Monday, December 25, 2006

Christmas Performances

Amid all the shopping, baking, wrapping and partying - there lies the all important Christmas pageants. My daughters are lucky enough to be involved in three this year. This has been a huge focus for them the last few weeks, with rehearsals, costumes, and much anticipation. I'm so thankful that it HAS been the focus for them, as each play centers around the true meaning of Christmas.

As Mary and the Angel Apprentice



In The Christmas Story puppet show (the puppets were a little freaky - they actually were paper mache' heads with real photos of the kids as the faces)



In the "Advent Story" the girls were shepherdesses.


Merry Christmas!

Friday, December 22, 2006

Deja Vu

Part of what I love about scrapbooking is the documenting. I like to take pictures and journal about things that I can later look back on and remember when it happened, how it happened and why it happened. Especially with my kids.

My youngest daughter has now visited our local hospital every three years - Nov. 2000 for her birth, Nov. 2003 for stitches to the chin and now Dec. 2006 for... stitches to the chin. The last two happened without me present, which is tough when your baby is hurt. The incident in 2003 involved leaning back in her kitchen chair while eating breakfast (see why teachers tell you NOT to do that!?!). I was in Central Oregon on a "girls weekend" then. Last night I was much more local, just out Christmas shopping. My husband had the girls at my brother's house and my daughter and her cousin of the same age decided to play a game involved running, diving on a pillow on the kitchen floor and sliding to see who could go the furthest (or something like that... the details are sketchy).

So I got the same phone call from my husband that I got 3 years ago... "Everything is fine, but I'm taking her to the hospital." I almost just KNEW it was her chin again. (My oldest daughter had the same injury 3-1/2 years ago, as have many other friends and family members. Just last night alone they had 5 chin injuries at the ER. It's the most common childhood injury, I believe). So I finished purchasing what I was buying, ran to a store to grab a stuffed animal kitty that I knew she had her eye on and made it to the ER while her chin was numbing. I've definitely been seasoned as a mom because when this happened with my oldest daughter 3-1/2 years ago, I couldn't watch them put the stitches in and I thought I was going to pass out the whole time. This time I sat close, holding my daughter's hands and watched (fascinating!) the doctor sew all 6 stitches into her 6-year old skin. She was brave (and so was I!)

Here are some photos of her chin at 3-years and her chin at 6-years old. The 3-year old pictures are in her album, telling the story. I put her hospital bracelet on that page, too. The new pictures will have their own page. Documented.

Here she is, age 3: She received "Simba" for her bravery...



Here she is, age: 6: She received this kitty (appropriately named "Stitchy") for her bravery...