Another Elf Yourself

I started out trying to do bad pictures of everyone in our family, but realized as I was searching for a bad picture of myself, that I've made a habit of deleting all bad pictures of myself as soon as they are uploaded. Oh well. So, instead I made an evil twin one for the kids. cute. My favorite one is Matthews smiley face.
http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1398609881

A few more updates

So I realized there were still more things that I hadn't posted for all y'all to read, so here goes:
Aaron has heard back from Oregon, USC (L.A), UOP (San Fransisco), and one more... I can't remember; all asking for more money for the application and some asking for more letters of recommendation and official DAT scores (which are different somehow from the DAT scores they received from the DAT testing place??).

I have a new fun musician to listen to: Jake Shimabukuro- check out a sample of his sweet ukulele skills on the playlist at the bottom of the blog. It's "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" (Beatles cover). Be sure to click on the song twice.

Matthew will be going to preschool in January. Hopefully to a branch of CHIC (Center for Hearing Impaired Children) in Queen Creek. His class consists of 5 other children about his age, all of whom wear hearing aids just like him. He'll ride the short bus to school (about 8-10 miles away). Aaron is really nervous about putting a barely three year old on the bus in someone else's care. I don't know how I feel about it... I really want him to get the interaction with his peers and time with the speech therapist (he was seeing an in-home speech therapist, but those services end when he turns three in two weeks). I am just nervous about being a side-lines figure in his life. I'm used to having complete control over his environment and dealings. I was looking forward to two more years of him at home with me... I guess if it doesn't work out, I can just take him out. Please comment on this if you have an opinion, whatsoever. I'd love an outsider's perspective.

Megan is constantly saying hilarious things. The other night she told Aaron about a bad dream and how she was afraid of it being real. Aaron told her about her subconscious and how her brain just pulls things out to dream about. That seemed to appease her. A few nights later, she said her prayers and, as usual, prayed to have good dreams (as I had taught her years ago when she was scared to go to sleep for the dreams). When she was done she looked up at me and said "My brain and Heavenly Father make a GREAT TEAM! My brain and Heavenly Father make me some great dreams. My brain and Heavenly Father are good friends." I just started cracking up. I really wish I wrote down more of what she said. It's usually 3-4 things a day that she says that I should write down. I'm recommitted!

December updates

A few new things are happening in the Shumway household that I thought I'd write about:


1. Matthew is half-way potty trained... on his own. He says "I needa go cotty" and then goes in to the bathroom all by himself and poops on the potty. Holy Cow says I. It was totally opposite for Megan. She would go #1 on the potty but was so scared to go poop on the potty that she'd get constipated and not go for a few days... at least she didn't poop in her underware- That would NOT have been fun to clean up. I have no idea how to get Matthew to use the potty the rest of the time, but I'm sure he'll learn somehow.

2. Aaron is done with this semester (and not looking forward to one more semester of Physics) He stayed up half the night playing on xbox live to celebrate his independence (I don't know how that's different from any other night... LOL)


3. I was a little creative this winter and made cloven fruit or a pomander as some people know it- I used one of those California clementines (mini orange) and stuck cloves into the peel and tied it with ribbon. It was so much cuter than the one pictured (this is a stock photo) and smelled really good. Matthew ate it today. How sad. And no, it is not meant for consumption. Oh well, I guess he was hungry and it is non-toxic after all. I made a new one with the cloves I recovered. Not as cute, but it smells just as yummy. Wassail!

Awesome!

Megan said something funny last night in the car. We were on our way home from her grandparents house and she asked, "Mommy, does Jesus' birthday last until summer time?" I said, "Well, Jesus' birthday is actually in the spring, but we celebrate His birthday PARTY on Christmas." (She just had a birthday last month and got the concept of having your party on a different day than your actual birthday) She got really excited and said with a loud voice "Yeah, and Jesus' birthday is AWESOME!" I could just picture her doing a fisted elbow dig along with "awesome." She proceeded to tell me all about the stuff that was going to be at Jesus' birthday party; Christmas lights, yummy food, and I added "-and presents" to which she replied, "Yeah we're going to give Him presents. What should I get Him?" I almost corrected her and said "No, we get eachother presents," but I caught myself. Why the heck do we get EACHOTHER presents and not Jesus? I think I'd be a little upset at my birthday party if everyone came and gave eachother presents and I was left emptyhanded. I now have a challenge for myself and for anyone who reads this. Think about what you can get (do) for Jesus this year. What can you do for someone else in need or how can you change your own life to please Jesus? Obviously you would also benefit, so get started today!
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!