Yeah, it's been a while...

and I apologize. I fully intended to update the blog every night we were at Disney World, but of course that didn't happen. Something about exhausted kids (and adults) kept me from it.

We are still recovering from our trip, and today is a chill out day, so this will be brief. I may update with more about our trip later.

I will say we had a wonderful time and I recommend it to anyone. I am including a few pictures of the girls as they were getting their hair and makeup done for their meal with Cinderella. Enjoy!

Please pray for Ethan Powell and his parents

Ethan Powell is the little boy I asked for prayers for recently. He was diagnosed with leukemia when he was two months old. He is now 13 months old, and has just undergone a bone marrow transplant from his dad. This is the last step for him as he will be healed either on the earth or the Lord will call him home.

I don't know them other than getting to know them through the cyberworld, but as I watch my own precious two-year-old little boy playing and splashing in the tub while I type this, I cannot imagine what his parents are facing. I cannot imagine my life without Jonah or any of my children, and I am sure they are the same.

Through it all, their faith has remained so strong and has inspired me. Please pray for them today when you have a moment.

You can find his latest update at: www.ethanpowell.com.

Big News

We have BIG news to report here. I mean it is huge. You are not going to believe it. Are you ready? Are you sure? I mean this is big. This is tremendous...


Okay, I will tell you. Cara is Student of the Week for her class! Woohoo! Way to go, Cara.

As many know, we have struggled with Cara this year and her spiritedness in class. She has spent more time in the "Watching Chair" than not. She protests going to school every day and tries to make us feel guilty.

But something happened to our little girl over Christmas break. I am not sure what happened, but a corner seems to have been turned. Maybe it is our own Christmas miracle (and I thought it was the puppy). Like I said, I am not sure, but we will take it.

This whole week and the two days they were back in school last week she did not get in the watching chair. Not one time. Once again, Woo Hoo!

When I was picking her up today, she came running out and jumped in my arms, telling me, "Mommy, I'm the Student of the Week." I looked at the Teacher Assistant who was smiling and nodding. I told Cara I was very proud of her and I knew that she worked hard for that honor. And, her name was put on top of the Good Citizen list. She was so proud.

She told me she saw Adriana in the hallway at school and told her. Adriana proceeded to give her a "high five".

We immediately went to Bruce's office where she was able to brag a little to Daddy and his co-workers. She also wanted to call her grandmothers and tell them.

We let her pick where to eat tonight for a reward. She picked Zaxby's. And, Adriana tried to win her something out of a machine in Wal-Mart to reward her, but she wasn't successful. She was so sweet when she told Cara, too. She told Cara she was sorry she was not able to win her anything and gave her a hug. What a sweet moment.

Nothing much to report here

Not a whole lot going on right now to report. The girls started back to school last week and we are back into our everyday routine.

Oh, wait, Cara has not been in the "Watching Chair" at school in five days, so I guess I do have something to write.

And, we are counting down the days until we leave for Disney World. Right now the count is down to five.

Last of the Christmas pictures

This is always one of my favorite Christmas pictures to take. It never turns out like I imagine, but it is always better and fun to do. Except when each one of them put a light in his or her mouth. Not fun.

More Christmas visits

Another highlight of the Christmas season/weekend was a visit with my other brother and his family. Since Bruce and I were both older when we married, our nieces and nephews are a good bit older than our children.

The girls love to visit with their older cousins and tend to think they are also older when they are around.

They brought with them more cool toys which I was told my brother actually picked out. Good job, Uncle Robin!

We enjoyed a nice visit and lunch at our favorite local Mexican restaurant (okay, our only local Mexican restaurant).

Mama wanted a picture of her six grandchildren, so here it is-minus my nephew, but with my sister-in-law who is sitting in for her son.



By the way, we think Cara and my younger niece (the one in the red shirt), Bethany, favor a lot. Bethany's and Cara's pictures of the same ages look strikingly similar.

Now, about that IOU from Santa

As I mentioned in a previous post, Santa had to leave Cara an IOU due to technical difficulties with one of her toys.

The toy he promised was a "Grow Puppy" similar to what Adriana received for Christmas. Adriana put her request in early on for one, but Cara's request came a little later than Santa would have liked, so he left an IOU saying Mama and Daddy would take care of it.

While we were at Bruce's mom's, we both looked high and low for a Golden Retriever Grow Puppy. (Adriana has the poodle one, so we can keep them straight.) None were to be found. Not one.

On the way home from Nanny's, we decided on one last ditch effort at the Wally World in a small city near us before resorting to the Internet. This time, Cara was going in with me and I told her I didn't want her to be disappointed when we couldn't find it because we could order it. She seemed to be okay with that.

On our way into the store, Cara said, "I bet Santa brought one here and put it on the shelf just for me." I told her maybe, but remember we can order one when we get home. Then, I said a quick prayer which went something like this, "Lord, I know that you have more important things to be concerned with like children with cancer and wars than with a little girl's desire for a new toy that she really doesn't need, but please let that puppy be there."

We walked down that aisle and what did we find on the shelf? One golden retriever puppy. Not the poodle, the golden retriever one. And only one. And, it did not look like it had been returned. I couldn't believe it.

Cara was so happy! On the way back through the store she said, "See I told you it would be there."

Sensing a teachable moment, I told her that what she didn't know was that I said a silent prayer to the Lord asking him to help us out and he did. Then, I told her that God does answer our prayers.

So, thank you, Lord, for hearing the prayer of a sweet four-year-old and her somewhat frazzled 40-year-old mother.

Adriana's eye appointment

Adriana had her yearly eye appointment a couple of days after Christmas. Bruce went with us because since she was a baby our agreement has been I handle the shots, and he handles the eye appointment. Adriana hates the drops associated with dilating her eyes, and I can't blame her.

This eye doctor has followed her since her NICU days. I remember the first time I saw him in the NICU making his rounds. One of the nurses told me that I would not want to be around when he is there because I would have a difficult time watching. For the record, he is a very nice man and very knowledgeable.

The actual procedure was difficult to watch at the time. When Adriana was very little, the doctor had to put clamps in her eyes to dilate them. One of Bruce's co-workers who had a preemie baby told Bruce he would pull the eye out. When Bruce told me that, I told him that was not possible. Confirmed it with the doctor. Not possible. It just looks that way because of the clamps.

The first time we took her to his office and he proceeded to dilate her eyes, I had to leave the room. She was screaming and crying and I just could not take it. Therefore, Daddy is with us every time now.

Fortunately, now she does not have to have clamps and is pretty cooperative.

We forgot to bring her glasses, so he had to use his equipment that was the same strength. He said she is still very far-sighted and that the glasses are probably still doing the trick, so no need for new ones at this time.

Afterwards, we took Adriana out to lunch with just the two of us. She seemed pretty excited to have us all to herself. Her little tongue kept wagging, as we like to say.

Better BAB pics

Here are some pictures of the newest members of the family:

Adriana with Gabriella bear


Cara with Dora/Sharpay/Ashley Tisdale bear


Jonah with Bugabear decked out in his Clemson attire. Do you think by the look on Jonah's face he already knew the outcome of the Chick Fil-A bowl game? (The pic was taken on Dec. 30, before the game.) At least we can say the Tigers won, just not the right Tigers.

The day after and Build A Bear

Still getting caught up here. As I mentioned previously, we headed to Bruce's mom's house on Christmas night so I could enjoy my yearly ritual of day after Christmas shopping. I like to go up there because the pickings around here are slim to none.

I have had my eye on a couple of Christmas dresses for the girls for next year, and I knew they would be discounted more the day after. Plus, I like to get our wrapping paper, gift bags and some ornaments then.

So, the day after I woke up around 4:45 and decided to help my fellow shoppers out by showering this time. Yeah! I left and got to my first destination about 6:10 (Bruce says I am losing my edge) where I was able to get the dresses and several ornaments for a great price.

I then proceeded to kill time by going to a couple of more places, including Wally World for some gift bags and tissue. (For what it's worth, get the tissue at Wal-Mart or K-Mart the day after. You can use the white tissue all year, and the red at Valentine's.)I finished up at a couple of more stores and arrived back at Nanny's by 10 a.m.

Bruce went for a follow-up doctor's appointment for a procedure he had done the week before. (Okay, I was going to be nice, but let's call it a colonoscopy. For those who have not had one, the test really is not that bad, so please have one when the time comes for your family's sake.) Everything was fine.

After that, we took the children to the mall so they could cash in on the Build A Bear gift certificates their Uncle Lamar, Aunt Ruth, cousins Brent and Erin and Chip and Meg sent them. This was a great experience for us because we were able to enjoy taking them somewhere they have wanted to go on someone else's dime. Thank you, Uncle Lamar, Aunt Ruth and family!

They had a blast at Build A Bear. They enjoyed picking out their bears and choosing clothes for them. Adriana was the most economical of the bunch, and Cara tried to be the big spender, but we reeled her in. This was a great budget teaching tool (maybe Mama needs to try it).

Adriana's bear ended up with a High School Musical outfit complete with glasses like hers. She named her Gabriella.

Cara's bear is actually a purple (her favorite color) hippo complete with a skateboard. She originally named hers Dora, but decided later to rename her Ashley Tisdale. (If you haven't seen High School Musical, please do to understand my girls' obsession.) She also did a record a sound for hers which said, "Hello, Cara."

Jonah's bear is complete with a Clemson outfit and named Bug, short for Bugabear. (Our nickname for Jonah is bug, short for bugaboo.) His bear makes a sound, but not a record a sound. He squeezed his on the way home a few times and tried to get it to say, "Hi, I'm Jonah."

Christmas Day

Christmas Eve night the sleeping arrangements were-Jonah with Nanny in the girls' bedroom, Ma in our bedroom, Bruce on the couch in the den and the girls and I in the living room with the tree.

Now, Santa doesn't have room to leave presents under the tree since we have the sleeper sofa pulled out so he has to leave them in the den. The stockings are also in there, so all is well.

The girls didn't seem to sleep too well since they tossed and turned all night. Between 7:30 and 8:00, Cara sat up in bed and asked if it was "morning time" yet. I told her it was. She said, "Well, if it's morning time, then it's Christmas." And then something about wanting to see what Santa left. She immediately looked under the tree, but I had to remind her the presents were in the den. She tried going to the den without Adriana and Jonah, but I made her wait while they woke up which was within a few minutes.

Santa decided to cut way back this year and tried to limit presents to three items each, along with some books and DVDs. Adriana had asked for two things, and Santa basically had to guess what Jonah wanted.

Cara, on the other hand, made quite a long list about a week before school was out. Ma helped fulfill one of her wishes on Christmas Eve. Still, she didn't receive everything on her list, but she seemed okay with it except for one item that Adriana did receive that Cara had placed on her list.

Santa had planned on a surprise for Cara, but had technical difficulties with it. He left her an I.O.U. for the above mentioned item (this is a great story I will probably tell tomorrow).

Cara was so funny, though. She stood in the middle of everything and said, "We got these presents and that means I didn't get any hickory switches."

We spent the rest of the day lazying around and enjoying being with each other. From the picture, you can tell Cara finally relaxed and enjoyed the afternoon.

Before we left to go to Nanny's house that evening, we made little mini-cakes, placed candles on them and sang "Happy Birthday" to Jesus. This was the first year we have done that, but certainly not the last.

By the way, did you know Hardee's is open on Christmas Day evening? As is IHOP.