Oh Christmas Tree!

This year I decided that I wanted a real live tree! As long as I can remember I have never had anything, but a fake tree! My family and I have had severe allergies to mold and mildew that can accumulate on a Christmas tree over time! However, this year I wanted to take that chance and see how our family would fair with a live tree! I must say, that I had no idea the work that goes into picking out a tree, getting it home and then getting it up in your house!

I must tell you that I am a bargain tree hunter because I refused to pay $130-160 dollars for something I would throw at the end of my driveway in a month!!! We have ten foot ceilings and I wanted to find something big and full to put in the house! Brian was out of town so I enlisted my dad to help Christian and I pick out a tree! I must tell you what a patient and wonderful father I have because I did not inherit those qualities. I drug him all over town trying to find a tree that was perfect and not too expensive! We looked and looked and then we found it! A big beautiful Frasier Fir from the Home Depot! The freaking Home Depot had the best trees and they were CHEAP! I bought a tree that was a little over nine feet for under $55 dollars! :) Yeah...now how were we going to get this thing home and into our house with little ole me and a three year old? Now, do not get me wrong my dad is in great condition and in fact training for a marathon as we speak! However, would I be able to help in this task? I had no idea what to do! Thank the Lord my dad seems to know it all! We got that tree home, in my house and standing straight in no time at all! HA HA...I think it took a good two hours to get that heavy monster in our house! We strung the lights on the tree or should I say, my perfectionist father did that honor? I cooked dinner for him and my mom as a thank you and I do appreciate the help! I had a great day with my dad picking out a tree it was a lot of fun and a wonderful memory for Christian! Christian actually put the star on the top of the tree with some assistance...of course!

On a final note, it is now the 19th of December and knock on wood there are no allergy problems happening in this household! The tree is beautiful and smells sooo wonderful every time I walk in the room! This is another tradition we hope to keep for a long time! Wow, to think what I was missing out on...I do not even mind cleaning up the needles daily! Somehow I did not get a picture of the final product? It was beautiful and took some time to decorate with two little ones! You can see a picture in the Christmas day photos!

Polar Express here we come!

So this post is going to be short and sweet! This year we again attempted the Polar Express train ride! Last year we went on the Santa Special during the day because Christian was not a fan of Santa! However, this year he is all about Santa and already sat on his lap in Peoria after Thanksgiving! We were excited because we have been waiting for this year to arrive in our household! Santa is a good guy and not someone to be afraid of after all!

Well, this year I had the date on my calendar for

months when the Polar Express tickets went on sale! We did not want to miss the chance of not getting to ride the Train this year! We had planned to go with our friends the Copelands because all our boys are like siblings! I think they actually believe there is some blood relation between them! The other day they asked if Christian could come live with them! How sweet is that! I do not think Susan wants a 4th boy running around her house! :) Now, of course the day came and almost

went before I remembered the sale of the Polar Express tickets! Seriously? I think some days

my head would fall off if it were not attached! We got are tickets ordered and all was good with the world! Now we just had to wait for a month and a half to go on our adventure ride to the North Pole! It is so cute for those that do not know. The Polar Express is a train ride that takes you to the North Pole to visit Santa (like the book). All the kids dress in their PJ's and get cookies and milk. They read the Polar Express story on the way up North and sing Christmas Carols too. The excitement in the air is so much fun! The anticipation of getting a glimpse

of Santa is almost to much to bear for theses little ones! They are bouncing off the walls! Santa and Mrs. Claus board the train and take pictures and the elves give out gifts. This year it was an ornament with the Polar Express on it, which is now hanging on the Christmas tree! They are also given jingle bells like in the book! It is a fun thing to do with the kids! Christian has loved the train ride each year! Notice I said, "Train Ride"! Oh well, there is always next year! The story goes like this...

December 6th came really quick and Christian, Elijah and Preston were very excited about the train ride and seeing Santa Claus. I do not think Porter (11 weeks older than Henley) and Henley cared about it, but they loved the train ride and cookies! We got to the station a little early because we wanted to make sure we got the seats facing each other! We thought the boys would enjoy this better and would not be hopping back and forth all over the train. It was a cold night in Birmingham so we all got some hot chocolate to help keep us warm. We were the first on our train and got great seats on the left side of the car. This is the side that you see the North Pole! We had been talking about this all week and Christian was so excited to see Santa! What happened next shocked us! We pulled up to the North Pole and there is Santa and Mrs.Claus waving to all the excited children! Christian is waving and so happy....then he turned and looked at me with this panic stricken face! What is wrong? He said, "mommy I am scared.......

I do not want to see Santa!" What? I thought he was kidding! Brian and I were so confused at his reaction to Santa Claus and did not know what scared him. However, like good parents we told him that it was alright. He did not have to see or talk to Santa when he came through the car. That was just not enough for our little boy...Christian went and HID under all of our jackets! :) Hilarious! We still to this day do not know what scared him that night, but we have pictures of it!

Henley is petrified of Santa this year, which is not unexpected. She was very intrigued by Santa in Peoria, but if you try and put her on his lap that is another story! We are not surprised by this considering there is a handful of people who are able to hold her! This girl has the worst post leaving mommy anxiety I have ever seen!!! You would think someone cut her arms off if I leave her for a second! I guess I should feel loved, but

instead I feel like running from her sometimes! :) Not really...well maybe a little! Regardless of the scariness Henley and I got our picture with Santa and Mrs. Claus! I have started a tradition of framing Santa Claus pictures and I put them all over our house at Christmas time. It is priceless to see all the faces and cries for help over the past 4 years! This year I got to at least put a

smiling Santa picture out! Christian in Peoria sitting on Santa's lap...happy as can be!

It was a real fun night and a tradition we will continue as long as we can! I love the magic of Christmas and I hope my children always will too!!!

Thanksgiving in Peoria!

This year we decided to go up to Brian's home town of Peoria Illinois for the holiday. We

always have a good time, but it is the flight that just gets me all wound up! Once we get there and I have everything I left home with, including our children I can start to relax a bit. It had been a crazy couple of days because Henley had just gotten tubes in her ears two days before we left. Packing and trying to get ready to go out of town was the least of my worries. However, we all got to Illinois in one piece and it was a very uneventful trip. We drove to Atlanta and spent the night there on Tuesday and flew out Wednesday morning. The kids were perfect on the plane!

We had a great time once we got to Nene and Poppy's house. Poppy had bought a

new riding car for the kids to play with and Christian loved it! It was very cold outside, but he did not seem to mind and would of stayed outside all day if daddy and Poppy would of too! Julie and Steve and the family decided last minute to make the trip up too. We all

had a great time and the kids always enjoy playing/fighting with each other. Preston and Henley just kind of watch the older kids, but mostly play to themselves. However, Christian and Bennett have a ball playing together. It is so nice that their ages are soo close and we all hope they will grow up and be very close!

Thanksgiving morning we all got up and started with mimosa's as you should always do on any special occasion or any other day too for that matter spent all day with family! :) Just Kidding guys!!! Lynn and Debbie got the stuffing and Mr. Turkey cooking and Julie and I started working on appetizers. Julie made this great guacamole recipe of her grandmother's that was very yummy. I started cooking the green beans and potatoes for dinner.

We had a great afternoon just watching football, watching the kids and enjoying each other's company. We love to watch the grandparents and the kids play it is so sweet!

When dinner was ready we all got around the table and Lynn did the blessing. We all have so much to be thankful for in our lives. Everyone is healthy, happy and together for this great day! The meal was wonderful and everybody worked hard to prepare...thanks Debbie and Lynn for having us there!

The next day, there was a parade in downtown Peoria! According to Debbie it is the oldest running parade? Never the less it was definitely the longest running parade and it was COLD outside! The kids had so much fun because the people on the floats and in costumes were throwing candy! I do not know how much went in their bags because they were to busy popping it in their mouth! I think Henley was even making moves to grab some too! If she did not have gloves on she would have been more successful too! She loved all the music andwould just stand there and dance as the

bands passed by. I think we might have a dancer on our hands! Christian was getting impatient waiting for Santa, but he stuck out the cold for him! Julie, Steve, Debbie, me and all the other kids took refuge inside until Santa came around the corner. When the parade was over we took the kids back to the house so Henley could take a nap. Christian played with Nene and Poppy while all the adults wentto the bar to watch the disappointing Auburn/Alabama game! Auburn played an amazing game and I hated to see them loose, but oh well what can you do! Julie and Steve were happy with outcome and might be going to Pasadena to watch them in the Nationals?

The rest of the time was low key and we all just relaxed. We took the kids to see Santa and Christian was so excited! He hopped right on his lap and told him exactly what he wanted for Christmas! Henley on the other hand was fascinated from afar, but not so much when we put her on his lap! Fun pictures and great way to torture your kids on a Saturaday afternoon! When we were done with Santa Christan and Lynn decided to go on a train ride for kids! Lynn had to squeeze into the car, but he could not turn down Christian's request for Poppy to ride with him!

On Saturday night we met some of Brian's old friends out for drinks and had a good time. We do not get to see them that often unless we go up to Peoria so it was a nice night. It is nice to get out with out the children too! The next day we were headed home. I was really hating the fact that we would have a two hour drive once we got off the airplane in Atlanta! I do not think we will do that again, it is just too much with the kids! We made it all home safe and sound! Back to normal everyday routine...so I thought! We came home to Christian being sick with an ear infection and Henley getting Pinkeye! ARGH...they were both out of school all week and I did not get anything done! Can I go on vacation again...Alone?

Henley's Tubes

So I think I had posted a little earlier about how Henley was going to get tubes in her ears. Well on November 23rd that is exactly what happened. We were so worried because she had an infection and had been running a 101 fever the night before her surgery. On all the pre-surgery information it talked about notifying the anesthesiologist of any fever etc... because they might delay the surgery! No freaking way was I letting that happen! Henley has been so miserable lately with all her ear infections and I was not about to take her out of town on an airplane no less with an ear infection! I do not think there is anything worse than a sick child, but a sick child out of their own element!

Anyway, I gave her some Motrin and put her to bed that night! I prayed and prayed that God would please keep her healthy enough for her surgery in the morning. All night long I heard her moaning and groaning and I knew my sweet baby was just hurting and I prayed again that she would be alright in the morning! Well we had to be at the hospital at 6:15am and 5:15 came very quick especially when you have been up since 2:00am worrying about whether your baby will be able to feel better soon! I was a mess! We decided to wait right until the last minute to get her out of bed to take her to the hospital...I was so scared she was going to be burning up and sure enough!!! It took about a second for me to realize she had a fever of 100 0r higher when I touched her! Seriously? I just started to panic and was so worried this was going to be delayed until after the holiday and I just did not want that to happen!!! So the drastic things we parents do to help our children! It was cold outside and I thought that maybe if I took her pj's off that would bring her temp down...I know I know that is dumb and probably a little irresponsible as a parent! Well, I figured it was a mute point because she was not going to get tubes today! We got to the hospital and I was just ridiculous! I did not even have time to be nervous because I was so worried about her fever. The nurse called us back and took all her vitals and of course she had a 100.9 fever! We told her she had an ear infection right now and was on medication. The nurse believed the fever was due to her ears being so bad and told us it really was not a big deal because the do not intubate them during the procedure. A small fever is alright with a procedure like tubes. WOW...the relief that came over me was huge! Now, the nervousness was setting in! Anytime you put a child under anesthesia it is scary and especially this young!

We were taken back to our room and told by the nurse and anesthesiologist exactly what would happen and how long it would take. They told us how she would react to the anesthesia and that she probably would be very upset when they brought her back to us. They told us how she would scream when we gave her over to the nurse for the procedure and not to worry. They told us to give her quick kisses and pass her off at the door! The anesthesiologist told us the more they scream the quicker they go out because they take in more of the gas used to sedate them! He told us it was like hitting a pause button! They go out and it literally takes about 3 minutes to do the procedure and they they wake them up and it is immediate screaming! He told us it took Henley about 10 seconds and she was out!!! We heard her screaming when they took her to recovery! Wow, my daughter has a set of lungs!!! They brought her to us and it took a few moments to calm her down, but not long! She just went back in forth snuggling mommy and daddy! Holding on for dear life! What the heck just happened? The doctor came in and talked to us about her ears and post-op stuff. He told us that her ears were so clogged that it was like "GLUE"! He told us she should be able to hear much, much better and feel better too! We have seen a huge difference in our baby girl! She is so much more happy than before! We are so glad that we did this and so glad we did not have to wait any longer! Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes you all gave us!

Thanksgiving Program!

A little late posting, but better late than never. We of course were out of town for the Holiday and then sick kids everytime I turn around! Christian has an ear infection and is doing better and Henley has had Pinkeye...and now another ear infection. I am so glad she has tubes because now I know she has an infection! Henley has had green yucky stuff draining out of her ears for the past two days, but at least now I know how to help her quicker than I did before! So hence the reason for lacking on the blogs. The following blogs are coming: Thanksgiving and the Polar Express!

Here are some pictures from Christian's Thanksgiving Program. I forgot the video camera, but I am supposed to get a copy from another mom! They sang a ton of songs that were so cute! I had gone up to the school and helped make their t-shirts for the program. They all did such a good job. If I get the video than I will put on the blog.