Jack's "Happy Birthday, Jesus!!" Party

Jack had his "Happy Birthday, Jesus!!" party at school today. I got to help out so I was able to take lots of pictures.:0)

Jack with some of his buddies decked out in birthday hats and ready to sing "Happy Birthday" to Jesus.:0)


"Happy Birthday, Jesus!!!"

Jack loves to blow out candles. After they got done blowing them out the first time he asked if they could do it again.:0)

Jack and soem of his classmates working on their craft projects, foam Christmas trees.

Jack loved sticking on the foamy stickers.:0)

"Look at my tree, Mommy!!!"

Some of the finished trees. They did a great job!!!

The kids played "Pin the Star on the Christmas Tree". I was quite surprised when Jack actually let me put the blindfold on him.:0)

The Christmas tree after all the children had their turns.

The class lining up to try to toss a ball into the basket.

Patiently waiting for their turns!!!

Jack with his special treat bag.:0)

Jack posing with a picture with his buddies, Candice, Brock, and Haley.

We had a great time at Jack's party. Happy Birthday, Jesus!!!

Santa Visits the Hoerth House

Santa came for a visit last week!!! We had just put Jack to bed and Carter was over at church for Kids' Club. We got Jack out of bed and let him have some time with Santa all to himself. We figured Carter wouldn't mind too much considering that he doesn't believe anymore.:0) I did go over and get Carter when Kids' Club was over and he was able to see Santa for a few minutes. Here are pics we took of our special visit with Santa:

Jack was surprised to be able to get out of bed and even more surprised when he saw who came to visit him!!!


He thought Santa was very funny!!!

Jack decided to pretend to be shy.:0)

He decided to sit on my lap for a bit until he got comfortable.:0)

Jack warmed up to Santa very quickly. I'm not sure who talked more!!!

Santa read us the story of Jesus' birth.

We had to keep reminding Jack to stop talking and let Santa read his stories.:0)

He got a special candy cane from Santa.

Carter played along like a good big brother.:0)

We really enjoyed our visit from Santa. The best part was that he reminded us that Jesus is what Christmas is all about.:0)

Jack's 1st Christmas Program

Jack had his very 1st school Christmas program today. Sometimes it is still hard for me to believe that he is old enough to be in school already. All of the kids in his class did a great job with their parts and they all sang really well. Jack knew all of the songs and said his line like a pro!!:0) Here are some pics:

Jack sitting with his class before their program started (sorry it's blurry....the camera was having focus issues!!!)

Jack with his class. They looked so adorable all dressed up.:0)

Jason did a short pre-program devotion with the kids. He was showing them our church's manger.

Jack decked out in his party hat for Jesus' birthday.:0)

Puttin' on the cheese!!!

Posing with Daddy after doing a great job in his program.:0)

Jack with his buddy, Brock.

Makin' Cookies:0)

I love making iced sugar cookies every year at Christmas. It was something that my mom and I did when I was growing up.:0) Carter and I made the cookies a couple of days ago. I thought it would be nice to give Jack's Sunday school teachers a plate of cookies that he decorated himself so that's what we did this morning.

Jack was VERY excited about decorating cookies!!!


He loved shaking on the sprinkles......and did a really good job!!!

He just needed a little help from Mom at times.:0)

His favorite part was eating all the sprinkles afterwards.:0)

These are the cookies that Jack decorated himself.:0)

I decorated some others too.....my favorites are the M&M trees.:0)

Gotta love the sprinkle-faced cheesy smile!!!

Carter's 1st Dance

Carter had his first school dance last night. It is REALLY hard for us to believe that he is old enough to go to dances already.....but he is. There were tons of kids there and they were all so dressed up. All the girls had on dressy dresses and had their hair all done. It was like a mini-prom!!! Carter had a great time with all of his buddies, dancing and goofing around. I think the highlight of the night for him was getting to drink soda.:0) He said that he didn't dance with any girls (I wasn't at all disappointed by this!!) but that maybe he would next time.:0) Here are some pics of his big night:

All dressed up and ready to boogy!!!


This is what Jack did when we asked him to take a picture with his brother.:0)

Daddy and Carter

My 3 handsome guys.:0)

Carter with his best bud, Max, at the dance.

Jack showing off his dance moves. He was very upset when we ahd to leave.

I think he gets his moves from his dad!!!:0)

Yummy Treats :0)

Carter is "Student of the Week" this week so he gets to bring a treat to share with his class tomorrow. He requested Rice Krispie treats so I decided to be festive and make candy-cane shaped treats. The stripes were supposed to be made with licorice strings but that didn't work out so well, so I used some red icing instead. Here's how they turned out......

Jason, Jack and I went to Carter's Christmas program this morning. They have both a morning and evening performance. Jack and I will be going again tonight but Jason is doing our church's Advent service and won't be able to come with us. Carter has one of the main parts in the musical and has been working really hard on learning his lines. I know that this is going to sound extra sappy but when he got on stage for the first time this morning, I almost cried because of how proud I was of him. He did a phenomenal job and we are so very, very proud of him!!!! Unfortunately, I won't be able to post a video of his performance because of privacy issues with all of the other kiddos from school in the video but you can take my word for it that all the students did a great job!!!:0)

Just Me and The Stink:0)

I picked up our Christmas cards from Wal-Mart yesterday, got them home and opened them to find that they had given me the wrong size envelopes. ARGH!!! I really want to get our cards out within the next couple of days, so I decided to make another trip to Wal-Mart this morning. I had a few other errands to run and then needed to be at Carter's orthodontist's office by noon for a meeting with him about Carter's future treatment. So, instead of coming all the way home to have lunch, Jack and I had the rare treat of lunch out together. We enjoyed our time together...here are a few pics:

Jack's favorites at Panera are their crunchy chips and chocolate chip bagels. I always bring some sort of fruit from home so that he eats at least one healthy thing.:0)

Just me and my Stink!!!

Poor Carter......after meeting with his orthodontist, it looks like he's going to need to have 4 permanent teeth pulled as soon as we can get it scheduled. The orthodontist continues to be amazed at how crowded Carter's teeth are. He actually has permanent teeth dissolving the roots of other permanent teeth like they would baby teeth. He showed me Carter's x-rays and you would be amazed at the amount of crowding in that poor child's mouth!!! After he gets the teeth pulled, he will have full braces for about 2 years and then will be done (other than wearing his retainer). At this point, we're really hoping that Jack's teeth are at least somewhat normal or the orthodontic community is going to be making a small fortune off of the Hoerth family!!!:0)