just giddy!  Five years old is such a fun age at Christmas!

 We gave Anna the game, Tellustrations, so it was family game time after lunch!

 Grandma was sweet to work on projects with the kids.  They made gingerbread houses and these cute little penguins made out of olives, and other food!  Piper and Liv love this kind of stuff!

These two had so much fun together.  Piper loves her older cousins and loves feeling big like them!