Saturday...Merry Christmas!!

It's Christmas!! We woke early, of course, and opened presents first thing...right after coffee!! lol Everyone was happy with their gifts and Nicky gave me a new camera (Thankfully since my old one has been repaired twice and still doesn't work!) and a set of purple golf clubs. Now I'm ready to go play with him!! :-) And, I'm VERY excited about my camera! Having fun experimenting with it!! :-)

After presents were opened, Nicky got to work collecting all the trash and I cooked breakfast. Indy had this tooth that has been hanging by a thread forever, it seems, and we all kept trying to convince him to either pull it out or let one of us do it. He wouldn't, but during breakfast, while he was eating scrambled eggs, out the tooth came all on its own. Whoo hoo! It looked so gross hanging there, ugh! So we were all happy about that tooth coming out, especially Indy!! We ate breakfast about 10 and after the dishes were done, I started working on dinner. We ate dinner about 4 and boy, were we all ready!

After the dinner was all finished being cleaned up, I finally got to relax. Whew!! Am I beat! It's been an exhausting, but wonderfully fun day. So grateful for family, friends, and all the gifts God has given us, especially the gift of His Son, Jesus, who is why we have Christmas in the first place. Merry Christmas, Everyone, and don't forget to celebrate the Birthday Boy, today!!

Friday...Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!! Today I went out to take Savannah to work and then to buy the shrimp for dinner tomorrow and it was pure madness out there!! Ugh. The traffic was horrible and while I was waiting in traffic, I wrote a song...well, sort of. It's sung to "Let it Snow" and says, "Oh the weather outside's delightful, but the traffic's awfully frightful, so since my shopping's done, I'm stayin' home, stayin' home, stayin' home." ha ha I think I've been around Nicky too long! lol

When I finally got home, I cooked dinner, finished up the treat bags for neighbors (then had the kids deliver them), and prepared the shrimp for tomorrow. And all day long, we tracked Santa on the the NORAD website. It was very fun for the boys, especially Indy. He was fascinated by that. And, I was fascinated by the Google Earth view of the tracking!

We exchanged our Love Gifts tonight and everyone did a really good job in gifts. I was very impressed. Nicky got some special cookies Indy baked, I got an ornament Ashton made, Savannah got a turkey feather and tiny turtle shell Nicky found, Ashton got a mini hand sanitizer in her favorite scent that I was saving for myself, Indy got one of Grandfather's hats from Mamo, Levi got a roll of coupons from Savannah for fun stuff like ice cream and playing her guitar, and Mamo got one of Levi's Mickey Mouse golf balls. Everyone really liked their gifts.

After dinner, Mamo, Ashton, the boys, and I went driving around to look at Christmas lights. It was a lot of fun. We just love looking at Christmas lights!! Ashton says that's her favorite part of Christmastime and I think it's right up there for me, too! After we got home, we put out milk and cookies for Santa and oats for his reindeer then we read the Christmas story from the Bible and the boys were off to bed. After everyone else had gone to bed, I sat in the dark with only my inside Christmas lights and tree on and just relaxed and enjoyed them. I could sit there all night....if I didn't have boys who got up at 7am every day!! I wish I could keep them up all year long, but I know I'd get sick of them and Nicky would definitely freak out!! lol SO, sadly, next weekend, down they go until next year. Also, I've been reading my annual read of Two From Galilee, my favorite Christmas book.

Waiting for Christmas....

Saturday

This afternoon and evening, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Drury's house for Christmas. We had a nice dinner and exchanged gifts. It was nice for my mom to visit with Nicky's parents, as they haven't seen each other in awhile. The kids always love to go to Grandma's house at Christmas, because Grandpa puts up lots of lights in the back yard and they can all play out there. We didn't have a fire this time, but we did have a very nice visit. Grandma and Grandpa are going to Disney World with Connie and Tommy, some cousins from SC over Christmas, so we did our Christmas early. We'll miss Grandma and Grandpa at dinner on Christmas day.

USA Day and Valentine's Day

Instead of an International Festival this year, we had a USA Day with our homeschool group. Each kid or family picked a state to do a display on. This was a lot of fun and very interesting. We actually learned a lot. Indy wanted to do Massachusettes because he played on the Boston Red Sox last year for baseball, but someone else really wanted to do that state. They asked Indy if they could have Massachusettes and he said yes, so then he picked Maryland because he later played on the Baltimore Orioles. We learned a lot about Maryland....many interesting things!

Here he is showing off his Maryland display. Levi did North Carolina, mostly because I did most of the work and research, but he really did learn a lot. He learned about the Wright brothers and about lighthouses. He still remembers a lot of what he learned! Here he shows off his NC display.

We had a Valentine exchange and party at park on the Tuesday before Valentine's Day. The kids always love doing that! So much fun to give and get Valentines! Here Levi is trading with one of the little boys at our group.

And, here's Indy with his friend, Chris, checking out their stuff. "Which one do you want?"

Merry Christmas!

This was the Christmas picture I took of the kids and sent out in the Christmas cards. I thought it came out pretty cute.

Christmas morning....

Indy...

Levi...

Savannah...

Ashton...

Nicky....

Everyone had a wonderful day opening and playing with all their new stuff. The boys got a little pup tent from Outdoor World which we immediately set up and they played with all day. Even the neighbor kids came over and played in it for awhile. It was a big hit!

Decorating the Tree

On Sunday, we decorated our tree and the boys had a blast! The girls were more blaize about it, but the boys had a lot of fun. Usually, everyone gets tired of decorating the tree and I end up finishing it, but not this time. I actually ran out of ornaments before Levi ran out of steam...am I surprised?!? lol

"Oh yeah. Oh yeah." Levi was excited to find his Mickey ornament.

I'm glad he had fun and kept going. After the boys went to bed, I finished it with my glass ornaments and some bows and tinsel. Now it looks beautiful. I'll post another picture soon.

Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Trivia

Copying from A Piece of the Puzzle:


1. Best childhood gift from Santa: Hmm, frankly, I can't remember a specific gift from Santa, though I know I must have received hundreds over the years. But, my best Christmas gift ever is a tie between a playhouse my dad built, that had our names painted on it alongside Disney characters my uncle had painted and a pair of earrings when I was 11, meaning I could get my ears pierced (after my dad had protested adamantly for months). I think he finally gave in because he felt bad that I broke my arm in 2 places just 10 days before Christmas and was in a cast from wrist up past elbow for 9 weeks. Ugh.


2. Best childhood memories: We always went to my uncle and aunt's house on Christmas Eve and our dads would take us kids in the El Camino around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. Then we'd tease our youngest cousin (Charley!) that we heard Santa and he better get to bed soon! Another fav was that my brother and I always got up in the middle of the night on Christmas morning to see what Santa brought. He always left us one thing unwrapped to play with (when we woke up in the middle of the night. How did he know we did that?!?) and we were allowed to open anything in our stockings. Then we ate lots of candy and went back to bed for a few hours.


3. Favorite Christmas cookies: I think I'd have to say homemade chocolate chip. Boring, I know, but dang they're good! :-)


4. Icky Christmas memory: Either the year I was sick when I was 5 or the year both my girls were sick.


5. It's not Christmas without: TV snack and candy canes, Christmas movies and music.


6. Our church service: Our church has a 7pm Christmas Eve service only. I never go because we're always at my inlaws that evening. But, I do watch the Pope's midnight mass while wrapping presents and getting ready for the morning. It's beautiful, even though I have no idea what he's saying! lol Gotta love those commentators!


7. Christmas pet peeve: Companies using "Holiday" or "Seasonal" instead of Christmas when they know darn well that it's Christmas! "....specials for the big holiday coming up" WHY can't they just say Christmas??? Argh!


8. Favorite Christmas cd: I have a lot of cds and I have some fav songs on each one, so maybe a compilation of them all.


9. Real or Fake: Had a mixture of real and fake growing up. We've had real ever since we were married, but now Nicky's ready to move on to a fake one. We may be going fake next year. We'll see.


10. I spend Christmas Eve: with my inlaws. Then, when we come home, we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 and put the kiddies to bed. Then, I spend the rest of the evening.....well, all you moms out there know how I spend the rest of the evening. lol


Merry Christmas! Anyone else want to play along??

Christmas Crafts!

I always love doing crafts with the kids during the Christmas season, but this year, we decided to invite one friend per boy to do crafts with us. We had a craft day where we did several crafts all back to back. There was glue, glitter, paint, cutting, and lots of other fun, messy stuff!

Here is Indy with his friend, Chris working on their nativity project.This is Levi's friend, Caleb, working on decorating a construction paper Christmas tree.

Here is Indy working on the same Christmas tree project.

And Chris, too.

I'm not sure I got any pictures of Levi working on his projects at all, since he sorta just "flew" through them! He's not much of a sit-down-and-create kinda guy! lol But they all did have a lot of fun!

Mamo's Visit, Part 1

Mamo (Mylinda's mom) came down to visit the week of Thanksgiving and we had a lot of fun! This fun picture of the girls was taken on the second day of her visit. Ta-dah!

A couple days later, we went to the Ft. Lauderdale Museum of Art to see a Norman Rockwell exhibit. It was really neat! Indy was just fascinated by all the artwork! I wish Levi had been, too, so I could have taken a little longer looking at some of the pieces. It was all I could do to keep him under control! lol But, we did have a really nice visit there. They have the coolest exhibits and we've seen several of them. I'm always checking to see what's coming next. I think since I've been studying artists with Indy (Monet last year and Van Gogh this year), it's given him a keener interest in artwork. I'm glad.

Ashton is in the culinary arts program at her high school. When they are freshmen, the fist semester, the teacher mainly focuses on kitchen safety and procedures.....kinda boring, but necessary. However, the do do two main projects the first semester, which are (1) a bread basket for Thanksgiving and (2) a really fancy gingerbread house for Christmas. A couple days before Thanksgiving, she brought her bread basket home and we used it on our Thanksgiving table. Here she is showing her work off. She did a great job, don't you think??

It even had a little stand to set it on made out of braided dough.

Here it is on our Thanksgiving table. And, yes, we did use it to hold our rolls for dinner!

The day after Thanksgiving, Mamo took Indy and Levi to the driving range and then to play miniature golf. They had a lot of fun....of course! Here's Levi on the driving range.

And, here's both boys on the mini golf course.

A couple days after that, we went to a nearby mall where their Santa display was themed around the Polar Express movie. It was really cool! And, man, the boys LOVED it! Here they are in front of the train with snow falling on them. It was so neat to play in the "snow" when it wasn't even cold! Great!

This was a tree in the display. Such a pretty setting. See the snow all over their shoulders??

Here they are on the back of the train. They did talk to Santa, but the people wouldn't let me take photos with my own camera, so there's no pictures of them with Santa.

I thought this was so cute with Levi looking up at the Polar Express train in the giant snowglobe. He thought that was really something!

In the same mall, at a certain time each night during December, they have a snowfall. It's really just tiny, tiny bubbles, but it sure seems like snow. We just have to use our imaginations. lol They have Santa handy and play Christmas music and it's a lot of fun watching the kids play in the snow. Here Indy is catching his snow.

I took this picture of the "snow" falling in front of the light so you could really see it well. Almost looks like real snow, eh?

The kids all were having so much fun that the girls started dancing to the Christmas music with the boys. Too cute! It was well worth fighting the crowd for!

Here's Indy and Mamo.

And, here's Mamo with all the Drury grandkids.

Stay tuned tomorrow for Part 2 of Mamo's visit and see what more exciting things we did! :-)

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today was Thanksgiving and it was a blessed day. This is our Thanksgiving table, ready for dinner.
The "kid" table. This is the first year we needed a kid table and the boys thought it was really cool that they had their own table! We had Mamo and one of Savannah's friends, Alex, join us for Thanksgiving, thus, the need for the kid table. We made it special for them, though. They got their own "centerpiece" decoration and fancy silverware and even glass glasses to drink from.

Getting ready to eat...

This is a close-up of our fabulous bread basket, made by Ashton in her cooking class. It made a great addition to our table. Wish we could have one every year!

Typically after dinner, though this year before dinner, the kids work on gingerbread houses. Here Savannah helps the boys make a big one, instead of the individuals we usually have. They still had fun and did a marvelous job!

The finished gingerbread house. Looks yummy!

Happy Halloween, 2009!

I know this one is kinda old, but hey, better late than never, right?? lol So, here's Halloween, 2009.

I took the boys to our local zoo for their Halloween special day. It's called MetroBoo. Indy dressed up as a soldier and Levi dressed up as Iron Man. They "trick or treated" to the booths set up around the zoo and got candy then played in the activity area. This was at the entrance.

Here's Iron Man at the entrance area.

Silly boys!

Indy attempted to climb the rock wall. He did pretty good for his first time. Of course, he did have a little help! lol

Indy also got his face painted....in camo, naturally. De ja vu. He was a soldier at this zoo day when he was about 3 and had his face painted in camo then, too! lol I think I see a reoccuring theme here. Hmmmm....

The Soldier.

We also went on a little hay ride through a natural wooded area. It was so nice except for the smell of the tractor engine right in front of us. Ugh. But, the boys got a kick out of the ride.

They played lots of games in the activity area, including this hockey booth where you could hit a puck into the holes and win a prize. Indy did pretty well, but they really got a kick out of Levi. He kept hitting it like a golf ball! Big surprise there, eh? lol Anyway, they had no idea that he played golf, but the guy said, "Hey, at least you know he could have a career in golf." I think he thought he was being funny, but when I said, "He does play golf," the guy balked. He couldn't believe it. He even called over the lady who was with him. She asked his name so that when he was famous someday, she could say that she had met him when he was little. I thought it was kinda funny.

So, the next day was actually Halloween, so here are some pix from that day. This is Savannah when we dropped her off at her friend's house for a party.

This is at the Western Fiesta at our church that evening. Levi played lots of games and won lots of candy...oh boy, just what he needs! Argh.

Both childrens' choirs sang a couple songs. Here, Levi's preschool choir sings. He did a great job on the motions....not so good on the actual singing! lol It's hard to believe he's one of the older ones now. Man, do they grow up fast!

Here's Indy's choir. He's the last one on the far right. He did his motions great, too, along with the singing.

Ashton's friend, Abbey, came over and went trick or treating with us. They both dressed up as cowgirls....sort of.

Levi wore this dinosaur (pterydactyl) outfit he got from his cousin. It fit him perfectly and was sooo cute! It was a little warm, though, after awhile.

When he put out his arms, you could see the "wings" for the pterydactyl. Too funny!

Indy was the Silver Surfer. He wanted to be this last year, but at the last minute, changed his mind. So, this year, he stuck with it. We covered his skateboard with foil, found a silver mask, and bought some gray (silver) clothes. It came out pretty good, but unfortunately, not so many people recognized his character. Oh well.

This is at a house in our neighborhood. These people are older, but go all out every year for Christmas. We call them "The Decoration Man". But, they did set this up for Halloween night. Cute picture.

Well, that's it. It was a busy, but fun day. Sadly, Nicky was already on night shift, so he missed all the costumes and fun. Hopefully next year, he'll be around. Happy Halloween! :-)