Monday, December 22, 2008

Birthday Weekend!!

We had such a great time this weekend! Sat. we decided to go to Alexandria to go see Santa for the boys picture. It didn't go so well, Cooper was terrified of Santa. He looked at him and then started crying. Luckily we were able to get a shot, but Cooper is crying in the pic. We picked up a cookie cake for Gavin's birthday and headed to Target for some last minute shopping. After spending a good hour in the madness that is Target the weekend before Christmas, we headed to Nachitoches for the Christmas festival. 

It was so AMAZING, we pulled up when the fireworks started. They were so much more than I expected. The boys all loved them. The finale did get a little loud, but it was great. Then we went in search of food. The boys ate corn dogs and Nathan and I got to eat some wonderful red beans and rice, meat pie, and crawfish pie. It was all so good. There was a live band playing a little cajun and a little country, the boys loved it. We ran into some friends from sports and the kids ran around and played a little bit. Then we headed home

Sunday we took Gavin to McDonald's for breakfast as per his request. The boys all hung out and played with the remote cars and watched movies while I ran and did some shopping at Wal-Mart. When Peep got off work he came over to celebrate Gavin's birthday and have some hot dogs and cake. Gavin had a wonderful small birthday. After Memaw and Peep left Nathan took the big boys to the Movie Despereaux(sp). The boys were exhausted when they got home, but we did have a great weekend!!!

Friday, December 19, 2008

Tired

I am still trying to get over this cold and I am just exhausted. The boys are so excited for Christmas. Tonight we are going to get some to go cups of hot chocolate and go driving around to look at the lights. It is like 72 degrees here right now so it is hard to get in the spirit, especially when you are not feeling great. I am trying not to ruin the boys good time. 

Yesterday within 20 minutes of being home from picking up Gavin from school Cooper hit is eye on the corner of my foot board and Gavin jumped on the treadmill with me and skinned his little chin. I told he do not do it 3 times and he didn't listen so I guess he got his own punishment. The funny thing is he has always called it the shreadmill and I guess that is what it did to him yesterday. 

Tomorrow Nathan is off so we are planning to go to Nachitoches to go check out the festival on the river. Nachitoches is where they filmed Steel Magnolias and in the movie they showed the Christmas festival. The main weekend was a couple of weeks ago, but they still have stuff going on and fireworks at night. I am excited to get to go. Hopefully I can make it through even feeling not so great. 

I am ready for Christmas minus a few stocking stuffers. I am still not sure what our plans are. Everyone is celebrating it on different days...I think. It is hard to get the correct info for everywhere that we need to go to. Phew..I am exhausted just thinking about it. 

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

St. Jude's

O.K. as much as I hate to admit it I am drawn to watch Jon & Kate plus 8 every week. I totally do not agree that they are putting their child's lives on TV for all to see, and I think they are in it for the freebies. Now having said that, I just watched yesterdays show this morning and found myself boo-hooing. I know it doesn't take much, but whatever.


The Gosselins went and bought presents for the children at St. Jude's hospital, this didn't pull at my heartstrings quite as much as the actual patients there. The Gosselins more than likely got all of the stuff they so generously gave away donated by K-mart. I suppose that I never realized what a wonderful organization St. Jude's is. They take every patient and these people do not pay for anything. They never turn a child away. How awesome is that????? The hospital is so much more like a school than a hospital. The people that work there seem so caring and sincere. I just never realized how truly wonderful that hospital is.


I would like to challenge everyone who reads this blog to donate to St. Jude's during this holiday season. You can do it at Gymboree when you are checking out, I know because they ask me every time. I thought about signing up a team to keep track of how much we can raise, but it occurred to me that I don't care, I just want to support this cause. So please help me to help them.

Here is the link.

Monday, December 15, 2008

Sick




I have been out sick for a few days and Nathan was sick last week, so I am expecting for all 3 boys to catch it soon. Knowing my luck all at the same time. I am still not quite over it, in fact it seems to be getting worse. It is a cold, so it seems to be disturbing my sleep A LOT!!!




I tried to take the boys picture for our Christmas card yesterday and let me tell ya it worked out wonderfully...NOT! It is truly impossible to get a good picture of all of them, it is about impossible to get them to all look at the camera at the same time. It is truthfully the most frustrating thing. I am just going to do individual pics from now on and photoshop them together. I think that will be the only sure fix.



Gavin just finished up flag football thank goodness. The games were getting colder each week. I think his attention for it was fading too. He has had us taking trips to Alexandria, which is an hour away, 3 times now for trips to the dentist. He had to get fillings and they like to do them one at a time. So not fun. We are also going to be taking him out of his school at Faith Training, things have just been going downhill for him. He doesn't like going and I have never really liked the curriculum there. They spend entirely too much time at their desks, which I don't believe they even need in kindergarten. So off to a new school. I will let you all know how it is going in January.


Elijah is going to be going back to school in January, so I will have more of an update on that then too. He was very disappointed to not be able to play football with Gavin, but he had a lot of fun on the playground. He really wanted a trophy and that was about it. I think he is more cut out for tackle football. Ha. He has been a toot lately, but Gavin has too. Something about the weeks before Christmas that make them act so terribly. I threaten them with Santa all the time, but it doesn't seem to work. Any tips would be helpful.


Cooper has learned to blow kisses to melt mommies heart. He is also waving bye-bye too, I tell ya these mile stones are so much fun. He is getting his 2 top teeth too, so that has made him a little moody, but not too bad. He is borderline running everywhere he goes, so this next year I should drop about 20 lbs chasing him. Ha, I wish.
So that is what we have been up to. Anyone want to babysit???? Anyone?

Monday, December 8, 2008

Wow!!










That was a long week and a half!!! After leaving Wednesday for Thanksgiving we went to San Antonio last week, so we have been gone for a long time. We had a wonderful time though, we got to see family at Thanksgiving that haven't seen Cooper yet so that was good. We always have a great time at the Rider family get togethers. Then we went to Mt. Pleasant to the farm for their Thanksgiving and it was pretty exhausting. Great to see everyone, but still tiring.








So on Sunday Nathan, Eli, Cooper, and I left to stay at my parent's house so we could leave for San Antonio the next day for Nathan's conference. We stayed on the River Walk and had a awesome time. My mom went for a couple of days to help out and then she took Cooper back with her so we could spend some time with Eli alone. I just can't say enough how wonderful it was, we stayed in the Marriot in the River Center Mall so that was great for me. Nathan got sick with a cold the first night so it wasn't great for him, but Eli and I had a great time. It is so nice to spend time with just one child alone every now and then. Now we need to plan something for Gavin.








On Saturday morning we left to go to Bryan to stay with our friends the Jones's. Lindsey and I ran around and did some last minute stuff I needed for Eli's birthday and then we went to eat with some more friends. Too bad my friend Kelli couldn't come, she was missed. Love ya Kel!! After that we went to a pool place and then Lindsey and I decided to go get tattoos!! Don't freak out it is very small and tasteful. Sunday we took Eli and Connor to Chuck E Cheese for a little Birthday celebration. Eli had a blast. So all and all we had a great time. I miss living there so much, I have wonderful friends.