Boo-boos and questions for Santa

Within two days, Maddox managed to get a cactus stuck in his behind and Jude poked himself in the eye, leading to a late-night ER visit. Poor guy has an abrasion on his cornea. The worst part is giving him drops 3 times a day for 7 days. It requires two people and lots of candy cane bribes.

He was wide open when he got back from the ER. He showed me his two hospital bracelets, a sticky hand toy, and a sticker. Finally, around 12:30 AM, Andrew got him to sleep walking him around and singing a lullaby.

This week we've done some fun crafts, plus some silly stuff, like filling containers with rice, adding green glitter, and transferring it around with spoons or funnels. The bigger the mess, the more the boys love it.

Petey Pie and Maddox have been exchanging notes lately. Maddox wanted to know:

"Does Santa have a brother?"

"What do Santa's farts smell like?"

I'm serious.

According to Petey Pie, Santa DOES have a brother and his farts smell like...peppermints.

Here is Petey Pie's latest mischief. Apparently, he likes to catch rainbow Swedish fish.

The Harvest

Jude plucked up his radishes today! Then Maddox followed.

Jude wanted to taste his. I knew what the outcome would be, but I washed it anyway and handed him a slice. Crunch, crunch, crunch. His face was priceless.

We had our first Christmas party today. The boys played games, did a cake walk, made candy cane reindeer, ate goodies, and exchanged gifts.

Jude's favorite part was the candy cane. Maddox liked the gift exchange and checking out Gabe's "cool Avenger's shoes." 

Petey Pie showed up this morning, stuck in new Santa glasses for the boys! He is a mess, but he makes our mornings fun and happy ;)

Tis the Season

It was a good weekend in this house. Carolina beat Clemson, and even better, my dad got to come home!

We were pretty lazy, besides getting out in Destin to do some Christmas shopping. We pigged out on leftovers,  made a 7-layer dip for the big game, and even had a Baskin Robbins night and a Panera lunch topped off with Starbucks. Yikes. I might need to break out the sweatpants soon!

Petey Pie (our elf named by Jude) has returned. He's been spotted on the tree with a note, on Maddox's desk coloring, and then lastnight he got into some trouble with the Avengers.

 We started the Christmas crafts today. The boys colored popsicle sticks green and then we took turns hot gluing magnets to the back of them, as well as to the back of several sparkly pom poms and wooden ornaments.

The cat thinks the magnetic tree is our gift to her. By tomorrow morning, I bet those pom poms will be spread all through the house.

 Jude cared more about the magnets than anything else. He stacked them, shaped them, then separated them again and...repeat. He is my little engineer.

Tomorrow is the Christmas parade, but I don't think my little early birds will be able to stay up that late. We'll see!

Turkey Day

On Thanksgiving morning, Maddox had made us all turkey cards by the time I rolled out of bed at 7 AM. He is my early bird. I'm pretty sure most mornings he gets up at 5 AM and then he spends his quiet time making cards or snuggling in our bed.

Breakfast

I got to business right away. The ham went into the crock pot (we did a nontraditional dinner since we like ham way more than turkey) along with pineapple and brown sugar. I started the garlic mashed potatoes, cheesy corn casserole, green beans, and squash and zucchini saute. Andrew kept the boys outside most of the morning, playing with their cap guns. It was a beautiful, cold day, like the holidays should be!

I set the table, laid out the desserts (my first ever homemade pecan pie and homemade turkey-shaped sugar cookies), and got myself dressed. It was a little sad not having a big family around us, like I'm used to. But, I made the best of it. Andrew picked up a single guy friend from work who didn't have anywhere to go. Maddox LOVED "Mr. Shin." They played football together and Maddox wanted to know how old he was. He even cried when he left!

Boys playing football 

 The boys talked to Mimi and Poppy on Skype and then Maddox talked to Nana in the hospital. I hate they had to spend the holiday there, but I'm looking forward to better days, like Christmas when we will (HOPEFULLY) all be home and together.

 Jude and I feeling fat, lazy and silly after dinner ;)

 No food coma for Maddox. Nonstop energy. 

 That night, the boys made Playdoh turkeys with feathers and jewels.

I braved the madness and for the first time ever, ventured out to a "doorbuster sale." I got to Target at 7:45 PM, 15 minutes before the doors opened, and there was no parking to be found. I wanted to leave, but having come that far for a specific gift, I was determined. I parked next door at a school, waited in the freezing cold with other crazy people, and then grabbed my items inside. It was definitely an adventure, and let's just say it probably won't happen again next year!

Hope everyone had a wonderful, cozy, blessed Thanksgiving.

I asked Maddox what he was thankful for, and without any help from me, he immediately said, "Because God died on the cross. And for my candy and toys."

Love him.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVE!

It's Happy Thanksgiving Eve in our house. I'm icing sugar cookies while the boys watch a movie and tear up some popcorn.

I hope you all have a Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful that my dad had a successful surgery. It will be a rough road ahead, but he's a determined man and he can do it. 

Curveball

Well, we made it to South Carolina and back, but not for Thanksgiving. My dad was admitted to the hospital on Sunday with severe shortness of breath and we headed up that way on Monday, after Andrew got off work. We made it in record time (traffic was a breeze) and the boys slept almost the whole way!

Unfortunately, eight days later, Dad is still in the hospital. Turns out, he had an unusual bacteria in his bloodstream and also his chest cavity. This caused empyema (pus, fluid, infection) around the left lung. They drained the fluid for days, but realized it was beyond them, and he was transferred to a hospital in Columbia. He had a procedure to clean out the fluid, but because of unusual bleeding, the surgeon had to stitch him up without cleaning it out. He's awaiting news today to see if he needs another surgery to remove lung tissue (we hope not!) or if things are improving. There were some scary moments this week for all of us! I'm thankful my dad is a strong, determined man and I'm confident he will overcome this and be on the road to recovery very soon.

Most of our time back home was spent driving here and there, staying at various houses in the family, and of course hanging out at the hospital. I'm glad I got to see my dad and help out where I could! It was also a blessing to spend the night at my grandma's (just the two of us!), see family, and spend a day celebrating Andrew's birthday a week early. We still went to the USC/Coastal Carolina game and had a good time. Our seats were pretty awful (we got to see Coastal Carolina players on the sidelines up close and that was about it! Haha), but we had fun and then went on to visit my parents in the hospital and have dinner at our traditional spot: Arizona's Steakhouse.

The boys spent most of the trip at Mimi and Poppy's house. They played with balloons, made cookies, rode the Jeep, and even got to call Santa. I'm glad they had a good time, even under stressful circumstances.

Jude trying on Uncle Jody's motorcycle helmet at the hospital. 

We left Carolina on Sunday and made it back to Florida safely. When we left, it was hot. Now it's freezing!! It actually feels like the holiday season.

We made our usual Dunkin stop in Tallahassee. The boys love the donut holes and a chance to stretch their legs.

As we settle back into our house and plan our little Thanksgiving menu, I hope we get good news  and that "Papa Joe" gets to go home soon!  I know Nana is ready to get out of that place too!

Thank you to everyone for all the kind thoughts and prayers! 

Christmas Card Drama, Yoga, and Turkey Cookies

I don't remember Christmas pictures being so hard. I took the boys into the field behind our house at JUST the right time (soon before sunset). Maddox immediately started frowning, due to his fear of "stickies" in the tall grass and coyotes. All Jude wanted to do was dig in the dirt. And they did not want to be touching, that's for sure!

This week we started doing yoga in the mornings and today we went to an informal class with a few friends.The teacher was so sweet. She gave the kids vitamin water and sunflowers at the end, and she said Maddox looked like a "British prince."

Maddox demonstrated the "tree" pose and the "volcano." Jude refused to participate. Oh, he's a stubborn one!

In school, Maddox has started combining sounds on the vowel ladder to form short words. This is a work in progress. He starts getting lazy and guessing, which drives me nuts. But we'll get there. 

Jude's favorite part of the week was probably helping me make/ice sugar cookies and then having a hot chocolate party one night.

He is a sugar junkie.

We even made cute little turkey cookies, in honor of Thanksgiving!

And that reminds me, we'll be going to South Carolina soon!

I'm a happy girl.