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Ring Around the Roses

I'm sitting at  the allergist with Aleck for his yearly checkup.  Ella is dancing around and playing Ring Around The Roses with her reflection in the mirror.  That sweet girl is so adorable!

Egg Bowl

Mississippi State beat Ole Miss, a whopping 31-3.  Go State!  My sweet boy was so excited when someone offered him eye black stickers.

The theme of the tailgate party was Chinese food.  Egg bowl, get it?  Pat was keeping his chopsticks in a safe place.

I look six inches taller than Glenda, but we’re standing on a hill.

We had a great time tailgating with friends that we grew up with.  It was cool watching my children run around and play with the children of high school friends.

 

The weather was overcast with drizzles, so we didn’t stay for the game. We headed home to watch it in the comfort of Glenda’s living room. 

We had such a great time, we may make the Egg Bowl one of our holiday traditions.  We love you, old friends.

Thanksgiving

We drove to Oxford yesterday to spend Thanksgiving.  It was wonderful to see Nana and Tom’s siblings, but the mood was a bit somber.  This was our first major holiday without Poppo.  I usually take tons of pictures, but these were the only two I took.  Taking pictures just didn’t seem right this trip.  With time, I know the holidays will get easier, but things will never be the same.  I find comfort knowing that Poppo is with our Lord, but that doesn’t keep me from wishing some times that we still had a little more time with him here.  What I wouldn’t give to watch Ella or Aleck climb up in Poppo’s lap just one more time.  Poppo, we love you, and you are missed.

 

The Little Things

When we travel, we usually sleep in the same room with the kids.  With the tossing and turning, and climbing in Mommy and Daddy’s bed, I am usually thoroughly exhausted and sleep deprived when we get back to Texas.  But I’ll tell you something.  The sleep deprivation is worth it when I get to see my son roll over and kiss his sister goodnight and say “I love you, Ella.”  The sleep deprivation is worth it when I get to watch my sweet girl snuggle her baby doll and kiss her head right before she drifts off to sleep.  The sleep deprivation is worth it to hear the sweet sound of Aleck talking in his sleep.  Today, I am thankful for sleep deprivation and the little things.

Rudolph, The Red-nosed Reindeer

To say that my dad and brothers like to hunt would be an understatement.  My dad has loved hunting as long as I can remember.  Mom tells a story about Glenda and I crying one Christmas because we were just sure that Daddy had killed Rudolph, and Santa wasn’t going to be able to bring us our Christmas presents.

Dad starts getting ready for hunting season in July, a good four months before season opens.  Dad even built a special room in his shop exclusively reserved for cleaning deer.  The room has a stainless steel countertop and sink, and an air conditioner to keep the room cold.

 

My brother, Gary,  and Dad were cleaning a deer this morning when we got to Mom and Dad’s house.  Of course, I saw this as prime opportunity to practice using my manual settings on my camera.

   

Good times, Mississippi-style.

Grandparents and Special Friends Day

Aunt Glenda came all the way from Mississippi for Special Friends Day at school.  Glenda and I started the morning with a breakfast in the Parish Hall.  Everyone who didn’t know I have a twin would do a double take when they saw Glenda.  We joined Aleck for chapel, followed by a visit to the classroom.

 

Aleck was so excited to have Aunt Glenda here and show her around his room.

I even remembered to get a picture with my sweet little man.  Since I’m usually behind the camera, this rarely happens.

  After an art project, we headed to the gymnasium for entertainment from Mrs. Dickey and Mrs. Dashner’s classes.  Ella Bella watched Mommy from across the floor.  The picture is blurry, but it was the best I could do.  Taking good pictures in a gymnasium is almost impossible.  There wasn’t enough light, but I didn’t want to blind everyone around me with my flash.  I had to bump my ISO up and my shutter speed down and still had a hard time getting pictures.  Oh well, it is what it is.

    

The girls wore poodle skirts and danced around.  The boys played blowup guitars.  They were adorable! 

 

Rock on!

Little Red Tricycle

 

It was wet outside, but Ella was pretty insistent that she wanted to ride her tricycle.  No problem.  Mommy and Daddy moved the kitchen table into the living room and off Ella went. 

Cousin Jeff’s Visit

Tom’s cousin, Jeff, was in town on business this week and came for supper.  We had a great time visiting.  Since Poppo’s family lived so far away, it had been 40 years since Tom and Jeff had seen one another.

 

Jeff’s dad, Uncle Alvin performed our wedding.  I was feeling nostalgic, so I went back to look at our wedding pictures.  I love the way Uncle Alvin is smiling when Tom kisses his bride. 

This picture below is a bit overexposed, but I still love it.  I love the way Tom and I are looking at one another.  That sweet husband of mine sure looks good in a kilt!

Our Favorite Fruit

Rasberries.  We always knew they were yummy, but who knew that they were so much fun to eat?

Sleeping Ella Bella

This is how I find Ella most mornings.  Like her mommy, she likes to sleep a bit later than the boys.  Believe it or not, today she doesn’t have as many dolls in the bed as she usually does.  I have counted as many as ten dolls/stuffed animals.  Simply adorable, that sweet daughter of mine.     

When You Grow Up

When you grow up, oh, how I am going to miss:

• The way you tell people, “This is my baby sista, Ella.”
• How you never meet a stranger.  When we go to the playground, you have talked to every single person before we leave.
• How you love anything to do with drawing and art.  You have such a wonderfully creative imagination.
• Spending time with you drawing while we wait for Ella to wake from her nap.
• The applause and cheers from you when I go pee pee on the potty.
• The way you sing the ABC song when you wash your hands.
• Rubbing your back during naptime, as we both drift off to sleep.
• You crawling into our bed in the morning with a baby doll and your blanket.
• You coming into our room every morning and saying, “I want some orange juice and to watch Sesame Street, please.”
• Listening to you sing “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” when you are winding down to go to sleep.
• The way you pat your baby doll on the back and kiss her on the head right before you fall asleep.
• The way you run to the window screaming, “gardage twuck” to see the truck on garbage pick up day.
• How you absolutely love fruit.
• How you ask, “what’s this?” what seems like a hundred times a day.
• The way you follow me around in the grocery store with your baby doll in your miniature grocery cart.
• How you run to the door to great Daddy when he comes home from work.

Thankful for the Bad Times

Thanksgiving is just around the corner.  It seems like a lot of my facebook friends are posting one thing each day for which they are thankful.  Most of their posts are sweet and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling.

This is going to sound insane, but I am so thankful for the some of the difficult events in my life.  Last week, I was sick for seven days straight.  I felt absolutely horrible.  Have you ever felt so bad that it made you a little more empathetic to people who suffer from chronic illness? That’s how bad I felt.  I didn’t have the energy to play with my kids like I normally do.  We watched the movie Tangled so many times that I could recite the entire movie from memory.

Most nights I went to bed right after the kids, and one night I even went to bed before they did.  This made me so thankful for a loving husband who picked up my slack when I was just doing good to put one foot in front of the other.  Thank you, sweetheart.  I love you to the moon.

I’m rambling, but this is where I’m going.  Now that I’m better, I am so thankful for my health.  I am so thankful that I can play with my kids again.  I am so thankful that we don’t have to eat takeout, again!  I am so thankful for my amazing husband.  I am so thankful that is almost 10 p.m. and I’m still awake. 

I am so thankful for those hard times.  Without hard times and challenges in my life, I would never truly comprehend how blessed I am.

Thank you, Lord, for the hard times.

November 6th, Week in Review

• Ella named her baby doll Brookepresley.
• Both Aleck and Ella saw the doctor this week for a sore throat and cough.  They have strep throat.  They haven’t run or fever, or even acted like they felt bad.  They just both complained of a sore throat and Ella had a nasty nighttime cough.  Ella weighed 32 lb, 2 oz, and Aleck weighed 40 lb.
• I have been under the weather and exhausted since last Sunday.  I finally went to the doctor yesterday and I have a sinus and ear infections.  The nurse practitioner thinks I also have an underlying viral infection that is making me feel so cruddy.  I have slept ten to twelve hours a night and wake up exhausted.
• Ella is almost potty trained.  She spends her time at home in big girl panties and rarely has an accident.  The next step is to try big girl panties at Mother’s Day Out.
• Aleck says he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up.

Marble Jar Rules

I have been at wits end lately with the whining and not following instructions.  I am so tired of repeating instructions over and over again.  I visited Teacher’s Tools, a wonderful store just down the street, and found this marble jar poster.  We have been doing the marble jar since October 24th, and it has been an answered prayer.  The poster hold one hundred marbles.  When Aleck gets the poster completely full, he gets a nice toy.  I drew a line at twenty marble increments and when  he reaches a line he gets a small reward.  The wonderful thing is that I picked up some toys at the consignment sale and tucked them in a closet, so I have a stash of rewards for a bargain price.

Yesterday, Aleck was really close to the twenty marble line.  I wasn’t feeling well and I told him if he made is bed, picked up his room and Ella’s room, I would give him three marbles.  He looked at the jar and saw that three more marbles got him a toy.  When he was finished cleaning, every toy was in it’s place.  I only had to tell him once.  I love the look of satisfaction and accomplishment on his face when I reward him for positive behavior. 

Positive reinforcement, that’s the ticket  to modeling good behavior with my strong-willed child.  I hate that it took me 4 1/2 years to figure it out!