We have this beautiful white statue of the First Vision in our family room bookcase and I absolutely love it. A few days ago I noticed Savannah eyeing it. She then asked me, "Mom, can I paint it?" Mmmmmm...that would be a no.
The other day Savannah saw a picture of Martin Luther King Jr. on our refrigerator and said, "Hey, it's Martin!" I didn't know who she was talking about at first because I'm not used to someone referring to him by just his first name. After she pointed out who she was talking about, I reviewed his full name with her and then I asked her why he was important. Her reply was, "He taught us that it doesn't matter if our skin is black or white." I was really proud of her for not only being able to recognize him but for knowing the important role he played in the history of this country. His name was able to produce a wonderful conversation between myself and my daughter about the struggles of our country, the importance of people, our differences, and how our Heavenly Father loves each and every one of us, no matter what we look like. Thank you, Dr. King; your legacy continues to inspire us.
My Internet connection was down for a few days so I have fallen behind on my blogging. Just to catch you up on what's been going on at the Pierce household:
This past week Savannah's school had a "Guess My Favorite Book" day. Each student who wanted to participate "advertised" on their t-shirt, either by words or pictures, what his or her favorite book is. Savannah chose "Mary Poppins" and drew pictures of the characters and her favorite scenes that we then pinned to her shirt.
Saturday Savannah attended a birthday party at Michaels Crafts (yeah, who knew?) and made a princess jewelry box. She had a lot of fun and looked so cute in her apron.
Xander continues to be our goofy little guy. Every Friday during quiet time he gets to watch a movie and this week he chose "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Check out his four turtles watching the movie with him.
I thought this was hilarious...what is supposed to be Jack Sparrow's mustache Xander used as bangs instead.
Oh, and he also continues to maul his little brother.
Noah has had a touch of the stomach flu the past two days. I guess I should really say nights because he seems fine during the day although he doesn't want to eat much. He's just been getting sick at night; it's rough to keep cleaning the mess up but at least he hasn't been running a fever like so many others hit with this flu. Xander continues to teach him how to use swords and light sabers in anticipation of the day when they can really get down and play rough together. Noah gets a kick out of Xander and has a lot of fun playing with him. Noah's not too shabby with the light saber for a 9 month old. 
Last Saturday night we upgraded our family to seven kids. Wait, wait, wait...did you say seven kids, you ask? Yes, I know, seems a little unbelievable still. Every once in awhile we try to be nice people so we watched a couples' 4 small children so they could go out and enjoy some alone time. That left us with 7 kids for four hours...ages 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 9 months, and 3 months. Whoa! Thank goodness these kids were practically saints and it was really easy having them in our home. The only tough part was dinnertime...David and I set up an assembly line to get all the plates filled with food and then spent the rest of dinner refilling drinks and plates. Our kids enjoyed having the company and they all got along really well. Although it turned out to be just fine, David and I both agree that 3 kids is just fine with us!
Dress up and V-tech were the hits of the night.
I remember when I was little that I used to love playing out in the rain. One day when I was in 4th or 5th grade my younger brother and sister and some of our friends stayed after school and played tether ball in the pouring rain. When one of the moms found us on the playground, she wasn't too thrilled...but we had so much fun. Playing soccer in the rain was another favorite of mine; it was so much easier to slide tackle with the rain muddying up the field for me. On Thursday, as the kids and I walked home from the bus stop, it started to drizzle and Savannah reacted as though she was being hit by great drops of acid. I thought that all kids just naturally enjoyed the rain like I had but obviously I was wrong. Maybe Savannah has watched "The Wizard of Oz" one too many times and thinks she will share the fate of the wicked witch if rain drops get on her. Somehow I just really need to toughen that little girl up! Thank goodness Xander seems to be fine with the rain and even asked if he could go out in it for a little while. I think it mainly had to do with the fact that he loves his Spiderman umbrella and just wanted to play with it some more. 
Pirates 2 was the movie choice for Friday Movie Night. Xander dressed up in his Captain Jack Sparrow outfit for the occasion and was once again enthralled with the pirates. Davey Jones and his many tentacles was a big hit with the kids though Savannah was very upset that I would not let them watch any of the parts with the kraken; she had seen the kraken's huge tentacles on the cover of the DVD and kept insisting that it would be okay for them to watch. That was definitely one argument she just wasn't going to win. Hmmmm...I wonder why a huge sea monster devouring people and ships just didn't make my top ten movie scenes I want my children to watch. Once again, due to heavy editing on my part, the movie didn't last very long but just like the first, Captain Jack and the rest of his crew were a huge hit with my kids. All the way up to bed Xander could not stop talking about Davey Jones and the key hidden in his tentacles.
One of the kids' favorite parts of the movie was Will Turner, Gibbs, and the other pirates suspended in mid-air in the prison ball. When they all started rocking the prison back and forth, both Savannah and Xander started to laugh and kept laughing until Captain Jack and his men escape the island. I really wish I could have captured Xander's face on video as he watched this movie...his facial expressions were priceless! He sure loves those pirates!
The past few days have brought absolutely beautiful weather - plenty of sunshine and warmth, with temperatures in the mid 60's. When Savannah gets home from school, she and Xander have been heading outside to play with the neighbor kids while this "heat" lasts. Noah and I took advantage of the warm weather yesterday and spent some time out on our deck. Noah crawled all over exploring and found some tasty leaves to eat. Yum-yum. Ahhh, if only this kind of weather would last all month but the forecast says we're getting rain and a temperature drop for the end of the week. Oh, well...we love it while it's here.
A flashback to last year at this same time. It was the 6th of January and the temperature was 84! What a beautiful day. We couldn't resist doing something fun in the unusual heat we were having in January so we headed down to DC for the day. We saw the Capitol and the Washington Monument and enjoyed a picnic lunch. I was almost 7 months pregnant at the time and it's amazing to think that Noah is now almost a year old...that fun day in Washington doesn't seem that long ago.
Sunday was the first day of Primary for Xander and contrary to the pictures, Xander was NOT happy about it. Xander really enjoyed nursery, especially the toys and the snacks. Well, no more of that! We arrived at church a little early so the kids could say hi to David. David tried to get Xander excited about being in primary but Xander was having none of it. We dropped Savannah off first and she happily went off to her new class (she is now in CTR 6). Xander and I walked up to his classroom where another little boy was crying, not eager to start Primary either. Xander's teacher came to the door to greet him. His teacher is a very glamorous, beautiful older woman, with perfect hair, makeup, dress, jewelry, everything. She said hello to Xander and from that moment on Xander could not keep his eyes off her. He still clung to my leg as we went into the classroom but his eyes never left her. The Primary president and a counselor came in at that moment to drop off treats for the kids so it was a perfect opportunity for me to hurry out. Later at church Xander's teacher told me that he never stopped staring at her during the whole class; she would ask him a question but he never answered, he just stared at her. Last night as I was relating this all to my mom, she told me that she had had to sit with me for the first 6 months of my Primary experience. I told her that maybe they should have put a hunky teacher in and there wouldn't have been a problem. It's nice to know that Xander has made the transition well and now I'm just counting down the months until Noah can go to nursery. October, October, October...it can't come fast enough!
One of the few activities we did the week of Christmas was a "girl field trip" to see the Disney movie "Enchanted". Mom, Heidi and McKenna, and Savannah and I ate at Red Robin first and then headed over to the theater. It was such a cute movie although McKenna and Savannah both got a little restless about halfway through. Dad had decided that he and Xander would join in on the fun and they had a Grandpa/Grandson outing to Chick-fil-A (Xander's favorite) for lunch and also came to the movie. However, they sat a row behind us just to keep things separate. I checked back on Xander from time to time throughout the movie and I don't think his eyes left the screen once. He especially loved the dragon at the end.
Christmas Eve - what a wonderful time we always have. We started off with some shrimp cocktail partnered with my mom's delicious cocktail sauce that can not be duplicated. Next came the filet mignon, Caesar salad, cream corn, rolls and plenty of Martinellis. This meal continues to be my favorite meal of the year! Since the kids are all so small and have attention spans to match, we have made some adjustments to our Christmas Eve program. This year Grandpa used the wooden nativity pieces as he told the story of our Savior's birth and the kids really enjoyed placing each piece in the manger. He also read the book "God Bless Your Way", a book about a man named Micah who traveled to Bethlehem at the same time as Mary and Joseph. Savannah, Xander, and Noah opened their new Christmas jammies and then it was off to bed for the little ones. The adults finished wrapping gifts while watching A Christmas Story.
Learning about the night our Savior was born.
New jammies for Christmas. Poor Noah wasn't too thrilled but little did we know that he had been bit by the stomach flu bug and was not feeling well at all.
It's tradition - what would Santa and his reindeer do if we didn't leave cookies, chocolate milk, and carrots for them?
Christmas morning...waiting to go down to see what Santa left us.
Savannah received ANOTHER Build-a-Bear...this one was a Pink Leopard!
Xander got two more Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles...or as he calls them "Ninja Turtle Frogs".
The annual gift of a beef stick for Ryan...
and some reference to David smelling. (David doesn't really smell...it's just a reference to the Michigan football team "stinking". I really don't want to go into any further explanations.)
Xander got a Darth Vader light saber from Grandma and Grandpa. He was absolutely thrilled because, although it's hard to admit, Xander prefers the siths in the Star Wars movies and has now joined the dark side of the force. He reigned terror on the house for the next few days.
Okay, so it's time for me to catch up on Christmas and in the following few blogs I will share some of the highlights of our Christmas week. This year we spent Christmas in Cincinnati with my family - my parents, Heidi and Ryan and their kids, Bryan, and Kelly (she left on the 23rd for Oregon to be with Jared). We always have such a great time at Schaeffer headquarters and this year was no exception although most of us did suffer from some illness during the week. When we arrived on the 22nd, Heidi was just getting over the stomach flu. Unfortunately this nasty little bug made its way through most of the adults as well as poor little Noah. My parents were hit with it the last two days we were there, confining them to their room and robbing us all of time spent together. Thank goodness neither David or I got it but we both had bad colds the entire week of our visit. The sicknesses were not fun to deal with but we all managed to have a good time anyway and we are so grateful that we live in a time when we have the ability to travel great distances in a short amount of time so we can be together.
What cute kids!
Noah and sweet little Ashlyn.
Xander was so excited to get to Grandma and Grandpa's house so he could play with the Heman toys.
Reading with Aunt Kelly. We were so sad that we only got a day with her and that Jared didn't get to come.
Savannah loves her cousin Ashlyn!
Playing dominoes with Grandma and Kenna.
