Christmas

Well Christmas seemed to go off without a hitch. What a crazy time, we are still trying to recover (as I’m sure many of you are too)! Brody and I both got sick in time to feel lousy for the holidays, I am doing much better, just a little stuffy nose left, but Brody still sounds terrible. He keeps coughing and gagging and throwing up snot, the poor little guy. I hope he can beat this soon, I don’t want it to linger so long that he ends up with an ear infection. We went to the Christmas Eve service at our church and headed over to Joan’s to hang out with the whole family. The kids had a great time and loved all the presents (even if they weren’t for them)! Haven got a tea set and Kylie said, ‘oh man, I wanted that!’ I think we need to work on being thankful with her! Funny thing is she has one just like it, so I am thinking it was more like she wanted to play with it… but we’ll still need to work on it. She did the same thing at home the next morning, she kept saying she wanted what Reygann got, and then said that Reygann would have to share. Every time she opened something she would say OH NO (in a good way) or pump her arm in the air and cheer. Reygann on the other hand was extremely cranky!! We had the hardest time getting her to sit and open presents without crying! She doesn’t do well if she gets woken up vs. waking up herself, so I wonder if Kylie woke her up. The poor girl is working on teeth too; I thought it was just 1 ½ teeth (I knew the one for sure and the other side was swollen, but I wasn’t sure if it was coming yet). Yesterday I discovered that she was working on 4 teeth, the poor girl! I didn’t even think to check the top! So after opening presents we headed over to Mamaw’s house (Deric’s mom) to spend some time with them... Deric’s sister and family was able to come back up for Christmas (they didn’t think they were going to be able to this year) so we got to see them and they got to finally meet Brody! We stayed there most of the day and got back to Joan’s house just in time for dinner, we didn’t stay too long Deric wanted to get home early because he had to work the next day and the kids didn’t have naps for two days so we thought it was best. The next day I did some after Christmas shopping and headed back to Mamaw’s to spend some more time with the family. The rest of the week is a blur; I don’t really even know what day it is today… Christmas being on a weekday really messes me up!

Random Christmas Eve pictures at Joan's house

The kids set the table while we were opening the adults gifts.
Brody's First Christmas quilt made by Mommy and Mamoo (except it seems the more kids Mommy has the more Mamoo does on the quilt!)

Pictures from Christmas morning at home

Both girls got strollers for their dolls and they were both broken in the first few minutes... looks like I have some returns to do!

Reygann's BIG Elmo!

Deric and his sister

Kids say...

Reygann was running around without any pants on (because of potty training) and she was pushing a stool around and she backed into the Christmas tree, and said "HEY, my butt!" she was very surprised that the tree 'bit' her!

Right before Christmas we were riding in the car and Kylie exclaimed 'You're going to have a baby!' WHAT?!? (panic... wait a minute, no I'm not! Shew!!) she continued 'you shall name him... (long pause) ...Brody!' And then she said something about being an angel and to not be afraid. Later in the same car ride she told me that if you go outside naked that you will be cold, even if you just don't have pants on you will be cold. What made her think about that? What a goof!

I was in the shower and I thought I heard the guys working, so I asked Kylie if the working guys were here. She said they weren't, so I said to check out her window, she said they still weren't. I was positive I could hear them so I asked her again, and she said there weren't any working guys out her window, just hay (they had covered the footings with hay to insulate them). I did end up being right, they were there she was just looking out the wrong windows.

Moving Along

The guys were here bright and early this morning getting the drain tile finished and the stone down. They did have to disconnect the phone but I connected it again once I was sure they weren't coming back today. It's a bummer that they didn't start on the walls, but we aren't the only customers... maybe Monday? I'm sure Deric knows what's going on. I took some of these from in the hole, this was the first time I actually went into the hole all the way down and walked around.

Hurt

Deric hurt himself on the job today... I guess that is why they make them all wear hard hats, goggles, and ear plugs! I guess you can never be too safe though! I guess they are going to have to start worrying about hand protection now too ...he got a paper cut under his fingernail! That's quite the change from cutting yourself with a saw, nailing your foot to the floor, throwing your back out, cutting your hand with a knife... and those sort of injuries, I guess all jobs have their own dangers! Lets hope he doesn't get attacked by the copy machine or some other office equipment! But seriously folks, the poor guy, I know how much paper cuts hurt!

House Update

It's been so long since I've been on here, I don't remember what I told you last! Well we now have our footings, yippie! They were inspected today and we passed. So the guys are supposed to come back tomorrow and do the drain tile work (if the rain holds off) and then the walls can get started! The reason why there is water in the hole (again) is because when the concrete guys got here they realized that Monte dug our garage 2 feet too short and when Monte showed up to re-dig the caved in parts he dug the garage bigger and ran into another old drain tile and started another small flood!! They say when it rains it pours!!! I can't wait to see what goes wrong next!! Mom and I went after Christmas shopping and the guys were building the footings (that is all we expected to happen that day) and when we stopped home there were 3 cement trucks at our house.. I guess they called early and got the inspection right after they were built and started to pour the same day! The poor guys, it was quite a mess Dean (the concrete guy) said that this is his worst job (muddy, messy, ect), what an honor! Anyways they brought over two really big trucks and a pickup and when they got out of the way for the cement truck the one big truck got too close to the edge of the driveway and got sucked off.

I wasn't home to get the tow straps out of the barn and they weren't sure if they could get it out, but by the time we got back it was gone so I guess they got lucky. The driveway was trashed worse than it had been but since it was below freezing Deric took his skid steer and 'plowed' off the driveway! It was so nice, and it is still a ton better than it was, it is still messy, but you don't get 2o pounds of mud stuck on your shoes anymore.

They are supposed to be back tomorrow... and they have to disconnect the phone line to do what they need to do, so if they come you won't be hearing from me till their done. Hopefully it won't be too long, I have a lot of catching up to do!

Frustrations!!

It's been a few days since I've posted and that's because other than being extremely busy with Christmas stuff our phone line broke again!! I think this is the 5th time since starting this project! With all the rain we got it caused some of our walls (of the hole) to cave in and it took the phone line down with it. I went out there to fix it, but it was burried under so much mud I couldn't get it free. We have clay so it is SO sticky and it really sucks you into the mess. Anyways.. I went part way into the hole to see if I could fix the phone and kinda got stuck! It was bad enough that I was wearing Deric's boots and they are a bit big.. so I was having a really hard time moving around, but the ground was so soaked and it kept crumbling away as I tried to get back out... I was almost to the point of being worried (the kids were all awake in the house) I ended up crawling out with my hands!! Oh yeah, I fell too and got pretty messy, and to top it off all the stuff fell out of my pockets!!

Eggnog Coffee

This still not the recipe I had, but it looks the closest. This recipe is for 32 servings, I have no idea how many oz each serving is..

Ingredients:
1 quart freshly brewed coffee, cooled
1 quart eggnog
2 tubs (8 oz. size) Whipped Topping, thawed, divided
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup rum (optional)
ground nutmeg (optional)

Directions:
Mix coffee, eggnog, 1 tub of the whipped topping and cinnamon in large bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in rum. Refrigerate several hours or until chilled. Top with remaining whipped topping just before serving. Sprinkle with nutmeg. Store any leftover eggnog in refrigerator.

I found this recipe at http://www.cdkitchen.com/recipes/recipetemplate.php?scale=16&mid=46829 If you type in how many servings you want it will change the amounts for you, how cool is that!! I'm going to have to remember this web page!

House Stuff

Well, Monte is finally done (for now) and Dean can come and do the cement stuff... except it has been raining for 2 days and everything is extremely muddy, mucky, sticky and icky and not to mention that there is water in the hole again! I think we figured out that if they work every day it will be at least 6 days before Deric can start doing his stuff. They have to build the footings, get them inspected, pour the concrete, strip the footings, get them inspected, build the walls, pour the walls, get them inspected, wait for them to cure, back fill the whole thing and then Deric can start building. I have some pictures to post but I'll have to add them when I get home (if I ever get home!)

Banned!

I swear, they are going to ban me from coming here again... My shoes are so dirty! I scraped them off the best I could, I even walked through puddles to try to rinse them off! But I am still leaving muck all over the bar stool (at the computer station) and all over the floor under it! And Brody spit up and got it on the arm of the leather couch, oops!

All Dressed Up And To Bed We Go!

Here is a bunch of Brody in all his Christmas jammies... Mr Brody Santa

The girls wanted to sit with him too... I think Reygann looks like an elf in this dress!

Brody doesn't look too thrilled here, but I thought it was cute that Kylie's antlers kept falling off! Not one good one of all three!


I loved these snowflake ones, I think they are too cute!



These are his Baby's First Christmas jammies.. every baby need a pair of these!