NO MORE AFRICA...

I know...I know...It has been awhile since I blogged and I realized how long when I thought about all that has happened since my last blog. So here it goes...It might take a couple of blogs to catch everyone up.
One of the first things that happened is Samuel had his school play. Now I might not normally blog about it but he had some interesting things to say. First I asked him for over a week leading up to the program if he had any part and he assured me he was just part of the choir. So my surprise came when he stepped up to the mic in the first song and sang "Rudolf the Red nose reindeer" not by himself but still, I was stunned and I was sitting on the wrong side of the room to get a good picture. Unlike last year, he actually sang. When I asked him why he sang this year and not last, he informed me that last year we embarrassed him because we were sitting too close. So I guess sitting on the opposite side of the auditorium worked better for him. So in my slide show you will see some of that night. Then not much else happened until Christmas and if you read my mom's blog you will know that we all spent Christmas day at her house but what she didn't mention was that she gave our family a great weekend at Fort Rapids Indoor water park as our gift for the 22nd-24th. We all decided...my kids don't need another toy and they enjoyed the water park better than I thought they would. It was nice to see Josh go off on his own and go down a water slide. He found one in particular that he claimed as his own and a few kids that were also enjoying it would get a strange look from him when they used "his" slide. Sam, the always serious child, enjoyed his time but it was hard to capture a smile. He told me he really doesn't like to smile so he tries his best NOT to smile. After the water park we were off to my mom's for the night and to wait for Santa. We made cookies for Santa. Santa showed up as soon as the kids were in bed and it was nice to set everything up. Josh is a huge fan of Patrick from Spongebob and Sam likes Spongebob, sometimes Sam and Josh playing as if they are the characters in their room...too funny. Anyway. "Santa" bought them a large pillow of each and beside Patrick we put all of the toys from Santa that were for Josh and then beside Spongebob we put all of Samuel's gifts and there was no question as to which side of the Santa gifts were theirs. Josh would have been fine with just his Santa toys but we had bought several toys for each which meant several packages to open. Josh did not do well with this. He would have rather played hungry hippo (one of his first packages) all day than to open another package. But we all had a great time. Samuel got everything he wanted and a few he didn't know he wanted until he saw it. He asked for Star Wars figures and his uncle Tom came through with not only several figures but also the fighter (I am sure there is a more technical name). He has played with it the most and he is very protective of it. He has conceded to let Josh play with CP3O. So that is my blog for tonight. I might write more about this past weekend including the pastor's sermon...it was a good one.