The twins got busy Monday morning playing with their new
toys. They would go back and forth between several of them, play with several
of them together and then get on their new roller blades for a bit and try to
skate around the house. Their new phrase while playing with each other is,
“Watch out dude.”
Andrew took the older kids to school while I worked on
packing away all the party stuff in storage. I also got some stuff listed on
swap shop and had it all sold and picked up by the end of the day. Then I got
on the bike and did a ride before getting ready for the day. It must have been
while I was on the bike that Tiffany brought by a larger dog crate they had
that they are letting us borrow for Buddy. He was definitely growing out of his
Wabbitat. Andrew came home for lunch and after he left, the twins and I loaded
up to make a quick trip to the store. I decided to just go to Dollar General
because the only thing I actually needed was a cake mix but I also wanted to
check out their baskets. So it was a quick trip and although the twins just got
some new toys, they still wanted to check out all the toys there. They went
down for a nap (now they say they are just going to go down for a little nap)
and I worked on making a cake. Kristin was having us all out to their house for
dinner to celebrate Mary’s birthday. Her birthday was actually on Tuesday but
since Ellie had gymnastics and Jackson had basketball, we celebrated the day
before. I made the chocolate mint bundt cake that I had made for our small
group dinner that the kids liked. I was able to get a few more things done
before we had to pick up the kids from school. Lincoln immediately wanted to play with Ty
when he got home so I let him for a bit. Then it was time for him to put away
his laundry that he didn’t put away the day before. He tried really hard to
convince the twins to go help him and I told him that he had to do it himself.
But he kept asking the twins if they wanted help-he said they do a good job and
know where everything goes. I made him do it by himself though J.
Jackson is having some technology-free time so he spent
his time after school building with his Legos and practicing basketball. And
Ellie is on break from dance/tumbling until school starts back so it was nice
she didn’t have anything going on. We went out to Matthew and Kristin’s that
evening and she had a delicious dinner and it was a nice way to celebrate
Mary’s birthday. When we got home I decided to figure out how to fold up the
Wabbitat so it could be stored away. The Andrew did baths and got the kids to
bed while I did some wrapping. The next morning we really had to be moving on
time since the fire truck was coming to pick up Ellie and take her to school
for Student of the Month. I got a bike ride in and got ready, the kids got up
and got ready and we were good to go in time. They were all waiting outside for
the fire truck and soon it showed up and backed down our street to pick Ellie
up. The twins were excited to have a fire truck right out in front of their
house. They had Ellie get in and got her set up with some headphones before
they went on their way. We took the long way to school, out on Jamison,
probably because it was the least congested and easiest for them to pull into
the parking lot. Then once they got to the school, they turned on their sirens
and you could hear them announcing Ellie in the school. She got a small gift
from the firefighters and her teacher was out there to greet her. You could see
kids lined up inside the doors of the school with their arms up and she got to
walk through them while they cheered for her. So much fun J.
I got the other kids off to school without as much
celebration and then ran by Hy-Vee to pick up some juice boxes for the twins
birthday snack at school. I saw Leah and talked to her for a bit and by the
time I got home I just had time to do some laundry before I needed to head to
the twins’ school for their snack time. When I got there, I ran upstairs to
their room quickly to make sure they would be eating downstairs. The twins
didn’t see me but they were standing up on the counter helping with their
calendar time and they were so cute. I got the cupcakes set out just in time
before the kids came down. They started eating them right away so there was no
singing Happy Birthday and I totally forgot to take any pictures. But they
enjoyed their cupcakes and juice boxes and even told me thank you. Then I went
home and started going through toys, books and DVDs in the family room. I was
definitely able to clear some out with some going to the thrift store and some
to the trash. Andrew picked up the boys so I was able to work right up until
they got home. As soon as they got into the door, they put on their roller
blades. Actually they have inspired Jackson and Ellie and they got their roller
blades out too the day before and had been using them a lot. They had lunch and
got back to playing with their new toys. I worked on laundry and billing for
the office until it was nap time.
During nap time I had plan to assemble some Christmas gifts
that weren’t quite working out for me. I was finally able to get one together
and called Andrew to see if he thought we would be able to get the other one
together because it was going to need some modifications. He said he would pick
up the kids from school and check it out. When he got home, he loaded up all
the boys and took them to get hair cuts at the barber. Ellie stayed home with
me and finished homework before she had to get on her I’m Third call and then
she was off to her last gymnastics class of the session. I worked a bit on
dinner and then finished the billing. A little over an hour later all five boys
came home with new haircuts. The twins bangs looked a little funny but I think
Andrew was relieved to not have to mess with them this time around. Then they
headed outside to burn some boxes we had from new end tables I had ordered
while I finished up dinner. It was quite the burn and I think Andrew got a
little nervous. He put one box in all together with all of the packaging and
then he decided he shouldn’t do that with the second one. After dinner, he had
the boys take a shower to clean off from their haircuts while I cleaned up and
then he took Jackson to basketball practice. Ellie got home from gymnastics a
little later and ate some dinner. The kids watched some Christmas movies while
I started cleaning bathrooms before I went downstairs to wrap some more. I
ended up staying up late trying to get as much wrapping done as I could. Since
I got some cleaning done already I decided to sleep in since I also didn’t have
to shower in the morning since I was going swimming. But then Ellie showed up
in my room a little after five complaining of her throat hurting. I gave her
some medicine, turned on the TV and had her lay down in my bed. So needless to
say, I didn’t get much sleep after that.
Ellie seemed to be feeling a little better by the time we
had to leave for school. I got them all dropped off and did my laps before
heading home. At the pool I found out that they are having a indoor triathlon
competition. You can sign up to do a full or half Ironman and you have eight
weeks to complete it. I think it would be great training for the TriFAHL so I
think I am going to sign up. When I
picked up the twins, they were reading Twas
the Night Before Christmas which they loved. Andrew was home taking care of
Buddy when we got home. He let Buddy come in for a bit to play with the twins.
After lunch and playtime, the twins went down for a nap. I went downstairs to
get some hamburger to thaw for dinner the next day and was disappointed to find
that the deep freeze had quit working. It only had our hamburger and not all
the roasts and steaks so it could have been worse. I called Andrew and he came
home so we could figure out what to do. There was stuff leaking out underneath
it. It was still cold in the freezer so some of the meat was still frozen and
most of it was still pretty cold. So we threw out some of it and the rest
Andrew put into trash bags while I made room in our other deep freeze. Then
Andrew went back to the office and I went to pick up the kids from school.
When I picked up Ellie I could tell she didn’t feel that
well when I saw her standing in line and the tears started when she got in the
car. She went straight to bed when she got home and slept for a couple of
hours. Thankfully we didn’t have any activities that night. The only thing was
I was making a dinner for a family whose grandmother was in a bad car wreck and
the mom was having to spend most of her time in Columbia at the hospital. They have
a boy in Lincoln’s class and a girl in Ellie’s grade. I kept it pretty simple
and just ordered pizza for us. Lincoln was excited to go with me whenever I
dropped the food off and his friend, Barrett, gave him a big hug when he saw
him. Andrew had the kids the rest of the evening while I made a huge dent in
the wrapping and made a point to quit before it got too late. When I came
upstairs, Andrew was finishing up a bike ride on the trainer. I put the kids to
bed and when I came down Andrew had Buddy in the house and they just hung out
together for a while.
The next morning I got on the treadmill and Ellie came
down to let me know she still wasn’t feeling well so we decided that she
wouldn’t be going to school. I did have to do some grocery shopping and the
twins had their Christmas party so I did let her stay home for a bit by
herself. I took Jackson and Lincoln to school first. We always listen to the
secret sound on the radio and try to guess it. Jackson was pretty sure he knew
what it was, especially after another clue that made his answer seem right. So
we tried calling the radio station but didn’t get through. And wouldn’t you
know, Jackson was right. On our way to school, I realized I forgot to get the
bag of goodies for the twins’ party so that gave us a good excuse to go home
and check on Ellie and pick up the bag. It had grapes and stickers for their
party, presents for their gift exchange and their teacher presents. For teacher
presents this year, we did a donation to Samaritan’s Purse in their name to go
towards educating children and a tin of cookies. I dropped the boys off and
then ran to the store quickly. Then it was home to check on Ellie and put away
the groceries. Ellie had brought out the massage mat and was laying on it on
the couch, watching TV. She still didn’t feel that great but was a little
better. Since she was doing fine, I left for the twins Christmas party. They were jumping in a bounce house
when I got there and were having a blast. They had all sorts of activities that
got to do and finished the day with a gift exchange. Miles got a fun flash
light and Bennett got a toy that shoots a plastic ball like a snowball.
Ellie had made some toast while we were gone which I was
glad to see since she had not eaten much before that. I got dinner started in
the crock pot and lunch for the twins. Something they have been talking about
lately that I want to document is fire safety. They talk about the alarms going
off, rolling out of their bed and getting away from smoke. We have also talked
about how they need to go to Jackson’s room if they can’t get downstairs. But
they talk about it several times a day. While they were napping I worked on
putting together our neighbor gifts which were just boxes of a dozen pudding
cookies I had made earlier and some candy. I made around 17 dozen cookies that
I froze to use for teacher and neighbor gifts and thankfully they survived
without anyone finding them. And after school Lincoln delivered a few for me.
Jackson got to go to the K-Life house after school for a
Christmas party just for the fifth graders which he said was fun. I think it
was probably nice to have just the oldest kids there since Little K is for 1-5th
grade. Andrew picked him up and we had dinner a little after they got home.
Ellie surprised us by coming downstairs feeling better and hungry. So she ate
with us and even asked for seconds. Then Andrew dropped Jackson off at
basketball practice and went to the office. While they were gone, I finished
cleaning up from dinner and then we went out to deliver the last of our cookies
to our friends. Lincoln and Ellie were supposed to run some over to a couple
more neighbors nearby but Lincoln did both of them. And then he got to ride in
the front seat while we went to a couple houses that were a little further away
for a cold walk. He was such a trooper and delivered all of them for me. When
we got home we did baths and cleaned up the house and then Andrew and Jackson
got home from practice. I always like to hear the reports about practice from
Jackson. He got the ball a few times on defense and he was excited about
that. I did a little more wrapping that
night and got so close to finishing up. There were still some little details to
finish up plus have the kids wrap their gifts for their cousins and each other.
Friday was spent getting a lot of little things checked
off my to-do list. We let Buddy in for a bit because I thought the twins would
enjoy it but then he peed on the carpet twice so he got into trouble.
Later I
was out in the garage cleaning out my car and decided to let Buddy out of his
crate since I was in the garage and he proceeded to pee on one of our rugs out
there. I also found poop in the garage on Jackson’s kite. For being a smart
dog, he isn’t learning all of this very quickly. Andrew had gone on a bike ride
after lunch so he ended up taking Buddy to the office when he went back because
he could tell I was frustrated with him. While the twins napped I worked on a
special letter and then before I picked up the older kids I organized the
presents they needed to wrap so we could do that after school…after they
cleaned up all of Buddy’s poop. Lincoln and I did some quick homework and then
he went to play with Alex. Jackson played with the twins which I always like to
see. And then he helped me get dinner going. He and Ellie were excited about
what was for dinner so they wanted to eat earlier than usual. So we had dinner a little early. Once we
cleaned up, Andrew and Jackson worked on bringing up the broken deep freeze
(thankfully it was a smaller one) and loaded it into his truck. He took Lincoln
and the twins to drop it off and to pick up some dog food for Buddy. While they
were gone, Jackson and Ellie got busy wrapping gifts. It always starts off well
but they quickly get tired of it, even though they just had three presents to
wrap. I tried to show them the tricks to making it easier and to make it look
nice but they didn’t have time for those J.
Even though I was so tempted to rewrap them, I let them be. Jackson actually
handled it better than Ellie. She was sulking around after just one present was
wrapped. I went ahead and wrapped the presents for the grandparents from the
kids and decided to go ahead and wrap Lincoln’s presents and just had him fill
out the name tags when he got home. After it was all done, I just had two
presents left to wrap and I had to wait on a couple things to be shipped to get
those done. It felt good to be done with that so I could spend more time with
the family as Christmas approached.
The next morning Andrew took the kids out to the ranch. I
helped get them out the door and then I picked up around the house. The kids
just roll out of bed on Saturdays when they go to the ranch so I sometimes try
to be nice and straighten up their rooms a bit and gather their laundry for
them J.
Then I worked on making some reindeer food and got on the treadmill. I started
working on my grocery list trying to figure out what all we would need for the
next week so that I hopefully wouldn’t have to go back right before Christmas.
So that meant trying to decide what special food we would want around the house
and what I wanted to take to others. Andrew and the kids got home just in time to
eat some lunch that I made sure was ready for them and head out the door for
Jackson’s ball games in Queen City. Over half of Jackson’s team was gone
because some of them were at a pitching/catching camp at Truman. They were
actually able to get another boy to play with their team so they could have
five players but Jackson enjoyed it because he got to play the whole time for
both games. And we had fun watching him. My dad and Andrew’s mom came to watch
some of the games which Jackson appreciated.
Jackson still didn’t make a basket but he actually got the chance to
shoot a couple times which hasn’t happened the past few games. And he did great
on defense and got several steals. Both games were close and they won the first
one and lost the second one but the other teams were able to sub people in so
the kids got breaks. The boy that got to play with them did score a lot of
their points but I think they did a great job playing when they couldn’t even
run any plays since he didn’t know them.
Jackson came out smiling though because I think the extra play time gave
him some confidence and he had fun with it.
Since we were over that way, I decided to pick up
McDonalds for the kids which they were excited about and I just ate leftovers. Andrew
and Jackson got home from the movie and both agreed it was a good one and they
were glad they got to go. I decided to go ahead and do my grocery shopping
instead of waiting until the next day. It was quite a haul but I was glad to
get it done. There were a few things I didn’t get that I still had to go back
for the next day though. Andrew and Jackson came out to help me carry it all
in. The next morning we went to the early church service. After we got home, we worked on finishing up
the teacher gifts. I got some of the cookies out of the freezer so each teacher
got a dozen and then I had Jackson, Ellie and Lincoln write a message to their
teacher in the card I made that explained the donation. Then we got out the
paints and some wooden ornaments I bought for the kids to paint. I also had a
couple small wooden sleighs that I had a few years that I brought out. It caused
some arguing though because I only had two and several wanted to do them. Miles
and Bennett were happy with their ornaments though.
Andrew went for a bike ride while I finished up laundry,
picked out outfits for the kids to wear around Christmas and cleaned. Then I
turned on The Nativity Story for
Jackson, Ellie and I to watch and Jackson made some popcorn. That night we had steaks for dinner on our
Christmas china. We get to eat on it several times during the Christmas season
and the kids always enjoy seeing which plate they get. After dinner we had
planned to go see the Living Nativity but when I checked on it again, we were a
little late. I thought it started at 6 but it actually started at 5 and ended
at 7 which it was 7 by the time we were done with dinner. So Andrew and the
kids watched random Star Wars videos they found on YouTube. I made a quick trip
back to Wal-Mart and then we called it a day.
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