Christmas was filled with family, fun, and food. My favorite thing about Christmas was making it fun for the girls. Jeremiah and I tiptoed and navigated around the house to make sure that we surprised the girls with the best Christmas morning we could.
These little princesses decided to sleep by the tree so that they wouldn't miss Santa Claus. We decided to trick them and placed the presents underneath the playroom tree.
Here's the mess Santa left for me to clean up.
The girls woke up and was so sad that Santa didn't leave any presents underneath the tree. Jeremiah and I kept hinting to them to check the tree upstairs but they were too distraught to understand anything we were saying. We helped them follow the trail of leaves (that Santa must have tracked in) up the stairs and they were pleasantly surprised. Savannah assumed that everything wrapped in Spider-Man paper was hers. She was right :o)
Liz has been wanting some black boots and Jeremiah got her some doc martens. The girl wears out shoes faster than the speed of light. Hopefully, these will last her for a while. I think these were her favorite gift and she wears them almost everyday.
Scarlett is happy with whatever she gets...as long as it's pink or Hello Kitty :o)
We stole our final move from A Christmas Story when Ralphie was just about to get his Red Rider BB gun. After all of the presents were opened, Jeremiah told Savannah that there was more one gift. She tracked Jeremiah's every move. She opened the gift. And she must have been the happiest girl on this side of the Red River. She got her Spider-Man pajamas!
Savannah didn't waste any time putting those things on. I wish Scarlett got dressed that fast.
When Sophia woke up, we helped her open her gift. I was so glad that we didn't spend another Christmas in the hospital. We spent it at home just like families should :o)
I am so excited to be almost done with my Christmas posts! I am determined to be done before February 1st. I hate when I get behind because it takes weeks for me to get caught up with posting. Anyway...
On 12/19 I took Liz, Scarlett, and Savannah to church for an opportunity to serve. We spent an hour or so shopping through donated items for several needy children. Because the girls are young, they kept saying "I need this...I need that." I had to explain to them several times that they are not "needy" children. Scarlett got the idea after a few minutes and Savannah finally got it about halfway through. They worked hard and did very well. I was extremely proud of them.
Savannah coughed right when I took the picture.
Then Scarlett coughed right when I took this picture. I called it good and we went back to work.
The next day we went to Scarlett's school for her Christmas party. Santa came and there was much socializing and much eating. I love me some Christmas spirit in the air. One more thing. The pink dress that Savannah is wearing is her favorite outfit. She wears it all of the time and even dug it out of the dirty clothes this morning in hopes that I would let her wear it. I didn't approve.
They are getting so big!
I love when Savannah gives the stink eye to every Santa that she meets.
We celebrated Savannah's 3rd birthday on December 12th! There are so many things that I love about this little girl. I love that she fights Scarlett to bless the food before a meal. To be fair, if they are going to fight, thank goodness it's over spiritual matters. Savannah also takes initiative AND has potty trained herself. Seriously, one day she just pulled off her diaper to go potty in the potty chair. That was it. She is still a great eater and not too picky about what she eats. She is as cute as she can be and has the softest skin. Depending on the day she can be quite stubborn. Her favorite color is blue and she loves everything and anything with Spider-Man on it! However, she loves her daddy more than Spider-Man. I asked Savannah what she wanted to be when she grew up and her response was "daddy". She is 100% a daddy's girl. I love her and all of the love, joy, and happiness that she contributes to our family. I feel incredibly blessed that the Lord trusted Jeremiah and I with this sweet girl. Happy birthday little mama!
Seeing her birthday cake for the first time and soaking it all in.
She told us she wanted a strawberry Spider-Man cake. I had no idea how we would pull this off. Once again in all of his amazing-ness, Jeremiah pulled off her much desired strawberry Spider-Man cake. I was floored!
The rest of the night was filled with lots of hugs, kisses, and laughter :o)
On December 3rd or 4th my weather app was going on and on about how the weather was going to get bad. We were expecting sleet/ice and road conditions were going to be dangerous. I decided to head out and stock up on food. The girls and I went to the library and stocked up on Christmas books. For the finale? I stocked up on most of Sophia's medications. As warned, the icy weather moved in Friday morning before daylight and blanketed the metroplex.
From December 6th - 9th we were in the house. Well, the girls and I dropped Liz off at school on the 5th and stayed at home for the rest of the day. Technically, we were in the house from the 5th through 9th. School was cancelled on the 6th and 9th and Jeremiah stayed home on those days as well.
Around 4AM Friday morning the power went out. Don't you worry because Jeremiah's generator kicked right on. That generator was a tender mercy from the Lord. At one moment I was most grateful that we didn't have to go without heat. I never worried about Sophia because she has batteries for her equipment and her room was the first one connected to the generator. By our calculations, the neighborhood was out of power for about ten hours.
To make matters more interesting, we didn't have a nurse for Sophia for over 48 hours! The bad weather didn't care that she needed care around the clock. Since the nurses couldn't get to our house, Jeremiah and I came up with a plan. I took the day shift and he took the night shift. It worked beautifully but we were exhausted by late Sunday morning. Another tender mercy from the Lord??? Our nurse showed up around 10AM!
Liz wrote a story about Sophia Lynette for her school paper. Have I mentioned she was the editor this year? Or was the article for a contest? Anyway, she wanted a picture of baby so I made several attempts.
Since we were home bound, Jeremiah took Scarlett and Savannah outside to slide on the ice. For two days in a row! I stayed in because I DON'T do the cold. Plus, someone needed to stay inside with baby. I have to stop calling Sophia a baby. She's practically a toddler!
In case you're wondering, I took pictures through the windows. I was so happy to see them having fun with their daddy.
Bruises, tears, and wet clothes are bound to happen when you play on the ice. The girls did fine for the most part and I'm pretty sure that they had great time.
Only Jeremiah can run and slide on ice and make it look easy!
. Our house is located on the highest point in our cul-de-sac. This allowed them to have great momentum coming out of the cul-de-sac and out of the driveway .
That patch of concrete is where our night nurse parked before she went home at 6AM Friday morning. The ice was thick and very unforgiving. I love how the girls came flying down the driveway.
Before everyone came in, Jeremiah took the girls to the backyard. Look who was having the most fun!
We decided to move Sophia Lynette downstairs on day one. We felt it would be easier for us to care for her and it was. Her milk pump is attached to that pole. Of all of her equipment, I do believe it has the longest battery life. Well, the battery was getting low and the UPS was full. We had nowhere to plug in her pump. Then I had a GENIUS idea. I used a strand of Christmas lights as an extension cord. All of our extension cords were being used on the Christmas tree and for the lights outside. We couldn't move her to the dining room because her equipment was in the living room. Genius, right?!
The UPS. All of these cords, except two, are for Sophia. The pump plug wouldn't fit in the one outlet that was available.
We were having story time. Don't know what was up with Savannah.
There was ice in the leaves because it was so cold.
The living room was a MESS! If you look closely, you can see Sophia at the bottom with pink leggings on.
On December 10th, school was back in, Jeremiah went back to work, and I got to cleaning! I'm pretty sure this is my favorite room in the house. Why? Because of all of the natural sunlight :o)
As tradition would have it, I started decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. Liz and I decorated the formal tree and everyone pitched in to decorate the tree in the playroom. Mad props to Jeremiah because he smiled patiently, at times sarcastically, through the entire process.
It took a while to figure out where I wanted the formal tree. After trying different layouts, we ended up with the very first one. We put everything back in it's original place and put the tree in a corner.
A girl after my own heart! Scarlett exercised some serious ninja skills to get several ornaments on the playroom tree. That's right, baby! You make that tree beautiful by any means necessary!
Then she got really ambitious and tried to get even higher. Jeremiah stepped in to help her...mostly to make sure that she didn't fall out the window. I was okay with that.
My little elves worked so hard and I was so proud. Sniff sniff.
When we were finished decorating the tree, I found this cutie fast asleep.
Here's what the front of our new house looks like. It's a Tudor style home and while I wasn't crazy about the elevation, it wasn't a deal breaker. I took this picture mostly as a reference for next year to remind me what we did for Christmas decorations. I'm sure we'll do something different next year because of my mild case of ADHD.
