CG's First Nutcracker Experience!

Clara Grace and her friend, Courtney, all excited as they wait for the show to begin!

Clara Grace had such a great time yesterday when we met my friend Christine and her daughter Courtney for the show. The girls were just precious as they watched it and at times would discuss what was happening. It was just adorable. Once the show was over, the girls were given an ornament to commemorate their first trip to see The Nutracker. Thanks to Christine, the ornaments are adorable and our seats were fantastic!

Hello! I hope everyone has recovered from their feasting with family and ready to begin the Christmas season. Yesterday I finally started my Christmas shopping and we also put up our Christmas tree. Perhaps I'll get pictures of it later today.

Today marks a special day for Clara Grace and me. We will be going to see The Nutcracker with a friend and her daughter at Hanover Theatre in Worcester, Ma. CG is very excited and has been asking if today is the day for quite a while now. It is her first time seeing the performance and she claims one day she will be in the ballet. I'll let you know how it went later tonight!

Merry Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving!

I hope each of you have a blessed holiday and take the time to reflect on all that you have to be thankful. Clara Grace did a very nice job during our dinner and it is a shame I didn't catch it on camera. Without being prompted she talked about what a delicious meal it was, thanked me for cooking, and talked about being thankful for her family, our house, and the trees. She did it with personality though. Very cute.

Here are a couple of pictures right before we sat down to eat. Since we are so far away from our family, I try to cook a dinner similar (but on a much smaller scale) to what we would have if we could spend the holiday with them. Some of the recipes are from those homes, and you can bet I make at LEAST one phone call to double check the preparation. Thank you all of your help!

Here is my little turkey all excited to eat the turkey. She really enjoyed the meal and took to Aunt Patsy's "pink stuff" and the dressing. I didn't snap a picture of the turkey this year, but it was quite juicy!

The Chuckster certainly outdid himself consuming his share. He polished off his first plate as I was just getting into mine, and he hopped up to get a bit more. Currently he is sitting on the couch trying to recover while he continues to look forward to eating more.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Oh, and tomorrow brings black friday shopping and Christmas decorating!!! I'm so excited!

Holiday Fun!

We have been getting into the spirit of the holidays which means we've been listening to Christmas music, having hot cocoa and yes, CG decorated some ornaments. I'm still cleaning glitter...but she had a blast and worked on them for a long time.

Here Clara Grace is seen opening the gingerbread house kit Nana sent. She was soooo excited! I wish I had a video of this because there was squealing going on and comments like this: "I canNOT believe I have a gingerbread house!!!" It was so cute.

Since this past week has been such a blur, I cannot recall which day this all took place.

I'm determined to put off Christmas decorations until the day after Thanksgiving, but it is soooo hard this year. I'm looking forward to getting CG more involved in it this year. She is so grown up acting now and can be quite the little helper. We also have an Advent kit from school to work on here soon and I just think this is going to be a very special Christmas season with CG. I'm hoping to have lots of stuff to post!

Sorry for the Delay

Yes, I let a bit of time slip past my last alarming post. I do apologize and will try to catch you up to speed.

Ok, last I posted CG was sick. She rebounded quite nicely but it did take several days. She went back to school the Wednesday (11/19) after that posting and has not had a single dose of medicine since! That day I went on to my ladies coffee break, picked up CG from school, went to the grocery store and then back home for a tutoring session with a friend's son.

The next day I admitted defeat. I felt horrible. I don't think I left the house that day, but likely I did.

Friday I still felt horrible but had a few chores to do and CG had school.

Saturday, I dragged myself out for a determined day of fun. We went out to eat for lunch, went to the see the movie Bolt, and did some Christmas window shopping. It would have been great if I felt well.

Sunday means sunday school, kids of clay, cleaning, and awana preparation and class. Busy.

Monday (yesterday) I called the dr and was seen. YAY! I managed to do a small amount of cleaning around the house, CG went to school, and we made turkey drumsticks out of rice crispy treats. Fun and cute!

Tuesday! I'm feeling human again. CG is well and we are gearing up for our Thanksgiving feast. We will clean and have fun today and plot the cooking schedule for the next two days. It is hard to believe it is only two days away!

Now I'm all caught up!

My baby girl is sick...

Poor Clara Grace is sick. It began Friday night at the lantern walk. She was quite fine and doing well and toward the end of the event she wanted to be held and just put her head on my shoulder. Since it had been a busy day and it was already near her bedtime I just assumed she was tuckered out. When we got home I took her temperature and it was 99.9 so she got a dose of Tylenol and went to bed.

Yesterday she woke up happy as a lark with no fever so we went to the birthday party. She seemed rather reserved, but other than that seemed fine. When we left the party, we went over to Border's to get my wristband so I could have my book signed by Glenn Beck. As we were leaving the mall, she again wanted to be held and indeed felt quite warm to the touch. We got home around 6 pm and she had a temperature of 101 and was very lethargic. I gave her a dose of Tylenol and she took turns laying on us. We filled up a water bottle and asked her to take sips frequently and she declined supper. She did seem to have a little tummy trouble in the bathroom, but no more problems since then. Her fever did start coming down. She slept fairly well until the wee hours of the morning when I gave her another dose of Tylenol.

This morning she is doing fine but has developed a bit of a deep cough. She is a bit annoyed since I am not letting her go to church this morning. I have to admit that there is something familiar in her comments of, "I'm not sick!" Charlie is going to stay home with her since I have the commitment to teach the kids during the service and AWANA tonight. Hopefully she doesn't have a fever again tonight. I don't want to expose her to any other kids at this point so she might be skipping school tomorrow. We'll see.

Since she was sick and we had a full-fledged storm, I did not make it to see Glenn Beck last night. During our drive home from Providence we were already driving through quite a few deep spots of water, it was continuing to come down and the wind was really rough. It only picked up in ferocity once we got home and Charlie and I agreed (although I really wanted to go) that between the girl sick and the raging wind that it just was in our best interest to skip it.

Well, I have to finish getting ready for the morning. I'll post later on CG's progress.

3rd Annual Lantern Walk

Clara Grace's preschool does an annual lantern walk where the children make their own lanters from glass jars, tissue paper and glitter. The teachers lined a path for us to follow with bags with candles in them. We were asked to speak softly and they spaced us apart so that each family had a private experience. After the walk, we all met together for refreshments, fellowship and a little bit of entertainment from the kids. It was nice!

Clara Grace is to the right and the little ones are singing a couple of songs for the families.

Clara Grace holding her lantern before we the lantern walk. Yes, it was raining a little, but the walk had already been postponed the week before due to heavier rain.

I pulled out the camera to record some of the singing and at first thought Clara Grace was not into it very much but as you will see that is not necessarily the case.

21 Week Dr Appointment

I went to the dr. for a routine appointment yesterday and all went well.

Here are the stats:

• Zachary's heartrate was 144 bpm, which is good.
• I gained 3 pounds last month, for a grand total of 7.
• I am measuring perfectly with how far along I am.
• I got a flu shot, which is currently causing my arm to throb.

There isn't much else to report. Zachary and I are both doing great!

Clara Grace's Christmas Pictures

Awwww, doesn't she look sweet?

A Visit to the Children's Museum

Since we were in Providence, and Charlie went to the ball, we decided to stop off at the Children's Museum for a bit before going home today. CG had a good time, and we ran into a little boy that is in my AWANA class, along with his mom and little brother. I had a really nice chat with her as the dad usually brings the boy to class. It turns out she is expecting twins so hasn't been feeling very well. We seemed to really hit it off while CG and the little boy played very well together. I think we'll be organizing some play dates together.

Awwww, see my little stinker there!

She enjoyed the mirrors.

I met Bill O'Reilly!

This might not be a big deal to many people, but I've been watching the O'Reilly Factor now since at least early 2000. We have most of his books, and although we might not always agree with him we just love watching the show. Anyway, last Saturday I stood in line to get my arm band that is the ticket used to get to see him. Originally it was said that there would be 500 available, but they said today that they gave out 600. This morning we arrived just as Borders was opening at 9 am, got in the line to get in the store and then began our wait. O'Reilly was scheduled to be there at 10 am, and he was there precisely then. It really wasn't so bad because we were roughly around the 300 mark, and we were out of there just before 11 am.

This was just as he arrived. People applauded and there were a few "I love you, Bill!" comments yelled out. I was really amazed at the turn out. There were a lot of people arriving not realizing they needed arm bands.

This was after he had been there for a little while. I snuck up close to get a shot.

Here I am cheesing it up, while clearly O'Reilly is more interested in CG! I'm a total dork that this was such a big event for me.

CG's First Field Trip!

Clara Grace had her first field trip today to our local fire department. It went very well except for the 911 call that came in right after we arrived, where a man claimed to have swallowed 15 razor blades. Here, Firefighter Nate assists Clara Grace with the water hose.
Look at her go!

Here is CG's class and the teacher's helper, Ms. Cindy.

Here the junior firefighters are given plastic helmets.

CG checking out the fire truck.

CG sitting in the passenger seat of the ambulance.

Clara Grace "driving" back to the fire station while Firefighter David looks on.