Cornelius Chronicles

This last cold snap left ice on everything in the yard, thanks to an overnight freezing rain.  The kids were disappointed there wasn't any snow, but they had fun playing with ice instead.  The kids were really excited to see all of the ice and feel the bitter cold of playing outside.  The school district delayed the start of school by 2 hours to allow the slippery roads time to thaw out.  This gave us plenty of time to play outside, throw our wet jackets and gloves in the drier, and enjoy some hot chocolate before going to school.  Yea for icy mornings at home!  Rebekah brought me an icicle she had pulled off one of the play houses that must have been 3/4 to 1 inch long.  She held it up proudly to me and said, "Mamma!  Look how BIG the icicles are!"  Gotta love that South Eastern Texas perspective.  :) Quote of the Day (Friday, Jan. 24)   Xavier exclaimed while chomping on some ice from outside, "Mom!  Ice tastes like...

We had our annual preschool walking field trip to the high school district barns this week.  It was exciting to see, feed, and pet all the great farm animals.  Xavier and Maeve had a terrific time!  Xavier loves everything about preschool.  We are so blessed for him to have such wonderful experiences with good friends and enthusiastic teachers.  Yea preschool! Make sure you check Xavier out in the background of this picture.  He's the little boy bent over in exhilaration wearing the dark blue jacket.  That pretty much sums up the excitement of farm trip field day.  :)  Maeve made sure to touch at least one pig, cow, and turkey nose.  We couldn't quite reach the sheep and goat noses because they weren't that interested in sniffing our cute little girl, but that didn't stop her from waving at them.  She waved "Hello" to every single animal we saw in the district barn.  It was really cute to see how excited she was to...

This week Rebekah offered to teach the boys how to fly like dragons.  In preparing for her students she determined that the first thing one needs to fly like a dragon is a good costume.  She eagerly took up the challenge and designed and sewed a Toothless and Hookfang mask and tail for Loyd and Xavier.  There weren't enough materials or time for her to make a costume for herself, so she cheerfully made do with what we had on hand even though she is the true dragon enthusiast in the family.  With that done, the rest of the afternoon was spent leaping and jumping like the best of dragons.  They were eager students and she was an enthusiastic teacher.  What fun to watch the little ones take flight.  Even little Maeve had to make sure she was in on the fun.  :)   Xavier also practiced his teaching skills this week.  He taught a Master's class in kindness when he tenderly brought Maeve his little backpack and offered it to her to kee...

Just before Christmas, one of Rebekah's friends gave her a Panda wall calender for 2014.  Rebekah was very excited about the fun panda picture on her calender.  After we left her friend's house with the prized calender Rebekah told me in the car, "Isn't my new calender great!  I love the picture on it!  It says '2014' on it, but that's ok. I can just pretend it's any year I need it to be."  I had a great internal chuckle at that and then explained that in just a few weeks it would actually be the year 2014 and that her calender would then be right.  She was very happy to hear this news and is now enjoying her 2014 calender as she tracks the days of the new year. Happy 2014!

After a long week of school work and being cooped up by cold weather, this weekend's warmer temperatures in the 70s brought a great excuse to get outside, use our brand new bicycle bells, test out Maeve's new bike helmet, and go for a family bike ride around the neighborhood.  We had so much fun spending time together, getting some great exercise, and just enjoying warm sunshine on our skin.  After working up a bit of a sweat with lots of bike riding Loyd loudly declared, "January is too hot for me!"  That's the kind of thing I like to hear in the middle of "winter."  I love living where it's warm!  :) We also gave all the boys a hair cut yesterday.  They were looking a bit shaggy.  As you can tell, they love Mom's hair cuts.  ;)

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.  :)