The excitement!

Christmas is coming, and the excitement is in full force at our house! We had the luxury of having Chrismas with the Grinstead family on Sunday because my parents are heading to Florida to see my Grandma over the holidays. So, we already have a few new toys to play with! :o)


Yesterday, Steve took off work so that I could go with Silas to school for his Christmas party. Here are some pictures I took of Silas at school:

Playing "Santa, Santa, Angel" (aka. Duck, Duck, Goose)

Silas got to see Santa!! He told Santa that he wants a spark scooter for Christmas (a new addition to his list, and much too late for the "elves" to process this request)

Opening his gift from a classmate (a Sonic basketball goal and ball.)

Mrs. Liza (his lead teacher) reading a story about reindeer.

Last Saturday, Deb brought her camera to Avery's basketball game. I finally took pictures of him playing (and all of us on the sidelines too!) I thought I'd share some of them:

Steve offered Avery a little advice when it was his turn to sit out.

Guarding his girl! Ha ha. Defense is his best position!

Silas enjoyed watching the game from this viewpoint. Thanks, grandpa!

Cheese, mom!

Dribbling. He's improving with each practice and game!

He's a terrific passer too! He rarely shoots when he gets the ball, he always looks for a pass.

Trying to capture those teeth Chaille has (her two bottom ones!)

My Grandma makes me happy!

Getting SO big. Hi, mommy!

Chaille and her Great Grandma Frye. A GREAT picture of both of them!

GIRLS!!!

Today we had a wonderful surprise, a playdate with Teresa and her girls, Allison, and Ashley. My friend from high school, Teresa is in town for the holidays. They are making one last long visit home to Indiana (from Illinois) before moving to Texas. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity to see her while she is here!

It isn't very often when Chaille gets to have other girls over to play with, so this was exciting for mommy! Teresa's girls will turn one on Tuesday, making them a little more than 5 months older than Chaille. I look forward to them playing together again as they get older! Here are some pictures:

Chaille, Ashley (in blue), and Allison (in pink) playing.

A posed picture. Teresa had her hand ready to catch Chaille. She's not real steady with the sitting up like Ashley and Allison are!

Avery helped Chaille some. He and Nolan enjoyed entertaining the babies. (Silas was still napping, so he missed out on the fun.)

7 Months Old!

Baby girl turned 7 months old yesterday. Wow, how time flies! Her little tooth is really starting to show, when she will keep her tongue off of it. She is back to feeling like herself, although her sleeping still leaves mommy desiring more... *yawn* She is back into the routine of waking at both 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. So, Steve and I decided this morning that it is time to work on sleep training her (i.e. letting her cry it out!) It makes me sad to have to do it, but the prospect of getting longer than 3 hours of sleep at a time makes it worth it. During the "cry it out" part, however, you can bet I won't be sleeping!

Things are settling down pretty well at our home. I'm feeling better, for the most part. I still look very ugly. The orbital area around my eyes is YELLOW! Like, took a dandelion and rubbed it all over my face, yellow!!! Avery told me that we needed to change my Mii on the Wii because I no longer look like her. The kids have been very sweet to me, and Steve has done a wonderful job of taking care of me. He finished the laundry mound that I was headed to tackle when I fell, and he did just about everything for the kids for a couple of days. Thank God for a wonderful husband! (and for his wonderful mother who, on Thursday, picked up Silas from school and brought him home along with lunch!!!) I am totally blessed!!!

Don't try this at home

Wednesday evening I made a boo-boo. I headed downstairs to put in a load of laundry and slipped on the first step. I fell all the way from the top step to the bottom. Thankfully I was ok, and remained conscious, despite having landed on my face on the concrete floor.

I'm all banged up. Bruised and sore all over my body. My left side took most of the hit, but the muscles on my right side are all sore from the stretching that must have taken place. I can't believe how long it is taking for my muscles to stop hurting. I'm healing, just slowly.

I can't believe I'm going to post a picture. I rarely post pictures of myself on a normal day, let alone looking like this. But, my mom took a picture, and I know that if I were on the other end, I'd be curious as to how my friend looked. So, here I am in all my glory (3 days after the fall):

O Christmas Tree

Traditionally, we have gone and cut a real tree for Christmas. This year, however, we opted for an artificial tree. The place we usually get our tree from is only open Fridays through Sundays and we didn't find that out until Monday! Whoops. So, instead of waiting another 5 days for a tree, we went to Walmart and got it done. We put it up and put our blue ribbon on it Monday night. Yesterday, the boys decorated the tree with ornaments. They did a wonderful job, and the tree looks so beautiful! With the snow flying (and I do mean flying with the wind blowing at gusts up to 50 miles an hour...) I can honestly say that at our house it is "beginning to look a lot like Christmas!"

Another Chaille Update

Chaille has developed a rash on her trunk. As we know from having gone through this with Avery and Silas at nearly the same ages, this is Roseola. With Roseola the child has a high fever for 3-5 days followed by a rash on the trunk that appears about 12-24 hours after the fever breaks. Chaille has these exact symptoms. Thankfully, the rash is not bothering her (itching, etc.) She is back to her happy, content little self today. Thanks be to God that she is on the mend and that she didn't have any trouble with the scary, high temperatures!


I'm attaching a couple of pictures of her rash (try to ignore the food on her nose in the second one.) It was after lunch, and apparently I missed a spot when I tried to clean her up!

Picture Preview and Chaille Update

I wanted to update on baby girl today. Her fever is now low grade, and sometimes even gone. The doctor couldn't find an exact cause for the high temperatures, but is treating her with a lose dose of antibiotic anyway. He said that she "could" have a sinus infection because her nose looked really gross. But, he said, her sinuses aren't actually even formed yet. He also said that they try not to immediately assume that teething is to blame, but in her case that the teething may have something to do with it. I am just relieved that the fevers have come down! It was scary to see her with such a high fever and acting so lethargic.

Steve picked up the CD with our photo session on it today. He has it at work but e-mailed me some of the pictures to sample. I'll have them all tonight!!! Yay!!! I decided to share some, but am keeping some to myself for now (thinking one of them will be our Christmas card photo!) Enjoy our wonderful blessings:

Firsts

Chaille is experiencing several firsts right now. Here's our list:

1) Friday she got her first TOOTH! Yay! I knew she was working on some. Her bottom right is the first to appear.

2) Her first FEVER appeared Saturday morning. It has been fairly manageable until today. We will be visiting the doctor this afternoon to find out what's up. We got a reading of 104.4 under her arm earlier. That was before adding a degree!

3) Her first CHRISTMAS PARTY was last night with the Dotson's and the Moss's. She seemed to enjoy it and got her first present... a baby doll. A very soft baby doll that she can take anywhere.

4) Her first SNOWFALL. We woke up to a little dusting of snow today. She is really too little to notice, but the boys are mesmerized!

Well, I'll update soon with news from the doctor and pictures. I've got to get us ready to go. They didn't have an appointment today, so I'm forcing our way in due to her high temps.

Little Bear

Little Bear is the nickname we use for Nolan. I don't know exactly why it fits him. Maybe it is his deep brown eyes and his dark skin. Maybe it is his personality. I'm not sure. But, for whatever reason, Nolan is our "Little Bear."

This morning I was trying to get my Little Bear to tell me what he wanted for breakfast. I listed several options and he kept saying no. Finally, I said "do you want ANY thing for breakfast?" His response, which I found to be quite advanced for 22 months old, was "no, nuffin." ( I had to spell it the way it sounded because it was very adorable!) .

Anyway, our Little Bear has quite the personality these days. I thought I'd share some of his favorites right now.

*He LOVES movie nights. He wants popcorn and water or hot chocolate and marshmellows AND the fireplace on with his movies.

*He is a big fan of hugs lately. And he uses it as a distraction tool when he is in trouble! "hug, hug." He says when he knows he might be about to be punished.

*He is in love with trucks. He points them out left and right. Now if we can just get him to pronounce the TR sound. He makes the F sound and occasionally gives it an FR. It can be quite embarassing when he yells this word in public! I promise we aren't teaching him bad words!!!

*He is really trying lately to be one of the big boys. He wants to do everything the same as them and uses the phrase "I go too," quite often. We have to bribe him with movie nights when the boys go to basketball practice.

*He loves Chaille and talks about her a lot. He calls her "Shay" just like the older boys. He knows which toys and such are hers and points out every time he is playing with "Shay's toy!"

*He sleeps with several stuffed animals at night. And he likes to stall bedtime by holding them up one by one for mommy and daddy to kiss. He's a sneakly Little Bear and tries to sneak some of the animals more than one kiss. He stalls with the best of them. He is wonderful about going to bed though and never makes a peep once we close the door. He and Avery are so much alike in that regard!

*He has learned that he is allowed to have a say in what goes in his cups. And he likes to switch it up from one thing to the next. It is not uncommon in a day for me to have 3 cups in the fridge with 3 different drinks in it for him. And when he comes to ask for them, he knows exactly which one he wants at that moment!

Ok, I think that is enough for now about our precious "Little Bear." I just wanted to make sure that we remember this time of transition for him as he tries to become a big boy. There are so many cute characteristics of this age!

Tis the Season!!!

The kids and I officially got into the CHRISTmas spirit today! We decorated cookies this afternoon! I have to thank the wonderful people at Nestle for the pre-cut dough that I simply baked during nap time today! It made it a no fuss day as far as the baking part went. Then, I gave the boys a plate with icing and sprinkles and let them go to work. Now, for Nolan's, I just decorated the cookies ahead of time and gave him extra icing to work with. It worked out well, and the finished products are at the end of this post! Enjoy the pictures of our fun, festive time:

Silas hard at work!

Nolan mostly ate the icing off of the knife.

Avery was very strategic in his work.

Chaille was a perfect little helper, just playing in her high chair.

It got a little messy...

But it was so much fun!!!

Very intent.

Almost finished...

The mess wasn't too out of control. (Mommy was even folding laundry on the other end of the table!)

The finished product. Silas made the 4 cookies on top (he ate 3), I did the ones towards the middle, and Avery made the 7 on the bottom (he wouldn't eat any until daddy came home to see them!)