Christmas 2009

This year, we decided to limit the number of gifts that the girls got. Santa brought them three gifts each, we got them three gifts each and they exchanged one gift each. They always get entirely too much! After church on Christmas Eve, we let each of the girls open one gift from their Gramsy. And, they opened the rest this morning.

Last night, we made reindeer food and sprinkled it in the yard and left milk and cookies for Santa. We made the cookies from a mix that we had given as gifts this year. They were yummy!

We spent the day enjoying some good food and great family time. The girls played with most of their new toys and we played a lot of Super Mario Bros Wii with Rachel. It was a nice day.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from our family to you and yours!

Christmas Program

Last night, our church hosted An Evening with Clay Crosse. Our choir sang with Clay on many of the songs so Jeremy and I had to dress up for the event. Rachel and the other children got to come on stage and sing some carols with Clay, too. The program was very worshipful and was a great outreach for our community. Here are some pics that we took before heading to church.

Tacky Christmas

Last night, Jeremy and I attended our first ever Tacky Christmas Party. It was hosted by my Premier sponsor, Sarah Barker. I "designed" my outfit. I took a pajama set and covered the shirt with a tinsel wreath and picture frame, made earrings from ornaments and made reindeer shoes to finish of the look. I bought Jeremy a tacky sweater from Goodwill and sewed on a decorative throw pillow and sewed mistletoe on his elf hat. Needless to say, I was the tackiest one there!

Pics with Santa

We took the girls to see Santa tonight. Rachel was very excited to take him her wish list. Abigail liked Santa until we tried to get pics with only her and Santa. She wasn't sure about him after Rachel got up.

Here is a pic of Rachel's letter to Santa.

Rachel's Kidergarten Christmas Party

Today, Abigail and I went to Rachel's school for her class Christmas Party. Rachel and Abigail wore Christmas tree t-shirts that we made with their handprints. Rachel enjoyed making her crafts that included decorating a Christmas tree cookie.

Christmas Card Photo Shoot

I got the girls dressed in their Christmas pj's and gave them a couple of strands of lights. I took MANY pics to try to get a Christmas card worthy shot. These are some of the ones that were not used on our card this year.

Bathtime fun!

The girls were giggling and having a great time in their bath tonight. They were styling each others' hair with shampoo bubbles!

Puppy Love!

Abigail loves Ella. I was able to get this cute pic of them sharing a kiss!

Our Elf on the Shelf

After we got our tree in the house and all decorated, we introduced the girls to our elf. Rachel decided to name her Jamie. The elf is Santa's helper that comes during the Christmas season. She pops up in a new place each day after she flies back to the North Pole to give Santa a report on our girls' behavior.

Jeremy is reading the Elf on the Shelf book to Rachel.Here is our elf, Jamie, perched on her first spot, our tree.

A Trip to the Tree Farm

Today, we went to the Merry Christmas Tree Farm to pick out our tree. This has become a family tradition for us. The girls really enjoyed the hayride that took us out to the tallest trees. I think that we ended up with a 10' tree this year, but they called it a 9'. Now, it's time for the hard part...the decorating!

Thanksgiving in Arkansas

We were able to spend Thanksgiving in Arkansas with our families again this year. We had lunch with some of Jeremy's family at his grandparents. Then, we had an early dinner with some of my family at my Mom's.

The next day, we drove to visit Jeremy's Mom and brother, Micah. She had some new litters of puppies and the girls loved playing with them while we were there.

Micah is in the Marines and was home visiting for a few days.

Wee Kids Praise Thanksgiving Program

Here are some videos of Rachel and Wee Kids Praise singing at our church's Thanksgiving dinner.

Rachel's Thanksgiving Party

Abigail and I went to Rachel's school for her class Thanksgiving party. This was the first class party of the school year and the first time that I was able to meet most of her classmates and their parents. Rachel got to decorate a turkey cupcake which was similar to the ones that I made for her class last year. She was so sweet to share her lunchable and treats with Abigail.

Rachel's Soccer Season

Jeremy coached Rachel's soccer team this year (except a couple of games after his back surgery.) Our season was supposed to end at the begining of November, but we got so much rain that several games had to be rescheduled. At any rate, Rachel really enjoyed playing soccer again this year.

SBEC Fall Festival

After Rachel's soccer game today, we went to the SBEC Fall Festival. The girls had a great time. Rachel climbed a rock wall and Abigail really enjoyed the moon bounces.

Halloween Fun!

On Thursday night, we went to Trunk or Treat at our church, Broadway Baptist. It rained that night so everything was moved inside the gym. It was cramped, but everyone still seemed to have fun. It was a great outreach night for our community. Jeremy even managed to come with us for a while (it's only been one week since his surgery.)

On Saturday morning, the girls and I went to the Midsouth Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure. The girls had fun and dressed in pink costumes. We participated in the family fun walk since I had to take the stroller.

Saturday evening, we took the girls trick-or-treating around our neighborhood. Jeremy probably overdid it, but he walked the neighborhood with us.

Jeremy's Second Back Surgery

Jeremy had his second back surgery today. The doctor said that it went well. He explained to me that he had to go in and shave down the same disk that had been injured before. There was a fragment that was compressing a nerve bundle and that's what had been causing Jeremy so much pain. We are hopeful that this will be his last back surgery for several years. (At some point in time, he will probably have to have this portion of his back fused.)

Rachel's First K5 Field Trip

Today, we went with Rachel on her class field trip to Cedar Hill Farm. Everyone had a great time. Rachel enjoyed most of the day with her friend, Morgan. Abigail really liked petting the animals (until the donkey nibbled her fingers...LOL!) Both of the girls got to pick out their own pumpkin to bring home.



Here are some pics from the day.

Learning to Ride A Bike

Rachel finally had her daddy remove her training wheels and she learned to ride her bike today. She's really outgrown this bike, but we told her that she would have to learn to ride it before she could get a new one. I guess that we will have to put in a request with Santa now.

Our First Trip to the Fair

Last night, we took the girls to the fair for the first time. Overall, we had a good time.

Since Jeremy doesn't like to ride stuff, Rachel and I rode a lot of rides together. Her favorite ride was the Gravitron. She is getting tall enough to ride many of the rides so she had a great time.

Abigail, on the other hand, didn't enjoy the fair very much. She wanted to run around and really didn't want to be in her stroller and there really wasn't much for her to do. Jeremy was so sweet for chasing her around and dealing with her tantrums all night. He's such a good dad.

My Sick Baby

Ever since we went to AR, Abigail's allergies/sinuses have been bad. On Friday, I took her to her ENT to have her eartube checkup. Her eartubes were fine (still in place and open). When we were there, I talked to him about Abigail's congestion. He sent us home with some prescription drug samples of an antihistimine/decongestant/cough suppresant and told me to give him a call if she developed a fever. The medicine that he gave us worked really well. She was all cleared up in a couple of days.
On Monday, she ended up with a lowgrade fever. And Tuesday morning, she woke up with a high fever so I called his office. They were able to call Abigail in a prescription for antibiotics. She began on that medicine and continued to have the same high fever thru Friday afternoon, but really had no other syptoms besides an upset tummy (which I thought was a side effect of the antibiotics.)
I was beginning to think that she might have the flu so I decided to take her to her pediatrician to have her checked out. Luckily, her flu test came back negative. It turns out that she most likely had a "stomach bug" in addition to her respiratory infection. He instructed us to continue giving her the antibiotics. I am happy to say that her fever broke on Friday evening and she didn't have fever all day today. Her tummy seems to be getting back to normal, too. I hope that she is on the road to recovery.

Crazy Love

I just wanted to take a minute to recommend this book if you haven't already read it. Our small group at church has begun a study/discussion of this book. We have covered the first two chapters so far and I am trying not to read ahead so that I can stay with our group discussions of each chapter. This book is very convicting. Here is the website that you can check out for more information:

http://www.crazylovebook.com

Rachel's First Day of Kindergarten

Rachel started school today. She is attending a 1/2 day kindergarten at a church here in Southaven. She was super excited to go to school. Jeremy went with me to drop her off since it was her first day. When we got there, she didn't even want us to go in with her. (I think that it hurt Jeremy's feelings a little.) I explained to her that her Daddy and I wanted to take her in since it was her first day and she finally said that it would be okay. After all, I had to get pics of the big day! She had a great day and is ready to go back tomorrow. Here are some pics from today.

Our New Fence

Abigail is supervising her Daddy's work.

I am happy to say that we now have a fenced in area in the back yard. Jeremy finished it today. I was so tired of having to take the dogs out on leashes in the back yard and more tired of chasing them down when they would run away. We put up a short picket fence around the area directly behind our house. The swingset is also fenced in so that should help keep me from having to chase Abigail down, too. Sometimes, she wants to run away from me like the dogs do and she is just about as fast as they are...LOL!

A 100th Birthday Party

This weekend, we went to Monticello, AR to celebrate Jeremy's great-grandmother's 100th birthday. She turned 100 on September 2. She is such a sweet lady. We are so blessed that our girls have gotten the chance to know her.

On Saturday, we went to Jeremy's aunt's house to visit with some of his cousins and their families. The girls got to swim there so they really enjoyed the visit. It was nice to get to visit with some family that we hadn't seen in years.

The actual birthday party was at Jeremy's great-grandmother's church on Sunday afternoon. There were so many people there. Mama (that's what we all call Jeremy's great-grandmother) was so exhausted after taking so many pictures and talking with so many guests. After the party, some of the family headed to her house to visit a bit more before heading home.

Here are some pictures from our weekend.