Archive for January, 2009

James has been having headaches recently, and twice this week was sent to the school nurse because he complained so much. He seems fine otherwise, so I keep giving him Motrin and sending him to school. It concerns me a little, but I'm also not sure if James is being completely honest, which throws a kink in things. The note that the nurse sent home with him yesterday describes his condition very well: "Complained of intermittent head pain. Very talkative." I laughed out loud at that! We will probably take him to the doctor soon to get him checked out if the headaches keep coming, but in the meantime we could use some prayers as we try to figure out what to do about him.

I'm about to show you my pitiful collection of Valentine's decorations. Why? Well, I have some extra time on my hands since the house is mostly clean (thanks to community group being here last night!) I have already done a couple loads of laundry and played "Go Fish" and "Snakes and Ladders" with Eliza, so I felt I could goof off a little and take pictures of my decorations thus far:

Here is my table, still bearing the red placemats I bought for Christmas. I figured they could pull double duty. Jay and James brought home flowers for me and Eliza the other night; Jay used it as an opportunity to teach James what a girl likes. I bought the heart ribbon and tied it around a vase I already had. I thought it made a great centerpiece for our dinner last night.

I saw this LOVE sign at Hobby Lobby, where I was trying to use up a gift card I got for Christmas, and immediately thought of this space for it. It really goes well with the red placemats.

The kids' portraits are already in heart frames, so I just added some other hearts I had to make it more Valentiney. If only I had a red candle! Oh, well.

This is the wreath I made for the front door. I got a heart frame and 2 different colors of rose garland from Hobby Lobby, and wrapped the garland around the frame. I found the piece of tulle in my house; I'm sure it came off a gift, probably from my wedding! I knew there was a reason I keep everything! You never know when it might be useful. Someday I might recover from pack-rat-itis, but apparently not today. :)

I don't like to brag, but I have some pretty neat kids! Here are some of the things they have been doing lately:

James is getting better and better at reading. Here he is reading his library book to Eliza. They really love each other, you know! He is pretty good at writing, too, and got great marks on his report card from school.

Behind that goofy look is a pretty smart girl! She sounded out these words and wrote the letter they begin with by herself, with only a little help from me ("owl" is kind of hard to figure out from a simple phonetic standpoint). Pretty good for a 3-year-old, I think! She still loves numbers, and is getting good at figuring things up in her head.

James just finished his workbook for AWANA Sparks, meaning he memorized all the Bible verses in it. Now he gets to go back and review the verses to make sure they stay in his head!

Eliza woke up this morning and was singing "Father Abraham" in her bed. I guess she learned it at school. It was pretty funny to hear her just singing away!

The kids have started singing their bedtime prayers to God. I have to admit, this is a little frustrating for me (unbearably cute as it may be), because I usually don't leave much time for prayers (I know, bad Mom!) and it drags out the process because they like to hold the ending notes: "Dear Gooood, thank you for this whole daaaaaaay, thank you for this whole time we had togetheeeeeer." They are probably not getting enough sleep as it is. Oh, well.

James lives for the weekends, and Eliza lives for her next school day…they are so different! I love these little boogers!

I can't believe it's already January 20th! This year is flying by. We had a good long weekend, as James and Jay had Monday off for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We spent Saturday morning being lazy, as usual, staying in our pajamas and watching TV. Eliza went to her room for a little while, and when she came back she was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. She threw her arms out wide and asked, "Is it WARM today?" After a good laugh, I said, "No, baby, it's still cold." We spent most of the day inside, except for an excursion to Wal-mart for some groceries and haircuts for the boys.

Sunday after church we ate Frito-Chili pie at my parents' house, then we went out to Pinnacle Mountain to walk the Kingfisher Trail. We didn't feel quite up to climbing the mountain like some of my siblings, but it was too pretty of a day to stay inside! It was a little windy and chilly, but the sun warmed things up to about 60 degrees. We got there just as the climbers in the family came down from the mountain, so they walked the trail with us, then we let the kids play at the playground. Everyone also played frisbee for a while before finally deciding we'd been out in the wind long enough. Later we went to community group, which was really good. It was a good day!

Monday we had the day to ourselves, so we ate lunch at Cracker Barrel, then decided to spend some more time outside. It was a good bit cooler than Sunday, so we bundled up with hats and gloves. Then we picked up some of my family and headed over to Allsopp Park, where we played on the playground and then went hiking in the woods. We stayed warm enough as long as we were moving! We found several places along the trail where people had stacked up rocks on top of tree stumps, so we added a few here and there, and even made our own rock-stack at one place. We had fun just being with family and enjoying nature this weekend! It's still not exactly warm, but it will be soon!

I know you all are wondering what we've been up to in this New Year, so here goes:

1. We took Jay's Mimi, who lives in a nursing home, to dinner last Saturday. I think she enjoyed her fried chicken tenders!
2. Jay has been trying his best to shake this cold. He's finally gaining some ground!
3. Both the kids and I had dentist appointments this week. No cavities…hooray!
4. James and Eliza went back to school…our mornings have been tough this week.
5. The BugMan came to do our annual inspection…we passed!
6. My Bible Study started back up on Thursday. I have not gotten any better at doing my lessons regularly, though. Sigh.
7. We left the kids at my parents' house for a date night last night. It is so good to spend time with my hubby…just the two of us!
8. I got a new coat! It's a faux shearling long coat, and I love it!

Well, that's about it. The weather has been crazy…65 degrees one day, 40 the next. But that's just Arkansas! I'm still trying to take down my Christmas decorations (don't tell anyone!), maybe I'll finish that this week. The house always looks so bare after they're gone, though. Maybe I'll decorate for Valentine's Day!

A recap of our year in pictures:

Eliza got a bicycle for Christmas last year and she loves to ride! She has grown so much this year!

In February, Jay and I got to go to San Francisco to help some friends move into a new house. It was my first visit to California, and marked the end of Jay's year-and-a-half of traveling for work. We are so glad to have him home every evening, instead of just on the weekends!

We had snow in March, and I love this picture of James playing in it.

This was the most snow we've seen here since moving into our house in 2004. Jay was able to build this great snowman.

Spring finally came, and we took our annual trip to Wye Mountain to see the field of daffodils.

Our niece, Hannah, turned one year old in April!

We potty-trained Eliza this year…here we are celebrating her accomplishment!

James had his first experience with organized sports. He had a little trouble staying focused, though. :)

We all made it to the top of Pinnacle Mountain this year…no baby backpacks!

I had my 10-year high school reunion. I haven't changed that much…

We celebrated the Fourth of July by the river in downtown Little Rock.

Eliza turned three! Here she is practicing her dance moves in her new ballerina outfit. She also started preschool this year, and she goes 2 mornings a week.

We got to go to Disneyworld with my family. It was our first big vacation, and we had a blast.

James started kindergarten! It has been a big adjustment for us, but he is doing great.

I can't believe my baby is 5!

In October we had a family reunion, and it was the only time my whole immediate family was able to get together this year. Usually we are missing Joseph and Nicole who live in east Tennessee. It was good to see them!

The kids were Mario and Princess Peach for Halloween. I had fun putting their costumes together, but it was a lot of work!

This is the first time I let the kids help me make Christmas cookies. They especially enjoyed decorating them!

This is our Christmas card picture, which just shows how big our kids are getting! It has been a great year!

Here is a video of James with his guitar a few minutes after opening it:

I wish I had grabbed the camera sooner; his first song went something like, "When there's something I can't do, I ask God for help." The song I caught says, "This is what I like." He is accompanied by his Uncle Robbie. Now if only I can actually teach him how to play…

God has blessed us with many great Christmases, and this year was no exception! Santa brought the kids a few things Christmas morning, then we opened a few more presents before packing up to drive to Memphis that afternoon. We had Christmas at my Granny's first, then a few blocks away we had Christmas with Meemaw and Grandaddy at my aunt and uncle's house. If I am counting correctly, there were 45 people there; the only family members missing were my brother Joseph and his wife Nicole (missed y'all!) Yes, my mom has a huge family, and she did her best to make it bigger! My kids are still the only great-grandchildren on that side, but I expect within the next ten years or so there will be a baby boom, as all of my cousins are 21 and younger. Anyway, the kids had fun playing with all their first-cousins-once-removed!

We slept at my Granny's house, which is always an adventure! I think there were only 13 of us in her 2-bedroom house this time. It was not a good thing when Eliza woke up crying one night and couldn't stop. She cried for a good 20 minutes, with me holding her and talking to her the whole time. She just could not get calmed down! I'm sure we woke up the whole house, except James, who said he didn't remember it at all.

The day after Christmas, we drove over to Jackson, TN, where Jay's sister lives. Jay's mom had come up from Mississippi, so we had our Christmas with his family there. It was quite different from Christmas with my family! We had fun playing with Hannah and opening presents. Mammaw gave James a real guitar, which James loved and immediately started playing (even if it didn't sound that great!); he even started making up songs as he played along with Robbie, who had brought out his own guitar. It was great! I have a few pictures from all our adventures on my flickr. Videos coming as soon as I can get around to them!

We were all sick with colds the week before Christmas, but were mostly better by Christmas Day. Jay, however, took a turn for the worse after his brief time of feeling better. He has been sick ever since, and is thinking about going to the doctor if he doesn't start getting better soon. He had to work Monday and Tuesday, which didn't help! He doesn't have to go back until next Monday, so he has a little bit of time to recuperate from the holiday madness.

We are taking it easy today, enjoying our time off (especially James!) and trying to figure out where all these presents are going to go! May God bless you in this New Year!