Rebekah's Pictures

At Rebekah's old school in Sherwood, they always take pictures of all the kids. I took Rebekah back there to have hers taken. They also do a great class composite that I wanted to have for her scrapbook. These were taken on January 14, 2009. The first one is my favorite. Thanks to Aunt Cynthia for the great outfit!

Happy Valentines Day!

This year I decided to make the girls Valentines Day cards. I had a lot of fun and I didn't have the headache of trying to get them to write their names on all those cards! And they really were inexpensive. I think the girls enjoyed handing out ones with their picture on them too. So, for all of you to enjoy - Happy Valentines Day from our family to yours!

Valentines Day Parties

Our first party yesterday was at Rebekah's school. She attends on Mondays and Wednesdays, but they had their party on Thursday. She and one other girl, MaKenna were the only two from her class at the party. Since all the other kids were strangers to her, Rebekah didn't want to sit at the table with everyone. The only way I could get her to sit down was at the round table with me. The other kids are a younger group of kids too.


A plate FULL of yummy and sugary things! She liked the cookie with the green frosting best.


And here she is showing off her green tongue! She received a bag full of nice valentines and sweet candy.


Later that morning was Rachel's party. She got out of school at noon yesterday since they were having Parent/Teacher Conferences. She also doesn't have school today or Monday! Her class party was crazy! They had pizza, cookies and of course, CANDY! Rachel is kind of hard to see in this picture. You can only see the back of her head and she has on a pink shirt and is behind a boy with a black t-shirt on.


Rachel looked away just as I took this picture. She was so excited to look at all her valentines! You can see the boys in this picture really were enjoying their pizza!


Rachel's class made the CUTEST valentine box. They used cereal boxes and wrapped them for the kids to decorate. I love the picture and it made it easy for the kids to identify whose box it was!


Parties are all over and our candy bowl is now full once again. I'm sure it will be empty by the time Easter comes around!! Hope you all have a wonderful Valentines Day and a great weekend.

Guess What We Got?!?

We got a Roomba!! We actually got it back in December. We love it! It does really well in getting the hardwood and tile cleaned up. It also cleans the carpet good too. Jon Paul has been in charge of his new "son" and has enjoyed playing with him and programming him. The girls wanted to name him, but couldn't agree on a name. We came up with Mike or Mike-E. Mike after Mike Rowe on Dirty Jobs and it is also round like Mike on Monsters, Inc. The other name was WALL-E, after the movie and since he picked up trash. He gets called WALL-E most of the time.

Well, WALL-E cleans the wood floor all on his own every Monday and Wednesday. He starts up, cleans and goes home - all with no help from anyone. Smart kid! He never complains either. I'm really liking him! He usually cleans the tile on the weekends and maybe one or more bedrooms that have carpet.

Welcome to the family WALL-E Mike!

Had to share this video with you. We came across it this past week and thought it was so funny. In it is actually a Scooba which uses water to "mop and scrub" the floor. There are a lot of funny videos on YouTube - just do a search for pets and roomba!

Cabot Family Christmas

This year my entire family was able to celebrate Christmas together. And we were so happy to get to host the celebration at our new house. My parents, my three sisters and their families, my mother-in-law and Patty and Michelle's mom, Dorothy were all in attendance. That made for 22 people here! It was crazy and tiring, but it was a blast! I loved having them all here.

Here we are at gift time. We rearranged our family room to open it up more so everyone could see. There are ten cousins/kids and they got to open their presents first. It was mayhem! After the kids were done and sent off the play with their new toys, the adults got to open their gifts.

We put the seven youngest at our kitchen table. Carson, the youngest of all of them, was in his high chair. In this photo, starting from the left is Joshua Mullins, Hannah Mullins, Sam Hutchinson, Matthew Hutchinson, Rachel, Courtney Bettis and you can see the back of Rebekah's head.

The two oldest cousins...also teenagers...got to sit at the bar. Aaron Mullins is on the left in blue and Andrew Hutchinson is on the right in red. We teased them that this was the "transition bar" - too big for the kiddie table, but not old enough for the grown up table!

Since we rearranged the family room, we were able to set up four of my scrapbooking tables and all the adults were able to enjoy their meal around one table. I don't remember the last time we were able to do that!

While the adults were finishing up eating and talking, Carson decided he was just pooped out. He climbed up on our couch and went to sleep. Looks comfy, doesn't it?!?! I love how he has his legs all crossed - precious!

The life saver of the day was our Guitar Hero World Tour band, set up in our bedroom. Most of the kids hung out in there ALL day. I don't think we heard one argument or complaint. They really enjoyed playing this game and many of the others we have. It was nice having the Wii set up in our bedroom, then the adults could still be in the family room and talk comfortably. We were even able to get up a mean game of Mexican Train dominoes while the kids played.

Here is a photo of Jon Paul and my niece Hannah. Hannah is Patty's youngest child and she is autistic. She has come along way. I was so happy to hear her saying many more words this visit. She seemed to really feel comfortable in our house and played all day without asking to leave. I was also overjoyed when she wanted to sit in my lap and help me play dominoes. She sat in my lap for about 30-45 minutes and I loved every minute of it. She doesn't volunteer her affection very often. Jon Paul was also surprised and happy when Hannah came over to him on the drums and took the sticks out of his hands and wanted to play along with the other kids. She's precious and we miss her!

One last shot of some of the band. They had a lot of fun and I'm glad we had it here for them to enjoy. My sister, Cynthia, and her family all stayed at our house all weekend. We celebrated the weekend immediately following Christmas. Patty and her family stayed at Michelle's house in Lonoke. My parents drove up from Sherwood for all the festivities. So, our house was nice and centrally located for everyone!

Rebekah Funnies...

I guess a girl can never have too many purses while she's working on the computer. Or should I say, "on the Peeter" as Rebekah calls it.

A few more funny Rebekah sayings:

"Lem-O-lade" for lemonade

Rebekah: I love you Mommy!
Mommy: And I love you!
Rebekah: No, it not I love you. It's I love you TOO!

Rebekah when she gets upset or angry:
"You're making me mean!"

At dinner a few nights ago:
"I not little. I gettin' bigger.
I'm a big girl. I not need a paci anymore!"

Friends...

Jon Paul's best friend growing up came to visit us in December. James Lester is like a brother to Jon Paul. We were so excited when James contacted us to say he was going to be in Arkansas over Christmas and wanted to come see us and our new house. We haven't seen James years. I don't think he had ever seen Rebekah. So, it was good to see him and visit and catch up on everything. James, his wife and son live in Virginia where James is in the Navy. We all miss you James and hope to see you again soon!

Rachel Drama...

Rachel doesn't like to part with anything. ANYTHING!! I have to sneakily throw things away. Most of the time she never knows they suddenly went "missing!"

Well, one Sunday at church they gave all of the kids palm branches. REAL palm branches. Well, she and Rebekah have played with it for two weeks now. The branch is dry, crunchy and starting to grow something on it...not too sure what, but ICK!! Anyway, Jon Paul told her last night, "We need to throw this away." Yeah, probably shouldn't have told her. But, oh well.

Immediately the tears start pouring out from her eyes. "NO NO NO!!! Don't throw it away! I remember when I got it!!" After ten minutes of explaining why we don't need to keep it anymore, she was still crying. So, I suggested we take a picture of it, so she can have the photo to remind her, instead of the dead, yucky branch. She was okay with that suggestion. So, above is the picture of her and the dead branch....which is now in the trash can.

My Baby Is Growing Up!

Well, as of today, Rebekah has not had her paci for SIX days! And I must say, the break up was very peaceful and easy. She misses her faithful friend, but is excited about the fact that she is just too big to have a paci anymore!!

I really would have gotten rid of it WAY before now. However, 2008 held LOTS of changes for our family and especially little Rebekah. The paci always got pushed to the bottom of the list. Just so you know, here is a brief synopsis of last year for us and for Rebekah:

2008
January: We moved Rebekah out of her crib and into a toddler bed.
February: Our house was for sale, lots of cleaning and keeping it presentable for showing.
March: Moved into and apartment. Rachel and Rebekah are now sharing a room.
April: Completely potty trained Rebekah.
May-July: Still in apartment and rooming with Rachel. I didn't want to deal with the trauma and keep everyone else awake.
August: Moved into new house. Now Rebekah is in her own room and in a new, big bed.
September: Rebekah started a new school.
October-December: Crazy busy time with the holidays and just never got around to doing it.

So, in January, we started talking to her about giving up the paci. She was dead set AGAINST it.

We talked about taking all her current paci's to the store and letting her "pay" for a new toy with her paci's. Her response, "I have enough toys. I don't need anymore!"

We talked about giving her paci's to another baby. Her response, "Baby's mommies get them paci's!"

We talked about making a Paci Chart and getting stickers for sleeping without her pack. Her response, "I not want a chart. I don't like stickers."

One thing that always came up whenever we talked about it. She didn't want to give up her paci because she was afraid. To quote her, "I need my paci. I don't want bugs to get in my mouth!" Not sure where this came from, but I guess if you sleep without a paci, then all the bugs get in your mouth!

After all of this discussing, I finally told her, "Rebekah, one day you're going to be too big for your paci. And when you are too big, your paci will break!" I said this because in the back of my mind, I was thinking I could sneak in one day and cut a small hole in the bottom of the paci.

Well, I didn't have to do that...at first. Last Friday night, Jon Paul told me that one of the paci's in her room (she has two) had a hole in it. He found the other one and gave it to her. So, I took this as a sign and Saturday morning, I went and got the other one and cut a hole in it too! :-)

So, at nap time Saturday afternoon, Rebekah got in her bed and promptly put her paci in her mouth. She took it out and looked at it and the conversation went like this:

Rebekah: This paci has a hole in it!
Mommy: Really? Is it broken?
Rebekah: Yes.
Mommy: Well, you know what that means! You are too big for your paci! I am soooo happy for you, my big BIG girl!!
Rebekah (pointing to the other paci in her room): That one has a hole too. That one is broken too.
Mommy: You are so big. You don't need these anymore!
Rebekah (handing me her paci): I don't want my paci's anymore.

So, that was the end of their almost four year relationship. We put both paci's in the trashcan. No tears were shed....well, maybe one or two from Mommy when she saw her little baby grow up right before her eyes!! And she has slept good for both naptime and bedtime ever since!!