Merry Christmas

We had a great day with Papaw Sonny today.  He came down to spend the day with us and bring the kids their presents.  It's the first time since Mark and I have been together that we have not all gotten together either before or after Christmas.  Stephen, Carla, and the boys are in Vancouver for Christmas so we had to change things up this year.  Luckily, we were able to spend Thanksgiving together and see everyone.

The kids were so excited that they wouldn't even get dressed.  Cooper told me that he didn't have to be dressed to open presents.  Guess he has a point, although SpongeBob pj's are not what I would have picked for pictures....

PaPaw brought too many presents and my kids must have asked a thousand times if they could open them while I was cooking lunch.  We finally gave in and let them have at it.  Cooper especially loved his laser remote control trucks!  Kam loved her Barbie Video Girl and had a good time making videos of everyone.

Cooper pretty much crawled all over Papaw all afternoon long and begged to play the Wii.  Is there a Wii addiction support group?  Because he is seriously addicted!  And before you think bad of me, he is limited as to how much he can play, but it's Christmas vacation so we've let him play a little more than normal. 

Cooper did NOT want Papaw to leave and begged him to stay!  HInt, hint Papaw...next time-spend the night!

We were going to go see the Christmas lights at Garvan tonight but I couldn't talk anyone into actually getting ready to go.  I think everyone is pooped--especially Cooper!!  Guess we'll see them after Christmas.

Hope your Christmas is blessed!   Take time to remember the true "reason for the season!"

Sunday Morning Brawl

The kids in their Christmas clothes before church Sunday morning...  I took more pictures of Kam "posing" but couldn't get them to go upright on here.  So this will have to do.  Obviously, I didn't coordinate their colors this year!

 The kids choir sang at church on Sunday morning and I was watching Cooper up there thinking how handsome and cute he looked when he began shoving Bo, the boy next to him.  It started out cute and I wasn't alarmed at first because I thought surely someone would get his attention and tell him to stop.  I was wrong.  Cooper began shoving and then I began shoving Mark to go up there and get him....Mark didn't think it was that bad but obviously he couldn't see everything.  When Bo hit the floor, I jumped up to go get him.  He set with me for a minute and then walked back up there and begin clowning again.  This is a new side of Cooper that I'm starting to see!  Afterwards, Mark said he probably needed to go apologize to Bo's parents.  Uh, yeah!!  Sorry Wendy and David!!! 

Back to the Manger

The kids at church had another musical on Sunday night entitled "Back to the Manger."  Kam was Mary in this one.   She would not let me drape another piece of fabric around her neck or wear a headband to keep the head dress on.  I knew it would never stay on...

I'm not sure Kam sang as much during this musical as Wednesday night's.  This was the first time the kids used books to sing out of and she spent most of her time flipping pages and punching the girl next to her to see what page they were on.  It was priceless!

Shepherds and wisemen....

I was right!  The head dress didn't stay on past the first song when Kam walked down to the second row to hand it to me...after coming down once before for me to adjust it!

Mary, Joseph, and the wisemen...

The kids have the most awesome choir director, Mrs. Linda, who has worked so hard with them this year to pull off two Christmas programs.  Kam loves to sing and I think a lot of that is because of Mrs. Linda.  So proud of all the Caney Kids for the awesome programs this year!

Cooper's Christmas Party

Cooper's Christmas party was on Friday morning.  The kids sang lots of cute songs and read Chrismas stories.  Here he is shaking his jingle bells enthusiastically....

He didn't sing as much this time.  I think he did that just to bother me....

The mom who made these is way more talented than I am!  Sad thing is that a lot of them got thrown in the trash right afterwards.  I hate to see a good cupcake go to waste!

One of the girls passing out her treat bags....  Cooper's class is a little "treat bag" crazy!  You wouldn't believe how much stuff he comes home with!

Cooper and his best buddy, Cade....

Cade's mom told me that Cade says some silly things and says that he learns them from Cooper... Somehow I knew she was going to say that!!



Kam's Kindergarten Christmas Party

Kam's class had their Christmas party on Thursday and it was a lot of fun.  It's the first party her class has had this year, which is a change from Mae's where we partied at every holiday. 

Kam was super excited that Mark was able to make it.  She hung all over him (and so did her friend sitting next to her).  The kids loved watching themselves on the smartboard.  That's Kam at the front of the line at their recent fieldtrip to the Christmas Tree farm.  She was so excited to ride on the school bus!

The kids had a stocking full of goodies.  I swear that it took her ten minutes to go through it...

Silly sunglasses....

Looking at Kam's hair in these pictures just drives me crazy!  I don't know what to do about it.  She will not wear it any way except down with a headband.  I'm still trying to figure out why.  I told her that all her Mimi (it really drives her crazy!) and I want for Christmas is for her to fix her hair!  I'm not holding my breath...

This is Kam's "boyfriend" Landon that she always talks about.  He sits right beside her and I must say that he is super cute! 

This is a terrible picture of me but I don't have that many of me and Kam together because I'm always the one taking them....

One last hug from Daddy before he goes back to work....

Luckily, the kids had recess after their party and were able to run some of that sugar off.  You would not believe the amount of food those kids had on their plates.  Everything had to be offered and they were eager to try it all!  I think they all went home with doggie bags full of sweets!!

Caney Kids Awana Christmas Program

 

The kids had their AWANA Christmas program last night and it was quite entertaining!!  My friend Sherri posted this on Facebook:  "Just left a great Christmas program by the Caney Kids...complete with a fuss for a microphone, highly mobile angels and shooting stars...it was perfect!  Proud to be raising 2 Caney Kids"  Ummm, let's see.... the Chastain kids fit into all of those descriptions last night.  But I couldn't agree more!!!  These are the moments that we won't forget.

Here is a little video of Cooper and Kayleigh fussing over a microphone.  I began taking pictures and quickly realized that I needed to switch to video... it's a little dark but you can make Cooper out.  The real struggle over the microphone begins about halfway through the video.

Santa Comes to Fun Time

Santa made a stop at Fun Time today to visit Cooper's class.  Looks like he had their full attention!

Santa must have said something funny!  This picture just reminds me how far we've come... This is probably the first year that Cooper has willingly gone to sit on Santa's lap.   I can just hear him telling Santa that he wants an "exercise Wii" for Christmas!

Santa and Mrs. Kristi's class....

This picture just cracks me up because all three boys (who are way out numbered!) are not looking at the camera.  As a matter of fact, Cooper looks like he's up to something!  I can't wait to pick him today and hear all about Santa's visit.   HO! HO! HO!

The Stockings Were Hung....

The stockings were hung on the entertainment center with care....

I'm not joking.....it took me (and Mark both!) a long time to get those stocking holders arranged in just the perfect spot with all that garland and mesh.  They kept wanting to fall off and I don't know why because they are really heavy....

Just ask Cooper.  Two weeks ago, he reached up to see his name on his stocking and took a nasty blow to the head...

Bless his heart, he came up saying "I sorry, Mommy!"  I think he knew how hard we worked on those.... but the blood running down his forehead sent me into a panic and I wasn't really worried about my decorations.  A little ice did the trick and he was ok.... but I did wonder for a minute if he was going to need a stitch.

So when Kamdyn bumped another one on Sunday and took a blow to the nose, I didn't panic as much this time.  But, oh Lord, she did! Everyone was there because we were taking mom and dad's picture with the grands.... I think she ran into her room screaming and Brian finally ending up in there talking to her. She didn't want to go to choir practice later on because she was afraid that everyone would see and ask her what happened, which they did!

I fully expected her nose to be black and blue the next day.  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but it is noticable for sure.  She keeps telling everyone a present fell on her.  I'm thinking that I need to add a "proceed at your own risk" sign to my display. 

Memory

I got this email from Kam's teacher this afternoon and I had to chuckle to myself when I read it....

"Just got the biggest kick listening to Kamdyn lay down the law to play her Memory game….” No. 1 you have to take turns…no. 2 you don’t peek (she’s demonstrating with her fingers as well) no. 3 you have to keep them straight and no. 4 it’s the most important you keep them straight”…..funny funny funny"

I think this is probably my fault.  It drives me crazy to play games with her when she's kicking all the cards and pieces around the floor with her feet.   I'm glad to know she was finally listening to something I said!!

Go Panthers!

My brother and Uncle Ronnie are one game away from making it to the state high school championship finals at War Memorial Stadium next week!  But they have to make it past the Magazine Rattlers tonight.... I am beginning to get really nervous already!

Good luck tonight, Panthers! 

Starvin Marvin's

Cooper loves breakfast.  Always has.  His feet hit the floor every morning and he asks "we eat breakfast?"  I call him my farmer boy because he's an early riser and he eats like a farm boy.  It's no surprise that we sometimes have a hard time getting him to eat later in the day.

We were later than normal eating breakfast last week in Branson so Cooper was really starving by the time we made it to eat at Starvin Marvin's.  It's our new (old) favorite place to eat breakfast in Branson now.

 As you can tell, he rolled his sleeves up and literally dug in!!!  I had to laugh as I watched him across the table.  Notice he is wearing a "flap jack shack" shirt that I bought him this summer because he loves pancakes so much! 

Day two back at Marvin's and once again he has his sleeves rolled up and killing some pancakes and eggs.  I believe he ate six large pancakes and scrambled eggs.  I'm not sure he ate anything else the rest of the day.  Trust me when I say that we got our $3.99 worth on him!!