Luke brought this list of sentences home from school he wrote last week using his spelling words. I thought what he wrote for the first sentence was so sweet I had to take a picture to remember it :). I love little rewards for being a parent like this. All of the things he wrote were really cute.

Christmastime is here!

I wasn't able to do any decorating for Christmas this year since I am still on bed rest, but Cory and the kids did a great job taking over! Here they are decorating the tree. The house looks great and very Christmasy! 

Milly got groomed and we decided she looks just like Clarice from the Rudolph movie. 

We bought this blow up Santa to go out in the yard. The other night Cory decided to blow it up inside to test it out and make sure we wanted to keep it. It was enormous! It just kept getting bigger and bigger. We were laughing so hard. The picture really doesn't do it justice. 

Luke loves the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas. It's his new favorite and he's watched it over and over and over. He loves the music too (he's recording the "This is Halloween" song here on the phone so he can watch it anytime). We were kind of hoping he would be done with it by Christmastime (he's been watching it since Halloween) because it is a little creepy and we'd rather be watching cozy Christmas shows, but he's still on it full board!

While Cory and Halle were at the Jazz game the other night Luke and I had some "Mommy/Lukey time" as he calls it. We started out watching Nightmare Before Christmas but then I talked him into trying another Christmas movie so we watched Miracle on 34th street. We cuddled up and drank hot chocolate and watched the movie. It was a fun night!

Thanksgiving

We had a good Thanksgiving! We ate at Grandma Lori and Grandpa Sheldon's house. It was my first time going somewhere other than a doctor appt in six weeks! We had a nice, small dinner.  The kids had a sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house afterward. 

As you can see in the background, the kids did lots of fun Thanksgiving art projects this year. 

Grandpa telling the story if the five kernels of corn. 

Thanksgiving projects

Luke did some cute thanksgiving projects at school. These were two of my favorites he brought home. 

Thankful turkey. Each feather says something he is thankful for. He said: Dad, family, Luke, Ms. M (his Chinese teacher), Mom, Mrs. C (his English teacher). 

I thought this menu of what foods he would like on a thanksgiving menu was cute. He loves blueberries and raspberries so I think that's where the cranberries come from. 

Best buds

I've been meaning to post this pic of Luke and Brennan on Halloween. They had fun trick or treating together. 

A couple days later Luke went with the Daws and had his first experience being politically involved! He helped them wave signs for a family member who was running. They had fun!

Learning Chinese

Luke is in a Chinese immersion class in school this year. This means that half of his day he has an English teacher and they speak all English, and the other half of the day they have a Chinese teacher and she only speaks Chinese to them. They are learning so much already and Luke really likes it! He speaks phrases, words and songs all the time at home that he is learning and says that Chinese class is really fun. Both his teachers are really good and he likes his Chinese teacher a lot so I know that's a big part of why he likes it, but I also think he is really smart and he likes learning new things and being challenged. If he decides he wants to continue the Chinese program he can do it all through elementary school, which would be bear, he'd become a really good Chinese speaker! And if Halle does it they say they will have their own secret launguage. 

He brought home this assignment they did in class the other day and I thought it was really good. The symbols he draws look so good and the corresponding pictures he drew inside are cute. Very nice work, Luke! 

32 weeks!

Today I am 32 weeks along!!! 32 weeks was my doctor's goal for me when I was put on bed rest five weeks ago. Now every day we make it further is a bonus. This has been my view from the couch for the past five weeks, usually being cuddled by one of the kids, Milly, or all 3. So grateful we've made it this far!!!