On Saturday we spent the morning purging some stuff to donate to the Youth Ranch, clothing mostly. We made pizza that evening, I have been trying to figure out a good recipe to use for Nico's pizza, but I haven't hit on one yet that is very appetizing for him after needing to pull out the previous crust we were using, and not being able to do tomatoes. But, I've got a good recipe I'm going to try this next Saturday for both the crust and the sauce, so hopefully we can get back on track.
We've had to become creative in how to spend our days because we ended up having 5 snow days in a row. He went back to school yesterday (Wednesday) but then had another snow day today. Jeff and Allicia have a kiln, so the kids painted some pottery one evening that was fired overnight, the next day.
Waiting for the paints to be ready in the garage. Watching Swedish Chef videos on YouTube.
On the windowsill in the kitchen
On Tuesday Lexie came over to spend a few hours with us! Nico was so excited. They played games and ate lunch and watched a movie. I also gave them some henna. When Uncle Jonny came to pick Lexie up, he stayed for one game of Bird Memory.
On Wednesday night Brianna came over for dinner. She came early enough that her and I and Nico were able to play some games before dinner. Mostly the bird memory game, but also Spot It. We played the memory game after dinner as well with Guy.
Nico telling us how to put on and take off a backpack.
Saturday was Evelyn's birthday party! Allicia had asked me if I would be interested in doing face painting for the kids at the party, she had a face painting kit I could use. It sounded like fun so I said yes! I had a lot of fun painting faces. Here's a few.
Nico wanted to be spider man.
Aadam and Sammy
We also did fireworks like usual for her birthday, it was a very fun party.
On Sunday The Grandparents Salisbury and Lexie picked up Nico and they all went up to the cabin! Before he would go he had to be reassured that all the bears are sleeping during the winter. They had a sleepover, and I went to pick Nico up on Monday afternoon. They all had a great time together, sledding down the driveway, watching Old Yeller at night and popping popcorn. Apparently neither Lexie or Nico are heavy enough to make the sled go down the driveway by itself, even if they both sit on it together, so Papa went with them! They told the story of Papa and Lexie going down the hill and Papa reaching over and grabbing Nico as they passed. And the story of Papa and Nico going down the hill and Lexie jumping onto the sled as they passed.
Popping popcorn
Spiralizing cucumbers
Thank you for the fun time! Nico asked if next time he was going to get to stay 3 nights like in Grandma Camp.
On Tuesday Guy took our car to Dowdy's Automotive and we had it fixed up! That was the next step in our plan and now we are saving up for a 2nd car. Getting there bit by bit! After we have a 2nd car we will save up to move.
Wednesday was supposed to be the first day back to school but it was a SNOW DAY! We have had so much snow this week! School was also cancelled today and is cancelled tomorrow as well.
Yesterday afternoon Allicia and I and the kids ventured outside to try to do some snow shoveling. One of our neighbors joined us and we made a nice dent in the snow. As we were finishing up, Guy came home and got stuck trying to pull the car up to the sidewalk, and then Jeff got stuck trying to make it into the driveway. It was slick! Several neighbors helped them both dig their cars out. Guy and Jeff both worked from home today.
This afternoon, Jeff and Allicia let Nico put some of their children-sized skis on, and he was skiing down a small hill in the front yard made from all the shoveled snow.
Allicia helping Nico down the slope.
He eventually got good enough to go down the slope without falling. Guy came outside and helped build up the slope.
Trying to slide down on a plastic bag. Didn't work!
I think that's it. Hopefully I'm not forgetting something! It was a fun week. Perhaps school will start on Monday! ;)
On Friday the snow started!! The Grandparents Russell came over and hung out for a bit, we popped popcorn and went downstairs to watch a movie. They weren't able to stay long that day because of the snow, but I think we packed some fun in.
The basement downstairs. Jeff & Allicia were out of town so we had free range of the house!
Saturday we woke up to more snow! We dug our car out and put chains on it and went to G.G.'s house where we opened presents and ate lunch.
We headed back around 2 PM, Guy needed to be at the church at 3:30 because he was doing sound for the Christmas Eve service. Nico and I picked Brianna up and we all went to the Service together. It was a lovely service and Nico kept asking when it was time to go to bed because he wanted to wake up on Christmas!
We had a bit of a Christmas miracle with one of Nico's presents. He had asked Santa for a box of 50 Hot Wheels cars and he told me Friday morning that he was so excited that Santa was bringing him a box of cars. I tried telling him that Santa may not bring him all the gifts he asked for. We've also told him the truth about Santa every year, but he really doesn't want to believe us. Anyway, we did NOT get him a box of 50 Hot Wheels cars and I was feeling kind of sad that he was expecting it from Santa. So, on to the Christmas miracle...
Guy was downstairs in the cellar looking for the chess pieces for the chess board we had pulled out, when he came across a taped up shoe box. He opened it up and it was PACKED full of Hot Wheels! We brought it upstairs and joked, "Wouldn't it be funny if there were exactly 50 cars in here" Well, guess what? There were exactly 50.
We wrapped it up from Santa and when Nico opened it he had no idea that he used to own all of those cars, they were like brand new to him. This was by far the present he played with the most on Christmas morning. He was so excited about all his cars that he wanted me to set up my video camera and make a video of him showing off his cars, and then send it to everyone in the world. I figured YouTube was close enough to sending it to everyone in the world, so that's what I did. The video is 40 minutes long so I decided to cut it into 5 minute segments. Not sure I'll ever post more than Part 1 though. I posted it and he was happy :) You can see the 5 minute Part 1 at the end of this entry.
Sunday morning was fun. Christmas! Nico set the alarm for 6 AM because that's when he wanted to wake up, but, nope, he was up at 4:30!! We laid in bed and sang Christmas carols for 30 minutes until 5 AM, when Nico and I got up and he looked at all his presents under the tree, then opened his stocking.
The chess board my brother Jonny got for me many years ago, it is etched out of marble! We told Nico where it came from and that we pulled it out on Christmas because we knew he wanted to play.
I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast, tradition from when I was younger! They were super yummy.
Before adding the glaze
After breakfast we opened gifts!
Playing with his cars
Sunday afternoon the Grandparents Russell came over again and played with us. Grandma and Nico spent a lot of time playing the Bird Matching game that they got him, he loves that game. You match the female bird with the male bird.
We now have an Echo Dot in our house, thank you Grandparents Russell! You can talk to this device, her name is Alexa, and it is linked to our Amazon Prime account. We can ask her to set timers, tell jokes, play music, and she even knew the answer to a joke that Nico told her. The most brilliant use of it so far has been in the playing of music. Because we have Amazon Prime we can listen to streaming music for free, so Nico tells her to play his favorite band (Capital Kings) and she puts all their songs on shuffle, and then he dances. Tonight over dinner Nico asked her to play dinner music, and she chose a latin music station. heehee.
Oh, the point where the Echo Dot and the Bird Matching game connect - We right away started using the Echo Dot to play lullaby music at night for Nico to fall asleep to. One of the songs that first night was one that Guy recognized. It's called Australian Lullaby, it's about a Kookaburra. Nico made the connection that kookaburra was one of the birds in the matching game. Now every night we listen to Australian Lullaby on repeat while he falls asleep. It's a pleasant song, there are no words in the version we listen to, it is just piano.
We finished up on Sunday watching Elf downstairs while eating popcorn. It was a very nice visit and putting together the video tonight has made me already miss them! Can't wait to see them again!
Sunday evening after we said goodbye to the Grandparents Russell, Guy put a log on the fire and we sat in the living room to read the Christmas story from the Bible. (Eek - forgot to do that in the morning!)
Sunday afternoon we were also planning on seeing the Grandparents Salisbury, but they got SNOWED IN! They had SO much snow they couldn't get out! It was definitely a white christmas this year! But we did get to see Papa on Monday when he stopped by!
When cleaning up today I found a piece of paper that I had recorded one of Nico's prayers on.
Prayer that Nico prayed Dec 3rd, 2016:
"Dear Jesus, I pray you heal Daddy while he's sleeping, and I pray you heal me, too, because my tummy really hurts. It's a job only for God. And Thank you for my parents. In Jesus' name, Amen."
It's a job only for God! :) God has answered our prayers for Nico's tummy healing. He is getting better and better and better. Some of his health issues are resolving. Food is still restricted, and it may always be that way for him (gluten, sugar), but he has come a long way in only a few months. Praise God!
Last Friday was Nico's Christmas Program at school. Guy and I went to the 9:15 showing. There was Elmo and Cookie Monster puppets, and songs.
Cookie Monster learned that sharing his cookies showed the spirit of Christmas. So he ate one and gave the rest away.
On Sunday after church there was a potluck. I made a pumpkin pie and a salad. Nico told me that I make the best pumpkin pie in the world! I'm pretty sure he's never tasted a different one though ;) When we have pumpkin pie in the fridge I give some to the boys for breakfast.
On Tuesday Nico had his Polar Express field trip. They put all the kids on a bus and took them to the downtown library! He got to wear his pajamas and he brought with him his suitcase to carry his blanket, slippers, and stuffed animal. They drank hot chocolate and the principal read them the Polar Express book. Then they watched the Polar Express movie at the library. They also got to decorate cookies and go on tours of the library.
Wednesday was a half day,
and today the Grandparents Russell came over! They came into town this morning and will stay through Monday, they are staying with GG. Jeff and Allicia and family also left today for vacation and so we have a bit more room to stretch out. We ate Jimmy Johns for lunch and made some gingerbread cookies this afternoon! They turned out pretty good.
They brought two new ornaments for Nico. The snowman is from Great Grandma Dee's collection.
I promise I'll have pictures of the actual Grandparents next week! ;)
Last Friday night was our church's Ladies Christmas Party. Tiffanie, Allicia and myself all went together. We have a fuzzy cell phone picture of all of us in our Christmas hats.
On Saturday we visited GG. Guy came with us! Nico brought a chalkboard Tic Tac Toe game that him and GG played.
We are looking forward to seeing her on Christmas Eve!
On Sunday we went to the Winter Garden Aglow in the evening with Brianna. Tiffanie and Allicia and family also went, we met them there. We discovered that there is no photographer there this year, so we had to improvise our family picture. Brianna snapped a shot for us.
We also went to see Santa. Nico had me write down on a sticky note the three things that he wanted to ask Santa for. Watch the video at the end to hear him read his list. (1) A box of 50 hot wheels (2) A chessboard (3) A checkerboard. On Sunday afternoon Guy had taken Nico to Dawson Taylor Coffee House with him and they sat at the chess table and played chess for a while, so that's where those two requests came from. We are going to pull out our marble chess board and pieces for Christmas so that Nico can play with those. My brother Jonny brought them back for me from an overseas military assignment he had a long time ago. I am very excited to bring them out again.
Guy has this entire week off from work! On Monday we both had eye appointments. Both our eyes got dilated and we came home afterward and could barely see but we set up some Netflix to watch while eating lunch and it was a cozy afternoon. Another Netflix afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Last Friday Guy had the day off from work, but he was unfortunately sick with a cold and wasn't able to really enjoy the day. He was bed-bound for almost 5 days total, taking him through Sunday, and he was back to work on Monday. Thankfully he also has THIS Friday off and ALL of next week off! So hopefully he'll get to make up for it.
On Saturday Nico and I made a Christmas wreath from stuff we bought from the Dollar Store and Joann Fabrics. I made the wreath part and then let him choose where to put all the decorative stuff. He put "Jesus" (a bundle of pine-looking things with a present and red decorative stuff on it) on the bottom of the wreath surrounded by jingle bells, and the candy canes were all the disciples bowing down to Jesus.
The rest of the weekend was pretty laid back.
On Monday after school, Allicia invited us all for a Christmas craft - making pine cone bird feeders. You cover pine cones with peanut butter and then roll them in bird seed. You tie them up and hang them somewhere outside so that birds have something to munch on during the winter. Grandma Salisbury had a large box of pine cones that she gave to Allicia for the occasion. They worked perfectly!
We had our first SNOW on.. Tuesday? And then today it poured snow all day, the kids played outside in it after school and we are wondering if school will be closed tomorrow. We celebrated the snow tonight by making snow ice cream out in the main house. We mixed milk and maple syrup and vanilla in with the snow.
On Friday we got a visit from the Grandparents Salisbury, they brought Christmas presents, and so, we opened them early! I don't think Nico's would have fit under the tree anyway :)
He loves this chair! He has since discovered a better way to sit in it and I will get a picture of that soon. It also folds up and is easily tucked away. Thank you to Grandparents Salisbury!
Saturday we bought our Christmas tree!
Nico pointed out his name and date on the back of one of them. Every year, the Grandparents Russell give Nico a new ornament. Nico was very excited to rediscover this, and the next morning for You and Me Time we spent our 10 minutes finding all of the ornaments from them and saying them in order by year.
We also pulled out the trusty lego advent set and he put them all together and arranged them by day.
This morning, being the very first day of December, means that we got to do our advent calendars. We got our yearly computer-based advent calendar from Grandma Russell (thank you!) which we booted up today. Nico decorated the tree and we watched the Dec 1st animation.
He chose to purchase the Pokemon Handbook from the school book fair. He is excited about that.
