Christmas with the Kids

We went and spent Christmas Eve Morning with the kids since Santa visited them early so they could go to Knoxville and see Michael's sister and her family. Grandma Patty sent more than enough presents, so we helped them figure out which presents went to which child (though Julian opened both of theirs from us and wondered why he got a pink fish!) and Jeremy played the good uncle and took all the packaging off from grandma's presents.

And we're off!

Regan got Violet a little kid laptop! 

"Open it! I play with it now!"

Auntie Margaret put tons of tape on, so I had to help V open them

Michael helps V open a particularly sticky package

Julian making a fish face and Violet liking the sparkles

She was very amused by the nose on the elephant ornament!

We finally got her to rip some of the wrapping paper!

It was a fun morning, and the kids got some really neat stuff. Julian got an Angler fish and when he pretended like it was going to bite Violet SHE bit the FISH! That girl is fearless! She got some more stuff for her play kitchen, and a little dollhouse that goes with a book series, several books, and of course ornaments from me and Jeremy. It will be interesting to see what gets donated and what they end up keeping! (every year, Grandma Patty gets them way too much stuff for their tiny house, so Michael will put some of it up in the attic for when they grow out of their current toys, and some of them go to the thrift stores for other kids to enjoy!) Who knows, maybe next year they'll have a little Clark baby to help open their presents!

Divide and Conquer!

FBC Decatur had their Spring Fling yesterday so we took the kids up to have a little fun! With both of them there, we decided to divide and conquer-- Michael and his mom went with Julian and we went with Violet-- she was exhausted, but still managed to have a little fun!

Birthday Girl

Me and Vivi-- too bad I don't have anything to fix the red eye on this computer!

Violet blushing over her new outfit

Vivi on her big girl bike!

A better look at the adorable outfit Jeremy and I got her for her birthday!

This year's cake (without a small chunk thanks to Jeremy...)

Julian goofing around with the leftovers-- Juice Box Hero!

Drop In!

We love living so close to Michael and the kids, and every so often they'll drop by on their way somewhere (or if Julian has a potty emergency) to say hi!

Just an update

I'll be taking pictures of the garden later, but Jeremy's out on the porch working on the bench (which seems to be giving him fits...) at the moment.

I'm updating this from my new Eee PC, and it's pretty exciting! I got it at Best Buy on sale for $250 because it has Windows XP. If it gets me $100 off and it's not Windows ME, I don't care what OS it's running!

I started working on my resume, which looks better every day, and have been able to get a lot of other stuff done just by using my old laptop as an entertainment center and using the Eee to do work and pay bills, etc. I'm pretty excited!

We've been pretty busy lately, after school is wrapped up for the most part and we're moving in to summer, but things aren't looking fantastic for enrollment... I need at least 15 more children per week to make things worth it, but people just aren't signing up! And a lot of the people who are signing up are splitting the summer up between several camps, which is frustrating to say the least-- who the heck wants to deal with five different camps over the summer?! Blargh.

On a happier note, we have been able to spend more time with the kids lately-- those two are our favorite little people around! I took them last weekend for a birthday party and had a blast in spite of their craziness; Julian's got to give up this oral fixation or we're going to have to duct tape his mouth shut! Beads up his nose, coins down his throat, everything in his mouth it's just ridiculous. I've started sending him to his room when he puts stuff in his mouth, but I'm sure half the time he just puts the stuff in his room in there, too. I've seen kids with oral fixations before, but Julian makes it a sport! (one that I will win) Violet's a full on walker now, and she's pleased as punch with the setup. Target has these foam weapons that are only a few bucks each and, having a PK son, Michael's got a whole arsenal (for under $10) that Violet's taken to hoarding and then berserking on everyone. She'll pick up an ax and a sword and just run at you-- or, if she wants you on her side, she'll pick up an armful and start piecemealing them out so that everyone has the weapon she wants them to have. And then she'll attack Julian. He's going to have to toughen up or move out of the way!

Anyway, it's been fun spending time with them, and so nice to see how much they love us. It's important for kids to have a community of adults they can rely on and learn from, and it's an honor to be a part of Julian and Violet's lives!

That's all for now, I'm going to go watch the season finale of Bones (yay for the internet!) and drool over the Nori Nori menu a little more... ciao for now!