Life as a mom in the South: December 2012

The last couple of weeks have been CRAZY!!

Let's see.....

Sawyer and I drove to IL on November 25 with his Grandpappy and Grannypooh and surprised my family. I think they were a wee bit surprised, but you'll have to ask them. It was a trip that went by quickly. I not only visited with my family, we also saw Santa and Mrs. Claus...aka... Uncle Rob and Aunt Carol. They look pretty awesome, don't they? We were also able to manage a trip into the city to visit (and once again surprise) my friends and former students at Our Redeemer (and I retrieved my dishes that were found--more on that later). Also, I was able to visit people of the Collinsville Chorale AND see Emily, Chris, and Luke. AND we got to visit St. Paul's choir AND TSP's basketball game. We flew back on Friday, November 30. Sawyer did AWESOME in the plane again. Yet another reason why my Sawyer is the bestest.

Why did we fly back on Friday? It seems like a short trip, right? Yes. It was. BUUUUT I had to get back to get our house ready for our first annual (hopefully) open house. THANK GOODNESS Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brad were here. They came on November 29...ok it was really the wee hours of November 30th. I'm not sure what I would have done without them. They were such a big help. Together we managed to get everything baked, put out, and cleaned. I also had a lot of help from different people in the congregation that brought food. Everything went smoothly and tasted delicious. I think we had around 50-60 people come through in the span of 2 hours. It was preeetty awesome. Sawyer had a ball and slept. :)

Jessica and Brad's trip was MUCH too short. They took off on Tuesday. Sadness. We were able to go on a hike with them and we attempted to take them out to eat to a local restaurant after the madness of Sunday. Did you know most local restaurants (we tried three....) are CLOSED on Sunday? We went to Cracker Barrel.

On Friday our motley crowd of three ventured up to Fredericksburg, VA to visit with some of my dad's family. It was a short trip, but very enjoyable. We got to see Aunt Sissy and Uncle Jimmy, Tammy and Andrew (very briefly), Johnny and JC (both at night and for dinner the next day---JC has created an AWESOME fort behind Tammy and Johnny's house), Nicole and Braydon (and met Kevin), plus we got to go over to Aunt Emma's and chat with Uncle Maupin for a little bit. I think I got everyone......

Saturday Dean spent the afternoon hunting with Kent, and later we headed over to the Ashley and Margaret's house for dinner. Yum! Kent and Alisha also joined us. It was a great night. Sawyer especially had a blast.

Sunday brought church, Cantada practice, caroling and a dinner at church.

Sawyer had his 4 mo check up on Tuesday. Good news----- he didn't come down with a fever.
He weighs 13.2 and is 24in. What a big boy!! :)

Last Sunday we had the Cantada at church followed by "light finger foods" (aka a full blown meal :)

Dean's been busy with confirmation, shut-ins, visiting in general, writing sermons, bible studies, etc.

I've been trying to run with a friend, Charity, from church in the mornings. We're fairweather friends though. If it's too cold (below 40) we stay warmly tucked into our beds! :)

This Sunday is the Children's Christmas program. Charity and I are singing--Melanie playing, during the offering. The Angel Gabriel...yay!

On Christmas Day we'll have the same set up only we're singing Mary Did You Know and Of the Father's Love Begotten. I'm preeeetty stoked. :)

Then we're venturing HOME for a week.

See what I mean...C-R-A-Z-Y. I wouldn't have it any other way. Although....I am looking forward to settling back down to normal and getting my house clean again. After New Year's.........

Dishes? Where might they have been? Well, funny you asked. Apparently I was preggo when I packed everything (except the bottom of the hutch).