Decorating Grandma and PawPaw's Christmas Tree

We use to have Thanksgiving dinner at our house and after dinner we would have the grand kids decorate our tree, it was so much fun. Then Brian and Mary wanted to have Thanksgiving dinner at their house, which I really love. So, now on Friday, they bring all the leftovers out to our house and Julie and the kids come over and then the grand kids decorate our tree. It is so much fun. We put on the same music that we used when Brian and Julie were little and decorated the tree. This year it was so funny because Charlie was really getting into it. I hand everyone an ornament and then Julie, Brian or Mary help the kids put the ornament on the tree. Well, Charlie would shove everyone aside to get to the ornaments, it was so cute. Also, we take turns on who puts the angel on top of the tree. This year was Sissy's year. Well, none of us knew that Sissy was afraid of heights and as you can see in the picture, she was pretty frightened. It was actually kind of funny to see her gripping Brian. She was successful though getting the angel on the tree. We always take pictures so we will remember for the next year. Then we take a picture of the kids after everything is done. Success for another year. Then chaos broke out and they started attacking each other, it was pretty funny as you can see. God I love these kids.

Our two very accomplished 1st Graders

November was a very successful month for our two 1st graders. First Leah came home with a ribbon that she made honor roll and then next Kylie came home with the "Student of the Month" award. We are so proud of both of our girls. Her are pictures of our girls with their awards.

A Day We Don't Want Repeated

The day was Wednesday, 11-3-2010 it started out ok. I was making breakfast for everyone including Brian when Mary called and said Brian is not feeling good and taking off sick but thinks he can bring the kids to you. About 15 minutes later Mary called again and said Brian was taking the kids out to the car and threw up in the rosebushes so she was bringing the kids out. Now I do need to tell you Monday, the day after Halloween, Charlie started throwing up all evening. We just thought it was too much candy on Halloween. Well, I guess we were wrong. Before Mary left for work, she turned on the heat because Brian was so cold. After I came back from taking Kylie to school, I started making dinner because I was going to take Kylie to the dentist after school and wouldn't have time to make it later. Bob was watching the little ones downstairs. At lunch Mary went home to check on Brian, she walked in the house and smelled gas. Brian was still sleeping. Mary called Laclede Gas and they came out immediately but did tell her she should get out of the house. Brian said he was too sick to get out of bed. Mary opened all the windows. Laclede Gas said something was wrong with their furnace. Mary called their furnace company and they said they would be out this evening. Now Mary was panicking because what if they didn't have a furnace what were they going to do. Mary knew she could come here or her parents home. We volunteered to keep the 2 little ones and Mary's Mom would keep Leah. Now it is 3pm, time for me to go get Kylie and take her to the dentist to see if he should pull her other tooth from when she knocked out the other two teeth. Before I left, I went in to wake up Dylan from his nap, when I opened the door I was knocked over by the smell of poop. Also, Charlie was awake, so I figured it was him. I was wrong, it was both of them. Charlie had a bad case of diarrhea and Dylan just some poop but also peed in his bed. I am trying to clean up both of them before I had to leave. Dylan is crying and I just placed him on Bob's lap and hoped for the best. I gave Bob the instructions about putting the chicken in the oven at 4pm. I took Kylie to the dentist and they decided not to pull her tooth, he thought Kylie would be able to get it out in time. I was on my way home around 4:10pm. I called Bob to tell him and he did not answer the phone. I tried again in about 10 minutes and he told me Sissy puked all over the family room rug. I said I would be there in 5 minutes. When I walked in Bob was on the floor trying to clean up puke. Kensey was on the porch barking, Dylan and Charlie were on the couch watching cartoons and Sissy was in the bathroom sitting in front of the toilet. I went for Sissy. It was the most pitiable thing I ever saw, Sissy was sitting on the stool leaning over the toilet. She looked up at me and said, "I am sick because I didn't wash my hands after I went to the bathroom." I hugged her and took her into the Tinkerbell room where I gave her a container to throw up in and turned on cartoons for her. I checked on Bob and the boys and how dinner was progressing. Now I am starting to get a headache. Mary called about the furnace, they need a new one and don't know when they will get one, the furnace company is supposed to call back by tonight. I told her about Sissy and she asked if she should come get her, Sissy was still ok to stay here for the night. I told her we would be ok. I went to check on Sissy and she had thrown up in the container and was back watching tv, she did not even call me and tell me she got sick again. She is something else. I cannot believe she doesn't even cry. It is 4:30 and Julie just arrived. I finished dinner and we ate. I am starting to feel nauseous but just thinking it is all this commotion. Sissy has now fallen asleep in bed. I went to get my shower. Bob and Julie are giving Charlie and Dylan a bath, cleaning up from dinner and Julie is working with Kylie on her homework. Kylie is complaining of a headache and Julie took her temp. and it was 99. Now Dylan is complaining about his stomach hurting. Since Dylan and Charlie wouldn't eat dinner with us. Julie is fixing them both cereal. Julie left our home about 6:30pm. I was just picking up a little and Bob put Charlie down around 7pm. Now Sissy is awake and just watching cartoons, never complaining about anything. She is just content watching cartoons. I put pjs on her so she is ready for bed. I think she is done throwing up. I went to bed around 8pm because I was still feeling nauseous. Around 9pm it hit me, I ran into the bathroom and started throwing up. I had Bob call Julie and tell her she needed to get someone to watch the kids because I wouldn't be able too. She said Dylan is throwing up now. At 11pm I threw up again and then it hit Bob around midnight. Again for me around 2am, it was the worse I ever experienced. Then I started the other end, that was lovely. I called Brian around 6am because I didn't think I could even get up and help the two little ones. Brian said he was better, it lasts 12 hours and then you are ok. He said he would be out. He got here about 6:30am and took the 2 little ones home. Sissy was feeling better but Charlie still had diarrhea. Brian was feeling just weak but ok. Thursday Bob and I just sipped Gatorade and pretzels. We slept on and off all day. We slept all night and Kensey woke us both up at 3am to go out. Bob took her out and I got up and thought I would try coffee. It tasted pretty good. Bob ate some dry cereal. I think we are better today. Still a little weak but on the mend. I just don't want another day like that.

The Saga Continues:

So I thought since I feel so good today Friday, Nov. 5th, I would call Julie and tell her I will take Kylie to school. She said she would call me back and let me know. At 6:30am, she called back from home and said she was sick and Nick would bring Kylie over for me to take her to school. Julie was sick and staying home with Dylan. Kylie came and said her stomach hurts but Kylie always says this, I fixed french toast her favorite and said she couldn't eat it and wanted to lay down. I said can I fix you something else, she said oatmeal. I fixed the oatmeal and she ate 3 bites and couldn't eat anymore. Julie called and asked if I would come over and feed Dylan, she didn't feel good enough to do it. I took Kylie to school and went over to Julie's. In the meantime, Mary said they had to take her car to get fixed by our house and since they don't have heat at their house and they are getting a furnace today, she asked it they could leave Iris at our house. Brian dropped Iris off at our house and then went home. I was at Julie's fixing Dylan some breakfast when Julie called me upstairs, school called Kylie threw up. I went and got Kylie and took her home and took Dylan to my house. Soooooo who is next???? Mary, Leah or Nicholas, these are the only 3 that have not succumbed to this horrible illness.

The Saga keeps continuing:

We had a committment for Friday night we felt we had to go to, it was like a cocktail party and Brian and Mary were going with us. We were able to get ready to go and arrived at 6:30pm. We ate a few things and I was starting to feel better but after an hour, Bob said, I am ready to go home. We got home and Bob went to bed. At 2:30am I ran to the bathroom with more diahrrea. Saturday, Bob and I were feeling rotten again. We could hardly do anything. About 9am Brian called, Leah threw up. Talked with Julie, she was a little better and so was Kylie but Nicholas had diahrrea. So the only one not touched so far is Mary. Mary you win!

Halloween at the Magic House

On Oct. 29th we took Dylan, Sissy and Charlie to the Magic house. We had a great time, they went in their costumes. They were so cute. We arrived at 9:30 and didn't leave till after noon. By the time we were leaving, they were so tired but did not want to give up, they were crying and we were threatening them. Another good memory.

Toothless Beautiful Kylie

Julie has decided to sell Lia Sophia Jewelry. Her first show was at her house on October 22, 2010, this was a Friday night. There were a total of 6 people, Mary brought Leah and another friend of Kylie's was there. The 3 girls were playing upstairs while the party was going on. During the first 15 minutes of the party, we heard screaming, Julie ran upstairs and immediately brought Kylie down blood pouring from her mouth. They were playing on Julie's bed and somehow Kylie knocked her mouth on the foot board of her bed, knocking out one of her front top teeth immediately, the other front tooth was sideways and the tooth next to the front tooth was crooked and bent back. She looked like snaggletooth. Julie found her front tooth laying on the floor. It took 30 minutes before we could stop the bleeding. Her gums looked black with all the blood in them. It was awful. We called the dentist and he said it would be ok but if Julie wanted him to look at them tomorrow he would or otherwise he definitely wanted to see her Monday. Kylie seemed ok Sat. and Julie waited till Monday. On Monday the dentist pulled out her other front tooth. Now we have toothless Beautiful Kylie.

On Thursday, October 29th, Kylie had the opportunity to meet "Big Time Rush", it is a kids show with 4 teenage guys. Kylie was so excited, her and Julie stood in line outside Best Buy for 3 hours waiting their turn to get them to sign her CD. She was so excited and they were so nice to her.

Sissy the Angelic Middle Child

Sissy is something else. She is very independent. She has the face of an angel but can turn in the blink of an eye. Mary would tell me stories of Sissy telling her she was not the best Mom in the world but I had never received that treatment from her. Well, I am no longer a virgin. A couple of weeks ago, we took Dylan, Charlie and Sissy to Suson Park to play on the playground and visit the animals, this is one of the favorite parks for the kids. It was a beautiful October morning. The kids were happy and having a ball. After a while, Dylan and Charlie went for the swings. I told Sissy, lets go over on the swings. Sissy said she wanted to climb the rock. Now this rock is about 12 feet high. I hate it. Sissy is not the most coordinated child. I said no lets go to the swings right now. She started screaming at the top of her lungs. People started looking at me, I didn't even have my hands on her. She proceeded to scream and then it came, "You are not the best Maw Maw in the world." I was heartbroken, I immediately guided her by her shoulders to a bench and told her to sit over there til she calmed down. She kept screaming on the bench. After a few minutes I went over to her and tried to explain why I didn't want her to climb the rock, that I didn't want her to get hurt. It wasn't helping. Finally after about 10 minutes she started to calm down and she went for the swings and all was forgotten. Later that day I told Mary that I was not the best Maw Maw in the world and that GiGi is now the only best Grandma in the world. She told me no, that wasn't true, that GiGi was also told she was not the best GiGi in the world. So I didn't feel so bad, I am in good company now.

Another cute story about Sissy. When she broke her finger or should I say when Charlie broke Sissy's finger, her fingernail turned black and blue. Well, on Oct. 29th, we took the kids to the Magic house and while they were playing in the water, Sissy told me look Maw Maw my fingernail, I looked at it and she was lifting half her nail up. I got her a band aid and put it on her finger because I didn't want it to get torn off. Later that night she showed her Mom and Dad her nail and told them her nail was winking at her. I rolled when they told me that. Her fingernail winks. Toooooo funny.

About a week ago, Mary told me that Sissy knows when she needs to poop on the potty but sometimes they think she gets lazy, so if she poops in her pants, I need to spank her. Well, a few days later, I was putting Dylan and Sissy down for quiet time. We always go to the bathroom before we go down. Dylan peed and Sissy pooped and peed. All was well, until about 10 minutes later Sissy comes out with a smile on her face and said she pooped in her pants. I said you know what that means... she said she gets a spanking on her butt. I looked at Bob and said I can't spank her. I went into the bathroom and cleaned her up and I gave her a talking to about how disappointed I am in her pooping in her pants, nothing seemed to phase her. We went back into her room and it was a mess from the 3 of them playing in there earlier that day. I told her, your punishment for pooping in your pants is cleaning up this room by yourself. She started screaming, I don't want to clean it up by myself, I said too bad. You don't get a snack or go home till it is cleaned up. She continued screaming, I walked out and closed the door. I heard screaming for about 20 minutes. She then came out of her room, all smiles and singsonged, MawMaw I cleaned my room, can I get my snack now. I immediately hugged her and let her have her snack. She goes from evil Sissy to Angelic Sissy in a blink of an eye. It is so funny.

The last funny story happened, I think it Monday night 11-1-10, Mary was making supper and Sissy asked to play with play dough, Mary said no, you can play with it after supper. Sissy immediately went to her room and got out the play dough and started playing. Nora saw this and said to Sissy, didn't your Mom tell you, you couldn't play with your play dough? Mary heard this and replied, yes, Sissy, put that away. Sissy screamed "No!" Mary said fine, if you don't put it away, I will throw it away. Mary left and Sissy turned to Nora and said, "Nora, my Mom just don't understand me." She cracks me up.

These are some of the adventures of our middle Grandchild.