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Whew! Baby Jesus has been found!

I have all the Nativity scenes that the kids can play with on shelves they can reach. ("Fancy" Nativities are out of reach.) Baby Jesus, a camel, and a sheep were missing this morning. We found the animals, but Reed and I just couldn't find Baby Jesus. Reed was very upset about missing Baby Jesus and even took the empty manger to show Jason. But not to worry, just a minute a ago I found Baby Jesus hiding on the island in our kitchen. I quickly went and laid him in His manger, but then noticed something was amiss. It seems that according to the Ingersoll version of that night in Bethlehem, a dangerous African animal was also present. And is it just me, or does it look like a Wise Man may need to step in before things take a turn for the worse?

And That's What These Two Do In There

Here's how I found Kyle after their morning nap the other day. Such a male Ingersoll, already wanting to be shirtless. But as you'll notice, the Ingersoll "instigating gene" also seems to run strong. (See yesterday's post about JR's "encouragement of others" if you missed it.) Check out Reed in the background. He obviously finds the whole situation just down right hysterical. Jason and I have always said that Reed's the one who's going to get Kyle in trouble (and then Kyle will hurt himself and cry and so on). Just look at Reed, he's totally egging him on! A house full of boys...I'm so in for it.

So That's What They Do In There

JR got off the bus yesterday and the first thing out of his mouth was, "Mom, You don't need to look in the front pocket of my backpack. There's nothing in there today." So of course I opened his front pocket immediately and found "a white slip". (Which means he had to go to the Principal's office.) And what did I (in my amazing mom-ness) do as I read what offense my son had committed? I laughed out loud. Yep, I did. Luckily, JR wasn't paying attention at that exact moment, so I didn't blow my cover. JR's infraction? And I quote: "JR dared another student to climb on top of the toilet and look over the stall." Come on! Am I seriously supposed to get mad about that? That's hilarious, right? Of course, Jason had nearly the same reaction as I did. Unfortunately for JR, he did get in trouble at home because he lied about the incident at school, and then tried to sign my name to his white slip so he didn't have to show me.

And if you know me, you know I have the white slip signatures to share with you. Poor JR. JR, Babe, if you're going to forge a signature with bad handwriting at least sign your daddy's name...it's way more realistic.

Um, I Don't Blog Well With Boring

I think our Tiny Tots teacher must read my blog. Guess what happened today? Absolutely nothing. No danger, no insane heights, just perfectly age appropriate activities. What's up with that? How am I supposed to blog and diagram just a normal, average, plain ol' trip to Tiny Tots? And since we had what seemed to be an OSHA monitored class today, I was even able to whip out my camera phone and snap a shot of Kyle. So I'm sorry to say, you won't be enjoying my artistic stylings. But I do have a picture of a bar swinging baby! (You'll notice it's the low bar...totally safe, boring, and unDurangoan!)

Little Miss Christmas

Okay so I'm pretty proud of my decorating progress. Chinese tree-done. JR's tree-done. Texas tree-done. And as I type this, I've got my little Christmas decorator extraordinaire working on the family tree. I've said it before, but as much as JR is like Jason, he's actually really good at decorating Christmas trees...yeah for the Reynolds' Christmas decorating genes! But even more exciting than decorating this year, was a few days ago I got a surprise from my friend, Julie. (We were buddies in China; she's in Ohio now.) Knowing how much I love Christmas decorations (we used to make an annual trip to a Christmas ornament factory in Beijing) she sent me this super cute T-shirt. Christmas and costuming (okay, almost costuming) what could be better? Nothing I can think of. So here I am (in my Little Miss Christmas T) , in front of my completed Texas tree. Yeee-Haw!

That's the Way it Should Be

I'm knee deep in Christmas trees, and I promise to have a post about my decorating progress tomorrow. But before we can jump on over to Christmas decor, I need to wrap up Halloween. Here's how I found JR yesterday morning. Check out the candy on the table. I said, "JR, I see you've got your candy all organized."
JR: I graphed it.
My stomach started knotting up at this point...There was "real life" math going on at my kitchen table! (Because if it involves candy, that certainly qualifies as real world application.) About that time Jason walked in.
Me: He's just like you. Look what your child has done with his Halloween candy.
Jason: That's the way it should be.

Costume Parade

Never had a "white Halloween" before. Check out the snow!

Nobody stood still long enough at our clubhouse party to get any good pictures.

Trick-or-Treat Hayride. And that's just one of the rides, there were two! They're were so many kids that Jason and I walked behind with the babies! Notice all the coats...pretty safe to say I never had to wear a coat trick-or-treating in Texas! (JR is in a green and blue coat in the middle front of the picture.)