It seems so long ago that Mary lost her two front teeth. Oops, it has been so long ago – first week of January. 
Well, Mary’s teeth are coming in and her smile is still every glowing. I know she misses some of the advantages of missing two front teeth (straw holder anyone?), but I think she is glad they are here to stay.
Mary's front teeth are coming in nicely.
This winter has been one of the coldest winter’s we’ve had since we moved to Tennessee. Okay, so we have only been here for 4 winters so there isn’t a lot to compare to, but it was still cold. We’ve had more snow days for school this year than any other school year and I even had a few days off work because of snow. Despite the cold, it has been a great winter. The weather is getting warmer, but not all day. We still have 37 degree weather in the morning. By the afternoon we are usually looking at temperatures around 68 degrees. That’s the kind of weather I would love to have year-round. The sun is shining bright outside and we have the windows open to bring in the cool, soft breeze. This is one of the times of year that we think TN is PERFECT!!!!
The tree outside our house.
This month we welcomed a new addition to the Klepper family. We would like to introduce Jackson Callaway to the world. Congratulations Bryan and Autumn. Welcome Jackson.
Jackson Callaway
Jackson Callaway
Jackson Callaway
Jackson Callaway
As you can see by the previous post, Mary has had a dangling tooth for quite some time. The thing about danglers is that no matter how loose they look, kids don’t want you to touch the tooth (sometimes parents don’t want to either, but that’s another story). For a while Mary could play with her tooth. She would use her tongue to push it out horizontally from her mouth. It was so loose that she had one buck tooth when she smiled.
Over the Christmas break we visited family and friends in FL. During this time we thought for sure that Mary would lose that tooth by Christmas. No dice. Surely it would be gone by New Year’s. Wrong again. So we decided to not worry about it. It would come out when it was ready.
Finally, on Tuesday, Mary was brushing her teeth and was upset that the one tooth hurt while brushing (I bet). So Alicia needed to get in there and do the extraction. Now, Alicia is tough. She deals with sick or hurt kids a lot in her job, but Mary’s tooth was a little much. She hunkered down, though, and got a napkin to help Mary out. So, as Mary is crying, Alicia goes in for the grab. At that precise moment, to the joy of Alicia and Mary, the tooth falls out on it’s own.
This was the day before Mary’s birthday. So now we have a 7 year-old with two missing front teeth.
Mary’s baby teeth are coming out slowly (3 so far) and usually pushed out by the permanent one to follow, meaning she hasn’t really had a “gap”…until now. And what a gap it is. Gorgeous!
This particular tooth took forever to finally break free, with daddy coaxing her to play with it and even giving it an unsuccessful tug. The sight of mom seeing a tooth barely hanging there makes me squirm. It finally fell out in the middle of the night and I was shocked she hadn’t swallowed it – Mary hasn’t had much luck hanging on to her lost teeth, first one was lost forever in MaMa’s pool.
The tooth fairy will be visiting the Klepper house tonight.
This lost tooth's next door neighbor is loose as well.
Well, it seems that everyone has started the Christmas season early again this year. Unfortunately, I can’t find a good Thanksgiving, Harvest or Fall theme that I like so I guess we’ll get started on Christmas also.
This evening Isaac said that he wanted marshmallows for dessert. We love doing marshmallows, but the hassle of starting a fire this late in the evening just isn’t worth it. So, while we were thinking about what to do Alicia chimes in with “why don’t we try the oven?”. We thought that just might work. So we fired up the broiler and got out the marshmallows and the sticks. Let me tell you. That was definitely worth it.
Seriously mom? I'm only four.
Call me old-fashioned (just don’t call me old!), kids need to help around the house. We have our routines that help keep a home of five in some type of order. I just want to keep it shy of embarassing when someone pops by (by the way, I’m not terribly fond of people popping by). The older two clean their own rooms – with little brother bouncing between rooms “helping” – every week and they are beginning to help in the kitchen. Lucky for mom who despises unloading a dishwasher, the kids have taken over that task. It’s loud, it’s clinking dishes, something will eventually break, however they do it all (3) together and it’s a good bonding experience…or so I tell them: “One day you guys will sit around as adults and talk about how mean old mom made you unload the dishwasher. It will bring you closer.”
Aren’t I good?
Anyway, Isaac is captain of the silverware basket – hey! it teaches sorting – and here he is working away.
Connecting brain cells. Win-Win!
Mary: Mom, today at school Kaylee’s lip was bleeding (Kaylee is Mary’s BFF all the way since kindergarten – last year 
Me: Oh, that’s sad.
Mary: You know what I did?
Me: No, what?
Mary: I prayed for her to feel better.
Me: What did you say?
Mary: Jesus, please make Kaylee’s lip stop bleeding and feel all better. I prayed it quietly.
It doesn’t get much better than that, folks.
Mighty woman of God.
Alicia Rose
On this day we celebrate Alicia’s birthday. Happy birthday to the mother of 3 wonderful children. Happy birthday to the love of my life. Happy birthday to the one that I will spend every happy moment with. Happy birthday to the one who always has my back. Happy birthday my sweet. I hope that you have a wonderful day, a wonderful year and a wonderful life. I love you. Gavin, Mary and Isaac love you.
Carol and Alicia
Alicia and Anna
