Merry Christmas

I'm several days late with my Merry Christmas wishes, but I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Christmas! Ours was nice, the time went too fast, but it was very nice...

I took very few pictures as has become pretty common for Christmas morning, there's just too much going on.

Born in a manger,
The gift of God's love,
The priceless treasure from heaven above.
Our God is with us,
Emmanuel is near us ~
A humble manger stall holds the Lord of all. 
{part of a song the girls sang in Kid's Choir this Christmas}

"...we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him."
Matthew 2:2

Merry, Merry Christmas!

1 Down, Only 7 More to Go

It's going to be a Christmas break of losing lots of teeth for Alyssa! It has to be...unless she wants the dentist to pull out 8 teeth on January 9th.

We had an orthodontic consultation last night, and she has a few different issues going on, the first of which being that her baby teeth are not falling out. She lost her four front teeth on top and bottom at a relatively late age, and not many other teeth have come out since. I could tell her grown up teeth just haven't had any room to come in at all, let alone grow in straight, and now some of them are trying to grow in without the deciduous teeth being gone. Some of her molars seem a little loose when I help her floss, but not nearly to the point of falling out on their own. When the orthodontist explained they all need to go {immediately!} she thought he meant right then and there and she whimpered a weak "oh no" as her eyes filled up. He chuckled a little and told her he wouldn't pull all her teeth just a few days before Christmas because that wouldn't be a nice gift. So she has almost two weeks to figure out how to get them out on her own...Merry Christmas!!

Right after getting the news last night, she worked on the wiggliest molar and finally got it out after about a half hour. One down, only seven more to go! All she wants for Christmas is to lose some teeth...without the help of the dentist!

Level 5 State Gymnastics Meet

Emma had a good level 5 season this Fall. The first weekend in December was her state meet. All throughout the season her all around scores steadily improved, which is exactly the goal, so she was happy with that and we are very proud of her!

Here are just a few photos from state, I plan to put up the video of her routines, but I'm pretty realistic that I won't get around to that until well after Christmas, so here's a small peek ~



She did a great routine and got a 9.325 on floor, which is a pretty big score in level 5 compulsory. Who would have guessed that it would be 6th place? She's in a really competitive age group, it looked good enough for 1st place to me :-)

She loves, loves, LOVES the sport and is quite the consistent little competitor. It's fun, although a little nerve wracking to watch, I just love that she loves it!

A Weekend on the Town

Because I am always weeks behind posting what I'd like, these pics are not from this weekend that just passed, but rather a weekend about a month ago. It was a super fun and busy weekend that kicked off the Christmas season for us.

We started Friday night with a favorite school event, Laternennacht, or Lantern Night. As always it was a bit chilly, but so much fun! The lanterns always look so pretty as the kids parade through the park...

Alyssa was at her first school dance this night. It was just one of those dances where the kids go in a big group of friends, and there were no actual couples that attend together ~ just for the record :-).

She was so sweet about it actually. She came home that night and told me she was going to make a list of songs that she wanted me to listen to, so she could have approval to make them part of her music library. Apparently, she knew only 3 or 4 of the songs they played all night, and she only knew the chipmunks version of them. She has a music teacher at church who taught the kids that if they ever get lost singing one of the songs while they are on stage for kid's worship team, they should just mouth the words "watermelon juice" so it looks like they are singing something, until they find their place in the song. Poor thing was a dancing machine, mouthing watermelon juice all night! But she did it in style, you have my word on that!

The next morning, the two younger girls and I were invited by some friends to the women's Christmas Tea at church while Alyssa was busy with First Stage rehearsals. It was so nice with a beautiful Christmas message, and a much needed break. We were about two weeks into a pretty rigorous rehearsal schedule for Junie B. (which now that they are performing the show several times a week, has been one of the funnest experiences for Alyssa!!) and the girls needed to do something fun! We surprised Alyssa after the tea by picking her up and bringing her to see the play, "Don't Tell Me I Can't Fly!" She had been wanting to see it, but I didn't think we would have time. After it came highly recommended by a friend, I thought we would take Alyssa for an early birthday present, since she wanted so badly to see it. It was great!

When we got downtown, we had about an hour and a half before the show started and we walked around looking at all the Christmas decorations. It was a beautiful day, not too cold, and perfect for taking a walk. Sometimes I think I don't give Milwaukee enough credit for being a pretty neat city ~ it's nice, especially when all decked out for Christmas!

Can you believe this is sidewalk chalk art? The girls were impressed and tried copying the poses in the artwork.


We walked through Red Arrow Park, and at the time, it wasn't cold enough for the ice skating rink to be there yet, but just last weekend I walked past and it was full of ice skaters.

Why the glum face? She doesn't like wearing nylons, that's why, and we were well past her two hour limit by this point. She complained her toes were in pain.

Any pain she was feeling probably had nothing at all to do with the crazy running and jumping the girls were doing on the benches outside the Marcus Center.

Silliness, silliness followed by a series of pictures in which I can only make a guess as to what the girls are doing. There was a lot of singing, dancing and theatrics going on as they made the sidewalk their own personal stage.





If it weren't for Emma's perfect plie form, I'd be afraid to ask what they are doing here, lifting heavy watermelons maybe?

The afternoon was a perfect refreshment from a busy schedule of running from activity to activity! I love their energy, even if I can't always keep up. They are my sweet, crazy, little bunch!

The following day my parents came up to celebrate Alyssa's birthday. She chose to go to El Fuego ~ the girl likes her mexican food :-) It was fun and yummy. I missed getting photos of the girls with my parents and the birthday girl with Dave and myself. We had a gymnastics meet thrown into the mix of the weekend as well, so it was busy, but great. It definitely jump started our Christmas excitement!

Movember : Year 2

Around this time last year, I posted a few photos of Dave and some of the guys he works with who all participated in a "no shave November" to bring greater awareness to men's health issues.

It's becoming a fun Mercer tradition. I think between four Mercer offices they earned $7,000 to donate to the Movember Foundation which supports prostate cancer research. Dave had a few conversations with people who recognized his growing facial hair and assumed he was preparing to keep his face warmer on a hunting trip, so beyond any dollar amount they were able to donate, just the opportunity to explain what they were doing was hopefully in some small way beneficial and brought awareness to the cause.

Instead of just growing a mustache this year, Dave let his "full beard" grow out as well. He's never had that much facial hair as long as we've been married, probably ever, as he prefers to be clean shaven. I thought it looked pretty good! It was surprising, and even the girls (except Emma) liked it too :-)

Admiring Dad's facial hair, just minutes before it disappeared for good...or at least until next November...

Baby Christmas

I love seeing Christmas through the girls' eyes. With each of them there is something special about the Christmas season that really speaks to their hearts and just overflows out of them.

For Rebekah, every tiny detail of Christmas captivates her. It's the excitement of taking out our Christmas decorations and saying how pretty each one is as we unwrap it, bringing out the Christmas books and listening with eager anticipation like she has never heard the story before. Every new thing she sees is met with oooohs and aaaahs and sweet comments like, "This is the best Christmas ever!" She gets so excited over every little thing that Dave has started calling her Baby Christmas. I love her wonder and awe at the miracle of the season!

Sunday, while her sisters were otherwise occupied she and I baked cookies. She must have said twenty or thirty times how much fun she was having, as if she had never helped me in the kitchen before. The sweet and yummy outcome was lots and lots of sugar cookies. She was so proud of how they turned out!

She doesn't look excited to share her cookies at all, does she? In addition to this snowman, Rebekah made Emma quite happy with a special pink pig cookie too!

She came downstairs one morning in this get up. I thought she looked like a little sugar plum with all these tutus layered up her body.  And then she started singing this song below, I'm not familiar with it but I think it is something they have been singing in Sunday School, and she of course got shy as soon as the camera was turned on her...

On a rainy, dreary morning like today, she just melts my heart.

12 is a Very Glam Number

Happy Birthday, Sweet Alyssa!

12!


Wowie! Wow! WOW! {Alyssa ~ do you know who said this?}


I know I say this each time one of you celebrate a birthday, but really, where has the time gone?

You are at this very fun age of definitely not being a little kid, but also not being quite grown up either. You have some new found freedom this year with starting middle school and experiencing so much more independence than previous years, and I think you are handling it beautifully!

To our sweet birthday girl ~

and dreamer...

a creative, careful and gentle spirit...


a wonderful firstborn daughter, and big sister...


our resident drama queen extraordinaire...


and super star ~

Keep dreaming your big dreams! We love you so much and are very proud of you!!

Have a beautiful 12th Birthday!! I hope 12 is glamorous enough for all the cheetah print you have in store for it!

A Photo Explosion...

I was trying to figure out how to add a few words of text to a collage of four pictures I was putting together when I click, click, clicked and this happened...

I have no idea how it happened and it looks like just about every photo in my November folder. Now, I know you can't see any of them all that well, but to me, because I know what's going on, it was a rather fun, although overwhelming summary of our month thus far. The photos that I was playing around with were from this past weekend, and I'll try to post them later in the week. Right now, I'm trying to get everything ready for a special birthday we are celebrating tomorrow :-)

Es Schneite!

Yesterday afternoon in Rebekah's classroom, the kids suddenly ran to the window, their tiny voices calling out, "Es schneite, es schneite!" as they marveled at the first snowfall of the year. Rebekah marched out to the hallway where I was helping kids paint a turkey handprint, and as if I needed a translator, she said, "Es scheite! Mommy, it's snowing." Now usually the translation is very helpful, but it was pretty clear what the kids were so excited about in this case. It only lasted a few minutes, but check out what is going on right outside my window as I type this...

Hopefully like yesterday this will be just a short little flurry. I'm not sure that I'm ready for all the cold quite yet! Missing hats and soggy boots, mittens and scarves all over the place ~ yuck.


Some very welcomed visitors in our yard:

During Fall and Winter we often have a family, or a few families of deer that make their way through our neighborhood. We were happy to see them return a couple of weekends ago.



Rebekah promptly scared them off into the bushes on the side of our yard trying to alert Dave of their presence. But we're so glad they're back and hope they stick around for the Winter. It's a very peaceful thing to sit and enjoy a morning cup of coffee while watching the deer in the yard!

Our Growing Gecko

Last weekend, Dave and his sister were talking on the phone about our gecko, Banana Lemon Mulch Big Bad Bob, so I thought I would try to get some better pictures of him. We keep referring to the gecko as a "he" but we won't actually know for a few more months whether it is a girl or a boy. Dave is excited that it seems to be growing, which suggests he is adjusting to his new habitat nicely.

Isn't he cute?! The girls love that they chose the name Banana for him and he likes eating banana baby food off a toothpick!! It's kinda funny and cute to see the little guy lick his entire eyeball with one swoop of his tongue, and he likes my hair ~ he's taken a flying leap into it twice.

We have been trying really hard not to frighten Banana as we pick him up, because when crested geckos feel threatened, they are known to snap off their tails as a defense mechanism, and if this happens it won't grow back. We are trying to avoid that, so the girls are learning valuable lessons in the care of a delicate pet. Banana has been cooperating with letting the girls hold him more and more, but he does get a little jumpy after a few minutes. He seems to be shedding his skin some too, which is a good indication that Dave is right, and he is growing.

Anyway, this is unrelated, but I was so proud of Emma the other day. After school, she and Rebekah were playing tag with four boys in Emma's grade, and Rebekah was IT. She was in ambitious pursuit of two of the boys when they ran under the tot lot bridge and split up, going opposite directions. Rebekah froze under the bridge as if she didn't know which boy to run after. Just as she looked like she was done with the game, Emma ran to the stairs of the bridge, stuck her foot through the railing and called out, "Here, Rebekah, I'll get 'em!"

Rebekah tagged Emma and the game was on again.

I've thought about the brief scene several times since I was watching them play that day last week. I can't get over the feeling of hoping that things will always be that way between them. When one needs help, the other will jump in and eagerly offer it. Now I'm not trying to read too much into a simple exchange, in all honesty, it wasn't really that sacrificial on Emma's part. The boys didn't stand a chance against her. She knows it, and they know it too, which is why they invite her to play with them :-) But it sure blessed my heart to see her run to Rebekah's defense!

Apple Orchard

I love going on school field trips with the girls! It's sometimes exhausting, as this day at the apple orchard was, but always worth it!



Maybe it's just the excitement of being out of the classroom, but I always see a wilder, crazier bunch of kids when we leave school. It's fun!

Today at the apple orchard, we learned about apples, Johnny Appleseed, honey bees, pumpkins, and we were able to pick several different kinds of apples to bring home. Yum!



Peeking at me through the tree as she picks out the best apples! She was so excited.



So proud of her beautiful apples, we baked cinnamon apples for dessert that night and Rebekah was so happy with her contribution to the meal.



A happy group of victorious apple pickers.

Choosing her tiny pumpkin from the garden. The smile Rebekah is showing here she inherited from my mom's side of the family. Pencil thin lips that all but disappear when we smile big is completely a Currie trait.



These chilly little faces don't look like they are up to trouble, do they? Well about five minutes later I discovered they had the idea up their sleeves about how they might lose their chaperone for the day.



It all started with me taking this photo above, thinking they looked so cute with the corn towering high over head...

Which led to this ~ all four girls giggling and running away from me in the corn maze. I loved this picture because Rebekah is airborne as she happily leaps and runs after Sophie. And if you've never chased four little kids frantically through a corn maze ~ you should give it a try. It's a good time, and an even better workout (especially if you happen to be carrying loads of apples and a very heavy camera around your neck).

A cute little daisy at the end of a long, but fruitful day.