Winter Break

Oh, how we love the winter break. Of course our schedules are all out of whack, but it's so nice, relaxing, and fun to have this break. We really haven't done anything exciting, but it has been a good time anyway.

We got the New Super Mario Brothers game and so we all played that a TON the first part of the break. It is a great family game. We love it! We beat the game, but now are trying to get everything we missed the first time around. The boys got some other games for Christmas so there has been a lot of Wii action. It is calming down now though.

We have gone to the Y several times and have been swimming in the indoor pool. The boys LOVE it. I don't like it so much, I freeze, but they could stay in there all day. Avery was worried he forgot how to swim, but nope, he is better than ever. Our first trip this winter he passed the swim test! He had to jump in the lap pool, come up, and swim a front stroke the entire way across. He did it perfectly and was so proud of himself. The first thing he said when he got back in was, "That was easy!" He got to go down the water slides, and he got to wear a bracelet, when other kids way older than him, still had to wear a life vest. The 2 lifeguards said that he was the youngest, and definitely the smallest they had had pass the test. Yea Avery!

Avery is also reading like a maniac. He reads to me every night and is getting much better and faster. He sounded out the words "armadillo" and "stubborn" in a split second. He is so excited about that as well. I brought home like 30 books from the library, 10 of which were books he could read, and he told me that wasn't enough. LOL!

We also went to see a couple of movies, Alvin and the Chipmunks and Avatar. We LOVED Alvin. It was super cute and I liked it better than the first one. Avatar disappointed me with all of the language! Yikes! I had asked around before we went to see if the boys could go. Everyone told me it wasn't too bad and they would be fine going. Um, no. Way, way too much language. The story was really good and I liked the movie, but I don't understand why they don't leave the language out, at least most of it. It doesn't take away from teh movie at all to not include those words. Ugh. The first thing Sam said when we got out was "That movie was violent and it had TONS of bad words!" I felt terrible. He is just like his mommy and very sensitive to that language. It actually physically hurts us to hear it. Darn those movie makers! We love going to the movies, it is sad that we have to sensor all the movies so much, especially when they are movies they KNOW kids are going to want to see. :(

I guess that's about it. We went to a few Christmas parties, which were fun. We had a good Christmas, and we have had a relaxing 2 weeks. The boys start school again tomorrow. No more sleeping in. Yuck! It's weird that it starts on a Tuesday. I guess I didn't make that clear enough to Sam because this morning at 7:00 he came running in telling me to hurry and get up because I needed to take them to school. Then Avery starts screaming across the house that I didn't get his clothes out. Not a fun thing to wake up to on your last day of being able to sleep in! We all got back in bed, and thankfully I went back to sleep. I have had to worst time sleeping the last week or so. No matter how tired I am, it takes me until like 2am to go to sleep and then I wake up off and on throughout the rest of the night. That better remedy itself quickly or I will never survive waking up for school again.

Welcome to the New Year! I hope you all reflect on 2009 and remember the good times, the things you learned, and the struggles you had to go through to be at this place in your life. I hope 2010 is full of happiness and family!