My Grammie

Today my Grammie would have been 86 years old! The last birthday we spent with her was 4 years ago. We almost didn't make it because I was 8 months pregnant with Ashley and had been sick and in the hospital in Columbia with kidney stones but I was determined not to miss her birthday. Corey, Aly & I made the drive from Columbia to St. Louis to see her that morning. We picked her up from the Nursing home and took her to Red Lobster for lunch. She was only in the Nursing home a few months and was sharp as a tack. She always gave the cook a hard time about the food so she pretty much rubbed the fact that she got to go out to eat in his face. When I told him that she used to work 4 days a week at a doctors office up until 3 months prior to her stay at the nursing home he couldn't believe it. She always felt so special when we would visit and pick her up and take her out to eat. She loved showing Aly off to all of the other residents. The other residents were always trying to get Aly to sit on their lap and kiss and hug her. Gram made sure they knew that Aly was hers and not theirs!

I wish she was still here, she would have loved meeting her 1st great grandson. I like to think about all of the fun we would have and the things we would do if she were still alive now that we are living in STL again. Happy Birthday Gram! We miss you!

2 More Days

I put this on Facebook but it's too cute not to blog about. Ashley is not a big fan of milk. I make her drink not even 1/2 a cup at dinner every night (I am talking those little plastic cups that the kids get with their kid's meals at restaurants). We are constantly on her to finish her milk. Last night she brought her dishes to the sink, looks at Corey and says "I finished my milk so can I open a present?". Sometimes she's too funny for her own good!

The highlight or should I say lowlight of last week was I hit a parked car in the parking lot of Aly's school with the new van. Nice huh...I can think of much better things to spend my deductible on...especially at Christmas.

The real highlight of last week was we moved Joely into his own room, upstairs. This was all Daddy's doing, Mommy wasn't ready but I have to admit it is nice not having to sneak around my own room so that I don't wake the baby up.

I completely finished my Christmas Shopping yesterday...this includes all the odds and ends. Coincidentally Corey finished his yesterday too. He started and finished all on the same day...he should be finished since he only has to buy for 1 person. But he does a mighty fine job. I gently reminded him that there was a Tiffany's at Plaza Frontenac...you know just in case he forgot to place his order online in time for a Christmas delivery.

The kids are super excited about Christmas this year. Every day they are eating the chocolate out of their advent calendar squealing about how many more days til Christmas. They have gotten to open some of their presents early. We've been letting them open presents for about a week and a half now. This has worked out nice because they are actually able to appreciate what they are getting from each person instead of being completely overwhelmed on Christmas morning.

I think we are going to make our gingerbread house today and head over to the mall to visit Santa. Nothing like getting down to the wire on the Santa visit. Aly's is pretty concerned that the elves don't know how to make American Girls so she wants to visit Santa so she can tell him for herself. I told her not to worry because sometimes Santa does his shopping on-line too.

I really should not be blogging...I have too much to do! But I wanted to share a few pictures from the weekend...still looking forward to Wednesday!

Friday night was a blast, next year the kiddos are staying at the grandparents overnight! It was fun to spend time with all of our friends (B...it was so fun to get to wear the dress again, it was perfect)! They were even able to live stream the broadcast of Pastor Dave on TBN...here's the link if you're interested in seeing it. Click on December 11, 2009 and you can scroll through the show...Pastor's on about an hour into the program. Very cool to see our Pastor on TBN!

Cleaning and meetings went well on Saturday. I'm starting to help plan the monthly It's A Girl Thing meetings at church. Wii Olympics will be in January! I feel very honored to be asked to be a part of planning these special events that reach so many women!

We let the girls open a Christmas present early(Mom, it was all Corey's doing, I wanted to wait until Christmas)! You can see from their faces how very excited they are about the Wii! We already had our first Wii injury yesterday, Aly clocked Ashley in the eye...really hard...Ash cried for about an hour (and she's one tough cookie so you know it really had to hurt) and today her eye is swollen.

Joel's dedication went well...we had 17 people come to watch us make our committment to raise him up in a Godly home. We had a great dinner afterward and I made the best cheesecake ever! It was so fun to be able to spend the day with family! The girls had a great time dressing Uncle Benny up! He's such a good sport. After everyone left, Alex spent the evening with us since Erica and Benny went to work. We had fun hanging out with her. She's getting more and more fun to hang with the older she gets. Corey helped her with her math homework and we had fun just chillin the rest of the night.

Side story, Ash has jammie day at preschool today but I thought jammie day was Friday (I have a valid reason for making the mistake but it's too long of a story). Anyway she showed up Friday with her pj's on and everyone else had on regular clothes. This morning I reminded her that her class was having jammie day today and she asked me "is everyone else going to be wearing their jammies today too Mom?" And Aly says to me..."Wow Mom, you really messed up". Thanks girls...love you too!

Date Night

Corey and I actually went out on a real live date last night! Seriously this is only the second time since Joel has been born that we have actually been out by ourselves on a date for ourselves. They only other times we have left Joel is when we've had to do something for other people. Thanks Grandma for taking such great care of the kids and thanks to FCSL for an awesome VIP Banquet. We were able to get all dressed up, enjoy a great dinner and fellowship.

Here's a great picture of the girls loving on their Daddy! Daddy has had a crazy, busy week and is feeling very stressed. His project that he has been working on all year goes into implementation at midnight tonight so this equates to long hours and stress. When Daddy has weeks like these the girls sense it and Aly massages his shoulders while Ashley jumps on his back.

Joel's baby dedication is tomorrow morning and then we will have a houseful of people for lunch. Today is going to be a busy day of cleaning and preparing with a birthday party and two meetings in Fenton thrown into the mix...not to mention Corey's midnight implementation. Meetings Monday and Tuesday...looking forward to Wednesday already!

Our Life Lately (in pictures)