Chinese New Year Program

Jenna participated in a Chinese New Year program last month at school. Each grade did a song and one of the teachers did a power point about the different animals that make up the Chinese calendar. Toward the beginning of it, the school went on lock down. I guess the police came in and had them lock down because they were chasing somebody and didn't want him to enter the school. At the time, it was kind of scary, but I was impressed at how professional the teachers were. I thought it was a drill at first, but nope. The real thing. Anyway...it was fun to see how far these kids have come. Jenna was reading a passage to me in CHINESE (Chinese characters and everything) at parent teacher conferences this morning. I was amazed!!

Love her expression!!

update on the nose

I took Kendall in to the ENT yesterday and it's very possible it was a small break, but it's hard to tell for sure because noses don't break like your leg bone, for example. It's rarely a clean break. If we don't mind how it looks (which you can't really see the bump unless you're looking for it), then there's no need to do surgery. His septum is kind of crumpled in the middle, instead of over to one side or the other, so again, no surgery, since it's not blocking his breathing passages. Phew!!

Broken or Not?

I got a call from the middle school on Tuesday afternoon to come and get Kendall. There had been an accident in PE and his nose collided with another boy's shoulder. He was bleeding like crazy--in fact, it took just over 2 hours to stop the bleeding. He was in a lot of pain too. I got him in to see the doctor that afternoon and he said he couldn't tell if it's broken or not because of the swelling. Kendall has to go to an ENT in a week and a half to see if there's a break and/or a deviated septum. There is some definite bruising, even a little around the eyes, but it's not really bad--people have asked him what happened though, so it is noticable. There's also a bump that wasn't there before on the side of his nose. These pictures aren't very good--I need to figure out how to take good ones. :) Anyway...the doctor said if it is broken and he bumps it again, it could send bone fragments floating around, even possibly to the brain, so Kendall's not supposed to play basketball until at least next week. But...he's on 3 teams. That makes it just a little hard, especially when there's a double header tonight. We got a nose guard--we'll see if he will use it and if it will help. I get just a little bit paranoid about what could happen.

Too Many Candles

I celebrated my 38th birthday yesterday. I'm trying to decide if I should be proud of my age or try to rewind the clock. :) I tried to downplay my day, but that was hard to do with the kids, so I decided to go with it. They were so excited--counting down the days and getting cards and presents ready. I got some new dishes, an iTunes gift card, and lots of cards and candy. My favorite!! It was a busy day--school, homework, scouts, etc. The evening felt a bit rushed, but was still nice. I wanted a Boston cream poke cake--yellow cake with French vanilla pudding and chocolate frosting. It was really good. I refused to put that many candles on--it probably would have set off the smoke alarms. Haha.

Kendall filming while the girls sing "Happy Birthday"

Jon and Jarren singing and dancing

Opening a gift (Jarren's). He hid it among all of his boxers. Haha

Birthday Girl!!

Kendall--a story about him to follow--

Delish cake!!!

Christmas 2012

Christmas was a fun affair at our house--as usual. Jon decided it was cold enough to build a fire and that always makes it so cozy. Jarren got a bad cold over Christmas break, as did Jenna, but we still had a fun break. Toby is getting old--he'll be 10 years old in February. He was very uneasy about Christmas. The kids were tearing into everything and loud and crazy and he was very, very, very clingy, almost like he thought we were moving or something. It was kind of strange.

Kendall and Toby

Jarren--surprised to get a real compass

Jenna and her new horse

Kristen--good day for her!

The line up--Jenna loves it because it's always youngest to oldest.

Guts are Gross

Carving pumpkins was....fun....this year. Kristen didn't want to and Jon and Kendall were at a basketball thing. You'd think the pumpkins had real guts by the way Jarren and Jenna reacted. haha.

Better Late Than Never...Halloween

I just realized that I totally missed Halloween!!! Here are some pics--Kristen dressed up like a 50's girl in a poodle skirt that I made, but I didn't get any pictures of her. Darn.

Jarren didn't want to dress up, so just wore black with a black cape and a mask.

Jenna was a My Little Pony, but didn't want to wear the hat/mask. Pinkie Pie!!

Pumpkins lining the porch

Kendall had to dress up like an airline pilot for Reality Town at school, just before Halloween.

Jenna got a face painting book at the library and wanted me to paint her face for our church party.

"I'm a tiger!! Hear me roar!!"