Grandparents Russell, G.G., and a Christmas Miracle!

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!

VIDEOS!

Christmas Program, Polar Express Field Trip, Grandparents Russell!!

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! ;) 

Merry Christmas to all our family!

See you next week!

GG, Winter Garden Aglow

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. 

Wreath, Pine Cones, Snow!

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.

Christmas Tree

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. 

That's about it for this week! On to the next!

Thanksgiving!

Nico and Guy had Saturday to spend together while I was at a festival doing henna. They went to the library, and the mall. We are not doing pizza on Saturdays for a few weeks while our oven is being fixed, so they didn't do pizza. Sunday they both went to church together while I finished up at the festival.

Monday was a day at home and Tuesday was an errand day. It's been fun to have the buddy at home for the week because of Thanksgiving.

On Tuesday we got a Thanksgiving box from the Grandparents Russell. Treats, and some art supplies, we've been playing with those the last few days. It was great timing to get some new supplies during his week off. Thank you Grandpa and Grandma!

He used his new art supplies to design a henna tattoo. He was very proud of it when he showed me. I asked him if he wanted to try doing it in henna and he said yes, here's the result!

Allicia and the kids were out of town earlier this week so we had the house to use during the day. We used their oven on Wednesday to make our pumpkin pie and stuffing, and then again today to heat up our turkey and bake our green bean casserole. We bought a cooked turkey breast from Costco that we just sliced up and heated.

We ate:
turkey
green bean casserole
cranberry sauce
sweet potatoes
stuffing
pumpkin pie

We pulled our table out from the wall so we could all sit at it. It was very nice. I made the stuffing with sourdough bread, Guy said it was good but I didn't prefer it. It was a nice experiment!

After we were done eating we played UNO

We FaceTimed with the Grandparents Russell tonight, Nico seems a little more on board with FaceTime now that he's a bit older. It was fun to see them!

We will get to see the Grandparents Salisbury tomorrow!

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

Piggie and Gerald, GG

Last Friday was the Piggie and Gerald show in the evening. We couldn't take pictures during the show but I snapped a few before hand.

Gerald was played by a man in gray clothes, and Piggie was played by a blond haired woman in a pink dress and pig ears. They sang and danced and even acted out parts of their books. There were 3 Squirrels (pronounced Squir-ELLS) It was really fun to watch but very late for Nico. In the middle of their first song Nico asked "When are they going to stop singing?" After that he understood that it was a mix of singing and dancing and acting and he got in the groove. Then about 20 minutes before the show ended, he got very tired and asked every few minutes when it was going to be over. I felt bad keeping him out so late!

Saturday morning Nico and I went to GG's house for a visit! Nico always watches TV for the last half hour we are there, he watched My Little Pony this time. GG gave us a bag full of goodies from her pantry and have been using them up. Thanks GG :)

Then Guy took Nico to the skate park so he could ride his bike. He fell off his bike and got his leg scraped up. Guy says he got back on his bike after this. But eventually it hurt too much so they came home and I bandaged him up so they could go back out and go to the library. They've been going to the library on Saturdays to pick out a video for us to watch while we eat pizza. But Nico chose to check out the Magic Tree House books on tape so we could listen to them while we ate pizza instead of watching something.

Saturday afternoon while we were making pizza I noticed that Nico felt very hot, he had a temp of 101.5 and he ate only 2 bites of pizza. On Sunday he wasn't hungry at all and said he had a tummy ache, but nothing came of it and the only outward symptom was the fever.

Grandma and Papa stopped by on Sunday to drop off eggs and they brought Nico a huge book to help him pass the time while he was sick. It is about things underneath the soil and things underneath the water. You start at one end of the book and flip the pages to learn about what's under the soil, until you get to the molten lava center of the earth, then you flip the book over and go backwards back up to the surface but this time through water. Or you can start with the water and then flip it for the soil. Very fun. We spent a long time reading that.

Monday he said he felt better but still had a temp of 99.5 ish so I kept him home from school.

Tuesday morning Nico and I both had a doctor's appointment. They checked him for some food sensitivities and they say he can eat corn and yogurt and a few other things he couldn't eat before. We tried out eggs this morning for the first time in 8 months and the morning didn't actually go very well after that. On the way to school he told me he didn't want to go and kept pulling me to come back home. He said he was tired and wanted to stay home to sleep. We got to the school but he still insisted and wouldn't let me walk away. I wasn't sure what to do so I took him into his classroom to talk to his teacher before the bell rang. She kept him in there and I left. We communicated throughout the day through email, she told me he went out in the hallway with a parent volunteer to read for a while, and then stayed inside with with her during first recess. He slowly recovered and after lunch he was fine.

That's the first time he hasn't wanted to go to school. I hope he's okay about going to school tomorrow!

That's it for this week!

Piggie and Gerald!!

On Friday Nico and I went to see G.G. at the hospital. He had the day off from school so it worked out really well. While we were there she wowed us with how well she was getting around even after being cooped up in a bed for a few days!! She was released later that day. Yay! We will see her this Saturday again!

Last Saturday was the Sensory Friendly Movie. We went with Tiffanie, Aadam and Sammy and we met friends from church there as well. The movie was Kubo and the Two Strings. It was kind of scary. Near the end of the movie Nico said he wanted to go home and I asked him why and he said he was tired. The last few times we've been to a movie he has started getting antsy about 30 minutes before the movie is over. He always asks me "How much longer?" I'm not sure we'll go to the movie next time.

Sunday after church we went to a Piggie and Gerald party at the library. Not the library downtown but a different one over on Overland. Tiffanie and kids followed us there, and then we met Grandma Salisbury and Lexie there too. They had reader's theater, which Nico and friends participated in, and coloring and painting and decorating cookies. There was a drawing for free tickets to the LIVE Piggie and Gerald show at the Morrison Center this Friday. Each family could put one raffle ticket into the fishbowl, and so we did. When the drawing took place an hour later, there were only a handful of us still there, so we all waited eagerly to see if we would win. They had a lot of tickets to give away. Name after name after name after name... most weren't in the room so they moved on to the next one. Then, Lexie won!! They gave her 3 tickets so her whole family could go. Then name after name after name... Tiffanie won! 3 tickets to her. More names were called and I could see we were getting to the very last of them and he still had tickets available. Finally, the very last ticket which he struggled getting out of the fishbowl because it was stuck - OURS! That's right. 3 tickets to the Piggie and Gerald Show - TOMORROW! We are going. We might be a little late, but we're going!

Reading "Let's Go for a Drive!"

Reading "My New Friend Is So Fun!"

I can't remember which book this was! (That's Lexie in the middle) They did a great job!

Reading "Today I will Fly!"

On Monday it was G.G.'s birthday. Happy Birthday G.G.!! We will have your present for you on Saturday (you already know what it is!)

That night we had our last night of Financial Peace University. Everyone graduated and we all got a certificate. Nico fell asleep while we were there, with Guy holding him. He had to put Nico down on some of the chairs to take this picture with us.

Guy and Nico bought a few games at Fred Meyer. Life, and Uno. Here's Nico playing Life with 3 of his stuffed animals. He woke up early that day and spent about an hour before breakfast doing this.

That's it for this week. See you all next time!