First words of Christmas Morning

Cam came into our room Christmas morning and utter these words,
"It doesn't get any more morning than this!"

And so it began, Christmas morning mayhem. It was SO fun and continues to be a very fun, relaxing week. Lots of playing, movies, reading, napping, laying around, playing, reading, playing...

Pictures to come, I just haven't had the inclination yet. Too busy lazing around.

I love Christmas break!

Gingerbread Houses Sans Gingerbread

We continued Erin's tradition of making gingerbread houses, however this time we went to Addison's house. Cam and Addison were SO good, they loved decorating and putting the houses together. They were each quite particular about how they looked, Emmy and Jake...well they ate. Emmy sucked the icing out of a bag, Jake ate the "gingerbread" (graham crackers) and Emmy also frosted her foot. We don't know why, I find it better to laugh and go on, she did also lick it clean :).

And this time there was no yelling. I was prepared for the worst and the kids did the best! I think Cam and Addison are quite the artists!

Pictures at home

Emmy talk

Newest stuff she says,

"I Dee Dee" Dee Dee from the Doodlebops
"You Moe, You Rooney" Everyone has a part to play in the family!

"I hug Daddy"
"I hug Bu (cam)"
"I hug Momma"

When she see's Doug at church this is the conversation:
EMMY:"Where Ewi?" (doug's son Eli)
DOUG: IN school
EMMY:"Where Caweb?" (other son Caleb)
DOUG: In School
EMMY:"Bye" and quite honestly, many times she doesn't even say bye, its as if Doug is of now use without the boys and they're high school boys!!! HELP!

Singing: Jesus Loves Me, Where is Thumbkin, Twinkle Twinkle and Happy Birthday LOTS

Emery, Christmas Style

Thanks to the following:
Amanda (for the outfit I swore she'd never wear, here I sit eating my words...yum)
Lindsay (for the headband that in its third year STILL makes us laugh. And it makes me miss that tiny baby that wore it once upon a time...maybe I'll ship it back for Little "Lilly" aka no name baby)

Anyhow, enjoy the laugh...Merry Christmas from Emmy

Oh, and yes, she went out in public this way. Cam's school Christmas party and the headband STAYED ON!!!

We made cut out Christmas Cookies, it wasn't pretty

Okay, I yelled. I told Emmy NO a million times (she ate SOOOO much flour and dough) and FINALLY saw the light. Gave her a piece of dough to just play with and not cut out...it was all happy then. But here's the mayhem...we ARE crazy. But MAN they're good cookies (props to Amy Genis for the best recipe ever)

Out on the Town with my Little Boy

I love being able to spend time with the kids, but I especially like getting alone time with Cam. Its kinda rare. Sissy's always around and we just don't have a lot of just mom and Cam. But tonight, well I had a few errands to run, no school tomorrow so he went with. Before we were even out of the garage he reminded me why I enjoy him so much, he's sweet.

He was sitting in the back seat of the car waiting for me (I was, ofcourse, trying to find my keys) when he heard sirens. He opens the door and yells, "Momma, I think we need to pray." (yup, we do when we hear sirens) anyhow, I said, "Yup, we do why don't you go ahead"

Here's the conversation roughly,
"God, um, we hear those sirens so we know it could be an ambulance or a fire truck. So please help the person that might be hurt or the people who's house might be burning down. Help them not hurt or help the firemen to put out the fire. And if its a hurt person please help the ambulance people to know how to help. Thanks, um amen"

Gotta love the kid. He also scored big when he informed me that he still hadn't bought sissy a Christmas gift. So, we ditched a few of the planned errands and looked for her a gift. It was beautiful, he really didn't look for himself at all, he looked for what he thought she would love. AND BOY DID WE LOOK!!! We were looking at princess stuff and he said, she got a lot of that for her birthday. I suggested a stuffed animal. Cam's face lit up, "sissy LOVES dogs, especially poodles. OH MAN, she'd LOVE a PINK poodle, not a real one Momma, a stuffed one" And low and behold, we found the pink poodle (3 stores, 1 hour and a few silent prayers later.) He wants to give it to her tomorrow, he's so excited about his perfect gift. I'm really loving his heart.

Cam's Christmas Card Confusion

Cam's really been enjoying looking at all the pictures from friends. He loves getting Christmas cards almost as much as I do! And trust me, that's a lot! The mail arrival each day is a huge deal and he LOVES to go get it, but he has to fight me!

ANYHOW, we got a Christmas card from a family here and he was studying the picture pretty closely. He then declared to me that the kid that should be Ben didn't look like Ben to him. Then he made this guess, "Maybe its not Ben, maybe they got their next door neighbor to be in the picture with the other boys"

So, if you're looking for something to throw the relatives and friends, pop a neighbor into your Christmas Card Photo, but CAM WILL SPOT THE IMPOSTOR (hope that's spelled right, looks wrong...).

Meanwhile, he cracks us up!

Oh yeah, the Cake

SHE'S 2!!!! Happy Birthday Emery

Today's the day we lose baby, enter toddlerhood and all its glory and BOY did we do it in style!

G-dad and G-mom drove over to open presents and have some cupcakes. Tonight there's a Christmas party we're going to for the worship team and I've weaseled my way (surprise surprise) into making part of it a sing happy birthday to Emmy so I don't have to do anything, party. Therefore, I made the cake...and let me assure you I have no designs on going PRO in this area, I'd LOVE to say most of the cake was Camden's handywork, but alas 'tis mine. However, Cam will do a great job telling Emmy how beautiful the cake is and we will NOT dissuade her in anyway of this opinion!

Em's birthday was PRINCESS themed to a fault! Cam picked out a "pincess" (the way em says it) blanket for her bed (she actually asked to take a nap today because it was on the bed), Emmy LOVED it. She got an Ariel doll from mom and dad! A pincess backpack, sunglasses and hat from g-mom and g-dad, plus a Diego doll all of her own (there's been MUCH coveting since Cam got one at his party). Granny and Poppa spoiled her with the magnetic wooden doll that you can dress up, the baking set that you can really use and the pink flashlight (BIG DEAL, trust me) which goes with a Christmas present, two cute shirts and princess slippers. CRAZINESS!

Em has LOVED having Happy Birthday sung to her today and blowing out candles on cupcakes (which she VERY CAREFULLY licked all the icing off and proclaimed she was all done, her father's child for sure).

I have to say, Cam's been an awesome big brother today, excited for Emmy, helping her open presents and never getting jealous. Pretty amazing kid.

Anyhow, here's the pics of the day so far...and we really miss last years party with the first babydoll, but this year the first princess! AND Momma even thought of it, bonus!

PAINTING

Today we braved painting with the kids!
Emmy sat at her highchair and painted "PINK" on the paper and then proceeded to paint her "muscles".

"Look at my muscles!!" she exclaimed! Oh yes, she also painted her nose.

Cam painted his Rhino that was started yesterday. Mixed the plaster of paris yesterday, painted the thing today...pretty cool! He also painted a nativity scene which I'd like to frame, very pretty. Currently its on the fridge.

Tomorrow she's 2!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHH, babydom is gone and toddlerhood full speed ahead! But in the weirdest of things, she's been dry two days in a row (except for naps and bed) and known when to go pee. I think she'll potty train herself completely here in the next few months, she's done a great job up until now, goodness knows I haven't done a thing!

Back from the Mall

Cam and Stu just got back from the mall. Now, before you groan at the thought, they had a great time. And Cam got to go to the new play area here. This prompted the description from him of what it was like:

"Mom, its JUST like a kingdom! It has all the things a kingdom would have, a bridge, a wall and you can climb on them and jump and stuff!"

All this time he's using his arms BIG with the super excited description voice.

He just cracks me up. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the arms out, expressive descriptions

Papa's 80th!

We went to Florida for a quick visit. We hadn't been since last Christmas, so it was a great treat to SEE Granny and Papa, not just hear them.

The kids had a blast! Emery cracked everyone up by carrying around a musical card that E.Ray got saying, "It's -a MY paty" - its my party. She thought the card was a party.

We got to the beach one day for a few hours and enjoyed sun and sand.

here's our picture offerings. Stu took the joyous one of them running...my favorite of all time right now...pure joy
We also love the one of Cam and Uncle Larry, they were skipping shells.

Christmas Tradition

WARNING:Here's my advertisement/plug for Andrew Peterson

Andrew is a friend of Stu's from Florida and we had him in to perform at Northeast a few times. A few years ago he produced and wrote a beautiful Christmas album (if that's what they're still called). ANYHOW, its the story of Christ, starting in the Old Testament forward to the birth. Its beautifully written and performed.

Each Christmas I like to have the chance to listen in entirety to the album, first to last with no breaks. Stu and I got the chance a few days ago. We were driving back from Nashville (we had flown down for Stu's dad's 80th birthday and the tickets were cheap out of Nashville). On the way home the kids slept and we listened. The sky was amazingly clear, the stars were shining and Andrew was singing the news of Jesus. It was a moment that made the Christmas season real. God spoke to us in our minivan and nothing is quite like that.

So, thanks Andrew. For writing, pressing on when producers told you this project wouldn't work, for being open to God and using your obvious writing talent.

AND if you'd like to order a copy, (you knew I couldn't resist the plug!!): www.Andrew-Peterson.com or https://store.rabbitroom.com/index.aspx

Its called Behold the Lamb of God.

Old News, but still...BIG GIRL BED

Okay, I realized that I hadn't posted this and it needs to be broadcast. Emmy is in a big girl bed and it happened really quickly. There was no decision to be made, it was a must.

She had not climbed out of the crib ever, then one day, out of the blue, she popped into our bedroom in the morning to say, "I waked up!" Cute and really not too concerning.

However, the next day at nap time...it became a concern.

Emmy pooped. In her diaper. She decided to remove the offensive smell herself. She did. BUT in the process she spread some of the goodness all over the crib sheet, bumper pad AND the crib itself. So, she then decided to come tell me about the mess.

She climbed out. BUT, her little bladder still had business to perform. Pee, everywhere. All down the crib, onto the floor, I mean everywhere.

"Momma," Emmy yells from the top of the stairs, "I pooped"

I was on the phone at the time, luckily it was Denise and she understood, "I must go, she's pooped all in the crib"

Cam came to witness the mess and we both just cracked up laughing!! We stuck Em in the tub and proceeded to clean up and take the crib down. I was done and trust me the crib, it has seen its last days. It was partially held together with gorilla glue after the move, so it was time. It has served 5 kids well over a span of 14 years.

ANYWAY, Cam helped take the crib apart and wipe down the whole thing, after I'd removed the most offensive stuff. Emmy got cleaned up in the tub and my OLD iron bed came out of storage.

Here's the pics of Emmy in the big girl bed! And by the way, we now wake up many mornings to a little face beside the bed saying, "Momma, Daddy you here! I waked up!!!" And I'm sorry, but you just can't beat that!

That's a Pretty Funny Answer!

Cam and Stuart were riding to school on Tuesday when they had to pause for a train. While waiting they saw two trucks loaded down with tobacco. Having helped his grandfather with the hanging of tobacco years before, Stuart wanted to wax nostalgic with Cam and pointed out the tobacco on the back of the trucks.
"What's tobacco?" Cam inquired.
"It's a plant that they grow in Kentucky."
"What's it used for?" he pressed.
"Well...people make cigarettes out of it" Stuart replied.
"What's a cigarette?" Cam asked.
Oh, boy, "Cam Cigarettes are things that people smoke. But we don't want to do that because it makes your teeth yellow, your breath smells bad and it can even kill you."
"How does it kill you?" the inquisitive one responded.
"Well...God made all of the parts on the inside of you to work together. All the parts have to work together for you to live. Cigarettes can cause cancer which is a disease that grows inside of you and can keep some of your parts from working and you could die."
"What do cigarettes look like?"
"They're white sticks that people carry in their mouth."
"Oh, man. Like half the people have those. Why would people want to smoke a cigarette?"
"I really don't know Cam."
[Silence]
Cam breaks the silence, "Maybe people smoke cigarettes because they want to die. {giggles} that's a pretty funny answer"