Playing Catch-up

The Blog has taken a big back-seat to life lately. Just keeping up with all 3 girls, their activities and managing my house takes up more hours than I have in a day! By the time we get the last child to bed around 9pm, I have no desire to blog. I just want to hang out with my husband, visit him and relax and/or watch mindless TV (hello Duck Dynasty!) for a bit before we crash. As a result, much of November is lumped together in my attempt to get it all on here.

Since Addison was having surgery the Monday before Thanksgiving, we broke my no-decorations-before-Christmas rule and decorated the weekend before Thanksgiving, while she was feeling well. Good thing, because she wouldn't have been able to help at all, had we waited. The girls all put trees in their room, and although Tommy moved on to MARS in May, I still put up my Coke tree.

I love the trees and lights and most of all the delight it brings my children, but to be totally honest, it is December 8th, and the decorations are already starting to drive me a little crazy! As beautiful as they are, they are also a bit cluttered and part of me longs for the peace and order of my regular decorations.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, Addison and I arrived bright and early (before daylight) to Children's Hospital to have her tonsils and adenoids removed. I have put this surgery off for 6 months, but after determining that she did need to have it done, we booked that day so she would only miss 2 days of school, but have a week to recover. Children's Hospital is amazing and the stuffed animal, balloon and wheelchair went a long way to making her feel better. This surgery is ROUGH! My girl has a high pain tolerance and it served her well throughout recovery. The poor girl seems to have an adverse affect to pain medication and she can not sleep while taking them! It made for a long week. She spent 4 solid days in bed and 3 more barely moving around the house. She ate lots and lots of ice cream, Popsicles and frozen yogurt tubes. She did go back to school on the 8th day and only came home early twice that week. The sweet school nurse was very helpful and accommodating, we kept her freezer stocked with Popsicles and Addison made daily visits down for pain meds, a Popsicle and a short rest on the cot. We are three weeks out now, and she seems to be back to 100%. I am thankful to have that procedure behind us! Thanks so much to all the friends and family that called, provided meals and sent her gifts. We felt very loved.

Reagan's kindergarten had Open House. She was an outstanding tour guide, showing us around her classroom and specials classes. She loves school and we are so proud of how well she is doing.

 

We have baked lots of holiday treats. You know Addison doesn't feel well when she is missing out on the licking of the spoons! Notice the blue sundresses in the middle of winter? Gracyn LOVES this dress. She asks to wear it everyday and can't because, it is 50 degrees outside. However, the minute we come in the house from our daily activities, she goes straight to her room and puts it on. EVERYDAY! Sometimes she talks Reagan into putting on her matching one.

Same dress, different day. Thankful for a beautiful, warm and sunny day to put up our outside decorations. I set up a chair and blankets outside for Addison, but she never made it out. She got from our bed to the couch that day and couldn't go any farther.The rest of us had fun enjoying the day and setting up the yard.

Gracyn decorated Gingerbread Houses with her class. The kids were adorable....they just piled and piled candy on their little houses. Miss Megan let them lick the spoons from their icing for a few minutes. When she went to take Gracyn's away for the trash, I thought she might have to wrestle her for it. Gracyn was not ready to give it up!

Another blue dress picture. She has her "Dad" tattoo on. The tattoos were actually part of the small group bible study that Tommy and I are leading. We were supposed to wear them to remind us of God's love for us, but our children got to them first!

Our children toilet-papered our room. They got the idea from our naughty elf, Trixie! He rolled Addison's room one night while she slept and they were inspired. Tommy and I knew exactly what they were doing when they wanted to give us a "surprise" in our room. We just let them have their fun and enjoyed our 10 minutes alone on the couch while they worked!

Reagan joined Daisy Scouts!

She had her little ceremony to join, which was fun for the whole family. I am not sure how I feel about the whole Girl Scouts thing. Many of the activities they strive to do are things we do regularly as a family, so I wasn't sure about paying dues and adding another thing to our schedule, but the group is all sweet, special little girls we know, love and want to foster friendships with, so we went for it. She is having a blast so far. Ask me how I feel next month when we are selling cookies!



Gracyn got to bring home the class fish, "Gus". He came to spend the weekend with us and we documented our activities with him.

 

Trixie the Elf joined us from the North Pole. This might be the most favorite holiday tradition in our house! The girls are ecstatic to find him each morning and he is always coming up with new mischievous things to do. He has ridden the American Girl horses, played on their Gymnastics equipment, toilet papered bedrooms, eaten candy and brought treats and notes to the girls.

 

How is that for November in a lump? Add in an ear infection for one child, a sinus infection for Daddy, final days of physical therapy for me as well as oral surgeon visits about wisdom teeth, lots more fun activities, Nutcracker rehearsals and just everyday life to complete the picture. November went by in a flash and December promises to do the same. May we take a break in all the chaos and fun to remember the reason for this season.
 

 

Dance, Dance, Dance

Last week the girls was parent observation week at the girls' dance studio. Addison takes jazz and ballet. She also goes another night each week for Nutcracker rehearsal, where she is cast as a mouse. She loves the jazz part and the Nutcracker, but she is not to crazy about the ballet. One of her sweet friends from church also happens to be in the class along with several girls from school, so she has loved the extra time with them.

 

 

Reagan LOVES her class. She takes ballet and jazz. After Thanksgiving they are adding in tumbling, which will make her even happier! She has both of her best friends in her class. The girl has a gift for most anything physical and she is very musical, so she does well in class. She wasn't old enough for Nutcracker this year, but I am sure she will want to try out next year. Knowing her, she probably already has the dance memorized, just from watching Addison practice.

Happy Halloween

Thanks to hurricane Sandy, this year, Halloween was wet, COLD and windy. But, we made the best of it. Our neighbor friends, came over around 5 for a quick soup dinner. The kids could hardly contain their excitement long enough to eat. We ate, cleaned up and got them ready in record time. Gracyn was a "Pop Star" (the Barbie version), Reagan was a pirate and Addison was Merida from Brave.

Reagan picked this costume because she was dying to have the Jake and The Neverlands Pirate playset. I finally told her she could have it if it was for her Halloween costume. She makes a good pirate.

Addison picked Brave, which I loved. Too bad, the wig makes the outfit, because it won't stay on....especially not in heavy wind and rain.



It took about 42 attempts to get this picture. They were READY to go.

They passed out some candy before we made it out the door. Thanks to life at MARS, we had boxes and boxes of full size candy to pass out. It worked out perfectly, because our church had provided us with stickers that said, "God loves you BIG, not just fun size" to put on the candy.

I had a big hot chocolate station set up with Dove chocolates and travel cups. We grabbed some hot chocolate and hit the road. Gracyn made it to ONE house! It was just too cold and at this point also raining. She was more than happy to bring her hot chocolate home and sit in the warm house passing out candy.

Cody and baby Grayson joined us for dinner and trick-or-treating. They are such cuties and my girls love them.

Such a great family picture. Of course, the time everyone cooperates would be when they are in costume and I am in work-out clothes.

Tommy made it a few houses with the girls before Reagan began getting cold. Thankfully just as they were coming in. Their besties from 2 streets over came running up our street, begging for warmth! All the girls came in fixed some hot chocolate and snuggled by the fire.

They ate some candy and re-charged while the rain died down.

Thankfully, after their rest, the rain stopped and we were able to bundle up and head out for an hour of trick-or-treating with Chloe and Olivia. After I convinced the girls we had enough candy and it was time to stop, we came home snuggled in our PJ's and watched "It's a Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown!". Freezing cold Halloween, but I think it made the adventures that much more fun.

Addison's Fall Party

At Addison's fall party, they had a mummy contest to see who could wrap a mummy the fastest. When it was Addison's turn they played boys vs girls. Addison was smart, as she and her friend decided who to wrap, Addison said, "Oh, we are wrapping you. You are the smallest and this will be easy!". She had good strategy. After the contest, they all took turns wrapping each other.

The tallest girl in class with the smallest. The mom of one of Addison's class friends is the high school volleyball coach. She met Addison at the party and immediately asked if I had her taking volleyball now.

One game required a head piece, so all the kids had to wear lunch-lady hats.

This is the "elephant trunk". They had to walk around swinging it and knock over water bottles. It's an interesting look.

They were a wild bunch by the end. Ms. Williams is their long term sub while their teacher is out on maternity leave.

My girl was so sweet and excited to have me there. I got lots of hugs and affection and I was glad to have them time to meet her friends and begin putting faces with the names I hear.

Fall Party and Princesses

Last Wednesday, we had a fun day full of treats. First, Reagan had her fall party at her class. It was my first opportunity to spend any time in her classroom and can I just say that kindergartners are hilarious! They are just adorable. I worked a craft station, so they kept me busy, but it was fun to get some facetime with each student and Reagan was so proud to have me there.

After school, I picked them up and we headed downtown for an evening of Disney on Ice. First stop was to meet Daddy at his office. This was a first since he went to work for MARS. It was great to see his office and meet many of the co-workers I have heard him talk about. And, bonus, there is candy EVERYWHERE! The girls each made some selections to take to the show for a snack. Thank goodness for the free candy at Daddy's office, because candy is FAR FROM FREE at the Disney on Ice!!! 

 It was a truly magical night! I am so glad we went. Each girl has such a different perspective right now. Gracyn thinks the princesses are real and when they wave, she absolutely thinks they are waving at her. Reagan is my athletic girl and she was so amazed and impressed by the skating and the performers. Addison just took it all in with a very critical eye. She analyzed every second of it.

 On the way out we ran into our friends, Tessa and Camden. Camden was tired and hitching a ride in his Dad's arms, but Tessa was excited to see the girls.

 It was 10:30pm when we made it home, backpacks unopened and homework not even thought about, but it was so worth it! Gracyn asks everyday if we can go again soon.