More December Fun

On a Saturday Anthony had off of work, he wanted to go to St. Augustine to pick up some materials for his new tank set-up. Once we got them, we decided to go a few more minutes down the road to climb the St. Augustine lighthouse! James and Rett were both really excited, but unfortunately Rett wasn't tall enough to climb it. Rett was sad at first, but then he kept telling me, "I do it when I grow bigger?". So cute! Rett and I played on the playground and checked out the exhibits while Anthony and James climbed to the top.

It was very windy that day, so James tried to crawl underneath the open window to avoid the draft. He thought it was hilarious!

Checking out the view:

After climbing back down, it was James' turn to play on the playground.

Rett giving Daddy snuggles before he goes to work.

A traveling store came to James' school so that kids could buy Christmas presents for their family. I sent James to school with an envelope of money with a budget for each family member and he came home with wrapped presents for all of us. We have been having fun wrapping up random things and putting them under our little 25 days of Christ ornament tree, so the rule has become that if the present is under the little tree you can open it that day (presents under the big tree have to wait until Christmas). As soon as James got in the car he declared, "These presents go under the little tree!", so we opened them that night.

He was most excited about giving Anthony his gift. I think because he couldn't wait to borrow it :)

He picked out a measuring tape with a place for post-it notes and a small pencil.

Showing Daddy how it works:

Then it was my turn, James got me a ceramic ring holder!

Showing me that you can also use it as a tiny umbrella:

Rett's turn! He got a small stuffed horse. He hugged it and immediately named it "Fluffy".

I didn't want James to be the only one not to open a present, so I texted Anthony before we got home and he went out and got him a present to open: navy seals boats and action figures!

One of the local u-pick farms that I follow on Facebook announced that they were opening up for strawberry picking for one day only. Considering how many strawberries we go through in our house, I definitely wanted to be there! Rett and I got there right after they opened and it was a good thing because they were picked out of ripe strawberries in a few hours!

My helper dumping his small basket into the big one.

Look at these beauties!

After we got our strawberries, we walked over to the vegetable patch to check out what they had. We got some huuuuuge eggplant, peppers, and broccoli. They had a patch of green tomatoes, and when Rett saw them, he said "Look! Apples!"

The haul! We ended up with a little over 10 pounds of strawberries and we ate them all in about 2 weeks.

James and Rett got a Kiwi crate subscription for Christmas from my mom, and James' box had an activity where you assemble your own grabber claw. James' first thought was that it would be perfect for picking up trash at the park, so the next time we went to the park that is what we did!

For our 11 year wedding anniversary Anthony had to work, so to celebrate we all went bowling. This was our first time at the local bowling alley (every time we tried in the past they were booked), and it was great! They had automatic bumpers that went up for the boys and down for us. Rett lost interest in the game a few frames in, so James took over and played for him.

James had been shivering at the bowling alley and I thought it was just because of the air conditioning. We stopped at the grocery store on the way home and he was really shivering in there, and I again thought it was just the air conditioning. Then we got home and started getting him ready for bed and realized that he was burning up! When I took his temperature it was 102! He was pretty sick for the next few days, tired, fever, congestion. Rett caught it a few days later and was sick for a few days. I had a little bit of a cold throughout all this, nothing too bad but after a week I caught it much worse and ended up with a middle AND outer ear infection. I was soooooo miserable. I am on the second round of antibiotics and it still hasn't completely cleared up and I pretty much can't hear out of that ear at the moment. The end of the year sickness hit us pretty hard.

Being sick together:

December Fun

We decided to check out a Christmas event in Port Orange that promised free stockings for kids, a visit from Santa, and snow! When we got in line to see Santa we were surprised to see a familiar face. We have a man in our ward that makes money playing Santa at this time of the year and he always comes to our ward Christmas party dressed up as Santa. I guess this was one of his paid events for the year. We have never seen him dressed up as Santa outside of church, so we felt like we knew a celebrity :) 

James is scared again of talking to Santa, so he wouldn't let go of me and was whispering in my ear what to tell Santa that he wants. He asked for a Hot Wheels bicycle. Rett asked for a race car.

All the kids were excited and waiting for the snow machine to get turned on. 

Especially this one.

James trying to catch the snow in his stocking:

Rett loved it and kept saying "Christmas dirt!!!"

Our ward has a hard time keeping consistent nursery leaders, so Anthony and I are almost always helping out in nursery on Sundays. On the first Sunday in December it was just me in there with a couple of substitutes so I asked if I could take all the new Sunbeams into sharing time and singing time for the 3rd hour. They haven't had any kind of transition preparation for primary so I really wanted to do something. Surprise, surprise, all the other kids did great and Rett was the crazy one :) Since they left nursery right before snack time Rett spent a lot of sharing time and singing time asking when it was time for snack. That boy needs his food! 

After church James helped Anthony try to assemble the old crib to see if it would work as a new quail cage. Anthony decided it would be easier to build something, but James loved figuring it out with him.

James really wanted to go to the beach after school and ride his scooter, and since we haven't been in a while, I said ok. He also brought his soccer chair and set it up on a pile of sand as a throne. There weren't very many people around, so I didn't mind leaving them while we took a walk down the beach. After about 30 minutes I glanced back and saw two people pick up James chair and scooter and start carrying them away!! I have heard of other people getting their things stolen at the beach so I thought that was what they were doing. James and I started running towards them waving our hands and yelling at them. By the time we got to them they were at the stairs to walk towards the parking lot. They said that they were just moving them away from the water because they thought it was abandoned and they didn't want it to go into the ocean (even though it was waaaaay far away from the water and the tide wasn't even coming in). I was huffing and puffing from running so hard so I didn't really say anything to them, but it was weird. She kept talking to me and telling me personal stuff, like she came to the beach because her friend died, etc... After that we just packed up our stuff and went back to the car. Strange! In the car on the way home James declared it the worst visit to the beach because he got a little burn on his hand playing in a pile of dirt he didn't realize was the leftovers of someone's fire pit and we almost got our things stolen. At least we had a good story to tell!

James had a Christmas concert at school that the entire Kindergarten had been practicing for. Once they started practicing he started getting in more trouble at school and when I talked to him about it, I finally got him to admit that he didn't like the practices and that he was nervous about performing. I told him that he didn't have to be in the performance, that we could come and support everyone and watch his friends. Then, the day before the concert he told me that he changed his mind and that he wanted to be in the concert with his class! He even agreed to wear a Christmas colored shirt (we got special permission for him to wear shorts since he won't wear long pants right now).

Rett waiting for the concert to start:

The Kindergarten kids sang three songs right at the beginning of the concert, then they went back into their classroom to watch a movie while the 1st and 2nd graders did their songs. Then they came back in to do one song with everyone. The room was very crowded and we couldn't see James very well from our seats. I had to sneak up to the front to take pictures. I was so glad I got him a light up Christmas light necklace to wear because it made it much easier to find him!

They had the lights off for some reason, so it made it much harder to see the kids. At least I can pick out James with his necklace!

James didn't really sing, just looked around and made some noises. But he didn't mess with the kids around him and run round around the stage like last year's Christmas concert, so progress!

After the concert, they took all the kids back to a classroom and parents had to come pick them up individually. James looks like he is waving at me, but he actually was trying to hit the camera so that I didn't get a picture of him. Stinker!

James and one of his friends from school came up with a game of pretending to be a train and holding hands in a line. Rett loved the idea and always joins in as the caboose. Every day when we are walking to our car, all three of them are in a line as a train. After we drop of his friend at her car, Rett and James hook back up to go to our car. I love these kids and their imaginations!

The library had a Christmas lunch for the volunteers, so Rett and I went. Rett was so excited to bring his own little backpack full of quiet toys. Now when we go somewhere, he asks, "I bring my backpack?"

For the first time ever, Anthony was home with us on the Saturday of the town's Christmas parade! We were excited to show him the fun.

Rett doesn't like the loud sirens and horns of the fire trucks, so he has us put our hands over his ears. He still tries to smile and wave, but it comes out kind of funky.

Like this:

About halfway through the parade, James was bent over on the ground picking up candy and a man dressed up like the Joker, was walking backwards, not looking ahead of him and he tripped over James! The man fell on the ground and it pushed James' head into the asphalt. We knew he was hurt when he started crying and wouldn't get up. Usually if he falls down or trips, he barely acknowledges it. Sure enough, he ended up with a big scrape and bruise on the corner of his forehead. For the rest of the parade he sat in my lap and let everyone bring candy to him. Poor guy!

Once it started purpling up and really looking bad, everyone we met would ask him what happened. We decided that James was a superhero because he tripped the villain, The Joker! James got really good at telling the story and even started acting it out whenever someone would ask. Now it is almost sad that his scrape is almost healed and gone :)

Thanksgiving Activities

James' class had a Thanksgiving lunch at school and families were invited to eat with everyone. I stayed and helped out in the morning and then Anthony brought Rett to join us at lunch time. After everyone ate, the kids just ran around on the field playing games with each other and having a blast. It was so fun to see them have such a good time.

For the first time in I don't know how many years, I didn't host Thanksgiving and we decided to go to my brother's in Gainesville instead. It was amazing!!! So relaxing to not be in charge. We got to walk Daniel's dog Henry (always a highlight!) and while everything was cooking we took the boys down the road to the park. There was a fun trail that went through the woods and over a creek, so we took a walk through it. All the boys picked up walking sticks and used them to check under every rock and bush for creatures.

After the walk, the boys wanted to play on the baseball field in the red dirt and James made his new Styrofoam airplane do loops and dives. Someone had a drone flying around the park with a camera and James made sure his plane did tricks when it was near us :)

On the way home that night, we stopped at the new Bass Pro Shop in Gainesville and played with the toys. Rett reluctantly agreed to sit on Santa's lap. He said he wants "red presents" and a "race car". I tried to convince James to sit on Santa's lap so that I could get a picture of him too, but he couldn't be pulled away from the toys.

After he talked to Santa, they gave me the picture and this cool frame for it for free. Isn't that awesome! We love Bass Pro, I am so glad they are opening one in Daytona soon.

On one of Anthony's days off over the Thanksgiving weekend, he got to take the boat out and go fishing. In the afternoon, we met him at the park and got on the boat to join him. The boys were so excited!!

We didn't catch anything, but we had  a good time going fast around the channels and practicing casting. James accidentally cast his fishing line the wrong direction and it went onto land into a bunch of trees. We all had a good laugh and he said, "I guess I know not to do that anymore!"