Merry Christmas!

May everyone remember the reason for the Christmas. God Bless!

Busy Weekend

Between piano recitals, softball and not sleeping well, I'm exhausted right now. And I didn't even do the piano recital running around. Connor, Kenzie and Taylor had a winter themed piano recital in Bowie yesterday. Unfortunately Tay's teacher forgot to give him a piece to play for the recital so he didn't get to play. Talk about being bummed...and to make matters worse, he had to sit through all the other performances. Poor guy! Kenzie played well and made one mistake...he played his scale up one too many times and was going to run out of keys so had to restart that section. LOL

Kenzie had a 3 hr softball practice yesterday afternoon and a 4 hr practice this morning. Both times, I dropped her off and then went Christmas shopping. I don't know what was going on at Best Buy today but that place was packed. There is no way I would have stood in a line to check out that wrapped around the inside of the building. Crazy! I was able to get most of our Christmas shopping done this weekend...not that there was a lot to do since we bought our big family gift of the kayaks back in the summer. Hopefully the kids won't be disappointed come Christmas morning when there is only 1-2 gifts for each of them under the tree.

Decorating - Day 2

The Christmas village got put up today thanks to Andy and Kenzie. It gets bigger and bigger every year. If you look closely in the last picture you can see Noah's Ark up by the lighthouse. I love Noah's Ark!

It's Beginning to Look...

a lot like Christmas. Sheeze, hard to believe it's less than a month away. We drug out all the Christmas decorations out of the attic and between helping Alex with a paper, taking him to football and piano recitals, the tree got up and decorated...somehow. The twins actually did put the ornaments on the tree, much to Kenzie's chagrin, but it was her own fault because she decided to leave to go shopping with Andy. They did a really good job although some of the branches did get a little heavy. ;)

Here's some pics of how our house is starting to look Christmasy. The first pic shows our half tree since we no longer have the room to put up a full tree...we only put up the half a tree now. Can you tell? ;)




That's all for today as Connor, Kenzie & Taylor have to leave to play piano at the Festival of the Trees.

Another Christmas Gift

This arrived at our doorstep yesterday. I bought it for myself using the money that my in-laws gave me for Christmas. We've had different wooden glide rockers over the years and all of them after a period of time start squeaking, rubbing or just plain don't move after a period of time. I finally got sick of them all and decided to get a really nice rocker this time. It's a Demare swivel recliner glide rocker and I love it! Now if I could just convince everyone else to not like it as much as I do and I might actually get to use it. LOL

Stressed Already

I've only been back to work 3 days and I'm already feeling stressed. I came home today with the worst headache...actually still have it so why I'm trying to type right now is beyond me. I know the headache is work related. I think everyone thinks I can do everything all at the same time. I had a couple of things that I knew needed to be worked on when I went back but I've other assignments given to me that are cutting into the time I need to spend on the other items. Plus they are all due Monday or Tuesday next week. I still haven't figured out how I'm going to get it all done but I can only do so much so I'm really trying not to worry about it but the headache is telling me that subconsciously I am worried.

Kearsyn has done pretty well with drinking from the bottle during the day up until today. She's even been super grumpy with me since I got home so I'm not sure what's up with her today. She didn't even really want to nurse when I got home which is so unlike her.

Kenzie had her first softball practice for this year. Trying to coordinate getting me home from work in time to get her to practice on time is a challenge. Thankfully there was no traffic today so I made it without a problem. She hasn't been complaining anymore about her ear hurting her so the medicine must be working.

I'm so incredibly tired it's not even funny. And I'm so looking forward to the weekend although that's going to be somewhat messed up cause Andy, Alex, Connor and Kenzie are going on a White House Tour Saturday morning and need to leave the house by at least 7am (edited to include the word House since hubby so nicely pointed it out to me. LOL). I had to pick Connor and Kenzie up from choir last night and was falling asleep in the car while I was waiting for them to finish up. I'm hoping Kearsyn goes to sleep early tonight...she did 10:30pm last night which was nice but was then up at 4:30am because she was hungry. After feeding her and getting her back to bed, I just stayed up as there was no sense in me going back to bed then.

My sister is still trying to get over to finish up Christmas with my parents...they went to her DH's family for Christmas and they couldn't come over last weekend because her DH had to work. I have a couple of things here for them that I completely forgot about when I gave them their other gifts. That's what sleep deprivation does to you. LOL They were going to try and come over this weekend but mom was saying something about wanting to go over to their place to check out their most recent renovations...Megan, they're currently doing bathroom renovations but they are doing them themselves. I think I'm going to just end up meeting her for lunch one day...she's works close to where I do and we try to get together for lunch every couple of weeks.

That's about it from here...same old stuff. ;)

It's Done

Christmas is over...the last of the decorations came down today. Everyone seemed very happy with what they got. Our big family gift was a chess table with chairs. The chairs were on backorder at the time we placed the order so the chances of us getting them by Christmas was slim. As it turns out, the table and chairs arrived the day after Christmas which worked out well since we'd gone to Andy's sisters for Christmas day. Here's a pic of what he new tableand chairs look like. My parents bought us really nice chess pieces to go with it.


Andy and the kids gave me a gorgeous Last Supper piece made out of olive wood from Bethlehem. I love it!



My parents gave us some cute decal people so now my car and our big van have little people on the back of them. I'm especially excited because Andy wouldn't let me put the fish on my car...he said if I can't fit all the people in my car, I can't show all the fish. You see I didn't let that deter me from putting all the little people on my car. =) The first picture is my car, the second and third pics are of the van.


I also got a digital camera from my parents which I'm very excited about because it now means I don't have to constantly try to get the other camera from Andy everytime I want to take a picture. The above pictures were taken with my new camera...I'm still trying to figure out how to get it to work the way I want...and it took me way to long to figure out how to get the pictures transferred from the camera to the computer but I finally figured it out. I'm also getting a swivel recliner glide rocker with money that my in laws gave me. My other gliders have bit the dust so they all getting tossed out once I receive the new one. I'm very excited about it.

Andy got a new coffee pot, a new George Foreman grill (we wore the other one out) from me and the kids. From my parents he got a big toaster oven. I'm not sure what he's going to use his money from his parents for but I'm sure he'll come up with something...I heard rumblings about a tiller. ;) His mom also got him the exact same George Foreman grill. What are the odds. LOL

The big things from us for the kids was... some PS2 games for the boys, Kenzie got a softball glove and ball, Bekah and Andy got T.M.X. Elmo, Kearsyn got some bottles...poor girl got something practical. LOL From Andy's parents...Alex got a guitar (now to work on getting lessons), Connor got a metal detector and binoculars, Kenzie got a keyboard, Taylor got a karaoke machine, Tyler got a boxing bag, Bekah got lots of clothes and Kearsyn got lots of diapers and some toys. From my parents, Connor got pool balls with the Eagles (he loves) and the Colts (he hates but my mom loves) emblem. Alex got pool balls with the Ravens (he loves) and the Redskins (he hates but my mom loves...see a pattern yet. LOL) emblem. Everyone got chess pieces for the new table and they got lots of different family type games.

My mom always makes something for us for Christmas and this year is was people made out of pieces of her porch railing when she redid it. Aren't they cute?

Merry Christmas!

May everyone remember the reason for the season. God Bless!

Gingerbread House

This is our first attempt at gingerbread houses. We had to cheat this year because I waited too long and had to get preassembled houses. The kids had a great time decorating them though and want to turn this into a tradition for Christmas Eve. Next year I might get daring and attempt to make my own gingerbread, that way we can attempt to build the houses ourselves.

Financial Aid

We finally got around to filling out the Parent Financial Statement (PFS) that the Gunston school gave us when Andy and Alex went to the open house last month. The PFS is submitted to the School and Student Service for Financial Aid (SSS) which processes the information and will then send a report to the schools requested and to yourself detailing how much they think you can afford to pay for schooling. We received the results back today (about 2 days after filing the forms). Boy, filing electronically is great. I was pleasantly surprised to see that they calculated what we could afford to pay for school at pretty much what it costs us for the homeschooling supplies for Alex. Of course, this doesn't really mean anything because it's dependant on how much financial aid the actual school can give out but it's nice to know the school won't (or shouldn't) be expecting us to fork out an arm and a leg because we can't. So, since this report says things are still within our means we'll go ahead with the next steps for Gunston which would be submitting an application for the school. Then he has to take a standardized test...like the SAT but I can't think of the acronym for the one he has to take...so he'll do that either in February or March. Then, assuming he got accepted into the school, we'd have to see how much aid they could offer us to see whether it's really doable or not.

We got new insurance cards for all the kids showing their new pcp except for Kearsyn which is the one we really need. They only put 6 cards in an envelope so I'm assuming the one that has her card in it got separated from the other envelope. I wish it would show up as the others got here a few days ago. I figure I'll give it til after the holidays and if we haven't gotten it by then, I'll have them send another. I know her pcp got changed because I can view the info online so worst case scenario, if she gets sick before we get the new card I'll just print that page out. Updating to say that we received Kearsyn's new insurance card today, 12/22, so we are all set for the new doctor. =)

We finally got our refund check from the over payments to the specialist office for Alex & Kenzie's broken collarbones. I called the beginning of November to request it so it took about a month and a half for them to get it to us.

Today we did some house cleaning since we are having a small piano recital here tomorrow. Will be fun to listen to the kids playing.

I've made up all my days for work where I was short on leave so now I'm free until Jan 2. Yay! I was even able to help with a couple of programming modifications that they needed done so my timing was perfect for this make up work.

Bekah is doing so well with her sign language. She walked up to me today and did the sign for drink and then milk to let me know she was thirsty and wanted a glass of milk to drink. How cool!

I unpacked all my regular clothes and boxed up my maternity ones the other day. Anyone want to take bets on how long they'll stay boxed up? And Andy, you stay out of it! ;)

I was able to get most of the presents wrapped today while the kids were over at a friends house practicing for the recital tomorrow. Still have a few more to do but shouldn't take long...finding the time without the kids around will be the problem. And trying to do it at night it's that easy because that's when Kearsyn is at her grumpiest.

Evaluation Report

I forgot to update about the meeting we had last week to go over Bekah's evaluation. The report said what we already knew...that her developmental levels other than speech were where they should be or above level. She was 26 months when she was evaluated and all her scores came in 28 months - 33 months. This was for cognitive, social/emotional, adaptive/self help, gross motor and fine motor skills. Her speech evaluation showed her at a 20 month level (instead of 26) which just barely qualifies her for their program. They're going to come to house twice a month to work with her and also to show us things we can do with her during the times they aren't here. I'm still totally impressed with how quickly she can pick up sign language and she now has quite few that she uses regularly like more, please, thank you, mess, shoes, coat, milk and drink.

We went to my parents yesterday to celebrate my dad's and Kathy's birthday. It was a nice visit although the boys/guys spent most of time in front of the tv watching the Ravens game. LOL Afterwards, mom took Connor to go see Eragon. Alex had seen it with his youth group on Saturday and really enjoyed it. Kenzie was so upset that Connor got to go to the movies with mom. Never mind that Saturday afternoon, she'd gone to birthday sleepover party that also included going to Build a Bear workshop, getting smoothies and pizza and then going out to Fisherman's Restaurant for dinner.

I tried doing some work today but it didn't go very well as Kearsyn was a complete grump today. I'm not sure what was up with her but she sure wasn't happy. It was also a very late night last so that didn't help things any. It was beautiful outside today so we took outside for a little while. Andy swung with her on the swing while I jumped on on the trampoline. I'm going to be so sore tomorrow...as Andy so kindly said, I'm no spring chicken anymore. LOL Oh and speaking of the trampoline, the younger kids have been banned from it after Tyler tried to hang himself on the top of the enclosure net. He got two huge scrapes on the underside of his chin around his neck where he flew up and got his neck on the top of the netting that is supposed to keep him in the trampoline. Guess that only works if you aren't trying to jump higher than the netting which is what Kenzie and Tyler were trying to do.

Tonight we went to the Christmas party for Alex's youth group which was at the youth group leaders house. What a gorgeous house it was too. He made half the house from trees that he'd cut down from his own property. How cool is that? The walls, flooring and ceiling were left the natural wood that had been made into planks (no bark on it) and he had a loft area with a cool spiral staircase. I know Andy and Alex are hoping to get invited over when the weather gets warmer (that sounds funny since it was 68 degrees today) to shoot paintballs since the guy owns 15 acres of wooded land. How fun! The kids did a huge Yankee Trader game and it was such a hoot watching them pick a present and them steal presents from each other. The biggest kid there ended up with a girls bag with lotion in it. It was hilarious! The gift Alex unwrapped was a great hot chocolate set but someone eventually stole that from him. He ended up having to go back to the pile and unwrapped a big box of bubblegum which he was just as happy with and no one tried to steal. The hot gifts of the night were a lava lamp and the hot chocolate set. The kids got really into it. Bekah made a new friend and it was fun watching them "playing" cards and putting out poker chips. They sure start young. LOL

Holiday Decorations Parade

Wystful1 at Thanks for the Memories is holding a virtual decorations parade. Click here to add your holiday decorations link and join in on the fun.

Click here to view my holiday decorations. =)

Too Good to be True

I knew it was too good to be true. Kearsyn was back to her normal nonsleeping pattern last night. At least I know she can sleep when she wants to. ;)

What beautiful weather we have been having here the past couple of days. You sure wouldn't know that it's the last week in November by being outside. Now if we could just get our yard to dry out after all that rain we had last week. It's still extremely soggy out there.

I did some Christmas shopping yesterday and actually went to a store to do it. That's a rarity for me. LOL I usually do most shopping online cause I hate having to hunt for things in the store and they rarely have want I want anyway. I was pleasantly surprised because I actually found most of what I wanted to get for my sister and her DH so they are pretty much done at this point. Yay! The kids presents have all been ordered and are starting to arrive. The only ones left to buy for now are our parents. I also still need to get a birthday present for my dad whose b'day is 12/20. We're going to try and get the family together on the 17th to celebrate. It's always hard with Dad's b'day being so close to Christmas especially now that my sister alternates the holidays with her inlaws.

Thusday is going to be a busy day. We're going to look at a private school that is having an open house in the morning. Not sure that we can actually avoid it, even though they do offer some financial aid to go there, but it can't hurt to check it out. In the afternoon, there is a Homeschoolers Open House at the college. Alex is going to be taking a Composition class there which will be good for him plus it will help lighted the load a little for Andy in the spring since he won't have to cover that subject. Also Thursday afternoon, Bekah has her speech evaluation appointment so we'll see how that goes. She's been in a terrible two's mood here lately. Hope she gets out of it soon cause she's driving me crazy. She thinks she can make up for it by flashing me her cute grin and giving me a kiss...which of course works. LOL

Haven't done any stitching lately although I really need to get a move on finishing up my Christmas ornament. I've had it stitched up for weeks...just can't figure out how to finish it. I wanted to do something different but I can't figure out what so I haven't done anything. :(

Family Time

Yesterday was a lovely family day. It was really nice having my parents and my sister & her DH over for the day. We all ate way too much and we even forgot to put a couple of things out on the table. Oops! That just meant we got to snack on them later. LOL We cooked two turkey's yesterday...one in a roasting oven which cooked extremely fast. The turkey was done 1 1/2 hrs before we were expecting it to be. We didn't take into account that the standalone oven would cook faster than a regular oven. Oh well, we just kept it warming until everything else was done. We also deep fried a turkey. Yummy! My BIL introduced us to deep frying as that's how he's always had his turkeys done so now we have to do one that way too. We also deep fried some shrimp after the turkey was cooked. I can't imagine anything better than deep fried shrimp. The rest of the meal consisted of mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, stuffing, green beans, corn, rolls, gravy and cranberry sauce. The items we forgot were meatballs and watergate salad. And for dessert we had pumpkin pie, apple pie and coconut custard pie. I was soooo full last night but it was all delicious. And we've got tons of left overs so we'll be eating well today. :) I just wish I had remembered to take a picture of the everyone at the table.


Last night as I was trying to get Kearsyn to sleep, I sat down in the rocking chair and happened to look on the floor and saw what the pictures shows...apparantley Bekah has been hoarding Christmas ornaments. LOL




Today should be an easy day. Traditionally it's our day for Christmas decorating but since we did it early this year, that doesn't need to be done...although our outside lights do need a little repair work done to them after the huge wind storm we had. And since we just did a major cleaning job of the house, that also doesn't need to be done. Maybe I'll try to get some stitching time in between loads of laundry but I haven't been much in the mood for stitching lately. Most likely I will just sit back and read a book. =)

Decorating

Since I was up late last night, this is what I got accomplished...I replaced our regular hanging quilts with our Christmas ones (Andy did the one by the tree). We added the ornaments to the tree today but I did the fluffing, lights and garland last night. The kids added the ornaments today. Because we only have half a tree to put ornaments on it's somewhat overloaded. LOL


Andy set up our Christmas village, as well as, the nativity scene today...with some help from Kenzie.







I also papered our front door and hung the wreath today.








I still need to take a picture of the lights that Andy hung on the roof the other day. It's fun to have lights outside...it's been a few years since we've had them. :)



Editing to add the outside pic. Looks a little creepy with just the lights on the roof line illuminating only the top half of the house. LOL



The first picture below shows an angel that my mom made from scratch...actually had to draw, cut out and assemble all the pieces and then paint it. The two snowmen decorations came as kits that she painted and assembled. Every year, she's gives us something new that she makes. I wonder what we'll get this year.


Wystful1 at Thanks for the Memories is having a virtual Holiday Decorations Parade. Click here to join in on all the fun.

Big Girl Bed

Bekah got her big girl bed today and she was so excited about it. She had the biggest grin on her face that you could imagine when we finally got it put all together. She's having a hard time staying put in it now that it's time for bed...funny how she had no problem being in it earlier when Taylor and her spent the afternoon playing in it. LOL



This means that I was able to get the crib moved over into Kearsyn's room so now her room is complete other than putting some additional items on the walls. I still need to get frames for my Noah's Ark stitching to hang in there but eventually that will get done.



Kearsyn did excellent while I went to my two appts today. She slept the entire time I was gone both times...approx 1 1/2 - 2 hrs each time...that might have had something to do with me stuffing her full of milk before I left. LOL I got a clean bill of health from my OB with instructions to come back in a few months for my annual. Ugh! Everything checked out at the eye doctor as well and I made it out of there without needing a new prescription. Whew!

Andy and the kids decided it was time to put the Christmas tree up...we're trying to having all the decorations done by the time my family comes over for Thanksgiving. Because we don't have much room this year, Andy decided that we should only put up half a tree. Now when I first heard this, I thought he meant the top half of the tree and couldn't figure out how that was going to help us (just blame that on sleep deprivation) but in reality he meant the front half of tree, leaving the back half off so that it could sit flush against the wall. I have to say it was a good idea and works really well. They were able to get all the branches assembled but I have to say that their grooming ability leaves alot to be desired. But as I was told, their job is to make the tree functional while by job is to make it pretty. LOL Tomorrow I'll work on fluffing up the tree so it doesn't have any holes although Andy claims those holes would be good to put ornaments in. Hmmm...LOL I'll take a picture of it once it's completely decorated.

That's about it for the day...was a long one for me as I'm not used to doing all this running around so I'm going to be tired tonight. Let's hope Kearsyn's goes back to sleep after she's gets her middle of the night feedings...she has a habit of eating and then staying awake for another hour looking around before she drifts back off to sleep.

I'm sure most have read about this already on Andy's blog but just thought I mention it here that we have a hawk making breakfasts out of our chickens. Hopefully the netting that Andy and Kenzie put over the run this morning will keep him, and any of his friends, at bay.

I just went to check on how Bekah was doing in her bed and found what the pic shows. Now that's true sisterly love.