Christmas, Christmas!

I am sure most people don't want to see another person's Christmas morning photos, but there may be a few out there who want to see. So here are a few. :)








The boys were VERY surprised this year. Most of the stuff they got they thought was only in their dreams. LOL! Imagine their surprise when they opened their DS's, which they knew cost way too much and they would not be getting them. They had a great Christmas. AJ and I got ourselves some new furniture and a new tv a couple months ago, so we didn't exchange gifts. The boys were very happy with everything though, even though it didn't look like much. It was all little stuff so there was hardly a mess to clean up. Yea!

We spent Christmas Eve at AJ's grandmother's house, like we do every year. The boys always love that.

Christmas day, we opened presents, ate cinnamon rolls, Lindsay and Fam came over. We played games, ate yummy food, and just hung out.

I will post another blog later with he stuff we are doing this week.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

Smile.ly—Be Heard. Be Happy.

I love trying out free products and do several tests each month for various companies. Best of all, it's free! :) Here is a new place I am trying out. They send you free products and stuff, so go try them out. It's fun and free!

New Stuff

Let me first scream and shout from the rooftops that I finished this semester and I passed that terrible, terrible exam that I have been dreading! Yea me!!!! Whew! I am glad that stupid class is over. The rest of it went well, but after starting with a huge burst of speed, I had to slow down some because of life. I hope to get more classes in this next semester. I am taking this weekend off and then I will start working on the stuff for next semester. Whew!

Avery has some news! Yesterday he finally tied his shoes by himself. We have been working on it, and he would get it some of the time, but he finally did it at school, all by himself yesterday. Yea! On to even bigger news... he read a whole book, perfectly, last night. He can read any old word, anytime, but when they are put together in a sentence he just wasn't getting it. I KNEW he could read, he just didn't know it! He finally figured it out last night and read the whole book perfectly and pretty easily. Yea Avery! It was exciting for him last night. We surprised his teacher this morning, which he couldn't wait to do. She was so proud of him! She also gave him the biggest part in his Christmas play. He's so smart. :)

Santa also called him last night, which was fun. I love that our town takes the time to do that each year.

Sam is doing ok. His lungs aren't doing so well at the moment, but I hope we can take care of it before his normal December pneumonia sets in. He came home yesterday, so proud, because his teacher always compliments him in front of the class, and she says over and over how he is the best reader she has ever had. He loves that!

They are both excited for school to be out after next week, and they are really excited for Christmas. They will be sooo surprised by their gifts this year. I can't wait!

That's about it. AJ has just been working. I have been studying non stop and the boys have been doing their thing. Just a typical busy month in this house.

Whirlwind!

Sheesh! What a crazy week.

It started off nice and normal, and then quickly turned into a mass of craziness by the end of the week.

I worked every day last week. On Thursday, Linds calls and tells me she is being monitored at the hospital (again). So I am in the middle of subbing and at lunch I call her, and find out she is having to be induced because her blood pressure is high and her platelets are way too low. Yea for a baby coming, but it was too early and it was on the worst day! I had her kids come to me after school and I took them all to my house. Sam's play performance was that night, I had all the kids, we had to be there an hour early for the play, and I wanted to be at the hospital! So I went and got them dinner. We sat in the gym waiting for the play to start for over an hour, then we watched the play. It was cute and even the kids liked it. Sam did a great job. He was the King's scribe, and he fit the part perfectly. Cute, cute.


Sam as the King's Scribe




Sam and the King being captured


Being Held Hostage (See how tiny he is! Most of those kids are younger or in the same grade as he is. Cute little runt, though. :)

After the play, I went to Lindsay's house to get the kids sleeping stuff. Then we went to my house and I put them to bed. When I got done, Denisee called and said Lindsay was 7 cm dilated. I immediately got my stuff and left for the hospital. I got there, Lindsay said two (funny and weird) sentences to me, and then sudenly said, "Something's happening!" The nurse was in there and she checked, and yep, here comes the baby! She pushed 2 and a half times and he was here! Happy Birthday, Syler!


I can't believe I made it JUST in time!! Yea! He looks just like Taylor. He is so cute. They wisked him away and we didn't get to see him again for 24 hours!! Poor Lindsay. Had a baby and didn't even get to see him. He was having some breathing issues, wouldn't eat well, and couldn't keep his body temp up. So he was stuck in the nursery, and Lindsay was on magnesium, so she couldn't leave her bed either.

The next day, I was supposed to sub in Avery's class, but when I called to check on them in the morning Lindsay told me all the baby difficulties, so I scrambled around trying to find someone to replace me, and then spent the day at the hospital. Good thing Lindsay and I can talk for hours and hours no matter how long we are together. :) it was pretty funny watching her though. That medicine really messes her up. We finally got to see him that night almost 24 hours later.



The next day, I took the kids to the zoo. AJ's work was sponsoring Cortland Finnegan's (a Tennesse Titan) charity event, and we got to go for free, walk the zoo, play games, bounce, see the Titans, etc. Avery didn't want pictures witht hem, but Sam was excited.



He is so proud of the footballs that all the players signed.

I took the opportunity to get some cute pictures of the boys in the fall leaves, also.





After the zoo we went to the hospital and Syler was in there with Lindsay for the first time! yippee! The boys were so excited!





Lindsay got to come home on Sunday. At that point, they were saying Syler might have to stay until Wednesday. Linds called me on Monday and told me he was a whole different kid. He looked and acted so much better. They ended up letting him come home Monday afternoon. Yea! I spent all morning over there this morning, and I even got to give him his first bath. I'm such a good Aunt. :)

I get to watch Autumn all this week while Lindsay is recuperating. She is so good and I like having her around. :)

My birthday just happens to be tomorrow. Maybe Lindsay will let me babysit as my special present. Hint, hint. ;)

Cuteness

We have gone to the park every afternoon this week. I decided to take my camera today and catch some pictures.

Here is Avery showing us his new trick- crossing the monkey bars!

Stuff

So, it isn't the weekend anymore, but at least I posted CLOSE to the weekend. ;)

Let's see. What's been going on??

Lindsay and I had out International competition 2 weeks ago. It was here in Nashville, so we didn't get to travel any where cool, but it was still fun. We actually went down 2 spots in placement, but our score was higher so it's all good. It was a super hard contest, and a few choruses that have been in the Top 10 for years, didn't make it this year. We are fine with it. Let's see what we can do in 2 years. :)

Last week, Lindsay and I spent a few hours in the hospital getting her blood pressure and contractions to stop. That was fun. She posted pictures of her humungous pregnant feet. You should go look. :)

It was also fall parties, birthday parties, and Halloween time. Fun, fun.

Avery and Sam decided to be Mario and Luigi. They were cute. The whole neighborhood loved them and we kept hearing people call out, "Look! It's Mario and Luigi!" They were popular.




Sam's school play is coming up. He has tons of lines this year and is doing great. Next week are his performances and he can't wait. They have been practicing 2 nights a week, then he has another after school club, and cub scouts, so he is sort of ready for his life to calm down.

Avery is an emotional mess at this point in his little life. He is afraid of EVERYTHING. Thanks to AJ who showed him the scary Thriller Video after my show a few weeks ago. Not only is he a scaredy cat, but he also cries and whines about everything. 5 is not a good age for him. He has always been our happy, smiling boy, but something has changed for him in the last few months. I wish we could figure it out! Anyway, he did learn to cross the monkey bars yesterday, the whole way, all by himself, when we were at the park. he was so proud of himself. It surprised me. He seems so little to be doing that!

Today I went with Sam on a field trip. It was pretty boring, but at least it was something different for them.

I guess that is all for now. Nothing pressing is coming up soon, unless you count a new baby being born in Lindsay's family sometime soon. Happy Fall!

CVS/Target

Here's what I got this week. All for $3.50!! Plus I have $10 in CVS Bucks for next time.

6 Packages of Keebler Cookies
2 boxes of popcorn
4 bags of M&M's
1 Dove Shampoo
1 Dove Conditioner
2 Dove Deodorants
1 Dove Lotion
1 Glucose Tester
1 Airwick Freshmatic

This would have cost $80.

Last week, I think i forgot to post with all of my singing activities, but I got a ton of stuff. Candle, razors, 6 bags of candy, etc and hardly spent anything too. Yippee!

I will post a real blog this weekend sometime. :)

Competition!

Whew! it's been a busy few weeks.

Saturday was out annual show. It was lots of fun, and our best show yet. We did a zombie set, so I got to dress up as a zombie. Fun, fun. :) I also learned the Thriller dance and had to perform it in one week. That was interesting, but it went well. You wouldn't believe it, but we had actually planned the Thriller thing BEFORE Michael Jackson died. Anyway, it was great. The boys and AJ came. It was their first time coming to watch me, and they loved it. Yea!


Me, Linds, and our friend, Lynn

This week is International!! I will be gone all week to.....Nashville! Yeah, not as exciting as Canada, but still fun. Avery is sad that I am leaving, but I know they will be fine. Silly kid. Watch us compete on Thursday. We perform at 5:27 central time. It could possibly be later, if they are runnign behind, but that is our schedule time. The site for the webcast is www.sweetadelinesintl.org/webcast.cfm

Last time we competed, we got 13th. We are really hoping to be in the Top 10 this year. There are some super good choruses competing though, so there is a chance it won't happen, but think good thoughts for us!! If we make it to the Top 10 then we will be performing again on Saturday, so watch us then too. :)

Wish us luck! We can't wait to take the stage!

Meet Our New Pets!

This is Gwen. She is a Sugar Glider. We also have her brother, Ben.



They were born July 31, 2009 and we got them last Saturday, when they were 8 weeks old. Here is what they looked like when they were born.



Sugar Gliders are marsupials, so a cousin of the kangaroo, but much smaller, of course. They live in the tops of trees. The females have a pouch. They are great family pets because once they get to know you, you become part of their family. They love you unconditionally. Not like hamsters or gerbils who would run away the first chance they got. These are more like tiny dogs. :) They are called sugar gliders because they can "fly" by gliding. I read that they can glide the length of a football field.

Anyway, we just got them and they are still babies so they are trying to get used to us. Gwen, the girl, is so sweet. She will already climb all over us and isn't scared at all. Ben is still skittish and doesn't like us too much. He yells at us when we come close, but he is getting better. Last night he climbed on me twice. I had to be perfectly still though. :)

The only bad thing is, is that they are nocturnal, and right now they aren't waking up until after 11 at night. This is not making the boys happy. We were able to wake them up last night, so they got to see them a little bit before bed time, but Gwen was not happy. She was a bit freaked out about being woken up. We are trying to change their schedule so they wake up after dinner. We'll see.

We built them a huge cage and they are in our extra room upstairs. They love exploring it. :) We have been up until after midnight playing with them. The other night they were playing hide and seek with each other in the curtains. It was cute. I also made all of the toys and accessories for their cage. I am pretty crafty! Who would've thought?!

They are incredibly hard to take pictures of because 1) they are quick and move constantly and 2) it has to stay dark because light hurts their eyes. So the room is dark and I can't use a flash. I finally got a few pictures last night, but they aren't great.

Anyway, we love our new pets, and it is helping Sam get over losing Angel a little bit. :)


Gwen eating in her "kitchen".

Gwen coming out of her pouch. (They sleep and feel much more comfortable in pouches.)

Gwen

Weekly CVS Trip

All of this would have cost me $90. I got it at CVS this week for $5!

Here is what I got this week.
1 Tide Detergent
1 Package of Charmin Toilet Paper
1 Gillete Fusion Razor
1 Dawn Dish Soap
1 Listerine Total Care Mouthwash
1 container Clorox Wipes
1 Vaseline Body Lotion
3 Wrigley's Spearmint gum
1 Scope Outlast Mouthwash
1 Diabetes Testing Kit
1 package of q-tips
2 Tide Stain Remover Tabs

I did spend $15 out of pocket for all of this stuff, but i get $10 in CVS Bucks to use for next time, making this $5 this week. Yippee!