Christmas 2013

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year.  Monday night we took the girls to Holiday in the Park at Six Flags.  It was cold, but fun.  The girls had a great time riding all of their usual rides.  It cracks me up how brave Joey is for 3 years old. 

 



 

Yesterday was fairly low key.  Mom and Dad came over for dinner.  I wanted to try something different, so I made a prime rib roast.  I was very nervous that it wouldn't come out right but it was really good!  We also had mashed potatoes, broccoli, asparagus, rolls, and lots of goodies- cream cheese pound cake, ice cream, and cookies.  I was so stuffed. 

 

We said our goodbyes to Buddy and thanked him for the present he left- pajamas, a movie, and magic reindeer food.  The girls sprinkled the food on the lawn and then we watched "The Nativity" and read The Night Before Christmas.  Then it was off to bed to wait for Santa!

 

 

I am paranoid about the girls waking up before us and sneaking downstairs and missing their faces when they first see the tree, so we always sleep upstairs.  Joey woke up at about 7 and wanted to go downstairs, but I told her she had to wait until the sun came up a little more.  Shelby woke up 30 minutes later so we went ahead and got Lucy up and let them go down the stairs. 

 

 

Shelby and Joey both got new bikes.  Joey's is a Ziggle- it is so fun!  She is so cute riding it down the street.

Shelby is so expressive when opening presents.  She makes getting underwear exciting.

 

The #1 item on his list: a back scratcher

 

Joey insisted on getting a picture of me.

I hate the after-Christmas mess.  And this was after making them clean some of it up.  This is what makes me want to take down all decorations the day after Christmas. 

Almost my whole family got to Skype with Tristan in Afghanistan!

 

Spidergirl had to unwind a bit after dinner at mom and dad's.

 

 

It was really a great day and we feel so blessed.  Merry Christmas to all!

 

 



Tis the Season

This is my favorite time of year.  Jeremy thinks I tend to go overboard, but I can't help it.  I live for seeing the girls happy.  I usually fill up our calendar with TONS of stuff- not with the expectation of being able to do it all, but knowing we won't be able to do some things, and that's ok because we can easily pick out other things on the calendar to do. 

We have had lots of fun so far this Christmas season.  We went to Ice! at the Gaylord, saw Santa at Santa Land and went down the snow hill, made treats and delivered them, read lots of Christmas books, went to the ward Christmas party, wrote letters to Buddy asking him to please come back after naughty days, drove around and looked at Christmas lights, saw The Nutcracker at the Little Elm rec center, and of course had a wonderful Christmas Sunday (my favorite Sunday of the whole year). 

The girls also had the chance to learn a routine and perform for the nursing home.  They had done it once at the ward party and Joey froze and stood there the whole time, so I was curious to see if she would do it again.  But this time she did great!  She did all the moves.  I was proud of her and Shelby.  They really helped brighten the residents' day. 

 

 

Oh Happy Day!

Sunday was a great day!  I have been dreading the start of the new year because it means we have church from 1-4 again.  That is such a terrible time for church!  However, Bishop announced that starting Jan. 5th, we will be meeting in the Oak Point building!  I have been praying for this!!!  So we still have to go from 1-4, but at least it's in a building that is a 30 second drive from our house, rather than 30 minutes!

Then, I was released from my calling as YW president.  I'm not happy about it, I really am sad.  I really grew to love all of the girls and felt like I had really earned their trust and respect.  But, this calling was very challenging for me.  I have been YW president before, served in other YW presidencies, served in Primary presidencies, etc., but none of those callings challenged me like this one.  I guess there were just a lot of unique circumstances that really forced me out of my comfort zone.  On top of all that's involved with YW, I had a lot going on at home- brand new baby, job promotion, health issues, everyday craziness.  It was when I ended up in the ER (twice) because of mastitis brought on by exhaustion that I prayed for some sort of relief.  That very next Sunday Brother Craig called me into his office and told me they were releasing me.  It was hard (yet sweet) to see the YW upset.  It really touched my heart when one of the YW- one who is really quiet, kind of less active, and guarded- came up to me after church, threw her arms around me and said, "No, you can't go!  We'll miss you!".  I do feel like a huge weight has been lifted, though, and I am looking forward to being able to focus on other things for a while.

Then we got to eat Sunday dinner at Mom and Dad's house.  It has been 7 years since they have lived close enough for us to do that.  The girls love grandma and grandpa so much and love to be at their house.  They especially love grandpa letting them try the trombone and getting shavy gravies.  Mom and Dad also have the perfect "stage" to perform on:

Ice Ice Baby

Brrr.  It is cold.  Thursday night/Friday morning we got hit with an ice storm.  Everything is covered in a few inches of ice.  School was canceled on Friday, and of course Jeremy couldn't go to any of his appointments, so we all hung out at home.  The girls couldn't wait to go outside and play, even though we kept telling them it wasn't snow, it was ice. 

 

I love that we used a cardboard box to sled down the driveway.  Haha!  Today we were a little bored so I figured we might as well get dressed and attempt some kind of picture for a Christmas card.  You know...since it's already December 7th and all.  Why do my kids (and husband) make taking pictures so difficult?!  You'd think someone was stabbing them the way they moan and groan when it's picture time!

"Joey, look at the camera."

"JOEY, look at the CAMERA!"

"JOEY!"

"Really, Joey?"

"Did Joey teach you not to look at the camera?"


Ok, so maybe a lot of the problems came from Joey.  That girl...

 

Afterwards, we heard a truck in front of our house.  They were just sliding and spinning in the road, so Jeremy went out and poured some sand and the guys were able to get their truck off to the side of the road where they abandoned it and walked home.  In the process of all that, a cop drove by and stopped to help.  He told Jeremy that the main roads weren't terrible, just the subdivisions were bad.  So a little while later we decided to go to Walmart, just to get out of the house.  Bad move.  It took 15 minutes and tons of prayers to get out of the subdivision.  Once on the main road we went about 15 mph because although there were trenches from other cars that we could follow, the ice was so thick that there were many places that were just really slick.  The Walmart parking lot was literally just one huge ice rink.  It was actually kind of fun holding on to the cart and skating in.  On our way home a truck in front of us slid and went into the ditch.  Joey thought the whole ride was fun.  Poor Shelby was praying the whole time.  She asked everyone about 100 times if we were all buckled in, asked Jeremy if the headlights were on, etc.  At one point we kind of spun out and I gasped and Shelby said, "Take a deep breath mom, just take a deep breath."  It took Jeremy 3 or 4 tries to get back up the driveway, even though we had poured sand.  Church is canceled tomorrow and I am thankful for that.  Now I don't have to feel guilty about missing church because after driving through that today there was no way I was going to drive across the bridge to get to church tomorrow.  Hopefully things will warm up enough for the roads to thaw out by Monday morning.  I think we'll all be a tad stir crazy by then!



Catch Up

November came and went in the blink of an eye.  It was by far the busiest month of my life.  Between three kids, a full time job, and a calling that takes up as much time as a full time job, life was chaotic.  The week before Thanksgiving my mom and dad moved about 45 minutes away from us!  Woohoo!  The night they got here though, I woke up at 3:30 am shaking uncontrollably.  I thought something had happened to the heater.  Jeremy checked and it was 70 degrees.  So then we took my temperature.  Yep, 104.  And then I couldn't lift my left arm without being in extreme pain.  It was mastitis.  I ended up in the ER both Tuesday and Wednesday.  It was awful.  I was on morphine and was sent home with a cocktail of drugs to take.  So miserable.  The most frustrating part of it all was that although I had been trying to introduce Lucy to bottles, I hadn't been giving up any feedings.  My doctor said it came on so suddenly because of exhaustion.  The only positive about it is that Lucy is now fully weaned.  It is nice to not have to worry about that anymore.  Oh, and I lost 3 pounds.  So two positives.

First off, this girl turned 10 months old:

 

She finally cut some teeth- first her bottom right, then her bottom left about a week later.  And now her top left canine has broken through...which is weird.  Who cuts canines before their front teeth?!  Lol.  She looks like a little vampire.  She looooves food.  Obviously.  We used to squeeze her food from the pouches onto a spoon but that wasn't fast enough for her.  Now we just give her a pouch and she sucks it down in about 30 seconds and cries for more.  She will eat anything we give her.  She says "mama", "dada", "hi", "baby" (sort of), and tried to say "papaw" while we were in Hattiesburg.  She cruises along all the furniture and will take an occasional step.  She naps and sleeps pretty well.  The other day it was nap time and she grabbed her blanket and crawled to me and put her arms up.  So I picked her up and took her to hew crib and she laid down immediately and went to sleep without a peep.  Nice.



The Monday before Thanksgiving we decided to get a jump on Christmas and took the girls to Ice! at the Gaylord.  This year the theme was The Nutcracker.  The girls have seen the Barbie Nutcracker movie a hundred times, and were really into a live ballet version on tv, so when we went they were really excited to see all of the characters.  I am also taking them to a local production next week so it was fun to see them excited about it. 

Thanksgiving was great and tiring as always.  Lucy doesn't love the car so much, so that was a bit rough.  But the girls loooooooved being at Papaw's  house.  Lucy loved people feeding her sweet potato casserole and banana pudding.

 

 

 

 

 

We left Hattiesburg (or "Daddy's-burg, as Joey calls it) on Saturday morning and made it to Beaumont in time for my nephew, Cole's, baptism.  It was so fun to have lots of cousins to play with for a few hours. 

 

 

 

Buddy came to see us on Sunday.  The girls were so excited to see him (and the treat he brought them).  (By the way, I am so tired of seeing all the FB commentary on how bad Elf on the Shelf is.  Get over it.  No one ever said they had to be mischievous.  In fact, no where in the explanation in the book does it say they are evil or mischievous.  They are what you make them.  End rant.)  We also decorated the tree, and then the girls decorated the "memory tree"- the Christmas tree that has all the sentimental ornaments on it.  I listened to Christmas music all day.  Love it. 

 

 

 

Monday night I helped mom unpack til almost midnight.  When I woke up Tuesday morning I had the WORST migraine ever.  And then I started throwing up.  Like every 5 minutes.  It was like the mastitis all over again but without the mastitis.  Ugh.  Another 4 pounds lost. 

 

I am declaring myself now done with being sick.  It's someone else's turn.  And we have way too many fun Christmas activities coming up for me to be sick!  In fact, we have lots planned for this weekend, but we might ice/snow.  Either way we'll have fun!  It's the most wonderful time of the year!!