Thursday, December 30, 2010

Christmas Travels

Christmas seemed like a whirl wind for us this year, but I don't think we'd have it any other way. We drove to TN on the Tuesday before Christmas. We enjoyed lots of activities while we were there. We found some amazing Christmas lights like nothing we had ever seen. The kids loved to watch the lights dance. We visited with Nanny and Grandaddy and Grandpa Ed and Grandma Sue. We saw aunts, uncles, cousins, and second cousins. The kids got to play with their second cousin Will and Cole was so excited that he wasn't the only boy! We even went to Cookeville and had breakfast with Uncle Joe-joe and Aunt Amanda.







We drove home Christmas Eve so we could have Santa at home. Christmas morning we opened presents and then had a Birthday Party for Jesus. We read the Christmas story and sang Happy Birthday, then we had cupcakes, of course. The kids got bikes and pillow pets from Santa.





After eating some muffins for breakfast we packed the car and headed to Cullman. We had a big time there too.






We even found time while we were there to play in the snow. Jonathan's friend Jared got his car hood he bought last winter and they pulled it with the truck around the field. Summer drove and was good when the kids were riding, but not so much when Jared and Jonathan would ride. She of course made sure their life insurance was up to date first. I won't mention the fact that she almost ran over my husband. Anyeay, here's the snow.








Poor Cole didn't know what to think about the snow. He finally got to run in it and the next time we went out it was so windy that he was miserable. Sarah was too once her hands got cold.

We had so much fun over Christmas break that I think we need more break!

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

A fun day

Normally I would not call a day of driving to TN with my kids a fun day even if Shedd is here to help, but yesterday wasn't bad at all. We stopped in Decatur to eat lunch and go to the bathroom and Elizabeth was telling us about a friend who had pulled a tooth. She went on to say that it hurt to eat when you have a loose tooth. I asked her is she had one and she bent one of her bottom front teeth down to her lip. Sure enough it's loose and today it is still barely hanging on. I must however not forget to mention that her father tried to pull it while we were eating lunch at McDonald's. He would stop short every time because he was afraid he would hurt her. He does have a heart after all.

Once we got to TN we spent a little time with my parents before he and I headedd out for date night. We went to Murfreesboro to Red Lobster and then to the Vandy/Middle Tennessee game. Yes, we watched basketball, but we had fun. After we ate we were headed back to the van and Shedd went to the passenger side I of course asked if he wanted me to drive. He said no, so I asked what was going on. He said he was opening the door for me. I sweetly informed him that the last time he did that was on our wedding day. We laughed and then headed to the ball game. Vandy won, of course. It was fun. Then we went to Wal-Mart to get some stocking stuffers for the kiddos.

Everyone was sleeping when we got home.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Blessings

My kids (although very wild at times) have been such a blessing to me lately. Elizabeth has been wanting to learn how to fold clothes lately, so the other day she helped me fold the basketball laundry. She folded the girls' uniforms and all the basketball towels. The she asked if she could fold our towel. I let her fold as much as she wanted and I didn't fix it when it wasn't perfect because I was so touched that she wanted to help.
Sarah Grace has been singing up a storm lately and she has such a precious little voice. I'm not sure what songs she's been singing. I think she's making them up, but they are so incredibly sweet.
I'm not sure what was going on with Cole the other day, but he climbed up in my lap and let me hold him for a long time while we watched Shrek. It was really sweet. He's usually entirely too busy to sit with me for more than a second, so it was such a sweet time.
Today is Elizabeth's last day of school before Christmas break. She has a program at 11:30 and then we get to bring her home.
Jonathan has a boys' basketball tournament this weekend, so I see lots of basketball in our future this weekend. Just hoping to squeeze in a bit of family time too.
The kids are so excited about Christmas. We went to protablenorthpole.com and had Santa send them video messages to my email and the absolutely loved it. If you have young children it's really neat. He'll call them by name and talk about a special toy they might be getting. You just have to do the leg work when they aren't around. It's going to be a busy time with lots of traveling, but if we get to see everyone it will be well worth it.

Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Parenting Milestones

Children have developmental milestones, but it wasn't until the last week or so that I realize that parents have them too.
There's the first night you bring home your new bundle of joy home. If everyone survived you feel like you've really accomplished something. You feel the same way when that same bundle of joy reaches their first birthday. You've kept the child alive for a whole year!
There are other milestones too like the first time one of your children has surgery or your first trip to the ER.
Every person in the world has heard the screams of a child in Wal-Mart because they didn't get what they wanted. Everyone in the world has started at THAT mom and wondered what terrible act she has committed to make her child act so terrible or even worse what kind of mother is she that her child would act that way. Last week I got to be THAT mom. I was at Wal-Mart with Sarah Grace and Cole and Sarah pitched the worst fit in the entire history of Wal-Mart. I have proof from a friend that was there that she could be heard from the back of the store while we were in the check out line. It was the single worst parenting experience I have ever had. As soon as I got to the van I called Jonathan and proceeded to tell him how terribly HIS daughter had behaved.
Today I have reached another milestone. I received a phone call from Elizabeth's school and was told that she might have pink eye. So today I am THAT mom that unknowingly sent her daughter to school with pink eye in order to infect the entire student population at Verbena. We aren't sure if it's pink eye or not. She feel fine and says her eye isn't bothering her. She did wake up in the night crying because it was hurting. I gave her Tylenol and Jonathan took her to school and said he would have the nurse check it out. Since a nurse cannot confirm a diagnosis I had to go get her. This of course was upsetting to me because I was about to head to the gym.
Oh well, I'm sure I have many more first coming on my parenting journey.