Christmas Update

Merry Christmas from the Sparkmans! I didn't do an "official" letter this year, so I thought I'd update you on us.

David is a busy, busy man. After pursuing the FedEx career path for the past 5 years, he decided that he absolutely hates it. Hates the work, hates working nights, hates being tired all the time. Can I get an Amen??? So after some prayer and pondering, he headed back to school in January to pursue a Masters in education. He is also planning a doctorate to teach education on a college level. Right now he is about half way done with a perfect 4.0. He has even achieved a 100% in a few of the classes. He took the PRAXIS and scored in the top 15% of anyone who has ever taken the test. We are so proud of him!! He also continues to work nights at FedEx and photographs weddings on weekends.

Catherine, too, manages to stay crazy busy. She still works two days a week as a real estate paralegal. Due to the economy, her current company is closing at the end of the year. She is starting at a new firm and hopes for the best. Her much more important job of wife and mother manages to fill the remainder of her time. Lately the roles of cook, maid, taxi driver, etc., have taken a back seat to nursemaid. (See the Plague Post for more info.) I am praying for a healthy 2009! In her free time (what's that?) she enjoys time with her family, book club, and nights out with the girls! (Also she really loves writing about herself in 3rd person.)

Chandler (almost 6) graduated from preschool in May. He started kindergarten in August and loves it! We have full day kindergarten here, so the bus picks him up at 7:30 and brings him back at 3:15. It is a long day! But both Chandler and Mom have adjusted. Chandler has no trouble with the school work, just some trouble stayting on task. (I wonder who that sounds like?) He loves reading, math, and especially science. He loves to do "experiments", which are always fun to clean up. Chandler also loves to swim and got rings off the deep end of the pool this summer.

Callie (3) started at the big girl preschool this fall. She is a little more tentative than her brother, but is enjoying it and doing well. She is a girly girl and loves pink, princesses, and dress up. The other day I attempted to put a blue shirt on her, and she said, "What are you putting on me? This is not pink!!" Callie has been absolutely in love with Christmas this year. She loves Baby Jesus and immediately removes him from any nativity scene she comes across to hold and love. (I think my Mom's is still missing.) She loves Santa, and the lights, and the cookies. She was upset when Santa came to our house last night and didn't say hi to her. She also wanted to pet his reindeer, Comet and Pukid. (aka Cupid, we gotta work on that one.)

2008, like all the others, has been a blessed year for our family. We have felt the Lord's hand as he has guided decisions, blessed our lives, and given us shelter from the storm. We are so thankful for the Savior, the true reason for the season, and for the opportunity to celebrate what he means to each of us. We hope this Christmas finds each of you healthy, happy, and surrounded by those you love. Happy Holidays!

Bad Hair Day

Some of you may be aware of Callie's awesome morning hair. Girl's got skills. It mostly involves sleeping with a blanket over her head on slightly damp hair. This morning's do definitely seemed blog worthy.

The side view

The back- Have you ever seen anything like it?

She does clean up nice, though.

Away in a Manger

We had the opportinity to participate in two live nativities this past weekend. On Saturday night, we had our Ward Christmas Party. The Primary children usually do a program and nativity.

Chandler got to be one of the wisemen. (He was the one bringing the gold, he decided.)

He did refuse to remove his medal, which he received for bowling a 100 at a birthday party the night before. It may have detracted from his outfit a little. But it IS gold, I guess.

Callie has already decided she wants to be Mary next year, so she can hold Baby Jesus. Okay, Dawn? :)

Then on Sunday night, one of the local churches had a live nativity, complete with animals. The kids saw a donkey, a horse, some sheep, and 3 camels.

(If you look closely you can Chandler's blue hood, Ethan, and Callie at the bottom of the picture.)

The kids got to sit on the front row on haystacks, which was a big deal. Each showing sat 600 people! The production was really well done and straight from the scriptures.

They also had crafts for the kids to do- painting, beading, etc.

It's so nice to have activities that help to reinforce the true meaning of Christmas. We are so thankful for this time of year to be able to celebrate the birth and life of the Savior.

Pilgrims, Indians, and other Random Pics

Because of all the Thanksgiving illness, I ended up with very few, very random, Thanksgiving pictures. (Plague Number 3 is back, by the way.) There's no pictures of the table or all of us eating or anything traditional. Illness aside, we had a great time. Chad, Erin, and Brianna came from Sacramento, CA. Curtis, Alicia, and Nathan came from Denver, CO. It was nice to all be together again. Sadly, it will probably be annual event. So of course, my mother required family pictures and matching outfits.

We went to the Germantown Tree Lighting. I left my camera in the car, so I ended up one with picture- the view of my backseat. We had a car full.

The kids did make some cute Thanksgiving outfits.

Only Chandler could be a pilgrim AND Batman.

"Princess Callie", the Indian

Come back soon. We miss you already!

Christmas Conversations

Chandler: Why were there no pigs at the first Christmas?
Me: I'm not really sure. Maybe there were.
Chandler: I bet the pig shephards didn't hear the angel.

The Ten Plagues

Yes, I know I've been absent from blogging for a while. You know I'll have a good excuse. There were ten plagues, right? Here are the the 10 Sparkman plagues, all hitting our house in the last 5 weeks:

1. My back went out. The bottom two vertebrae completely locked up. It was awesome. I now have a chiropracter, which is also awesome.
2. Bronchitis
3. Stomach Flu (vomiting)
4. Stomach Flu (the other stuff, which Chandler calls "swamp booty")
5. Ring Worm (Chandler is sporting a sweet bald spot.)
6. Random High Fever Virus- 104+ ( Dave has been calling Callie "Caliente" - which is spanish for hot for you gringos)
7. Staph Infection
8. Sinus Infection
9. The Common Cold, complete with all night hacking
10. Pink Eye

We did have a lovely Thanksgiving with my brothers and their families (when they weren't throwing up or running a fever.) I promise to post some new pictures soon. But right now I gotta go find the eye drops and the bleach.

Field Trip!

Today was Chandler's first field trip. The entire kindergarten headed to the zoo. I was able to come too, as a chaperone. I received a memo asking me to come to the school to meet my "group" and pick up their lunches. But so many parents had signed up, my group consisted of Chandler and one other little boy. Whew!

The kids were so excited to ride the bus to the zoo!

First we went to the sea lion show and had lunch.

Here's my group, all two of them. Um... I think they may be twins!

Looking at giraffes. They have two new babies.

For some reason, Chandler loves to get in confined spaces. I am always finding him under his bed, in a laundry basket, a box, etc. Here he is in a egg, presumably the one he hatched from.

Here's his whole class, with his teacher, Mrs. Moske. Chandler loves her and she is so good with the kids!

We love the zoo! For those of you who were wondering, the Memphis Zoo was just ranked #1 in the nation by Trip Advisor. We have a pass and went a lot this summer. It was so fun to spend the day with my boy. He has grown up so much since he started school.

Halloween Conversations

Knock, Knock!
Chandler: Trick or Treat!
Neighbor: Oh, look, Iron Man! I haven't seen that movie yet.
Chandler: Well, you've missed it. It's not at the movie theatre anymore. But it is available to own on DVD.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween was a busy day! The kids both had parties at school. I was able to attend Chandler's first kindergarten party. I was in charge of the Bingo Center. It was so fun to be in his classroom and see all of his cute friends. After school we headed to my Mom's to carve our pumpkin.

Dave did the majority of the work, while we all observed. (I roasted the seeds and they were snacky!)

Here's my Mom (aka Little Red Riding Hood) with all of the Tennessee grandkids. It was a much bigger group last year!

You may have noticed that Callie is a different princess that she was for Trunk or Treat. She got a lot of dress up clothes for her birthday in August, so she had her choice of costume. She wanted to be Belle. You may also have noticed that she looks a little forlorn. She did NOT enjoy trick or treating. We walked outside to take pictures. She took one look at the darkness, the ghosts, floating in the trees, and the people in scary costumes walking around the neighborhood and burst into tears. We drug her to a few houses. Unfortunately the first one had some witch cackling, which set her off again. I asked her if she wanted to get candy or go home and go to bed. She sobbed, "I want my bed!"

Iron Man was feeling much better and was all about the trick or treating. He racked up. Fortunately, David and I were able to relieve him of all of his peanut contained candy. (Reeses are my favorite!)

Hope everyone had a safe and Happy Halloween!

Trunk or Treat!

Last night was our annual church carnival/trunk or treat. The kids always have a blast.

Callie was "Beauty" (aka Sleeping Beauty/Aurora/Brier Rose). She refused to wear her crown and heels. She wanted to wear her Keds. I guess she didn't want anything to slow down her quest for candy.

This is our sad Iron Man. Chandler sat on the chair and pouted through most of the carnival. We couldn't figure out why until Dave touched his forehead. He was burning up. I asked him if he wanted to get a few pieces of candy and then go home. He said, "No. I just want to go home." I then knew he was for real sick. He's home from school today and seems to be feeling better.

Vana the Witch

Morgie the Snow White, who apparently prefers cupcakes to apples

E the Darth Vader

Callie would play one game, earn her candy, and then sit in the middle of the gym floor and then eat it. After the piece was gone, she was ready to move on to the next game.

How do I love this picture? Let me count the ways:

1. The two sleeping beauties in the front, who have no desire to have their pictures taken. Callie is trying to escape to find more candy. Claire's trying to pretend that she's not actually having her picture taken.

2. Val and I are hot!

3. My poor sick boy in the back, trying to look happy for the camera.

Don't worry if you haven't had enough of the kids in their costumes. I'm anxious to see what adventures tomorrow night will bring. Happy Halloween!

Memphis Madness!

Friday marked the official start of Tiger Basketball season, so a bunch of us headed downtown to the FedEx Forum for Memphis Madness. Our group had a great time, some of us (the "real" fans) more than others. (Thanks for coming anyway, guys!)

I myself loved every minute and almost screamed myself horse. Highlights included the raising of last year's banner, a video montage of last year's national championship run, an appearance by Chris Douglas-Roberts, and a team scrimmage.

Tigers are #1!

The family in our Tiger gear. Sorry, Chad, I couldn't find my tiger ears.

The Forum was packed! We got there right at starting time and had to sit on the top level.

The event didn't start until 8 o'clock, but the kids did great. At least until the very end. On the way out, Callie saw someone with a slushie and immediately started shrieking for one. When she finally understood that she would not be getting a $6 slushie at almost 10 o'clock at night, she lost her mind.

She screamed the entire way to the car and most of the way home. But upon our arrival at home, the backseat looked like this:

GO TIGERS, GO!

Something's missing...

It's official. Chandler's lost his first tooth. David and I got a little misty as we remembered when he first got that tooth. Then I remembered how much he used to bite me with it and I felt better. :) Our little boy is growing up so fast! The tooth fairy came and left him a dollar. It burned a hole in his pocket until we got to the dollar store later this week. He traded it in for a police dress up kit. Awesome!

Callie's Fall Break

Callie had a whole week off of preschool for fall break. We were able to go to the Children's Museum and the Zoo. I don't have pictures of my own, these are all rip offs from other blogs. Thanks guys!

The girls watching the sea lion show.

The kids played in the fountain at the zoo all summer. (It's allowed, as long as you stay away from the water sprays.) Several times we drove down there and hardly saw any animals. It was all about the water. When I told Callie we were going to the zoo, she asked if she could wear her bathing suit. I assured her it was too cold to play in the water. Turns out it wasn't, so the girls went in their clothes.

We are the proud holders of a Children's Museum pass, so we've been spending a lot of time there lately, especially when it's raining outside.

Here's the fire truck. Callie loves to drive, like her Mom. Anytime our family goes anywhere, I drive. Otherwise I drive from the passenger seat, which doesn't go over so well with Dave.

The lovely ladies of Ladder 39

Callie and Claire being hauled off to the clink.

Fishing in the river. Getting wet is always fun!

The maze/cage. I wonder if I can get one of these at home?