A Christmas Story

Our Christmas celebrations started with our gift exchange with Mandy, Heath and Drew. They bought Ethan a race car track and Emerson a baby doll. She was so cute with her one tooth! We bought Drew another drum set. Of course Ethan had to bring his down from the bonus room and rock out. Here are some videos of our evening.

Ethan's School Christmas Party

The three year old classes combined their Christmas party this year. They celebrated with snacks and juice boxes. Some of the children exchanged presents. We had simple gifts this year, just reindeer ears with bells on them. I normally buy gifts after Christmas while they're on clearance, but I didn't find anything last year. I took Ethan home early since we were heading to my mom's house. He wanted to leave the second I got there and had a bit of a meltdown when I made him sit down and eat! He was in dire need of a haircut too, eh?

To Grammy's house we go...

After Ethan's Christmas party, we set out for Grammy's. She saved her tree decorating for Ethan. He has decorated A LOT of Christmas trees this year! He even helped Grandma decorate hers. Emerson enjoyed wearing all of Grammy's costume jewelry. Every time my mom put a new piece on her, she had to come and show me. She's becoming quite the girly girl! We did a lot of Christmas shopping and played at Monkey Joe's. I had to take Emerson to the urgent care there because she was coughing so bad. She ended up having an ear infection. Poor baby!

Christmas Eve

I let Ethan open up his Slide/Bouncer a day early because it was warm on Christmas Eve and was supposed to rain on Christmas. It was a bit rough putting it up for me, but I think I know what I'm doing now! Drew came over to play before we went to Chris' parents house to celebrate Christmas with them.

Ethan was very anxious to get home and get to sleep before Santa came. Chris mentioned one time that Santa wouldn't come if he was awake and that was all it took. He wanted no part in reading books or a story without a book. We had reindeer food to put out, cookies to put out and our Christmas Eve pj's and book to open. He didn't even want to read his new books! Next year we will have to start our traditions earlier in the evening because he didn't enjoy it like I would have liked him to. Emerson will be more active next year as well.

Christmas Morning

Our kids actually slept until 8:50 Christmas morning. They are the best kids EVER! When Ethan woke up (in our bed of course), I asked him if he thought that Santa came. He whispered to me, "I hope so." He's so sweet! I told him to wait in the bedroom so I could check things out around the tree. I really just wanted to capture his reaction on our video camera, which I did and it was unreal. I wish I could post it on here, but I took it with our real video camera, not my digital camera. He kept saying, "Wow, I got a lot of presents!"

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Chris' parents came over around lunch or so. I bought Chris Wii Fit, so we played that with them. My mom and RT came around dinner and we exchanged gifts with them before dinner. I threw a roast in the crock pot, so dinner was very relaxing.

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I woke up with a horrible headache on Friday and ended up getting really sick a few times. Luckily my mom was here to watch the kids. Ethan threw up in the middle of the night and went back to sleep with no other symptoms. We must have caught a bug from somewhere. My mom stayed through Sunday, so there was a lot of playin' going on around here!

All I want for Christmas is...

Chris and I brought the kids to see Santa tonight. Ethan was so brave and walked right up to Santa. I was so proud of him. When I walked over there, he had already told Santa that he wanted a Diego man, an Alicia girl (she's with Diego) and a truck. I asked Santa what he said he wanted and he told me that Ethan wanted a Diego man, a VCR and a truck. I said, "A VCR?" Santa said, "I think that's what he said, but these ears are gettin' old!" Then I put Emerson on his lap. As shown in the picture, she did not like Santa at all.

Tomorrow we're off to Rock Hill for a few days to see my mother. I am hoping to finish all of my Christmas shopping. We also will be without a computer for a while because ours is being serviced. Emerson likes to pick the keys off of the keyboard, so they have to replace the entire keyboard. I will blog when I can.

Where is Ethan?

I was looking around on the web this afternoon and found this picture. Apparently, Little Miss Lumbee visited Ethan's school a couple of months ago. He came home with her card and an autograph. See if you can find Ethan. Here's a hint: just look for Anna and her red bow. They are inseparable.

Reminiscing...

Our 6th wedding anniversary is today, so what better way to reminisce? Pull out the wedding video! That was actually Chris' idea last night. Aren't you impressed? He wanted to show Ethan Mommy and Daddy's "movie" as Ethan called it. I took that opportunity to see if the old wedding dress still fit! Thank God for not preserving that thing, right? Black bra and all...it fit! Somehow it fit about the same although I am 20 pounds lighter now...hmmmm...what children do to your body! My sister-in-law told me about a photographer that takes fun pictures of brides years later in their original wedding dress, so I may try that. It was a fun night playing around with the kids in the dress. Ethan wanted a picture of himself in the dress, but his daddy was none too pleased! Enjoy our silly pictures!

PS: The kids seem to be feeling good. Thanks for the prayers!

Oh, what a night...

Emerson started out with a low grade fever yesterday, which quickly turned into 103.9. Scary. I know. Her nail beds were turning blue as well, so we called the Nurses' Line and were advised to take her to the Emergency Room. Ethan's nails slightly turn blue as well with a high fever, so we decided to give her Motrin and check her in an hour. Her fever went down, she was breathing normal and went to sleep. WELL...Ethan started coughing during all of this and threw up. He was wide awake and jumping around after that, so we put him back to sleep. While we were making the decision not to take Emerson to the hospital, Ethan started coughing again. Only this time, he was having a really hard time breathing. We have never gone through this whole croup thing, so it was terrifying for us. I was not dressed, so I told Chris to take him to the hospital and I called Heath to come and stay with Emerson. Thank God for good friends when you don't have family close by. As Chris was leaving, he spotted our neighbor coming home. He was on call (he's a surgeon) and coming home from the hospital, so he checked him out and told Chris it sounded like croup. Heath showed up within minutes and off I go to be with my little boy. They actually got us back pretty quick, but we didn't see the doctor for another hour and a half. I sent Chris home to relieve Heath since Ethan was stable (oxygen level was perfect). Five hours, one breathing treatment, one steroid shot and one chest/neck xray later, we were home in bed at 4:00 am. He's still coughing, but they said he'll be like this for 2-3 days.

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Back to Emerson. She woke up this morning with a 102 degree fever. Better than last night. I gave her some Motrin and she drank lots of water. She didn't want anything to eat. Chris asked her and she said, "no." I know right, she's 17 months old. Chris is a riot. Anyway, while she was napping this morning, I decided to make her an appointment just in case. Glad I did because she has strep throat even though she woke up with no fever. What a wonderful weekend this will be at the Moore home!

Where's Grammy?

Elf Yourself

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Elf Yourself Part 2

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Pigtails and Elephant Ears!

Great idea, Amy! When Ethan was about 9 months old, I put his hair in pigtails. I know, I know, he's a boy! Chris was none too happy, believe me! Then on Halloween this year, Emerson tried on Ethan's Dumbo costume. Dumbo looks like the same kid to me! Check out the comparison.