Some More Firsts

Tuesday night Lincoln got to go to his first high school basketball game. He started screaming as soon as we walked in the door and he kept crying off and on for awhile-very unlike him. I tried a bottle. I tried rocking him and so did my mom, but nothing helped. Then he tooted and everything was fine again. He seemed to enjoy it after all of that.
Ellie loved watching the cheerleaders. I think she even tried to stand like them.
And Jackson enjoyed the snacks and getting to see his Little K leader, Kevin. He does seem to be a little more interested in the game this year after playing in the backyard this summer.
On Friday we headed to Kansas City for my cousin's funeral. To me it is very sad to think of someone dying so young and also for a parent to have to watch their child go through everything Ashley did, but Lissy had a great perspective. Check it out here. We had planned on going to Columbia that day to let the kids see Santa and do some Christmas shopping, so we tried to squeeze some of that in after the funeral. We took the kids to Target so they could buy each other and their cousins some gifts and it was pretty painless. They enjoyed getting to hang out in the toy aisles for awhile. Then we headed over to Bass Pro for the kids to see Santa. It was a great place to do this. They had a "Winter Wonderland" set up with games for the kids to play while we waited in line for Santa. They also had a little pond with fish and ducks swimming around.

Then the Santa was really cute. Authentic beard and very nice. I thought they would talk to the kids first and then take the picture, so I had Andrew stand off to the side with Lincoln and I was making sure the other two were doing okay. But they took the picture first (because they print it off right then and give it to you as you walk out-and it was free!) and I totally forgot to get Lincoln in there. I felt so bad, but the line was huge by this point and there was no going back.

Brad, Annie, and Lauren even stopped by to see us on their way out of town to Springfield. Ellie was very excited to see Lauren and shared her sticker with her.
Next came Ellie's tea party on Saturday morning. The Truschingers invited us over for a Christmas tea. Brian and Tony were even there to greet us in their suits. They answered the door for us, took our coats, and got our drinks. Ellie was very excited. The girls had their own little table set up with a tea set and they got to drink "tea" (water) and eat special treats Amanda and Abby had made. They also just played around a lot and they even had crafts to make. It was all very sweet.

Today has just been spent catching up on cleaning, laundry, office work, etc. Now I'm off to make dinner and then we get to watch the Phineas and Ferb Christmas Special-I know you are jealous.