A Few New Toys

Will absolutely loves his new toys from Christmas. It has been so nice to have weather that has allowed the kids to play outside.

And there is nothing like Will's favorite toy... that would be Lauren's new doll house. Isn't that cute!

Pray

I know most of you follow MckMama's blog, but Stellan has become very sick. Plese pray for him and his doctors. He is in ICU and from what I read is being sedated and hooked up to a ventilator.

What Today has in Store

Laundry...
Dishes...

and, Wii!

I'm not sure if you have noticed, but I got a new, fantastically, fabulous camera for Christmas and I LOVE it. So I have taken a ton of pics.

A Week in Pictures

If you'll recall this post you would remember me telling you about Jacob's accident on his dirt bike. He went back for his six-week follow up last week and they did more x-rays. From the dr's initial perspective it looked as though the two vertebrae were stable but he wants him to wear his back brace for 6 more weeks. Jacob was very devastated to hear he needed to continue wearing it, but like I've tried to say all along, we need to be thankful the injury wasn't more serious. So that brings us to today when I was shopping at Wal-Mart and I got a phone call from the clinic. It was his neurologist who said they just got the official radiology report in and it did indicate that there was a loss of volume in those 2 vertebrae.This translates to them not being stable. He said to have Jacob wear his brace faithfully and even more than he had before. I would consider this a definite setback in his healing. We go back to his dr at the end of January for more x-rays. I need to petition any/everyone to please pray that God heals him fully. From what I have heard it doesn't look like there could be any serious reprocutions with these fractures later on, they did say that it would take years to regain the height in those vertebrae, but we definitely need them to be stable. So again, please pray for complete healing of these two fractures and for Jacob's patience and understanding in the recovery process. As you can remember when you were nine, a week seems like a month, so wearing this for another 6 weeks seems like an eternity to him. Thanks you for taking this matter into your heart and praying for my son.

Weekend Getaway

Preston and I left town Saturday morning to go to Dallas. We had to go up there to pick up some furniture that Lauren is getting for Christmas. We took this opportunity to go somewhere...together....alone, which never happens. We had a great time. Sometimes it is nice to just be. We had no timelines, nowhere to be. We could just do whatever we wanted. While we were waiting to make sure we could pick up her furniture from the warehouse, we looked around at other furniture and fell in love with a living room set. We sat on it for a while and then did it. We bought it! I love it. It is fantastic. So that will be my Christmas for some years to come I'm sure. Then we went to lunch before picking it up. Once we squeezed it all in the trailer (we were only expecting to pickup bedroom furniture so we took the small trailer) we had the rest of the time to do what we wanted. We stayed in Grapevine most of the time and did some shopping but it was BUSY!! I had gone on Hotwire.com for the first time to book our room. If you know me well, you know I am a complete germ-aphobe when it comes to hotels. I have been known to make reservations and pull up only to keep on driving because I wouldn't feel safe putting my luggage on the floor. Anyways, I was a little nervous about what I had just done and it is totally non-refundable, but we pulled up and it was great. I was shocked. I paid $44 for this hotel and it was fantastic. The lord was watching over me for sure. So we slept in and went to breakfast and came home slowly. When we travel with kids, we try to get home fast to minimize the car time for them, so it was nice to take our time. Then we put the living room all together and I haven't left it since. With roaring fires and cold days, we have hung out and just played. But today I need to venture out to do some shopping for Preston. I have no idea what to do for him. He is hard. Wish me luck. ;)

I'm typing this post with my poor, sick baby in my arms. Why is it that they get sick over the weekend when you can't take them to the dr? I hate being in a dilemma about what to do when one of my children are sick. Am I the only one? Do I take them to school and see if they can make it, or take off during a really bad time at work? I know what my heart tells me to do, it just isn't always possible. Anyway I have a few more hours to pray for complete healing by morning.

On another note, this month has already been SUPER busy. Whether it's Christmas programs, work parties, meetings, I feel like there has been no time to really prepare for the birth of our Lord and Savior. I've tried to stay diligent in prayer in preparing my heart, but it's not just my heart that needs to be prepared. I have to make sure that our children really understand the meaning of this time of year. Too often they ask "how many more days until Santa comes?", instead of "how many more days until we celebrate the birth of Jesus?". It is so difficult to live in a society that doesn't necessarily reflect what I believe in. To some degree I blame them for commercializing such an important event in the lives of Christians. I'm just as guilty though. I can easily get sucked into this whirlpool as well. Such a struggle. I can say that I have an incredible ache to know Jesus better. I have been listening to my Christmas CD, the new Faith Hill one, and it talks to my soul. If you get a chance to listen to it you should.

On yet another note...I have been reading the book The Sacred Marriage by Gary Thomas. MckMama talked about it on her blog, and it is really good. With some of our best friends going through a very shocking divorce, I am compelled to do whatever it takes to make my own marriage not only survive, but also incredibly successful.

If I can possibly ask for more prayers, could you please pray for Will, that he is just simply suffering from a cold and nothing more serious, and that no one else gets it. I really need to make it through this week at work. Things are a little stressful right now.

For Pete's Sake!

So last night when I got home I was going throught the mail (it took a minute since it was over 2 weeks since I last checked it!) and while I was sorting through it Lauren and Will were looking at the tree. That's when Will took and ornament and threw it and it naturally broke. So then Lauren was helping Will sweep it up when she rested the broom on the wall, which somehow slid down and knocked my clock off the wall, which then flew into my precious nativity set. You can imagine the heap on my concrete floors and nothing could be salvaged. :( My nativity set now consists of baby Jesus, Joseph and some livestock! So I got over that eventually... and this morning I set off to go to school, 15 minutes late!, and got half way down the road and realized my car wasn't driving right and sounded a little deep. I turned around and came back home, only to realize my tire was so flat I was driving on the rim. Preston took it to Discount Tire and they said on that tire the valve stem was leaking which caused the flat, but my other tires only had 5 lbs and 10 lbs of pressure! Craziness! And tonight I think the baby might be getting sick. He was up all night coughing-to the point of throwing up. It's only gotten worse today. Bummer.

On another note, my first born is turning 9 tomorrow! Unbelievable. More on him tomorrow.

Commercials

As I posted my last post I heard a commercial that said "Shake your money maker, shake it, shake it hard" This is on ABC family where my kids are watching a Christmas movie. Am I the only one who has a problem with these types of commercials? I hate the television!
*now I was typing this and it said "the sexiest night on television...."! I am done typing I need to monitor what my kids are watching.

I can't believe today is December 1st. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We had family in and made the rounds to other family and really enjoyed our time together. Preston tried to stay home as much as he could the entire time I was off. I got so spoiled. It was really hard to go back to work today and not be together. Anyway, Friday morning my sister and I went shopping like we always do and had a ball. I love doing that. This is the first year, though, when we were actually one of "those" parents who had to get the hot item. I didn't think we would ever be that. My children only get three wrapped presents besides the one Santa gift, so we try to make them all special and something they really want. I also made Lauren some super cute skirts on Friday. I can't wait to take her picture in them. I think I will make those for our Christmas cards. I am a little behind though if I haven't even taken the picture for the card, much less ordered them. Oh well, if you get your card after Christmas just know I love you and am a little time-challenged. ;) The kids made a gingerbread house with their aunt one afternoon and I meant to take pictures of it. I still haven't and I think Will has eaten about every piece of candy off the roof top by now. That stinker! He is so mischieveous, but oh so sweet. If I can ever get these cookies made that Lauren and I have been trying to make for the past two days I will be sure to post pictures of them, they are a labor of love most certainly, or an obsession by now. I am determined to make them work! Jacob's birhtday is on Thursday. I cannot believe it. He will be NINE years old. Is that even possible? Wow I was young ;) This post is all over the place isn't it. I hadn't thought it through really and when blogger actually let me on, I jumped at the opportunity to write something! ha! If you have read my other posts then you know what I am talking about. I am so technologically-challenged. (is that a word?)