December 31, 2008

It is technically 2009 now, so Happy New Year!

We had a good day. The kids spent the day playing with friends at home. We also made a trip to Publix, which was crazy busy.

Tonight some friends came over and we grilled steaks and fish, shot off some fireworks(thanks, Nana & Poppa!), and the kids played Wii. They all left around 10:30, and then we started working on getting the kids to bed.

Carson was the only one who made it up to midnight. I fell asleep with Jamie, and Vic fell asleep with Caleb. I woke up at 12:11, and Carson was downstairs playing Wii by himself. So, I ushered him up to bed. Now I am done cleaning up most of the mess downstairs and am going to start the year off by getting some rest!

December 30, 2008

This morning we stayed around the house and the kids played while I cleaned up some. Then we stopped by the library to pick out some books and videos and went to Walmart to get a couple more storage containers so I can put away Christmas stuff in an organized way. Also, so I can put away the stuff safely in case another rat moves into the attic. I don't think they can get through the plastic containers.

Then we stopped by Subway and ate lunch. While we were there, Carson was looking at the nutrition information on his cup. It had nutrition info for the subway subs and also the stats for a Big Mac and a Whopper for comparison. Carson looked at the numbers for the Big Mac and said, "Hey! I guess that's why they call it a Big Mac . . . because when you see it, you say, 'holy mackerel, that's a big burger!'" lol, maybe so.

Later, Grammy picked up Carson to spend the night at her house, and Caleb, Jamie and I spent a quiet afternoon here. We played outside and the kids watched part of a Mickey Mouse video we borrowed from the library. I got a lot of cleaning up around the house. The kids undid some of it tonight, but not all. :) I put away a few Christmas things, but Caleb put them all right back where they were as soon as I wasn't looking. I guess he's not ready for Christmas to be over just yet. :)

These are a couple more pictures from Nana and Poppa's visit. Notice the nice makeup Jamie and Nana are wearing in the group shot after their makeovers.

December 29, 2008

We had so much fun with Nana and Poppa yesterday that I was too tired to write last night! We played Dance Dance Revolution, which was pretty funny. Poppa was the best; he can really boogie. We played outside some, and Poppa went for a ride on the pink bike that we are saving for when Jamie outgrows her Barbie bike. Jamie didn't like that too much, but the rest of us did! We also played a very long game of Monopoly that we never finished. We played on Carson's new game with electronic banking. It is hard to get used to the card system, but it definitely beats having to clean up and organize all the paper money.

Last night we made a family trip to Target and Home Depot. Caleb, Poppa and Vic went to Home Depot, and the rest of us went to Target to look for post-Christmas bargains. Nana also gave the kids some money to spend. Jamie got a wedding day Cinderella, Carson got a Star Wars monopoly game (he is really into Monopoly right now), and Nana chose a Thomas train set for Caleb. They were all very happy. After that, we ate at Barbara Jean's, which was very yummy.

This morning Jamie and Nana did makeovers for each other with Jamie's new makeup she got for Christmas. They were both very beautiful! Just before lunchtime, Nana and Poppa packed up and headed home. They left the kids with the customary bag of mints, which they enjoyed as always.

We spent the rest of the day trying to restore order to the house after all the Christmas celebrating. It is hard to find places for all the new toys. I had even cleaned out a bunch of toys recently, and it is still hard to get everything straightened up. It is looking better, though. And, Nana did almost all my laundry! We call her the laundry fairy. She is the best! Having the laundry caught up makes it easier to clean everything else up.

Tonight we had our usual pizza night, and now all the kids are sleeping. I am going to go watch some TV.

We really enjoyed having Nana and Poppa here! I will get more pictures up soon!

December 27, 2008

We had another fun day today with Nana and Poppa. The kids got to pick out another Christmas gift each with some money that MawMaw sent them. They were excited to get to look through all the toys and pick something out. Jamie chose a music box full of play makeup. She has really been wanting another music box since the ballerina broke on hers. Finding one full of play makeup was a great bonus! She also got a fairy dress-up dress with the rest of her money. Caleb chose a Backyardigans guitar and a big shovel. It's a kids shovel. I'm not sure why he wanted it, but he really did. Carson got some Pokemon cards, of course. He is always happy to get more of those.

When we got home, we realized that Jamie's music box didn't come back with us. She took it surprisingly well. Poppa and Vic took her back to get another one, which she did with no problems.

Tonight Grammy and Grampy came over and brought the Wii Outdoor challenge game. We cooked out and played wii and had so much fun! That is great exercise; I am completely worn out!

The kids are still awake, so I am going to go help Nana get them settled down. They have had so much excitement lately that they don't want to waste any time resting. :)

December 26, 2008

Today we pretty much stayed home and tried to restore order to the house after all the Christmas fun. Carson played outside with his friends, and Caleb and Jamie went with Grammy to visit Aunt Linda for a little while.

I got the house cleaned up just in time for Nana and Poppa to arrive for more Christmas fun. Now the house is back where it was before. That's okay, though, it has been fun. :) The kids were so excited tonight. Carson got an Indiana Jones whip from Nana & Poppa, which he was completely thrilled with. Nothing like a cracking whip to liven up a Christmas celebration!

Jamie got a pony that was called a "Floral Fairy Pony". Could anything be more perfect for her? Flowers, a fairy and a pony combined = Jamie's dream toy. She had fun styling the pony's sparkly hair.

Caleb enjoyed all of his gifts, but was most excited about the m&m candy cane. He takes after me in that respect. :)

We have had a fun day and are looking forward to a couple more days of fun with Nana and Poppa.

More pictures are in our web album.

Christmas Day 2008

Merry Christmas everyone!

We had a very nice Christmas day today. We got up and had a quiet family Christmas morning here. The kids were so excited about their gifts, and just excited in general. We enjoyed our morning celebrating here and then went over to Grammy and Grampy's house for more Christmas fun.

We all had a great time and especially enjoyed playing with Grammy's new Wii Outdoor Life game. That is good exercise! I really need exercise after all the snacking I did today. I am dreading weigh-in on Monday. Too bad we don't get a free pass on calories for holidays. :)

The kids also enjoyed snacking and playing with all of their new toys. Jamie got a build-a-bear kit that she loved, so we spent part of the afternoon making a stuffed bear. Carson enjoyed trying out his new nerf gun tag set, and Caleb had lots of fun with his play screwdriver set.

We had a very nice afternoon with Grammy, Grampy and Brent and left with three very tired, but still happy kids. Caleb fell asleep on the way home and is still asleep. I figure he'll be up ridiculously early tomorrow, so I'll be headed to bed soon. The disaster that is my downstairs will have to wait until the morning.

I have put pictures up from Christmas Eve and from today in our web album.

Sorry about the paragraphs running together in this post. It doesn't look like that in the post editor. I guess Blogger is a little wonky tonight.

Christmas Eve 2008

This morning the cleaning lady got here a little earlier than usual, which actually worked out well. We stayed here until she finished upstairs and then we took off for a little while to get out of her way.

We went by Publix because I forgot to get apple cider again yesterday. I remembered today. It was far less crowded today than yesterday. I'll have to remember that for next year's shopping. After that, we went to the playground of the neighborhood we used to live in. I like to take the kids there because there are no spots for Caleb to climb to that I can't reach. That's a good thing because I'm short, and he will climb to the highest point of any playground. We ran into some friends there, so that was fun.

Later in the afternoon we went to Christmas Eve service with Grammy and Grampy at their church and then came home and put out our luminaries. The kids also spread the all-important reindeer food on the lawn. Got to keep Rudolph and the other reindeer healthy and happy!

We ate dinner and then drove around to look at Christmas lights. This went a lot better than last time. No fighting amongst the kids, thankfully. We came home, did our last advent night, which consisted of Vic reading the Christmas story and the kids getting to eat chocolate-covered chocolate and marshmallow creme cookies.

Then they opened their Christmas Eve gifts, which, as always, was a new book and Christmas pajamas. Vic is just getting them out of the bath now, so it's time to put on the new PJs and tuck them into bed before Santa stops by!

I'll get pictures posted as soon as I can. :)

Giant inflatable Santa and Christmas with Christy and Patrick pics

Christmas with Christy and Patrick


Giant inflatable Santa spreading some Christmas cheer. If you look closely, you can see Carson watching TV in the playroom.

December 23, 2008

I got up super early this morning and got the house perfectly clean for the appraiser, who showed up promptly at 10:00 and was through by 10:10. So, you might think the cleaning lady will have nothing to do tomorrow, but she will. I can't believe what three kids can do to a house in one day. I'm not even sure if she's coming tomorrow, but hopefully she will.

We spent the morning at home, and just as I was making a list for Publix and dreading going there on Dec. 23 with three kids, Grammy called and invited Carson and Jamie to come over and play! Yay! So, she picked them up and Caleb and I went to Publix.

While at Publix, we ran into Carson, Jamie and Grammy. :) Grammy had taken them to Sander's and bought all three a new Webkinz. They were so excited. She had Caleb's with her and gave it to him. It's a gecko that he named "Froggy". Carson got the clown fish, "Happy", and Jamie got another pink poodle, which she named "Cutie". Publix was crowded, but not as bad as I thought it would be. Still, I was glad to get out of there and have the shopping out of the way.

Caleb and I went home and both fell asleep watching Dora on the couch. I woke up first and tried to get some more stuff done around the house. Caleb woke up about an hour later running a fever. Poor little guy was just miserable this afternoon. I gave him some Tylenol before dinner, and he perked up quite a bit, but was still not quite himself. I hope he is much better tomorrow and that no one else gets sick before Christmas! Or after, for that matter.

I am off to get some sleep now, thank goodness. I am so tired. I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve! The kids are so excited! :)

December 22, 2008

Grammy and I took the kids to the mall this morning for some Christmas fun. We started off at the Bass Pro Shop's Santa's Wonderland. The boys had fun playing the laser hunting game and Jamie got to talk to Santa! I even got a free picture of her with Santa. The boys were way too into the laser rifles to talk to Santa. :)

After that, the kids went for a ride on the Christmas train and then we made a stop for some Chik-Fil-A. After lunch we went to the indoor play are with the kids and Grammy and I traded off shopping and watching the kids. That worked out well. The kids had a great time climbing through all the tunnels and going down the slides. They also enjoyed some ice cream and played some games.

We left the mall with three very tired kids. Caleb slept all the way home, and the older two fought all the way home. Good times.

We ordered pizza tonight and got the tired little ones in bed pretty quickly after dinner. They were so worn from our fun day, and so am I! But, Vic tell me there's an appraiser coming by to take pictures of the house in the morning, so I have lots of work to do before I can rest tonight.

I have not put the pictures in our web album yet, but they are on facebook. I hope this link works: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2014347&l=af5cc&id=1219262479

December 21, 2008

This morning we went to church, where the kids were pretty well behaved an earned themselves an ice slushy afterwards. Our pastor and God must have coordinated today's service because just as he was talking about the depravity of Herod the Great and listing many of his evil deeds, a huge rain storm came out of nowhere. It was pretty cool, like something out of a movie.

We spent the afternoon at home working around the house and the kids played with their friends. The highlight of this afternoon was when Vic decided to pull the giant inflatable Santa out of the garage and put it up in the front yard. This was quite a shock because Vic generally dislikes any kind of Christmas stuff in the front yard. So, I was more than a little surprised to see him wrestling with a giant Santa outside. It was quite a fiasco getting the jolly fellow to stand up, and I'm sure our neighbors were giggling at us. But, eventually he was standing fairly straight waving a giant-inflatable Christmas greeting to passers-by. I wasn't thrilled with it at first, since I'm generally a white-light purist as far as Christmas decorations are concerned, but he's growing on me. I just saw a tour trolley go by. I hope they waved to our Santa.

Christy and Patrick are coming by any minute with some gifts for the kids, so they are very excited. They are also ready for bed, so right after the gift-opening fun, they'll be tucked in for the night, and I'll be enjoying some peaceful laundry-folding time. :)

December 20, 2008

This morning the kids played outside with their friends and Vic did some work on his car while I tried to clean up some inside. We ate a quick lunch and then we all went to the dollar store to let the kids do their annual Christmas shopping.

In the past, I have always taken them one at a time to the store. This year, I decided we'd be efficient and all go together. I am most definitely going back to my old plan next year. The dollar store was crowded, the kids were tired and cranky, and to top it all off, Carson squeezed one of those little balls from the toy aisle with the liquid inside too hard and it exploded nasty green liquid all over him and Vic. Their shirts were covered in it, and it was dripping out of Carson's hair. It was actually pretty funny, though, and the only fun part of the trip, for sure.

After that we went in Publix to do our shopping for our church's Salvation army food collection and then I went in Hallmark while Vic was loading the kids in the van and got some mulling spices to make spiced apple cider with. Of course, I realized at that point that I had forgotten to get the cider at Publix. So, I'll just have to get that another day.

Tonight after dinner, we drove out to Tybee to look at lights. Our friend Dan's house had won an award for best lights out there, and we wanted to go check it out. His lights were definitely the prettiest. Tybee didn't really have as many lights as we thought they would, though. We will stick with looking at lights closer to home from now on.

The kids are tuckered out and snug in their beds now, and I have a million things to do before I can sleep, so I had better go get started.

December 19, 2008

This morning I had all the teachers gifts ready, backpacks packed with lunches, snacks, drinks, and plates and napkins ready to go for Caleb's party. Everything went great until we started to send the kids out the door and realized one of Caleb's shoes was missing. Arrrggg. I hate it when that happens. The other shoe was right where it was supposed to be under his backpack hook. So, after looking and looking, we decided that Vic would take the other two to school and I would locate the shoe and then take Caleb to his class. As soon as Caleb came back inside(he was already buckled and ready to go in Vic's car), I told him we needed to find his other shoe, and he ran off and ran back with the shoe! He knew exactly where it was. He must have stashed it away somewhere. So, that was our morning drama. It's always something, no matter how prepared I am.

So, I dropped him off, went home for just a little while and then went back to the preschool for his party. He was already digging into a cupcake with lots of red icing when I arrived. Good thing he was wearing a red shirt. He also ate a bunch of chicken nuggets and fruit, so he had his party was more of a luncheon, which was nice. After he finished eating, he ran and got his backpack and was ready to go. We loaded up his backpack with all his loot and headed to Grammy and Grampy's house, where he spent a fun afternoon.

Later I went to Jamie's party, and then took Jamie and we walked over to Carson's party. I think I might have been snapping too many pictures, since the lady in charge of the yearbook saw me and asked if I could email her pictures from any school event I attend, lol. She didn't say anything to anyone else. If she saw how these pictures came out, she wouldn't have asked. I didn't really take that many and they are mostly really bad. After Carson's party his class was going to watch the Grinch, but we decided to go ahead and head home.

We hiked back to the van. I had to park quite a way from the school. I don't remember ever seeing so many cars around there. Then we picked up Caleb and went home. Carson played with a friend, Jamie went over to her friend's house who lives down the street, and Caleb watched some Handy Manny. Now, I am about to go tuck them all into bed. I hope they will be good and tired and ready for sleep tonight! I am really ready for some quiet.

I have added a few more pics from today in our web album.

December 18, 2008

This morning Caleb woke up at the crack of dawn. I guess that's the down side to putting him to bed early. So, we made white trash party mix for Vic's office. Then, we got Jamie out the door for school and Vic out the door for work, and then Caleb and I hung out for a little while before I took him to have a fun day at Grammy & Grampy's house. It was another warm day, so they got to play outside lots. He always loves that.

I went to Walmart for a couple more stocking stuffers and then came home and got my Christmas cards ready to go out. Well, almost ready. I ran out of cards and am now trying to figure out how to get more cards by tomorrow. I didn't order as many because I was going to pare down my list this year, and I did, but not as much as I needed to. :)

I picked up Carson and Jamie, picked up Caleb, and we came home and played outside for a while. I made dinner for them and after Vic got home, I headed out for a moms night out with my MOPS group. We went to the gumball restaurant, where I got fajitas - yum! Then we stayed and talked for a long time. It was fun. Then I came home at 9:45 to three kids in their rooms but still awake. So, it took me a while to get them settled in. I guess Vic had a rough night here. I came in and found confetti from a gift basket that his insurance agent had given him all over the floor. Everywhere. There is quite a mess downstairs, so I am going to go tackle that now and then get some rest. I have three parties to attend tomorrow!

December 17, 2008

All the kids went off to school this morning, and I spent a quiet morning at home cleaning up and doing some Christmas shopping. I also did a little reorganizing in our bedroom closet. I still need to do more, but it's good to have some done.

I picked up Caleb, and he and I went to Publix. He enjoyed a sprinkled cookie and drove us around the store in the car cart. Then we went home for lunch. I didn't put him down for a nap today because he has been very difficult at bedtime lately, and I think it may be because he is not tired. So, we skipped nap yesterday and today and put him to bed at 7:00. So far, so good. He gets cranky in the late afternoon, but it's worth it for a peaceful evening.

I worked out with the wii Fit today. Caleb helped me by sitting on the coffee table and trying to kick me whenever I got near him when I was doing aerobics. He also got the jar of almonds and tossed them on the floor so that I was stepping on them while trying to do aerobics. I still got my highest score ever! :) I hope I am at least minimizing the weight gain this week. I have been trying to eat better, too. That's so hard to do this time of year, especially with all the candy I have bought for the advent calendar.

Grammy brought home Jamie this afternoon and took Carson home to spend the night with her. Jamie and Caleb played with their friends outside until dinner time. The weather here was so warm today! It was in the upper 70s. Very odd for December, even for here. But it was nice!

December 16, 2008

The big kids went off to school this morning, Vic went on to work, and Caleb and I spent the day working, working, working around the house.

He is a good little helper. We cleaned out toys in all three kids' rooms, which was a bigger job than it sounds. We ended up with two bags worth to donate to Goodwill and we filled up 3/4 of our outdoor trashcan with junk. Then, he helped me vacuum upstairs and clean the wood floors. He also is a great laundry helper. We did several loads of laundry, too. We also found time to play outside, or at least he did, while I folded laundry and watched him from the laundry room window.

Grammy brought home Carson and took Jamie to her house for some ornament-decorating fun. Jamie tells me that she made one for our house, one for Grammy & Grampy's house and one for Santa. Can't wait to see them! They are drying at Grammy & Grampy's house now. Carson and Caleb will be making one later this week.

The kids are all asleep, and I am going to go fold one more load of laundry and then get some rest. I am worn out. I don't think I sat down all day! Maybe this will be good for weigh-in next week. :)

December 15, 2008

I dropped off all the kids at school this morning and then went to Kroger for a couple of things and for a Peppermint Mocha Twist at Starbucks. I think I like this one even better than the Pumpkin Pie latte! I don't even want to know how many calories are in it. At least I got the nonfat milk, and it was my breakfast.

Speaking of calories, Vic and I have started a weight-loss contest with Grammy. She kicked our tails last week with a 3.7 pound loss. She's good. This week, however, the Christmas snacking got the best of all of us, and Vic won with a gain of only .2 pounds. We're a sad bunch. As Vic pointed out, thank goodness we're doing the weight loss challenge. Just imagine how much we would have gained otherwise! I have to get my act together. Today Jamie told me I have a jelly belly and I could be Mrs. Claus when I grow up, lol.

So, back to our exciting day. I went home and spent way too much time trying to find a Josh Groban Christmas CD with Oh Holy Night on it. There is no such CD. There is a Josh Groban Christmas CD, which I ordered, but Oh Holy Night is not included. It's on one of his concert CDs. What were they thinking??

I picked up Caleb, gave him lunch, he played outside for a while, and then I convinced him to take a nap. Then I did some cleaning and some wrapping.

After the big kids came home, Jamie and Caleb played together and made a big mess upstairs. Jamie doesn't really play with her toys as much as she scatters them. But, at least they were having fun. Carson watched some TV and worked on his homework.

We had pizza for dinner, and now I am about to start getting them ready for bed. I think they are all pretty tired. :)

Pictures from the Christmas program at church are up on our web album.

December 14, 2008

Vic had sound duty this morning at church, so he left early and I took the kids later for Sunday School. They also spent some time practicing for their Christmas program, which was probably a good idea.

We went home for lunch and some play time for the kids, cleaning up time for me, and then got the kids dressed for their Christmas program and headed back to church.

They were really cute in the program. Caleb walked up to the edge of the stage and ignored what was going on with the program. He just wanted to check out all the people. He also waved to us a bunch. Grammy & Grampy were there and he was happy to see them from the stage.

Jamie got to wear her sparkly dress that Nana and Poppa got her, so she was very happy. She didn't like her halo much, though. She said it was uncomfortable, and she didn't look happy at all up on the stage, lol. I guess an uncomfortable halo would tend to make an angel grumpy, even an angel who was wearing a super sparkly dress.

Carson did a good job saying his line and carrying his sheep across the stage while the children's choir sang. He didn't like getting dressed up and was especially upset that I made him wear pants that had a button, but he did a great job and looked cute up there on the stage. :)

They had a reception afterwards, so we ate dinner there. It's always nice to not have to cook!

I will get the pictures up soon. Right now I am going to go enjoy the quiet. :)

December 13, 2008

This morning Jamie and I went to Firestone to get a new tire put on the van. Then we went to Target, which is conveniently located in the parking lot behind Firestone

While we were gone, Vic and Caleb put up our outside Christmas lights - yay! I still think we need more lights, but I would probably say that no matter what. I love Christmas lights! We also need a new deer. One of our two deer quiet working this year. I bought another one, the kids plugged it in inside, and it worked for about 30 minutes. So, it's going back to Walmart, and hopefully the third time is a charm.

We went out to eat tonight with Christy and Patrick at Beef O'Brady's. It was fun, or as fun as a dinner out with three young kids can be. Carson won all three kids bouncy balls on a machine in the arcade, so they were happy about that.

Tonight we finally got our stockings out of the attic and did a little more Christmas decorating before tucking all the kiddos into bed. I can't believe there are only 11 days left!

December 12, 2008

Jamie was much better today, thank goodness. She was ready to eat by lunch time and didn't have any more tummy troubles. :) She was still a little bit draggy today, but so much better than yesterday. Now, if everyone else can just stay well until Christmas, that would be great.

Caleb and Carson headed off to school this morning on the daddy bus. Jamie was upset that she didn't get to go because they were having a "Polar Express" activity today where they were going to wear pajamas and drink hot chocolate and watch Polar Express. But, she got over it pretty quickly.

Jamie spent the morning resting and then we picked up Caleb and stopped by Publix to pick up a few things I needed for dinner (spicy soup!). We headed home for lunch. I didn't even try to get Caleb to take a nap because he was so excited to have Jamie there to play with. They played together until time to get Carson.

After we got home, Carson played a Wii game that Grammy had rented for him earlier in the week, Jamie played Webkinz, and Caleb took a cat nap on the couch. He'll probably be up all night now.

Now they are happily and quietly watching Frosty on TV and eating Popcorn. :)

December 11, 2008

Jamie woke up saying she wasn't feeling well this morning. I could tell by looking at her that she didn't, so I sent Carson off to school with the neighbor and put Jamie back in her bed. After a little while, we took Caleb over to Grammy & Grampy's because it was his day to play with them, and then we made a stop by Publix to pick up a few quick things. That's when the trouble began. We didn't even make it into the store before Jamie's breakfast made a second appearance. Right there in the parking lot. Poor little thing.

So, she pretty much spent the day camped out on the couch. She did feel like getting up for a while this afternoon and helped me wrap some gifts. I got a lot of gifts wrapped today. I am almost done wrapping the ones I have already bought. I still need a couple more.

Grammy picked up Carson for me so that I didn't have to take Jamie out to parent pickup. She brought him and Caleb home, and they played inside and watched TV until dinner time. Vic brought home pizza for dinner. After dinner, he went out to the store to get the things I had stopped by Publix for earlier in the day.

I hope Jamie feels better tomorrow. I hate hate hate stomach viruses. Hate them. I hope no one else gets it!

December 10, 2008

I dropped the kiddos off at school this morning, made a quick stop by Kroger since it was my table's turn to bring food to MOPS, and then headed over to MOPS for our Christmas meeting. We had a nice morning. We played Lucky Santa, which is actually Dirty Santa but some people thought that sounded too, well, dirty. So, they changed the name. I thought that was amusing.

I got a headband for my Lucky Santa gift that came with hand-made interchangeable covers. Jamie has already commandeered it. She loves headbands, and this particular one has sparkles on it, so she thinks it's pretty awesome.

After MOPS, I picked up Caleb and we went home to a nice clean house, since the cleaning lady was here this morning. Ahhhh. Then, Caleb tried to avoid nap for as long as possible by climbing in between his headboard and the wall and then calling me to get him out about 100 times. So, that was fun. But, he did eventually take a nap. Then I let him sleep too long, so he is still awake now.

Vic made it home from Atlanta today around 6:00. I had been worried about him driving in all the rain and was glad to have him back home. Shortly after he got home, I took Carson and Jamie to their dress rehearsal for the children's Christmas program at church. Jamie gets to wear a halo, which she is happy about, since it is made of gold foil garland. Carson has a line to say and he also gets to carry a wooden animal across the stage during one song. This was their one and only rehearsal, and I have a feeling they may have needed more. I don't think too many of them know what's going on, but I'm sure it will be cute. We didn't get home from rehearsal until 8:30, which delayed bedtime, and that's never good. Not for me, anyway!

Time for more gift wrapping now!

December 9, 2008

This morning Carson and Jamie headed off for school on the daddy bus and then the daddy bus continued on to Atlanta so Vic could attend a training class up there. Caleb stayed with me and we went to Walmart yet again because I needed to pick up one of Carson's Christmas gifts that I ordered online and had delivered to the store. We picked up Subway again, and this time my sandwich didn't get flung all over the shopping cart.

Grammy brought the big kids home this afternoon. She dropped off Jamie and took Carson home to spend the night. Jamie pointed out immediately that I had not sent her a snack today. I have no idea how I could have forgotten to pack her snack, but apparently I did. I won't do it again, though. She is never going to let me forget this, lol.

It was rainy this afternoon, so we stayed inside. Caleb and Jamie played nicely for the most part until dinner. So, overall a very quiet day. But those days are nice to have sometimes!

The kids are finally asleep now, and I am going to go wrap some gifts!

Birthday Party Pictures

Birthday party pictures are up in our web album.

December 8, 2008 Happy Birthday, Vic!

We started out the morning with a birthday breakfast for Vic of blueberry muffins and sausage biscuits. It was sort of a rushed morning as we were trying to eat breakfast, get the kids ready for school, and Greg and Vic were getting ready for work, so we didn't get to do much birthday celebrating. We did get to spend a little time with Greg, though, and that was very nice. The kids were so excited to get to see Uncle Greg. They had a great time with him.

I took the kids to school and then went home to enjoy the quiet and clean up around the house. Later, I went to Publix to pick up some things for Vic's birthday dinner tonight. I went straight from Publix to pick up Caleb and headed home for our usual lunch and nap routine. He actually ate mostly ice cream for lunch because I took him inside and went out to the van to get more bags and when I returned, he had opened the ice cream, gotten himself a spoon and was chowing down. Nothing like melty ice cream!

This afternoon after we picked up Carson and Jamie, I got to work on baking the cake. I ended up baking two cakes because the first one fell to pieces when I tried to invert it onto my Tupperware Cake taker. Then, the second one split straight down the middle. It just wasn't much of a Betty Crocker day for me. I salvaged the second cake by covering it with a bunch of icing. It looked weird, but tasted good! Jamie topped it with sprinkles and put a bunch of candles on it.

Vic came home and grilled steaks and fish and chicken - very yummy! We had eight people here for dinner, plus our family, so it was a lot of fun. There was a boy there a few years older than Carson, and they had a great time playing Wii games together. I think Vic had a good birthday. We definitely had fun celebrating with him. And now there is plenty of cleaning up to do before bed!

I will get pictures posted tomorrow!

December 7, 2008

We went to church this morning, where we had nursery duty. There were a lot of kids there, so it was kind of wild. After that we went home for lunch and then Grammy & Grampy picked up the kids to take them to their house while we went to Vic's office Christmas party.

To save money this year, his company used one of the houses they have listed to host the Christmas party. It is a beautiful house on a point with water views on two sides. It is a cool house, and if we had a spare million lying around, we'd buy it! The party was very nice; they served low country boil and apple cobbler - yummy!

We just got home a little bit ago and Vic has gone to pick up the kids from Grammy & Grampy's house now. We are excited that my brother Greg is spending the night with us tonight. He is here on business and will be arriving in a couple of hours, so I had better go finish getting his room ready now. :)

December 6, 2008

Vic and Carson went to the climbing wall at the Y this morning. They also got haircuts and visited a few of Vic's listings to get a few things done. Caleb, Jamie and I hung out at home. They watched a movie and played together, and I tried to get stuff done around the house.

Later, I took Jamie and Caleb to Walmart for a while so that Vic could watch the Florida/Alabama game in peace. Carson stayed home with Vic and played Pirates of the Caribbean.

I did a little more decorating today. I have half of the garland up on the stair way, and I finally finished the tree tonight by wrapping the ribbon around it. I figured out that next year I should really do the ribbon before the ornaments. But, I only broke one ornament in the process, so not a huge loss. :) Decorating is very slow going this year for some reason.

I am going to go get Carson in the bed now and put Caleb back in his bed since he just wandered in here and told me he dropped his sippy cup. Now he has found a string and is dropping the end of it into the Christmas tree here in the office and "fishing". Okay, now he's trying to stick the end of the string into the electrical outlet. Time for the little fisherman to rest, I think.

December 5, 2008

This morning I got to go to the Festival of Trees and Lights at the Westin with Jamie's class. That meant that I had to cross the Talmadge bridge in the rain. That bridge freaks me out, but it was worth it to spend a fun morning with Jamie and her class. We looked at the gingerbread village and lots of beautiful trees. Then we ate a picnic lunch in one of the hotel's ballrooms. We were supposed to go to the park for our picnic, but the weather was too bad. The hotel was very nice to let 40 four year olds eat there.

After that, I headed home for some quality time with the laundry. I still have much to do. It is hard to get things done around here lately with Christmas shopping, decorating, wrapping, etc.

I picked up Carson and Jamie from school and then picked up Caleb from Grammy & Grampy's house. He had a fun day. He had so much fun, in fact, that he never slowed down for a nap! That made bedtime easy tonight. They were all very tired!

I added a video of Jamie playing "Santa, Santa, Claus", a Christmas version of duck, duck, goose, while waiting for the lunches to be brought in from the bus. Click here for the video.

December 4, 2008

This morning Caleb and I went and got the oil changed in the van, which was surprisingly fast. Caleb enjoyed looking through a Road and Track magazine with me while we waited. The boy loves cars, so being in Jiffy Lube with a car magazine was just fine with him.

After that, we went to Walmart for a few things and then picked up Subway sandwiches at the store inside the Walmart. Caleb wanted to eat his sandwich right away and wasn't too happy that we were going to take them home to eat them. So, we went to pay for our Walmart items and the sandwiches were in the cart. Caleb was also in the cart. You may see where this is going. While I was distracted loading items onto the belt, he gave my veggie delite a shakedown looking for his tuna sandwich. The veggies were a-flyin. Besides a bit of a mess, it wasn't that much of a loss. I still had plenty of veggies left in the sandwich, and I'm sure some birds or some feral cats or raccoons or something will enjoy the veggies we tossed out of the cart and into the parking lot.

We went home, he ate every bite of his sandwich and then took a nap. Later we picked up Carson and Jamie and came home to finish up all of Carson's homework. After that, we made chocolate lollipops using the christmas tree pan that Grammy got for us. The kids decorated their Christmas trees and we used that for our Advent candy for tonight. That was fun. Next time I use the pan, I am going to try making cookies on a stick. Maybe I can do that for the kids' Christmas parties this year.

The first pictures are of Caleb being mischievous yesterday. I have no idea where he found that funnel, but he had a great time playing with it. The third picture is the kids with their chocolate lollipops tonight.

December 3, 2008

Carson and Jamie headed off to school this morning and Caleb went over to spend a fun morning with Grammy & Grampy. No school for him again today, since he still has a cold. He's doing better, though, so he'll be back at preschool Friday.

I went to do childcare for the MOPs leadership meeting this morning. We had 10 kids, but three workers, so it wasn't hard at all. I like getting to hold the babies. It's great to get to hold someone else's baby and then give her back!

I picked Caleb up from Grammy & Grampy's house, and also got to take home some vegetable soup that Grammy had just made - yay!! We went home, ate soup, then Caleb took a nice, long nap.

Grammy dropped off Jamie and took Carson home with her to spend the night. Jamie and Caleb put out a blanket and had a picnic with the Happy Meals Grammy brought them. Then they played together until bath time.

Now they are watching Rudolph on TV and eating popcorn. I'm letting them stay up late to watch it, since it's a once a year event. They are watching it live, which is something they rarely do. They are so spoiled by the DVR and on demand TV. Jamie keeps coming out of the play room to complain that her show is not on. The ads are aggravating her, lol.

I am going to go get the downstairs all cleaned up now because after the kids go to bed, I want to be ready to wrap some gifts! The Christmas tree looks lonely with no gifts.

Sorry these pictures are blurry. They aren't like that on my computer, so I don't know what happened. But, at least I have pictures today!

December 2, 2008

This morning Carson and Jamie headed off to school and Vic took Caleb out to Tybee to take care of some things at a couple of his listings out there. They also played at the beach for a while, where Caleb was thrilled to get to see a big ship coming in.

That left me home alone for a couple of hours, so I had the chance to clean up and I also did a little more Christmas shopping.

Caleb came home tired out from his fun morning and took a nap. After his nap, I had a plan to go vote and then make a fast stop by Publix in order to be home before Grammy arrived to drop off Carson. But, when I pulled into the church parking lot to vote, a guy pointed out to me that one of my tires was flat. So, Caleb and I voted (Did you hear that, Georgia Republican party? You can stop calling now. Please. I voted for Saxby, despite his annoying Thanksgiving ad.) Then we headed home on the mostly flat tire.

Grammy dropped Carson off at home and took Jamie to her house for a fun afternoon. I hear she got to have a steak dinner, too! Carson spent the afternoon playing with William and then doing homework. His teacher sent home a note saying that he needs to work on bringing up his spelling grade. We do work quite a lot on spelling with him, but those words are hard! He asked what his grade was and I told him his current average was 75. He asked, "75 out of what?". When I said, "100", he said, "What? 75 out of 100 is a lot!" He makes a good point, lol. Spelling might not be his thing, but math is. I can't believe they are working on Geometry in 2nd grade! He just whizzes through that stuff.

Jamie came home just in time for a bubble bath, and then we all did our nightly advent. The kids are loving the new advent calendar. Mostly because of the candy, I think. :)

I put them all to bed while Vic worked on my tire. He ended up putting on the spare. Looks like I'll be getting a new tire soon. I am so glad this happened today and not Sunday on the way home from Atlanta!

I took some pictures today but am once again having trouble getting them to load onto the computer. I promise I will post some as soon as I can!

December 1, 2008

Caleb stayed home from school this morning. He said he wanted to stay with me instead of going to school. That's very unusual for him, so I let him. He has been congested lately, so maybe he wasn't feeling well this morning. Or, maybe he just knew that I was going to Target and he wanted to unleash his energy on the Christmas decoration department. He definitely didn't seem to feel bad at all while we were shopping. He had a field day looking at all the decorations and lights. We had a nice morning there. I had a Starbucks coffee and he had an Icee. He didn't drink much of his, though. He was too busy checking everything out. I can't believe we got out of there without breaking anything. I picked out some new ornaments for our tree. The ones I had wanted were on sale. :)

He fell asleep on the way home, and slept all afternoon until time to pick up the big kids. That gave me the chance to unpack and do some Christmas shopping on line. We picked up the big kids and headed home. They watched a movie and ate popcorn until Vic got home with the pizzas.

After dinner, we put up our Christmas trees! Yay! The kids helped us decorate the downstairs tree and then they decorated the upstairs tree all by themselves, and did a great job! They also decorated the shutters and plugged in our small light-up reindeer and decorated his antlers, lol. The reindeer will be going outside soon when Vic gets time to put up lights outside. So, the Christmas season has officially begun in our house. I didn't make my goal of having all the shopping done before the tree went up, but I'm very close to being through so it's okay.

I'm going to go watch some TV by the Christmas tree now and enjoy the peace and quiet. :)

November 30, 2008

We are home! We had a fantastic time over Thanksgiving! It was great to see Nana and Poppa and it is always so much fun to get to spend time with the whole family on Thanksgiving Day. :) We also got to do some shopping, which is always nice. We all enjoyed every minute of our trip, except for Carson who says he enjoyed everything except for sliding down the bank into the lake on Thanksgiving Day, lol. Can't blame him for not liking that too much.

We got home tonight at 7:45, after leaving Atlanta at 1:25, so it was a long drive with lots of traffic. We were happy that we avoided all the rain this afternoon, though. The kids were up a little late tonight, but they all went right to sleep. All that fun has worn them out! I am about to head to bed, too. Back to reality tomorrow. :)

November 25, 2008

The kids headed off to school this morning and Caleb and I spent the day packing up and getting ready for our trip. He likes to help me pack by throwing random things into the bags and by unpacking things that I have just packed. He did take a good nap, though, which let me get a lot done.

This afternoon we were outside watching the garbage collectors do their thing on our street, as we do every Tuesday and Friday. The arrival of the garbage truck is big excitement for Caleb. Caleb got a special treat today when one of the guys actually walked up and talked to us. It made his afternoon to get to talk to the garbage man.

We picked up Carson and Jamie and played for a while on the school playground. Then we went to the library so the kids could pick out some books for our trip. They are so excited to be going to Nana and Poppa's house!

I won't be updating the blog while we're gone, but I'll be back Sunday. Have a great Thanksgiving, everyone!

November 24, 2008

I got a double dose of Thanksgiving fun today, first with Caleb's preschool and then with Carson's class. I dropped the kids off at school and then rushed to Publix to get an ingredient I had forgotten for the beanie wienies I was making for Caleb's preschool feast today. I rushed home because I was expecting a visit from crazy termite man this morning so he could spray for us.

He never showed up, so I just cooked the beanie wienies and took off for Caleb's preschool. His class was wearing turkey hats and they were all very cute. Caleb didn't really sing. He just messed with his turkey hat and climbed on the rail. He was still cute. :) After the show, we went to the fellowship hall for a pot luck Thanksgiving feast. I shared a plate with Caleb and then he went home with Grammy & Grampy and I drove over to have lunch with Carson's class. I had the cafeteria's Thanksgiving meal and Carson had his usual lunch from home because I knew he wouldn't eat anything on their menu. I think next year I might bring my lunch too. Carson had the right idea today. The cranberry sauce was good, at least.

Vic went to Jamie's lunch today because it was at the same time as Caleb's school program, and I have not yet figured out how to be in two places at once. He said it was very loud in the cafeteria and that Jamie was surprisingly quiet. She tried to sucker him into staying and watching her play on the playground like I did on Friday, but it didn't work on him, lol.

I picked up Caleb and took him home for a nap, then we went and got the big kids, came home and played, ordered pizza and are now about to get them all in the bed. They are so tired and whiny, so the sooner the better!

November 23, 2008

This morning was another cold and windy one that made it hard to get out of bed. In fact, when Carson and Caleb came into our room this morning, I told them they could go into the office and play a game. Usually, Caleb likes to watch Carson play games on the computer. Then Jamie woke up in her floor bed in our room and we chatted for a while. I noticed Caleb was being very quiet, so Jamie set off to find him. She reported that he was eating mints. She brought me a "mint", which was actually a chewable aspirin. Great. The little bugger had climbed up into the medicine cabinet and found himself some cherry flavored aspirin.

I figured it couldn't be too dangerous if it didn't have a child proof lid, but called poison control anyway, to be safe. The guy on the phone told me he couldn't have consumed anywhere near enough aspirin to cause a problem, considering the low-dosage and the number left in the bottle. So, the little rascal went on with his day, and probably felt no pain all day!

We made it to church, and almost on time! We got to walk in with the massive wave of people who walk in after the opening prayer. I still want us to make it for the announcements one of these days.

After church we picked up Subway for lunch and spent a quiet afternoon at home. I went to Walmart and to Publix. Vic stayed home with the kids and did some touch-up painting. Jamie played with the girl who lives across the street, Carson played Pirates of the Caribbean, and Caleb slept until 5:00 while I was gone. So, he wasn't all that tired at bedtime but he was still asleep by 9:00, so it wasn't too bad.

Now I am going to go restore order to the house and get some rest!

I put up a new video recently of Caleb using the ice dispenser on my drop shots page.

November 22, 2008

Today was very cold and windy, but the kids were eager to get an early start on the day anyway. This was one morning when I wished they liked to sleep in more. So, we were up with the sun, and pretty much spent all day inside. The kids played a lot of Webkinz, and I did a lot of work around the house.

None of the kids' friends came over today, except for a brief visit from the girl across the street. I guess it was too cold for any one to venture outside. Whatever the reason, it was kind of nice to enjoy a quiet Saturday. I got a lot done and it was very relaxing.

This afternoon we went to Target and then to Home Depot. We are finally trying to do something with the downstairs bathroom that has been wallpaper-less for something like six months now because we can't decide what to do with the room. Anyway, we have decided to get a new vanity, put up wainscoting and a chair rail and probably wall paper on top. We'd like to paint, but the walls are not in good enough shape. We didn't find any vanities we liked there, but it gave us some good ideas. At least we are making progress now. That bathroom is really ugly with bare walls.

After our shopping trip, we met Grammy & Grampy at the gumball restaurant for dinner. That was fun except that Caleb wanted to be anywhere but his seat. It was nice, though. I was glad to not have to cook!

November 21, 2008

I sent the kids off to school this morning and then sent Vic off fishing and spent my morning spending quality time with the laundry.

I brought Caleb home, gave him lunch and put him down for an all-too-short nap. Then, we headed out to go to Jamie's Thanksgiving "Tasting" party. This is where the pre-k kids and the kindergarten kids get together every year in the cafeteria to enjoy some Thanksgivingy(How's that for a made up word?) food. They wore turkey hats with feathers sticking up in the back. They were really cute, but I made the mistake of commenting about Jamie's "Indian" hat. She didn't like that too much. Caleb and Jamie shared a plate and they both had fun. They had pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, peanuts, popcorn, and M&Ms. I'm not sure what M&Ms have to do with Thanksgiving, but I guess you can really never go wrong serving M&Ms for any occasion.

After that, I was planning to run to Publix with Caleb before returning to the school for parent pick up, but Jamie was so sad when I told her I was leaving that I was guilted into spending the rest of the afternoon there. It was only about an hour, really. So, Caleb got to play on the playground with the big kids and had a great time. It was perfect for him since he thinks he's a big kid anyway.

We made a stop by Kroger on the way home from school. All of our bananas ended up smashed, Caleb opened a box of fruit roll ups that I then had to buy, and Jamie knocked the googly eye off of her turkey hat and we searched the store for it to no avail. Even with all that, it wasn't that bad of a shopping trip with all three kids.

They are all fast asleep now, and it is time for me to go do battle with some more laundry before bed. :)

November 20, 2008

This morning I sent Jamie off to school and then Caleb and I hung out at home for a little while. I dropped him off at Grammy & Grampy's house for a day of fun while I went off to have far less fun working at the book fair. It wasn't bad, really, just boring because there were very few customers today. It is closing tomorrow, and I guess everyone who wanted to buy books already has. At least I got to drive the Passat today. I like my van, but the Passat is more fun to drive for sure.

Caleb had quite the fun afternoon, though. He got to go to the golf course and hit golf balls and feed the ducks! He had a great time and then took a good nap and was still sleeping when I arrived to pick him up with Carson and Jamie.

Tonight, we all piled in the Passat and went to pick up my van at the repair shop. While en route to the repair shop, listening to the kids fight about 18 inches behind us, we were reminded why a mini van is such a great thing. Distance between us and the kids while traveling is a great thing. No wonder people used to drive really long sedans before there were minivans. They wanted to be as far from the kids as possible when traveling.

We made it to the garage, which is really only 10 minutes away, so not too bad. The van is fixed and no longer makes obnoxious noises everytime I turn the steering wheel. Yay! We are ready for our Thanksgiving trip. Except for the packing, anyway.

November 19, 2008

This morning Vic took the kids to school and then I met him at the repair shop to drop off my van. The power steering belt needs to be replaced, so we figured we'd better get that done before our Thanksgiving trip.

That meant that I spent a very quiet day at home today. Grammy brought Caleb home from preschool and then he spent a very quiet day at home with me. He spent his afternoon napping and I spent mine cleaning up the house.

Grammy brought Jamie home this afternoon in the midst of a four-year-old drama episode. They stayed to play on the playground after school and apparently a girl told Grammy that Jamie hit her in the stomach. Jamie never gave her side of the story to Grammy and instead launched into drama mode. When I finally got her to stop crying, Jamie told me that they were both on the playground bridge and Jamie walked by the girl and accidentally hit her with her hand. She said she told the girl she was sorry but that the girl told on her anyway. So, essentially, Jamie got her feelings hurt. She shook it off pretty quick after that and got busy making a card for a soldier her class is sending a box off for on Friday.

Carson went home with Grammy to spend the night, so I'm sure he has had a fun afternoon. The other two are sound asleep and I am ready to enjoy the quiet!

November 18, 2008

After the kids headed off to school and Vic headed off to work, Caleb and I had a fun morning of laundry and errands. We went to Walmart, where I needed to pick up a Christmas gift I had ordered online for him and had sent to the store. I figured I could distract him with a lollipop and he'd never notice. That would have worked great if the lady behind the counter hadn't said, "Oh, this must be his Christmas gift!" Thanks, Walmart lady. So, the rest of the shopping trip I heard, "My gift? My gift? Where my gift? That my gift? . . ." He was still talking about it while we were shopping in Publix afterwards. I think he's forgotten about it now, though, so it's okay.

Grammy brought home Carson and took Jamie back to her house to play. Jamie had fun and worked on her square for her class's Thankfulness quilt. She was also excited that she got a new dot-to-dot book to work on over there.

Vic came home and took Carson to Cub Scouts, only to find out that the pack meeting was last night and there's no den meeting tonight. Oops. That set the tone for the rest of the night.

It is super cold tonight, by our standards, anyway. So, we decided it was a great chance to have a fire in the fireplace. We don't get too many fireplace-worthy nights around here. In fact this is the first time we've had a fire in the fireplace in the 3.5 years we have lived here. It was lovely and warm for about 5 minutes. Then the smoke detector between the den and the kitchen went off.

It is hard-wired into the house, so we couldn't just take out the batteries. It is also very, very loud, which would be terrific if there was an actual fire outside of the fireplace. So, Vic is standing on a chair and I am handing him various things to try and shut the thing up. We tried taping it up, putting a towel over it, putting Vic's coat over it, etc. The highlight of the evening occurred when I looked over and saw all three kids in a line pulling themselves across the floor on their bellies. At first I wondered what they were doing, but I quickly realized that all that fire safety training at school paid off, lol. They heard the fire alarm and were getting the heck out of dodge! About that time, Vic pulled the thing off the ceiling all together, which was effective. Then the upstairs alarm went off. Then, we noticed that there was quite a lot of smoke in the den. Turns out the flue was only part way opened and that's not good enough.

There was also a spilled cup of milk and a knocked over pitcher of water during all of this. I think it will be at least another 3.5 years before we try this again. :)

Off to get the kids to bed now and then clean the soot off the outside of the fireplace. Good times.

November 17, 2008

I got to meet Jamie's class at Oatland Island this morning for a field trip. We saw lots of animals and had lots of fun. I hadn't seen the Wolves before, so they were really neat to see. They are such beautiful animals. The armadillos outside of the wolf pen, not so beautiful, but funny to watch. We had a picnic lunch there and then they headed back to school and I headed to pick up Caleb from Grammy's house and then home.

Caleb took a good nap today, and I did some Christmas shopping online. I'm closing in on it! I also did some laundry, of course. After that, we picked up Carson and Jamie, and played outside until we couldn't take the gnats anymore. Then we came inside and ate some yummy pizza and got three tired kids ready for baths and bed.

I have put pictures from Jamie's field trip in our web album.

November 16, 2008

It was nice to have power when we woke up today. I missed the coffee pot keeping my coffee warm when we were without power yesterday morning. Poor Caleb woke up with some stomach problems this morning. Vic went to church and I stayed home with all the kids. He was ushering this morning so he couldn't take any with him.

We spent the afternoon at home. The kids played around the house and I put away a bunch of laundry and cleaned up some. Then, I took Jamie to a birthday party at a big indoor play area place. What a madhouse! Kids everywhere! Loud kids everywhere! Jamie had fun, but I was glad to get out of that place as soon as the party was over.

Vic had sound duty at church tonight, so he took the boys with him to set up everything and I picked them up on my way home with Jamie. Then we went to Publix. That wasn't much fun with three tired kids who raided Jamie's party goody bag on the way to the store and were nice and sugared up when we arrived. Thankfully, I only needed four things.

We came home and ate dinner and then I got them all in the bed. They were all very worn out tonight.

I am going to go clear some stuff off the DVR now while I fold laundry. I need to fold some more since I put it all away today. It just doesn't seem right not having a couple of baskets of folded laundry around.

November 15, 2008

The power went out at exactly 7AM this morning, as scheduled. Shortly after that Caleb came to tell me that his lamp wasn't working. He turns it on first thing in the morning when he wakes up. He didn't quite get the concept of the power being out and was a little upset that I couldn't fix his lamp.

We ended up splitting up and having girls day and boys day today. Vic had to drive out and take pictures of a house he's about to list, and the boys wanted to go with him. So, he decided to take them with him and stop by the climbing wall at the Y on the way.

Jamie and I went to Walmart and then to a Fall Festival. The festival was fun, and Jamie was very good at choosing lucky lollipops from the "Pull a LolliPop out of the haystack" game, so she got a couple of extra prizes. One of the girls from her class was there, and they jumped together in the moon bounce.

Jamie and I got home before the guys and she spent all afternoon doing art work. She loves to draw and cut and paste, and I'm impressed with how creative she is. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with all this art work, though. There is quite a pile in the kitchen!

The power came on a bit earlier than expected. I was very pleased with GA power for once. It wasn't too bad at all not having power for a while. It is a great time of year for it.

I would have thought the kids would be tired tonight. Carson climbed all the climbing walls at the Y. Vic tried one and said it was very tiring. But, I thought they would never go to sleep tonight! At least things are quiet now, and I'm going to go enjoy it. :)

November 14, 2008

Caleb made up for waking everyone up before dawn yesterday by sleeping in this morning until 8:15! Of course, Jamie and I were up at 6:50, but still not too bad.

Carson had a field trip today to the Juliette Gordon Low house today. He wasn't all that excited about seeing the house, but he was excited to get to go on a field trip. I didn't go because Caleb's school was closed today and I didn't want to spend the morning chasing a toddler all over downtown. So, Caleb and I hung out together again today. We played outside, read his new Clifford firefighter book a few times, went to Kroger, stopped by the school to drop off Carson's homework that was left at home, and, of course, did laundry. I am glad Caleb likes to help.

Caleb never did nap today, except for a brief rest in the car at parent pickup. That made today a little long but bedtime super easy!

Tomorrow, we are having a planned power outage in our area from 7AM - 1PM. They need to do some sort of work on the power lines. I'm hoping they really will get the power back on by 1:00, but if there's no blog from me tomorrow night, then it will probably be because we are still without power. We'll see how it goes. I am planning to take the kids to a fall festival tomorrow morning. The kids brought home a brochure today from school, and it says that they will have power there at the community center, so we'll be hanging out there for a while.

November 13, 2008

We all got an early start to our day this morning when Caleb woke up just before dawn. He knocked on our door, telling us, "I use wipes." Vic investigated and found that Caleb, aka Mr. Independent, had tried to change his dirty diaper himself, with disastrous results for the carpet in his room. So, I scrubbed the carpet while Vic washed down Caleb. This whole process woke up Jamie, so then we were all up before dawn. Good times. We got them both back into bed and I was thrilled that I still had a little time before my alarm went off. But just as I was falling asleep I heard Jamie saying to Caleb, "Look! The sun is coming up! Morning time, Caleb!!"

Jamie headed off to school with the neighbor and Caleb and I hung out for a while at home. Then I dropped him off at Grammy & Grampy's house, and I headed off to work at the book fair. I got there early and picked up Jamie from her class to take her to choose a book before my shift began. Carson will be going with his class, but the pre-k kids don't go with their class. She picked out a Barbie Swan Lake book and chose a Clifford book about firefighters for Caleb. She was very excited that I had shown up at her least favorite time of day - nap time. I returned her to her class and reported for book fair duty.

This book fair had far more customers than the last one I worked at, but no funeral in the building or EMS outside. So, it was a piece of cake. After that was over, I picked up Carson and Jamie and we headed over to pick up Caleb.

We had a very uneventful evening except that Caleb really didn't want to go to sleep. I just hope we have an uneventful morning tomorrow and that the sun wakes up before anyone in our house!

November 12, 2008

Caleb's eye was looking all better this morning, so I sent all three kids off to school and headed to MOPs. We had our Thanksgiving brunch this morning and also packed boxes for Operation Christmas Child. It was a very nice morning.

After that, I picked up Caleb and we headed home for lunch and a nap. I took a little nap today, too. I think the vacation has caught up to me, and I have been so tired today!

Grammy picked up Carson and Jamie and took them to her house to play for a little while. They were both offered the chance to spend the night, but Jamie decided to come home. So, Caleb and I picked her up and Grammy gave me an egg so that I could finish making the lasagna that I started to make without checking to be sure I had eggs. This is why I don't usually make things with more than say, five ingredients, lol. Too much to keep up with.

This was a very peaceful night with just two kids here. Plus, the cleaning lady was here this morning, God bless her, and that always makes for a great afternoon and evening. It's so relaxing when everything is clean, even if it only lasts a day!

Now, I am off to get some rest. I get to work the book fair at Carson and Jamie's school tomorrow - woohoo!

November 11, 2008

We had a nice Veterans' Day today. Caleb let us sleep in until 6:45, so we got a nice, early start today. Vic went to work, and we stayed around the house for a little while and then stopped by Publix, where the kids were active but surprisingly good. Then we headed over to the Dollar Store.

I gave them each a dollar to spend and told them they could spend a couple of dollars of their money, too. I have to put limits on Dollar Store spending, or I would have the whole toy aisle in our play room. Carson chose a snake that grows in water. This thing is already over a foot long and is probably going to freak out the cleaning lady tomorrow, no matter where I put it. He also got a polar bear that grows in water and some kind of freaky gel-filled ball. Caleb picked out a play police officer gun that lights up and makes noise. I hope that one gets lost fast. He also got some Diego Spinning tops. Jamie got some Disney Princess pom poms and a stuffed dog. The new toys made them very happy, and we went home, ate lunch and they played with their new treasures for a while.

After Caleb's nap we played outside for a while and then I took them to McDonald's for dinner. Vic had a meeting tonight, so I figured this would be a good way to wrap up the day. They ate and played and were all ready for bed when we got home.

I finally got everything unpacked from our trip today. Now I'm off to work on some laundry!

November 10, 2008

I managed to get Carson, Jamie and the two neighbor girls to school this morning. It was hard to get back into the swing of things this morning after having a few days off. Caleb stayed home with me today because the poor guy came down with pink eye over the weekend. It is looking much better now. I hope he will get to go back to school on Wednesday.

We played outside and did a lot of organizing and cleaning out in Jamie's room. She has waaaay too many toys. I culled out some today and her room looks better. I know that Christmas toys will be coming in just a few weeks, so I am trying to make room. Caleb's room is next up. His is bad because he gets toys handed down from Carson and Jamie and new toys.

So, we had a pretty quiet day with just the two of us. Then we picked up Carson and Jamie and the usual chaos broke out. Vic brought home pizza and then we got them all in the bed a little early because they all seemed tired.

I am tired too. I guess we all had a big weekend. The kids will be home tomorrow for Veteran's day, so I had better go get some rest while I can!

We had so much fun on our trip! I am ready to go again!

We planned the trip so quickly that we never stopped to consider that this would be a great time to visit Virginia because the leaves are so beautiful this time of year. We don't get that around here. Our leaves just turn from green to brown and fall down. It was so exciting to see all the beautiful colors as we traveled north.

We stopped in Chapel Hill on Wednesday night and had a great time visiting with Greg and Julia. We ate at a cool place called Top of the Hill in downtown Chapel Hill. It was a beautiful night, and we got to eat outside on a deck overlooking downtown Chapel Hill. It is very beautiful there and the downtown is such a neat place. I hope to go back someday.

The next morning we headed to Alexandria, checked into the guest unit at Ben & Katie's apartment and then set off to figure out the Metro. The Metro was pretty cool. I think I enjoyed it more than anyone else who was riding on it because I didn't hear anybody else say "Wheeeeee!", lol.

We met Ben & Katie downtown and did a little touring around, which was fun even though it was dark. Then we headed to the arena for a very exciting Capitals game, which they won 3-2 with 11 seconds left in the game!

Friday, Vic did some work in the business center and then we headed into DC to eat lunch with Ben & Katie and one of Katie's co-workers. We ate at Ollie's Trolley, which was interesting and had an aroma that we're hoping was from the tuna sandwich they advertise on the menu. The fries were very, very good, though.

After lunch Katie and Ben had to return to their offices, and we walked and walked and walked all around the National Mall. We spent the most time in the Botanical gardens, which were absolutely beautiful. We also went in the Hirshhorn Museum. It was a little too, um, contemporary for us so we didn't stay there too long. I was disappointed that the Museum of American History was closed for renovation. I really wanted to go. Maybe next time.

Next we headed to the live Fast Money show, which was very cool. We walked in at just the right time since they had just started filling in empty VIP reserved seats with non-VIPs like us. So, we got a great seat about 12 rows back from the front. In fact, the people behind us were irritated because they had arrived four hours before we did and we got better seats!

It was really neat to see how a live show works and to see all the people we see on TV every day in person. They even took some questions after the show from the audience.

We met Katie and then headed back to VA to meet up with Ben for dinner at a great Thai place. We went out for coffee after that since the evening was getting a little chilly.

Saturday morning we went out for a great breakfast with Ben and Katie and then said goodbye to our fantastic hosts and headed off for a day in the Shenandoah National park.

The park was so beautiful! The leaves were amazing, and the weather was perfect. We drove through the park with our windows down and checked out lots of scenic overlooks. We also went for a short hike but didn't go to far since it was getting dark at that time. As we were leaving, the sun was setting and there were deer everywhere! We had to drive very slowly for the 21 miles it took us to get out of the park because they were all over the sides of the road. We stopped and took some pictures of some deer outside a ranger station. There was a whole mob of people photographing them. We were like deer Paparazzi. It was pretty funny. The ranger didn't think so, though, and she yelled down from the ranger station for us all to get away from the deer.

We spent last night in Richmond and drove home today. We were glad to see the kids and will be glad to be back in our own beds tonight, but it was such a fun trip! We are hoping to go back this summer and take the kids with us.

We don't have a whole lot of pictures, but there are some in our web album.