Monday, December 26, 2011

Christmas eve

We headed to the country for Christmas Eve. The majority of the family was there which was different. I saw some of my family that I havent seen in years. After we ate, the 3 children said their parts. Ian was first and said John 3:16
Micah was next with a poem called The Greatest Gift of all
If you seek a special gift
The greatest gift of all
Don't look beneath your tree
It was never there at all
The greatest Christmas gift
Was given to us all
The Christ Child in a manger
In a lowly cattle stall

Hannah read the Christmas story.
After that was time to sing the 12 days of Christmas. Micah was SO proud to have his own part this year. He got 6 geese a laying and after his first, and second, and third times getting to sing his part, he kept saying "I got to do it all by myself." He was So happy.That was only the beginning of the happiness though. Uncle Don drew Micah's name this year and everything that he bought was Perfect. Every single gift that Micah received was followed by "OH MY!" He truly racked up. He got a lego dump truck, a lego garbage truck (both are right up his and Don's alley!) He got a Huge bucket of chalk, and a model Caterpillar bulldozer.
Patton and sweet Caroline got to enjoy each other for a few minutes. It sure was sweet while it lasted.....
Daddy invited Stacy's friend Matt. He was So happy to go and bought himself and Micah nerf guns. After presents, if you were looking for the boys, they were in the yard having a battle. Even sweet P got in on the action..... helping pick up bullets, that is :-)
After a fun afternoon we headed home to unload and rest for a few.As soon as it got dark enough we headed back out to look at Christmas lights.
We saw some, looked for some more, and ended up having supper at McDonald's. It was the ONLY thing still open! YUCK! I haven't eaten lunch or supper there in a year+ since my galbladder issues. I have had breakfast, but how can you go wrong with a biscuit? I had a snack wrap and by the time we were finishing the workers were pretty much trying to kick us out. We decided that it was past time to be home anyway. I finished my gingerbread church, white elephant gift, and to bed we went.

Friday, December 23, 2011

Advent Calendar

We did an Advent Calendar this year. Micah had been scoping them out for a while. He found several that he liked. There was one at Target that we both really liked. One day he and Stacy went shopping and came home with this.
Stacy was very proud of it and the price that he got it for. I thought it was pretty cheesy myself, but it did the job. I filled each day with something special. Not candy, or treats per say, but fun things to do.
I've had several people ask me for some ideas. Here are a list of some of the things that filled our days up until Christmas....
Put a large sign on top of the trashcan thanking the trash men.
Call family members to tell them that you love them. (One of Micah's favorites)
Buy lunch in the drive thru for the car behind you
Make a thank you card for the police and deliver it
Santa Pictures
Leave a note with a treat for the mail lady
Tape money to a coke machine
Take an apple to your teacher with a note telling her how special she is
Decorate cookies
Go to your favorite store and deliver candy canes to the workers (Micah LOVED this.... pics to follow)
Read the story of Jesus' birth
Tape quarters to bubble gum
machines
Make ornaments
Take a few minutes to hold the door for others (Micah Always loves to do this)
Wear new Christmas PJs
Write a note to a friend telling them why they are special
Take cookies to the fire station (He LOVED this)
Look at Christmas lights
Live Nativity
Wrap presents
Decorate a gingerbread house Send Christmas cards
Do a Christmas craft
Watch a Christmas movie
Due to the fact that our normal day consists of Micah going to school, coming home, eating lunch, taking a nap, playing, eating supper, and going to bed, some of our days were combined with others. Micah chose to deliver candy canes to the workers at the "iPad Store" It's only his favorite place. Micah made these guy's night. One even requested a picture with Micah, so sweet!
After that we headed to the bubblegum machines with a bag full of quarters. Micah taped on quarter by quarter, then we hung out and watched people be surprised. It just made Micah smile so big. He loves to give.
Micah was super excited to deliver cookies to our local firemen. He even wore his fireman shirt. We had to try this one twice. The first night we went, the station was empty, no one was there, not even a truck. Micah was bummed, but was so happy to go the following day.
Thinking that this went over extra well and will be our new tradition.



Thursday, December 22, 2011

Photo Op

This morning I had a few places to run in Buford. I picked up my last personalized gifts, exchanged some shoes, and bought yet another roll of ribbon. It's not surprising that my baby who doesn't speak very much can say Hobby Lobby pretty clearly. We are there almost twice a week. I LOVE that store! While we were in Hobby Lobby Stacy called me and asked what we were doing (nothing out of the ordinary) This happens all of the time. I told him what we had accomplished so far and that we were almost finished. When we headed to the car, who did we see? Stacy surprised us! I haven't seen him very much recently. He has been SO busy lately. It was a sweet surprise. It was nearly lunch time, so after a quick trip to the mall to return yet some more items, we headed to one of our favorite Mexican places to eat. Since Stacy has not had a day off in a Long time, he had not done any shopping. He and Micah headed shopping and went to visit his dad in the hospital (he's about to have open heart surgery) Patton and I stayed home. I got a good bit accomplished, but also had some fun taking pics of Sweet P. They are not at all what I was hoping for, he was sleepy, maybe another day I can get some better ones. But for now this can help get us in the Christmas spirit :-)

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Filling our days

I am always worried when Micah has time off of school. What in the world are we going to do to fill our time. Especially in the rain?! So far, we haven't stopped. We were so excited to go to Micah's friend Eli's house on Monday to make gingerbread houses. Micah and Eli are nearly opposites, but get along SO well. They had a blast decorating houses and eating candy, while the babies had crackers :-) Their houses turned out to be quite a sight. We had a whole lot of fun.
I was so scared of what our Dr. A visit would entail. Micah was being tested for minerals. If he failed it meant no metal of any kind for 25 hours. I was SO nervous. Micah passed! I was SO excited I had to jump up and hug Dr. Alexander. He passed the next one salt, as well. On to grains, that was quite easy. I'm sure he did fine on that. Tuesday was full of Tuesday Claus, and running from store to store finishing up Christmas. I think I'm finished.
Monday night P had a difficult time falling asleep. He ended up in our bed, but was fine during the day Tuesday. Tuesday night was horrible. If there had been a Dr open that late at night, I would have taken him. The boy screamed louder than ever for almost 2 1/2 hours. It was BAD. We tried ear drops, mylicon, and tylenol, nothing helped. Finally close to 11 (P normally goes to bed around 7:30) he conked out in our bed. We finally got him to calm down by giving him a book with a turkey on it and the iphone. I was slap worn out and I'm sure I was out before him. We had plans to meet some friends this morning at Chick-fil-A to see Santa Cow. I went back and forth over whether or not we'd go. I'm SO glad that we did. We had so much fun. BTW Patton wasn't fond of the cows at all!
After breakfast we headed to the Dr. to discover that P has an infection in his right ear and that he is cutting both bottom molars.
The poor baby passed out on the way home, woke up, had lunch, and has been out ever since. I always hate to wake a sleeping baby, but by now I'm wondering, if I let him continue to sleep..... Will we be dealing with the screaming again tonight? Hmmmmm

Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Tuesday Claus

With only 3 Tuesdays before Christmas this year, Tuesday Claus only got to visit 3 times. Stacy a yummy cake one week.
Micah got a cool Dr. outfit.
I got several rolls of vinyl and P got balls and books.
Everyone has been so crazy busy that today was the first day that we saw the rest of the fam at The Rent's. We had fun watching people open their gifts.

December?!

I can not believe the wonderful weather that we've been having! We have totally enjoyed of afternoons recently. As soon as nap is over, we head outside and stay until supper time. Both of these boys LOVE being outside! Can you tell?!

Christmas Party

Micah's Christmas party was last Friday. I was getting over an awful stomach virus. Mama, Stacy, Patton and I all had it. Micah complained of his stomach hurting, I figured it was due to drainage, I was right. In the morning, I found Micah without his PJ shirt on. I asked him where it was. He told me that he threw up during the night. He never woke up and was covered in it by the time he woke up. Poor guy! By Friday we were better and were able to enjoy a fun party complete with pizza, fruit, doughnuts, and popcorn.
After lunch the kids played, Patton chilled, and I chatted (surprise surprise) Man, I'm going to miss all of this next year. BTW I thought it was hilarious when I finished getting P dressed for the party and Micah said, "WOW P, we're BOTH going to be stylin' and profilin'."