A few Christmas favs

We had another easy Christmas. I'm so grateful that we have been able to work it out the last few years where we can be everywhere we need/want to be with little stress. It's SO much more enjoyable for everyone. I don't really have the time or patience to blog a ton about it, so here are just a few snapshots of our very merry Christmas.

Happy birthday, Daddy!

Nathan turned 30 on the 16th!

I would have loved to throw him a big bash, but time/money/energy just didn't allow it.

We were going to go to P.F.Changs for dinner (his favorite), but they were booked solid so we did a little homestyle party instead.

The kids picked a gift- Krispy Kreme donuts?- and we cooked dinner and I made my first ever chess pie (also his favorite). They turned out pretty darn good.

I also wrote up a few questions and had each little provide their own answer.

1) How tall is Daddy?

L: 5 feet.
B: 5 long.
C: feet.

2) How much does Daddy weight?

L: 80 lbs.
B: 6-18
C: 5 whole pounds.

3) What is Daddy's favorite food?

L: PF Changs
B: cheesburgers
C: mexican and chinese
(All right!)

4) Who is Daddy's favorite driver?

L: Tony
B: Momma
C: Tony Stewart

5) Who is Daddy's favorite person?

L: Me!
B: Me!
C: Me!
(I love that my husband makes each of his kids feel like they're his favorite!)

6) What did youthink the first time you saw Daddy?

L: He is so handsome.
B: Yesss! (fist pump)
C: I know he will carry me.
(Precious!)

7) What is your favorite thing to do with Daddy?

L: Watch 'Wipeout'.
B: Sit.
C: Go see race trucks.

8) What is your favorite thing about Daddy?

L: He tucks me in at night.
B: He gives hugs and kisses.
C: Going to his work to see airplanes.

9) If you could give Daddy anything for birthday, what would it be?

L: A new car.
B: A new phone and a purse or wagon to carry all his stuff.
C: Shootgun.

10) How old is Daddy today?

L: 30
B: 9
C: 8

It was really sweet! The kids got embarrassed and SO tickled when he read them out loud :)

Annnnd we ended up taking him to PF Changs on Sunday afterall :) Perfection!
Happy Birthday to my favorite :)

Gingerlady

While visiting "Gingy's house" at Opryland on Tuesday, the kids all got to decorate little gingerbread boys and girls (thanks, Deda!).

Brynn: Sissy, does your cookie have boobies?!

Layla: Yes, because she's a girl.

Brynn: So? Not all girls have boobies.

Layla: Yes, they do.

Brynn: Nuh-uh! Mommy doesn't!

family.

Some of my favorite people in the whole world were here this past weekend :)

And I can officially say our children are in love with them too!
We baked some Christmas themed sugar cookies Saturday afternoon while we got ready for their arrival :) They LOVE to bake. No surprise there...

(Ignore our pile of things collecting on the high chair/table that were about to be loaded into the car.)

Aunt Angie and Ashley flew in on Saturday- and we pretty much glued ourselves to them for the next few days.  They hadn't seen Layla since she was 2 1/2 and had never met the twins! AND Ashley had her new little creation, Natalie, with her for us to meet :)

Dinner, games, and cookies Saturday night :)

Church Sunday a.m., lunch, and then GIRL'S NIGHT!
My little girls were so excited to be included in Girl's Night. I had only told them that it was just for big girls and we were going somewhere fun.
Layla guessed Target.
I told her somewhere "fancy", she guessed Shoney's.
Not sure where I went wrong (or right?!) with that....



When we told them we were going to Opryland and to see the Rockettes:

They LOVED the show. LP had seen it before, but was just as excited this time and Brynn cheered and clapped in delight after every number!

We wandered the hotel a little bit on our way to our dinner reservation. Dinner at Solario was amazing, then more lights and awe :)

Monday didn't go so great.

Four of us, including tiny little Natalie, woke up with the stomach flu :(
It was a rotten 24 hours to say the least.


Tuesday, the kids and I (still not feeling great, so no school) went to take photos of Natalie for Ash, and then we all headed out to lunch and back to the hotel! We spent the rest of the day there: craft show, Town Hall with rides and treats, Gingy's house, shopping. Then it was time to say goodbye :(

FL family- thank you SO much for coming to see us. I can't explain to you how happy it made me to have you here. And we really needed that right now! Hopefully, soon there will be another trip (one way or the other!) to introduce our new baby girl as well :) Love you more than you know!

Christmas Card

We definitely thought we would be spending Christmas in Eastern Europe when we made this our card, ha. Oh well! It is what it is :)

Adoption Blog

There is major stuff going on in Anna Gray's country.
Scary stuff that we, unfortunately, can't share.

We have been asked to make our adoption blog private to protect AG and the other waiting children.


If you'd like to continue following along with our adoption process, please comment/email me your email address and I will invite you. Keep in mind, the blog only allows 100 readers :/

PLEASE, PLEASE be in prayer for Anna Gray, our family, and the other waiting families.

Calm Down Basket

Yet another idea sparked by Pinterest, which led to a blog, which led to another blog, which ended with our "Calm Down Basket".

It has taken nearly five years to figure out what type of discipline/redirecting/teaching moments are the best for our kids. And it still changes.

Spankings don't work for my kids. Period.
Timeouts don't accomplish much either, to be honest.
We have been just talking to them, creating conversation and positive reinforcement- but they basically memorized a script to get it over with.

So, now we have the Calm Down Basket and so far, I gotta say, it's working quite well.
While it doesn't teach them anything, per se, about their behavior or the reasons behind it, it does give them a minute to step back and clear their head so they can make better choices- especially important for Cale. However, it is multipurpose and beneficial for the girls (and Mom and Dad!) as well.

If someone is getting angry/aggressive, too wild, frustrated- with anything- we just ask them to go get something from the Calm Down Basket. They sit over in the designated area (it's behind the couch in a quiet   less chaotic area of the house), choose one activity, and put it back when they're finished. I promise it's a coincidence that their Calm Down Basket is next to the bottle of wine from our wedding (Mommy and Daddy's calm down basket? ;)

Our basket consists of:

• The Calm Down Jar (a favorite of all three littles).

Just hot water and glitter glue in a pickle jar. Shake... and watch the glitter fall. It takes a few minutes for it all to get back to the bottom and somehow works wonders on my kids' attitudes in the process.

• Stretching
• Yoga/Tree pose

It takes so much concentration for them to get their balance, they forget what they were upset about!

• Tactile stimulation

We have stretchy/spikey toys, goop and silly putty.

• A kaleidescope
• Mini Etch-A-Sketch

All three LOVE the Etch-a-Sketch. They would play with it (quietly!) forever if we'd let them!

• Quiet books, they can choose to look at/read or ask a parent/sibling to read to them.
• Another favorite- the rice bucket. Seriously, an empty butter tub. We added dry rice and a few little trinkets- a marble, sharktooth, whatever we could find. Cale likes to comb his fingers thru the rice and dig for the "treasures". The girls like to shake the whole bucket.

It really is THAT simple. I spent a total of $3 in the dollar aisle, everything else we already had. The kids love it and it really has redirected them away from what would normally turn into a meltdown or fight.  :)

best.daddy.ever.

We have always turned on music during dinner (no tv allowed, except on very special nights). If you know Nathan, you know he thrives on Christmas music (Apparently, so does our oldest daughter. Layla got in "trouble" at school for humming after she finished her work and everyone else was still working. Her daddy was so proud. Grin.).

The day after Thanksgiving opens a free pass for Christmas music at dinner. We were feeling especially festive one night last week. Nathan and I were dancing to Elton John in the living room after putting away left-overs, when Brynn cut in... and cut loose. Her daddy ate.it.up.

I really don't know who was having more fun. They danced and danced and danced. The rest of us laughed almost as hard just watching!

About 40 minutes into it, Nathan got it in his head that they should learn the moves from Dirty Dancing...

And decided he was the best swing dancer there ever was (and in their eyes, he was).

An hour and a half.
This man, who had a million things to do, who was exhausted after a long day of work, DANCED with his kids for an hour and a half.

I think he's the best daddy there ever was.
And I know at least three others who would agree.

O' (sugary-chocolately) Christmas tree

You know I love an edible craft.

I'll just go ahead and tell ya... these pictures are junk quality. Some nights, you just gotta grab the camera and go. It's not worth missing a memory for better lighting.

It is what it is. And it was messy, and silly, and yummy not that bad  :)

(Momma doesn't like the red M&Ms...)

Luckily, each one cleaned their plates that night so everybody got a little taste of their creation. That's all you needed though... just a little taste. No need to cut anybody off before they entered a diabetic coma, they were more than satisfied with just a nibble and were DONE :)

Happy Birthday to Evan!

(Please ignore the fact that Brynn is wearing a randon Titans shirt and no pants. They also made "slime" during the party, which attached itself to a good portion of B's dress and it had to be washed, ha.)
I can't believe this little boy is FIVE!

(I really can't believe that means it's only weeks until Brynn and Cale are five... eek.)
Evan had a great party- complete with magician!

My kids LOVED it. 
Layla and Cale both giggled so much trying to assist the magician with a trick. Too cute :)

What party is complete with out sugar?! LOTS and LOTS of sugar.

This was party #1 out of three for us that day and we started off with a bang for sure :)