The Mother Letter Project

I stumbled upon this page today and the concept is pretty amazing. There is a man who, when his family decided to spend NO money on each other for Christmas this year, came up with the idea of compiling letters of encouragements from mothers to mothers to give to his wife. The project has exploded and you can be involved. You write an anonymous letter and send it to the e-mail address provided and he will add it to the group. You can also receive a final copy of all the letters if you want it for yourself. It's a really cool idea and I know there are a lot of mothers out there who could add some great letters!
The Mother Letter Project

Nativity Pageant

Tonight, Drew and I went to the Nativity Pageant downtown with Nana, Grandaddy, Uncle Mike, Aunt Celeste, Jay and Amelia. (Allen stayed home with our wonderful babysitter...I'm not sure what I'm going to do without her in Arizona!) It was fabulous, as usual. The kids had a special treat before it started as Mike and I took them "backstage" to visit some of the animals. They were able to pet the sheep and feed apples to Buster the donkey. Drew was VERY excited to meet Buster and spent most of the pageant looking for him and baby Jesus. I'm sure Jesus is excited to know he ranks up there with the donkey!
The cutest comment from Drew tonight was when Isaiah walked out and started talking to the villagers...
"Is that Santa Claus? I think that is Santa!"
When the spiritual and secular worlds of Christmas collide...

Overheard...

Tonight, Drew was playing with his nativity and we overheard this...
"Mary, Mary! You're going to have a baby and his name is Jesus!"

Precious! At least he's retaining some of what the holiday is really about, even if it is just bits and pieces of the story!

It's (finally) beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Today we finally finished decorating our Christmas tree. We put it up over a week ago and it has had 6 ornaments on it since then, the 6 that didn't get put away last year or were purchased this year. So today I decided it was going to be decorated no matter what! I was able to get most of the ornaments hung during the boys' naps and then Drew helped me do the lower, unbreakable ones. It turned out pretty nice...we'll just see how long it takes for Allen to undecorate it or pull it over on his head!
Oh, and Drew is completely distressed that we don't have a star on top of our tree! Oops!

The Christmas Express!

Saturday morning we took Drew and Allen on the Three Rivers Rambler Christmas Express. It was a surprise to Drew, but he figured it out pretty quickly...as soon as we saw the train tracks he started talking about it and by the time he saw the train he said "What if that is my special surprise? Is that my special surprise?!" Can't slip one past that kid...
We enjoyed cookies and treats with hot chocolate while we rode along the river. They stopped the train and read a story to the kids that was quite cute - The Christmas Lantern. Santa boarded the train and stopped by each family to take photos and hand out little gifts. Both boys really enjoyed it, though Allen really just wanted to sleep!

Listening to The Christmas Lantern

Santa and the boys

Daddy and his boys...aren't they cute?!

Impromptu Nativity

Thursday morning was the Impromptu Nativity at church. Drew was a shepherd this year, his first year to participate. It was unbelievably cute and he did such a good job! It was nice to sit back and enjoy it and not have to participate ourselves, unlike last year!
Here are some photos of the adorable kids...

Before it started...his "I don't want to do this" face!

Drew and his friend Gray ("my best friend Gray")

Amelia and Drew

Amelia - the Wise Princess

Happy (early) Birthday Grandma!

On Friday, Grandma and Grandpa came back through town on their way home to Colorado for the holidays. They had spent a week in Gatlinburg with Janet's sister and her husband, enjoying the lights and winter in the Smokies while trying to recover from all the nasty colds and viruses we passed around during Thanksgiving. We were glad to get to spend a couple of hours with them again and had a lunch at home followed by birthday cupcakes for Grandma. Her birthday is next week, but it's the closest we have been to her anywhere near her birthday so we thought a celebration was in order! Drew was very excited to get to sing to her and eat his own cupcake!
(Mommy failed to take pictures...I think Dave got some so maybe he'll share!)
Have a very Happy Birthday Grandma! We'll see you in Arizona soon!

Allen Update

We finally heard today that Allen's test results were normal. So now we wait and see if he continues the strange eye thing and then proceed from there. If it keeps happening, we'll probably see an ophthalmologist next to determine if it could be related to the eye muscles. Hopefully it was just a passing phase and no other doctor visits will be needed!
We had a great dinner tonight at Nana and Grandaddy's with Uncle Mike, Aunt Celeste, Jay and Amelia. The kids played together so well which is always a happy thing for the adults! Drew loves being with his cousins...I'm not sure he grasps what "moving to Scottsdale" means when it comes to nights like this. I know that few kids live so close to their cousins, but it will definitely be a change for him!

Allen's Test

The EEG went well today. Allen was very cooperative and it made things go quickly and smoothly. Our neuro tech said he was the easiest one-year old he had ever tested! He slept when he was supposed to so the sleep deprivation we did Tuesday night worked. It worked on Mommy and Daddy too...we were so tired! We won't know anything for a day or so and the waiting game is no fun.

Here is our little man all "wrapped up." They wrapped his head with gauze so he wouldn't mess with the leads. It was the only part he didn't like but he calmed down pretty quickly! He does look so sad though!

Sick boy and other news...

Allen has pneumonia. Yep - he's following in his brother's footsteps! At least it's "walking pneumonia" so he's being treated with antibiotics. I'm so looking forward to Arizona and dry weather! Hopefully these boys' lungs will do better there! In other medical news, Allen is having an EEG done on Wednesday morning. He's been doing a weird thing where he rolls his eyes back in his head and they twitch. So we're checking to see if it could be seizure related. Hopefully the EEG will come back clean and we'll be off to the eye doctor to check for eye muscle problems instead!
Today I broke Allen's favorite toy...a small blue Easter egg with pink flowers on it. I'm serious. It's the only toy in the house he went back to repeatedly and would play with for any amount of time. I stepped on it and it broke...right into my foot. I was so happy! Hopefully he won't notice it's missing.
Drew is 75% potty trained these days and doing great at what he has mastered. He tells you when he needs to pee or goes by himself and tells you after. He goes for hours without needing to go (better than Mommy can do!) and seems to be pretty set in that category. The other task has not been mastered AT ALL although I'm hoping the promise of a poopoo party will help!
Daddy travels to Scottsdale next week for his last work trip before we move. Drew is so excited and keeps telling me "next week is Daddy's last trip!" The packers/movers come January 5-7 and will deliver in AZ the 12th. Patrick will drive out with Maddie during that time, fly back to meet me then we will fly out with the boys on the 17th. It seems much more real now that the date is finalized!
Christmas is coming and we're not quite ready. The tree is up but not decorated, the house remains in chaos from Thanksgiving. We added 4 adults and 1 child to our home for the holiday...more on that fun later!
I've decided to post recent info first and work on going back to all the huge stuff I've failed to mention over the past few months. A girl's gotta start somewhere!