Lazenby Christmas & Judah's Birthday

I couldn't squeeze any more fun into one post... this was a crazy & packed weekend!  Because of the ice storm we had my family up for Lazenby Christmas, Judah's birthday, Tom's company party, Santa breakfast (next post), plus the rescheduled Christmas market, & preschool Christmas program.  Makes me tired again just typing it!  Thankfully my family was sweet to roll with the chaos.  We squeezed in some hilarious minute to win it fun on Saturday afternoon - complete with shaving cream & cheese ball throwing (easy favorite).  Our sweet baby turned 3 on Sunday (how is that possible?) so he got to open some awesome boy toys - he loved each & every one.  He's been adding to his wish list daily with every commercial & shopping outing for months.  Birthday post to come (maybe after Christmas - poor December baby).

Ice Storm

This winter storm was just plain weird.  Following several days in the 70's, sleet & freezing rain fell for hours on Thursday late into the night.  We awoke Friday to all of North Texas covered in inches of pure ice.  We are used to getting a snow day or two each winter, but this was slippery, slick, ice skating rink ice all over everything.  We ended up with THREE days off from school because it tooks 5 or 6 days for the temps to get above freezing long enough in the afternoons to melt the ice off the roads.  So Friday, Sat, Sun, Monday, & Tuesday were spent sledding on boxes, sliding around in the street, washing lots of snow clothes, baking cookies, watching movies, & getting holiday stuff done around the house.  Tom worked, but all of our weekend activities were canceled so we had tons of much needed family time.  We paid dearly for those lazy days with a crazy nutty schedule these past couple of weeks, but it was well worth it.

I don't have cute pictures of it, but one night we put on our facebook neighbor page that any stir crazy friends could come over for a chili night.  We had a house full of brave neighbors who slipped or sledded down the street to our house & it was a blast!

Keeping it Real

This is what a 3 year old tantrum looks like in all it's glory.  Well, 30 seconds of it anyway.  This awesome drama may go on for 30 minutes in our house... especially when this mean, mean mama makes her boy wear pants.  When it's in the teens outside.

Judah was made to live in So Cal, not Texas.  He thinks that winter clothes are from the devil.  Most of the time my compromise is that he gets to wear a short sleeved shirt with a jacket, but he must wear pants if we leave the house.  He rolls them up above his knees like a goober.

I took this video of him to show him how ridiculous he looks while screaming "pants off!" & throwing himself on the ground.  He was amused later by the video but still will throw one of these fits when the mood strikes.

Tom was telling me later that same night about how frustrating his day was.  I showed him the video & told him that everyone would have backed off if he would have thrown himself on the ground & screamed "pants off!".  It didn't work for Judah, but Tom may have gotten the rest of the day off.

Thanksgiving

Some favorites from a great Thanksgiving at Grammy & Dingdaddy's...

3 generations - Grammy, Mamaw, Amber

oh my - rainbow loom.  hours of entertainment

chillin with Dingdaddy with her lizard house on her lap = happy Mae

beauties - Anna & Madison

Mae's lizard pet - "Escaper" - wonder how he got that name?

Nanny & Amber

Nanny, Papaw & Mamaw with their great-grands

Madison, Mae, Anna, Ryland

Ava, Judah, Leah, Paige

Cleburne Camping

Somehow finding a date for camping in the midst of our crazy busy fall was pretty tricky.   We were so thankful to finally get a November weekend to work out with old friends - the Russells, & new - Kevin & Angie Conway & their two bigger girls.  The Russells have known the Conways for years & it was great getting to know them too (you become quick friends with no makeup & no showers... my kids didn't even have their hair brushed all weekend).

The weather was perfect - cold enough for a campfire all day but not freezing.  The kids played really well hiking around in the dry ravine behind our campsite, riding bikes & scooters, playing with sticks in the fire & taking turns walking Bitsie.  One funny... Judah did not want to go to sleep in his own bed in the camper & had to get several spankings for that, then got in trouble several other times late at night or early in the morning.  We figured the campers around us were tired of hearing him scream so a couple of times we put him in time out in Tom's truck to muffle his crying.  For a couple of weeks afterwards he would say, "Am I in trouble?  Please don't lock me in the car Mommy!"  I shushed him quick - don't want people to be calling CPS on us!

Family Retreat

One of our favorite fall weekends - small group retreat at Riverbend in Glen Rose.  This year Anna conquered her fear & zip lined - woo hoo!  Mae did it again this year too, and Judah ALMOST went off!  He wanted to go up, and Daddy was in charge so of course he let him try.  He scooted his bottom right to the edge but couldn't quite figure out the jumping off part.  He sure was disappointed coming down all those stairs.  Maybe next year big boy.