Christmas Brunch

Today was the annual ward Christmas party. However, this year instead of an evening party, it was a brunch. It was fun, they made pancakes, eggs and bacon (but all the young men gobbled it down before anyone else was even in line). Also everyone brought a side dish to share. The young men and women sang some Christmas songs, and then the kids got to visit with Santa. Brian was most excited about getting candy from Santa.

Here are the best two pictures, the ones of Brian by himself didn't turn out very well.

P.S. Happy 15th month birthday Danielle.

Cutest Things--By Danielle

Danielle is almost 15 months old, and has such a cute personality. Here are some of the things that make her so much fun right now. She is usually a very good listener, and actually does what you want he to most of the time. Too bad my 6 and 4 year old won't do that.

• Shakes head "no" when she does not want something


• Says "ut oh"


• Waves to daddy and says "hi" when he walks in the door, I am trying to get a video of this.


• Throws temper tantrums when she does not get her way, I should definitely get a video of this.


• Signs "more" for milk, will not actually use the "milk" sign


• She makes a chewing motion with her mouth when she wants to eat something, usually something you have. She is a pretty good eater.


• She has conned the kids and sometimes her mom into to giving her candy, popcorn, nuts, cookies, ice cream, chips, shakes etc.


• She is quite dramatic is she gets hurt, she goes into full blown hysterical crying immediately, no working up to it.
  

O Christmas Tree

Our children feel like orphans. We have been so busy working on the new wood floor, that we have all but forgotten about decorating for Christmas. It is actually all Thanksgivings fault. That's right, Thanksgiving is the reason...it came late this year and threw off the whole schedule. Now that it is already December and we are leaving in about two weeks, and we won't get back until after the first of January, it was too much trouble to put up all the outside lights and we had no spot for the big Christmas tree, since the floor is all torn up. So we decided to just set up the kids little tree in their bedroom.

After creating a small disaster, breaking a couple of things and having a few meltdowns, we accomplished the mission. I took a picture of the kids all dressed up for our Christmas cards. Danielle would not cooperate, so here is a preview with the big kids showing off some of their favorite ornaments.

P.S. I forgot all about putting up a tree and decorations at the office this year, until a patient asked me about it...Oh well, I am sure that Santa will still come.

Dallas

Eddie planned to attend a pediatric seminar in Dallas this weekend, but we have been waiting on the AR Chiropractic Board to approve the continuing education hours before we made any final plans. I hadn't decided if I was going to go or not. Two days before the seminar, we finally got word that it had been approved. I made hotel reservations and tried to decide if the kids and I would go to Dallas with Eddie.

I weighed the decision carefully...

Go to Dallas: 5 hours in the car each way with the kids, find someone to teach my Sunbeam class, entertain 3 kids in Dallas all weekend, stay in hotel where someone makes the bed and washes the towels. Eat free breakfast downstairs in the cafe, where they do the dishes too! Eat lunch at Chipotle (my favorite place), have dinner at a nice restaurant. Go shopping!

Stay Home: Entertain 3 kids in Little Rock all weekend, cook and do dishes, try to keep the house clean, do laundry, go to church by myself, teach the Sunbeam class by myself with the baby.

Hmmm, tough decision!

Here's what we did in Dallas.

I was able to get some great Christmas gifts at Cabela's. We spent two hours here, shopping, and playing.

They have a big display of animals, and fish that you could feed.

On our way to the shooting gallery, the kids found these cute bears.

Brian conned me into buying this hat for him, he picked it out all by himself, while I was looking at something else. It is too big, has flaps that cover his ears, and of course it lights up. It was $25! How could I say no to a face like this?

Next stop was the Galleria Mall, for some lunch and more playing. I got an awesome parking spot and I was very pleased. We had lunch at Sbarro, pizza for everyone, and then played at this fun soft play area.




The kids and I ended our day with a treat at Dairy Queen, Blizzards all around. I had the seasonal special with peppermint candy and chocolate, it was wonderful. We met daddy after his seminar and we all went to dinner at Texas Land and Cattle.

The next morning Eddie left early for the rest of his seminar. We had breakfast in the cafe again, and then waited in the hotel room for daddy to get back. We ended our Dallas mini-getaway at the Stonebriar Mall, in Frisco. We had lunch, rode the carousel, and bought our ornaments at the Hallmark store. One last stop at Chipotle so we could have dinner on the way home.

I think going to Dallas for the weekend was a good choice!

What Happened to November?

I can't believe it is December. Christmas will be here in 3 weeks. I really thought I had everything under control. I had done some Christmas shopping, and I was on top of things. But then I realized that I had shopped a little for the kids. I still needed to get something for mom, Eddie, and Steve, Erin and their kids. YIKES! Oh and I forgot Kaitland's birthday, great! Not to mention, pictures, Christmas cards, holiday outfits, and oh probably a hundred of other things on the list. I better get off the Internet, and start working on this list.

Work In Progress

We have talked for years about ripping out the carpet in the family room, and earlier this month we finally did it. We had joked that it would be better to just have concrete than the gross dirty carpet. Even when we carpet cleaned it would only look good for just a little while. We found a deal on hardwood that we liked so we bought it (12 months no interest, no payments...gotta love that!) We went home and immediately ripped up the carpet. The plan was that the following week would be a four day weekend with the Thanksgiving holiday and we could get the project done.

First mistake, Thanksgiving was not next week, it was in two weeks. Oops. In the meantime we ripped up baseboards, painted walls, made pictures on the concrete with chalk, broke up tile, and realized how cold and loud the room was with no carpet.




Second problem...the wood did not arrive on the scheduled day. The deliveries come on Thursdays, and our order did not get on the truck that week. Next week would be Thanksgiving and the truck would not arrive until Friday afternoon. So now our 4-day project weekend, only has 2 1/2 days. Here is what we accomplished after the weekend.

See all the potential for "glue hazards"?

I will post more as we complete the project. But we have learned that this would have been easier if we would have had more hands...someone to help Eddie, other than his kids who helped by getting in the way, stepping in glue, tracking glue, or his wife, who was trying to cook, or keep the kids from stepping in glue and getting in the way. It was definitely a bigger project than we had thought.

Turkey Day and Black Friday

This year the weather has been exceptionally nice, here are the kids on Thanksgiving morning outside with all of the fall colors and leaves. It was a little chilly, but not too bad. We have been able to open the windows on several occasions, and we really haven't had to turn on the heat too much yet.

Brian has on his very cute Turkey hat that he made at school

We went over to Uncle Dale's house for the traditional Jones family gathering. It is one of the couple of times a year that we get together with Eddie's family. I enjoy catching up with everyone. They kids have a great time playing with their cousins, especially Heidi.

Thursday night, I formulated my plan for tomorrow morning, Black Friday! We had scoped out some great deals at Walmart, so I knew I wanted to head there first. I got up at 4:30am, and got to the store just as it was opening at 5am. I headed to the electronics first, in hopes of getting a $50 portable DVD player. However after waiting about 10 minutes, in what appeared to be a totally unorganized line, I moved on. I knew I could order the DVD player online anyway. I got snow boots, coats, and PJ's. It was a success, even though there were no shopping carts, and the checkout lines were crazy. I opted for self-check, it was a zoo. The guy in front of me had a bunch of electronics that would not ring up, and had to get help, and then he had know idea, how to use the self check and it took him forever to figure out how to pay with all of his gift cards that he was trying to use. I had to get help too, because I rang up something twice, and some boots did not ring up at the right price.

My next stop was Target. In hopes of finding the Leapfrog games that were on sale for $15. I found of few of the ones that I was looking for. I was also looking for a game that they didn't have, and so while I was standing in line for 2 hours I called my mom to convince her that she needed to go shopping.

On Saturday, while Eddie worked on the floor project, I made Thanksgiving dinner for our family. I kept it simple, turkey, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn and stuffing. I had made a chocolate pie earlier in the week. But the big thing was trying to make dinner and cinnamon rolls. It was much harder than I imagined. The dinner rolls turned out pretty good, but I forgot about the cinnamon rolls and they sat on the counter all day, and the yeast died. So when I made them the next morning they didn't rise (big surprise) and they were gooey! I am going to have to practice!