Christmas: Part One

As I transferred the pictures of Christmas from my camera (which is NEW by the way...more on that later) I realized that I had taken roughly 500 pictures. So tonight we will take an in depth look at each and every one. I will have Ashley, my photographer friend, come in and do a guest editorial and critique the aperture and iso and focus and shutter speed and a lot of other complicated words of which I have no idea what they mean, of every picture...wont this be fun??? Yes it will! Say it with me...."yes Nicole, it will be FUN".

Stop...come back in here, DO NOT run away from my blog, I will come find you....yes I will...don't test me....I mean it.


Ok...ok...I won't have Ashley guest editorialize...ok? Better?

No?

What more can I omit from this blog!?

Huh? OOOOHHH....you want me to omit 490 pictures from this blog?

I don't know....that is a tall order.

Ok! Ok!! If it means that you will read on, I will only make you look at a few tonight...but that means MANY more Christmas blogs.


So, since you forced my hand, we will focus tonight on the school Christmas play.



See Olivia...so excited. Just bouncing as she anxiously awaits the start of the play. She can not stand the anticipation of seeing her brother and sister on stage.

Speaking of her brother; here is my little man on stage. Look how handsome!


Singing...isn't he the cutest thing?

Oh, she woke up! Just in time to see her sissy and her part of the play. See how happy she looks?


There is my big girl. She is getting so big.

Uh oh...Olivia says; no more singing! This is all of the Christmas cheer I can give in one night...you made me dress in red...what more do you want???

I love that they sign during their songs, it really is amazing to watch these kids sign and sing at the same time.

And one last picture, just because I think it is cool. (and my new camera ROCKS...I am still learning how to use it)

Take a look at The Huckleberry Patch!

A fantastically talented friend sent me a great Christmas gift. One that she made with her own two little fantastically talented hands.

She has recently opened her own store on etsy. In her store you can see the apron she sent me. She will be adding more of her talents soon. Including the shopping bag she sent me for Christmas...yes she spoiled me.

Also included among her talents are; pillow case dresses (TO DIE FOR) (pppssssttt...Cindy...get them on etsy...NOW!!), produce bags etc...

Take a peek at her store and then make an order!

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=6014743

It is hard being two

It is a rough life for a two year old.

You have to deal with that big brother, the one who will sneak you a string cheese and juice box from the fridge, who loves you so much that he shares his Saturday morning blanket and couch camp out in front of the cartoons...yeah...that has to be rough.

You can scream and cry and make the meanest face you can come up with and all mommy does is giggle and tell you that you are cute.

You just can not relax ANYwhere. It is so hard to get comfortable.

You have to get angry at mommy again and scream GRAPE loudly to get your yummy fruit.

But the one perk of being two is that once you get your grapes...you look adorable with a little tear while you munch them down.

I..............AM...............

DONE!




Christmas Shopping that is!



WOO-HOO!

First, um............?snow?

"SNOW SNOW SNOW!" was the excited shriek that came from down the hall where the kids had been playing.


I peeked out the window and sure enough, snow was falling. Pretty, soft and silent snow flakes. I adore snow. I love watching it fall, I love the crunch when walking on newly fallen flakes. I adore the quiet-peacefulness of a snowfall.



However....................

When it snows and my three small children see it, they can think of nothing else but going outside to play. This requires that I bundle them up in three layers of clothes, boots, hats and scarves. They go running outside and play in the snow for about 10 minutes and then come back in the house. Cold, wet and stripping layers. I do laundry for the rest of the day while I clean up the dirty snow from the floor.

Anyway, lets take a peek at the fun ten minutes the kids spent outside in the ?snow? Well snow is a stretch....skiff...dusting....only enough to make snow to make the kids excited and my floor wet and dirty.

Look..the snow is so deep...I can barely see my children. KIDS! KIDS!! Where are you!?

brat....

brat in training


baby doll

so happy that I bundled him up like an Eskimo...see how happy he is?

CHRISTMAS TREE!

To lighten the mood around here...lets take a look at our newly up Christmas tree.


We have a pre-lit artificial tree, well....actually pre-lit is an exaggeration. It USED to be pre-lit, but now 9/10 of the lights are burned out. We got this tree when I was pregnant with Makayla. I loved it so much. It is one of those high quality trees, with all of the lights tightly interwoven in the branches, the strands are clipped on to the tree and when it was new and all the lights worked, it was breathtaking. However for the last three years we have had to add more lights every year. Sitting down to remove all of the lights from the branches would take days and more time and patience than I possess. Instead we bought lights and put them on the tree with the burnt out strands. It was not terribly noticeable until last year when all 8 pre-lit strands were out and so it was fairly obvious that there were 800 burned out bulbs on the tree under the 600 or so that we had put on in replacement.

So anyway...this year we decided (we being the kids and I) that we would get a small real tree and make all of the ornaments and decorations. So I popped pop-corn, bought fresh cranberries and the ingredients needed to make cinnamon and salt dough ornaments.


We spent days stringing pop corn and cranberries, you see here Cameron eating the pop-corn intended for the garland. It kind of went like this; one for the garland, five for Cameron, one for the garland, three hand fulls and 15 minutes of Spongebob for Cameron.



Finally the garlands were done and we put them in a "safe" place. Safe until Olivia woke up from her nap. She then proceeded to pick the pop-corn from the garland and eat it until I hid the strands from her grubby little fingers.



We spent nearly a week making, baking and painting salt-dough and cinnamon ornaments. They were fun for us all.



Then on Sunday we went to get the tree. We had originally decided on a small tree so our ornaments would look good, however we had MA with us and in his opinion, bigger is better, so we ended up with a 61/2 foot tree and our few ornaments and garlands only covered a small portion of the tree. So along with our few home made ornaments we also have some of our regular ornaments too. The tree turned out well...oh and hey...we did not have to buy any lights....we already had 600 waiting to be used!

The kids waiting to decorate the tree

The finished product!

So, we don't have to worry about making it on the flex board anymore

Things are happening quickly here. Too quickly, my head feels like it is spinning and I would like someone to stop the dizzying spin..please?

Someone?

Anyone?

Oh good...it is you LORD...thank you. You are always here...please keep reminding me of YOUR presence...I need it right now.
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This morning, after working all night MA came in and finished up his paperwork and prepared to come home, when his manager stepped from his office and said, "MA...we need to talk"

MA emerged from that office unemployed, or the technical company term is "economically terminated". For the first time in his working life...he is unemployed.

Can I tell you how far your stomach drops when your only source of income for your home; the support for your three small children; the check that pays your mortgage, groceries, utilities, is instantly gone. Let me tell you, it took me a little while to pick mine back up.

We are being blessed with a small severance package and full unemployment pay, it is more than many.

MA has a lead on another job but it will be after the first of the year before that possibly comes through. His manager told him he felt pretty sure he would be able to call him back, but that also would not be until after the first of the year.
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LORD?

Oh good You are still here. Stay close....my knees are feeling weak.

Thanksgiving, short trip, shopping, a funeral and job woes

A catch up thread:

Thanksgiving day we packed up the van, ready to skip out on the holiday. Preparing to leave the dysfunction that holidays inevitably bring out in all families, the stress of Michael's impending job changes and life in general behind for a few days. We didn't make it out scott free however. My grandma called, she had purposely cooked early so we could eat before our planned escape time of noon. Bless her heart, we contemplated escaping early but decided that even with all of the dysfunction, we love our family dearly and stayed for lunch.

While eating, my grandfather got up from the table and to the bathroom, he had a piece of turkey stuck in his esophagus. This is not the first time this has happened and not thinking it was going to be a big deal, we loaded to kidlets into the van and away we went.

Wrong. Papaw ended up having minor surgery that evening to clear the obstruction. He was home that night but still.....crazy.

Our trip was nice, relaxing, we got most of the Christmas presents bought for the adults in our families. I am, however, a lame brain and forgot my camera, so you will just have to take my word for it, it was fun.

On our way home my mom called. My great aunt had passed away. Her funeral was today...it was so sad to see my grandmother mourn the loss of her sister-in-law. She was the first of her six siblings and their spouses to pass away. It is also very sobering for me to think that someday I will lose my grandparents, it is not a thought I want to entertain.

Moving on to more fun stuff...Mikes work has been slow. They laid off two people which means we lost our bid and are now back on the flex board. What is the flex board..you ask? It means we are not guaranteed work. It is also swing shift, days nights, whenever...we will never know day to day...hour to hour. It is also a 20-40% pay cut.

So um...yeah.

We are ok though God has never let us down, and I do not expect Him to start now. We made it for two years on the flex board and we can do it again. God will support us spiritually and financially.

Now...on to Christmas!! Tree is up this weekend...pictures to follow :)

When it rains....well you know

We woke up this morning to a nasty, grey rainy day. The ground nourishing water fell steadily all day.

But along with the rain comes the "pouring". Not only is Christmas a mere 5 weeks away, and we are supposed to leave on a long weekend trip Thursday morning, but my van has been having a temperature issue. Thinking this is just a small thermostat issue, we took it in this grey morning to have it looked at. Three hours later we get the call.

$600.00.

ACK...SIX H_U_N_D_R_E_D dollars.

Blah.

Oh well, at least we can lay our hands on it and get the van fixed, but...ACK...the rain! The pouring!

Croup

A week or so ago, on Friday night, Cameron woke up with a horrible cough. I stumbled into his room at around 12:30, telling him to calm down and take a deep breath. As I began to emerge from my sleepy haze, I realized that he could not calm down or take a deep breath. He was in a constant cycle of; *cough cough cough GASP* *cough cough cough GASP*.



I picked him up and took him outside into the cool, damp night air to help him open up and get his breath. As we stood on the porch his cough was not letting up. I brought him back into the kitchen to pour him some juice and call my mom. I handed him his juice, he has still not had a break in the cough. He can't drink his juice, not even a sip the coughing is constant and I am getting scared.



With my mom on the way I took him into the bathroom and turned on the hot shower hoping that would help calm his cough. It did not. Mom arrived, walked into the bathroom, listened to his chest, and said "take him to the ER now". She would later tell me what I was not able to see, I guess because I had been looking at him up close for better than 10 minutes, I had not recognized that he was pale and his eyes were swelling from struggling for air. She also had heard that he was moving next to no air through his lungs.



As we blew into the ER, the triage nurse saw that he was still struggling for air, though his cough had finally subsided, he was still retracting as he breathed and was noisy while gasping for air. She took him from my hands and straight into a room, his oxygen stats were only 87 upon arrival. This had been one of the scariest experiences of my parenting life, standing there helpless while my baby coughed and gasped was terrifying. That feeling that there was nothing I could do to help him was sickening.



While we were at the ER he was treated with two breathing treatments and an injection of steroids, diagnosed with croup and sent home. Now starts the comical part of this story........



Cameron was sent home with steroid therapy to be given twice a day for four days. Well....when an already very busy 5 year old boy is treated with sterriods...well....lets just say 'hyper' is an understatement. To prove this, I will leave you with some humor. This is MA with a steroid hyped up Cameron attached to his leg. After trying unsuccessfully to shake him off several times, he gave up and just let him hang there....for 30 minutes.

First Time Out

As Olivia traverses her second year, her sense of "self" is ever evolving. She has learned that certain words, phrases and tones get laughs, some get the "mama look". Also that some actions get chuckles and some get her in trouble.



She is still learning what "trouble" is .



Last Sunday she was the center of attention, her favorite place to be. She repeatedly made a grand entrance from the hall into the living room to of the claps of our family. She then would proceed to prance through the living room, while her captive audience would say "come see me Olivia" "Olivia, come over here and talk to me". She would cut her eyes sharply, and give a coy little grin and in her sweet, two year old, sing-songy voice say "noooooo"



This scene repeated its self over several times, much to her delight.



However...........



A few days later she was watching "Super Why" (on PBS...what you do not know what Super Why is? You have not lived.....) While watching her favorite show, she began to empty the clean sock basket one sock at a time. (yes, clean sock basket....we have it because her mother hates to fold socks and leaves them for last...don't look at me that way....you come fold them then....yeah...didn't think so) As I gently redirected her to please pick them up and put them back in the basket, she said "NO!" I took a deep cleansing breath and silently reminded myself that she is two. Again I said, "Olivia, pick them up and put them back in the basket" At which point she furrowed her eye brows at me, picked up the edge of the basket and dumped them all in the floor and then threw the basket.



*deep breath....deep breath*



I once again, calmly told her that was not a nice thing to do, and told her to pick the socks up.





She threw the basket at me.



As I felt my blood pressure rise into my face, I introduced her to "time out" Was it for me or her? I am not sure.....but she sat there for two minutes (one for each year of her life) and then picked up the socks.

I can not help it...she is cute, even when she is in trouble.

Yeah Yeah...I know...end of the week and all

So...last week I told you that I would tell you all about the Fall Festival, show you the fruits of my labor and let you know how it went. To be honest, I was to lazy all week to make that happen, well lazy and drowning in turkey. We had a dinner at our house on Sunday for 17 people so I was a *little* busy.


Never the less, I want to keep my word, albeit a few days late.


The piles of diapers that I showed you in my floor? They were to make two diaper cakes that our family donated to the benefit auction. What? You don't know what a diaper cake is? Well my friend, let me show you.


At around 3 hours each, these pictures represent a lot of work.

One for a boy;





One for a girl;





Each class room collected items and made baskets to be in the auction as well. This is the basket that Makaylas' class collected, the theme was toys.






This...this we will call "When Good Ideas Go Bad"

My first attempt at a "Lolly pop tree" yeah...I use the word "attempt" lightly. More like goofy looking mess that I created and blush to admit that.


Second attempt. Better, more like a "Lolly pop flower" instead of a tree, but it is late, and the Fall Festival starts in just a few hours, it will have to do.


The Fall Festival was a success. The games all came off with only one or two glitches, nothing major. The auction was lucrative, and the school raised a very good amount of money. Exhausting...yes. Worth it? Definitely.

Groceries

OH MY!

I am so glad that gas has come down, here it is now below 2.00 a gallon. Very nice. So, when are groceries going to follow suit?

I went grocery shopping today, I had to buy items for a Thanksgiving meal I am preparing on Sunday, do you know how much I spent?

Guess?

$200.00!

Yes, it is insane. I swear I do not know how you can live today, it makes my heart skip a beat or two.

*SIGH*

update

The teacher has spoken;

"You are all too young to have boyfriends/girlfriends, and I do not like it taking up your focus in class, so you are all to break up"

Another installment

Our saga continues. No not the wrap up of the Fall Festival, to be honest I am too lazy tonight to do that. So I am opting to bring you all up to date on Makayla and "As the Second Grade Turns". The wrap up of the Fall Festival will come soon, before the end of the week...I promise.

So, I started to pick up in the last week or so that Makayla was not so interested in Logan anymore. She was telling me that she did not play with him on the play ground, and instead played with Jon or by herself.

Saturday night at the Fall Festival, MA over heard Logan telling Makayla to "Come get your boy friend! Come and chase me!" Makayla completely ignored him and continued to play with her friends.

Sunday at church, she told Logan that she did not want to be his girl friend anymore, and she said that he said "noooo! take me back!" she replied "no"
"give me another chance!"
"no"
"please!"
"no"
etc etc etc...

As she was telling me this, I asked her why and she told me that he says stuff in front of her that she does not like. I asked her what. She said "he says, poop and butt and fart and burp and I think it is gross. Also he is not nice to the teacher, sometimes when she tells him to put his name on the board he will tell her no"

"I see, well he should respect you more than that"

"huh?"

"he shouldn't say things that aren't respectful in front of you and he should respect his teacher"

"huh?"

"that's not nice is it?"

"nope"

Fast Forward to today;
Makayla jumps into the van after school and says, "I have three boyfriends now"

"huh?!"

"Yep, Ben, Treyton and Logan" (lets take a minute to review. Ben was her boyfriend last year, but he is a bit of a playa'. He usually has three to seven girlfriends at any given time. Also does the name 'Treyton' ring a bell? Yep, he is the hand holding boyfriend of Ann from the Zoo trip, the one that nobody is supposed to know about...ok lets continue)

"Oh, how many girlfriends does Ben have now?"

"seven"

"wow...that's a lot, I thought Treyton and Ann were boyfriend/girlfriend?"

"we both are"

"oh...ok, and Logan is back?"

"yeah, I told him I would take him back"

"oh, ok"

It all makes me giggle, I have not told her daddy yet, he is still recovering from the conversation her overheard on Saturday night.

Fall Festival...what has thou' done to me???

Several weeks ago I agreed to chair the games at the Fall Festival. The Fall Festival is THE major fund raiser for the kids school. I have done this twice before and swore to never do it again. However, I have this speech problem. I have trouble pronouncing this one little word. "NO". So when I was called upon I was not able to say that little word, I tried and I tried. I sputtered and stumbled, instead the word that came out was "YES".

So for the last four weeks I have been immersed in planning, organizing and work. Lots and Lots of work. I have been up until 2am every morning this week, followed by another day of constant running. If it were not for the help of the Committee chair, Jessica, I may have very well gone insane. She is one of the moms that I walk with in the mornings, so we were able to bounce ideas and concerns off of one another and keep each other sane.

Anyway, lets take a look at my house on Tuesday night shall we?

Every time I would walk in the doors of the school, I was handed another task.

This project was given to me by Makaylas teacher. Each child donated a toy to make a basket for the auction the night of Fall Festival, and the basket needed to be assembled. Here are a few toys and basket. On another day we will view the end results of this. But for today lets look at my poor house....see the chips? That is part of supper for this night. Oh geez...see that brown thing hanging there? That is a fly strip. Yes...a fly strip. My face is red and hot even admitting that. MA hung that there because flies have been coming in since we have the windows open right now and he was tired of hunting them down. Wow...that is pretty red neck...ha.

My neglected stove, it has not been on for over a week. Instead I am using it as counter space. See the pizza boxes? That was supper. See the groceries that did not make it into the cabinets? See the drinks? Those are part of a game for Fall Festival. Poor poor little empty ice trays and dirty dishes in the sink. Oh and last but not least...the empty paper towel holder, with the paper towels sitting UNDER it? My poor family. They are ready for Fall Festival to be over.

The table. Well, I think the table is under there some where. That is the items needed to make two diaper cakes that we donated to the auction. Again, that little word escapes me.

Oh, and the diapers for the diaper cakes. In my living room floor. Poor house.

The Fall Festival is tonight. As the weekend progresses we will view the results of all this work and conclude the 2008 Fall Festival together.

Ummmm....OOPS

As I flew out of the house last Wednesday, I was weighted down with a baby on my hip my purse on my shoulder, my make up bag and a change of clothes in my hand. I was BUSY! I was herding the Makayla and Cameron out in front of me to the van, headed to school. I was going to drop them off and head to the walking track. After a 4 mile walk, my plan was to change clothes, throw on a smidge of make up and Olivia and I were to go grocery shopping. After that was done we were headed to get Cameron at school, come home put away the groceries and eat lunch. A full morning no doubt, but nothing out of the ordinary, until;



That darn top step. As I was stepping down from the top step of the porch, I caught my heel. My ankle twisted as I came down, with my load of items and my precious baby girl. I managed to fall/stumble/dance down the following 4 steps and get on the ground, sit Olivia down before I fell. I managed to get all the way down with out dropping her, or falling on her. In fact I did not drop anything!

(Where is my SUPER MOM cape that Cameron unceremoniously took from me?)

No seriously, it was a miracle from The LORD above, HE protected me and my baby.

I sat on the ground writhing in pain while Makayla and Cameron danced around me asking me what was wrong. Makayla ran back in the house to get MA who had just gotten home. He came out and helped me back in the house and took the kids to school. I did NOT make my walk that day, or for that matter the rest of the week.



The swelling is better now, but was UGLY that night. I was back on the track this morning, at a quarter of my usual distance, but it is a start.


Darn that top step. It must not know how busy I am.

I love these little people

What is not to love I ask you?



Again....how could you not love these four humans and that one fluffy canine?



I love MA, I love fall too. I am in all sorts of love today.

I love fall because it is cool, the bugs are gone, it feels clean and crisp. Oh, and pumpkin patch trips. The colors of fall are so vibrant and deep much like the deep oranges of the pumpkins, the bright yellow and red of the trees or the crisp brown of the end of the corn field and the sweet aroma of ripe apples. All of these previous things are found at the pumpkin patch.

So come with me on our recent pumpkin patch adventure..........

Makayla insisted that we bring Alyce along, adamant that she would thoroughly enjoy the sights, sounds and smells of fall as much as we do.

Makayla loves taking pictures with Alyce....

Can we please get one where they are looking at me? Probably not....



Take it fast, I finally got them to look at me. Actually I told them I was not going to leave them alone and let them play on the fun obstacle course until they looked at me. I am a mean mama.

Well, I almost got them all. Two out of three isn't bad, but seriously...she is cute anyway...who cares if she is looking at me or not.

The rest of the afternoon was so much fun for us and the kids. Cameron drove a tractor

They did have baby cows in pens in the back of the property, but our kids were not impressed, they can walk to our back yard any day and see cows.

As the afternoon came to a close, we began the all important pumpkin choosing. We told them they could have a 5.00 pumpkin, we then showed them where those pumpkins were. Like dutiful little children Makayla and Cameron picked pumpkins from that area, Cameron choosing a white pumpkin and Makayla choosing a funny shaped field pumpkin.

While the two older babes were picking out their pumpkin, Lil' Miss Olivia had wandered to the large pumpkins in the 7.00 row. We gently re-directed her to the 5.00 pumpkins, but once that girl has her mind made up, there is no changing it. However, I ask you...how do you say no to this?

Now she is saying "mama...daddy! Help me!" I swear...this will come back to bite us some day, but right now...I just can not say no to that.

Look...daddy is helping her...daddy to the rescue.

I really do love Fall.