Thankful

It is hard to teach kids to be thankful. We talk about it and discuss it, but when it comes right down to it, they (we all) have it pretty good. Our house is warm and there are things we like to eat. The laundry is done and we have cable. Will did a paper at school of all the things he is grateful for. This reminds me that the basic things are good things and not to miss them.  This is so my boy:

To follow his example, here are the things I am grateful for this Thanksgiving.
1. I am thankful for 4 healthy, vivacious children that challenge and delight me.
2. I am thankful for disposable diapers.
3. I am thankful for maternity leave.
4. I am thankful that I remembered to thaw the turkey this year.
5. I am thankful for a husband who has funny stories and more patience than me.
6. I am thankful for a mom that doesn’t mind coming to my house to cook most of the thanksgiving meal.
7. I am thankful for mashed potatoes.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Christmas Card 2012

A big thank you to my friend Christy for taking pictures of us for our Christmas card.  Thanks to her, we only had to get dressed and walk down the street to take our pictures.  After  I washed everyone, (or forced people to shower...you know I am talking about you, Matt), convinced everyone that the clean matching clothes I picked out would not hurt them (this included Matt) and then squeezing my ownself into my only acceptable pair of jeans, I could not mentally be strong enough to get this whole crew out somewhere to take pictures. 

We ended up with some great pictures! These will be coming out in my Christmas cards.  But a blog is no good unless it has the outtakes. Bear with me as I must add commentary.

Matthew started the bad idea of bunny ears.  When I found out, my face changed from this happy smile to darkness so fast that I scared the kids.  Matt is used to it so it barely registered with him.

Here comes the sassy!  This is Abbys natural pose.

Oh Harper, I see you trying to get back to your old spot on my lap.  I should have told you that you would be giving it up to CC for at least a year.

I love this one!  Too bad Harper is wearing her Hello Kitty flip flops on a cold November morning.  Christy cropped those out for me for the final.

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Halloween 2012

It was a very exciting year of trick-or-treating for the Perryman family!  Matt came down with the stomach bug on Halloween day so he didn't get to go as Tiger this year.  He did offer it to me but I opted to go as a banana again (I AM ANNA BANANA!!).  Thank goodness Shay was here to help with the trick-or-treating rounds.

Our night started at 5:30 because I couldn't hold off the troops any longer. 

1. Harper went as a princess.  She had to be talked into a long sleeve shirt under her dress because it was 50 degrees.  Harper held her own at the start of the night by running after the big kids from house to house.  When it got dark, Harper began to ask the people handing out candy "are there monsters here?"  Each neighbor assured Harper there were no monsters but that didn't stop her from getting in the stroller and not getting out until we got home. 

2. Cecilia went as a skunk.  She slept the whole time. She did give up her stroller to Harper when it got dark but she continued to sleep while being held.

3. Will was a reluctant Ninja.  He let me know that I purchased his costume too big so he didn't want to wear it.  He changed his plan once the candy started flowing into his bucket.

4. Abby went as a diva.  That was the PERFECT costume for my little diva.