Here is our little tree. This was the tree I used when it was just Kobi and I. I just can't get rid of it. 

The kids decided to put some pillows on the floor and admire our tree. I love angels, so our tree has predominately angels as decorations and red. Red is my favorite color. 

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

I know, I know. Thanksgiving is not even here yet. We are going over to K.C.'s parents house in the afternoon and to my Mother's house in the evening on Thanksgiving. I am making a Sweet Potato Casserole and a Green Been Casserole. I am working on cooking better. It has been fun trying new recipes. It is no fun when the recipe turns out bad :(.

Kobi and I decorated the inside of our house on Sunday. (We will have to post pictures later.) We put the tree up and placed our small amount of Christmas decorations around the house. We played Christmas music and drank hot chocolate. K.C. was studying for an exam, and we had to put Xayla to bed first because she would have made a mess. When she woke up in the morning, she was so excited. She kept saying "Ooooo" and "light". I love the holiday season. Kobi and I are afraid to put anything in our front yard. I had a real cute Thanksgiving decoration that somehow came up missing. It is a decoration. Why steal? It's frustrating.

Kobi wants Santa to bring us a PS3. Only if he knew that Santa is broke this year. It is hard at this age because I love that he believes in Santa, but it's hard trying to explain that maybe Santa can't bring something. Every time I tell him, "We can not afford that." He says, "That's OK, I will ask Heavenly Father to tell Santa to bring it to us. You won't have to buy anything." I hope he is not disappointed this Christmas. I am just going to have to stress the true meaning of Christmas, and that it is not about gifts. That is how I am going to approach this situation.

I hope everyone fills their belly full and gives thanks to Heavenly Father for our MANY blessings! Happy Thanksgiving!

Imagination time

I have been reading a book called Raising Respectful Children in a Disrespectful World by Jill rugby (ISBN# 978-1-58229-574-9). It was suggested by Dr Laura Schlesinger. People either love her or hate her. Anyway, it is a really good book. She talks about how respect is going away in this world. If you raise your children to respect others, then they will respect themselves. This will cause them to respect morals and values. It is a really good book. One thing I really got out of it was creative things you can do with your children. She had a suggestion of imagination time. You can do anything during this time. One thing she suggested was saving old oatmeal boxes, cereal boxes, just anything you were going to throw away and make stuff out of it with marker, crayons, or whatever you want. It sounded fun.

Kofi and I started doing imagination time. He loves it! Some of the things we have done are:
1. We have a play tent in the playroom and we turned off all the light in the room. We lit a candle, and I played "The Sounds of Nature" CD. It had music of the ocean, birds, the wind, rain, etc. We pretended like we were camping out. Then, we read stories in the tent and played board games like: Junior Scrabble and Guess Who. We tried to make a house out of a deck of cards, but it was kind of hard in the tent. It was so much fun! My back hurt after because the tent was kind of little for me. This made Kofi do his homework quicker, so that we could have time for imagination!
2. Another thing we did was make animals and objects out of paper. I found this book that showed you how. We tried to do it. Some of it was hard! I was able to make a swan.
3. We made up a story and we acted it out.
4. We had a spa day. We took turns doing spa things: soaking our feet in my little foot soaker, doing pretend manicures, putting these little soaks on our eyes, putting lotion on. It actually was really fun. Kofi said, "Now this is the life".

It has been so much fun. I highly recommend the book. She also discusses being "unplugged" from electronic devices. Let your imagination work.

If anything, you get quality time :).

Car ride. 

At the Pumkin Patch. 

Go again Mom? 

Yes, that is Xayla going down the big slide at eh Pumkin Patch. She loved it! She is so fearless. 

One more thing, the pumkin cost $3.00 at Smiths versus the pumkin patch (the one with the rides off of Stephanie and Sunset) wanted $20.00 for the same size! What a rip-off. Especially if they go bad in our weather in a couple of days. I would have been so mad if I spent $20 on a pumkin from the pumkin patch.  

Kobi was so proud of our pumkin. He wanted to carry it all over the house. Then when it started molding so quickly, he freaked out. He said, "Mom, the pumkin is growing hair!" It was mold. Yuck! 

My first pumkin I have ever carved in my life! Kobi helped me. I don't know if I will carve any next year. It was fun doing it as a family project, but it got bad so quickly here because of the heat. I just bought some pumkins you can plug into the wall from Target the day after Halloween for 50% off. I think that is what we will use next year. 

Daddy taking the little ones to the door. 

Yes, that is tape on Kobi's scythe (staff). He played with it so much that he broke it several times. I was not buying a new one even though I think it cost $3.00. Instead, I made him tape it.  

Kobi as the Grimm Reaper. 

Love the angle. 

I tied the halo to her hair. Now she is posing. This outfit was only $10 at Big Lots. I was so happy to get it. I thought it was so cute. 

Xayla was so excited about candy. She kept saying "Ooooo". You can see her doing it now. 

Xayla. My Angel. I had problems getting her halo to stay on. I had to tie it to her hair. I didn't do that in this picture.  

5 minutes

I have always been in a rush. I see the line getting longer in the grocery store, so I go as fast as I can to get into the next line. I may have passed 3 people trying to get into the line.
When I pick Kobi up at school, cars are EVERYWHERE. I hurry and get Kobi, then, we rush to the care and rush out of there in order to "beat the traffic".
When I am driving and someone is trying to turn onto the road, they will have to go after me.

What am I in such a rush for? Will it really hurt me to wait 5 more minutes in the grocery store and allow the person walking really slow go before me?
When I pick Kobi up from school, can't I just let Xayla slide down the slide one more time? Is it really going to matter if we get on the road 5 minutes later?
If I let one car in front of me, or even 2-3 cars along the way, is it going to make that much difference in the time I reach my destination?

I've been thinking about these things lately. This has caused me to be more courteous. I can give up 5 more minutes of my day to be more courteous. It has really made me feel good. I was at the grocery store, and I had a girl that was checking out my groceries. She started talking to another checker about her day. She was still ringing me up and she was really pleasant, but the girl behind me started complaining "More work and less talking". I just told my checker to "Have a nice day". She had been working all day without a break. She was working. It was OK to talk while working. Sometimes being crabby is not worth it.

I have been also letting Xayla go down the slide again and again. She loves it. She says "Wee"! Who cares if I get home 5 minutes later? The kids had fun.

I also have been allowing cars to enter into my lane. Now I do not like it if they try to cut into my lane when there is a long line, but if they are trying to merge in from another street, it's OK.

I have felt so much less stress when I decided to give up 5 more minutes of my time to be courteous. It is amazing what a difference it makes. You smile more :).

I have also realized that there are so many hours in a day. I can not accomplish everything, but at the end of the day, I want to feel like I was respectful to others and that I did everything to put my spiritual walk and my family first.

p.s. We had a great time trick-or-treating. Kobi was the Grimm Reaper and Xayla was an Angel. They loved it. Xayla kept saying "YEAH!" I will post pictures later.

My little model :). This just says it all...Xayla. Ready for the camera today.