One CRAZY amd COMPLICATED Christmas

Randall Allen, a friend from Trustmark, always tells me that when I involved, everything is complicated. And even though I hate to give him the satisfaction, I will say it this once.I MAKE THINGS COMPLICATED :) Someone, make sure Randall sees this, and tell him this is my birthday present to him (January 3rd).Soooo, the week of Christmas was ONE CRAZY week.

I will start with Tuesday, the 22nd. We are all sitting around Mrs. Diane's house hanging out and I get a phone call from Brad, Brooklyn's dad. (Back story: Brooklyn is with him for Christmas this year from the day she gets out of school til Christmas day at 6pm: however, he leaves to go back off shore on Wednesday the 23rd, so he had agreed to allow Brooklyn to come home then, that way she could spend Christmas morning with Ally Harper and Christopher.) Phone call went down something like this:Brad's not going back to work as scheduled due to an eye infection. He wants to keep Brooklyn since he will be home. So all of our plans flew out of the window. Now instead of her being home Christmas morning, we will be getting her that day at 6pm. So she will miss helping with "Santa" Christmas eve and the next morning, she will miss lunch with the Neyland's too. But at least she will still be able to go to the Martin's with us. So that's what the plan was.

Now, we move onto Wednesday. Wake up call at 8am and it's Mrs. Diane. Chris' nephew, Jordan, was in a bad car accident this morning at 2am. They are at UMC. After collecting all the information, Jordan is in pretty bad condition. Broken leg, both pelvic bones, shoulder, elbow, bruised lungs, ear lacarations, along with a tear in the aorta of his heart. Long story short, Chris spent all day at hospital with family. (Update: Jordan is doing much better. Already had several surgeries and is now at home in wheelchair. Still has a long road ahead of him).

Thursday: Chris spends all day at hospital again, I stay home with babies and cook and such. Not much going on. Lunch plans have changed locations due to the accident. We will now be having lunch at Mrs. Diane's instead of Lauren's. We also will need to be at Diane's around 10:30 so we can open gifts before lunch and then get to the hospital for 12 visitation.

Thursday night (Christmas Eve): Attend church service at Broadmoor, go to Mrs. Diane's afterwards for a while then head home. No need to do Santa stuff, because we have decided to wait until Brooklyn comes home. So we enjoy a non eventful night, until around 11 when all hell breaks loose. Chris starts not feeling well, and within minutes he is in full stomach virus mode!!!So, I sleep on the couch, he stays up most of the night.

Friday: We wake Christmas morning, and Chris directs me to pack a bag and take the kids to my parents for the night. We don't know how long he will be sick and we can't chance the baby getting it. So I leave him at home on Christmas all day. He's sick, and home alone. Can't eat or visit or anything. So this again changes when "Santa" is coming. Not a big deal though, what's one more day? AH and C2 don't know. So the babies and I go to the Neyland's at 10, expecting to open gifts then have lunch, but once again, plans change. The doctors have decided to go ahead with one of Jordan's surgeries, so hardly no one is at Christmas lunch, but we go ahead and eat what's done and let the kids open some presents. Then we load up and head south. I get to pick up B around 2 and then enjoy Christmas with the Martin's that night.
Saturday: We head home around noon, as Chris is finally better. We open gifts that night and after the babies are asleep, Brooklyn helps with "Santa". Then off to bed to redo Christmas eve and morning.Sunday (Dec. 27th): Santa came! Babies open and play with gifts, then we go over to Diane's and celebrate with them. Luckily for Chris, there are leftovers, and we get to have one more gift opening session. Finally, all the Christmas festivities are over, and just in time for new years!

A visit from Ms. Cynthia

Ms. Cynthia, our former nanny, came by to drop off a couple of gifts for us. Even though she doesn't work with us anymore, she still loves her some Ally Harper!

Happy 2 month birthday Christopher

Santa Little Elf

Ally Harper found Christopher santa hat this evening and came running into the room saying "ho, ho, ho". As I said, never a dull moment.

Sorry Guys!

So today I was out Christmas shopping with AH & C and we were in Target. Since C has gotten here, I have found it to be much easier to put AH in the basket part of the shopping cart and C in his carseat in the top part. The only problem with this is keeping AH from opening whatever I put in the cart. Anyway, today we had been in there for a while, and the buggy was getting pretty full so as we approached the toy section, I decided to let AH get out and walk a while. She had such a good time. She found a wooden kitchen, complete with faucet. That was her favorite. She kept standing there saying "wash hands mommy, wash hands". Too cute. Well C began to get fussy, so I told AH it was time to go. Well that didn't go over very well. Finally I noticed a little toy shopping cart and had a bright idea. I would let AH push her own little cart to the front of the store. So I showed her the buggy and you would have thought it was the best thing since sliced bread. She took off in front of me with her cart and away we went. And as she past other shoppers, she would say "Merry Christmas" and when she bumped into something or someone she would say "sorry guys!" It was so funny. I'm really not sure where the sorry guys came from, but it sure sounds mighty sweet coming from that sweet mouth! She is a Hoot! Never a dull moment!

Brooklyn's 5th grade Honor Chior Program

Pink toenails!

I painted Ally Harper's toenails for the first time the other day. She was so proud. The next morning,she climbed in bed with us and looked at Chris and said "toesies?" and Chris said yeah I see your toes and she responded "Like 'em?" It was too cute!

Christmas at the "KRANKS"

Christmas at the Kranks has been changed to Christmas with the Cranky! Brooklyn was a colicky baby for the first 4 months of her life. She would cry if you looked at her wrong. There were many nights I would load her in the car and travel the interstate from one exit to the next, only to turn around and head back the other way, over and over and over. It was hard, but once it was over, it was over. She was a dream when it came to her toddler years and truth be known she is still a great kid. And then came Ally Harper. It took us a while to even figure out that she knew how to cry. She spoiled us big time because she came here a happy baby and has remained one ever since. She may be full of energy and a little high strung, but it doesn't get any happier! And now we are faced with Christopher. He isn't colicky like B, but he is a cranky baby most of the time. I shouldn't say that about him, he really is just spoiled and wants to be held all the time, but when you do put him down he turns into a CRANK! Anyway, the other night, Chris thought he had found the cure. Christopher was crying and Chris was up walking him around when he came close to the TV where there happened to be a soccer game on. As soon as they got close, Christopher quit crying and as long as he stood there with him he was happy. So Chris decided why not put him in the Boppy seat in front of the TV. This is surely going to work! RIGHT?

Notice the look on Chris' face. He was telling me "I have found the solution!"
Yeah, right!! That lasted all of 10 seconds! Then it was back to crying, so Chris picked him back up and sat down in the chair closest to the TV. He should be able to see soccer from here, right?Yeah right again! This is how that little solution turned out. Back standing in front of the TV! Did I mention Christopher is a little spoiled??

There's a new tinker in town....

Tinkerbell came on Disney the other night and Ally Harper fell in love. S0 for the past week, it seems as if that movie has been on a 24 hour loop (I recorded it on the DVR), thank goodness. So anyway, after several days of AH asking for Tinkerbell, I decided that I would "make" her a costume. I gathered up several green things and Presto-- instant TinkerAl. Only one problem. When I put the green swimsuit on her, she must have remembered wearing it at the beach last summer and thought thats what we were doing. She kept saying "beach" and "lotion" (aka sunblock). It was pretty funny. Needless to say, Tinkerbell is now one of her favorite things.

Our visit with Santa

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

So we woke up this morning to SNOW! Which I must say for myself was pretty exciting. I got the kids up and dressed everyone as warm as possible and out we went. The kids from next door were out also. So I made sure to snap a quick pic of Brooklyn and Ally, along with Landry and Presley Horn.


Ally found her a snow shovel.
Then they all proceeded to scrap the snow off of Chris' car with the shovel. Paint job :{
Brooklyn had started making a big snowball, so Ally Harper decided that
Sister needed a little help.




Here Sister, I'm done.
Christopher's first snow!
Brooklyn making a snow angel.

Christopher was glad to be back inside. Where it was nice and warm.
Ally Harper, not so much! She pitched a fit!

My newest project

I am wanting to learn to applique, so here is my first project. Ally Harper's "present" shirt and matching pants. Still need to do some work on the pants, but all in all-- it's wearable. Now on to bigger and better projects :)

Mommy's big man!

Christopher had his 6 week check up this yesterday morning. We also had to get shots. He did really well, and so far so good. Still no bad reactions :) As for how Christopher is doing. He is GREAT! He weighs 10 lbs 3 oz and is 22 inches longs. So in 6 weeks he has gained 4 pounds!!! That puts him the 50th percentile. After shots, I took the babies out for a little Christmas shopping, however; the weather didn't cooperate very well, so we didn't last very long.

We have been blessed with the most precious gift this holiday season!

2009 Christmas Portraits

Monkey do & monkey see, 1st there were 2, now there are 3!