Allergic to Chocolate?!?

It's 4:30 pm and I'm just now updating my blog, but for good reason. Dale and Brooke had an appointment this morning - the full-blown deal - all the pricks, x-rays, shots, etc... It took almost 5 hours and Brooke was such a little trooper. She didn't cry at all with the series of pricks on her back. Once she found out that they had to give her 6 "shots" after her daddy only had to have two she panicked a little and cried for a minute or two. But, she was really, really brave. The outcome was that they both have LOTS of allergies. Poor Brooke is allergic to chocolate. How unfair is that for a little girl?!? Anyway, we came home with quite a regimen of medication for the next 6 weeks until our follow-up to see how she and Dale are doing.

In other news, it was quite a laid back weekend except for the 3 parties we attended - 1 on Friday and 2 on Saturday evening. I did quite a bit of scrapping Friday and Saturday. We did nothing on Saturday except lay around the house which was awesome!

This is a LO I did using the collab kit, Merry Holiday by Jomi and Jackie Eckles. Credits here.

Yay! It's Friday!! It's rainy and chilly here but I don't really care because I can stay in the house most of the day. Dale is off to SMART this morning with Brooke and he took Connor along so I'm here with only Liam. I've got the laundry going and that's about all I'm going to be doing today. We have a Christmas party to go to tonight so it will be kind of date for Dale and me.

Brooke has been quite funny lately. Actually, she always is. She is just so matter of fact about things and she just says whatever is on her mind. (Kind of like her mommy - Dale says I have no inner monologue!) I don't think I'm quite that bad - well, I know what what I'm thinking that never get said :)

Anyway, I went in to her class to sub on Monday so her teacher could go out to lunch with all the other Kindergarten teachers. I was there for 1 1/2 hours so I sent about 45 min in the classroom "teaching" and then the rest of the time was spent at lunch. Mrs Barnhill had them all on the reading rug and so I read them a story and we reviewed some "I" words and did a few other things. Well, as the kids got used to me they got increasingly more rowdy so I kept having to give them "looks" and firmly, but sweetly :) tell them to sit down and be quiet. Well, Brooke suggested several times that I pull their cards (Mrs. Barnhill's discipline measure - by the 3rd pulled card you are in big trouble), but I refrained. Well, when Dale got home that night he asked Brooke if she was excited that Mommy got to come to her class. Her response was, "Yes, but I don't think she handled the kids very well! She had to get yelly several times." Apparently I'm not quite as accomplished at substituting as I thought I was :) Well, that's fine by me - it just gives me an excuse to stay home and scrap!

Here's a LO I did with Jomi's new Grateful kit found at www.thedigichick.com. This picture is of me, my amazing sister and my sweet Aunt Bunni. The journaling reads:
Aunt Bunni, You have always been such an important part of our lives. Many times you have been like a mom to us - you certainly love us as much as any mother would. We have so many wonderful memories of you and our family gatherings are never complete without you. I love you so much and I know that Jennifer would say the same. So, from us to you, the most wonderful Aunt a niece could have...we love you! Amy & Jennifer

Credits here.

Jomi has a beautiful kit out today at the DigiChick called Grateful. The colors are really gorgeous and I can't wait to use it later today. I think I know of just the pictures that will be perfect for this kit. So be watching for a LO to come.

I got this little Christmas Survey from Monique's Scrappin' Blog. I thought I'd fill it out for myself.

1. Christmas tree up yet? Two of them. The family tree that we all decorate and Mommy's tree with all the breakable ornaments

2. Any Christmas decorations up yet? Everything that is going to be put up is up.

3. What are you asking for for Christmas? A kitchen table and a camera. Well, I'm not really asking for them because I don't want Dale to spend the money on them but if I were asking that's what it would be.

4.What do you usually do on Christmas Eve? We go to our 6 pm Christmas Eve service and then we come home and set out cookies and carrots for Santa and the reindeer and write Santa a Thank You note. When the kids are in bed I finish wrapping presents while I'm watching a Christmas movie.

5. What do you usually do on Christmas Day? We get up early and open gifts and then the in-laws come over and we do it all again. Somewhere in there we start cooking for lunch and cleaning up. This year I'm thinking that eating out might be a good idea ;)

6. Do you own any Christmas clothes or jewelry? A few pairs of socks

7. Do you use white or colored Christmas lights? I switch back and forth...this year I'm using all white.

8. Do you bake Christmas cookies? I do and I eat most of them myself ;)

9. Do you buy Christmas presents for your whole family? For my side yes, for the in-laws we drew names this year.

10. How many friends do you buy presents for? A few.

11. Is there a Santa Claus? Am I reading this question right? How can somebody even ask that ?!? Of course there's a Santa Clause...he lives right near the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.

12. Favorite Christmas Carol? This isn't really a carol but my favorite Christmas song is Chris Rice's, "Welcome to Our World"

13. Would you rather it be a white Christmas, or a warm Christmas? White, White White!!! We lived in Naples, FL for several years and my in-laws would come for Christmas and want to go to the beach on Christmas Eve. I boycotted. I stayed home and baked and did Christmasy things - and turned the A/C way down.

14. Was last year a good christmas? Yes

15. Which Christmas color do you like better? RED or GREEN? Green

16. Do you get a real Christmas tree, or is it artificial? We got a real one for several years but right now we are only doing artificial. Soon we'll go back to getting a real one again.

17. When you get older, will you get a real or artificial tree? Hmmm....hadn't thought about it.

18. Do you hang stockings? Yes

19. When opening presents, does your family all open them at the same time? We try to open them in an orderly fashion but the kids get really excited.

20. What is usually in your stocking? Always Avon lotion from my MIL.

21. Do you get up early on Christmas day? Yes

22. Does your family eat breakfast before or after opening presents? After

23. Do you have a favorite ornament you hang on the tree? I have several.....my Grandmother started getting me the White House ornament every year and now my mom buys it for me so I have a whole set of those. Then when I was maybe five my mom bought me a little angel ornament and I just LOVE it. My favorite ornament though is one I don't hang on the tree. My husband (then boyfriend) bought me a bride and groom glass ornament and put the ring on it and proposed to me when we were putting up his Christmas tree one year.

24. What Christmas movie do you like to watch the most? My absolute favorite is White Christmas, but I must also watch "The Grinch" (old and new), "While You Were Sleeping" "Miracle on 34th Street" (new), Holiday Inn, When Harry Met Sally (they end up together on New Year's Eve) and any Christmas movie on TV.

25. What do you like better, Christmas Eve or Christmas Day? Christmas Eve. I'm always a little bit sad when Christmas day arrives. I love the whole preparation and excitement up to Christmas Day.

Christmas Cheer

For a little Christmas cheer take a look at this!

It has been an insanely busy past few days. I kind of don't know what to do with myself today. I went to kickboxing this morning and when I got home I realized that I just don't have anything to do except to catch up on blogging and scrapbookin! Well, except for the laundry that has been ignored the last few days while I have been in my cleaning and decorating frenzy. Oh, and I do need to clean up a little from last night, and design my Christmas cards, and order some magnets for stocking stuffers, etc... I guess I do have some things to do today but I think I'll ignore them and wait until tomorrow :) A girl does need a bit of downtime in this busy holiday season. Jomi is coming out with a new kit tomorrow, (I think?) and so of course I need to do a LO or two with it.

Anyhoo, back to the party last night. We had a really great time. We went out to dinner to Monell's which is a family style restaurant in downtown Franklin. From the front it looks very small but once you get inside it is quite large. In fact, it was the original jail (Frankin at one time was the capital of TN) and so they still have some of the bars up AND they have not removed the part of the floor that would drop out when people were hanged. Now, that does sound quite gruesome but there are no hangings on record. They have the records of where people were sentenced to hang but apparently the judge never went through with the hanging sentences (and if he did they didn't record it.)

After dinner we came back to our house for coffee and White Elephant gifts (gag gifts and anything you find around your house you don't want.) I think the best gift was the NFCN 2007 Ornament Collection. Kim, the office manager got a little crafty as you can see here. Dale ended up with it and he has tucked neatly in the back of his closet because it will come out again for next year's gift exchange ;) After the adults finished with their gift exchange Santa arrived with presents for the little ones.


They had such a great time and Bill (a man from our church) is an awesome Santa. He starts growing his beard and hair out at the end of summer so he has perfect "Santa hair" :) Here are some pics of the kids with Santa.

Monday again!?!

Wow! The weekend just flew by. We of course went to see White Christmas Friday night and then Saturday morning we had an event at church and then a SS party Saturday night. Yesterday morning the children had their Christmas program, we had a birthday lunch for Megan and then last night after church we went out to eat with some friends. It sure would be nice to have a day to recuperate from the weekend.

Well, amid all the craziness I did carve out a little time to scrap (I had to stay up till 1am to do it ;) I couldn't really get into the Christmas spirit on my blog until I decorated it (with my banner) and then I did a cute LO of Dale and Brooke. This picture was taken last Christmas morning but the traditional Christmas kits jut didn't fit it so I used a mix of things from my favorite designers. Credits here.

I don't usually blog on Saturday b/c there's either not much going on or not enough time to sit down for a few minutes at the computer. But, I thought I'd share my little surprise from yesterday.

Yesterday morning I was sitting at this very spot blogging and browsing blogs (just taking a break from all my cleaning and decorating:) when my hubby called me to tell me a few things and then to remind me to be ready by 5pm b/c some friends were coming by to pick us up. Well, I immediately went into panic mode b/c I had arranged the babysitter for 5pm TONIGHT for our SS Class party and I thought I had made the arrangements for the wrong date. (We have about 8 parties we have to attend in the next 2 weeks so I've been a little stressed about the schedule/babysitting anyway) Well after a minute or so of panic he told me he was taking me to see Irving Berlin's White Christmas at TPAC. That is my FAVORITE Christmas movie and I was ecstatic all day!! We had a nice, relaxing dinner out with our friends and then we went to see the show.

We got home about 11:30 and I was so exhausted I could hardly keep my eyes open. For some reason, unbeknowst to logical part of my brain, I turned the TV on and started watching For the Love of the Game. I thought it was probably half-way through. Nope, I caught it at the very beginning and ended up watching the whole thing! Well, thankfully Dale let me sleep till 9:30 while he got the kids dressed and took them into church for a family Christmas event at church. I'm off to get dressed and head there myself in a few minutes. Daddy is being very good this Christmas - I'm thinking Santa might be bringing him something very nice!