Snowball Fight

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Christmas is Quickly Approaching

I think today I can finally say we are done shopping!!! What a relief!! Now I just need to get everything wrapped. I am just praying I do not have to make another trip to the store to get more wrapping paper. I am trying to avoid the stores until after Christmas. I have bought enough groceries and dog food to last. The kids are getting real excited about the big day! Luke got out of school today, and Rachel gets out tomorrow. Rachel has her school Christmas party tomorrow, and Luke is just as excited about it as she is. Last year we went and he made quite a haul. I hope he lucks out again.

I have not shared any pictures of our tree this year. I thought it turned out real pretty, especially since it was decorated by a seven and four year old! It is just in need of some presents. Rachel and Luke had so much fun decorating the tree!! They loved seeing their ornaments they have made and bought over the years. It is funny what treasures those ornaments become. We all have our favorites. Kate has taken to the tree as we suspected she would. It is just another thing for her to get into. She has broken and eaten more candy canes this year than we have lost in the seven years we have had a tree (since Rachel's first Christmas).

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Kate has discovered a new toy she likes even better than the Christmas tree. It is the computer. She can pull the chair out and climb up. If it is not one thing it is another! Yesterday she found Rachel's homework and a pencil on the table and did some work of her own. She ripped the corner off and drew all over it. We fixed it with a little tape and an eraser. If she was not so darn cute I might get mad at her!

Naughty or Nice?

Have the Stansell kids been naughty or nice this year? We will just have to see what Santa decides. I would say they have been pretty good, but it is really not up to me is it? Rachel, Luke and Kate recently went to see Santa to place their orders. Rachel wants a Wii (video game system), i Pod, camera, and bag for her v-tech computer (her other one has been misplaced). Luke wants a Wii, Leapster, Shaggy doll, and Shaggy puzzle. Kate just wanted the heck out of there!! I am sure Santa knows what she really wants.



Luke got stage fright and forgot what he was going to ask for. Luckily, Rachel stepped in and helped him out.


Poor Baby Kate...Why do parents put their kids through torture to get a picture of them with Santa Claus?

Here is our Santa picture from last year. Kate's reaction was exactly the same!

On our trip to see Santa Claus we took a few friends (cousins) along. This is going to be such a fun picture to look back on!! This is all the Stansell grandbabies for now...

From left to right: Kate, Rachel, Miles, Santa, Ian, Luke and Tenley

Luke asked yesterday if Santa shopped for the toys at the store. I said I did not know and asked why he asked. He said because if Santa shopped at the stores he probably was not going to find a Shaggy doll. Maybe Santa found one on Ebay. We will see what he has in his bag for Little Lukie this year!!

Sweet Katybug

Today when we picked Katybug up after church she was in the middle of snack time. The instant she saw us you could see the panic set in. She quickly shoved the animal cracker she had in her hand into her mouth. She then grabbed an animal cracker with each hand and came toward the door as fast as her little fat legs would carry her. She was a baby on a mission. It was just so funny!! She had everybody laughing at her, even Rachel and Luke. What a sweet little baby we have!

On a different note, yesterday we found Kate standing in the middle of the dining room table. That is something else her brother and sister never did.

Thanksgiving Weekend

Thanksgiving weekend Chris's Mom, brother, sister, and their families came to visit. It was so much FUN!! We had three days full of eating, shopping, playing with the babies, playing with Uncle Aaron's Wii (video game), and just hanging out. We missed Granny and Pop Pop and Uncle David very much!! Maybe they will join us next year. Here are some pictures from our fun weekend:

Thanksgiving

This year we had Thanksgiving dinner at my parents house. It was my parents, Grandma, Aunt Lorita, Aunt Joy and Uncle Keith, Dena, me and the kids. We had turkey with all the trimmings. It was wonderful! My mom makes the best sweet potatoes! After we ate it was about time to watch the Cowboys play football. We stayed for part of the game then went to Steve and Nancy's house. A lot of Nancy's family was in town visiting for Thanksgiving. It was nice to visit with everybody, and the kids got to play with their cousins.

Memaw and Kate letting their dinner settle on the back porch...


Kate is showing us her tummy is full.

My parent's back yard was over run with dogs. There were six of them. Dixie felt like she was being mistreated being put in a pin with dogs.

Cecil and his guitar were the highlight of the kid's Thanksgiving. Luke said that the singing was his favorite part of the day. Cecil took requests and played and sang as long as the kids wanted to. Oh what fun Uncle Cecil is!!
What is singing without dancing? Lucky for Luke his cousin Tenley likes to dance too! Aren't they CUTE?!?!
Kate and Miller playing.

Rachel, Luke, Cooper, and Emily

Here is a video of Cecil playing the guitar for the kids.

Rachel Gets Braces

Rachel got her braces this morning. She looks real cute, and she said it did not hurt a bit! I am not sure about a seven year old with braces, but we will see how it works out. She had to get them to fix a cross bite. She will have to wear them for about a year.

She also got a free t-shirt and a list of her favorite foods she can't eat for a year. I thought the shirt was pretty funny.

Kate's Walkin' the Dog

Kate discovered a new toy today. Well she has actually had this puppy for about a year, but today she figured out what you are really supposed to do with it. I thought it was cute and wanted to share!

Kitchen Solution

After months of Baby Kate reeking havoc on my kitchen drawers and cabinets I invested in a couple of baby gates. She is the third child, and we have never saw a need for a baby gate. The gates are working a little better than I imagined they would. They keep ALL the kids and pets out of the kitchen. They still stand at the gate and beg to be let in, but I can just smile and say "I'll be done in a minute! " This may seem mean to some of you, but she has recently discovered we keep lots of "snacks" in the garbage under the sink, GROSS!!!

I wonder how long it will take for her to chew her way thru! She is already trying to climb it.

Startin' Early

Well the sick season is starting early this year. After the winter we had last year I have been praying it would skip us this year. Tuesday I took Kate to the doctor because she had been very fussy and running a low grade temperature for several days, and Monday she was really poking at her right ear. Sure enough she had an infection in her right ear. Well, Thursday Luke came home with a headache. I thought it was strange for him to have a headache, so I gave him some ibuprofen and hoped all was well. About 2am Friday morning he woke up crying that his head was hurting and he was thirsty. I gave his some more pain reliever and tried to go back to sleep, but he moaned all night. We took him to the doctor yesterday. He has strep throat (with not one complaint that his throat hurt). Daddy was with us and chose the shot as treatment. So Lukie got a shot. He handled it VERY well. We were proud of him! We drove him directly to get a Slurpee after leaving the doctor's office. He felt bad all day yesterday, but woke up feeling pretty good this morning. Don't worry if you had plans to be with us this Thanksgiving. He is not contagious any more!




My sick babies. I hope Rachel is not next!

Kate's New Pictures

Kate had some new pictures taken last Thursday. You can view them at this website:

http://www.portraitsandmore.com

The website is not very user friendly, so I hope you can see them. They will only be on the site until 11-22-08. Here are the instructions after you get on the site:

-Click on CUSTOMER LOGIN HERE ( in yellow)
-Scroll to the bottom of the page
-Click on CLICK HERE TO SEE YOUR PORTRAITS (in red)
-The password is Stansell111708 (upper case S and lower case everything else)
-Then click on CLICK HERE TO CONTINUE (in blue)
-Finally click on VIEW ALL IMAGES (in blue) at the bottom under the search box.

Hope you get to see them. Let me know which ones you like!

Favorites of Luke Cont.

Here is a precious video of Luke singing the Barney theme song, "I Love You". He was not even two years old. He loved Barney back then!!

Favorites of Luke

I was looking thru our pictures the other day and decided it would be fun to share some of my favorite pictures of Lukie. As you will be able to tell, he has been quite a character his whole life. He tends to be silly most of the time, but he always makes me laugh. Hope you enjoy!

First Christmas...

I had just made the bed...then look what I found amongst the toys.

What a precious picture of Daddy walking with Little Lukie...

Rebel without a cause! He will not let you mess with his hair now. He is very picky about his hair being messed up.

He jumped in shoes and all....


Along for the ride....

Holy Pee Pee, Batman!

Uh Oh!!!! Mama I'm stuck!

Kissing Cousins

What a proud BIG Brother....

Rachel's Teeth

Here are a picture of the teeth Rachel had pulled today. She was very scared, but Chris said she did real good. She came home and had some ice cream. Ice cream sure does help you feel better! Then she slept most of the afternoon. She ate dinner without any problem. She is hoping for a very generous and sympathetic tooth fairy tonight! Thank you for keeping her in your thoughts and prayers today.

These are her baby eye teeth. The dentist said she would not have lost them until she was eleven. The roots get worn away by the permanent teeth pushing against them before they go ahead and push them out. Since hers were not even close to coming out they still had the roots.

Trick-or-Treat

The very highly anticipated day of Trick-or-Treat has finally arrived!! The kids had a BLAST!! Even Kate knows how wonderful it is to get candy from every one you meet! Every year we go trick-or-treating with the preschool at Midland College. All the campus offices pass out candy to the little kids. It is so neat to see all the little kids dressed up in their costumes. Another bonus is it happens during the day.

After we finished trick or treating at the college, we rushed home to eat dinner and get ready to hit the neighborhood. We went down two and a half blocks, and Rachel and Luke's pumpkins were filled to the brim. This neighborhood is full of kids, so we saw a lot of little ghouls and goblins along the way.

Luke got lots of comments about his Mystery Machine. It was a big hit! We heard a lot of "cool costume" and they would sing the Scooby Doo theme song. I was worried they would not know what he was, but everybody knew right away. His costume was definitely an original. Rachel made a beautiful cowgirl! Her cowboy boots hurt her feet, so she wore her pink rain boots. I don't think anybody even noticed. Kate was by far the cutest bumble bee I have ever seen! Below is a precious video of my baby girl on her first trick-or-treating outing.

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown

Last night we finished carving the pumpkin, and then we watched It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown. (My personal favorite Charlie Brown cartoon.) Luke really enjoyed the show. He laughed a lot. Rachel fell asleep.

I had decided to boycott the whole pumpkin carving process this year because last year the kids saw what the inside looked like and hit the road leaving me with all the cleaning out and carving. I put a bug in Rachel's ear to have Aunt Dena help them carve a pumpkin while she was here. This pumpkin has the thickest and hardest shell of any pumpkin I have ever carved. It took everybody to get a hole cut in the top, my Dad even helped, but it was Dena who finished it off and broke into it! Rachel and Luke started cleaning out all the goo. I was proud of them for facing the mess and trying. They worked at it for a while, but Chris actually finished it for them. Chris has many hidden talents that he only shares when absolutely necessary. His pumpkin carving skills are one of them. Last night I drew the face on, and Chris did the actual carving. It took a mallet and hack saw to cut through the shell. Don't you think they did a great job?!?!

Trick or Treat pictures coming soon.

Pumpkin Patch

Today we took our annual trip to the pumpkin patch. We have gone each year since Rachel was Kate's age. My Mom, Dena, and Aunt Lorita came with us this time. We had a fun time as always.



That is me as a fat farmer...

I took this picture in front of the house....I thought it was cute of all of them together.
We bought a pumpkin while we were at the pumpkin patch. Pictures of our Jack-O-Lantern coming soon.