Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Christmas is Coming!!!

Well, Christmas Eve is tomorrow!!! I hope everyone is ready for the big day! I have one more project to finish up and then, of course, the wrapping! But I'm pretty excited that I did so much. After Christmas, I will post pictures of all my projects. It would be quite pointless to do it before Christmas since some of you may be getting something from me. But, since we are so poor this year, I made all the gifts myself. And I'm nearly done!
I am very excited about Christmas and one thing I love to do every year is make candy. So my girls usually help. Here's a picture of Seryn helping me this year. We were making carmel for the pecan turtles. YUM!!!
(Right here, she's saying 'hot.') And here she is, just being too darn cute!
I also got my hair cut and colored it. It's always fun to have new styles from time to time. I asked Shane what I should do (because my hair was getting quite long. I think we cut off 4-5" from the bottom layer.) He said, "Something sexy, but not too short." So this is what I did. Here's a picture of it flipped out...
...and curled under. Although, the first time I did this, it startled me to realize how much my hair styled this way made me look like my mom. But in a good way. It was just a little shocking at first. Perhaps, if she flipped hers out, she'd look like me? (By the way, for this picture, I was getting ready for my company party. So, no. I don't normally get this dolled up.)
And Lylli has finally made it to the next stage of her quilt!!! If you remember, she started it over the summer. She cut up her favorite blanket so she would quit sucking her fingers and built a quilt. It has taken us a while but now we need to put it on the quilting frame and tie it! She's soooo excited!!! And she did most of the sewing herself! It looks so cute! And she did a great job!
Well, I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas!!! (Oh...and I put up a new scene from my latest book!)

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Lylli's Test Results

For those of you who have been sitting on the edge of your seats - because I know how you follow my life with a vengeance - we learned Lylli's test results today. For those of you who don't know, a couple weeks ago, Lylli was tested for the gifted and talented program here in the school district. She is very bright, doesn't like repetitiveness, and always has to know how everything works. The program here in town is geared toward these issues. They work on projects of their interest and they move at their own pace within their class. We thought Lylli would do really well here, so we had her tested.
This morning, Shane met with the lady in charge and she says that Lylli was very nervous and she thinks that affected her score negatively but she still was kind of on the line. The gal thinks Lylli would do really well in this program, though. Unfortunately, they have a waiting list and we won't be able to get her in until at least next school year.
So, what do we do now? After all, she is bored and frustrated in school because she is never learning anything new. If she wants to know about it, she comes home and learns it and she has a memory like I've never seen. So, we've tossed around a few ideas. There is one private school here in town (St. Anthony's). They have smaller classes and so she'd probably be able to move at a faster pace if she wanted to. However, Lylli is not big on change, so she's not a fan of that idea. She is going back and forth between two others. A: I could home school her. (I'm not excited about that, but if it will keep her interest in school, I'll do it.) or B: We visit with the lady from the G & T program, Lylli's teacher, and principal (who, by the way, is very upset that we asked to have Lylli tested after he said 'no') and try to implement some extra projects into Lylli's curriculum that will help push her and keep her interested a little more but keep her in the same class. Basically, those are our options. Or do nothing. But she comes home frustrated and grumpy every day. So pray for us, and hopefully we'll do the right thing for her.


Seryn's First Hair Cut!

Seryn got her first haircut yesterday!! (Yes, I take my kids in to get their hair cut. Believe me when I tell you, they behave better for Cindy than for me!) For the girls' first hair cuts, I usually sit with them so they feel more comfortable. But, Seryn was having a rough time even on my lap. This first picture is a little fuzzy (Lylli was taking pictures) but it shows you how upset she was at first. Look! Those are REAL tears!

But, after Cindy gave her a little stuffed ostrich, she cheered right up and was even a little bit of a ham for the camera. And the best part about her hair cut... Their first one is free!!!!!!!



Monday, December 15, 2008

COLD!

It has been so cold the last couple days and isn't supposed to warm up for a while. Today was rough. The pipes in the kitchen froze and so I put heaters up in the cupboard and downstairs too to thaw out the pipes. Great idea, except that they decided to unthaw while I drove across town to pick up Lylli from school. I was gone for an hour and when I came home, the sink was overflowing. For some reason, the sink was having difficulties draining (it was zero degrees throughout most of the day today) and so the sink simply overflowed. After I finally got the kitchen cleaned up, Shane went downstairs and discovered the pipes had broken and there was a ton of water downstairs too!!! ACH!!!! But now, as I right this, the adventure is mostly over. My dad came over and helped Shane fix the pipes and everything is warm and draining once more. (Except outside it is still quite fridged.) So that is my adventure for today.
On to happier things! Over the weekend, we had Mandy over. (For those of you who don't have my family tree memorized, Mandy is my cousin's daughter, who happens to be six months older than Lylli.) On Friday afternoon, the girls made gingerbread houses, which they loved, and then we went to dinner with my parents to celebrate my birthday! On Saturday, we went shopping! (Don't worry, Alicia joined us!) My girls each chose a sister's name from a hat and bought one present this year. They had a great time! And now they keep asking when they can do it again!



Saturday, December 13, 2008

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Trimming the Tree

We love the smell of a fresh tree and get one every year. And, like every year, we got our tree from Brian Bowan's (aka Santa's) tree lot over by Discount Sports over the weekend. Then on Monday, we decorated the tree for FHE. The girls had a great time! Especially Seryn. And she only dropped and broke one ball! (That's great odds! I think last year Layla dropped 3 or 4.) And so far, most of the ornaments are still in the same place as they were on Monday! Needless to say, we are very excited for Christmas now!


Monday, December 8, 2008

Night Terrors

I know, this sounds like something I should post about during October. Sorry. This wasn't in our house during October. We'll call it, "The Nightmare Before Christmas." Oh, wait! That one's been used. So, we'll stick with what we've got.

"A night terror is characterized by extreme terror and a temporary inability to regain full consciousness. The subject wakes abruptly from slow-wave sleep, with waking usually accompanied by gasping, moaning, or screaming. It is often impossible to fully awaken the person, and after the episode the subject normally settles back to sleep without waking. A night terror can rarely be recalled by the subject. They typically occur during non-rapid eye movement sleep.
Night terrors are distinct from nightmares in several key ways. First, the subject is not fully asleep when the night terror occurs. Unlike nightmares, which are frequently dreams of a frightening nature, night terrors are not recalled dreams. Usually there is no situation or event (scary or otherwise) that is dreamed, but rather the emotion of fear itself is felt. Often, this is coupled with tension and apprehension without any distinct sounds or visual imagery, although sometimes a vague object of fear is identified by the sufferer. These emotions, generally without a focusing event or scenario, increase emotions in a cumulative effect. The lack of a dream itself leaves those awakened from a night terror in a state of disorientation much more severe than that caused by a normal nightmare."

So, for those of you wondering why I would post such a definition, I'll let you know that Layla has been having 'night terrors.' Lovely, I know. She's experienced them nearly five times in the past couple weeks. She starts screaming and will often make it out into the hall and just stand there. The other night I actually had to take her face in my hands and, speaking VERY loudly, tell her to wake up and that it would be all right. Her eyes were glazed over, so I knew she didn't really see me and my comforting wasn't doing any good. Once she finally woke up, she didn't remember what happened to get her in my arms. And when she woke the next morning, she didn't remember it at all. It was fairly bizzar. But night terrors are typically genetic, (Shane's mom and her siblings have them) and most people grow out of them by the time they're 12. So I guess we'll just wait and see. Until then, I'll plan to wait until after 10 to go to bed!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Spending time with Family

We stayed in town over Thanksgiving. We had a nice time visiting with much of our family. My brother and sister were both in town, so that was lots of fun. Michelle's kids even came over on Black Friday while she and her hubby went shopping! The kids had a great time. But by the end of the weekend, everyone was very tired and ready to get back to a normal schedule again. Of course, now the big excitement is Christmas and when Daddy will let us get a tree!


Lylli did some work on her quilt. (A very slow project. This is the same one she's been working on for months.) Seryn kept climbing on the chair behind her to hold her on the chair and offer any other help she might be in need of!


Seryn loved to mother her cousin Natalie. See, she's even holding Natalie's binkie! She was a little too much help at times. But don't worry, Michelle, Natalie came out of it just fine! You can still bring her over next time your in town.

Layla, Carson, and Lylli building 'something' with the linkin-logs. They had so much fun! I mean, just look at that room! And they spent most of their time in the toy room in the basement. Be grateful I didn't get a picture of that!