Merry Christmas!

5 Years Old...

Monday Justin turned five. I still can hardly believe it. He is turning into such a sweet little boy. I can't find any pictures on here from when he was born. I know that I have some cds with pictures, but these will do. Last week I was coughing and he came into the living room and said, "Mommy, are you okay?" I said, "Yes, Justin. I'm alright." He then says, "Okay. Well God Bless you......and God Bless your heart." That same day he told me that he didn't want to grow up and be a parent. When I asked him why he said, "Because when I'm big like a parent you and Daddy won't be able to pick me up anymore. Because, Mommy, Papa can't pick you up anymore." And how my heart aches when I think of the day when I can't pick him up anymore. I want to cherish and hold onto all the moments that I have. I know some days won't be pretty, but all too soon they will be gone.

6 months old

19 months old

3 Years old

4 Years old

5 Years old

Recap

Since it's been over a month since I last posted I could make this really long. BUT, I'll really try to not bore you with all the details. :)

The Monday before Thanksgiving I had a doctor appointment with Endocrinology. My TSH levels had dropped from my last test. In October my levels were .02---it is supposed to be between .3 and 4.5. When they rechecked me the TSH had dropped to less than .01. I have been diagnosed with hyperthyroidism, but as of right now we aren't sure exactly what type of hyperthyroidism I have. Apparently there are several different types. This coming Wednesday and Thursday I have an "uptake and scan" scheduled to figure those out and then on Friday I have an ENG and MRI scheduled to try and figure our the dizzy spells. I feel like I'm falling apart! Hopefully by the New Year I will know what's going on.

Jasmine got sick right before Thanksgiving and I thought that was going to potentially derail our after Thanksgiving VA trip, but it didn't. In fact, I thought that we would just have a very low key Thanksgiving with my husband and kids. Little did I know, my sister had been in cahoots with Brad and she flew in on Wednesday to surprise me. It was DEFINITELY a surprise. I had NO clue she was coming. Wednesday night the sickness continued with Justin and Haeley. Justin threw up all on Brad as he was going to carry him up to bed. Then during the night Haeley woke me up because she had thrown up too! Then on Thanksgiving Gabe ran a 102 fever all day. Whoo hoo! We had ham, mac n cheese, green beans, mashed potatoes, stuffing, rolls, pumpkin pie, pecan pie, and apple crisp pie. It was delish!

We did leave out of here on Friday and low and behold Friday night on the road Justin started with diarrhea. Poor little guy. And he felt the need to share it with me. Lovely. We made it to my folks Saturday around 5 pm. It definitely took longer than I would have liked. Jenn then got sick on Sunday and Brad followed suit Monday night.

While in VA, Brad was able to go surfing twice. I know that he really enjoyed being back out in the water again. He and I also got to go on a lunch date to the Cheesecake Factory. MMMM! It was our first time going there---why did it take us so long??? We also ran into some old friends, Robb and Shaula, in the Cheesecake Factory. What a nice surprise! Then we went shopping at Kohls and visited for a couple minutes with our good friend, Lettie. That night we went to see the lights on the beach with my family and that's when Brad really started feeling sick. I felt awful for him!

Tuesday Brad was still not feeling well and Mom wasn't feeling all too hot either so I loaded the kids up and we headed down to the mall. I let them ride the carousel and they loved it! I wish we could have done it a couple more times. Riding that with them brought back memories of me taking Cullin and Matthew on it. I took the kids to the food court and we had lunch and then browsed the mall. I was going to get their picture taken with Santa, but he wasn't going to be there for a bit yet. :( By the time we got home Brad had gotten up and showered and appeared to be feeling a bit better. He even ran some errands with Dad that night.

Wednesday wad Brad's birthday. He and the kids went down to see his step dad for a bit and I wasn't feeling too hot that morning so I stayed back. As the morning went on I started to feel better so Mom and I headed to run some errands. We went to the mall and I got a couple new bras from VS. Amazing how when I was fitted a month ago the woman put me 2 cup sizes above where I should be!!! We got some Christmas presents and then we also picked up some stuff for our Japanese dinner we were doing that night. We had yakisoba, sushi, and miso soup. It was so good! The kids loved the sushi! :) :) I have raised them right! ;-) We did a couple presents, cake and then it was time for the kids to go to bed.

Thursday we headed to Brad's brother's. Mickey and Joyce have 4 kids and we were bunking with them for a couple days as the whole Smith crew was beginning to descend upon their house for a get-together. Brad's Mom got in that afternoon and then Dan and Summer and their 3 kids arrived that evening. That night Joyce, Sue and I headed out to go shopping...at 11. Kohls didn't close till 12, so we hit there first and I got a fabulous hat and scarf and some jewlery too! By the time we made it to Wal-Mart I was exhausted, but we browsed, and bought stuff and had fun. :)

Friday we hung at the house and Brad, Mickey, and Dan put up a gate across the driveway so the dogs could go out without leaving the yard. That evening the fun was about to begin. Luke, Melissa, and Kayla were getting in that evening. We had 22 Smith's in the house and then there was extended family also. My dad, mom, sister and nephews came. Brad's cousin Pam and her daugher MacKenzie, and then Brad's Aunt Marilyn and three of her children came. It was a full house (33 to be exact) but wonderful! I loved every second! We did Christmas that night. The kids got presents from Mickey and Joyce, Sue and then my folks. Mom and Dad bought us a Wii for Christmas and I love it! We all do!

So since we've been back we've been trying to get back into the routine of school and juggling life. Next week will be tricky as I have my appointments, but we'll make it work. We also haven't done ANY Christmas shopping yet, so I've got to get that done! There are some funny stories that I've got of the kids, but I need to get off of here and tend to my Christmas tree and decorations. I really will try and do better updating this...and yes, I know, I've said that before...

Wordle me.

My friend Ainsley over at ChattahoocheeMama introduced me to Wordle today. I guess it takes the words that are on your blog and puts them in a random placement and whichever words you use the most are the largest. So, here's mine: =)

Prayers

Saturday night at supper Brad was getting ready to pray and Benjamin said, "No Daddy, I pray." So Brad let him. Benjamin's prayer went like this:

"Thank you Jesus for the food......and.....thank you for dying on the cross. AMEN!"

I about cried listening to him. It was so sweet and special. It was one of those moments when I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we are doing something right. My sweet little boy.

Technology is grand!

Saturday afternoon and evening provided us with so much fun! John and Erin hooked up their webcam and we got to have online chats with them and see my nephew Joshua too! It was great. Joshua is the cutest little thing and they are such a good looking family. God has blessed me so much with my family. Jenn didn't want to be left out so she hit up Yahoo Messenger and we got to have a chat with her too. The girls sat and talked with Jenn for quite some time. I loved getting to watch them talk to their aunt. Later that evening I decided to get Melissa, my sister in law, in on the chat action. It was so much fun! Brad, Haeley, Justin and I got to talk to Melissa for a bit. Then it was off to bed for the kids.

Brad has bought some movies a couple weeks ago that we needed to review before letting the kids watch. We put on the first one, "Happily N'ever After". We watched it for about 15 minutes---if even that. Within the first minute of the movie we both said no because of how seductively they had one of the cartoon characters. It was bad. We turned it off and chucked it in the trash can. Then we put on Dr. Doolittle 3 (I think). It was cute and we gave it a yes. The kids loved it when they watched it today!!!!

Morning with my girls!

Saturday morning Brad took the boys to Karate and to get hair cuts and the girls and I split too! We had a really good time. We started our trip at Meijer because they are now selling Webkinz and I wanted to see how much they were there. On sale they are 12.99 which isn't too terrible. But the girls and I made a discovery that was a great teaching moment. You see, we were looking though all the Webkinz and found that people had been stealing the online codes off of them. We found over 20 Webkinz where the codes had been pulled or clipped off. The girls were appalled---as was I. One of them said, "Mommy, we need to tell the people who work here." So we did. And the gal says, "Yeah, we know. We moved them to this other display because of that." I then asked, "Well, what is management doing?" She says, "They are trying to keep an eye out, but they are still going to sell the ones without codes. Those just get marked down."

Haeley and Jasmine couldn't believe it! They both kept asking the same question, "Mommy, why don't they just buy them? Why do people have to steal them?" I had a really hard time answering them, because I honestly don't know why people steal. But I did tell them, "Girls, it boils down to this---the Bible tell us that men's hearts are evil. Sin is why these people are stealing. No matter how you look at it, they are stealing and that is wrong." They talked about this for quite some time after!

After Meijer we headed to Starbucks. Yes, I know. You are surprised. ME? At Starbucks? Never! ;) The girls got Peppermint Hot Chocolate and I had a Venti Nonfat Misto with 2 pumps of sugar free Hazelnut. =) It was oh so yummy! I wanted to go and get my eyebrows waxed after this, but we were running out of time so to Kroger we went! I *hate* grocery shopping. But what I hate more than grocery shopping, it's grocery shopping on Saturday. Grrrr! However, it was either grocery shop or we don't eat...I suppose grocery shopping was the thing to do. The girls were great through the store and they enjoyed it too. I forgot that Saturday was Kroger's holiday kick off day. There were sample tables all over the place. The girls had fruit, crackers, egg nog, chocolate covered cherries, cookies, ham....they loved it! And I got almost everything I needed. The store was PACKED! By the end of the trip I stood in line and as I remembered things I forgot I sent the girls after them. I still wound up standing in line for a solid 15 minutes though.

I relished the time that I got to have with just the girls. It's been a long time since just the 3 of us have gotten to do anything. I think we need to make that more of a priority.

I can't think of a title....

I heart DonnaYoung. I now have a word processing program that is worth something! AND, I have a whole set up for grades, attendance, lesson plans...the whole nine yards. All from DonnaYoung. I've been trying to figure out what I was going to do for quite some time and I'm *thrilled* that I've found something.

Benjamin has been sick for the past two weeks. He's had a cold and I've just dealt with that because it is the time of year for colds. But Monday night he started having drainage from his left eye. I figured it was sinus-y. Then on Tuesday he decided to spike a 104.7 fever! I got a hold of the doctor and she told me to try and keep it down the Tylenol and Motrin until morning. She said, if I couldn't keep it down or if he started complaining of his head hurting or if he started throwing up to take him straight to the ER. I was a little on edge, but knew thing would be okay. Yesterday morning we went in and saw Dr. Hensley and she checked him out and said that he indeed had a sinus infection. He's on augmenten but he's still got fever whenever the Motrin or Tylenol wears off. And I have to hide the augmenten in chocolate milk, because he doesn't like it otherwise. Little booger!

I'm going to hit the sack, but I'll update more tomorrow. G'nite!

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