Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Holidays. Show all posts

Saturday, April 6, 2013

New Years Day

New Years day started off with my kids sleeping in LATE. WAY late... like, we got Mack up at almost 9am! Whoa. For kids who are ALWAYS up by 7:30 at the latest, this was just unheard of. And normally we like to stick to a wake time of 7-7:30 am but occasionally you just gotta sleep in :-) So, we did! What a NICE start to 2013!

 We enjoyed our leisurely breakfast together and I snapped a couple of rough pics of me and the kids :-) wow... rough indeed!

We actually had some sick family on the first day of the year, although I dont remember who? This is the downside to being SO far behind in blogging :-( Someone had a fever or upset stomach or something... so we avoided going to Mommie's house for the yearly new years dinner together. Wait, maybe its because Mommie was sick? Thats possible. Anyhoo, my Mama cooked the greens and I took on the making of the black eyed peas and homemade cornbread. Yum...
The kids wouldnt eat the greens, no surprise there. But the rest they gobbled up.
I cant say that it was a great start to the year. Because I dont remember much about the day.... it WAS 4 months ago! haha... :-) I do remember thinking that in terms of goals or whatnot for the year, I have none, really. Only hope and optimism.

Hope that Mommie's health will improve and we will enjoy the year with her
Hope that we would make some decisions regarding church (we made our decision to leave Oak Hill towards the end of Jan)
Hope that our family would work together as a team and support and love one another
Hope that we would have patience and that the Lord would give us wisdom/discernment in parenting
Hope that spiritually, 2013 would be a year of renewing and growth...

So far, so good!

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Christmas Gift Getaway!

After all my worrying that my hubby had skipped out on getting me a gift this year for Christmas, he surprised me with an incredible get away to Chateau Elan for just the two of us! He got some serious brownie points this year!!

He arranged for my mom to come to the house and take care of the kids for us... unfortunately, Rhyan had gotten up that morning and all day had off and on ran a fever. She was acting completely normal after a dose of motrin, though, which is a tale-tale sign of it being viral instead of bacterial. (Great tip from our Dr: if they have a bacterial infection and you give meds, they will still be pitiful and not feel well... if its viral, they'll be "normal" on motrin and only pitiful w/ the fever... its not a science, obviously, but a very good rule of thumb to follow on when to take them to the dr vs when to wait it out...). I felt HORRIBLE leaving Mama with my sick girl, and equally HORRIBLE for leaving Rhyan when she was sick, but our night at Chateau Elan was a "use it or lose it" kind of thing...  So we decided it was just one night and we were local, so we went...

The evening started out with a couples massage at Massage Envy. My, i do love a massage!!!
And then on to dinner at Midevil Times. I had bought tickets for Jeff for Christmas and we decided to just roll it all into one night of fun... a night of gifts to each other! We had a GREAT time at Midevil Times!



We were seated in the red knights section which was right next to the King's balcony!


We really had a fun time at Midevil times! Like i said, we were rooting for the red knight. As soon as we saw him we thought he wouldnt win b/c he's kind of thin and the green knight was super buff.... but we were WRONG! I mean, i MIGHT have something to do w/ the fact that the thing is staged ;-) But no joke, our knight was so fun! He was great at getting us excited and he had a constant smile on his face!

The food is so so. I mean, its just a fun experience in general, but the food is not gourmet or anything! We had tomato soup (which i've never eaten), a chicken leg, potato, a rib (random?!) and for dessert, an apple pastry. Like, the kind you can get at Kroger! HA! But it was  yummy none the less!

OH, and from this experience, Jeff has new aspirations as a retired man. He has decided he will be the King at Midevil times in his retirement days. But he made sure to let me know that i would NOT be queen with him and that since only the Kings daughter is in the show and I'll clearly be too old to play that role, that I'll need to contain my jealously when he finds himself working with a young, beautiful maiden... 
sure....

Our hotel room was beautiful!


The room came with breakfast the next morning and a bottle of red wine. We dont drink, but we hated to waste the wine so we brought it home. Anyone want it? I'm thinking it'd be a good gift, but then I cant bring myself to give someone alcohol! HA! I know its a "nice" gift, but it just seems awkward!

We decided to treat ourselves to dessert at Chateau Elan. We could have ordered something off the menu, or it was an option to do an all you can eat dessert from their buffet. We went with the buffet so we could taste lots of things... turns out, dessert is NOT the chateau's forte. Cakes were dry. Pies werent good. Basically, i'm just glad they had a chocolate fondue fountain so i could get my money's worth! :-) But again, it was a nice experience to just sit and enjoy each other...


That night, my mom called a couple of times b/c Rhyan was upset and wanting us to come home. The thing is, she was TIRED. And i knew if she would just go to bed and sleep, she'd be better in the morning. So I talked to Rhyan on the phone to try to calm her down and told my mom to just put her to bed. She ended up taking a dose of motrin, going to bed and being FINE the next morning. Fever free the rest of the day...

Breakfast, as i said, was included in our package. So we made sure to take advantage of it! And oh my, was it goooood! Totally made up for the cruddy night before dessert!









We took our time and got home around noon or so... I'll admit that rhyan's being sick threw a loop in the plans for the night b/c i was pretty stressed and worried about her. But I AM glad that we stayed, especially since she did fine all night. And it was incredibly sweet of Jeff to plan the get away for us! I told him as we left the Chateau that I dont ever want another Christmas gift in a box again... I want a small get away together. That time away and with him was the best gift he's ever given me! AND, he benefits, too... so I'm pretty sure our Christmas to each other is set from now on :-) And for me, thats just perfect!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Christmas Day!!!


Christmas Eve night!!! Woohoo!
Santa was a BUSY fella! :-)


 I try every year to think of something yummy that can become our traditional Christmas Day Breakfast! This year, I took the advice of a patient of mine and made Paula Dean's French Toast casserole. You are supposed to prepare it the night before so it can soak and then bake it the next morning. So this is the night prep... it took me forever! (mostly b/c i didnt know what I was doing and had to reference the recipe constantly).
 And we finally used our santa plate! (i forgot last year!!). We ran out of time to make cookies so we just put out some sugar cookies. Rhyan didnt seem to care and Santa obviously didnt mind!
 CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!!

The kids, at their current ages, are GREAT about waiting until we let them go see what "Santa" brought.

All Rhyan kept asking for this year was a "Talking Tangled" (Rapunzel). Well, they dont make such! So we kept talking up a singing rapunzel in hopes that she'd start liking that idea. Eventually it caught on and she was on board! She was SO excited to see that she got that doll Christmas Morning!!!

 She had not asked for a bike, but we thought it would be a great gift seeing as how her knees were hitting the handle bars on her tricycle! She was SO surprised and immediately got up on it and started riding it around the house! We were concerned that a 16" was going to be too big for her but the 12" looked so SMALL! We were very glad that we went with the 16... great size for her now and still has room to grow!
 Mack got a Chuggington Choo-Choo (he's obsessed with trains) and he plays with it daily! Love it!
 Notice Rapunzel in her "basket"
 I didnt get many pics of Mack with his toys because he was just kind of everywhere and looking all around but not really "playing" with anything... I think he was trying to figure things out :-) That little people ramp toy you see in the pic below is by far the BEST thing he got this year... he and Rhyan play with it DAILY!
 Gran and Grandad came by later in the morning to see everything the kids had gotten! 
And Mack, with ALL of his new toys, decided that the most exciting thing to do is to climb through our end tables in the living room. REALLY?!!??!
 That evening, we went to Gran and Grandad's for dinner (yum). And Aunt GAYE came!!! She lives in S.C. but has joined us this last couple of years for Christmas, which we've all really enjoyed! Its so nice of her to come so far and we all love getting to catch up and spend time with her! And she, of course, enjoyed getting to spend time with the kiddos, especially little Avery, who she hasnt seen much of! (our kids are "old news" haha... kidding)

Look at that sweet grin!!!


 Rhyan loves her little "baby Avery" (who isnt such a little baby anymore!!!) and wanted to hold her!


 AND... help feed her! How cute is that?! Liz is so good and sweet about letting the kids "help" with her and hold her... especially considering that Avery is their first baby! Cool Mom/Aunt points for sure :-)
 Mack, however, wanted to make sure that she had her paci in her mouth... whether she wanted it or not!
 Time to hand out presents!!!
 Notice that this big red gift has hands and feet but no head?! ;-) hehe

 Little Avery had a LONG day... a trip to SC to visit Liz's family in the morning and to visit with us in the evening... poor baby was in the car most of the day and didnt sleep very much. Holidays can be HARD with family who doesnt live close, I know. I'm SO grateful that ours are both local! So Liz was helping get her to sleep :-) Precious times....






 Aunt Gaye gave Rhyan and Mack some SUPER cute outfits! And a few toys! she spoiled them!!! Jason and Liz gave them each a couple of toys (disney characters! and for Rhyan a movie and Mack some "tools") and then an extra, surprise gift for Rhyan... a sweet gold cross necklace! She felt so grown up and loves it!
Gran and Grandad gave some SUPER cute outfits, too! And a couple of toys, too. They racked up!
 LOL!!!!!!!!

We are so grateful for all of the time we get to spend with our family at Christmas. It truly is the most wonderful time of the year!!!