the long awaited Christmas stories...

Wow has a lot happened since I blogged last. I feel a little overwhelmed with all the things I need to blog about! So for your sake I will separate them out that way you don't get so bored! Just remember that everything happened in a weeks time.

So, first things first...CHRISTMAS!!! On Christmas Eve Sterling spread (or really he just dumped it in one pile!) reindeer food on our front sidewalk so that Santa's reindeer could find their way to our house and eat some food when they got here. He thought that was the coolest thing the next morning when it was gone!

So Christmas morning Sterling woke up at 9:20 and we didn't want him to go into the living room until I got in there with the camera...boy did that turn into a huge ordeal! By the time it was all over, he came out so grumpy and ran straight to me and buried his head. He bypassed all of Santa's toys laid out, and was pouting in my lap. I got a good picture of this face....

But the poutiness lasted all of 5 seconds and he was over it. He LOVED what Santa brought him and started playing with it all right away. We could barely tear him away from the tool set! (hmmmm... wonder if that's a sign of something!) He knew exactly what to do with it too!
Then he got into his stocking...he loved digging in and pulling it all out. Every time he would find something new he would say," OH WOW! Mommy look!" It was too cute! So, by the end, he was in a WAY better mood! Thank goodness! :)

So then it was time to head to Nana and Papa's (Heath's parents) house for Christmas lunch and presents. We had a FABULOUS lunch thanks to Becky and the rest of us. We all brought something and everything was so delicious!
(something that you will probably never see again!)

I just love Christmas!!! We did presents first and wow, that was crazy!

(I FINALLY got my iPod!!!)

(Heath got some well needed clothes...there were more than this)
We all opened up our wrapped gifts then it was time for the kids BIG presents.... motorized cars!

Funny story on Sterling's tractor. All the kids come bolting out of the house and they had all been set up in the drive way. They all ran out so excited and yelling, as soon as Sterling ran to his he immediately got upset and didn't want to have anything to do with it. He turned around and starting trying to get on Owen's golf cart. It was hilarious! I have a video of it, but I am not good at getting it on here and I just don't want to mess with it! (so there! ha) Anyhoo, he FINALLY got on it with a lot of coaxing from everyone. He only rode it for about 1 minuet and then he was done. He decided he would ride in the trailer behind it though if Daddy would drive. So that is what happened. (and, of course, Heath was just itching to do so anyway!) Thank God that it was beautiful outside on Christmas because we all stayed out there watching the kids have fun on their cars for a long time!



After all that fun, we came home and gave Sterling a nap. Then it was more Christmas fun with Grandma and uncle T (my mom and brother). We had a small but yummy Christmas dinner. Then opened more presents...

Daddy's genius idea... that's a trash bag by the way!
some gloves he got from Grandma
sit and spin from Grams in St. Louis (my grandmother)

And just when we thought it was all over, my dad came the next day! By this time, Sterling knew EXACTLY what to do with the whole gift opening thing. G and G-ma got him some cool stuff.

After we opened the little stuff, it was time for the big present...this thing was huge! Sterling didn't know quite what to do with this one...

He soon figured it out though! But, of course, the box was WAY more interesting than the toy box....

For a little while anyway!

So there you have it, our Christmas! It was crazy and long, but we aren't complaining a bit, we got everything we needed and then some! Thanks again to all our family and friends for making this Christmas so wonderful for us. We love you!

So that's one down 3 more to go. Check back soon to see the rest!

family pics and Christmas lights on the square

We all went to eat lunch at Carabba's after church yesterday and everyone wore their Christmas outfits. So, of course we had to get pictures! We were trying our best to get pictures of them while we were waiting...we took up the whole waiting area! There were 24 of us! (Five of those were Rachel's family) Here's a little background for the Owen and Sterling pictures. Heath and Shane are twins and their boys look almost identical to them. They also act exactly like them. It's almost scary! We really noticed it while we were trying to take pictures. They always said Shane was known as the serious one who was most of the time serious in his pictures (not all though) and Heath was always the goof ball who was showing off and smiling the whole time. As you will see, the same is true for their boys. It was so cute! Even though they aren't twins, they are 11 months apart and are almost the same size, and look like they could almost be. I have included some pictures of Shane and Heath when they were about this age so that you could see how much they look alike!

Mr. Serious and Mr. Cheesy

Shane and Heath...Mr. Serious and Mr. Cheesy back in the day! (this isn't a good example, Heath usually is smiling much bigger! I thought this was a cute picture...look at their cute little hair)
I just had to add this picture of them because I think they are so cute! (kind of makes me want twins! haha)

And... they're done!

how funny is this! I did not tell him to do this, he just posed that way!! Do I have a future model on my hands! Heath and Shane did modeling when they were little... hmmm

Hmmmm....what can I get into?!? Maybe they're not looking!

Oh man, they are!!!

And here is Heath and Shane getting into something (as usual I hear!) thinking someone is not looking! (Heath in red...Shane in blue)

Sterling

And this is Heath.... Heath again...doesn't Sterling look like his Daddy! (he has a little of me in there too though!)

this is the first good picture we have of the five cousins...Caiden, Clayton (brothers), Sterling, Owen, Claire (brother and sister) the crew

And of course a family picture! Sterling HAD to have his arm around Heath in every picture we took!

Last night my mom came with us to the Bentonville square to let Sterling see the lights. He LOVED it to say the least. He was running from light display to light display telling us to look!!! But his favorite thing was the little manger scene, he kept going back to that. He kept telling us that that was "baby Jesus"!

the manger scene

gotta love mistletoe!
he's saying "Merry Christmas!"

once again.....(cheesy picture, I know, but I was tired of just posing normal!)

Merry CHRISTMAS!!!

It's begining to FEEL a lot like Christmas....

Well, sort of anyway! Despite the mid 50 degree weather outside today, we are all starting to get into the Christmas spirit. (which we should be, seeing as how it's only 6 days away!) It was Christmas party time at school today! Sterling had his first Christmas party and guess who got pictures!! He had so much fun and actually fell asleep in the car on the way home. I didn't think that was going to be possible with all the sugar he ate, but if you know this child at all, you know that he LOVES to sleep, so that was not a problem! He also made me a bunch of ornaments for my tree...so cute! All the things I was looking forward to being a mom for. (you know, along with the whole soccer, football, t-ball practices and everything else fun that comes along with being mom!) In Sterling's class there are an average of 15 two year olds everyday(yeah, can you imagine!) and Sterling knows all their names when you point to them. He loves all his "friends" as he calls them. So, here are a few pictures of his Christmas party...

a chocolate mess! His shirt says "I don't do mistletoe"
CHEESE...which is his favorite food ,by the way, and there wasn't any...how dare they! :)
I don't know if you can tell or not, but he is the only one looking at the camera and he is cheesin' so bad! You may have to click on it to see it bigger!
Here is a picture of my class. So to Sterling's class of 15, we had only THREE one year olds, of which two of them are teachers that work with us, kids! One of our regulars is on vacation. So, we usually only have about four and sometimes five a day. Can't beat that!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas and I'm sure I'll have a post before the big Christmas post, but if not, then everyone be safe and MERRY CHRISTMAS!

birthdays & vomit

I know you're probably thinking what in the world? Well, yesterday was Heath's birthday and I was just going to make this blog all about him...well, let me just talk about him first and I'll get to the other part of the blog in a minute! So, yesterday was Heath's 28th birthday (the 11th) (and of course his twin brother too!) and his day started off really crappy. He went to work and the boss chewed him out not only once, but twice, and when I said chewed, I mean he let him have it. That's not normal for Heath because he is the type of person who is a perfectionist on his job sites and with the jobs he is running. Apparently his boss didn't get the memo telling him it was his birthday because he didn't show any sort of kindness! And most of the chewing out didn't even involve Heath directly, it was a mixture of things that has been building up in his boss and I think Heath is the one that it got taken out on...on his birthday of all days! So, he said the highlight of his day at work was when Sterling and I called him to wish him a happy birthday that morning. It got better though when he got home. We were so ready for him to come home so we could give him a "big hug and kisses" (that is what Sterling said he was going to do when Daddy got home...to cute!) So we got ready to go out to eat with his twin brother, Shane and his wife, Rachel, and their two kids, Claire and Owen. We ended up eating at Red Robin and then going to Cold Stone to get ice cream after. (btw, if you've never been there before, you HAVE to go...it's AWESOME!) When it was all said and done, we didn't get home until almost 10, oh yeah, I made him go to Walmart with me to get groceries, how awful am I!?! LOL I completely forgot to take pictures while we were there (bad blogger, bad) and so this picture is of Heath and Shane and our boys last fall in November. That's the most recent picture I have of the two of them. So, since I didn't take any pictures at the restaurant of everyone, I decided I would take one of Heath when we got home. Now if any of you know Heath very well, he doesn't do serious pictures by himself very well. So here are a few of the ones I did get. Of course Sterling had to be in some!

Two pretty good ones....notice they have Sterling in them.

Here are the ones of just him...see what I mean! :)
This is his impression of Billy Bob Thorton in "Slingblade" , he does the BEST impression of him, voice, face and all.

I made him do this one to look like a glamour shot from the 80's! LOL I could not stop laughing!

Then of course Mr. Copycat had to do the same...once again, laughing hysterically! (those are his jammies)

So, by the end of the day Heath said it was pretty much the worst birthday ever! How sad is that! Poor guy...work has been so bad for him. He has never once brought it home though or taken it out on me or Sterling. He knows how to separate work from home life, and that means a lot to me. (I'm now going to brag on him a little!) For everything that he has gone through this year (job wise), he has been nothing but a positive, Christian influence to everyone. He is constantly telling me that everything is going to be okay even though deep down, I know he's a little worried himself. But that is Heath, he is constantly a loving, caring, patient, understanding, unselfish, fun, Christian man. God knew what He was doing when he made Heath, that's for sure, and I am so blessed, beyond belief, to be married to such a wonderful man! Sterling and I love him with all our hearts and are so proud of him for all he has done and everything he will do. We love you Daddy and Happy Birthday!!

Ok, now for the other half of the title...I know you all were so looking forward to it! ha I fixed spaghetti tonight for dinner...BAD choice...here's the story! Tonight after church, on our way to Sam's, Sterling kept complaining of feeling sleepy and was just not acting right. We didn't really think anything of it because we just woke him up from a 4 hour nap right before church, so we thought he was just saying that. Well, we get to Sam's and Heath dropped me off at the door and he and Sterling parked the car and came in. They met up with me in the very back and Heath tried to put him in the buggy, but Sterling kept saying no and whimpering and wanting Heath to hold him because he was sleepy. No sooner did Heath take him out of the buggy to hold him, that he threw up all over Heath and in his hands. Thank the Lord we were right by a huge trash can so Heath was able to get most of it in there. I'm not going to go into detail, but the thing about it was that the vomit was just spaghetti, nothing else. So, it really wasn't even that messy...another, thank you Lord! So we cleaned him up real quick and Heath took him to the car while I finished real quick. Thankfully there was like nobody in there and I think only about 5 people who saw. Get this, as soon as they got to the car, Heath said Sterling said,"Daddy I wanna go to Walmart." That child wanted to go to Walmart right after he got done being sick! Crazy! But boy did we have a mess to clean up when we got home. What is it with all the big messes lately!?! lol Ever since it happened, he has been fine, through his bath and all. So hopefully we won't have such an adventurous night ahead of us...say a little prayer! :) I'm about done with this child being sick all the time! Hurry up and get your 31, some odd, strands of the flu already, so we can be done with it for a while!

word to the wise

Oh boy, I just spent about 30 minuets cleaning up a lovely potty training MESS! Here's the story...I had to go to the post office, which is only 1 mile from our house. Before we left I made him sit on the potty but he told me over and over that he didn't have to go. So I left his "big boy underwear" on...BIG mistake! I get to the post office and run in for like a minuet max, come back out and when I got back into the car a foul odor awaited me. (don't worry, our post office is tiny and you pull right up to the door, I was watching the car the whole time!) I asked Sterling if he had poop-pooed. He didn't even try to hide it because he immediately said, "yes". I knew at that moment I was in for at least a 30 minuet process when we got home. The whole 1 mile trek back to the house seemed more like 5 miles because I was trying to play in my mind what step I was going to take first! When we got home I came in and put all my stuff away first (purse, jacket, drink) and then went to get him out. To make matters worse, I didn't put shoes on him because I knew he wasn't going to be getting out, so I had to carry him out in front of me being sure to not touch anything the whole time. This child weighs about 38 lbs...that's heavy! So, I just stood him up in the bathtub and proceeded to take care of business. To all of those who have potty training in their near future, I HIGHLY recommend getting a hand held shower head put on your shower.


















They work wonders when you have messes like that. All you do is stand them up and hose them off. GREAT invention! So after that fiasco I got him all washed up, dressed and now it was time to clean the tub.
All I did was poor some bleach in the tub and filled it with HOT water. It is still soaking as I type! I let it sit in there for about an hour. During this whole potty training thing, we will be making a huge contribution to the Clorox company sales. Overall, it's going pretty good and he hasn't had an accident like that in a while. Just thought I'd share some insight to all of you who are getting ready for this lovely milestone in your child's life...good luck! To all of you who have been through it before...any tips to make it easier or just any tips at all??? Somebody...anybody??!!