Christmas with Family, Two Gingerbread Houses, and Lots of Love

We have had a busy and fun Christmas Holiday. When school got out on the Friday before Christmas, we left for Austin to see Cleveland's parents and his sister Crystal and her family. We ate well and played hard. Cleveland and Larry went golfing. Emma and her aunt made a gingerbread house. (Crystal's first one) Emma had a grand time and we traveled back home on Monday to prepare to spend Christmas with my family. On Tuesday, we traveling to Petrolia to see Grandma Mayo. She was in great spirits, even though she was already in bed at 5:30. She has gained 12 pounds and is doing well. She laughed, made jokes with Todd about his beard and knew all of us. It was great to see her so happy. We made the trip then to Oklahoma to Bill's Catfish. I love Bills. We ate cole slaw, hushpuppies and catfish and we were all stuffed. Then we drove back to Jill and Todd's house for opening of presents. Emma loved her walkie-talkies, so did Uncle Todd. We ate cherry cheese cakes made by Jill. They were great. We played with the Anderson's Wii and had fun. Wednesday was to be a slow day. Mom came to our house about 1 pm to make cookies. We ate a late lunch. We made two kinds of dough for cookies and began to work on the second gingerbread house. The house went together fairly easy and we started making the cookies. After several dozen cookies, we turned our attention back to the gingerbread house for decoration. We finally finished and ate a late supper. Emma barely hit the sheets before Santa came to Texas. Then I had to wrap Em's presents from Mommy and Daddy. I finally made it to bed around midnight. We woke around 9 am for Santa's gifts under the tree. Emma was excited to find a Wii, Connectagons, a pink guitar, and some other stuff that I can not remember. Emma and Daddy played and watched tv as I cooked a turkey breast, ham, potatoes, carrots, green beans and rolls. Emma did not like my rolls, they were not like Nanny's rolls. Sorry, Mommy is tired at this point. Around 2:30 in the afternoon, we went to the ranch for Christmas with my Daddy and family. We ate lots of food: brisket, rolls, hot sauce (made by me), chips, cookies of course, pie, fudge, etc. Jill's sugar cookies made the top of the list and were loved by all. I tried again to make the cookies like she does. Not successful, my cookies are not bad, but they are not like Jill's. The kids played and opened their gifts. We played the gift exchange game. No one was ugly this year. We were disappointed. The kids played as we talked. We ended the night by playing dominoes. Todd quietly kicked our tails. We had a great time of love and fun. Hope your Christmas was a happy one. Check out our photos in the slideshow below.

Merry Christmas!

Well, I must say that I am ready for 2008 to pass away. During this past year, there have been blessings, don't get me wrong, but. . . There was been a summer redoing Kindergarten curriculum, a class loaded to the limit with 22 children in all of Kinder, first, and second, ADD diagnosis, glasses for distance vision, two new meds for me, two new meds for Emma, a crazy nurse staying with my grandma, a cousin with health issues, an aunt with cancer, a dad with crazy hunter and loaded guns, mom hitting a jaguar in a parking lot, etc. That is just to name a few. I am hopeful for 2009. It will start with a bang. Emma has an appointment on January 5th at Scottish Rite. They will test her for dyslexia, and learning disabilities. I feel she has dyslexia. I pray that the wonderful people there can tell us how we can help Emma to learn at her full potential. I am asking for prayers for a safe trip, a talkative child who will answer questions when asked, and help for a precious child and her parents.

May God Bless Your Family,
Lori

Jigzone

I like jigsaw puzzles, but they are big and take up a lot of room. Someone usually loses a piece of them and that drives me crazy. Therefore, puzzles online. I love them. I can take a puzzle a make it easy for Emma with only a few pieces. I can do puzzles myself with upto a couple of hundred pieces or pieces for my kids at school with around 50 pieces. Check out the puzzle below of my Little Fairy. If you like it there is a link on the side to Jigzone.

A Tooth Lost and a Pet Funeral during a Cold Front

Emma loses Tooth #6!

Our Fab Five: Emma, Marklie, Ian, Brady and Duke

Item 1: Emma lost her sixth tooth on Wednesday night. She was so excited to again catch her boy, Brady. She adores him. Right now, its cute . . . Later it may not be so cute for my daughter to adore a BOY. Now it is okay because we are family, well sort of family. When I was pregnant with Emma, three of my best teacher friends were pregnant, too. We had such fun experiencing the joys and strange side effects of child bearing together. Kelli, Becca, Melanie and I were a walking sideshow everywhere we went together for many months. Finally, the supporting characters arrived . . . Emma, Brandy, Ian, Duke and Marklie. Yes, I know that is four women and five babies, but Melanie doesn't do anything half way. She wanted to show the rest of us up by having two babies at once. The supporting cast has grown up together through birthday parties, Halloween, trips to the park and many many days at the Water Park. If Em has to be (and will be) an only child, then these precious babies of my best friends are Em's brothers and sisters. I love you guys and those babies. Item 2: We buried Emma's pet hamster on Thursday night. I have to admit that I did not want the hamster, but I loved Emma's face when she jumped up and down in front of the hamster case at the pet store. We have named all of our pets after Presidents (that may stop, I can't imagine calling a dog Barak or O'Bama). Emma continued the tradition by naming her hamster, Madison. She came home when Emma finished Kindergarten last year. Well, Madison made a trip around the kitchen one night when her ball opened surprisingly and even made a trip to Iowa for summer vacation. But that is not much for a short life of 6 months. Emma enjoyed her. Well, we all kinda grew to like her. So when Cleveland woke me up at 6 am on Thursday morning, I was sick. Sick for my baby. Madison is the only pet she really remembers. She talks about Jackson, our dog, but she really doesn't remember him. Emma cried for a while, but seems to be okay. She wants another pet. I told her to wait until after Christmas at least. Item 3: Anyone who thinks that a cold front does not affect children's behavior is wrong. I love my class this year, but the cold doesn't like them. I am hoping for a short winter or any sick days for me to make it through when it is cold. Item 4: Prays needed and wanted for family and friends. May God hold the sick in his hands and heal them. God protect the growing and innocent coming in the future. (No not me.) God guide us as parents to help our children be the best people they can be.

My Biggest Blessing and Big Girl High Heels!

Emma is my biggest blessing from the Lord. She is beautiful, sweet, kind, and mannered. Well, some days. Other days she is not so pretty, unkind and rude. Did I forget loud? Everything always balances out. She is our biggest blessing. She was so proud of her big girl shoes that she wore on Thanksgiving day. If you have heard me lament on the perils of shopping for a child with skinny feet, well I am sorry. Emma's heel is about 1 inch wide!!!!!!!!!! That is not normal. She has her daddy's skinny feet. The Mayos have wide feet. My get wider when they are on the floor. (That may not be normal either.) Back to the shoes. . . Emma and I have been shopping for dress shoes since August. No luck! Well, the week before Thanksgiving Carolyn (Cleveland's mom), Emma and I went to look for shoes again. It is to cold to wear flip flops to church. God takes us as we are, but Momma wants shoes on her girl's feet. We were not finding anything, as normal. Emma saw these high heels. Oh, I mean HIGH HEELS !!!!!!!!!!!! Emma screamed with delight. I knew that they would not fit well. They are clogs. They were close, with socks even okay. But not what I was looking for in dress shoes. But she loved them and they were no clearance for nine dollars. I bought them with the agreement that she would try on any shoes I wanted for the rest of the day. A win-win in my eyes. She hates shopping. Later, we went to two other stores. Finally, we found dress shoes at JcPenney's. Okay, they are the same style we have had for a few years, but they fit that skinny foot. Yeah! Did I say win-win!