Winter Has Arrived!

Kids are outside

 I am inside.

Amen.

Love, Jennifer

Good Times

We are really enjoying the break from school.  Last week seemed to blow by with family visits and last minute errands.  This week we are hanging out, playing with our new toys and having lots of fun.  Yesterday the kids and I went to the movies and saw Tangled.  Very cute.  Paige was thrilled with the limited amount of scary parts and Mason was thrilled with the large package of Twizzlers that were not so hidden in my purse.  Today after lunch, we headed out to our local soda shop, Squeak.  Sam had Black Cherry soda with a large scoop of Death by Chocolate ice-cream.  Paige, Alice and Mason all chose Cotton Candy flavored soda with a scoop of Cotton Candy ice-cream (topped off with a piece of cotton candy).  Can you say SUGAR HIGH!!  It was a nice treat and good to break away from the house for a few minutes anyway.  I took these pics with Scott's new camera.  He was really wanting a super small one that he can take out on long runs and bike rides.  It takes pretty good pictures.  I got Photoshop Elements from him and I am having fun editing some pictures although these are straight out of the camera (okay, I did crop them).  I also got a Cricut from my parents.  Alice and I had a good ole' time cutting out shapes and letters this morning.  I have a feeling that thing could suck up a lot of my time and money, in a good way, if you know what I mean :)  I always love a craft.  Right, Vic?!?!?! 

Unfortunately, Scott has not been having as much fun as us.  He has been working a ton of hours and doesn't see an end to it.  I had a Orange Creamcicle with Vanilla ice-cream float in his honor.  And maybe just a little bit for me.....

Have a great holiday!

Jennifer

Merry Christmas!

I hope that you all had a great Christmas and enjoyed the holidays!  We had a wonderful holiday with family and friends.  The kids are having a blast with their new toys.  Santa and the grandparents were very good to them this year :)  This is pretty much the gist of our holidays. It was a whirlwind and Scott and I are exhausted. 

Every time we tried to get a good photo we ended up with the back of someone head.  This time it was Paige's.

Anyway here are a few of my pics from the holiday. 

We spent Christmas Eve at my parents, went to church for a couple hours and then went back to my parents for the annual crab leg dinner.  Christmas day the kids got up early and opened presents.  For dinner, we went to my brother's house. Again this year, my younger brother, Jason flew in for the holidays.  We only see him a couple times a year so it was great to catch up. 
The favorite gifts this year were...
Sam- Timex watch, Legos Star Wars for Wii, Diary of Wimpy Kid (last two books)
Alice- Kindle, zhu zhu pets, locket
Paige- snow globe craft, American Girl Lainey, Ipod shuffle

The best gift of all is the birth of Jesus.  I really enjoyed learning about the birth, life and crucifixion of Jesus Christ through an Advent study at our church.  We read a chapter of Luke each night and then discussed them weekly.  The kids also enjoyed their Advent study and we had some great discussions this year about Jesus and the true meaning of Christmas. 

I hope you and yours are enjoying a beautiful holiday season.  With love from our family to yours. 
Jennifer

A Heartful

Even when they seem like a handful, I truly know that they are a heartful.  Some days, both :) 

Electric Safari

Tonight we all packed into the truck and traded our zoo for a different one!  The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.  I know that I have mentioned this before, but our zoo is awesome.  A small zoo on the side of the mountain.  If you live in COS and don't take advantage of the zoo, you are crazy :)  Just kidding, you aren't crazy....but you should get out to the zoo.  It rocks!  During the holidays, the zoo decorates with tons of lights and is open in the evenings for visitors.  We spent a couple hours checking out the lights, the animals and taking a pony ride.  Two of our most favorite kiddos, Ellie and Brendan, tagged along with us.  All the kids were  great and we had a blast!  The holidays are upon us and I am starting to feel more prepared.  Gifts bought, cookies baked, cards addressed and mailed and kids are done with school.  Whew, life is busy in December! 

Have a nice weekend!

Jennifer

Big Day for the Masonator

Or should I say for momma...

Mason had his preschool Christmas program this morning.  It was really cute and all the kids did great. The best part was that I finally got a kid who will stand with the class, sing and do the hand motions.  Finally.  Samuel, Alice and Paige, all got freaked out standing in front of the parents and teachers.  Sam would stay with his class but never sang.  Alice would stand with her class and cry until I gave in and went up and got her and Paige, well, she never got up with her class and usually had to be pried off of the neck of one of her teachers.  Mason is NOT timid, at all.   I love it.  I loved it so much that I only took a couple pictures because I was so busy watching him have a blast.  Way to go Mason! 

In the afternoon, Mason and I took a drive to Denver.  CCAI was holding a dedication for all the orphanage directors from the Henan Province and those directors really wanted to see their kids.  We couldn't miss this.  The director of Mason's orphanage was really welcoming to us when we were in China.  She gave us a tour of the facility, a snack, introduced us to Mason's nanny, drove us to Mason's finding spot and took us out for a traditional Henan lunch, pork fat and all.  Okay, I have to admit it, here and now, even though my mom always told me to take a bite of everything, I didn't try the pork fat.  Now that I have that off my chest I can go on.  Anyway, she was so excited to see Mason.  She was thrilled to see him walking as well.  It was a great trip and so worth taking the drive!  Mason wasn't so sure about all the kissing and hugging.  All he really was interested in were the cookies at the refreshment stand.  I honestly cannot tell you how many cookies he consumed.  Every time I looked he had his hand on another sugary snack.  Tis' the season for sugary snacks, I guess.

Tomorrow is the older kids' last day of school for Winter Break.  You know what that means?  The come home from school all jacked up on sugar and it will take the better part of the weekend to see them come down from that sugar high.  Oh, they will fall, they will.  And it won't be pretty.  Trust me, this isn't my first day on the job.  Enjoy an early start to the weekend and may your children pass the tray of frosted cookies and move right on over to the veggies.  Man, whose mom would bring a veggie tray?!?!?!?!  No idea. 

No Words {Kidding, Only Kidding}

This is pretty much how I feel right now...  No, not really.  But we have been soooo busy and it seems that it is only getting busier.  Truth be told, I love Christmas and the holidays but it is so easy to get wrapped up (pardon the pun) and stressed during the holiday season.  On that note, a recap from our weekend. 

Friday

When Scott got home we decorated our gingerbread houses. In past years I have bought the one big house and we all take turns decorating it but it is usually a fight between the kids on who gets to spread the icing, apply gum drops or line windows with skittles.  This year I found a gingerbread kit that included stuff to make 5 houses.  Everybody (but daddy) got their own house to decorate as they wished.  Perfect.

The final product.  It took me an hour to scrape red, green and white frosting off my tablecloth but it was so worth it :)

Saturday

Saturday morning we spent our time at church getting ready for the Christmas program at church.  We ran a dress rehearsal (a couple times) and readied the sound system and set.  In the afternoon,  Scott took Mason to a birthday party and the big kids and I hung out at home.   In the evening we got the pleasure of babysitting for Scott's cousins kids, Jackson and Jordan. After John and Jen came home from their party, they hung out at the house for a couple more hours.  It is so awesome having them so close. 

Sam and baby Jordan.  So sweet and tiny.

Sunday

Sunday morning we went to church, came home and all took naps and then headed back to church for the kids' Christmas program.  They did great and were invited to an encore performance next Sunday during worship.  After the program we headed out to the Werschky family Christmas party.  This is always a good time with yummy eats and a white elephant gift exchange.  By the time we got home, everybody was exhausted and pretty much collapsed into bed.  Getting up this morning was tough, to say the least.

the shepherds

the wisemen



our sweet sheep



angels

shepherd and sheep

I hope you all had a great weekend!  We are enjoying this beautiful spring weather!  Happy holidays to all!

Jennifer

Trees, Traditions and Time Together

This weekend was packed.  And I do mean packed busy.  Saturday we got up and continued on with a fun family tradition of hiking into the woods, hunting down the perfect Christmas tree, cutting it down and schlepping it back down the trail to the car.  This is always a memorable experience.  Scott and I started this tradition before kids.  I do believe Sam's first Christmas he rode out into the forest strapped to the front of me, nestled in my coat and (almost) every Christmas since we have set out on the ultimate adventure in search for the most perfectly scraggliest tree.  Snow has fallen, kids have cried, disputes have ensued, all for that one tree.  A Wescott family tradition.  Anyway, this year was no exception and our quest didn't take long.  We found our Christmas tree right off the main trail.  The kids fell in love immediately but Scott wasn't ready to give up the search that easily so we marked our tree with a tree branch arrow and headed down the trail.  After walking what seemed to be miles and listening to the kids ask about the first tree about a hundred times, we decided to turn around and head back.  We kept our eyes peeled just in case our tree was hiding, tucked away, off the trail.  We ended back at our arrow and with much prodding from the kids we cut down our 2010 Christmas tree.  Everyone got a chance with the saw and nobody was harmed in the cutting of the tree.  I know you are on the edge of your seats so without further ado, our tree (and some cute pictures of the kids out in the woods).

  Today was my mom's birthday.  Happy Birthday Mom!  I am so blessed to have such a fantastic mother.  She has always been such a good role model for me as a mother and I love her dearly.  I hope I grow up to be just like my mom :)  Oh wait, I am grown up.  Shoot.  When did that happen?  Everyday I find myself saying something to my kids that she said to me as a child or wondering what my mom would do in a particular situation.  She has always been my biggest fan and I hope she knows that I am hers.  I love you Mom!!! Sooo, today we went on a girls trip with my SIL Stacie, niece Madison and my mom and girls to Denver.  We had lunch and visited the American girl store.  The girls had fun showing Grandma all the things they hoped for and wanted.  They made a wish list, which in Paige's case included everything in the store, for Santa.  After shopping we headed back to my parents and celebrated again with a pizza dinner.  This time we included the boys.  We had an awesome day and can't wait to do it again some time soon. 

My mom and I. 

We may have had a couple gimme' meltdowns but I am not naming names.

Santa was really busy so we settled for a peek at the big guy and a picture with the plastic reindeer.

Have a great week!  We are finally all healthy.  Can I hear an amen?

Another case of sickies

You know it is bad when my kids have hot lunch TWO days in a row. 
I may not have mentioned it, but Sam was hit with the stomach bug on Saturday night.  We packed quickly on Sunday and headed for home.  By evening, he was feeling great and ate dinner.  I sent him to school on Monday and he seemed to be back to normal but I guess that wasn't the case.  When Scott and I got home from our shopping trip last night, he was feeling crummy again.  Uh-oh.  I went to bed early because I was exhausted and woke up in the middle of the night with a horrid stomach ache.  You can see where this is going right?!?!?!  Anyway, Sam woke up sick (yes, that kinda sick, if you get my drift) and he and I have taken up residence on the couch today. I am starting to feel better (hopefully for good) and he is looking a bit perkier.  We are going on 3 weeks of sickness around here and I am really getting tired of it.  Thank goodness, everyone stayed healthy for the majority of our trip to the mountains so I am counting those blessings, especially when a wave of nausea comes over me, or when I look around my house at the mess.  This too shall pass. This too shall pass, right?!?!?!? 

On the brighter side, I am enjoying some Christmas shopping from the convenience of my couch.  There is always  a brighter side.....

Jennifer

Homework or Home Work

My kids don't come home with a lot of homework.  Sam usually has to finish a sheet of math work and it takes him about three minutes.  If Alice has homework it is a story in her classroom reader or practice writing her spelling words.  In Kindergarten, Paige has weekly optional homework.  Some weeks we opt to and some weeks we opt to not.  One thing that I do to supplement their homework, or lack thereof, is to print off math worksheets.  Math Fact Cafe is a great site to practice math facts and play all sorts of games that strengthen math facts.  My kids really like it when I print off challenging math sheets.  These kids obviously got their math sense from Scott.  My dad would completely agree:) as he was the one who sat with me for endless hours working through math homework.  They got lots of good things from me (in my opinion, of course) but math skills, not a chance.  Luckily, they also all have a love of reading and THAT they got from me.  (I just thought that I should give a good example or you might think I meant sleeping, eating donuts, watching reality t.v., etc.)  Not that I would do any of those things..... ;)

Have a great Monday!  Scott and I are heading out to do some Christmas shopping.  We are swapping kids with Kent and Vic a couple nights this week so that we can each get a bit of shopping done. 

Jennifer