Holidays 2015

The way Christmas fell this year was odd.  With it on a Friday the kids had 6 days off school before the big day.  On paper that sounds like a great relaxing time.  The reality was our procrastination struck and the week was full of errand running and last minute buying. <sigh>

We left for our south Arkansas tour on Christmas afternoon. A big mistake. "Here kids enjoy all the wonderful things you just got for Christmas........now pack them up and lets go on a 5 hour car ride." We should've foreseen that. We could've prepared before Christmas, but again our procrastination runs deep. 

Campbell's Christmas was Monster High overload. She loves her iPad too but I think her little Vtech smartwatch was the biggest hit over the holidays. I think her favorite part of the holiday was having so many girls to play with. Our neighborhood is boy heavy and with her cousins in Texarkana and in ElDorado being predominately female, the tables were turned. She spent the night in the same house as us once the entire trip. 

Everything Noah got paled next to his PS4. It took him all of 3 days to become better at FPS games than me and I'm no Halo slouch. I don't really mind him being better than me but he's become pretty adept at trash talking. His teachers are going to be in for a shock when he shows up to school with a controller in his mouth. There aren't many boys down south but he really liked being the big kid and teaching JI everything he knew from Skylanders to Minecraft. He also likes being the agitator for the girls. In fact I'll say he relishes the role much to his mother's dismay. Boys-what are you gonna do?

As always it was nice to see everyone let the kids be with all their extended family at once. We were only gone a week but it's an exhausting week. Totally worth it. 

Happy Holidays 2011

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas.  We were able to see almost every family member over the past week. We enjoyed Christmas morning at our house then we loaded up for the LA tour.  Last night I was going through the aftermath and was amazed how blessed our children are.  Not just from the gifts but from the large number of people who love them and want to contribute to their holiday. I'll put a gallery up soon.  Until then, I hope everyone has a happy and safe New Year. Cheers.

p.s. If you want a little holiday game, click the picture above for a larger view and try to find Noah.

Great holiday

You know how I hate to blog when we are out of town (well you do now). I have just a touch of paranoia about being robbed I guess. The fall out is I got out of the habit of posting. I had done pretty good since Campbell was born but not so much lately. So here we go.

We had a great 3 week holiday. Christmas with a three year old is so much fun you'd almost have a whole herd of kids. Not to mention the fact that we had A WHITE CHRISTMAS. Of course, Noah had no idea how special that was. He just said, "Eh." It's funny how just last year his cousin Jana was being driven over the state to try to see snow since she had never seen it and Noah is so bored by snow it elicits an "Eh."

Santa brought him a John Deere Gator for Christmas. He wanted to ride right away but I convinced him to wait for it to warm up. I think we'd still be waiting if I'd held to that. Eventually I shoveled the driveway off and made him a loop through the garage. He was out there maybe 3 minutes before he told me his cheeks hurt and he went in.

We did the south Arkansas tour with stops in Texarkana and ElDorado. We were gone 6 days and although it was great to see everyone it was about 1 day too long to be away from home. The best part of being gone was all the willing help we had with Campbell. In ElDorado, Magga and Holly took turns with her through the night so we were able to catch up on some rest.

Highlights of the tour:
-Seeing little Finley-I hadn't seen her awake since the day she was born
-Seeing Holly pregnant-the changes in her are so dramatic, at times she doesn't seem like the same person-it's awesome what the power of love can do
-Watching Noah and Jana together. They love each other in such a profound way. I grew up with cousins like that and it is awesome to see them develop that type of bond
-Gumbo-enough said
-Amanda and Sarah coming over to Texarkana before Amanda flew back to Portland

Lowlights of the tour
-The drive down. Campbell was good for the most part but we had to drive on so much ice it took about 7 hours to get to Texarkana. Towards the end Noah wanted to fall asleep but his new big boy booster seat just wasn't comfortable so the last 45 minutes was basically him crying.
-Campbell had a stomach bug almost the entire time. She was spitting up and had diarrhea although she acted fine. We were really nervous she'd dehydrate and have to be hospitalized but she kept on eating (every hour) and wetting diapers so she pulled through fine
-Grandparents went way overboard. Not really a lowlight but worth mentioning it was a little over the top-Magga I'm looking at you :)
-Mamaw Rotton being sick and not getting to see Campbell.

We got back without a hiccup. Tried to hook up with Bradford. I haven't gotten to see him since his surgery but our timing was just off. It was good to be home.

Noah's little buddy, Banks, lives about 4 houses down and he got the exact same Gator for Christmas so we spent a few days watching them terrorize the neighborhood like a Gator gang. They are pretty funny.

The 3rd week of snow and ice was brutal. It was too cold for any outside play and we only have 1 4-wheel drive vehicle. Most places were closed and we were all a little stir crazy. On Wednesday, Noah's preschool opened. I think they knew there were some toddlercides about to happen if they didn't open. I'm all for a snow day, but a snow week?

Things are back to "normal" now. At least they are back on routine. Noah has been an absolute angel the past two days. It's amazing how good a schedule is on his life. Campbell's doing good too. She slept last night from 11:30 to 5:30 this morning!!!!!! That actually deserves a few more exclamation points but you get the idea.