Holidays and School

{I just downloaded all of my pictures from my phone to my PC, so this post will be all over the place!} Ha! As you know, last week was Thanksgiving, so we did a little role playing to reenact the Pilgrims' voyage to America and all the way through the celebration of the 1st Thanksgiving. It is really neat {and I'm sure this is planned by the curriculum} but we were reading about the first Thanksgiving right in the midst of our Thanksgiving season; I just thought it was so fitting. The play was all Jase's idea and Allyson very quickly jumped on board. Each of them chose a real life character from our book. Jase was Jonathan Brewster, Allyson was Mary Chilton and Finn was Giles Hopkins.

Below, Jase and Ally were on the Mayflower {he is looking at a map} and they finally landed on Plymouth Rock! The pots set-up had one for food and another for laundry, just like we read about.

A short clip of the kids on the Mayflower!

Here is a glimpse of our school days. Jase in costume, reading the bible. Finn half way on top of the table, writing on Ally's book. And Ally practicing her letters. The weather has been so nice this past week, that some days we will head outdoors right after breakfast and then again after Finn wakes up from his nap. And lastly, reading. I struggled with reading comprehension growing up and was never really much of a reader, so I encourage reading as much as I can. I just love to see Jase pick up a book and drift off into the living room and several minutes later when I check on him, he is on the couch reading a book. Now I'll insert a footnote here: not all days are like this, but here lately this is more the norm.

Here we have Finn, our little "helper". He is LOVING the Christmas tree! I have had to strategically place the ornaments, so the bottom 1/4 of the tree is pretty bare! And if I missed one, Finn will let me know pretty quick by grabbing it off the tree! I am soaking up these days because I know they just fly by!

I've posted before about Jase writing notes and leaving them for me to find, and here are a few from this past week. I never get tired of finding them! :-) 

Master Suite Project

Ok, so we don't have a huge master suite, but it sounds so much fancier than just plain ole bedroom! Last week we started AND finished a project that I've been wanting to do since coming back from Round Top. I purchased this ladder below for $15 and I knew I wanted it in my bedroom somewhere. {The color matched well with my throw pillows.} I originally thought about hanging it from the ceiling and then thought about hanging it on the wall above my headboard. After looking at it, I knew I wanted to hang it from the ceiling! I made a trip to Hobby Lobby for a few things and had a plan!

Here is where I introduce my husband, the handy man! He was such a trooper and a HUGE help for sure. I told him what I wanted, and he helped my vision come to life. We hung 4 hooks from the ceiling, leveled the ladder and tied it with twine. Let me just tell you that Shawn knows how to tie every knot known to man. I am good for a granny knot and a double knot, but that is the extent of my knot resume. All those years of tying fishing knots has paid off for him!

I had bought 3 1/2 yards of chiffon from Hobby Lobby for $10.48 (I used the 40% coupon), a set of three white paper lanterns for $4.99, a strand of Christmas lights for $2.99 and a set of 6 flickering lights for $5.99. The flickering lights were not a must, but if the strand of lights are off and I just want a little mood lighting ;-) in the room, then I can turn on the flickering tea lights (that are battery operated) that I attached inside the paper lanterns with twine.

After looking at it, I thought it needed just a little something else. I had a couple of mason jars on-hand and added some holiday berries inside them (from Hobby Lobby for $.74 each and I might have used 5 strands). The mason jars were also hung by twine.

I really really love how it all turned out. It creates such a focal point in the room and draws your eye up. If my math is correct, I paid $42.65 (without tax) for this decor...not too bad. And you should have seen the kids the next morning when they got up, they absolutely loved it! And Finn couldn't stop saying "Light, Light!" Super cute! A BIG thanks to my hubby for staying up (11 pm - 2 am...wowsers!) and starting/finishing this with me! One item off the list!! :-) 

Happy Thanksgiving

This year we drove east to Louisiana to spend time with my MawMaw, PawPaw and Aunt Carole Ann. We don't see them as often as we used to, due to my PawPaw having Alzheimer's and it is just best for him if he stays in his normal routine at home. It has been a blessing to slow down and enjoy being together. Seems like we are always in a rush (back at home) to do something, so it has been nice to not have any plans, other than spending time with each other. Feeling very blessed today.

Hillsong United

Tonight was date night for me and the hubby! Woohoo! I had bought tickets to a Hillsong United concert, a Christian praise and worship band. We were excited about our night out!

Before the concert we stopped at Pappasito's! Can you say delicioso? We shared fajitas...the chicken fajita meat dipped in their butter sauce, enough said! I might have had a tortilla too! So good! 

The worship time was so uplifting and moving. I just love all of their songs and you could feel The Lord move in the midst of the Reliant Arena. There was one song "Oceans (Where My Feet May Fail)" that was so moving. Here are some of the lyrics:

Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders

Let me walk upon the waters

Wherever You would call me

Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander

And my faith will be made stronger

In the presence of my Savior

Trust without borders, take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, my faith will be made stronger in the presence of my Savior. Great words to ponder on and examine my life against. 

Here are a couple of clips from the show tonight. Shawn and I had an amazing time worshiping the Lord together. So thankful.

This is kind of a big deal

Allyson started gymnastics back in September, so nearly 3 full months ago. Our gym recently moved locations at the beginning of November, so prior to that the parent viewing area was terrible and you could barely see what was going on. Well now you are above the entire gym floor and can see everything that is going on, which I really like. Since the move I have come to realize how hesitant Ally actually is of letting her instructors help her; she doesn't like for them to touch her. And she flat out refuses to do forward rolls (and backwards ones as well), it is the oddest thing. She has grown scared of doing them. I'm sure you are thinking "it's fine, she will do one in her own time", but she has built up this fear and I can see this fear playing out in other aspects of her life as well...not healthy.

Shawn and I both have worked with her at home on forward rolls and the tears start flowing and she will NOT do it. We've tried being patient with her, bribing her, threatening her {I know, parents of the year}, but nothing works...she isn't having it.

Well, yesterday before gymnastics class I told her that if she did a roll at class then we would take her out to eat, where ever she wanted to go. {Thinking that she would say McDonald's or Chick-Fil-A.} She then proceeds to tell me "the place with bread and grapes." I said Olive Garden? She said yes, that's the place!! Haha!! I told her "you've got it, if you do a forward roll at class we will take you there Friday night." I kept pumping her up for class, telling her she could do it and we even called Daddy before class to let him know what was going on and he encouraged her as well.

We go to class and what do you know?? They didn't even work on rolls at class! Boo to that! Of course. So, this morning while we were eating breakfast I started thinking about it and told her that I wanted her to do ONE forward roll today. She agreed to try one. She is all fine and dandy...until we lay the blankets out on the floor and it is go time, then she turns into a recluse. I mean the tears start flowing, she doesn't want you to touch her, it's crazy. I usually just give up after a few minutes of her crying, but something was different this morning. I kept on encouraging her, telling her she could do it. She would go into the lean position and stand up and ask if she was finished, while wiping tears. Jase was on the couch watching us and would say "this will take forever." I periodically grabbed Finn and would help him do a roll and show her how it's done. I would also {in my moo-moo...nice visual} do rolls for her. I mean I was trying everything: kept reminding her of Olive Garden, told her that we weren't stopping until she did one forward roll...I wanted her to break past the fear she has created over this forward roll.

I'm not lying, but I must have begged, pleaded, threatened, encouraged her to do a roll for 25 minutes and finally either something clicked or she was tired of me, but she finally decided to do one. After she finally attempted one, she kept on and kept on. While they are not perfect, she is at least trying, which is LEAPS and BOUNDS from where she was. So proud of her! Here is some footage of this morning!

And as promised we went to the bread place with grapes!

She was happy, happy, happy with her bread stick!

Rockets Game

Last night we went downtown to the Rockets basketball game. Shawn and I have not been to a game in 4 or so years, so we were excited about going. This was Ally's 1st game and Jase's 2nd. Both kids really enjoyed the atmosphere and had fun cheering on the home team. I will say that it was nice to attend a Houston team sporting event and our team was actually playing great and winning! 

Every time I had the camera turned around to take a picture of me and sister, she immediately did her "funny face"! It was just a funny face type of night, if you can't tell! 

Here is a short clip of Jase cheering after the Rockets scored. So fun watching him get into the game!

Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast

Seems like yesterday Jase was performing in his Pre-K Thanksgiving Feast, but not this year...Ally's turn! {Hard to believe that was 2 years ago!} She looked so cute up there shaking her little egg and singing songs! She had quite the crowd come and see her perform too.