Christmas Morning

It is our tradition to be at home for Christmas Morning. I always make up a Breakfast Casserole and set the coffee pot the night before. Then on Christmas morning, I get up, start the coffee, and the oven. The once the boys wake up, we open our Christmas presents. After this, we finally eat breakfast and then spend the day playing with our new toys. :)

This is what the boys woke up to on Christmas morning. You can barely see the ornaments on the tree, with their Spiderman watches inside, and then of course their basketballs under the tree.


When they got up, they asked us if it was ok, and then grabbed their ornaments and started opening them.

Here they are, showing off their new basketballs.

Levi was SO excited about his Transformers! He got Optimus Prime and Seth got Bumblebee.

Levi helped me sneak Daddy's boots out, and get them re-soled. He never once mentioned a word of it to Daddy. So talk about a major surprise. Stephen hasn't wore these in forever, because there was a hole in the sole. He kept saying he needed to get them fixed, but hasn't done it. So we did it, and surprised him with it.

He was so proud of Levi for not telling about the surprise and couldn't believe he kept the secret. He also couldn't believe that he never even noticed them missing from his closet. :) What can I say, I'm good! haha

Here is one of the beautiful pillars Stephen got me for our bathroom. There was one that matched, but was taller. He also got me some beautiful pillar candles for these.

Every time Seth opened something, he put it on. By breakfast time, he had on 3 layers of PJ's. :)

Stephen also got me a tanning package! I was so excited!

I had gotten Stephen a new dress watch for work, now that he has to dress nice for work, instead of wearing uniforms. :) he had mentioned wanting a new dress watch, back in the summer, right after he started his new position...I just filed that information away.... :)

The boys couldn't wait to play with their Mr. Potato Head Playdoh Set. :)

Can you tell I was excited???? I had been eyeing this dress in a catalog since last spring. I LOVED it, and wanted it, but never had the money to order it. Stephen didn't even know I wanted it, I never said a word to him about it. But somehow he picked that same exact dress for me! Talk about GREAT taste!!!! :)

The boys were of course spoiled rotten, and so were we. We had a wonderful Christmas.

Here are the gifts I got from Stephen and the boys:

2 bath sheets, and a hand towel for our bathroom,

my pillars/candles for our bathroom,

a gold tanning package,

some beautiful unmentionables, :)

this gorgeous dress,

a photo printer! plus an extra ink cartridge and paper,

memory for my laptop,

He is always the BEST gift giver. He always knows what I need/want. I don't think he has ever given me a bad gift. He is just always so thoughtful. Did I mention how much I love this wonderful man?! :)

Here are the gifts the boys and I got for Stephen:

fitted Dress shirt in a beautiful teal color,

navy blue polo shirt,

re-soled his favorite boots,

a new Relic Dress Watch,

a digital photo cube for his desk at work,

really cushioned house shoes,

a micro mini black umbrella for his work bag,

the newest Randy Travis (Christian) CD

I think he loved his presents as much as I did. :)

After we opened our gifts, we had breakfast. Then we spent the rest of the morning playing with our new toys. At around 2, we made our Christmas dinner, and ate. Then Stephen and the boys napped, while I cleaned our entire bathroom (scrubbed paint off of everything...that granite stuff flies everywhere, but luckily it cleans up...you just have to put a little elbow grease to it. haha) So this is when I found the leak behind the toilet again, and told Stephen about it....Then I finished decorating with my new gifts, and getting our bathroom all pretty again. After all of this cleaning, I was tired. So we relaxed that evening and watched that movie "The Nativity". Talk about a GREAT movie!!!

Christmas Eve

We went to my Nanny's house for Christmas Eve. (this is my Mom's Mom). My brother and his wife came over, and then my Aunt (mom's sister) and her family came over. It was so nice to just sit and visit with everyone again.

We exchanged gifts with my brother's family. They gave me these adorable Eeyore microfiber pj's. I love them! I have a weird look on my face because I was waiting on Stephen to take the picture, and he was saying "how long can you sit there and smile". haha The little toot!

My brother got the boys each a remote control 4 wheeler/rider. They LOVED this! How many 5 year olds do you know that can grab a screwdriver and unscrew the screws to get their toys out?! haha

Here is my brother's wife. Mom and I helped stock her kitchen with Pampered Chef products. :)

Here is my brother. We got him a new knife and a shirt/hat. He really liked it. :)

This is one of my FAVORITE pictures. My Dad and my Husband sitting together cracking jokes and making each other laugh. I love seeing them laugh together. My two hero's, both on the same couch, laughing. What more could a girl want. :)

Here is a picture of me and my baby cousin. She graduated from nursing school this year, and is now an RN in the ER. She is an AMAZING woman...it is hard to believe that I used to babysit her and her older brother.

This is my Aunt Linda, my Nanny, and my Mom. I love this picture of all of them together. (My Nanny and her two little girls). :)

Here is a picture of me and my Mom, standing by my Nanny's tree. I am so proud of my mom...it is hard to believe that she used to be overweight. She looks so amazing! Of course she is the one who inspired me to lose weight also...I figured if she could do it, surely I could. I look up to her so much! She is my absolute Best Friend ever!

By the way, for those of you who didn't know me "before"....here is what I looked like before I lost weight. I was 19 in this picture, in college, and had just gotten married a few months before....at least I know that Stephen loves me for me and not just for how I look. :)

We went to my parents on Friday before Christmas, to spend the weekend with them and celebrate Christmas at their house. It is the first year Stephen has actually been off, and we have been able to go to their house. They usually come to ours. So it was very nice to be at Daddy's church for Christmas service.

On Friday we all took the boys and Nana and Papa bought them both some new boots. (This is becoming a Christmas tradition, and the boys LOVE it!)

Here is Seth showing off his John Deere Boots. He looks so cute in these! He fell in love with these wild looking boots, and just had to have them.

Here is Levi, (not so) PATIENTLY waiting for us to be ready to open presents! haha

The boys loved giving Nana and Papa their presents, and then helping them open them. haha

Here is the adorable trench coat I found for my Mom....we had to take it back and get her a smaller size though, this one was to big. Luckily we found the exact same one, in one size smaller. Yea! :) I also gave her some Pampered Chef stuff that I knew she was wanting. :)


The boys gave Papa a 100 pack of DVD-R's so he could record them some more shows off of the TV. he is always recording cartoons/westerns/hallmark movies for us. Since we don't have cable or anything, this is a major blessing!....we also gave him a shirt/hat, and some new Cargo pants.

Levi in his new "worker" stuff. This actually came with a real hammer, chalk box/chalk, level, and everything! I couldn't believe all of this stuff this set came with. He was so excited about his new boots, wranglers/shirt, basketball goal, and this set of toys. He had a great Christmas!


Daddy wearing his new Stetson. He also got new shoes (you can see one of them on his right foot...the brown one). He LOVES both of these gifts. :)

Nana grabbed my camera, and then had me open my presents. I was so excited to see that Nicholas Sparks had a new book out, and Mom bought it for me! YIPPY!!! She also gave me an adorable pair of snowman earrings, and then some Lucky Number 6 perfume (which I LOVE!). I was so excited about my gifts, but then she said there was something else in the bag.....

I found a little jewelry box at the bottom of the bag. It had the most beautiful gold ring, with a yellow citrine stone in it, surrounded by little diamonds on all sides. It is so beautiful!!!! I love it, love it, love!!!

On Saturday we went to the Movies and watched National Treasure: Book of Secrets. It was such a GOOD MOVIE! How they come up with all of that I'll never know, but it was amazing.

Then on Sunday we went to my Daddy's church (that he pastors). It was a wonderful Christmas Service. Then that afternoon we were going to come home to get things ready for Christmas...like make cookies, and buy groceries, etc. The boys wanted to stay, and since we were going to see Nana and Papa the next day at Nanny's house, we let them go ahead and stay with Nana and Papa. :)

When it rains, it pours.

We were getting ready to go to my parents last weekend...and realized both batteries on my husbands truck were dead. So we changed plans around, and decided to take the van. I go out to jump in the van to run a quick errand before we left town, and guess what....yep, the battery on my van was dead to. Argh! I was so mad! So I had to wait for Stephen to get out of the shower, and then come out and give me a jump start off of his work vehicle (Thank God we have that!). So we finally got over to Mom and Dads and spent the weekend with them, and while we were there Stephen bought a new battery and put it on my van for me.
Then yesterday i was finally cleaning our bathroom up and decorating it, since I finished painting it last week. I had noticed when I was painting that there was some water behind the toilet, and I mentioned it to Stephen, but he figured it was just from the plunger or the kids bath time or something. So I had cleaned it all up...then yesterday I was sweeping/mopping and found water back there again, in that same spot. So i told Stephen about it again, and he took a closer look at it. He thinks our wax seal may be leaking, so he is going to pull it off tonight and try to fix it...hopefully it didn't rot out the floor underneath....
So now, we have to buy 2 new batteries for the truck, and hopefully just a wax seal for the toilet and not a whole new floor, flooring, and toilet. Say a prayer for us. Our finances can't handle all of this right now.

Christmas Party

Levi had his class Christmas Party at school yesterday. He had so much fun! When I got there he was crying, so I rushed over to him to see what was wrong, and he told me he thought I wasn't coming. His teacher came over and told me he was afraid I wasn't coming but that she told him that if I told him I was going to be there, I would be there. Seth and I were just a few minutes late, because we stopped off in the office to hand out presents to the principal and the secretary. So anyway, once I was there, he dried up the tears. I handed him the present for his teacher, and he ran over and gave it to her and she gave him a hug. It was so sweet! :)

They did a book exchange. Each boy brought a boys book, wrapped and marked boy. Then all of the boys sat in a circle on the rug (the girls went first..). While the teacher played music, the boys passed the books around the circle. Whatever book they were holding when the music stopped was the one they got to open. They had so much fun doing this.


Levi is showing me what package he was holding when the music stopped.


Levi opening his present.


It was 2 books. A Spiderman 3 book (just like the one we took, that he wanted to keep for himself! We also had a Berenstain Bears book wrapped with it), and then a Dinosaur coloring and activity book, which he immediately brought over and gave to his brother. He was so sweet. he was sharing everything with Seth. he also gave him his candy cane. I was so proud of him.

Here Levi is showing me one of his packages of candy/pencils/etc...and Seth is showing me the candy cane that Levi gave him.

After all of this, they all got to eat Pizza, and then they had their choice of brownies, cupcakes, icing cookies, etc for dessert. They also had orange soda...so talk about being wound up!

After we left, I took them to run errands, and finish our Christmas Shopping. Talk about an interesting/tiring day! haha :)

Granny and Papaw come to visit

Granny and Papaw (Stephen's parents) came to visit us last weekend. It is always so much fun to have them here.

Granny brought the boys a little house with numbered doors on it. You can put little items inside each door, for each day of December...and then they open the doors and get a new surprise out each day.
Which amazingly is keeping them from asking "is it Christmas yet". Yeah!!! Thank you Granny!!!!!



This first time, we let them help us put stuff in it. They had so much fun!

One of the little items Granny had brought, to put in the doors, was these little stretchy lizards. They boys LOVE them! Here Levi is decorating his Papaw! haha :)

Levi, looking so proud of his masterpiece! haha Poor Papaw!

Levi's Fundraiser

Levi sold the MOST in their Fundraiser, back in September. (A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ALL OF YOU WHO PURCHASED STUFF FROM HIS FUNDRAISER! THANK YOU!!!!)
He was rewarded at the awards assembly with a Brand New Bicycle! The principal called him up and gave it to him, in front of the whole school. Talk about one proud little boy!

This picture turned out blurry, because I accidentally still had my camera set on close up mode instead of regular. Oops!


So I fixed my camera and took a picture of Levi and Seth with Levi's new bicycle. they let Levi help me take his bicycle out and put it in the van before heading to lunch with his class. He was so excited!



Daddy had to lower the seat and the handle bars, so Levi could ride it. it is still a little to big and advanced for him. But he will grow into it. :)

Bass Pro

We took the boys to Bass Pro a few weeks ago. They had an area sat up for Pictures with Santa. Of course we were there late at night, so Santa wasn't there..but they boys had a blast petting the reindeer and playing in the sleigh. :)

After we finished up at Bass Pro, we went and ate at Texas Land and Cattle. We had appetizers and dessert. Then on our way out the door, Seth grabbed the bread off of our table and said he wanted to eat it. So he walked out the door, chomping on this loaf of bread! haha Everyone was cracking up.




Once we got home the boys wanted to try to take a picture with my new camera.

Levi took this one of me and Seth.

Seth took this one of me and Levi.

Christmas Cards

Ok, I'm about to send our Christmas Cards out....but I thought ya'll might like to see the pictures that "didn't make it" for the cards.

These were some warm up pictures that Daddy took of the boys before we tried to take some of all of us....they used up their smiles on these I'm afraid.....

Ok, trying to get everyone to "smile" for the camera is like pulling teeth. We took these right before going to church...since these didn't' turn out well, we tried again that same evening.

everyone is smiling except Levi....

Now everyone is smiling except Dad.....

Now we have bored Levi to sleep! haha

Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

I went this morning to take my final test. I wasn't to nervous. I had studied hard, and I knew God was with me. I've had so many friends praying with me, and I think that is why I felt so good going into this. I basically prayed and sang the whole way there. It was such a wonderful, peaceful time with God.
Once I got there, I went in and met with the lady who had my test. I then took my test into a quiet room right there where she could see me, and I got to work. It only had 50 questions on it, and amazingly I knew them ALL!!!! Thank you Lord!!!!! I actually remembered everything I had learned, and didn't get confused by the choices. There were 2 questions I wondered about, but once I got home and looked them up, sure enough, I had them right!!! Yippy!!!!!!!

Thank you all for your prayers and support. A special Thank you to Logzie, for praying with me via e-mail last night. Girl, you had me in tears! I literally got the Holy Ghost goosebumps while reading that last night...talk about a powerful prayer. That Blessed me so much!!!! Thank you T. :)

Test Time Again!

I just got a call from the lady at the library, and my final test is in! I am scheduled to take it at 10am tomorrow (Friday) morning.
Ya'll PLEASE say a prayer for me!!!!

Joy and Pain.....

Joy:

Stephen went and bought all of my Christmas presents on Friday. He came home and locked himself in the bedroom and wrapped them all (or should I say he cheated and used gift boxes/bags! haha). Then he came out and put them all under the tree. I gave him a kiss and told him I had to run to meet one of my hosts so I could collect the checks from her and close her show. He said, "Before you go, I have an early Christmas present for you to open, it is in there on the bed." I was like "What? We don't do early presents." He said "Well, I thought you needed this one early, so I want you to open it". So I go in the bedroom and see this gift bag. I pulled the tissue paper off of the top, and then I couldn't believe my eyes.......it was a NEW, Pink, Motorola RAZR phone!!!!! I about freaked!!!! My phone hasn't been working right since I got pool water in the keys this summer. The down and side arrow didn't work at all, and some of the keys didn't want to work and you had to push them multiple times to get it to work. But I was trying to hold off on getting a new one, until we re-newed our contract in Jan. So I asked him how he got it, and he said he went in and talked to them about us re-newing it early, so that he could get me a new phone for Christmas, and they let him! Woo-Hoo!!!! It is so pretty, and I can't believe how well I can hear with it! It is amazing!

Pain:

Ok, I never slept any yesterday...as you can read from the previous post I had stayed up all night and hoped to take a nap with Seth..but that didn't happen....and then I hoped to just go to bed early last night...that didn't happen either and here is why:

My son stuck a colored pencil in his ear last night, and this somehow broke off in his ear. He tried to get it out, but pushed it further inside. By the time he said "Mommy, I've got something in my ear, it was deep in there. I couldn't reach it.....So I called my husband in a panic...(the last thing we needed is to have to take Seth to the ER because he has colored pencil in his ear!) It was about 7:15 or so, so my husband said he would go ahead and leave work early (he wasn't supposed to get off until 8pm). So I kept Seth still until his Daddy got home. Then I would hold Seth's ear open, and Stephen worked on trying to get it out. Ultimately we cleaned his ear out with peroxide and loosened up the ear wax. Then Stephen was able to slide a bobby pin in (since it didn't have any sharp edges) and was able to pull this colored pencil lead out. It took us about an hour to coax Seth into letting us get it. But Thank God we were able to, and Seth was ok. He definitely learned a good lesson...NEVER stick anything in your ears! :) So after all of this, we read and I finally crawled in my bed around 9:40pm last night. I slept like a log! haha

15 hr course

Stephen and I were talking about my 15 hr course last night. He asked me how far I was in it. I told him I had only completed 8 lessons. I had 30 to go...but didn't know when I would ever have the "quiet time" to actually devote to getting it all done. So he said "after the boys are in bed it would be nice and quiet". So I said "Ok, I'll just stay up all night and do as much as possible, then go workout with the girls." He didn't believe I could do it! So of course then I just HAD to! haha
So I made myself a full pot of coffee at around 10pm. The boys were in bed, and I was cozy in my PJ's. I got myself a cup of coffee, and went to work. By 4:40am this morning I had completed 15 lessons, and only had 15 reviews left! So I hurried up and put on my workout clothes and went to the track to work out with my WONDERFUL Workout Buddies! We had a great workout (and I had drank a FULL Pot of coffee, so I was pretty wired! haha) Then I came back home and relaxed and ate breakfast. Then I got back on the computer and finished all of my reviews, before my hubby even left for work! Wooo-Hooo!!!! I had to jump up and do the happy dance!...and then run in the other room and share the great news with him. He couldn't believe I completed all 30 lessons in less than 12 hrs! Whew! I have COMPLETED my 15 hr course!!!! Now I just have to wait for my test to be delivered to the Library. :) I'm so excited!!!! (And I'm starting to get sleepy...and I can barely even see my computer screen without things blurring together.....my coffee is wearing off...I guess I'll be taking a nap with Seth today! haha)
Talk about such a relief to have that completed! Praise the Lord!!!!