Funck Family Christmas 2014

Family Pics

We try to do some family pictures every year, but unfortunately last year it didn't work out.  We had them scheduled and then it snowed on the day we were supposed to do them.  Then we rescheduled them only to be rained out the second time.  And by then, it was too late to do them before Christmas so we just scrapped them.  So this year I knew I wanted to do some for sure.  So I got an early start.  My nephew Drew has a very sweet girlfriend (we wish she was his wife LOL!) and she is attempting to start a photography business so we decided to have her take the pictures.  I couldn't have been more pleased with how they turned out - they are awesome!  Here are a few of my favorite pictures:

Halloween 2014

Halloween 2014 is in the books!

We had a very nice Halloween.  It fell on a Friday this year, which was nice because there was no pressure to hurry up and get the kids home and ready for bed!

We had some friends come over and trick or treat with us.  They live way in the country so they don't have many places to trick or treat.  We hit the hood and of course, loaded up on candy!  Afterwards, Maddie had Sydney (one of the friends that we trick or treated with) spend the night.  It was really a fun night.

However, whenever you have three children there is bound to be some kind of unexpected wrench thrown in your plans. And ours happened the day before Halloween, on Thursday.  Mason goes to school that day.  And they were encouraged to wear their costumes to school.  So Mason dressed up like Buzz Lightyear, looked cute as can be, and off to school we went!  When I went to pick him up, he was dressed in the extra outfit that I have packed in his backpack, so I knew that he must have had some type of accident.  His teacher explained that he had wet himself early in the day.  Now, he has been well potty trained since July. He stays dry all night and just doesn't have accidents.  But of course, his first accident has to happen while he is wearing his costume.  The worst part is that store bought costumes are just not that well made.  They are cheap, flimsy material that looks like it could fall apart any time.  So I was very hesitant to wash it.  But when I got home and smelled the disgusting stench coming from the costume, I decided to risk washing it.  I put in on the gentle cycle and then hung it to dry and was pleasantly surprised that it did okay.  So I was stressed for a bit, but all ended up okay!

Brothers

Just a couple of pictures of my sweet boys, all ready for church.

This was my first effort.

And here is a better picture:

Grandparents Day

Today was Grandparents Day at Maddie's school, one of her last ones to participate in because she just keeps growing up.

First Day of School

We now have a 5th grader, a 1st grader, and a Preschooler.

My kids are growing up, and way too quickly.  Makes me sad, but also proud because they are all such great kids.

This is what a 5th grader looks like.  Note the large amount of Vera Bradley in this picture.  Apparently all 5th grade girls have Vera Bradley.  Not sure if that was true or not, but somehow she ended up with the backpack and the lunch box.

And here is our 1st grader.

You can't see his backpack in this picture, but it is Star Wars, which is his latest obsession.

Mason started school too, but not on the same day as the big kids.  He is going to go 2 days each week and here is his first day picture.  He was the most excited about his new lunch pail.

All three kids had a great start to school.  Maddie gets to change classes this year which is a new thing for her, but she is enjoying the change of pace so far.  Micah likes his teacher and he has a few friends in his class.  In typical Micah fashion, he is struggling a bit with behavior issues, but he is excelling academically because he is one smart little guy.  And Mason absolutely loves school so far.  When I picked him up after his first day, he was full of details and talked a blue streak about school and all they did.  After he told me everything, he promptly stated "But I'm never going back!!".  After I explained to him that he got to stay home with me for a day before he goes back, he decided that he did indeed want to go back and has been eager to go every day since then.  All in all, I say that our school experience is off to a good start for all 3 kids.  I was kind of sad for summer to end, but the routine of school is actually a welcome change for me.

UFO's?

Well, I learned an important lesson this summer.  Never turn Micah loose in the library, without supervision.  He didn't get in trouble or mess anything up, thankfully, but while I was helping Maddie locate a specific book, I allowed him to go choose some of his own books.  He was in the non-fiction animal section when I left him, so I thought he would choose his usual favorite, which is dinosaur books.  We went and checked out our books.  We use the self checkout and the kids can do it themselves, so yet again I wasn't really paying attention to what he had selected.  When we got home, they took their books to their rooms like we always do.  As the days went along, he started telling me that he wanted to take a trip to Roswell, NM sometime soon.  I kind of ignored it the first time, because lots of crazy things come out of his mouth.  But he kept persisting his talk of Roswell and when I pried a little, he told me that he had read all about it in his book from the library, the one about UFO's.  Sheesh.  I need to pay more attention.  I listened to what he had to say and went on to tell him that I don't personally believe in UFO's because I believe what God says about creation, etc.  He seemed to listen and even buy my argument but then his smart little mind took over.  He came back with his own argument, which was pretty rock solid for a 7 year old.  He said that he had learned that non-fiction books were true stories and he got his UFO book from the non-fiction section so therefore it must be truth.  Sometimes it is just impossible to argue with such logic!  So I just let him think whatever he wanted to think, and promptly returned the UFO book to the library as soon as I could get it there.  And determined that from that day forward, I will most certainly preview his selections before taking them home.