Kiser Christmas

We had our Kiser Christmas on December 11 this year. It worked out that Matt, Lana, and Grace could be here that weekend, and Mom was off work. I like having it on another day than right at Christmas--it spreads out Christmas, and makes the season a little more relaxing.

Mom did something different. Last year she went to the after-Christmas sales and found some stockings. She bought one for each grandchild. She hung them, and filled them with "treasures."
Adam was digging in his stocking for his surprises.

Austin had his laid out beside him.

It was fun to do the gifts this way.

A week or so prior to our Christmas. Mike and Dad took a trip to Roanoke. They stopped at the Toy's R Us there. Dad found a large Lego set, and decided he would get that for the boys to have something new and fun to do at their house.

After the gifts were opened ALL (including Matt and Mike) the boys went to the back room and worked on the building of the Lego. I love this picture of them all working together!

It was a wonderful Christmas!

Adam's Drawing

A while ago, I babysat for a friend. As a "Thank you" she gave my boys a travel Bible Activity set. We still have it, and pull it out from time to time.

The other night Adam was working on the activity pad. It has pictures to color, cross words, and different games to play.

Adam found a page with dots. He decided to not do the suggested game, but a draw a picture.


He did the bottom first. 3 crosses. He wrote, "Jesus died on the cross."

Above that is the tomb-rolling away the stone.

The top is when hey find the tomb is empty!

I was impressed with his creativity and expression of the story through his pictures!

I Would Have Never Thought Of It!

The boys are on break from school for Christmas. While there is no school, they are able to do fun and different things that I might otherwise say "no" to.

The other night Mike came up with the idea to let the boys sleep on the sledding inter tubes. I figured, "well, sure, there is no reason not to. If they don't sleep well, they can have a nap tomorrow."

We cleared room for the inter tubes in Austin's room.

We got the inter tubes ready. The boys were asking to go to bed at 7:30! (At the time I didn't think about how they would be ready to get up at 5:30)

It was a fun, out of the ordinary thing to do-that I would have never thought of!

Gingerbread House

We got a note home from school, shortly before Christmas break, the first graders were making Gingerbread houses. I love that Adam's teacher is willing to take this on with 20 first graders, I'm not sure I would want to do this at home.

We donated a few supplies, but another teacher donated all the candy and decorations. (the main reason I would not want to do this at home)

They were to make a pattern at place on the house. Every child did this with ease :)

I did find it interesting that some children covered their houses with candy, but Adam chose to leave his a little more sparse.

It was a fun activity. One I'm glad that I didn't have to lead at home. I am so thankful for those brave teachers that are willing to take on such projects.

Christmas Lights

Sunday evening we went to look at Christmas lights. We decided that we would rate the lights on a scale of 1-10. As we drove along we would hear the boys say, "that is a 2, there is an 8..."

Then we saw this house, we all decided it was a 10!


They had lights, blinking lights, then I opened my window to take the picture and found they also had music.

But not only did they had blinking lights and music. The lights blinked to the beat of the music.

Very impressive!

Austin's Tooth Saga...

Austin has had a loose tooth. This is not his first loose tooth. For some reason, he was very uneasy about loosing this tooth. I would suggest, let's try this, or let's try that. He did not care for any of my suggestions. I figured, at some point the tooth will fall out, and that will be that.

Last evening, we were brushing his teeth (I was making suggestions of how we could get this tooth out). As we were brushing something touched his tooth just the right way, and *POOF* it was out! Austin was excited, and I was relieved.

Austin decided to write the "Tooth Fairy" a note and tell her about this adventure. The note is a follows:


As he was writing the note I started to think-"Oh, the The Tooth Fairy should probably respond. What will that note say? I think I have the right amount of money. If I don't will I have to call the neighbors to see if they can break a 5? Should I have them write the note so that Austin won't recognize my handwriting?..." Honestly, I think he knows it is me, but we still have fun with it.

After he finally fell asleep I sat down and wrote the following:

Austin found the note at 5:30 this morning. He came to my bedside and said, "listen to this note..." and proceeded to read it to me. At that point I really did wonder why I wrote so m things down, I just wanted to go back to sleep!

Austin has his 2 front teeth, but now he is missing the tooth on both sides.

He has become very fond of a had that Mike got him. It is the kind of hat that Elmer Fudd wears.

Austin and I have jokingly said that his name should be changed to Elmer Bunny (1/2 Elmer Fudd, 1/2 Bugs Bunny)

After Austin lost his tooth, I was tucking the boys in bed. Adam mentions to me that he "is bored and would love to have a tooth to wiggle" I reassured him that he has plenty more teeth to loose and I'm sure one would be wiggly before long.

He Has Patience

Our boys love to snuggle. Austin loves to start the day with a snuggle. Adam will every now and then, but not as often. One rule at our house is: We DO NOT snuggle before 6 am. Mainly due to the fact that I want to sleep until at least 6 am.

Last night, I was asleep. I heard little feet come to the side of my bed. I peeked to see who it was. There stood Adam. I pointedly asked,"What?" Adam said he wanted to snuggle. I looked at the clock and realized it was just after 3 am. I told him, "It is not 6." I closed my eyes. I thought he was going back to bed, but I heard Adam doing something with my alarm clock. I asked what he was doing and he said he was fixing it. I thought he meant he was making sure that the time on my clock was the same time he had on his clock, as to not miss any snuggle time. Then I heard more movement. I peeked again, to find him sitting on the floor by my bedside looking at my clock. I asked, "What on earth are you doing?" Adam very calmly said, "Waiting for 6."

If that is not patience, I don't know what is!

For A Change Of Pace

Today we got snow! School was called off due to the snow we were expected to (and did)get.

We met with the cousins at my parents house and the boys went sledding. While they were out, I decided we would make soft pretzels for a yummy snack and something different to do.

The boys made lots of different shapes. Some tried to make the traditional pretzel shape, but we also had the Virginia Tech logo, a man, and a pizza.

We all enjoyed the snack. And the nice thing was: it was easy, without too much clean up! I think we might have to do this again!

Christmas in Reverse

This is the Christmas season!

In September, Mike and I were contacted to see if we would like to help with activities as the children would practice for the Christmas musical. It sounded like fun, so we agreed.

The musical was called Christmas in Reverse. It was a new way to look at the Christmas story. Rather than just looking at Mary, Joseph, the shepherds and wise men, it showed WHY Jesus came to earth.


That means that we had to go all the way back to Genesis and look at Adam and Eve. It talked about how people were so sinful, then there was...

Noah. (that is Adam peeking out of the Ark window. He played Noah's son, Japheth.)

Then the played talked about the prophets (Austin was Malachi). Austin, also, played one of the wise men who came to the manger.

The play was full of fun songs and a really great message.

The director of the play had a "Thank you" gift for our family. I let the boys open it. They were very excited to see it was a treasure chest pinata. They were super excited to find that it was already filled!

They started to break into the pinata and I heard Adam say, "Look out candy, here we come!" I just had to laugh!

When it was all said and done, things were not as neat and orderly as it had started. The boys had so much fun with the pinata.

We are so glad that we were able to participate in this activity. We are thankful that the boys could have this experience of being in a church play.

What a fun evening. What a meaningful musical!

Jar Gifts

Austin went to Kingdom Kid's yesterday. Kingdom Kid's is the children's group at our church. They meet about once a month and do some sort of fun activity. Yesterday's project was to make jar gifts.

Austin came home and had a jar for cran-raisin cookies, and one for bean soup. I was very excited about both, but particularly about the soup. I thought what a wonderful supper on a cold winter day!
I decided to look at the directions to see if I had all the ingredients that I might need in order to make the soup. That is when I found...

...that I had the directions for sugar cookies.

I had a good laugh, and asked the leaders for the soup directions. I really don't think it would work to use those directions!

Spirit Day

Austin came home from school, earlier this week, very excited about spirit day. I remembered as a child we would have spirit week: Hat Day, This Day and That Day-fun days! Austin explained to me that it was a blue and white day. (those are the school colors for the High School) Then it sparked a vague recollection. First I will say that I am not a sports fan! However, I did hear somewhere that the High School was playing in some big game this weekend.

I went on a search for blue and white. Austin did not have anything! Then he told me that he could wear a Blue Streaks shirt. Well, that is fine, however, I did not have a blue streaks shirt for them, and I was not about to buy one.

Then I got creative! I was folding laundry on Wednesday, and saw a plain white t-shirt. The wheels in my mind started moving. White T-shirt, blue sharpie, Mike's art minor! I think I have it!


Mike took the school logo and put it on the front of 2 shirts.

On the back they wrote: GO BLUE STREAKS! Austin wrote his own, Mike did Adam's.

It made me very happy to see my boys so eager to support the Streaks, as I was a Streak in High School.

I'm sure no one else has a shirt just like theirs, I am anxious to hear the comments they had today on their shirts.

Hero's Dinner

The school my boys go to has a wonderful event they do every year. They send invitations to all the children to give to their hero. This invitation invites them to come to school and have dinner with the student that invited them. The school provides the bagel sandwiches from one of the local bagel shops, and people gladly donate a bag of chips, a drink, or a dessert.

My boys wanted to invite their cousins, Eamon and Shannon, as their heros. They, also, invited Mamaw. She was my hero for being there with the boys as I was helping with the dinner.


It is always a fun evening!

Adam's Field Trip

Yesterday Adam's grade level went on a field trip to the Frontier Culture Museum. The parents did not have to pack lunches for the children-it was provided (I love days like this!) When I went to get him from school, I was so eager to hear about this trip. He came out of the school and we had the following conversation.

Me: "How was your trip today?"

Adam: "Oh, it was great! Guess What!?! I was the only kid in my class to drink Mello Yello for lunch!"

Me: "Okay, What else. Tell me about he houses, the people you talked too, the animals..."

Adam: "Oh, yea. We fed the hens cat food and threw grass in for the pigs to eat. But, can you believe I was the only one to drink Mello Yello?

Me :*sigh*

Later, we were driving home from play practice at church. I was explaining to the boys that when we got home it was time to get into pajamas and brush teeth, they were headed straight to bed. Adam informed me, "I had Mello Yello for lunch I have lots of energy, I think I can stay up for a while." To which I replied, "No, that has worn off and you will be going to bed." (I saw him yawning at practice. And I am sure he was asleep within minutes of the light going out!)

After thinking about it, I remembered that when Austin went on this trip he came home only talking about chamber pots. At least that is history related, right?