Cornelius Chronicles

Xavier opening up his Dalek toy from Santa We did something to raise this boy right.  :)  What a fun Christmas morning.  Everyone was excited about their gifts from family, friends and of course Santa.  Fun brother time playing outside during Christmas break. Pictures of the kids in their Christmas Sunday clothes.  Such good lookin' kids. :) Xavier, age 4 Loyd, age 5 1/2 Maeve, age 1 (technically 16 months) Rebekah, age 7 1/2 We tried really hard to get the kids to pose for a nice group picture.  You can see the fruits of our labors below.    They really just wanted to go outside and play.  So, we relented...           Then we thought we might have more success getting the kids to pose together in their Christmas PJs from Grandma C....How deluded we parents are.  ;)     Oh well, at least they are still cute, even if they are ridicul...

Xavier made us some mistletoe at preschool to help celebrate the season.  Love it! The weather was absolutely beautiful and in the upper 60s and 70s for most of the week.  With such nice weather and the trees dropping their leaves at a good clip, I thought I would get out and rake some Christmas leaves.  It seems to always be this time of year when the yard needs a good raking.  The kids have been very helpful in this yard work endeavor.  :) Rebekah and Maeve playing in a big leaf pile Xavier pretending to be a bird in his nest Rebekah, Maeve, and Loyd demonstrating the relaxing properties of sitting in leaf piles Leaf fight! With all this great help I think I raked up this particular pile of leaves 4 times before I finally got it all bagged up.  Oh well, what good is a leaf pile if you can't jump and play in it first.  :)

Santa came to Trooper School this week for their annual holiday party before the Christmas break.  Everyone was very excited to see Santa and eat yummy treats.  Santa called each child up one by one by name and talked with them about their year.  Then he handed them a fun present to open at the end of the party, and sent them to sit back down with the class.   Xavier had to be called twice when it was his turn to sit on Santa's lap because he couldn't believe he got to go talk to Santa and get a present just for him.  It was all terribly exciting.  He grinned the whole time and happily told Santa he wants a measuring tape for Christmas. Xavier's gift from the jolly old elf was a helicopter that turns into a dinosaur.  Very cool.  Xavier hasn't let his precious present out of his site for four days now.  It goes everywhere he goes:  to bed, the store, friends' houses, everywhere.  We did have to draw the line though in...

Last night was the annual League City Holiday Open House at the Helen Hall Library.  We love to go every year to see Santa, eat yummy cookies, and do a fun holiday craft.  This year we got to see Santa arrive on his fun antique Fire Engine and welcome us to the party.  I think he brought some arctic air along with him.  Brr, it was cold!  We then played with fun Primary friends while we waited in line to tell him what we wished for Christmas.  Before we knew it it was our turn to talk to Santa.  Rebekah asked for a Webkinz dragon.  Xavier was convinced by Rebekah to ask for a Webkinz reindeer.  Loyd asked for a Tablet, but then was reminded that Santa can't bring him one of those, and so he asked for light up Legos instead.  Maeve was a bit confused by the whole thing and forgot to ask for anything for Christmas.  No worries though, I'm sure Santa will know just the toy to bring for her.  No one cried, though Maeve was a ...

Our little Miss Maeve is growing into such a fun little girl.  Every day she surprises us with new accomplishments and funny new quirks.  Here are just a few of the fun surprises she has given us this week.  :)   During a refrigerator raid by Xavier, Maeve took the opportunity to climb in and look for a snack herself.  This is proof positive that Dustin should be afraid, very afraid, of his near future grocery bills.  ;)  (Please forgive the crazy clutter of the fridge.  It is in the throws of post-Thanksgiving leftovers.) We found this beautiful teal dress for a great deal at Costco and got it for Rebekah.  When Maeve saw this beautiful thing come out of the bag and go to Rebekah she expressed in no uncertain terms that she was the one who really wanted and needed it instead of her big sister.  She cried and pulled at the dress until we asked her if she wanted it on.  She carefully shook her head up and down in the affirmati...

Thanksgiving Turkey Craft designed and created by Rebekah In Educational News:   Monday night Rebekah decided that Maeve needs to start learning to talk.  She has come up with a rigorous vocabulary building program for her little sister.  First, Rebekah made several flash cards with the target vocabulary words and a pictures of the words on them, such as the word BED with a picture of a bed.  According to Rebekah the picture is so that Maeve can know what she is reading about as she is learning her new words (I love that she is reading before she is talking).  Each night Rebekah reviews 4 vocabulary words with Maeve, with the goal of Maeve learning those 4 words by the end of the week.  If Maeve works hard and successfully completes her educational goal, then Rebekah has thought up some rewards for her.  The rewards so far are an extra bottle of milk and spending extra play time with a person of Maeve's choice.  I think Rebekah h...

"Creation—Living Creature" from LDS.org.  Accessed November 10, 2013 from http://www.lds.org/media-library/images/gospel-art/old-testament?lang=eng. By Dean John R. Rosenberg from the Brigham Young University Humanities Department: "The solution for our periodic faltering is the syntax of creation: the orderly sequence in which things unfold as Creators plan, counsel, and watch together.  The sequence is necessary and inalterable.  First there is light so that what is created might be watched.  Then the earth and skies are separated, and the celestial clocks - moon, sun, and stars - are wound and put in place to mark time.  Dry land pushes out of the sea, and anchors the roots of all variety of vegetation.  Complex organisms fill the sea and then the land, and now that the earth is built, Eve and Adam move in.  Then God rests.  The narrative tells us that at each state the Gods declared that what had happened on that day was "good": they ...

Maeve finally has long enough hair to pull it up into little fluffy pony and pig tails!  She looks so adorable with her little shock of down-soft blond hair spraying out!  Love it!   She has also really enjoyed helping the big kids eat their Halloween candy.  In this picture with Daddy she is sporting a very blue mouth thanks to a dum-dum sucker.  She LOVES suckers, and Loyd is always happy to share one of his with his favorite little sister.  :) Here's a picture of Rebekah sitting in the front seat of the car for the first time.  She was amazingly excited about this.  She is tall enough to sit in the front seat and Dustin had to take the van to get the brakes checked, so I crammed the four kids and myself into the Camry for the morning school drop off.  Because the backseat was full of car seats, Rebekah got to ride up front with me that morning.  She's pretty sure the front seats are more comfortable and the scenery is far m...

  After a full day of heavy rain, the weather cleared up beautifully just in time for Halloween fun. Everyone had fun trick-or-treating, but poor Loyd fell victim to his own love for the holiday.  With a fateful combination of Halloween day excitement and eating too much Trooper School candy, Loyd ended up throwing up half way around the block.  He had to come home early while the rest of the kids went to more houses.  At least his share of Xavier's preschool candy hoard eased the blow of a Halloween night cut short.  :)   Rebekah was an adorable raccoon this year.  She had so much fun walking around with a big, fluffy tail.  :)    Loyd had so much fun as an Angry Bird last year, that he wanted to do it again.  Such a happy Angry Bird.  :)      Xavier is a super fast cheetah.  You have to keep your eye on him or you just might miss him speeding by.   Miss Maeve is a b...