Thanksgiving and Intro to Christmas!

I'm a bit sad because our Thanksgiving is already over. Tonight is back to homework, early bedtimes, making lunches and picking out clothes for school.  Thanksgiving is such a heartwarming Holiday and I'm sad that we have a whole 'nother year until it comes back around. I'm even more sad our break was interrupted by a yucky stomach bug that all 3 kids got. 

Sully woke up on Thursday with throwup in his crib in the morning and again at nap, and he has had diarrhea for days! Shawn and I and the girls didn't catch anything right away so we decorated the house with Christmas decorations and put up the tree on Friday night. We all got matching pajamas (MY FAVORITE!) and cranked up the Christmas music.  It was the most heartwarming thing ever!  Nothing makes me happier than Christmas traditions! But at 2am we heard screaming from upstairs so I sprinted up only to smell that tell-tale smell....Throw-up.  Lucy had thrown up ALL over her bed. She was drenched in it and it was everywhere.  We rinsed her off and she slept in the doorway of my bathroom that night.  Well, Piper didn't want to be alone up in their room so Daddy climbed into bed with her, and within an hour she was throwing up as well.  They each only threw up 2 times, thankfully.  But the next day they were still very weak and tired. I spent hours and hours yesterday cleaning and disinfecting the house and just when I was making head-way, suddenly Sully had a diarrhea explosion (all over the carpet) and THEN threw up again- in my cupped hands, and all over Sully's was weird because it seemed like it went away Friday but came back full-force Saturday.  Saturday night after the house was sanitized from top to bottom, my stomach started rumbling.  Thankfully I didn't throw up, but I had the worst stomach-ache all night. Every time I moved in bed it felt like I was getting punched.  I was nauseas all day today and weak and clammy.  Shawn got the chills and shakes in the night last night with some nausea as well, but lukily neither him nor I threw up.

I'm feeling much better than I was this morning and I can tell tomorrow I'll be almost back to normal.  I'm just bummed because I had Christmas crafts lined up to do with the girls that we didn't get to do, and we were going to bake some Christmas goodies last night and it didn't happen. Plus Lucy had to miss out on a friend's birthday party AND a play-date. Oh well.... it's life! :(

At least I got the house decorated and the tree put up before the sickness set in for me and the girls!  Plus, Thanksgiving dinner was AMAZING.  No, sweet Sully didn't eat (he was sick, remember) but Shawn smoked THE MOST delicious turkey ever.  I am not a huge fan of turkey, but I could NOT stop eating this.  It was so, so, soooooo, SO good.  Truly the best I've ever had. I made all the traditional food (freshly baked bread, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots and celery, plus a new addition- bacon wrapped asparagus! YUM!) and we had a really nice night. The girls watched and fell in love with Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving and I felt warmth and happiness in my heart. It was the perfect kick-off to the holiday season.  (Also worth noting: the girls LOVE our mistletoe. They bring Sully under it to kiss his sweet cheeks all day long. It's just the sweetest.) 

Friday we ventured out for a couple hours to hit up Target but we missed all the door-busters so I didn't get much this year.  And I was tired.  At least I tried though :)

Now we have 1 more month of school before a 2 week Christmas break, and fingers crossed there's no sickness next time!

Also, just 10 more days until our cruise! We are having Mickey and Minnie call to tell the girls the good news on Saturday! I'm SO excited! 

But for now, it's back to school we go....

You'd never know he had just thrown up an hour before this picture was taken. Sweet boy!

 The girls LOVE doing filters with me :) We are Koalas here, haha.

Even though we weren't able to do our Christmas crafts, we WERE able to make Sock Puppets. They named theirs Ruby and Rose :) 

It's the end of November but we still have some days in the 70's!

I love this picture. It just captures so perfectly how happy he was to get pictures taken! :)

I had to take a picture like this because I know every year my Boise family does it and I wanted to be a part of it.  So I was hoping they could photoshop me in. They didn't though. Pshhh.

It was Sully's first year helping us hang ornaments. He loved it. He focused so hard on getting his little hooks over the branches. I can't stand how adorable it was! I have such sweet memories of the first years that the girls also decorated our trees. These are the memories I will cherish for the rest of my life. 

P.S. Maisy got a Christmas haircut, complete with a Christmas scarf :)

Hippies, Pilgrims, 1950's, Day Dates, and Feasts!

So much has happened in the past week! With 2 kids in school with 2 different schedules and activities life is just go-go-go. I don't even want to think about how crazy it'll be with all 3 of my little's in school in just a couple of years! Except I suppose at that point I'll have alone time as well, so it might not feel so hectic ALL the time. I don't know? All I know is that right now, in this "season of life" I feel really, really, REALLY busy. There are some perks of having 2 kids in school though. I get some alone time with my boy, which I LOVE and absolutely cherish. And I really enjoy seeing the girls' flourish daily.  I LOVE their school and their teachers and their cute friends and so even though I feel overwhelmed, I also feel blessed. 

But enough about that, here are some highlights of our week!

Fall has really, REALLY hit- finally! The trees are GORGEOUS and Sully and I take lots of morning walks together. I love looking at the trees' reflections in our ponds. Fall is breathtaking. We also have a lot of Day Dates, just me and my boy.  He's turned into a great errand runner! THANK GOODNESS! (He also figured out how to pick his nose, much to his delight....)

 Speaking of alone time, Piper and I went over to our favorite little section of the Tulsa Metro to Christmas Shop! It's a quaint little old-time feelin' downtown area that we just love, but it's 30 minutes from home so we don't get to go often. When we do it feels special, so she wanted to take lots of pictures with me out and about that day. I loved having some alone time with her!

The girls' had to dress like Hippies for their activity night last night and I completely forgot about it until we were herding everyone out the door! I raced upstairs to see what I could scrounge up in their closets and did the best I could.  They still looked pretty groovy (especially Piper with that hair!), but trying to explain to them what a Hippie is was very hard to do, haha! I had to choose my words carefully.  They didn't ask WHY Hippies were so "calm" and "mellow." They just accepted it. Thank goodness.... I didn't even attempt to tell them about angry hippies....

Next, for the 50th day of school, the kids had to dress up as "1950's people." There are a LOT of costumes going on in our house if you haven't caught on yet..... 

Anyway, here’s the story: I have a daughter (Lucy) who literally CAN’T not pose for pictures. So she kept striking all these model poses and I finally said “hey Lu. Can you just stand up straight for ONE picture?” I said it nicely, I swear. But immediately she starting pouting about me suppressing her inner diva and her pout face was just too good not to post!😂 

Daddy installed the Christmas lights this past weekend. We have a Candycane Lane and all of our trees and bushes are lit up! YAY!!! The kids love watching him. 

Finally, both girls had Thanksgiving Celebrations/ Plays at school today... they were 2 1/2 hours apart  so there was a lot of driving to and from Central Elementary for us! 

Piper's was first and all the Pre-K kids sang some Thanksgiving songs and said some poems.  Piper's class were the Pilgrims. There were Indians and Turkeys from the other classes too :)  Then they all sat down together for a "Feast" of cheese & crackers, sliced Turkey meat and juice.  Oh, and cookies! We came home, laid Sully down for a nap and then turned around and went to watch Lucy in her class play.  Her class did the "ABC's of Thanksgiving" and Lucy had the very last letter. Z is for Zany! She went on to explain what was Zany about the first Thanksgiving so many years ago. Hehe, it was cute. Then they sang a whole bunch of songs that were adorable and had little Cornucopias of popcorn and candy trail mix.  I just know those teachers do so much to prep for these performances and I hope they know how grateful I am to them! They are the hardest workers!! I'm THANKFUL for them!!!

Next week the girls have school Monday and Tuesday, but then we get a nice long break after that and I am really looking forward to the down-time. I know we just had Fall break last month, but I'm ready for another break! I'm one tired Mama! Can't wait to relax and enjoy my sweet family this year. We are staying home for Thanksgiving this year and I have some plans for couch time with my babies and lots of PJ wearing! Oh- AND we will decorate the house for Christmas! I can't WAIT!

I will end this post with a "post" of my own on Facebook last week.  I'm doing this because I really want to remember this beautiful morning and it's always easier to copy and paste from one site to another.  I will always cherish my snuggles!

It’s been a LONG time since they came into my bed in the morning and snuggled with me before our day began. We used to do this every single morning no matter what, for years. But when baby brother came along, things changed. This morning i heard tiptoes and then the whispering “mama, are you awake?” It was 30 minutes before my alarm was set to go off, but i rolled over and told them to get under the covers with me for a bit. Snuggling them and smelling their clean shampooed heads from the night before and breathing in their sweet scent brought tears to my eyes. My heart was reminded why these morning cuddles were always my favorite.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone. I hope your Holiday is filled with love.