The older kids still had a couple days of school before
Christmas break. Andrew took them Monday morning while I got a bike ride in and
then the twins and I went to Lincoln’s class party which was at 9. His teacher
tried to keep it pretty low key and it was. They had stockings that they each
brought little things to add to them so they got to open those and then eat
some snacks. Miles started crying because he didn’t get anything when all the
kids had their stockings. I told him he needed to quit crying but then Mrs.
Quigley offered to have he and Bennett pick something out of the prize box
which was really nice of her. They also got to join in and have some snacks and
then it was time for us to head out. The class was going to a sing along and
then they got to watch Polar Express in the afternoon.
The twins and I then ran
by the YMCA to sign Ellie and Lincoln up for basketball. Bennett had a fever
come and go throughout the day and by the afternoon wasn’t feeling that well.
Thankfully Andrew offered to pick the kids up from school. I actually sat on
the couch and read a book (one of my mom’s favorites, A Lantern in Her Hand) and had Bennett lay down by me. We had
pancakes for dinner that night and once everything was cleaned up and the kids
bathed, we went out to look at Christmas lights. We also made a quick stop by
my parents to drop off some pans for my mom that I just ran inside and a quick
stop at Wal-Mart for me to pick up a couple things.
That night I had Bennett sleep with me since his fever
was coming back. He started coughing and that went on for a while. So I just
went ahead and read some more and finished the book. He did seem to feel better
by the morning though and he didn’t get up at all during the night. Andrew took
the older three to school while I worked on making sugar cookies and did a bike
ride. It was my birthday and my mom had posted the sweetest message on her
Facebook page that made me cry. Her words were so kind and I felt undeserving
of them. When Andrew was home for lunch he had me open his card for me which
also included a surprise present. I didn’t think I would be getting anything
because of the bikes but he got me 2 3-room carpet cleanings which will be
great with all of Buddy’s surprises for us. And the three oldest even chipped
in a bit to help pay for it. After lunch I was cleaning the floors and had the
dining rooms chairs sitting on the rug so the twins rearranged them like they
were a car and they took turns being Daddy/Mommy driving and handing out snacks
and them the other one was in the back asking for snacks. Then we left to go to
Jackson’s party at school. On the way there was were going down Baltimore and
Miles started saying, “Gas station, gas station, McDonalds, jingle bells (Taco
Bell).” J.
Jackson’s party wasn’t much of a party as they were just
watching a movie that was on a book they had read in class and eating random
snacks. We sat down on the floor in his room with him for a bit and took some
bathroom breaks but the twins were done with it. Thankfully we were able to cut
out early. We went to pick up Ellie and she wasn’t quite done with PE class but
her teacher called her out anyways. Then we went to Lincoln’s school and got
him out a little early. I had let their teachers know the day before that I may
be getting them out early and they were fine with it. So we were able to get
out of there before the pick-up rush started. Lincoln wanted to give me his gift he made at school right away and it was a cute mug he colored for us with a drawing of two Santas and a drawing of Lincoln, Andrew and I on the other side.
Bennett’s fever came back later after we got home so I gave him some
medicine and had him lay down a bit before we went to my parents’ house. It was
crazy but we hadn’t been to their house since Thanksgiving weekend so the kids
were excited to get back there. And the Bobzien family arrived just a little
before we did and Lissy showed up a little later. And then Randy and Kathy joined us for dinner
too, just like years ago on my birthday. My parents made a delicious dinner of
chicken spedini and we, of course, had red velvet cake. It was all so yummy.
Jackson still had basketball practice so he and Andrew had to leave early but
Andrew just dropped him off and came back to eat dinner. The kids couldn’t go
in the basement because my mom was still wrapping down there, so they just ran
in circles upstairs. I, again, wasn’t expecting any presents because I thought
my ticket to the Nutcracker was my birthday present but my parents gave me a
little candy dish, a new Vera Bradley purse and a house cleaning. My card to “Just
give Michele a call and she will come.” So I asked if I she would come anytime
I called. J Andrew took the three youngest home while
Ellie went to Walmart with Lissy and we all just hung out for a little while
before heading home.
Andrew went to the office Wednesday morning while the
rest of us enjoyed sleeping in. Then I had the kids clean their rooms. They had
to vacuum, dust and clean out their toys to decide if there was anything they
wanted to throw away or give away. The twins and Lincoln were very proud of
their room and had me come up to see it. I had to close my eyes before I walked
in though. They had their blankets neatly spread out on their beds with a
second blanket up by their pillows with stuffed animals laying underneath them.
I washed the kids’ backpacks and lunch boxes, picked up the house, made sure
everyone was ready and got on the treadmill. The kids also had to give Buddy a
bath and they brought him in to play for a while. After I was done running the
kids helped me bring up some of our presents and then they got to do their
sibling gift exchange. They were all happy with what they got from each other.
Jackson got a basketball from Lincoln that he loved. Ellie got a watch from
Bennett that she immediately started working with. Lincoln got a Minecraft Lego
set from Jackson which he and Jackson put together. The twins each got a train
and a big Magnadoodle board from Bennett and Ellie that they were very excited
about. While they played I finished getting ready and then started working
making some peanut butter bars to take over to my parents. The kids also had to
clean up the big mess Buddy made from shredding his pillow in his crate.
Christmas Eve morning Andrew went out for a long bike
ride. I always get nervous when he does that because I never quite know when to
expect him home. While he was gone I got the kids up and ready, started laundry
and did a bike ride myself. He came home about 3 ½ hours later having gone 55
miles. Lissy, Caroline and Molly brought the Bobzien kids over later. They
picked up some Sonic for lunch although my kids just ate peanut butter and
jelly earlier. My mom was still trying to wrap and the kids were getting kind
of cagey, so I had them come over to play for a bit. Heidi came over and we got
to exchange gifts. I made her a “What a Difference a Day Makes” framed print
and a necklace/earring set and she gave me an apple peeler/slicer which I used
a couple days later and loved. Amanda stopped by about the same time and took
her kids home. Then we all got ready to go to church at our church for a 4:30
service. Bennett ran to the computers to check in when we got there and was
disappointed to learn that he had to join us for the service. It was a great
service with a neat video/song they showed along with lots of singing. For it being
early evening, we had some tired kids. Lincoln was out and Bennett fell asleep
on Andrew.
After the service we went over to my parents and a
special visitor showed up soon afterwards. Santa came to visit even though it
was a busy night for him. Our three youngest were very excited and Lincoln
raised his hand to be one of the first ones to sit on Santa’s lap. Bennett
wasn’t shy at all while Miles was a little reserved but went up without
hesitation. Jackson and Ellie both thought it was a little silly but did it
anyways. Caroline offered to pay Jackson $10 if he sat on Santa’s lap and told
him that he wanted of lifetime supply of Doritos, which he did.
We had dinner after Santa left and then we eventually
made our way home to get ready for Santa to come to our house. We didn’t go to
Midnight Mass as I was trying to keep the peace at home. Our plan is to go
during on-years and stay home during off-years. When we got home, the kids
quickly got their pjs on, put the reindeer food out in the yard and then set
out Santa’s cookies and milk. I also gave Miles some carrots to put in the bowl
for the reindeer and he accidentally put them in the milk. Santa didn’t seem to
mind though. As soon as the kids went to bed, Andrew got busy bringing up
presents. I didn’t put all the presents out beforehand because I wanted to
surprise the kids with some of them. But I was hoping Andrew would wait a bit
to make sure the kids were asleep. It all worked out though. I set everything
out and got some pictures. Then I went upstairs to put the wrapping paper up to
keep the kids upstairs and Ellie came out of her bedroom. She said she had to
go to the bathroom and tried to peek downstairs. But she couldn’t see a thing.
So I finished that up and then stayed up longer than I should have editing
pictures from the past few days.
Christmas morning came quickly as Ellie and Jackson were
up and stomping on the floor to wake us up at 5am. Andrew had them go back to
bed for a bit and I knew the twins would not be happy about getting up that
early. I got out of bed though and got things ready to go. There were some
anxious kids at the top of the stairs along with some tired ones. We let them
come down a little later and they were very excited. The twins loved their
Thomas bikes and Kindles while Jackson and Lincoln were super excited about the
Wii U Santa brought them. The kids were happy with their gifts. We tried to do
some “experience” gifts this year and didn’t have as many material things.
Andrew and I weren’t supposed to do gifts but we both did anyways. I gave him a
new bike computer which will get lots of use. He got me a long-sleeved wind
jacket for biking along with some bigger tires that will hopefully make me feel
a little more stable J.
We let the kids play around a bit while I cleaned up and Andrew burned all of
our trash.
We had to wait a bit to go to my parents since they all
went to bed later with Midnight Mass. They were all still waking up when we got
there. It was a flurry of activity, excitement and chaos. We keep thinking
there has got to be a way to make things go smoother but we haven’t come up
with it yet. I wasn’t quite sure what all the kids got but they had fun. My parents love doing Christmas for them. After
we opened presents it was time for brunch and then pack up and go home for a
bit.
The kids played with their gifts while I tried to
organize stuff a bit. Andrew took the guys out to the ranch to do some
shooting. Lissy got a fun picture of them before they left.
While he was gone, I did baths and then put the twins
down for a much-needed nap. When Andrew got home Ellie and I went to my parents
and I tried to help a bit with dinner but they had it pretty well taken care
of. I was put in charge of the mashed potatoes though. Dinner was so yummy and
we all stuffed ourselves. And after dinner was cleaned up, we did our family
gift exchange. Baylor was very excited about the pencil sharpener we got for
him.
The next few days were a blur. I always get anxious about
trying to organize the new toys, etc. but I also like to spend time with family
in town. And instead of just putting away the new toys, I want to purge
everything. January is now my time to purge, organize and clean the whole house
and since I feel like I need more than an hour or two here and there, I just
try to hide the mess in one room until I have time to get it all going. I also
had some baking to do which took up some time. A couple days after Christmas we
went out to Tom and Mary’s and did Christmas with Andrew’s family. Annie and
Brad were able to come back which was nice. Miles didn’t feel well the day
before but was thankfully feeling a little better by then. Mary made a
delicious dinner and then we opened our presents. The kids got counting money
jars with a bunch of dimes that they started filling up immediately. They also
got remote control cars which were really neat but they all ran on the same
frequency. This caused quite a bit of fighting since they were controlling each
others’ cars. The fighting continued the next few days so I had to interfere
and take the cars away whenever it got out of hand. So overall we had a great Christmas…great
time spent with family, great food and remembering why we celebrate Christmas
in the first place.
Sara and her family got into town the Tuesday after
Christmas. We only got to see them a few minutes before we had to head out to
the kids’ dentist appointments. I did
get a gift from Brady and I was the only one, so I felt pretty special. He made
me a rainbow heart out of Perler beads.
I did get to admire it long enough though as we really had to get going.
But when we got settled in for the appointments, I got on my phone and saw a
post Lissy made announcing that Sara was pregnant too! She and Caroline are due
a couple weeks apart. Very exciting. Our
appointments went pretty smoothly. They had a cancellation so one of the hygienist
was open and was able to take Miles and Bennett together. It was their first
appointment and Bennett was a rock star. He got right up in the chair and didn’t
flinch with anything-doing the x-rays, cleaning his teeth and letting the
dentist look at them. It was disappointing to find out he had two cavities
though. I don’t think any of the other kids have had them that young. Miles was
apprehensive at first. They had him sit on my lap while she got stuff ready and
then I asked him if I could get up and press the x-ray button. He ended up
being fine with that but had trouble biting on the x-ray pad so they didn’t
push it because they didn’t want him getting upset. But the rest of his
appointment he was great but he did have one cavity too. Everyone else was good
though, so I was thankful for that.
After the appointments, we went back to my parents to see
Sara and Ryan and congratulate them on the news. We were able to stay for a
couple hours before we had to go home and get everything ready to go out to
Matthew and Kristin’s for the Ranch dinner. They had a dinner for all the
people that worked and helped them out at the ranch. One of Andrew’s friends
from Arkansas who had hunted up on their land several times ended up sending a
Honey Baked ham to Andrew so his mom was able to use that for the dinner. She
and Kristin also did some sides and I did desserts. The kids had a lot of fun
playing together and Jackson was happy to have a boy there that was his age. It
was a nice evening.
The next couple of days I attempted just a bit to start
purging and cleaning but it didn’t work out too well. Jackson and Ellie started
cleaning out their closets but things were just too hectic and it was going to
take too long to get much done. We spent time at my parents Wednesday and had
dinner over there. The kids brought over their snow stuff and played outside
for a while and they got in the hot tub for a little while.
Thursday morning I eventually got a bike ride in. It wasn’t that
great because I had been battling a cold and was getting winded pretty easily.
But I got one last one in before the New Year. Ellie counted up the money in
the Kids Across America jar and we were happy to find out we had enough money
to send one kid to camp. I had them fill out a deposit slip to put it in our bank
account and then we went online and paid to sponsor a kid for camp. Before we
went to my parents we ran by the bank to deposit the money. Andrew and Jackson
went out to the ranch so Andrew could fix a water gap. They also brought a sled
so Jackson could go sledding. Jackson said he even had Buddy go down with him a
few times. Since I hadn’t been to the store since before Christmas I tried to
do some quick grocery shopping but the stores were pretty crazy. I got through
Aldi pretty quickly and even did some very quick shopping at Wal-Mart but the
lines were crazy. I gave up on the self-checkout because that line was back
into the produce section. So I just pulled up some stuff to read on my phone
and waited. I saw my dad coming in as I was leaving and told him he should have
told me what they needed so he didn’t have to wait in those lines. I even asked
before I left and they said they didn’t need anything. I went home and unloaded
the groceries and Andrew and Jackson got home just as I was heading back to my
parents so Jackson went with me.
That evening we started our New Year’s Eve celebration.
We initially had planned to go AJ’s but since they had a fire they were closed
until February. So we ordered from the DuKum and added some Magic Dust. We
watched some old home movies of New Year’s Eves in the past including 1999/2000
which included Andrew and I dancing. Then we played several rounds of Pie Face
which the kids had a lot of fun with.
Next we watched the movie Max which Jackson really liked. He
decided he may want to join the Marines and become a dog handler when he grows
up. Then it was time to get the New Years Eve party supplies from 2000 out. Ellie and Lincoln made props for pictures so they took some pictures with those. They also worked on Ellie's craft from her Doodle Craft that was dyeing a special type of Japanese hand bag. Ellie ended up with very blue fingers that took a while to clean up. We took a quick picture before midnight and then my dad headed outside to shoot off fireworks with the kids watching. There were a few Facebook posts from neighbors thanking my dad for doing it every year :-). We cleaned up a bit and then everyone went to bed. It took a little while for the twins to settle down. They were sleeping on the floor of the room where I stayed while the other three were downstairs and Andrew went home pretty early in the evening. Lincoln came up a few times saying he couldn't sleep for various reasons but he finally went back downstairs and went to sleep. I had a couple coughing fits but finally settled in for the night ready for a new year.
No comments:
Post a Comment