Christmas Weather 2009

I have a number of pictures to post, but I will divide it up into a few posts, so I don't have one huge one.

Our original plan was to leave for my parents on Thursday, spend all day Friday there and head home Saturday afternoon stopping quickly by Seth's parents to do Christmas with them that afternoon. However we woke up to the news that snow was moving in and the roads were going to quickly get bad. So we decided to quickly get packed up and go to Seth's parents to spend the night and then to head out to OK (they are on the way, so it would cut off an hour the next day). We arrived in Decatur just right when the weather started getting bad.

Here is Seth braving the weather to get Emma's sippy cup:
The roads got much worse and they closed the turnpike up to my parents in Lawton, so there was no chance of getting out until Saturday. So we stayed in Decatur for a couple days. Macy and Charlie enjoyed playing out in the snow for a few minutes:

So we finally left on Saturday morning, thinking it would be fine since the turnpike was finally open. We got about 20 minutes away from Decatur and got to Bowie and the roads were horrible! The picture below doesn't do it justice. We were driving on a solid, bumpy, sheet of ice. We lost count how many cars we saw that had spun out. And we were going about 2 miles an hour and sliding ourselves. Thankfully. there was a wal-mart a few miles ahead, so we decided to get off there for a little while and let the temperature warm up to melt the roads a little more.

So, we spent an hour walking around walmart, then getting some lunch and Seth helped one of the many cars that were stuck in Bowie:

The roads were a little better, but still pretty bad. Especially through Witchita Falls and when we hit the turnpike that had been closed the whole day before. Emma and I shared the same sentiment about the long car trip: We had thought about turning around and just going home, but we decided to press on. What was suppose to be a 2 hour trip was now turning into a 5 hour trip. Finally, once we crossed the Red River, it was much better.

We changed our plans a little bit and ended up getting to Lawton on Saturday afternoon and then spending the night and coming back today. It was short, but I am glad we were able to go up there.

Santa Visit and Longest Carousel Ride Ever..

This week we went to Bass Pro to see Santa. We learned a couple years ago to completely avoid the mall Santa and go right to Bass Pro. They do a great job decorating and have all kinds of things for the kids to play with and even take a picture for free. Anyways, that is place to see Santa.

We got there and got our ticket and had a few minutes to walk around, so we went to a carousel they had set up for the kids to ride on for free. They told us they were going to film a commerical and if we wanted we can sign a release for the kids and they would get a $10 gift certificate each for riding the carousel and getting filmed and their picture taken, so we signed them up and put them on the carousel. It was at least a 20 minute non-stop carousel ride, at least 20 minutes. They wanted them to wave and smile as they were going around. Macy happily did it the whole time, Charlie had enough waving and smiling about 10 minutes into it and just put his head on the bar, but still sat there good. It was pretty funny to watch, most of the kids towards the end the of the 20 minutes were either crying or had their heads laying on their horse (except Macy) and had enough of the waving and smiling. So this time next year, check out basspro.com or watch your local TV because you might see Macy and Charlie on it advertising for the winter wonderland!

After all that, we went to see Santa and got a couple pictures! Emma was not too fond of him.

Parent's Observation Night

At Macy's Dance class this week, it was the Parent's observation night. We got to see her dance to a song from the Nutcraker and Jingle Bell Rock. She has loved her dance class this semester and was excited for us to come in and watch. I guess the teacher had told them that they were going to get lots of hugs and kisses from their parents after watching, because she told me on more than once that that is what we were suppose to do after she danced. She did a great job and we didn't forget to give her a hug and kiss!

I promise it wasn't the cake that made him sick...

I know I am behind on my blogging, so this is a little late. Last week was Seth's 32nd Birthday! Sadly he celebrated that evening by getting sick and not sleeping. It was a long week here at our house last week, first Macy had the stomach bug, then Charlie, then me, then Emma and finally Seth. Gladly we are all now over it!

The kids and I made Seth's birthday cake. I saw it online and thought it would be something Seth would enjoy since it is completely covered in candy. It is easy to make, but I don't think I will make it again, it was waaayy to much.

$5201.25

I have been weaning Emma for the last couple weeks and decided last night was going to be the last feeding, so Emma is offically weaned. I will admit I am a little sad that I will never have any more babies to nurse, but am very grateful I was able to nurse all three kids for 13 months each. Along with health benefits, cost was one of my main motivators. I did not want us to have to buy expensive formula. So, for fun I looked up last night how much money we saved by me nursing for 3 years and according to this article, since I exclusively nursed them, I saved $1733.75 per kid, or times 3 = $5201.25. Wow, if only we had putting aside that money in a special account!