Tis the Season

Christmas music playing, hot chocolate drinking, gingerbread house making.  We love Christmas!

                             We made Christmas cookies again with sweet friends!

 And Santa was able to stop by again this year!  All the kids did so great with him.  Caleb calls santa "ho ho" and he walked up and said "hi ho ho".  Norah was enchanted by him, she didn't move after he looked at her :)

The Clouds Parted

The day Norah turned 6 months I called the Dr. office and said we need to be seen today.  She still cries...screams... all the time, waking up 3-4 times a night, only poops every 1-2 weeks...plain and simple she is miserable and surely colic can't last for 6 months.  They got us in and we decided to do a trial run with a reflux medicine, the dr. also wanted to do a x-ray of her tummy and that baby was filled with air all the way through.  She told me to give her gas drops every hour for the rest of the day and then with every feeding after that.  And my friends that has made all the difference.  We had tried the drops before but just wasn't giving her enough (she gets the max dose everyday) she feels so much better and is happy and funny and curios and giggly and sleeping and cuddly and just wonderful.  We have had an amazing month, she doesn't need the reflux medicine but if we miss the gas drops she pays for it.  

She can get anywhere she wants to now, puts everything in her mouth and says momma, mommomooomm....  Yes she said MOM first!!!!  The only one, everyone else's first word was dada

It is so wonderful having a happy baby!   I have never been around a baby as miserable as Norah was and it was hard.  But the clouds have parted, I'm a more patient person and can completely empathize with moms of crazy hard babies now.  There is NO DOUBT at all the Norah is going to do incredible things, a baby to have the stamina and will to cry as long and loud as she can will surely rock the world

Nature Sing

I have renamed him pomegranate monster

Norah has discovered the dish washer, her little face melts my heart

 My Christmas cactus.  Every time I look at it I sing "let heaven and nature sing".  It blooms at Christmas and Easter, and I believe 100% its praising Jesus, in the only way it can, which is beautiful.  My M.A. has a huge one which my mom broke off a few pieces and grew a huge one and then I broke off some of hers and grew one but left it it Memphis.  Last March my mom brought up two little pieces of hers and it has grown into this!

 Michael is sick now :(  Tonight I was putting Norah down and told the kids to go lay with daddy, I thought they were watching TV.  I came in to Michael completely out and the kids pretending to be asleep.  They make life so fun

Baby it's Cold Outside

We were going to have a garage sale Saturday but the HIGH was going to be 10!  It has been so cold but beautiful, no fog and sunny and the mountains look like someone poured marshmallow cream over them :)

snow bunnies

Younger two have been out for the count this week.  Luckily we got Caleb on antibiotics early so he is doing better and little miss Norah is on the upswing too.  She had her first fever and it was so sad, she had trouble sleeping and just didn't know what she wanted :(

Savvy still wants to be an elf.  I found this letter on her dresser,

"Dear Santa Claus,

I want to be a elf.  I was wondering if I could go to the north pole.  I would like to meet some of your elves.  If you can't it is ok maybe another night.  Thank you Love Savannah Rose Clay"

She was in her bed with her pants on and told me that if she was gone in the morning to not worry because she would be with Santa.

She wants an elf costume, shrinking and flying powder for Chrismtas

She has started writing songs as well, I was a little surprised when she showed me this one....  it's supposed to be "Santa's Reindeer"

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 I got a birthday weekend!  Michael gave me the best gift possible... a hotel... by myself...aka.. SLEEP.  This was the first night since April that I have slept all night and it was glorious.  I was a bit nervous because little miss Norah has refused to take a bottle but Michael was determined that he could get her to take one.  She woke up at 3am and wouldn't take the bottle :)  So michael put sugar on the nipple and that girl downed 3 bags of milk!  I had 6 bags in the freezer and they were all gone when I got back the next day... :)

 The kids wrapped a pen, play ring and a few other things I can't remember :)  But sweet Savvy asked Michael if she could get me a new phone cover, mine has been broken for months and she thought of the gift all on her own :)  But my favorite gifts were my letters, the top is from Cohen and bottom is from Savvy

I am one blessed lady.  This was my 13th birthday with Michael, 7th birthday as a mom, I have amazing parents, family and friends... It was a very happy birthday

Thanksgiving

I put on my big girl panties and hosted Thanksgiving this year :)  Being responsible for the turkey made me feel like I was a grow up.... not graduating college, buying a house, having kids, or moving across the country... but cooking a turkey did it.  And just for the record, I bombed it.  It was so dry it should have imploded like the one did on Christmas vacation.  The dressing was the consistency of jello, sweet potato casserole was runny, rolls were hard.  But, But, love was there and it was wonderful and fun and full of laughs:)

                                       The Nelson's and Scarbrough's came over

After lunch the kids and dads had a serious dodge ball game that lasted over an hour, then Michael pulled out his banjo.  It was a wonderful day...minus the food ;)

Caleb is 3

My Caleb!  He is nothing short of amazing.  He is hilarious, and sweet, and stubborn, and wild, and adorable.

He calls Norah "he", he tells me "I like you" or  "I don't like you" everyday, he will squeeze my nose and ask "you hear me?"  He loves food and eats constantly and making funny faces gives him the belly laughs

Everyone woke up early on his birthday so I decided to go get doughnuts.  When we were getting ready Caleb brought me a bag of baby carrots and asked if he could have one, baby gets what baby wants:)

He ended up bringing the carrots with us... to the doughnut shop... but when I was buckling him up he was feeding the bulldog on his hat the carrots too.  One for puppy

one for Caleb

After we left the shop things went downhill from there.   He kept on saying "its not my birthday mooom" and I would say yes it is, then he would yell "its not my birthday mooom"  and "i'm not 3"  He somehow got confused that a birthday is a good thing :)

He wanted "nuggies" for dinner so we went to Mcdonalds, and FYI Savvy and Cohen both ate a cheeseburger and 5 chicken nuggets.  

Caleb wanted a green cake and he blew out the candles before we finished singing.  We are all crazy about him.  

                                             Happy Birthday my big boy

Wizard, Bacon and Creamer

Norah bug is 6 months.  I put her in a gown that I wore when I was a baby and Michael said she looked like a wizard

                                                     she's a pretty little wizard :)

 Michael was out of town for the week and one night we face timed him during dinner.  Caleb was feeding him bacon, it was hilarious.  So much so that I made them reenact it so I could get a picture :)

Jessica enlightened me about a peppermint mocha coffee creamer and I thought that Cohen would love it in his chocolate milk.  It is nothing short of amazing and our whole family has gone through several bottles of it.  We had to run several errands one morning and it was cold so I made them hot chocolate with the creamer.  When I loaded them up and gave it to them Savvy said "oh can we get a big blanket and put Christmas music on?"

She makes me so proud

When the Cat's Away

Lately Caleb has loved having the older kids at school...shhh don't tell them though :)  After we drop them off  we head back home and the first thing he does is take off all his clothes.  He has started trying to take off his clothes everywhere we go.  It takes a good bit of distraction to make him forget he's dressed.

We have started a new game when I nurse Norah, he hunts for giants.  I tell him where they are and he gets them, always with his gun and grappling hook :)  He came up with it on his own and is hilarious when he's hunting.

 Norah has started getting up on all 4's!  She is so small but you would never know it by the looks of those arms.  She is in the 5% for length and 23% for weight

 oh yes he did!  Savvy and Cohen never wrote on walls or furniture so this is new territory for me.

              One of her new hairstyles, I think you can tell I'm a child of the 80's

Coer D'Alene

Our van is still in the shop and our insurance gave us a rental for a week because things have taken so long.  We decided to go visit Coer D'Alene for the day.  It is an adorable town!  The weather was horrible so we were only able to play outside for 15 minutes but the kids got to swim at the hotel and have McDonalds for dinner so that made the trip AMAZING :) 

 When Michael was in high school he once attempted to run away to Montana, but only made it like 2 hours from Memphis ;)  Montana was only an hour away but the weather was bad and it was snowing over the pass so Michael didn't get to touch Montana :)  We will see it one day my love!

Halloween

One of the best ever!  These days everyone and everything is having a harvest party or trunk or treat and honestly it just gets overwhelming.  We were going to go to our church's Fall Harvest but last minute decided to not go anywhere and trick or treat around our neighborhood.  And that was the best decision ever.  The kids had so much fun, Norah took a nap in the stroller, I got all weepy eyed watching them run up to the door and say "trick or treat" and "thank you", Michael and I held hands, he told me I was beautiful.... one, it amazes me that he still thinks that and two, that it still makes my stomach flip flop by hearing him say it.  Who would have thought halloween was so romantic
                                               Norah knew she was cute

Caleb, Norah and I went to the kids parties 

                                                            Norah had a blast

It was a very very good day.  And the kids gave me most of their Reese's