December Daily Days 15-17

Hey aren't you proud of me? I am staying "pretty" caught up...at least within a few days of the actual calendar day!  So this weekend  has been a whirlwind.  Editing, editing, editing, then Christmas party prep for church, prep for Christmas Cantata - kid's part, Wedding to photograph, fellowship meal at church, Children's Christmas party, Sunday night church, and whew...here we are one week from Christmas.  Has gone by too fast!  Praying to slow down this week and take  it all in and do some fun stuff  with the kids...

Day 15...Breakfast with Santa...Daddy and Bubba time

Day 17...Buddy is on Momma back-up.  Buddy wrote the kids a note
telling them he has been hearing me get on to them the last few days (actually weeks)
about brushing well and taking care of their teeth.  So he  brought them new toothbrushes
and flossers.   He said to use them well and mind Momma or he would have to tell Santa!  OH NO!

Day 16...Christmas Cantata - My Wise Woman and shepherd boy
(that didn't want any part of carrying a sheep:)

 

December Daily Days 11-14



Day 12....UIL day - Jaedyn competed in Oral Reading and Listening Skills. Last time to compete as elementary student.
Received 6th place in Oral Reading! Way to go!



Day 11...Isaiah's Place Live Nativity

Day 13... My day.  Playing and holidng this little guy while he took a cat nap.  Miss this age. 

Day 14...Buddy made his appearance in our house today.  Peyton and Jaedyn were ecstatic!

Okay, well I am a big fat failure...

I know I said I would do better at keeping this thing updated, especially with December Daily but I thought I could do it from my phone with the Blogger ap and well, for some reason I am technologically challenged and can't seem to get that to work either.  So, catch up time...

Day 4...Love Christmas parades.  The kids were so excited when I told them we were going.
All kinds of things lit up.  Peyton loved the monster trucks and tractors lit up...oh, and they
both loved the candy.  Afterward we went to the trail of lights in the park.  Really beautiful!



Day 3...I love nativities.  Displays and puts on our hearts the "real" reason for this season. 
Love that both my kids want nativities in their rooms.  This one we have had since Jaedyn
was a baby and I adore it!


 

Day 6... The cutest little elf...Jaedyn was in a school play about Christmas.  She was
the elf "Cyrus".  I t hought she looked adorable but you would have had to see what
we went through getting her to wear this.  She finally loved it but goodness, her and clothes!
This was her last school program.  Sniff, sniff!

Day 5...One of my favorite Christmas movies.  Now I have Peyton addicted to it too.  Over the
Thanksgiving week we watched it probably 5-6 times.  He wanted me to sit with him
the whole time and watch it.  He LOVES it!  So funny to watch him watch it!


 

Day 8...Family Fun Day...our annual ornament picking out.  We always have a family day
to pick out our ornament for that year, buy gifts for each other, and eat out.  This year
we met up with some friends. 

Day 9...Christmas cooking...or making.  The kids made Ice Cream Cone Christmas trees. 
They had fun.  I think they ate and licked more than they worked.  Peyton said "I need help.  I have a
broken arm!"  He just wanted to sit and eat and someone else to do the work.  He
is learning to milk it! :)

Day 10...First "really" cold day in Texas.  Temp 31, high 45 with wind  30 mph.  So we pulled out
the big coats.  Don't get much use for these in Texas but love it when we do! 
Jaedyn got a new coat this weekend so she was all about showing it off.
And, of course, it was from Justice.  You can see her coming for sure.  And Peyton wore his "favorite" coat,
the camo one. He said with his camo gloves and coat no one would see him coming.  :)

Day 7...A Visit with Santa.  Jaedyn said she didn't think this Santa really liked his job. 
She said he was cheery and that she wasn't trying to be mean but he didn't
act like Santa's should.  But then again, she pointed out that several of the
kids before us were crying and screaming so maybe that is why he didn't like
his job! :)


Okay, so that catches me up through today.  I will TRY to keep it updated better.  Just wanted to have a record of random moments of our family in December.  I am sorry they are all out of order, Blogger has a mind of its own on most days!  God bless you all and enjoy this cold, Christmasy weather!   Snuggle up to those you love!
Blessings, Jennifer


Oh, forgot, I have to add two "I want to remembers" from this weekend...
1.  We were in the car on our way to Fort Worth and Jaedyn was counting her money.  We had told them that they could not spend any money on themselves. They had to buy for other people if they wanted to spend their money.  Peyton looked in his wallet, after Jaedyn announced she had $54, and he said "I only have a ten and a one".  Jaedyn said "well that is $11, but I will give you 4 more to make you $15".  That is big for her to share money!  :)
2.  We were about to head into the mall and I was tell Jaedyn that we were going to spend no more than $30 on a new coat so if she wanted to go to Justice that was fine but that was her allotted amount.  Peyton chimed in quickly and said "Jaedyn I have  some money I can give you for a coat if you want it". 
Ok, melt my Momma heart!!! <3

 

December Daily, no excuses...

I am "attempting" to do a photo-a-day project in the month of December.  I know you are thinking, are you kidding, she can't even update this blog once a month.  But I am going to try.  I adore the holiday season and it passes us by so quickly that I want to savor every moment.  I realize I may get busy and one day I may post 5 pictures from the previous week to catch up, but hey, I will give it my full effort to stay caught up! :)  We will see how it goes.  So, with that said, I am posting 2 pictures today to catch up..., yes, already behind! :)
I will say that the last month has been very hard.  To catch everyone up that I haven't talked to, or who wants to hear it... Peyton got his cast off this past week.  We are now on to a brace for 4 weeks and then check-ups at 3 and 6 months.  The body is basically making new bone to fill in where the bones that were broken did not get lined up correctly.  He is starting to use his left hand again, and I keep telling him great baseball pitchers are left handed so that motivates him!  Jaedyn had her surgery to have her tonsils and adenoids removed.  It went well, typical recovery.  Was rough at times but she did well, especially for our little drama queen.  She has been 2 days without meds so that is a start!  She still has some voice issues and it is making her nervous with her singing program and UIL oral reading coming up within the next week. Praying for her voice to be healed.  Amongst being extremely swamped with photography and many activities going on at church that we have been blessed with, we are hoping  this month brings more normalcy and routine to our lives!  Or whatever normal is for us :)

So,without further ado, Day 1 and Day 2 of December Daily...

Day1 - one of my absolute favorite ornaments. Peyton made this at Mrs. Recia's house when he was 2 yrs old.  Makes me think of her each year, how much she loved Christmas, and what a blessing she was to our family! :)

Day 2 - Hanging of the Greens at church - or rehanging  this year as the garland was put up backwards and Russell helped  straighten it out!

Have a blessed Christmas season, and to take time to remember the reason for the season and focus on Him!  

Well, I did good there for a few weeks...

I am sorry I have been MIA, but life has kinda been getting in the way of me keeping up with blogging on the family lately.  So, thought I would take a minute while the sick little boy is napping today.  He stayed home from school today with a little fever and a cold.  I have, however, wanted to stay on top of it so he does not get pneumonia again this year, so I have stepped up breathing treatments and fluids.  He is running around like crazy again since the Motrin kicked in and giving me a very hard time about locking him inside and not letting him head out in the back yard.  Hopefully he will be back at school tomorrow.

These past few weeks have been busy, busy...

Right now, we are...

*Recovering from Halloween this weekend, where the kids were stylin' as Jake from Jake and the Neverland Pirates and a hip hop dancer (costume #2, as the hula girl idea would have frozen Jaedyn's grass skirt off)

*Enjoying this cool down, loving my shoots without being a sweaty mess, and the peacefulness of being outside with my kiddos in this beautiful fall weather

*Trying to carve out time to enjoy each other as a family and have some family time - hoping to visit the Dallas Arboretum next week, already went to pumpkin patch

*Doing homework daily, getting to gymnastics practice on Mondays, playing with friends from the neighborhood, dealing with some teasing/friend issues

*Learning to prioritize my time by overbooking and not saying "no" as often as I should

*Growing in the Lord each week as we study at church, keep our mind on Him and not on the world, living by example

*Teaching responsiblity and accountability to the kids through chores and consequences

*Evaluating daily our true needs vs. wants

(Thought I would try a little journal deviation today with the "Right now, we are..." instead of the " I want to remembers".  I will switch back and forth and maybe even throw in another kind of journaling to keep you on your toes from time to time! :)

And, as always, a few pictures of the last few weeks...

Hummer Limo Ride

I am attempting to update the blog from my phone... Aren't I the technology guru?! Ha! :). So I wanted to post a few pictures from Peyton's limo ride at school. He sold 15 items so he earned a ride in a limo to McDonalds for lunch and play time.
Boy was it an event... Riding in a limo with 19 1st and 2nd graders singing "red solo cup" and "jingle bells" all the way to Hillsboro at the top of their lungs was even a little much for someone who taught kindergarten for years. I think I would rather spend an entire day at Chuck E. Cheese than relive those 30 minutes in the limo and friends of mine know how I feel about that place! The kids, however, had a blast! Peyton was quiet but enjoyed watching all the others! So glad he got to experience that! Thanks to all who bought items from him... Pawpaw and Meemaw, Uncle Cody and Aunt Melissa, Mr. Rossi, Aunt Shirley, and Granny and Grandpa!

And a few other pictures of happenings around here since my last post...

Dogs got their boy/girls parts removed this week.  They aren't happy with us!

Russell found this visitor under our bench the other night before bedtime.  YIKES!!

My sweet little girl

I admit, this was posed.  But I love it!

Sometimes it is dangerous when they are this close. ;)

My mysterious little boy

Family fun, feed the ducks!



This week's  "I want to remembers"...

*I want to remember, on the drive to Waco yesterday, Peyton told me he still wanted to be a garbage man when we grew up. But also explained it was a very dangerous job, because you could fall off the back and get run over.  He doesn't want to be the driver, he want to actually dump the trash!

*I want to remember when I asked if anyone had any prayer requests in children's church, Peyton raised his hand and asked for prayers for Jaedyn and to pray that her friends  would be nice to her. (She has been having some friend issues lately!)... ~melt my heart!

*I want to remember that after spilling his entire snow  cone all over his pant legs in the car (because he could only hold the cup with one hand), Jaedyn said "give me your cup", and quietly and sweetly poured half of hers in his cup.  ~melt my heart x2

*I want to remember that on the way home after dark from cleburne on Saturday night, it was a little chilly outside.  Peyton grabbed his blanket from under the seat.  Jaedyn was complaining that she didn't put hers back into the car after taking it in the house.  Peyton chimed in" here Jaedyn, take mine, I am not  that cold".  ~Awe, melt my heart again <3

*I want to remember that Peyton has had a great attitude about his arm.  He has been a pretty good trooper.  He pretty much accepts, with the exception of a few instances, that he is not able to do certain things and he is learning to compensate and accept what he can do. 

*I want to remember that as Peyton was asking about why we were taking the dogs to get their boy/girl parts removed on the way to pick the dogs up, he interjected  "I bet Dakota has had a peace and relaxing day without Skippy there today".  (Dakota is our very old dog who gets cranky with the little pups  when they try to play with him).

*I want to remember Peyton asking if people, girls and boys, got their parts taken out like animals do. I reassured him they didn't.  (at least for now, as far as he knows)

*I want to remember that after bringing the dogs home from the vet yesterday, Peyton reminded me we were supposed to leave them in overnight. I told him they would be find outside and they had pain medicine.  Remembering all the things the lady told us about the after care of their surgeries, Peyton told  Daddy, we can't leave the dogs outside, they don't know all the rules. What?  They don't know all the rules of what they can and cannot do after their surgery.  They will overdo it!  :) 

And I am sure there are many more, many of which are not so sweet and kind but I try to block those out.  That is why I call it "I WANT to remember"!  All those other moments that are arguing, grumpy, fighting, hitting, name calling, and overall unpleasant don't make it to the blog so often.  I have to deal with those the other 23 hours and 30 minutes of the day! 

Have a blessed week. Thanks for bearing with me through this long and picture heavy post! 

Love and God bless,
~Jennifer

Another curve ball...

As many of you know, our little "simple break" scenario with Peyton's arm didn't go quite as planned.  When Peyton and I went on Tuesday to the orthopedic doctor to get his cast put on (or so we thought) they took more X-rays.  What they determined was that the ER doctors had taken an X-ray from above the arm and it looked great, lined up perfectly.  However if they would have taken it from the side, they would have seen the break wasn't even lined up closely at all.  Therefore, the doctor explained we had two choices:  leave it or have surgery to get it lined up as good as we could, possibly involving pins.  I was devastated.  I had reassured myself this wasn't that bad and that we would be in and out in 6 weeks and onto life.  Guess that wasn't to be.  So Peyton was scheduled for surgery the next day.  Wednesday was a very hard day.  As soon as the doctor said hospital in the exam room, Peyton buried his head in my leg and started quietly crying.  He just didn't understand why we had to do all this.  I tried to explain the best I could.  So when we went to the hospital on Wednesday he was pretty clingy.  He did like the idea that he wouldn't have the IV until after he was already out.  He didn't like the idea that he had to change into some "stupid" gown with tigers on it instead of wearing  his own clothes.  That took some convincing.  With his pillow pet, Handy Manny blanket, and  his angry bird game (thank the Lord for that) he began to relax and get used to the hospital time again.  It was stressful to have him put under anthestetic and to have him back in that room without us.  He didn't like that at all.  He wanted us where he could see us.  After about 30 minutes the doctor came out and told us he could not get it 100% lined up.  He felt that about 75% was about all he could do but felt that was a better option for Peyton than putting in pins to help correct it.  We were so thankful there were no pins!  As Peyton came from the recovery room to his room it was painful to watch.  He was in so much pain and mad at the world.  Luckily once we got him settled  into his room and he got some pain meds he and I talked and he calmed down to a great degree.  Before long he was drinking, sucking on a popsicle, and playing Angry Birds again.  His arm was in so much pain after the surgery but he was a tough guy!  After a couple of hours we were cleared to go home...exactly where Peyton wanted to be all along.  With strict orders to keep his arm in the sling and not to be too active at risk of shifting the bone again, we were headed home. 
This poor boy has been so frustrated that he can't do normal active boy stuff.  I feel for him but boy has it been a trial for us to keep him in check.  We finally received his CAMO cast yesterday (so no more sling!!) and he loved it!  He got the last camo cast in the office as they aren't allowed to order it any more!  He will have up to 3  months of treatment/monitoring but we are thankful that he is on the road to healing.  He will receive a different cast in 3-4 weeks and we will see how it is healing from there.  So thankful for all the friends, family, acquaintances who have been praying for us in this time of trial for our family.  We love you all and appreciate you! 
Peyton was bouncing off the walls this morning ready to go to school and have everyone sign his cast.  Such a sweet boy!  Meanwhile, as about par in our home now...his big sister woke up last night about 10 times with the stomach bug so now that he is at school, she is home sick today!  If I weren't so exhausted, it might be funny! 

"I want to remembers" from this past week...

I want to remember that when I signed Peyton's cast this morning (the 1st person :), I drew a heart and wrote "I love you" inside it.  I caught him raising the sleeve of his shirt to look at it several times before going to school. (sigh*)

I want to remember that as I told Peyton last night that he needed to start sleeping in his own bed again, he cuddled up next to me and said "but you are more comfortable".

I want to remember that my kids were overjoyed to go work at PawPaw and MeeMaws this past weekend.  I love that they are helpful and want to work to help their family. 

I want to remember the way Jaedyn has been a little mother hen (this week in  a good way) reminding Peyton what he can/cannot do to be safe with his arm, buckling his seat belt for him, getting things for him he can't reach, and helping him get dressed.

I want to remember Jaedyn's excitement when the Wildcats played Clifton for homecoming this past weekend and she got to see the other three of the "four muskateers".  Such love and sense of friendship with those four even after over a year of being apart! 

I want to remember that even though Peyton has only had one arm this past week and a half, he has been the same helpful little kid.  He genuinely wants to help out  in anything that he can. 

I want to remember that playing the Wii for the first time after he broke his arm that he asked me to help him play.  I was his "left hand".  He worked one remote while I worked the other.  He reminded me time and time again that I wasn't good at it!  We laughed and laughed!  So fun making memories!

I want to remember that while we were talking and visiting late one night, my husband starts reminiscing about our wedding and it was so nice to think back.  And then turns to me and says I would marry you all over again! 

Have a blessed week!




This boy can do anything, what a trooper!



Being wheeled out.  Ready to go!

Angry Birds, life saver!
 

All done, such a cooperative  little boy, they said!



 

 

 

Ready to go, being brave!

Popsicles make it all better!
 

Here we go, the CAMO cast!