Shelley Shout Outs: 2009

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Christmas craft fun

More craft fun. It was a Christmas tree decoration tonight while we ate chocolate candies. lol

Dad's getting into the decorating. =) Madelynne's partner in crafty crime.

Jacob teamed up with me to get his done.

Madelynne & Grandpa's finished product.

Paul finally finished. =) Michael is a nut.

Pickly man with his tree.

Wow, these guys are all a little silly. =) Benjamin with his end result. fun fun!

Gettin' crafty =)

We had some way cute crafts brought over and have had fun making it a family thing each night while they last. Last night we did the snowmen. The kids had a blast making them.

I woke up to find the kids all set up in front of the kitchen counter driving cars and pretending their little houses had driveways. Too funny! Hot Wheels City has been trumped by Gingerbread houses!! lol

Christmas party fun

Saturday night was the ward Christmas party. The kids had fun dressing up like shepherds. I could tell Benjamin was surprised to be Joseph. Bless his heart. He kept saying things like 'what if someone else is when we get there?' He's so tender. It turned out pretty great. All the kids looked awesome and sang out nicely. Then the family dancing was a lot of fun afterwards. :) I didn't get a picture of Madelynne darn it. She was an angel. A messy one since she was eating ice cream before....with 2 spoons! She's a nut!

Jacob ended up being the puppy.

but tried on the shepherd at home.

Paul stylin in Theron's leather coat as a shepherd. lol

Michael

Benjamin played Joseph. Great night!

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

This was great! Hope your holidays are going well so far!!!

Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

Monday, December 7, 2009

Dad's birthday! #72 =)

Dad was surprised we came into his room to sing to him.

He was excited to get a new blender. hahaha! He's worn the old one clear out till it squeaks and whines. =)

anxiously awaiting to help assemble it.

then the crowd moved in and between all of them they got it assembled and tested out his health shake he makes every day.

He also got chocolate covered almonds and we made a cake for him for dessert after dinner. =) He was pleasantly surprised and said it was definitely one of his better birthdays. I think all the birthday wishes on Facebook and calls today were a huge factor. =)

Allergic reaction =(

I think I jinxed myself on this one. It wasn't too long ago that I actually had the thought go through my mind "how can you be allergic to nuts of any kind?" lol =) It didn't make sense to me since I hadn't heard much about it until the past 5 or 6 years.

This morning my dad got a package of Cashews for his birthday/Christmas from my uncle and he shared with us and you know kids, Jacob had to have a fist full as he wandered around the house. So I went up to tackle my mountain of laundry waiting to be folded then heard a croupy cough out of the blue that made me think he was choking. I came downstairs and he was barking like a seal when he breathed in and wheezing. Scared the crap out of me.

Then the internal debate started on whether I'm overreacting or if I really ought to take him in. I had myself talked into just going down and buying some Benedryl for him then last minute I thought...you know what? He has insurance, the worst they can do is send us back home so I went down to Midway. While he cried during the chest x-ray he sounded terrible. Every breath in was a bark. Poor guy.

Anyway, it wasn't much of a reaction while sitting in the ER and the doc said he'd just treat him as if it were a nut allergy and I left him home with my dad while running to the Pharmacy to pick up the 2 day steriod and antihistamine oh and some eye drops for one eye that was really red for some reason. When I got back home I took one look at Jacob and panicked slightly. He'd swollen up quite a bit more. His right eyelid was swollen, the rash had spread and his ears were bright red and swollen with little bumps all over them. Very weird. Never dealt with this stuff before. Anyway after the first failed attempt to give him his medicine (he couldn't swallow very well so he spit the first try out) he seems to be doing better. He's woozy...lol...most likely from the benedryl, but the hives are getting better slowly.

Now that I think about it, I think this was his first time eating cashews. He's had almonds, peanuts, walnuts, pecans and NEVER reacted like this. I wonder what makes one nut different from another. Cashews are the best too! hahahaha =) Anyway, I'm super grateful I got him in and he's got the medicine working on him. Seems like the itching has mellowed as well. Phew!!! =)

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Gingerbread houses =)

It was a sticky sticky afternoon around here. We rolled out the gingerbread dough last night and cut out the walls & roof then baked them letting them sit out overnight to firm up a little more then the decorating began today after lunch.

Paul's little house under construction.

gingerbread lane =)

Madelynne's finished house.

Paul's house.

Michael's house.

Benjamin's house.

They had the back sides decorated too, but that was a ton more pictures. They turned out pretty cute. Lots of fun. Learned what to do better for next year since this was our first attempt ever at gingerbread houses. lol =) Merry Christmas!!

Thanksgiving fun

We had a really great Thanksgiving. Theron was able to be home so that made it even better! We all got to sleep in then after the food was started we all went out and raked leaves. It was fun. Michael mowed the lawn sucking up the leaves to put in the trailer. Then we had a fabulous dinner!! or Linner? haha it was like 3:30 or so since we didn't get the turkey in to cook as early as we'd hoped. =) After we were all stuffed to the gills we did family pictures. hahahahahaha! Not a good time and definitely not recommended. lol =) We just used the timer on the camera and got a few different pictures so we could pick out a Christmas card picture.

The Christmas season had been great so far. We've got all our decorations up already. We even put lights on the outside of the house this year. We haven't done that in FOREVER!! I'm guess they'll stay up year round? hahaha....not sure. We need to get the shingles replaced this coming year so I'm sure we'll get them down at that point. The Christmas music really helps keep the Christmas spirit around this place. Amazing how fast time is flying lately. What happened to the days that used to drag and time never seemed to go fast enough? I'm all for dragging the month of December out. =)