Progress Report Update

If you read my blog much you may have already read this. I am happy to say, no I am beyond happy, I am utterly thrilled to say that Jason's grades have dramatically improved in the past four weeks. He no longer has any D's or F's!! He is officially a C student with the exception of one B and an A+. I have never been so happy to see C's! He is no longer getting in trouble for talking, and he has been turning in every assignment. In fact, his teacher said she is very impressed by his new attitude and is very proud him. She also said he will be in the advanced math group after break. Congratulations Jason, your hard work paid off. I am very very proud of you and your effort and you have earned back your video game privileges!!

Christmas Performance

Tonight the boys had their Christmas concert. Sadly, Mike had to work so he missed it. We got there early since I knew it would be tough to find a seat with room for the stroller. James was an angel all the way up to performance time. As soon as it started, all he wanted was the camera, the keys, the hair that belonged to the lady next to me, or to be on the nasty floor. He got all that he wished for. Except for the lady's hair. The few times when he was happy in his stroller, he kept honking the horn on his steering wheel which got us lots of attention. Here they are in all their cuteness. Lucky for you, you get to see the highlights of the performances without having to sit on a really hard bleacher with some lady's knees in your back.

Rainy Day

Today it rained.

A rare all day rain. A cold rain. A welcomed rain.

My husband went to work

Me and Mr James sat outside all bundled up and watched the rain.

We saw our breath.

Our teeth chattered.

We went inside.

The boys came home from school and Marcus opened a belated birthday present from Grandma Lu and Grandpa Bob.

He was happy.

They were cold.

We ate sugar cookies and drank hot chocolate.

The kids got wild.

They played indoor basketball and wrestled.

I read a book.

We watched Merry Christmas Charlie Brown.

We love rainy days.

My Collection

I'm not much of a collector. I like the idea of it but I haven't found a special something I would really love to have a lot of... besides books and Coach bags of course. The boys have some collections. Jason collects cool rocks and models cars that he puts together, and Nathan has a geode collection. My mom collects old family driver's licenses, and Sarah collects gargoyles. The only collection I have is my Santa pictures. Every year we get the boys' picture taken in the mall with Santa. We have waited hours before to get these pictures because I just can't not have one! This has sort of become Mike's Christmas present to me. Now the tradition has become, I stay home and enjoy a couple hours of blissful peace and quiet, while Mike takes the boys to the mall. I know I know, yes he is the best husband ever. So here they are, starting with the picture that started it all, way back in 1997.


In my opinion, this is the creepiest
Santa of the bunch.

Second creepiest

Jason was trying to escape and
Nathan had funny bangs.

Jason looks so shy here.

I was forbidden by my ex husband
to cut Nathan's hair.

This is my favorite.
Marcus was only one week old.

I love Nathan's smile in this one

He is pointing right at me.
Doesn't Santa look happy!

My favorite Santa

Marcus had funny big hair

At first glance, it kinda looks like a
giant green hat behind them.

Santa's lap is getting crowded!

James met Santa this year and I heard all he wanted to do was to play with Santa's furry coat and funny white beard.

The boys always ask Santa for the thing they want more than anything. This year Jason asked for a new book, Nathan asked for a skateboard, and Marcus asked for Bakugan, it's a game, I googled it. James didn't ask for anything, he was too intrigued by Santa's furry coat.

Hopefully Santa thinks they have been nice this year!

Saturday Part 2

The second half of our Saturday was dedicated to creating sugar masterpieces. I was in charge of baking the clean canvases and the boys were in charge of painting them. If I have ever cooked for you then you probably know that I am a horrible recipe follower, I always manage to forget or mismeasure an ingredient. One time while making chili, I added an entire half cup of paprika instead of chili powder. Oops. Well anyway, this time I didn't forget anything! I didn't even burn any!
Side note- If you decide to make sugar cookies, don't roll them out on your wood table. It won't work.



The boys loved to decorate. They were very creative with their decorations. Just about every cookie Jason and Nathan made had a large handful of sprinkles, because of course everything is better with sprinkles. Marcus usually went very light with the frosting on his cookies. Jason and Marcus got a little tired of it after the 100th cookie and pretty soon they would just line up their cookies, and slather paint across all four.



If you look closely at Nathan in this picture, you will notice it looks like he has a gumball on the side of his mouth. This is no gumball. This would be the broccoli we made him eat for dinner. This picture was taken about 40 minutes after dinner! He always does this.



We even got Mike to showcase his artistic talents. He is actually a pro at cookie painting. Marcus is stealing a lick of the frosting. He kept getting the frosting all over his sleeves so shortly after this picture, he was decorating topless.

Here are the special cookies Mike decorated for me. I don't know if he actually made them for me, but I already claimed them as mine.

Marcus working hard

Merry Christmas from the photographer and her assistant!

Saturday Part 1

I wish I could start today all over again. It was a day dedicated to fun. We started by going to the AZ Broadway Theatre to see a play called The Elves and the Shoemaker. I LOVE plays, symphonies, Broadway shows, marching bands, or anything else related, so I was super pumped to take the boys. Last night I went online to get directions from their website and happened to notice this...

Our Dress Code
Appropriate attire for the Arizona Broadway Theatre ranges from "business casual" to as formal as you like. Please no ball caps, tennis shoes, shorts, jeans, t-shirts or workout apparel.

I got a little concerned because that last line single handedly eliminated the boys entire wardrobe. I didn't want to be the underdressed ghetto family at the show! After reading this I wasn't quite as excited about the show and didn't sleep too well. When I woke up I decided we were going anyway, ghetto or not. I put the boys in sweaters, jeans (without holes), and their school tennis shoes- their options were play tennis shoes, school tennis shoes, or flip flops- and hoped that we wouldn't be kicked out of the theatre. We drove down there and as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, I noticed we weren't the only ones breaking the no jeans rule. I felt better. When we got inside I was excited to see that not only were there people in jeans and sneakers, I saw two people wearing tye dye shirts, one very large masculine lady wearing a t shirt with the sleeves cut off and work boots, and one person wearing one of those old 80's shirts where the arm sleeves had a bunch of slits with beads on the end!

Needless to say, we weren't kicked out. I loved the show and I am pretty sure the boys did too.

I illegally snuck this picture of the stage with Marcus' head making an appearance as well.


I'll be posting about the rest of our day tomorrow!!

Holiday Music

I am definitely a big fan of Christmas music. Ever since the day after Thanksgiving, the radio station has been dialed into 99.9 for the 24/7 Christmas tunes. The only time the station changes is when I am in the van with Mike and he can't stand to listen to it anymore. My favorite song is definitely Carol of the Bells, especially if I get to hear it live.

Tonight I took a poll during dinner of everyone's favorite Christmas song. Here's what they said. Mike's favorite is that Adam Sandler song, you know, that Chanukah song. Jason is undecided but he really likes Silent Night. Nathan likes Carol of the Bells too, and Marcus likes Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. I'm curious, what is your favorite Christmas song? Leave me a comment and let me know, I promise I won't judge. I like them all.

6:22 AM

Shower Night

There is nothing more horrible to my children than the dreaded shower night. I require that they bathe every other night and to them even this is such an injustice. It always starts with me saying "it's shower night, who wants to go first?" I'm not sure why I ever bother to ask this question, no one ever volunteers. Then I usually I ask "who's turn is it to go first?". Another silly question that I really should never ask because everyone is sure they went first last time and it would be a terrible crime for them to go first twice in a row. I usually try to plead with them saying "you all have to take a shower in the next hour anyway, why does it matter who goes first?", which always falls on deaf ears. Next I usually try to volunteer someone. Tonight it was Marcus, here's how that went.

Me: Marcus, time to get in the shower.
Marcus (falling into a puddle on the floor): But mom! I hate showers!
Me: Don't you want to be nice and clean?
Marcus (scowling at me): I hate being clean
Me: If you don't get clean then you will be all stinky
Marcus: Well if I am stinky, at least Allison won't give me a hug at school tomorrow.
Me: *Sigh*
Marcus: Plus, it's Jason's turn to go first.

This strategy does work on occasion but tonight I wasn't swaying anyone. I used to have them pick a number between one and ten, whoever got the closest had to go first. This worked until Jason and Nathan figured out that you just have to pick one or ten and then it would be Marcus that usually went first. So now we are down to drawing straws or doing rock, paper, scissors. Tonight they drew toothpicks and Nathan "lost". He plead that it wasn't fair since he didn't get to pick a toothpick. Jason and Marcus had chosen their toothpicks first and second and Nathan got the last one. I wasn't hearing it. I sent him to the shower with tears streaming down his cheeks.