Advent

Yesterday was the first day of Advent and just having recently learned what advent was all about - we, as a family, are celebrating this season of preparation and waiting for Christmas.  I was fortunate to have been given a advent wreath with candles for our table to enjoy each night at supper.

Having a visual respresentation for the weeks before Christmas makes the boys even more anixous which is really cool.  I have a bunch activities planned for each week with the big ones for the weekends of each new candle being lit: the lights, tree, stocking, etc.

I'm really excited about it all and really hope to get it all captured in my December Daily album.

December Daily Album

After we got home today, I spent some time in my scrapbook room working on my December Daily Album and getting activities ready for the 25 days of Christmas.

So if you are not into scrappin' you will be very bored with this post.  
The idea of the album is to document our days leading up to Christmas and the preparing, waiting and experiencing of the holiday season.  I'm really excited about doing this project as this year we will not be traveling at all but at home to really celebrate. 

Here's the rough shell of my ablum as of now. I will be working more on it as the days get nearer and I will be documenting our days and adding pics, posts and embellishments as we go along.

Day 1 - There's not a cover yet, but I'm working on so here's the first page.  I've put eyelets in each page, so that when I find 3" binder rings the pages will turn easily.  Each page is roughly 8x8 or smaller.

Day 2 - This page is closer to 8x5

Day 3 - This is a 8x8 clear page protector that I will be using just like a cardstock page.  The tag will be for my journaling, etc.  I plan to just staple or glue my pics and embellishments right on the protector and possiblly put memorabilia in the protector like a envelope, such things at recipes from shopping or notes from the kids, or a souviner from something we did that day or nothing at all.

(blogger is not cooperating with M.E. so my pics are all over the place)

Day 4 - If our day requires more room on the page, I may remove this big tree, or perhaps make this my title page of sorts and add in another page to document what we did.  As for the page side of Day 3 clear page proctector I may just decorate for fun to hide the backside of the other stuff or just leave it, who knows right now.

Day 5 - To try and break out of the square shape I made the edge of this page like a parentheses shape.

Day 6 - This is one of Buddy's empty baseball card holder sheets.  I cut the bottom row off so that it would fit in the album then I cut the right edge down, using my sewing machine I stitched a new margin for the eyelts to go creating 4 strandard pockets and 2 really skinny pockets.  Who knows what will go in the pockets but I thought it was a really cool idea.  I made a tage with the number 6 on it to slide into one of the pockets which can be moved around it need be.

Day 7 - This page as a curved edge for alittle variety.  Also there's no number on this page just in case I need to use it else where or find out that I need something different. 

Day 8 - This is a smaller width page about 8x5, thus you can see day 9 behind it.  I really like that its not uniform through out just like our days will not be uniform through out the holiday season. Again I may or may not be doing anything to backside of the previous day.

Day 9 - This is another clear page protector with a taga and 9.  I'll probably add another tag or journalling strips as needed.

Day 10 - I found this really cool glitter cardstock at Micheals.  It was about 50 cents cheaper in the wedding section verses the christmas sections, so it helps to shop around. I also got a 12x12 sheet of christmas numbers 1 - 25, so alot of this tags and numbers are from that sheet.

Day 11 - So obviously I'll want to put some sort of embellishement over that bar code on the back of day 10.  I think this page is so simple and cute.

Day 12 - Another page protector.

Day 13 - This is probably my favorite page with the machine stitching around the border and all the christmas trees.  Too cool.

That's enough for today, I'll try to post the rest tomorrow.  Enjoy!

On the Road again already.

In order for us to get home before night fall on Sunday and to rest up for school Monday, we needed to leave KY by 10AM today.  It was sad that's for sure.  It was such a short visit. Grand total of 41 hours.
Here Nana and Mamaw are walking to the RV as we all load up and say our goodbyes.

Our Family!

It is such a rare event for my parents and the Man's parents to be together.  This is only like the 4 or 5th time its ever happened.  And probably the first time that Buddy will ever remember.  We had to have a pic to capture this moment.  Although LG's refused to get in the pic.

He stood in the yard and cried.

And cried.

And cried, and cried, and cried, until Aunt Cream came to his rescue.

But he wasn't the only one crying.  I don't know if its because I'm pregnant or because its up in the air when we will get to see each other again, but M.E. and Aunt Cream had a crying fest of our own.  It's seemingly getting harder and harder to leave each time we visit and we visit alot, so I can't imagine how hard it would be it we only saw each other once or twice a year.  It would be too much for M.E., I think.  It's really hard dealing with the guilt of raising my kids away from their family.  Especially their grandparents, when I grew up next door to one set and about a mile from the other.

Even on down the road, LG would start crying just thinking of Aunt Creme.  But he eventually started thinking of home and satisfied himself with that.

Happy Thanksgiving one day late!

We drove all day yesterday and finally arrived home about 5 PM.  The boys were most excited but also alittle tired and cranky.  Grandpa's the Man for driving the whole way, while we chilled out.  I almost read an entire book while we cruised along.  Pretty cool, I must say not to have to do any of the driving.

The boys were all about Aunt Creme and the family.  They wound up staying the night with her.  Here's her pic of them all in bed.

All my family was pretty much on hand for the big feast.  It was nice having it on Friday, as everyone got to go where they needed to the day before, so no one had to rush out the door to another feast.  We all got to visit and have a fabulous turkey dinner. 

As it was also my birthday, we had a little celebration for M.E. and LG whose birthday was two weeks ago.  Here LG sneaks a taste of the cake.

He was so excited to have another birthday.

That's a Kroger ice cream cake.  They are sooo much better and cheaper than Baskin Robbins.  We totally love them.  Although we don't Kroger in OK, it was great to have one while home.  Here we are together.

LG blows out the candles.

Later Daddy catches him with a can of coke.  This is definitely something that only happens at Mamaw and Papaw's.

We ended the night by going over to cousin C's and playing the Wii.  Buddy is sooooo into that right now.  He's begging Santa to bring him one.  Although we've informed him that Santa doesn't bring gifts over $100, so he's likely out of luck this year.  

It was fun to hang out with the family!

Thanksgiving

In the words of Buddy as written in a letter at school:

Dear Mom and Dad

Thakuoow for braging my to a cathlick sckoowl.
[Thank you for bringing me to a catholic school]

Thackuoow for loveing my.
[Thank you for loving me]

Thckuoow for biing my cklose.
[Thank you for buying me clothes]

Love [Buddy]

On the road for Thanksgiving! We headed out right at Noon today heading east.  Its going to take a whole lot longer in the motor home than in the van, so we needed to get a jump start.

We drove until dark, which got as far as Little Rock. Tomorrow will be a long day. 

Being 4

I'm thinking of changing LG's nickname.  He has really grown up this past year and maturing right before my eyes, that Little Guy, just doesn't seem to fit anymore.

Over the last month, his patience level has really increased, with that said, he has zero patience or tolerance for Buddy.  In his new found patience I refer to helping out in the grocery, standing still in public, and just his overall demeanor.  A couple of our friends have even noticed that he's not as 'wild' as he used to be.  I guess it all comes with age. 

He's feeling much better and hasn't had a fever or a cough or sneezed for several days and I'm hoping we are done with allergies for the winter.  We still plan to see the allergist in December. 

We will also be visiting the speech clinic and getting him enrolled in speech & language therapy starting in January.  He has a broad vocabulary and preschool has really helped with his pronouncations but he is still behind his age group for sure.  He's getting frustrated that his teachers and friends can't understand him and its just time. 

He refers to himself in third person and can not grasp the use of "I", while this is cute, he really needs to get it.  He does not say "s" at all. He'll simply skip it in the pronouncation of a word that has one or that sound.  Many of the compound words he uses, he'll only say one sound, but say it twice. He says porport for airport, corcorn for popcorn, homehome for motorhome, etc.   All the while I pretty much get what he's saying, his teachers can not.

He has a very unique personally and he is very loved by us and his friends.  He's too precious.

Today we sat down for a quick game of candyland and I think its the first time that I didn't have to help him at all or explain anything.  We just sat down and played.  He won of course!

I'm so thankful to have these days with him, although he loves to watch his shows when he's home we still get to be together and that's always fun. 

Also, while discussing baby names with Grandpa and Nana, Grandpa explained to LG that they share the same middle name.  Now so does the Man, but it fascinated LG that he and Grandpa have the same name.  So now he is calling him that instead of Grandpa.  Too Funny!

Helping Out!

These pics are from a couple of days ago, but I neglected to blog about them because 1) I'm tired 2) I'm lazy and 3) I can't remember what day I took them.

Anyhow, LG came in the house after helping Nana outside with some project.  (Btw, the projects are coming right along, several have already been crossed off the list and they have only been here 5 day). so he came in the house with some majorly dirty feet.  I sent him to the bathroom. 

He is just too cute!

He did such a great job cleaning his feet. He's not so much a toddler anymore, but a little kid. 

New Moon!

I went with Esther to see New Moon: the second movie of the Twilight saga after church today.

IT WAS FABULOUS!  You can really tell they have a big blockbuster budget this time and it was so good.  I want to see it again.

First Little Kicks

I have officially felt the first little kicks from baby #3.  It's so exciting!

In other news....

So I've missed several days of blogging, go figure. The two people who keep M.E. on my toes about it are now living in my driveway and part of the M.E. world, so they aren't bugging M.E. to blog. 

Anyhow, I went to the Doctor Wednesday and sat in the little room for near 45 minutes to see the doctor for 3.  Just long enough to heart that precious little heartbeat (155 bpm) and to ask if I had any questions.  Well, this is my third, so no questions here.

Buddy has been doing really well in school and is reading like a champ.  Something has finally clicked with him and he's all about it and doesn't fight us at the suggestion of reading. woo-hoo!

Little Guy stayed home from school today, because last night he had a 100.3 fever and felt really crummy.  This morning he felt great and cool as a cucumber, but having had a fever within 24 hours of the school day, we are advised to keep the kids home and I had no problem doing that because today was the vaccination day for H1N1.    We totally weren't planning on participating in this vaccine, nor did I want some kids sneezing the mist back out all over LG.  So he's home with M.E., Grandpa and Nana.  He doesn't let them get very far from him either.

I'm so looking forward to tomorrow being our first Saturday will no football or sports. Ahh!

They Are Here!

They have arrived safe and sound!

They arrived before the boys and I got home from school and it was so exciting for the boys coming down the street and seeing the RV already in the driveway. Awesome!  Its going to be so great having them here for awhile.

Conversation

While waiting in a line of traffice this morning on the way to school, we see an older gentleman out for his morning walk.  As he turns the corner and nears our van he begins to stop and pick up things along the curb. 

Buddy: What's he doing?

M.E.:  Looks like his collecting somthing.

Buddy: What?

M.E.: I don't know, probably nuts, I think that's a hickory nut tree [there was a big tree over hanging the sidewalk]

Buddy: Nuts?

M.E.: Yeah, I think he's picking up nuts.

LG:  Donuts?  Donuts? [craning his neck to see]

Always ready for a treat that LG is!

Popcorn Delivery

A some point this week we recieved our popcorn order that Buddy sold for Cubscouts and it really needed to be delivered.  So afterschool on Tuesday, I think, I'm so lost on days I'm not even sure when it was, so I'm posting this today, we headed up to the Man's office to deliver the popcorn.
Here's Buddy outside the Man's building.

Buddy and LG in the elevator.  Aren't they just too precious...

The Buddy with a big smile for M.E.  I think he looks spiffy in his uniform.

I'm not wild about doing all the cubscout stuff as I should be.  With school and sports, its really hard to add another plate to the table, but he seems to enjoy it, so we'll complete this year and see what he decides for next.

Last Flag Football Game of the Season

We had a late afternoon game today which is always wonderful because we get to sleep in.  Although the Man left last night at midnight to have a sleptover with his fellow duck hunters for this mornings upcoming hunt.  He got home just in time for a quick nap before we headed out to the game.

We told Buddy that he really needed to try hard today because it seemed to M.E. last week he didn't run as fast as he normally did.  He has gotten comfortable being one of (if not the only one) that's the fastest on the field. 

Well turns out today, it didn't matter, the other team we played was entirely 1st graders (we have 3) with at least one if not two years playing experience.  The were tall and fast. Yikes!
Prior to game time, Coach has Buddy practicing some handoffs and pass plays.

We kick off to them and within two plays they are down to the 10 yard line and quickly score. We stopped them on their two point conversion. 0 - 6. They kick off to us and Buddy scoops it up, cuts to the side line and runs all the way for a TD. woo-hoo.  6 - 6. 

We kick off to them and they managed to get some good plays off.   Here Buddy misses a flag and the kid scores. 12 - 6.

Turns out they score every time they got the ball but one.  As for us, not a chance.  At the half we are down 20 - 6. Definitely something we are not used to.  Second half, they kick off to us and let M.E. just say this, never have I seen this season or last season a 1st graders kick a ball off the tee 40 yards.  Yes, 40 yards.  The ball completely flies over our offensive line and the boys have to run back to get it.  Buddy does this successfully and finds the sideline.  1st down at the 10.

We would score. 20 -12.  And that would be our last score of the game as they completely shut our offensive and Buddy down.  They have his number.  We lost 28 - 12.  too bad for our last game.   One of our parents would later tell M.E. that one of the other teams parents said "oh this is the team with that kid", referring to Buddy on his first kickoff return for a TD.  6 years old and already has a reputation.  Don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

After the game the team headed over to the assistant coach's house for a team party.  It was pretty fun, the boys most certainly had a blast and it was a good season.   Now on to basketball... first game coming in December. I'll keep you posted.

Wish List

Found this in Buddy's backpack.  Translation -- "I [Buddy] wish it would rain candy".  See cloud and falling lollipops.  "I [Buddy] wish there was a volcano".  See volcano.

I love it that he's starting to record his thoughts in words no matter how random.

Bronchitis

After LG coughed all night and I mean most of the night. I think I slept from 1AM to 5AM at which point LG got up.  It was a rough night, but there's no fever and he says he feels fine, so I had no plans to take him to the doctor today, its just allegries.

So around 9AM the coughing started up again which is unusual, because he usually only coughs at night.  So I started paying alot of attention to it and from 9AM to 10AM there wasn't a five minute stretch in which he didn't cough.  and cough hard!  So I broke down and called the doctor. I say broke down, because I'm not one to run to the doctor, unless they have a major fever and/or lifeless.  But I couldn't stand seeing him cough like this, so off we go.   The doctor immediatley hears him cough and diagnosis him with Allegric Bronchitis.  The cough which may have started out due to sinus drainage, is now being cause by the tightning of the bronchical tubes and it's his body's way of getting more air.  Poor baby!  So steriods to the rescue.  We immediately go down to the pharmacy, and as we are leaving, he's really coughing and its starting to gag him, so I pull over and get him out of his car seat just in time for him to vomit in the parking lot, then again and again. I felt so sorry for him. 

Long story short, he's got some steriods in him, but he is still coughing and he is so tired of it.  We will be going to see an allegrist in December to see what the main cause of his drainage is.  I really hope that he doesn't have to go on medicine. I will be praying to control it other wise.  He is such a good medicine taker.

So after he said he felt better we headed over to Hobby Lobby. I'm so addicted to this store.  I could go there everyday.  I wanted to get some supplies for my December Daily album that I'm soooooo excited about.

I really didn't get to look at all I wanted, because after about 10 minutes the Man calls and says his truck is at Midas.  And he is gently trying to tell me why he's there and what's wrong with his truck, when finally I just say, "HOW MUCH? What's the bottom line?" --$900 to $1100. OUCH!  Not what I wanted to hear, but he asks if I could please come get him. So yes, I'm off to get him and I lost my mojo to get my December Daily embellishments. oh well!  But I did get some paper and a few 'spare parts' that were on clearance.

But you want to know what is the blessed thing about the truck breaking down now? 

At the end of October, the Man recieved an extra 1 week salary on his paycheck because the company is going from bi-montly pay schedule to an every-other-Friday schedule, so they needed to make up the difference in October before it started Nov. 1.  So the Man and I have debated on what to do with this "seemingly" extra money.  We decided to just sit on it for little while and see if we could just swing the holidays without using it.   So here this money is just sitting there and bang the truck breaks down. 

My point you ask?  The Lord will provide. 

If we hadn't gotten that extra check we would be charging this bill on a credit card, ugh!  But thankfully we don't have too!  The Lord takes care of those who try to take care of others. Something the Man and I both do.  And I'm so grateful.

Mike's in Town!

First of all I feel really terrible that I didn't get any pics tonight of the Man's little reunion with his long time buddy, Mike. But nonetheless, we had a great time visiting.

Mike and the Man went to school together back in WA and were really close friends, but after graduating, going to college, missions, moving, marrying, etc... they had lost touch until about 1 month ago.  Turns out Mike would be driving cross country this week and make a grateful pit stop in OK to see the Man and his family. 

I've heard a lot of story from the Man growing up and Mike was often in those stories, so it was nice to finally meet him and my boys were all to happy to have company over.

Unfortunately, LG got a coughing spell from his sinus drainage and would up vomitting and coughing most of the night.  ugh!

Anyhow, sorry no pics, but it was a good visit with an old friend.  Thanks for stopping by!

First Basketball Practice

With only one more football game left, we've already begun basketball. I was hoping for a week or two break, but its not going to happen.
So last night we headed to basketball.  The boys were pretty wound up, that's for sure.

Buddy's still in football mood but he'll come around after a few practices.

Sorry the pics are blurry, the lighting inside the gym is terrible.  

Little Guy was alittle out of it this afternoon. He had his school party for his birthday yesterday and he wound up with a fever.

Listening to Coach/Daddy.

FYI

A couple of things this Monday Morning....

1. The Man has agreed to write his Opening Weekend Chronicles, so I'll be posting those when they are available.

2. We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of Grandpa and Nana.  They are currently in route from Seattle to Arizona.  They will be setting up there for a few days then head east to see us.  wooo-hooo!

3.  I'm starving! 

4. We have a really busy week ahead.  Buddy has 4 activites on the calendar.  I don't like weeks like this. Its just too much.

5. I'm going to be creating a December Daily Album for Advent this year.  I'm really excited about it. And plan to post lots of details of it in the next few weeks.  You can check out Ali Edwards 2009 version on her blog from this past week.  The link is on my left side bar.  She is my most favorite Scrapbooking Celebrity.  No doubt!

Celebrating Being 4!

We celebrated Little Guy turning 4 today.  His actually birthday isn't until Tuesady, but we had his party today.  He invited his best bud from his preschool class, two of the siblings from Buddy's football friend (whom we play on the playground with all the time) and his sweet little girl buddy that we know from youth group. 
He was so precise in planning his party which started about 3 weeks ago. He knew exactly what kind of party, Lightning McQueen and he knew exactly which friends he wanted to come. It was great.  He was sooo, sooo, sooo excited.

With the Man duck hunting, the boys and I had a bit to do this morning before his friends got here and I'm disappointed in the amount of photos I got. I didn't even think to grab the camera until it was cake time.  I was just to busy helping the kids with their projects. They painted a car with glitter paint, made foam racing flags, and a beaded necklace.  Too fun!
Here's LG with his cupcakes and candles.

I like how excited Buddy is too.  He sung Happy Birthday to LG all morning.

He was so sweet when everyone sung Happy Birthday to him.  He just smiled so big.   Here he goes blowing his candles.

He had to make a few attempts!

He got it!
We let the kiddos have some cupcakes then run the sugar off before presents.  LG was so patience.  I was really proud of him.

He got some really cool presents, some books, diego band-aids, two waterbottles with his name on them, Darth Varder and Obi-Wan Kenobi action figures, battery operated dump truck, building blocks and some Wedgits.  I'll have to blog about this Wedgits later.  They are pretty cool.

Thanks to everyone, LG had a fabulous birthday and really had a good time playing with his little friends. It was great.  We are truely blessed to have made the friends we have and the kids to have some many too!

Happy Birthday, Little Guy!  We love you!

Go Titans!

Well, we missed our game last week while we were in Seattle, and I'm sorry to report that we lost.  But this week was a new day, new game and it was an early one. 9AM. But that's not as early as the Man got up.  He left the house this morning at 3AM to go duck hunting,  It's Opening Day!

At the game, we kicked off first, so they had the ball.  Here Buddy gets a flag for a big stop.  He's averaging little more than half when it comes to getting the flags.  He likes to dive for them intead of staying on his feet and pulling them. He's alittle bit of a showman on the field.

They however managed to get on down the field and score with a tricking double handoff reverse play that schooled all of our players into going the wrong way.  Tricky!
We got the ball and on the very first play, Buddy takes off for a TD.

He's so fast. No one could catch him.

A little stroll out of the end zone.

LG wanted his picture made.  He's so good at the games and just plays with the other siblings.

We missed our 2-pt conversion so the game is tied at 6 when they get the ball back.   We managed to spot them on 4th down at our own 15 which was awesome. And just as we are on the 5 yard line ready to score they call half time.  Our coach was not happy.  All we needed was one more play to score.

Second half, we receive the ball and make some pretty good progress down field.  Here Buddy makes a big first down to put us at the 10.  

This would be Buddy last big play.  They other team was on him like flys on honey.  He couldn't break out of the pack after this.  On this drive, we would score and get our 2-pt conversion to lead it 14 to 6.  The other team would come back and score, but we managed to get them on the conversion and unable to score again we still would win it 14 -12.  GO TITANS!

We've only one more game and I'm alittle disappointed.  Our team is getting the hang of it and some of the younger kids are starting to make big plays and its so fun to see them grow and understand the game.  Oh well, there's always next year. 

The boys and I came home and started cleaning the house for tomorrow big party.  LG's having a birthday! 
The Man would get home about 5 with a big story.  I'll have to get him on here to tell you all about the big hunt on Opening Day!