FAMILY NIGHT GINGER BREAD HOUSE!

KALLI AND TAREK HARD AT WORK

For family night this week, the kids have been begging to put together the Ginger Bread house that they had bought from the store when they went shopping with Dan's mom. We only had one house, so we decided that we would each take a side. It is quite amusing to see the differences in personalities by how their side is decorated. Now I just have to deal with the kids wanted to eat the house and candy ALL THE TIME! Oh well, we had a great time working together as a family and getting to spend time together.

TAREK'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

KALLI'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

MY SIDE OF THE HOUSE

DAN'S SIDE OF THE HOUSE

We hope you all have a HAPPY THANKSGIVING this week!

X-BOX OR WII

This weekend I had Dan and his Dad rearrange some of my furniture in order to make things a little more comfortable and convenient. Well in the process, Dan's old X-box ended up in my front room. We have not hardly played the X-box since Tarek was born as we got a Nintendo Wii a few years ago, and that is what was hooked to the TV. Tarek thinks the X-box in now the greatest thing ever, only he has not figured out how to work the controllers and thinks you still have to use movement like you do with the Wii. It is really quite funny to watch him play and work up a sweat!

LOCKS OF LOVE; LOTS OF FOOD!

Kalli has been asking to get her hair cut for several weeks, and I kept on putting her off. Finally, I got around to calling and making an appointment for both of us to go in and get our hair cut. She was so excited and had decided that she wanted to cut her hair short in order to donate her hair to Locks of Love.

She was really brave and the hair cut turned out so cute! I think that it makes her look a lot older than she did. It will also be easier for her to take care of in the morning, as I am not usually up and about as she gets ready for school.

My in-laws also came up to visit for the day on Friday. My father-in-law was busy hunting for a moose with Dan's brother and his wife (which they had great success at). So my mother-in-law took my kids after Kalli got home from school, shopping for our Christmas present. She has always felt like they should give gifts that are useful and needed. So since food storage is really being pushed lately, she decided they would help us get some food storage, but not the basics. She wanted to get things that my kids would actually eat and that we could use the next year. She was very brave and took both Kalli and Tarek shopping without us. I than understand that they basically got to go on a huge shopping spree through the store and pick out foods that they would actually eat. They ended up filling two shopping carts FULL, three after they were bagged. When asked how she managed that she said Kalli pushed a cart and she pushed and pulled the other two with Tarek riding. (CRAZY! I dread having to go shopping alone with just Tarek!) To my amazement, they actually came home with some good food! Granted there were a few luxury items included (A ginger bread house kit), but most of the food was fairly healthy and food that they both actually like. All of this was really great, until I got home and was informed that I was now responsible to find somewhere to put all of the food! I can now say that the shelves in our storage room are now officially FULL! Tarek was really proud of the Cheetos's that Grandma let him buy, as mom never lets him get them cause they are so MESSY! We than met up with the rest of Dan's family and went out to dinner for my birthday. Thanks to all those that called or wrote to wish me well, I had a really good day and received some very special gifts from my kids. Kalli made me a box that she covered in words that reminded her of me, and Tarek gave me an envelope full of paper he had colored and than cut into strips. I love the homemade gifts and the thought that I know they put into them. What a great family I have!

TWO POINTS, STOMACH BUG AND ONE SILLY LITTLE BOY!

I haven't had much this week to blog about. Not much has happened in our little house. Kalli had a basketball game on Saturday, and she scored her first basket! She was so excited she was bouncing all over the floor. Since it was her first basket we took the kids out for ice cream cones.
There has been a stomach bug going around our house, and a three year old with an upset stomach is really not very fun! I had thought Tarek was over the bug and he had been fine for about two days, my mom and Brooke called to see if we wanted to go to McDonald's for lunch and let the boys play on the toys. Just after we got our order and were sitting down, I told Tarek to come over and eat his food, he walked over to the table and proceeded to lose everything he had eaten earlier that day. It was such a mess and of course the place was full of people and other kids. As we were getting into the car Tarek said to me "Good thing I didn't throw up on my food huh mom!" What a thought full little boy. Hopefully we have gotten over it now and can get back to normal lives.
I have been told that you should write down the funny or silly things that your kids do when they are little in order to remember them when they get older. I have never been good at doing that, but maybe now would be a good time to start. Today was Sunday and we had just gotten to church and Tarek was complaining about being hungry. In order to get him to be quite at least until the sacrament, I gave him a piece of gum. Well, he settled down and was fine until the sacrament began to be passed. Dan told Tarek to come and give me the gum to throw away. He was not to happy with that and let Dan know that he was not done with it. So Dan explained to him that he would need to put it into his cheek on one side of his mouth while chewing the bread on the other. I look over just as Tarek is taking the sacrament and he has his bright yellow piece of gum stuck to the outside of his cheek! The family behind us, of course, found this to be rather entertaining. He was just excited that at the end he still had his gum! What a cute kid!

SOCCER, BASKETBALL AND TRAINS!

Two weeks ago Kalli finished playing fall soccer. We were glad when it ended as the games were starting to get REALLY COLD!She loves playing soccer and has really improved over the last year. She got to be on a team with Kaydra (Brooke's daughter) and Madison (my cousin Justin's daughter) and than Madison's mom Lisa was the coach. Lisa did such a good job with the kids and they always seemed to be having fun with the sport. Kalli than was asked to join a basketball team for second and third graders with another girl from the neighborhood. She was really excited and has wanted to try out basketball for awhile. She got quite a surprise when she got to practice and was a good three inches shorter than the next tallest kid on her team, and also that the league is co-ed. Today they played a team with a few boys on it and one of the boys was HUGE! Kalli did not even come up to his shoulders! She was a little overwhelmed the first game, but has started to figure out a few things and is catching on quickly. She is always willing to listen to her coach and is trying hard.

Tarek has discovered a train set that use to belong to Kalli. He has played with it before but always on tracks that Dan has set up. Now he has figured out how to make the tracks himself. The last few days, all he has wanted to do was to build new tracks for the trains. It is funny to watch how concentrated he gets while hooking pieces together. Any time Dan tries to give input Tarek lets him know that is not the way he wants it. He spent at least two hours today making a track that covers most of the floor in our TV room. I guess at least he is keeping himself busy!