Kidney Stones, Crystals, Pillow Pets and Mimi's House

This week we have had to spend $500 dollars on car repairs and $200 on fixing our water heater......Merry Christmas and I hope a happier New Year. Oh well, things could be worse. The kids aren't sick anymore and Jason is feeling better. After he got sick with the same thing the kids had, he got better and then Christmas evening he started passing a kidney stone (which he does periodically...He finally stopped naming them because he has had too many to keep track of). He also had a fever and was throwing up, possibly with a stomach bug on top of it. Ugh. Well he is better now.

The kids and I have had fun playing war, go fish, Hedbandz, Sorry, and doing puzzles. We have also done some cool experiments with Max's new crystal growing kit. It is great. It was something he had been asking for, for Christmas. It has 13 different crystal growing activities to do. We have done three. We grew spikey yellow crystals on a paper cactus we cut out and made stand up. We also made some pretty blue crystals grow on a rock and we made a geode shell and are now growing glowing crystals on it. The geode shell we made has glow powder we put on it before it dried and hardened so now after the crystals grow it will glow in the dark!!! Really cool. I will show you pictures of them later when they are all done growing. And we still have 9 more left to do! Lots of Fun! The only draw back is that the crystals don't grow as big as you would like, but still I highly recommend this kit. It is "Ultimate Crystal Growing Kit" by Scientific Explorer.

One of the things that Sam wanted soooo badly was a dog Pillow Pet. He has wanted one for forever (at least 6 months) and talks about it all the time. We tried to talk him out of it, thinking he was too old for it and wouldn't want it once he got it, but to no avail. Santa brought it to him for Christmas and he has slept with it and played with it ever since. He named it "Hershey" and it is a "girl" dog, his first girl sleep buddy (stuffed animal). He says it looks like a girl dog to him (Maybe because our dog, Maizie is a girl?). Anyway, it is so funny to hear him walk around the house constantly singing the song, "It's a pillow. It's a pet. It's a pillow pet!"

Today Mimi came over and picked the boys up at around 10:30 and took them to go rent some movies, then to go see a movie and then to spend the night at her house. She will drop them back off tomorrow sometime. Oh sweet Mimi. I do hope they are good for her and don't fuss too much. I am sure they will have lots of fun. Mimi makes everything fun! This morning they woke up and both boys were singing the Sponge Bob song, "It's the best day ever...because we are going to spend the night at Mimi's house." It cracked me up. Yes they were excited. The last two times we planned for them to do this, they were sick and had to reschedule. Thank you Mimi and Papa for everything!

Always and forever, no matter what!

Yes, I am loving being off work and spending more time with the boys. This morning I was snuggling with Sam and he kept wanting to give me "married kisses". It is so cute and sweet. I will take his kisses any way I can get them. I know pretty soon he will be not wanting to do anything like that with his old and embarrassing mama. Anyway, I had sprayed my hair with hair spray and not brushed through it yet so he kept feeling my hair and telling me that he loved me even if I had dry, crunchy hair...no matter what. He would love me even if I was in heaven. Oh, I just melted. I hope he never changes his feelings. How I love my joy boys, always and forever, no matter what!

Let's Get Creative

Since I am off with the kids for Christmas break since they are out of school, I have been inundated with the cries of, "We want to do a project!" Here are a few we have done so far in the last 2 days. Yesterday I googled a blog site with kids craft ideas and we made "Snowman Poop" that we put on our neighbor's doorstep, as well as the kid's cousin's doorstep. We put large chocolate and white swirled marshmallows into a baggie along with some dark chocolate chips and sprinkled it with silver glitter. Then we wrote out this poem and stapled it to the bag: "You have been naughty so this is the scoop. All you get for Christmas is this snowman poop!" Then we added that we were just joking and hoped they had a fun Christmas. We also made some reindeer food to sprinkle on the lawn Christmas Eve. I just add libbed with what was in the cabinet and put several packets of dried oatmeal flakes and some frosted mini wheats in a baggie and then sprinkled it all with silver glitter. We also made a bag of chopped up carrots sprinkled with glitter to add to it later so it wouldn't make the other mix get moist.

Today we played with some stampers, making pictures and decorating a bag for papa's gift, then we played with glow in the dark bendaroos making things. We have also played lots of board games and hide and seek and I have also gone through thier closets and toy boxes to get rid of old things they don't play with anymore and make room for the new. Anyway, now that we are all finally healthy again it feels good to be productive. Have I mentioned we have broken three glass knick knacks in the last 2 days with all the wild play going on? The kids feel better and are bored, tired of laying around. Soooo I must get creative. Anyone have any other ideas? Have a fun and creative Holiday week!

Merry Sickmas---Ho Ho Achoooo

Well, for over a week now my family has been sick. Ugh. It started off last week on Thursday with Sam waking up at night with a fever and throwing up. He was sick all weekend. Max had a cold and coughed horribly and developed a fever also within a day of this. At the end of the weekend they seemed better and went to school Monday and Tuesday, but by 3:00 Tuesday afternoon they both had a fever and Sam now had the cold that Max had. So did Jason for that matter---and the fever. Sam had some virus and Max didn't, just a cold, but he also had swollen lymph nodes that were infected and couldn't eat or drink due to the pain. Ugh. Yesterday I hit a brick wall with the cold and am home today with Sam, both of us sick. The antibiotics worked on Max and he has been fever free two days now and was able to go to school. Whew. I am ready to sanitize the house and be germ free!

Anyway, Sam got angry with Maizie the other day when she tried to get him to play with her and nipped at him to get his attention. He yelled, "I'm so made at you! All I do is give you tender love and you bite me!" I just have to laugh about the "tender love" bit. I don't know where he heard that one. His current thing, which has been for the last 3 months, has been he wants to give me "married kisses". He holds my face in his hands and tilts his head to the side, seriously, and slowly gives me a long kiss on the lips. Jason and I keep telling him that that kind of kiss is only for mommy's and daddy's. But he is still enthralled by it. He also has to tell me 10 times a day in gestures (baby sign language) "I love you".

The kids have been sick and want me to snuggle with them so they have both been on either side of my lap coughing on me and snuggling. I love the snuggle time, but not the germs and ultimate sickness. Ooooh it is bitter sweet. As they get older I know I will have less of this snuggle time and am grateful for it now, but not the germs. I do have to say, though that looking back at last year at this time, this season is much merrier. Last year we were planning a funeral for Jason's grandmother in Coffeyville and wrapping up her affairs, our beloved dog Moses died two days before Christmas, Jason's job at Apache was having major upheaval with changes and people leaving so he was looking for a new job and stressed and our finances were in worse shape than now. So, each year does get better. I have to remind myself about the blessings and how God is providing and set my mind and heart on an attitude of gratitude.

I hope your holiday season is going well and is germ free and full of His blessings. Take care!

I Spy

In regards to the picture below with Max, Sam and Maizie in front of the Christmas tree...can you spot the two Maizies in the picture?

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Train at Dry Gulch

Yesterday we got up and had a brunch birthday party celebration for my nephew Carson. He will be turning 11 in a few weeks! Wow. I still remember vividly the day he was born. We love you Carson. Last night we went to Dry Gulch to let the boys talk to Santa and get thier picture taken with him. We rode the train that had a show about Jesus' life, rode the carousel, went on a wagon ride that told the Night Before Christmas story, saw a Christmas puppet show and got hot chocolate. It was lots of fun but verrrrry cooooold brrrr. Today we have church and tonight we have our bible study group's Christmas party. It is a Party Weekend! And I just got back Friday evening from two days at a work training in OKC. Whew. I hope your weekend is fun but not tooo busy to relax.

I am thankful for Thanksgiving. It was a fun and busy day. We got up early to cook then went to Claremore to my parent's house. My mom had made cute felted knit hats for all of us girls, hence the picture. As usual we all stuffed ourselves with food, except for my boys who ate nothing, not even a roll. I talked Sam into taking a tiny bite of potato out of a buffet potato casserole and he kept gagging loudly so the next room of people could all hear it. I kept yelling, "It's like a little french fry. You like french fries. Just swallow it! Finally Sam gagged super loud and threw up the tiny pinky tip sized potato piece and lots of mucus along with it. It flew across the table and hit me right on target, splattering the table and butter dish along the way. Gross. Thank goodness it was just the kids' table I sat at and not the adult table. Yes, we were all done eating after that and I cleaned up the gross mess. If only I could change places with my boys for a month, then they could finally gain weight and grow and I could lose weight. If only...

Oh, and speaking of eating, Yes! I did get the yummy bag of Chex Mix my Aunt Judy made! Yeaaaah Judy! You are the best. Of course my kids didn't eat lunch, but they kept trying to talk me into letting them eat the Chex Mix. Not on their lives! They had to wait until the next day until they had eaten a meal finally.

Well, after the lunch table fiasco, the kids all decorated Mimi's tree for her and put up Christmas decorations in her house. Later we went to Coffeyville KS to see Jason's cousins and aunts and uncles. Then we headed back to Claremore to get the leftover food we left there and then headed back to Tulsa. I was exhausted. The kids were fussing, wanting to put up our tree and Christmas decorations, but I made them wait until the next morning.

Finally on Sunday, I bribed Max into letting Jason pull his loose tooth. He looks so cute and sounds adorable with his tooth gone as he lisps. It is only his third tooth he has lost and the last one came out on Christmas Eve last year. This one has been a long time coming. I told Max I would buy him a puzzle once it was out. As we were walking into the store he said, "Mom, I know what I can do with the money the tooth fairy leaves me." I asked him what. He said, "It can be an offering." I asked, "You mean to God? Give it to the church as an offering?" He said, "Yes". I wanted to cry. How sweet. That made my Thanksgiving this year. What made yours?