Where to begin?

I don’t know where to begin on covering all the fun had around here over the past week.  Christmas has come and gone again, but I hope these memories stay in my mind for a very long time!

We’ve started some potty training, so these rubber boots from Gran and PawPaw have come in handy!  Mack doesn’t poop in his pants, but we are having some issues with the other.  I just thought I would try and get an early jump on this huge endeavor in hopes that by the New Year Mack would be ready for big boy undies out in public.  We’ll see……

Merry Christmas!

Christmas 2007

Christmas 2008

We are having fun on this cold Christmas Eve!  Getting ready for a Jesus Birthday party….balloons and baking cupcakes!  Fun times!

After the Christmas Eve service tonight the kids get to open a gift–their Christmas pajamas.  I have a picture each year of them in front of the tree on Christmas morning in their pj’s.

Augusta, GA

We took off Thursday for Augusta.  The trip there was long, but uneventful.  We were all glad to get out of the car!  When we cleaned the car out after the trip I was AMAZED at all of the stuff in the floor board, under the seat and in the cracks of the seat.  Three kids in one back seat can make a big mess.

There are so many parts to the trip that I am not sure where to start.  My mom took all of us to see the new Princess movie by Disney.  It was rather interesting.  I would not recommend going to see it or running out to buy the video.  There were many scenes with voo-doo and evil.  I should have read up on it before going to see it, but I really thought it would be ok considering it was G rated and a cartoon about a princess.  I was wrong.  My mom and I kept looking at each other like, “Oh my goodness….what in the world is going on?”  Mack ate up some popcorn, as did Molly!  Mack would say, “I like copcorn!  Do you??”  He drank lots of diet coke, too.

The kids opened presents from Sweetie and Paw Paw on Friday, too.  They  loved everything that they got.

A great gift for Molly! A real Hello Kitty blow dryer.  She loves anything to do with hair and make up!

I can’t say for sure, but I think PawPaw enjoyed the cars even more than Mack!  Though Mack did like them, and I even found him trying to set it up this morning!  I had to tell him no because I didn’t have time to sit and play with him at the moment.  This can be a “Daddy & Me” gift.

Ruby got many, many princess dolls covered in glitter and accessorized with tiny crowns and necklaces and shoes.  OH my.

Did I mention that they are covered with glitter all over their clothes?  They are, in case I didn’t mention it.

And all of these precious Polly Pocket Dolls have made their way into our home, too!  They come with 5,487 removable pieces.

(You know I am just being dramatic, Sweetie.  Ruby played for about an hour with all of these little people this morning.  Money well spent!)

Mack got this scooter.  Notice the cool Spider Man boots…they even light up.

Josh spent time with Ruby and the Polly Pocket dolls.  What a sweet daddy.

All the kids have fun opening the gifts that they got for each other.

This was Vance’s gift.  Kaybeth is such a good “helper.”  She came in carrying this particular gift and saying, “This a microphone.  This a microphone.”

This is where we would corral them so that we could see what the person was opening.  They would eventually all get up and crowd the person, but then we’d get them back in a little line.

Molly, Ruby and Mack each got a sleeping bag.  They all slept in them on their bed.  That is my idea of camping!

Sweet little Renn with her daddy, Uncle Jesse

Kaybeth and her Dora lunchbox and videos

Ruby was so patient and waited and waited on all the others to go before her.  We started with the youngest.  She was excited to have her turn!  We have played Connect 4 and Go Fish already this morning.  Thanks, Aunt Marcy!

This is the bus my mom rents each Christmas for all of us to get on and ride around in.  We went to see MeMe, ate Mexican, rode around some more and then went and visited with some friends.  That is when our family left for home.  The rest of them rode around at night to see Christmas lights.

The kids like opening the bus door.

All the kids on the bus, the craziness of all of it can make one act a bit silly.

Oh yeah, we also stopped by a fire station where my parents knew someone who was working.  The kids all got to get in the truck!  Fun.

And Uncle Jesse stepped in dog poop….gotta love that.

Mack, yet again, did not want his picture made.

You just have to laugh at him.

The little stinker

Sweetie!

Mom & Dad, us girls, and the grandkids…Mack, again, not wanting his picture made.

There are many, many more pictures and more stories, but I am so out of time!!!  Gran and PawPaw are here, I am in the process of making more cinnamon rolls, and we are having several folks over for dinner tonight.  Gotta run, but I will finish this post at some point….hopefully before the New Year!

MOLLY’S CHOIR OPEN HOUSE

Josh and I both went to Molly ’s choir open house.  I suppose we are trying to make up for missing out on her “performance” that we missed a couple of months back….the one where she tells me she was “looking and looking” for me, but she could not find me.  UGH.  I also take every opportunity to let her know that no one told us in advance of this “performance.”  Anyway, here are a couple of pics of last Wednesday night.

Birthday Present

We are home from Augusta, and I have lots of pictures and some stories about our time there.  It is late, I am tired, so they will have to wait until I have some more time.  Josh and I got up very early, went to church with the kids, let the girls go to Mrs. Mary’s house (thank you, Mrs. Mary!!!!), and we took Mack with us to get some more Christmas shopping done.  We didn’t realize what all we would be doing this afternoon, and I clearly wore the WRONG high-heeled shoes!  Oh my.

We were talking to Mack about Christmas and telling him that we are celebrating Jesus’ birthday.  He really doesn’t quite get it.  He would say, “My birthday?”  or  ”Your birthday?”  And he did finally say, “Jesus’ birthday??”  YES!

Later, in the car, we were still talking about birthdays.  He wanted to know when his birthday was, when Molly’s birthday was, when Ruby’s birthday was, when Daddy’s birthday was, and then he asked when my birthday was.  He noticed that he and I both have March birthdays.  He stopped and said, “March?!”  I told him how I had him  on March 28th and then got to bring him home on my birthday, March 30th.  ”You were my birthday present, Mack!!” I said with excitement.  His reply was, “I was in a bag?”    Hilarious!  He was picturing that he was literally a gift to me…like a package.  So cute!  For now, we’ll just let him believe that he came into our world by way of a birthday bag.

Such a cutie

Until more sleep and some rest for my tired, aching feet……good night!

In The Beginning….

Molly was looking through older pictures and when she saw this one,

she said, “Oh, Ruby, look!  Remember when we were pretending to be Adam and Eve?  Remember?!  You were Eve, and I was Adam.”

Somehow, this is not how I envision that things were at the time.  But what do I know?

And the Excitement continued…

We were all excited to see Ruby after school.  She brought her stocking home to open with us.  Mack was very interested in the candy.  Molly helped her open the gifts.  It was fun!  Her whole day must have been fun because, in her words, they “partied, partied, partied!!!”

Books, stickers, pencils, and jewelry!

Ruby read Molly her new books.  She is doing so well with her reading, and I am proud of her.  She is often-times heard asking what words spell.  It can drive you bonkers, but you never let it show because I am just glad she cares to know!

Mack was content to suck on a rainbow candy cane while sporting only his diaper.  He had made a mess of himself at the Mexican restaurant right after school, so I made him strip down as soon as he walked in the door….Josh was traveling, so we decided to celebrate the last day of school with dinner out!  It was a last minute decision I made when I realized at 3:00 I had not eaten lunch, just a couple of cinnamon rolls had sustained me through the morning and into early afternoon.  Oh, so healthy.

Someone should really potty train this guy because somebody doesn’t seem to change diapers regularly any more.  That would be a good New Year’s Resolution….potty train your really big, almost three year old boy.

EXCITING MORNING

Today is Ruby’s last day of school until after the New Year, and we could all feel the excitement in the air this morning!  Ruby woke up early and happy as can be.  A huge part of the hype was that she did not have to wear her uniform.  Evidently, the administrator gives the staff and students a “Dress as you like” day for Christmas.  Ruby also had cinnamon rolls and gifts for her teachers.  She was so excited!  Each student has a stocking that they get to open up today as well.  Fun times.

Ruby chose jeans, boots, and this cute owl shirt.

Molly seemed genuinely excited for all that Ruby would get to do today.  Sweet girl.  She and I have had a fun morning.  We painted and colored and read all of the Christmas books….well, almost all of them.  There is one little book that we cannot find; Mack was the last one with it, so who knows where it might be!

Mack was set on getting a picture made just like the girls did–holding our “Merry Christmas” sign.

Sweet Sisters

Mack is so funny…and he almost always has an audience willing to encourage his silliness.

There are a million things I could be doing right now.  They include, but are not limited to, folding laundry, cleaning toilets, sweeping, mopping, putting water in the Christmas tree stand, cleaning off the pile of stuff that has made its way to the stairs…….but the day is YUCKY again;  I just feel unmotivated….not to mention that I will have to clean before our family comes to town next week, so I am thinking I should just wait until Monday.  Not sure our toilets can wait that long, but is it wrong to try and make them????  Hmmmmmmm…………………….Mack’s is the one that is screaming, “A TWO YEAR OLD BOY IS TRYING TO FIGURE OUT HOW THIS THING WORKS!”  Yuck.

New do

Molly & Ruby needed a haircut, so I decided to call Merrilee.  Merrilee is Jason’s girlfriend of about 9 months.  Long time, ‘eh?  She had a spot come open for us at 7:00 tonight, and we took it.  Molly was beside herself with excitement.  She is all about hair.  She filled her purse with two brushes, 500 ponytail holders, and some make up brushes and headed out the door.  Ruby is not into that stuff at all, but was still excited to get a hair cut.  It had only been six months, at least, since their last cut.  Merrilee was very nice to them, of course.  She washed their hair, cut it and dried it.  They were cute, cute, cute.  Molly hides her excitement very well.  No smiling for the picture from her.  OH well.  Thanks, Merrilee, for cutting their hair!  It was fun.

Yum

I made them again.  THE most delicious cinnamon rolls ever.  The recipe is from thepioneerwoman.com, and I love to make them.  It takes time, but it is so worth it.  Our family hasn’t actually been able to enjoy a whole pan of these because I usually make them to give away.  I have half the dough from this batch in my fridge because I ran out of cinnamon, so I may try to make them this week for us and for our neighbors.

Or maybe I will run to the grocery store to get the cinnamon…I am starting to crave them after looking at these pictures.  It doesn’t help that we are soooo close to Christmas!!!!  All the yummy food out there just waiting to be eaten!

Put  up #13 (the last sheep), #14 (the last shepherd) and you’d see that we only have 10 days until Christmas.  Wow.