Joys of Parenting

This year as part of a pr thing, and toys for tots Danny have been nominated to play the role of santa. So we went to Johnnie Brocks and got him all set up. While we were there I found a bright red blinking rudolph nose and red and green antlers. So I put them on and asked Michael if it would be okay for me to wear them to his Christmas party at school. Can you believe he said NO! I can't believe he said it would embarass him. Then I got to thinking, isn't that one of the joys of parenting? Embarassing your children as they get older!

Merry Christmas Manning Family

This year for our family Christmas gift Danny and I have decided to buy a camper. We have wanted one for a while. The families that we hang out with all have one and we love going camping with them so we decided to finally get our own. We found one that is just right for us. It is light, all contained, and we can take the four wheelers on it. That will be nice when Danny goes hunting up north. I can't wait to use it. Stay tuned for pictures of our first outing. Probably sometime in late March early April! Look out fellow campers, The Appledumpling gang will be even more spread out! YIKES

Christmas Light Compromise

Every year the kids and I love for the lights to go up on the house, and just as much as we love it, Danny hates putting them up. So this year Danny and I made an agreement. If we could buy 2 big blow ups I would not bug him about putting lights on the house. So he ran out and bought them.

UNO

One of the great things about the kids getting older is teaching them how to play games. Last night Danny and I taught them how to play uno. Michael and Miranda caught on pretty quick. And of course Matthew had to be in on the action so he was on my team. The fist time we got to one card I let him say UNO, then every time after that when he had one card (no matter how may I still had) he would yell "Who Knows!' It was a riot! I went to bed laughing just thinking about it. I told Danny that if some one could spend 24hrs with him and not laugh I would pay them 50 dollars. It would be impossible. Even on his crabbiest days he makes me laugh!

Happy Thanksgiving

This year Danny and I decided that for Thanksgiving we would stay home just the 5 of us. And it was a blast! I think we may continue this tradition on the years he is not working. I'll worry about the other years when it comes to it. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Have a great time getting ready for Christmas! I think we may put our tree up tomorrow?!?! Christmas this year is going to be crazy! Not only is Danny's brother and his wife and two boys coming in, but my brother and his family will be home as well! It will be crazy but well worth it to see everyone and spend time with the nephews!

They do like each other!

Michael and Miranda are at an age where they don't always get along. The other night I walked into find them sitting on the couch together Michael playing his game and Sis watching. I thought I better get a picture because I know someday I will need the proof that yes at one point they did like each other.

Scary Turkey

Miranda's class has now started doing these family projects. The teacher send home the paper or instructions and the family is to do it together. Well for Thanksgiving we were to decorate Tom Turkey. So I let the kids come up with how to decorate it. I think we may have successfully made the scariest looking turkey Mrs. Jenkins will ever see.

Mommy's helpter

Matthew is always trying to help, then other night he wanted to vaccum so I said have at it. Man this boy is good! Not only does he bake he cleans to!

Makin Cookies

Matthew and I decided to make some chocolate chip cookies the other day for Danny. What a big helper he was. The googles were because some of the flour came out of the bowl and he didn't want his eyes to get hurt. Smart boy isn't he. Then he licked the beater so clean he told me I didn't need to wash them, (but I did).

Watch Out Martha!

Okay so while it is true that I am not Martha Stewart, I must confess that I am pretty proud of my latest craft I did with the kids. I got the basic idea from a magazine but made some adjustments to work with things I have at home. It is our Thanksgiving center piece. The kids and I did it and since Danny is out of town we left one feather blank for him to fill in when he gets home.

Pumpkin Carving

I did not mean for the blogs to get so out of order but here is our night of pumpkin carving! We went cheap this year and just got a family one instead of one for each kid. This was the first year Matthew was even remotely interested in it. Until he felt the guts inside then he was pretty much done! Until I got out the spoons.

Michael is 9

I think he was really surprised with his gift. We got him a gameboy or as Danny keeps calling it a (playboy), he had been asking for one for 2 years now so we finally broke down and got him one. Afterwards we went to Taco Bell for dinner. We always let the birthday person choose what we have for dinner and he wanted Taco Bell. On the way home the kids were discussing whose birthday is next and where we will eat, when it was said that mine is next Matthew replied "We should just stay home and Mom you can cook!' pretty nice huh, well Michael says yeah we should have a party and Miranda replies "Mom is to old for parties!" That sure makes one feel good. If ever I felt guilty for leaving town last year on my 30th I think that guilt is gone now! And if you look at the picture of Michael and Danny you have to wonder what Michael is thinking! "Dad can I have a turn to play?"

Am I cute?

Danny and I were in the kitchen and Matthew comes running in all dressed up and wanted to know if he was cute! So of course we said yes and grabbed the camera!

But I'm not tired!

Last Saturday I was trying to get Matthew to take a nap and he kept insisting that he really was not tired and wanted to watch Cars with Sissy, well not even 10 minutes in to the movie I walked into the living room to find him asleep and Miranda afraid to move. She really wanted to go play with Michael but did not want to wake him up! He was a bit crabby that day!

Halloween 2007

Nothing to exciting happened this year for Halloween, the kids and Danny got dressed up and I took the kids out trick or treating and Danny stayed home to had out candy and scare people. It was funny to see how many adults would not come up to the porch, but yet would send their kids by themselves some as young as four years old. And yes Danny did end up chasing one poor girl down the street a little ways. This is the same clown mask he used a few weeks ago to sneak into Rhonda's apartment and scare the crap out of her when she got home from work at 6am. Imagine coming home to an empty house(the kids were with grandma) and turning off the lights so you can get some sleep after working all night and as you head down the hallway to your dark room, a big clown starts coming at you. Rhonda is scared of clowns anyways, Yeah she freaked. Was screaming and trying to get away. I couldn't believe that no one called the police. I think I would be looking for a new place to live! I should also mention that Danny got the key to her apartment from his mom. Well I think that was the high light of the Halloween season for Danny this year and the 20 dollar mask was well worth it! I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween, I know we did.