Happy New Year's Eve! We went down to the beach for the day yesterday. It was gorgeous and there were thousands of shells of all shapes, sizes and colors. We may have brought back several hundred:).

Today, I am taking down Christmas decorations and preparing for our traditional New Year's Eve Fondue dinner. We had a wonderful Christmas season, filled with family, food, lights {Callaway Gardens!}, songs, and much thankfulness for our Savior's birth. Wishing you all a joyous 2012!

Christmas Party Rash

I'm afraid Elle's not the only one who's allergic around here. The problem is, we don't know what caused it.

His teacher called from school to say he was breaking out in a rash so Steven went to pick him up early. It spread more once we got him home. They had a Christmas party, but no out-of-the-ordinary foods. They were playing on the playground when he started complaining. Thankfully, a bath, a little Benadryl, a few puffs of the inhaler, several latherings of hydrocortisone, and he's much better. The other side of his body looked like this too...

Elle had a minor episode with her eye swelling up Sunday night. This has happened a time or two before so I wasn't really surprised and as with Grady, we're not sure what caused it. All three kids were watching a movie at church. She was much better Monday morning, after some Benadryl, inhaler, allergy eye drops and a good night's sleep.

This is why we don't go far from home without an Epi-pen, Benadryl, inhaler, allergy eye drops, Zyrtec, and hydrocortisone cream. They are staples at our house:).

Encouraged by my 6 year old

We made a trip to Wal-Mart this morning after dropping Grady off at school for some necessary paper products {toilet paper!}, ingredients to make some spice tea, chicken and vegetables for dinner. We pulled out of the parking lot and got to the stop light at the bottom of the hill.

Elle said, "Mom, did you see that van in the parking lot? {I had not seen them.} There was a lady with a sign that said they needed gas. Should we call the gas company?"

Me: "No, Elle, they need money to buy gas for their car. ...Do you want to turn around and give them your $5?"

She had money with her that she had just gotten over the weekend as a Christmas present.

Elle: "Ummm... I don't know."

We turned left and headed away. I was conflicted at this point as to what to do too.

Elle: "Yes, Mom, I want to go back. The Bible says, 'He who is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward him for what he has done.'"

I turned around and we drove back to the van in the parking lot. She added another dollar she had to the amount, got out of the car and gave the lady her $6. I told the lady that my daughter had seen them and wanted to help. I was completely overwhelmed at this point. At seeing the Lord work through Elle. At seeing her respond to His promptings with obedience. At seeing the fruit of her memorizing Scripture. **And I don't really care to analyze if they really needed the money or not. The point is that Elle gave because the Lord wanted her to and she was obedient and cheerful in giving. And God says he'll bless her for that. His blessing is not based on what they use the money for.**

We pulled away from the parking lot a second time and I told her how pleased Jesus was with her. That she just showed what the spirit of Christmas is supposed to be. Giving to those in need. Thinking of others. Not being selfish. May we all be reminded that Love came down and met our greatest need and may we respond to His promptings with obedience.

Thanks Elle. You encouraged me greatly today.

Happenings with Reese

I have made one Christmas present purchase so far. I bought this little boy a backpack of his very own. He and Grady rotate days with this backpack with Grady taking it to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays while Reese takes it to church on Sundays and CBS on Wednesdays. And most other times, Reese walks around the house with it on. I think he's going to be happy with his very own back pack with his name on it!

I hesitate to say it, but I think Reese is day-time potty trained! I asked Elle to make a chart for him since we were learning about graphs and charts for math this past week. We like to integrate learning in to all aspects of life here at the Salter Academy:). Monday, we didn't chart, but he was successful multiple times. He had two accidents which both involved pooping in his pants or directly on the rug. He went 17 times Tuesday with no accidents. Because he didn't poop. Wednesday was even better. I put a pull-up on him before going to bible study (because I don't expect his teachers to be able to get him to the bathroom when there's at least 10 other 2 year olds in the room!). But before we left, he went on his own, getting his pull-up down and everything. He also progressed from pooping on a random floor or in his pants to pooping on the bathroom floor in front of the potty. Twice. He's getting the idea just having trouble with the timing. Thirteen stickers for Wednesday. Twelve stickers Thursday. No accidents. Ten stickers Friday with poop on the bathroom floor. The other thing we are working on is waiting until he gets in the bathroom to pull his pants down. Right now, he pulls them down immediately and flashes everybody while he makes his way to the bathroom. But all in all, he's doing great and we are down to diapers just at naptime and overnight...

This was from the week before Thanksgiving but needs to be documented. At CBS, the kids made "thankful place mats". When I picked Reese up from his class, his teacher told me he was thankful for ice cream.

What she failed to mention, is that he is also thankful for girls in bikinis.

Thanksgiving at Lake Martin

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving week with my Mom's family. We rented a big house on Lake Martin with plenty of space for the 24 family members who were able to make it. We missed two cousins: Emily, who is student teaching in Spain, and Jessica, who was spending the holidays with her future in-laws! We shared all the things that have become our traditions. A very specific Thanksgiving feast. Lots of napping. Long walks {to counteract all the eating!}. Much Auburn/Alabama bantering. Board games that sometimes get a little competitive. All of us together. Thankful to be together. We were all especially thankful this year for our Aunt Patti's health and victorious battle with breast cancer. She's made it through lots and lots of chemo treatments, surgery, and now on to daily doses of radiation. And for our Uncle Fred's great care of her through it all...

This was my favorite morning. The fog was thick but it didn't take long for the sun to roll it off the water.

We were also thankful that my grandmother survived a fall the week before that left her with an incredible healing scar from 40 staples in her head. I'm just realizing that here she is seemingly leaning over the railing of the second floor. Hmmm....

A little face time with Emily in Spain. We talked with Jessica too!

My cousin, Parker, thanked God for His goodness, our family and the great food. Our traditional meal:

Fried turkey and dressing

Sweet potato casserole

Chicken and dumplins
Hash brown casserole

Mixed vegetable casserole

Strawberry pretzel salad

Deviled eggs

Cranberry Salad

Green bean & corn casserole

The group photo post-dinner out on the dock.

Complimentary transportation from the photo shoot was provided for those over 75.

Friday, we took a trip to Wynn Creek State Park. We played on the playground, climbed the huge silo tower, attempted to skip rocks, and just enjoyed the outdoors and hanging out together.

Friday night, all of our college-aged family departed for the plains. Saturday morning left just a few of us there. My aunt graciously gave up her Iron Bowl ticket so my sister could attend her first ever Auburn game. Maybe not the best game for a first-timer, but a very cool experience for her, nonetheless. Cousin Parker works with the football team and was able to score some autographed shirts for the kids! Thanks to all the family for making it another memorable Thanksgiving!

Hydrogen Peroxide will induce vomiting

I made our second call to Poison Control last night. It's only been a little over 3 months since my last call, when Reese ate several children's Tums.

The kids had cleaned up, gotten in to their pajamas, and we were watching the end of a movie on TV. Elle started to complain of her throat hurting. They have all had mild colds, so I thought it was probably just drainage from her nose in to her throat. We gave her a little milk. She continued to complain. Then she said she thought she knew why it was hurting...

Come to find out, she drank from a cup in the bathroom that, instead of water, contained hydrogen peroxide.

I usually soak their toothbrushes in peroxide if they've been sick or sometimes when I clean their bathroom. I never leave the cup. Apparently {I can't imagine why}, I got distracted and left the little cup with the peroxide sitting above the sink. She came in, turned it up and drank hydrogen peroxide. She said she only drank a swallow, realized it wasn't right, and poured the rest out.

I called Poison Control and the woman said to try to give her a little juice or cracker to get the taste out of her mouth. She said she could possibly vomit. She was correct. Thankfully, Elle was standing at the sink. But I did get to scoop vomit out of the sink in to the toilet.

Anyway, she was fine after she threw up and had a good night's rest. I went in to her room this morning and we talked about what each of us had learned from the incident and thanked God for taking good care of her and getting that stuff out of her body quickly.

These wonderful kids

We are here and doing well. Just haven't had much time to blog or take pictures. Hopefully soon. But I had to get these quotes down:

I was brushing Grady's teeth tonight and he was just staring at me.

I said, "What are you looking at buddy?". {I thought maybe I had something in my nose.}

He said, "You. You're just so cute." 

Later, I was laying in bed with Elle. We finished reading and were talking with the lights out, getting ready to pray.

She said, "How will we worship God in heaven?"

I said, "Well, I guess some of the same ways we do here, but perfectly and without sin."

She said, "So we'll all sit in a bunch of benches and God will be the preacher?"

We may have laughed a little after that.

Oh, and Reese and the potty was a total fluke. Won't even consider it now. :)

It's Potty Time

I just needed to put in the record that Reese used the potty tonight! We've been talking about it for awhile, reading potty books, and sitting on it occasionally before bath time or right before bed. I had taken his diaper off and we were cleaning up the aftermath of the day's activities before getting in to pajamas. I said, "Reese, if you need to pee-pee, go put it in the potty. Do NOT put it on the floor. It goes in the potty."

A few minutes passed and I went in the bathroom to toss dirty clothes in to the laundry basket, and there it was. Pee pee in the tiny green baby bjorn potty. I'm not sure who was more excited, me or the two big kids! We all yelled and high fived and hugged our big boy. And then he got some chocolate chips.

I remember Grady first using the potty a couple of times and then nothing for a few months before it really clicked. So this might not be the beginning of the end of diapers. And I'm okay with that. But I am very excited that Reesie made this first big step!

We had a fun and full weekend with special friends celebrating special birthdays. None of which I captured with my camera. Elle and Steven continued the celebrating yesterday afternoon with a little horseback riding. Thankfully, Abby was there to get some beautiful pictures of their fun.

Give me some candy

Photo shoot before the festivities began. Not sure why the bee is not happier.

Maybe she's ready to get the candy party started.

Grady is realizing that Batman must not suck his thumb.

And Reese beat Princess Leia at arm wrestling.

Grady woke up this morning and told me he had a dream that I ate all his candy and my tummy hurt. Partially true. I did eat some of their candy last night, but not enough for a belly ache. Elle also told the librarian yesterday that "We bought two bags of candy for the fall festival, but Mommy ate one bag so we only got to take one." Also, partially true.

Bring on the fleece

I'm not sure my children are going to survive the bitter fall  of Southeast Alabama. It dipped below 70 this week and they were frozen. They certainly won't make it through the winter. Happy weekend!

An Attempt at Camping

We inherited a projector from my mom a couple of months ago. As soon as she gave it to us, I thought it would be so fun to have an outdoor movie. We've also been itching to try a little camping. So we started small, in our own backyard, this past Friday night. The five of us went to Wal-Mart around 5:00 and filled our cart with head lamps, tarps, marshmallows, graham crackers, chocolate bars, lighters, a white sheet, a fire pit and a movie. While Steven got to work setting up the outdoor theater, I whipped up some grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. After dinner, we started a fire, enjoyed a little fall film, and finished off with s'mores.

Elle and Grady wanted to try to camp out so we set up the little tent for them. We put Reese to bed inside and Steven and I sat by the fire pit while Elle read stories for them in the tent by the light of their head lamps. They lasted until about 9:30, then we let them sit with us by the fire for a bit, and took them inside. They were pretty happy to see their own warm, cozy beds:).

Saturday morning, we decided to take a day trip down to Gap Lake. We packed food for a camp fire lunch, the tent, some chairs and toilet paper. I went skiing a few times on this lake in high school, so it had been, let's just say "a lot of", years since I'd been. It was more beautiful than I remembered.

Steven cleared out around the fire pit, got a fire roaring and cooked us lunch. About a month ago, we went out to some friends' farm land on a Friday night to hang out. There were several couples and lots of children. Our host forgot to bring the tools to cook the hot dogs over the fire, so he improvised and used the rake. Steven was apparently very impressed by this method, because he chose to copy it on Saturday. These delicacies are affectionately known as "rake dogs".

After lunch, we hiked and explored. Notice how wet Grady's pants are already.

We came back from our hike and the boys rested in the tent. I tried to lull them to sleep by reading aloud, but was unsuccessful. Then, Steven decided to let them wade in the water. Or in Reese's case, go right on in with his boots. Needless to say, all three pairs of pants were wet by the end of the excursion. Mommy failed to pack a change of clothes, so they all rode home in their tshirts and underwear:).

It was, by far, one of the most fun weekends we've had. We've already had another movie night and plan to keep our outdoor theater set up for awhile. And maybe we can get up the courage to try to stay in our tents all night somewhere other than our backyard!

We had company

This sweet little face was with us for a couple of days. She belongs to Steven's sister and husband and she has the biggest and brightest smile. It's been a long time since we've had a baby in the house and it was fun for everyone! She just turned 9 months old and was crawling and pulling up like a champ. {Check out that toe point!}

During 95% of her waking hours, she had at least two, if not three, faces in hers constantly, making sounds, calling her name, playing peek-a-boo. She was precious and smiled and laughed and never got upset with her overly-excited cousins. Her parents were just as gracious.

It's funny how I still thought of Reese as my "baby" but he was huge in comparison to Andi. I helped her drink her bottle one time and remembered how sweet it was to have one in your lap, snuggling, filling up that tummy with good milk. I think Reese would have made a great big brother too:).

I had high hopes of a family trip to a local pumpkin patch, but the weather did not cooperate with my plans. So instead, we treated Andi to her first ever experience at a mall food court. We like to treat our out of town family in style. They left us for their home this morning and five minutes after they pulled out, Grady said, "I miss Andi already." We are excited that we'll get to see them again in a couple months for Christmas at Callaway Gardens. Thanks so much for making the trip Aunt Rhonda, Uncle Luke and Andi! We loved every minute!