Christmas Update

First of all, I must apologize for my camera.  It is struggling.

Mimi and Tee came through the door with an air hockey table.  It was a big hit!  It will not remain in my bedroom. 

We decided to let the boys open one present.  In hind sight we realized it would have been better to be something a little quieter, but oh well...

 

 Can you tell Clayton was excited?  Yes, four rowdy precious boys received a nerf gun that fires 35 bullets.  Four boys times 35 bullets a piece...that's a lot of bullets!!  Oh my!
After visiting and opening presents and eating we headed out to Jackson to Nana and Grandad's house for Christmas.  We drove home through snow and made it back at 9:30 p.m.

 Clayton woke up first and was pretty excited.  Jack and Andrew were a little more mellow.  Unfortunately, Jack sleeps in his undies and Fred and I did not think it appropriate to post of picture of that...

 Andrew loved his ball popper.  Mimi and Tee spent the night with us, but there is a strict "no grown up photographed in the morning" policy.

 The big boys both got new shoes.  They were pretty pumped.  We ate a great breakfast with the entire Merwin crew and sent them home that afternoon.  We finished up Christmas with a visit to the nursing home to see one of our church members and take her some goodies.  The next morning we got up to go to church, but after a quick peek outside we realized church would be canceled.  After a few tense moments we headed out to Memphis for Christmas with the Shackelfords.  For whatever reason I never have my camera there so we have no pictures, but a good time was had by all!

 Monday we were heading to Jackson for Christmas at Mun's.  After some news of a bug in Jackson we decided to remain in Memphis.  We had a trip planned for later in the week and Renee encouraged us to go ahead and leave.  Please understand that I had packed for one night, but we left Memphis around 4:00 p.m. and headed south.  Guess who made it to the beach with 2 pairs of jeans, 2 sweaters and a toothbrush?!?  These two... 

WooHoo!!

Five on Friday

1.  We will drive to Jackson tonight to spend Christmas Eve with Fred's mom's side of the family.  Here's to hoping we are not snowed in!  I guess there are worse things than being snowed in at Nana and Grandad's, though!  (Hopefully...) We will head home to spend our first ever (in 14 years!) ENTIRE Christmas day at home.  We are pretty excited.
2.  My family is coming to Paris in about an hour.  Things are surprisingly calm right now.  That is quickly going to change as five little boys arrive.
3.   Clayton spent a few days at my parent's house the first part of the week.  Mom let him pick out a treat at the grocery.  He picked five Hot Wheel cars.  He was so excited about those new cars that he slept with them.  I love that he gets excited over seemingly simple things. 
4.  Jack also spent a few days at my parent's house this week.  My dad was going to take him to the train store, but he kept hesitating and saying he wanted to go with Mimi.  Finally he admitted that he wanted to go with Mimi and not Tee because Mimi would buy him something.  Funny guy.
5.  Andrew has been a grumpy-goo this week. I think he is cutting a tooth.  Boo.

Five on Friday

1.  We got a "new to us" couch this week.  I am really excited after having the same couch for 10 years. 
2.  I am still sore from moving furniture.  Fred is not.
3.  Clayton has never really been my sensitive child.  Last night we took the boys with us to the nursing home.  We visited a precious lady from our church.  While there he whispered to me and asked if we could sing her a Christmas carol and we did.  On the way out after he noticed she had a fruit plate he asked if we could being her an apple next time we come to see her.  We then went down to the cafeteria and he waved to everyone and gave hugs to anyone who asked.  It touched my heart to see him noticing the needs of those around him.   4.  I put out Jack's clothes this morning for his program.  I included a vest.  He was not pleased.  I told him if he did not put on the vest he could not pick where we went to lunch.(I learned this skill in Parenting 101--HA!) He reluctantly put it on and said, "I hope I pick Mexican."
5.  Andrew has taken a few steps this week.  However, I have not been able to capture it on video.  I did capture this below and I have no words for it...

Christmas Programs

The 2nd grade at Clayton's school presented a Christmas program last week.  It was precious.  Jack was sick and Andrew bumped his head on the chair in front of us--right in the middle of the program and wailed...loudly!  It was awesome.  I've said it before, but I just can't tell you how much we love our schools here in Paris.  The music teacher is phenomenal.

 Today Jack had his program at Joyland.  He smiled a few times and sang as little as possible, (The entire program was singing.) but he was still really sweet. 

Snow Day

 We woke up Sunday morning to freezing temperatures.  A few hours after lunch this is what our house looked like... 

Monday morning Clayton was out of school so we headed to one of our favorite sledding locations...without the O'Neals this time...:-(

Fred took the boys a few minutes before me.  I arrived to see the face below.  He was not liking the snow. 

I went down the hill one time and headed home with the little man, but Fred and the big boys stayed for several hours.  I think they had a good time.  I had a pot of chili simmering for them when they got home.  Yum!

 On the ride home I discovered why Andrew was not digging the snow.  How precious does he look bundled up in the snow suit sound asleep?!?

Five on Friday

1.  Fred appears to be fine after running in St. Jude last weekend.  No injuries, no funny walk, nothing.  He is ready to get back on the pavement...Praise the Lord!!
2.  I am scheduled to speak at a ladies breakfast Saturday.  I finally finished up with what I want to say...whew! 
3.  We made a deal with Clayton several weeks ago.  We told him if he got to 100 point before Christmas we would do something special as a family.  He did it!  He informed us that he thought he would like to go to Disney World.  That's nice.  I was thinking McDonald's, bowling or skating, but Disney World sounds like fun...HA! (Jack asked if Disney World cost a lot of dollars.  I assured him it did.)
4.  Jack is sick.  He ran a fever of 102 last night and just generally looked pitiful.  I'll spare you the details, but he is a sick little fella.  He seems to be feeling better this morning.  I think it is his ears.  Bless his heart. 
5.   When we bow our heads to pray Andrew starts saying, "night, night...night, night."  It is the cutest thing ever. 

Crazy Weekend

Our crazy weekend started on Thursday night as we met at school to decorate for Supper with Santa at Rhea.  It was loads of fun!  Friday morning Clayton and Jack went to school and Fred headed to Memphis.  Janice was here with Andrew.  I worked at school to get ready for the night.  We had pizza, games, nail painting, tattoos, cotton candy, popcorn, a bake sale, a silent auction, Reindeer Lane, bouncers and pictures with the big man himself!!  It was a whirlwind of three hours of activity!  Thankfully, I have a supportive family, principal, friends, church family and PTO officers.  Once the event was finally over I headed to Jackson to get some rest.

 I woke up early Saturday morning to cheer on my favorite runner in the St. Jude Marathon (26.2 miles).  I cannot express to you how excited I was to see his precious face coming up the street around mile 11!  He looked great and was right on pace. 

 After an intense 30 minutes of waiting I finally saw him come around the corner onto the warning track at Auto Zone park.  Tears welled up in my eyes as I saw a healthy, smiling runner!  He is most definitely my hero!

 See the long marks on the track below?  They are left over from a lady several minutes before who collapsed and literally C.R.A.W.L.E.D. across the finish line.  Yes, crawled!  Needless to say I was relieved to see Fred come around the corner still smiling!!

After leaving Memphis we went back to Jackson to get the boys and then headed back to Paris.  This morning we had Bethlehem Breakfast at church. We gathered as families to kick our Advent season off with a celebration of our Savior coming to earth.  What a weekend!  We will not soon forget this one!  (Mainly b/c I think it will take several days to recover...hehehehe!!)

One Serious Case of Bed Head

While at the Shackelford's house for Thanksgiving Andrew got the worst case of bed head I have ever seen.  The scratch on his nose is from one of his brothers who according to them were trying to "help" Andrew and somehow he got in the way.  He also had food on his face, but nothing seems to be bugging him.  He also seems to be oblivious to the way his hair looks.  I think it was one really good nap!!