Samantha suggested we get a gingerbread house to decorate so we picked up a little village to decorate.  We each chose a house and got decorating.

The kids loved making each of their houses look different and festive and have asked to do it again.  They did well handling the frosting, sprinkles, etc.  We were proud at how they did!

Samantha's house

Dad's house

Blake's house

Mom's house

Samantha has been having to read an average of 20 minutes each day for several months now.  She also has to keep record of it and turn in her sheets to her teacher.

Sometimes she reads aloud to Travis or myself.  Sometimes she reads quietly in her room.  Last night she was reading to Blake and all their animals.

It's the Christmas season for programs!

Samantha had her elementary school program Thursday night, December 6th.  The kids sang three songs and I'm pretty sure their favorite was "I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas!"

The same week our church held it's annual Cantata.  Both Samantha and Blake sang in the Junior Choir Friday night and Samantha sang in it Saturday night as well.  Travis was one of the Wise Men and Samantha got to hang onto his cape.  She was thrilled with her roll in the Cantata.

I told Blake he only had to sing once in the Cantata and he held me to it, there was no convincing him otherwise!

Travis and the other Wise Men

King Herod

Mary, Joseph and young Jesus

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The entire cast!

It's December and it's been unseasonably warm.  The kids have enjoyed the warm weather with more time outside.  In fact, one Sunday they decided it was time to climb the tree without coats and shoes!

It's Christmas time once again and I wanted to get a quick shot of the kids all dressed up.  We decided to use these pictures for our stamps for our Christmas cards.  Of course, in order to get a "good" shot you have to do some silly faces too!

We got some new decorations for our tree this year as the kids were tired of our other ones.  It's pretty with the blues and silvers....

It was a couple of days before Thanksgiving and the kids had little headbands as a craft.  They also made them for their dolls and animals so I decided we should document all of the little Indians.

Grandparents Day

The Monday before Thanksgiving was Samantha's Grandparent's program.

BeBe planned for some time to come and see it.  We were so surprised when we got here that Papa had been able to come with her!

The program was fantastic.  Samantha's class did a fantastic job.  We stayed for a yummy Thanksgiving day lunch afterwards.

BeBe and I were able to do a bit of shopping the next day before they left and Blake got some special time with Papa.

Before BeBe and Papa left town we all went out to lunch after picking Samantha up from school.

Operation Christmas Child

Our church participated in Operation Christmas Child this year.  We decided that each of our kids would make a box for a child.  We went out shopping one day as a family to fill the boxes.  The kids enjoyed filling the boxes to brim with good things the other kids would enjoy.

We packaged them up and took them to church with us.  We're still waiting here where our boxes went but we can't wait to look it up on the map!

Election vs. Dictatorship

It as the night of the Presidential election.  Samantha had heard about it at school and asked if the president made all of the decisions for the United States.  Travis explained that he didn't but if he did it would be called a dictatorship.  He proceeded say, it was like our house where he is the dictator.  Samantha came back and said, "No, mom is the dictator in our house."

We enjoyed a little giggle when she said that.

The kids love having a pillow fight.  Their way of a pillow fight is them standing on the bed and having dad try and knock them down with the pillows.  The kids are getting bigger and can stand their ground so it is getting a little harder for dad.

The day after Blake's surgery was Halloween!  The kids love to dress up.

This year we stopped by Travis' work right after school so the resident's could see the kids.  The kids loved it because they got some great candy and a couple of stuffed animals.

We raced home, ate supper and headed out to Safe Haven which is held at one of our church's.   The kids love going "trick or treating" in each Bible themed room.  This year they added several large inflatables.  Blake was only able to go on one of them but that made him happy.

This shows Blake's incision the day after surgery.

Blake was scheduled for his surgery to remove his sabaceus nevus from his right cheek on November 1st.

We had his pre-op appointment on October 18th.  The day beforehand I got a phone call saying that the Chief Plastic surgeon, who we had seen before and schedule his surgery with 8 months ago was no longer with Children's Mercy but they had a new Chief who was taking over his cases.  Needless to say the pre-op appointment took a very long time as the doctor was running behind schedule.

The week before his surgery date Children's Mercy called and asked us to re-schedule his surgery for October 30th and to the downtown office instead of the South office.  We agreed to move up the date.

October 29th the hospital called with the information.  We had to be at the hospital at 12:30 p.m. and his scheduled surgery time was 2:00 p.m.  He could have solids until 1:30 a.m. the morning before and clear liquids until 10:30 that morning.

We made sure to give him a big snack before going to bed the night before and got him to drink quite a bit before 10:30 a.m.  He was such a trooper, he only asked for something once that day.

We got to Children's Mercy, checked in and made it to the same-day surgery area.  We went through the regular things like weight, height, blood pressure, etc.  They then had him change into a gown and robe with little socks.

We then began the wait.  The anethesiologist came in to ask questions and have Blake pick him smell for the sleepy medicine.  The life services person came in and talked with Blake about the surgery then we waited and waited and waited.  Thankfully I had brought my iPad, they had an iPad and we could walk around the lobby because Dr. Goldstein was nearly 2 hours late.  It was a long day!

They finally came and got us and we walked down to the surgery area and I told Blake good-bye and I loved him then watched him walk down bravely with the nurse.

His surgery lasted about an hour as expected.  Dr. Goldstein said that everything went perfectly.  He has stitches inside his cheeks but steri strips on the outside which is the best-case scenario.  We had to wait a bit after Dr. Goldstein talked with us until Blake was out of recovery.

When they called us to go see him he was all curled up on the gurney laying on his side with an IV in his arm.  They got us settled in the recovery room, took his blood pressure, took out his IV and gave him a Sprite.  They talked to us about what to expect and what we could and couldn't do and he ate some pretzels and we left.

Blake was extremel brave.  He never acted afraid or scared once.  We gave him some meds for about 24-36 hours and a couple of times after that but otherwise he's been med free and pain free.  We are so thankful that he feels great and this hasn't really bothered him at all.  We are also glad to have this behind us and move on.

Thanks everyone for your prayers as I'm sure it brought me peace through the entire process.

All dressed and ready to go!

Waiting patiently while playing on an iPad.

All done and recovering.  He had no side effects!

All ready to go home. He chose to ride in a wheelchair out to the car.  He had a bit of numbing medicine in his cheek which prevented him from smiling.

Several of our churches got together to support a "Barn Bash" which was held at a small hobby farm in Linwood, KS.  We had many options that night for entertainment but the kids decided on the barn bash.  It was a chilly evening so we bundled up, long underwear and all and had a great time. The kids loved all of the animals and kept on going back to them.  They also loved the bonfire and pumpkin bowling that happened later on in the evening.

We had another great time making memories.

Soon after our pumpkin patch outing it was time for jack-o-lanterns.  Travis ended up making one for work to enter into a contest and almost everyone in the family couldn't resist playing with the huge googly eyes.  His pumpkin got 1st place!

Travis was also the selected one by the kids to carve their pumpkins.  We cheated a bit and had patters and inserts for eyes but they turned out so cute!