Josh and the 23rd Psalm

Daddy was working REALLY hard with Josh.

He wanted Josh to start memorizing Bible verses.

So he starts with the easists of them all.....the 23rd Psalm!

Josh knows it, but he's super shy.  

So I videoed him in front of the Christmas tree saying it.

Merry Christmas!

Best Time of the Year My Butt.....

Everyone knows that famous Christmas song by Burl Ives.

You know the one.

"Have a holly, jolly Christmas.  It's the best time of the year!"

I'm callin' horse crap on that.

Today, restraint was practiced by the adults in the house .......


Did you know that you cannot shop-vac saw dust out of a little girls' hair? (Yes, I really did vacuum her hair.)

Did you know that it creates rats?  (Lots of them.)

Did you know that child abuse is ILLEGAL?

Did ya?!

Did you  also know that it's IMPOSSIBLE to shop-vac every piece of saw dust strung from here to eternity? 

Did ya?!

Did ya, huh?!?!??!

Ya see.....we're trying to finish our basement and the hubby has been framing the downstairs.

Framing involves wood.  

Wood makes dust.

Josh takes dust from 30 gallon trash can (was about 1/4-1/2 full of said saw dust) and decides that his innocent little sister reading a book on the couch is a great target.

Saw dust from here (and everywhere) to there.

Crying little girl.

Punished little boy.

Baffled parents.

Best time of the year my big wide, white butt!

Shove it, Burl!

Happy Thanksgiving!

This year, Chad has the pleasure of working on the 2 major holidays: Thanksgiving and Christmas.

So.......

We take our party to the station.

But first, we had to make pies.

I love making pies.

I decided to try the Pioneer Woman's pie crust recipe.  (Cuz my last one using butter turned out HORRIBLE!)

And it wasn't too bad!  It was very soft and hard to work with, but it tasted fine.

And Josh thought so too!

I'll be honked if that kid doesn't like raw pie dough.  He won't touch anything new without a decree from congress, but he'll swipe raw pie dough.

Go figure.

All of the sudden I'll have rolled out the dough, put it in the pie tin, be ready to form the crust, turn around....

and WHAMMO!

Pie crust swiper took a chuck out of it.

But....I got to use Granny Heffel's pumpkin pie dish (with lid) and that made me happy.

I also tried to make Pecan Pie (used the PW's recipe) and it turned out great!  

(Or that's what I hear.  I didn't even get a piece of it!!)

We had so much fun at the Fire Station.  

And I think a large part of it was my attitude.

Before you go all "DUH Shell" on me, know that is hard for me.

I was missing out on my family's big celebration in Oklahoma and missing the family, with only 2 children to talk to.  I really tried to make the most of it and celebrate with a happy heart.  

And wouldn't ya know....it worked!

Anyway, back to the station.....

It's got 5 men there that all dress the same (like Daddy) and poor Macey walked up to at least 2 of them while they were turned around and called them Daddy.  Then they turned around to face her and she turned white a ghost.  

And sometimes, okay ALL THE TIME, at the station, you have to make your own fun.

Like.....running on the treadmill, playing basketball inside, seeing the trucks, rowing the rescue boat, wheely chair races (like office chairs), etc.

Here are some pics from the races:

Macey never really did ride in a chair.  She just ran and chased them.

 And then Daddy started to really win, Josh didn't like that, and tried to hold him back. 

Dads-always there to bring ya down to reality....

And Josh ran into that door a couple of times.

We finally had to shut it.  Then he just hit the trucks.  

Then in the station that Chad is at now, there's an upper floor too.  

And then there was also entertainment outside!

At first, we thought it was a trick.  

Doesn't it look fake?

But then look at it's hind leg.  It's broke.  It hobbled back in to the drain.

Then the kids (big one too) sat on the fire truck and roared at it.

I made sure that the kids (at least Josh) ran on the treadmill before we left to burn some energy.

And of course there was lots of Daddy time.

And we played a little basketball.

Well, 2 of them did while the third one jumped down the row on the floor drain.

But that's the name of the game:

"Make your own fun or go home."

We had a great day!