Christmas

We had a great Christmas! The waiting for Christmas was so much fun through my kids eyes. They would tell me everyday how many days it was till Jesus's birthday. We had a nativity wall hanging that they had to add a piece everyday and on the last day baby Jesus was added. They really got Christmas this year. My Toni sang Happy Birthday on Christmas and I got all teary. The day before Christmas we received a box from Grandma Barbara in California...she got the kids some of the cutest outfits so I took them out to the creek where it is all white rocks to take some pictures of them. It worked out well. It was 72 degrees out side and no snow in site (normal for Texas) but the pictures look like winter...I did it. The white white rocks give the feel of snow and the bright colors of Toni's dress just look great with the background. Now....if only my kids skin was not sooooooo white LOL. Anyway...Johns Dad and Mom came up from Huntsville for Christmas day and it was nice having them. We made a very strange Christmas dinner and it was fun getting it all on the table. I wanted to make sure everyone was included in the dinner making so I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner a few days ago. Toni wanted rolls and ham, Mikey wanted ham and fruit. Both the kids decided they wanted orange coke to drink so the one day of year I bought coke for them. Most the John spoke up and wanted to cook a prime roast. Vince was happy with all of that but loves Oatmeal Raisin cookies and Vince and John both wanted their favorite beans and potatoes. My favorite dessert of all time is Chocolate pie. soooo....it was fun. We had prime roast, a ham, and a turkey for the meat. For the sides John made his special fresh greenbeens with pecans, I made German mashed potato casserole, pinto beans with beacon and onion (yum yum yum) and of course dinner rolls. We also had Oatmeal Rasin cookies, sugar cookies, and a chocolate pie. It was wonderful. The table was full and after the dinner every ones belly was too.

A boy and his dog.

When I say Mikey loves his dog I really really mean it. He talks about his dog non-stop and tells everyone what a good dog he is. "Kuzco's my dog and he is a good golden retriever dog", "He listens to me and I sing to him", "He likes me to play my permonica (Harmonica) to him", "when I get my guitar I am going to play for him because he likes guitars too". I mean non-stop. he tells strangers in walmart about is wonderful dog. If there was ever a boy and a dog that needed each other it is them. Kuzco is not a young dog and I don't like to think about what that means. I hope he has many years to come because he will be impossible to replace. The dog is in the house more that I like to admit but Mikey wants him in because he says Kuzco needs to play with him and it makes him so happy. Anytime I grab my camera now he wants his picture taken with the dog. I still can't believe this dog was a shelter dog...he is very well trained and so sweet. We originally brought the dog to our house from the shelter to talk our neighbor into adopting him but we fell in love with him and I am sure Mike (Johns dad who works at the animal shelter) is very happy to see both Mikey and Kuzco happy. Mike knew that Kuzco would be a great boys dog and it seemed like a perfect fit...but Mikey was only one at the time. Anyway...I just wanted to share picture and tell you why you can see the love and happiness between Mikey and Kuzco. Love to all.

crazy busy

Ok...so Christmas really snuck up on me this year. I have never been so far behind in buying presents or decorating. Even the outside of our house only has lights on the roof....nothing in the yard to compete with the crazy display that our neighbors have going. I love looking out the window at their lights. Our Christmas tree is up but it is only half lit. Plus we have a new kitten and she climbs the tree everyday...and even sleeps inside of the thing. I have not shipped cards out yet and if I don't get them out by Friday (that's tomorrow) I really should give up on it. Anyway last night I asked our wonderful neighbor Lia if she could watch our kids for two hours while we went shopping for them. She of course was happy to help out (see why I love her). So at 6 we dropped them off and headed to Target first. All we found there was stocking stuffers. The store was crowded and there were only 3 lanes open to check out. I knew I had to bring my patients around this time of year with all the shopping going on but we only had two hours and Target was mostly a bust. Then we headed to Toys-r-us and they were having a two day sale (Tue-Wed)...lucky us. We had the most fun shopping that I have ever had in a store. We brought our Christmas cash with us and our shopping is not effecting our bank account. It was stress free shopping...if we wanted it for the kids we got it. We bought Toni a twin doll set that has a whole school theme to it. So the twins each have their own desks and homework. Toni gets to teach...she will love it. We also picked up a double stroller for her to push them around the house in. My girl loves to play dolls. (shhhhh so does Mikey). We bought Mikey a huge 18wheeler truck that holds 36 hot wheels in it and he can haul that everywhere. Also now that our kids are older and enjoy games we now have family game night. Thursday night is our choice because everyone is home...no meetings or church. We normally play simple card games or the memory games we have. Well....John and I went crazy on the game isle. We must have bought 8 games to play. From chutes and ladders to a kid game called Cooties. Everything was on sale so most the games were $4.49 a few games like UNO Attack were a little more but still great prices and I know family night is really going to be something cool in this new year. Our kids love playing the games with us and I would rather that then video games. Toni really does want a DS or a PSP but when I asked her if she would rather sit down with the family and play a new board game or the computer the family games won hands down. We still might get her a game system for her birthday but not for Christmas. Now I just need to wrap all the gifts and get them up on our Christmas shelf for the kids to see and get excited about. Anyway....John and I had tons of fun this year shopping together with no kids. It was perfect. This has been the most stress free Christmas I have ever had in my grown up life. Now I just need to get those cards done and in the mail tomorrow LOL.

My little Toni

Yesterday was the first day my daughter missed school. Friday she complained that her brain hurt. I was thinking allergy head ache. Then she had a fever over the weekend and then a sore throat. Sunday she developed a rash and I took her to the Doc on Monday morning. The office was full of sick kids. We were the third that morning to come back positive for strep. The Doc started her on anti-biotic and said she would not be contagious after 24 hours of antibiotic. I hope no one else gets this. Mikey still feels fine. John and I have no symptoms either and I pray it stays that way. Toni is off to school today and she says she is fine and it does not hurt to swallow. My girl hates liquid anti-biotic and now that she is 44 pounds she can take a big pill. The doc said she would not be able to swallow a pill that large but my girl has no problem with it as long as they don't give her that nasty liquid. Mikey has gymnastics today and it is so cold outside. I hope it warms up...the weather says it will warm up Wednesday and I hope they are right. Anyway...I have no pictures but I love you guys.

Gramma and snowflakes

My momma ("Gramma" to Mikey and Toni) came to visit us for a few days. My kids just love it when she is around. We saw her for a day or two and then she jumped on a plane and headed to Virginia to visit my sister and her other Grand babies for the week. When she came back from my sisters she stayed over the weekend and took the babies shopping for new bikes. We won't see her for Christmas so they got spoiled a little early. Both of my kiddo's decided that their new bikes needed to have kickstands. I don't know if any of you all know this but kickstands don't come on children's bikes. Training wheels do and my kids don't use the extra wheels. So first my mom set off to get them the perfect bikes....then kickstands....then horns so they can honk all the way through the neighborhood (I am sure our neighbors are thankful). They did real well on their new bikes and Mikey's bike is double the size of his old one. He has to tip the bike to get on it. It is a funny site to watch this little 31 pound kid pedal this bike all over the place. Toni has a very girly bike and she loves riding with Mikey but does not posses the same skill level on steering. She runs into things...like the mailbox.(I know my dear sister can relate). Mikey can maneuver through the toughest spots and never bat an eyelash. Toni panics and wrecks...I love her. It is a sight to see tham both, they are such good friends. I make them wear helmets when ever they leave the yard and head to the streets. I also never let them out of the yard unless I am right there with them...so stop worrying they will be fine. We had a great visit with mom and I am so thankful that she comes to see us. I already miss her but I know she likes to be home (self proclaimed hermit).

Today was fun too. We had a very warm day...strangely warm. Toni was off to school riding the bus like a big girl. Mikey and I went to his gymnastic class this morning and while he was in there jumping, tumbling and running some energy out I was thinking I should have worn a t-shirt instead of a long sleeve. Before we left for gym class Mikey had to go check on his bike (he likes to see it everyday...just looks at it). I explained to Mikey that we had to go shopping for grocery's after class. He just kept saying "can we just go home and ride bikes?". But I had to stop at the store. We shopped for quite some time and he bought dog bones for his Kuzco, he always wants something for his dog. We were back home by 12:30 so I told Mikey that first we needed to put all the stuff up and eat lunch. I rushed and just as I changed him from shorts to jeans for the bike ride the rain started to come down. I don't like to complain about rain here in the Austin area because we just don't get enough of it....so I wont' Mikey's face was sad and he ran out and moved his bike out of the rain so it would stay dry. The rain was short and the cloud moved...10 min past and it was sunny and beautiful once again. We grabbed our bikes and went riding through the neighborhood. It was really windy...hot...and the hills here were killing my legs. Mikey acted like he was not tired at all. We rode up to John's office and got our free drink of water there LOL. John was not in but Mikey drew all over Johns dry erase board (a picture of his new bike). We rode home and I checked the temp. (77 degrees out). Then I had to go pick Toni up. It was nice having them both home and Toni set up her new cup cake maker and made her brother a chocolate cup cake. (I really should have taken pictures). We had a cold front blowing in this evening and every time the wind blew it got colder and colder...it was like God turned on the heavenly A/C. In one hour it dropped 20 degrees. John had a meeting this evening so we all had dinner early. It was really cold out when John left for the meeting. I played with the kids all evening and put them to bed at 7:45. It is nice to have a quite house every now and then. I was the only one up...very strange. My bother worked till 11 p.m. and by 9:30 it was sleeting and the noise that the ice makes when it falls is way louder than rain. At about the time John was to head off to pick my brother up through the curvy hilly roads giant snowflakes were falling. It was so pretty. They are still falling and it is almost midnight the temp is 37 and still dropping. Anyway...that is the day...and the weekend.

A December's Wednesday

Wednesday was a crazy day. Toni came home crying from school. Her best friend is moving to California and she is sure she will never have a girl best friend again. I talked to Toni about the other girls in her class room and she said they all already have best friends and now hers is leaving. Times are tough for this country and even my kindergartner is feeling the effects. Emily is moving because her dad lost his job her in Austin and he found a new one in California. He is one of the lucky ones. Over 1.3 million people lost their jobs last year and no city or state is safe from financial devastation. That being said I am very glad that my husband is a water guy, I know that nothing is forever but we all need water there is just no way around it. Anyway.

Mikey and I hung out Wednesday and he painted a wooden boat as we talked about Jesus calming the storm for the scared fishermen. Mikey is a smart kid and loves to repeat the stories to anyone who will listen...with better sound effects than I make. He loved having sister home from school so he could show her his boat and tell his story (yet again). Sister cheered up and played with Mikey and it was nice to see her out of her little sadness time. Mikey still misses his sister during the day but has found that playing with the dogs is a fun way to pass time. He treats the dogs like playmates and hangs out with them throughout the day.

Awana's is on Wednesdays as well and we had to be there super early for check in because the whole team was going Christmas caroling. We stopped at Dollar General on the way to church to buy Christmas hats and reindeer antlers. Mikey and Ezra wanted the horns and Toni was all about the hat. We have 75 children in the Awana's program at church and most of them were there. We all loaded up in different cars and headed to a nursing home to surprise the people there with wonderful singing. John and I had the four children that we bring on Wednesday in our SUV and headed to follow the crowd. The only problem was both of us forgot to bring the directions and we became separated from the group we were trying to follow. We turned around to head back to the church in hopes of finding anyone that stayed behind that might know the directions. On our way back to the church John called Lia (one of the kids mom's that we take) to see if she could run to our house and read us the directions off the table. It all turned out OK and Lia read us off the directions to the rest of our group. No one even noticed that we were a little late as they had not started the singing. Yeah for us. It was a small place that we landed all of our kids in...but I am so glad we went. First we all stacked into the dinning area where the elderly people were eating and as we marched in everyone was singing...it sounded like angles with all the small voices (we had 15 three and four year olds). I looked around and people were pointing and some of them had tears in there eyes. Our kids gave out a few hugs to some open arms of the people and the ladies would tell me about there children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. It was hard for me not to cry, you could tell how those lonely people needed to hear some great Christmas songs. After the dinning room herd a few songs and watched the kids for a few minutes we separated into two groups of about 50 people each. One group went upstairs and our group stayed down stairs. We walked along the halls of the nursing home very slowly and sang with every step. Some of the nurses came out and asked us to bring small groups into some of the rooms by request for some of the people that were no longer Mobile. To see the faces light up was amazing and the spirits in place were happy and warm that night. It was truly a gift for us to sing and help spread happiness. At one point we had a trail of walkers and wheel chairs behind our group following us around just to hear the children and remember the loved ones that they were missing. It was truly touching. Toni loved learning all the Christmas songs over the last few weeks for this event so she was heard loud and clear when a song popped up that she knew particularly well. Poor Mikey just kinda made up his own words but loved walking through the halls and singing his own tune...unless jingle bells was sung....he loves jingle bells and knows it very well.

That is about if for Wednesday....oh....and we wore them out, they slept well. Love to all.

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My little family drove up to my Aunt Toni's house for the big event. She lives in Nacogdoches which took us five and a half hours to drive. We left on Wednesday and stayed several nights there in "the white box" (my daughters words) or what others would call a camper. We brought the kids bikes and Mikey learned just how far his bike could skid on pebbles safely. The kids went fishing and had so much fun hanging out with everyone and showing off a little. John took the kids for several rides on a large ATV (kinda like a mix between a four wheeler and a go cart. Very cool! On thanksgiving day there were 20 something people bringing food and eating with friends and family. My mom and her husband came too, so my kids were in double heaven. Everyone played games and talked it up. They had a pool table, a dart board, washer toss (I am not good at that game), and a wonderful pond to play around. I took a walk with my cuz, I just love her. After the crazy big meal and all of our taste buds were well spoiled someone hooked up a Karaoke machine. It was fun singing again and it was fun to watch the others sing too. My uncle got up there a few times and I love his voice...kinda reminds me of Randy Travis. My cuz Cheri has a wonderful voice and we even sang a few songs together. My mom ended up singing Johnny Cash because her voice is gone due to asthma (funny sight to see my tiny little mom singing Johnny). It was a blast. Great memories that will last forever. I have so much to be thankful for and this wonderful get together just added to my thankfulness.