Midtown lights

Cooper on the swing!

Nixon enjoying the swing

Making CHOCOLATE "gingerbread" houses!

                                                       Nixon asleep in his jumpy chair

A couple of Fridays ago Tommy called to say that he would be home a bit late from work.

We usually go out for dinner or somewhere on Friday nights, so I knew the kids were itching to get out. So we decided to walk to see the Midtown lights. There is also a park at Midtown so that was an extra bonus. 

The lights were fun to see and they made the kids excited for Christmas. I don't know if the Japanese people were taking more pictures of the lights or the kids! 

Tommy met us after he was finished with his late meeting and we made our way back home.

All is calm, all is BRIGHT!

Ok, so maybe all is not calm* (with 4 kids how could it be?!!), but we are working on the bright! 

We finally got our Christmas tree up this Sunday after church. The twins watched from their high chairs and the big boys entertained them with dances and jokes. 

Mindy Glendhills 'Winter Moon' was playing (Tommy and I got to see her live this weekend with friends) and the heater was cozying up our home. 

It was a fun evening!

**only 3 ornaments broken, a couple of meltdowns, had to stop once to nurse and put the babies to sleep, took a break to make chocolate chip cookies, and had to finish up some homework with Ashton. But we made it, even if it took ALL evening :)

Karate test

Opening ceremonies with the Grand Master

 Pep talk from our Sensei (teacher)

Getting ready to bow

Our "ready" stance or fight stance

Low blocks

Middle blocks

Weston helping daddy out with the twins

Bows at the end

And for your entertainment.....

Bath with all 4 little rug rats! Cooper had just woken up ha ha!

Ashton and I took our test this weekend for our next belt. We first had to do a pre-test in front our our sensei and class on Thursday, and after our evaluations we were told if we could go test with the Grand Master. 

The dojo was about an hour away, so we packed everyone up and made our way to the test. It was definitely an experience. Ashton and I were the first to be called up. This being our first karate testing experience I was a little nervous. You have to greet the judges in japanese and thank them and bow and then the test starts. Once we got going it was no problem. 

After we watched everyone we had a 2 minute sparring test. By this time it was around 3:00 (we had been there for 3 hours) and I was starting to feel hungry. Good thing the sparring was only 2 minutes because I was low on energy at this point. 

Ashton and I both did very good and we will get our results in 2 week.

All 4 boys played in the bath together when we got home. It was fun to watch:)