handsful

Is that a word?  Probably not, but I’m still on vacation so I can make up words if I want to.

We had a great Christmas day around here!  And, I do mean “around here”.  We were fortunate to have the whole day to ourselves, with no where to go.

The day began kinda late, as far as Christmas morning goes.  The littles were up and playing together upstairs…no one is allowed downstairs until we give the “ok” sign.  But, the teens were still snoozing away at 10am.  Really?!  So, I made the traditional cinnamon rolls (no, not homemade…they refuse to allow me to break tradition and insist on the canned version), and Randy woke them up.

I’ll avoid going through every-single-present and just hit the highlights of our morning…

Stockings first, as always.  Marley is opening her charm bracelet from her dad.  Randy started a tradition years ago of getting each of his girls a piece of jewelry and last year it was charm bracelets and 1 charm for each daughter and a necklace for me.  Unfortunately, Marley mis-placed hers.  Randy clenched his teeth and replaced it, the charm, and even added another charm.  I got my bracelet and a charm this year, too.  Love it!

No stocking for Jack, he got a new bed.  He likes it a lot.

How about I share favorite gifts?  Abbey…

She loves the show Duck Dynasty.  If you’ve not checked it out, you’ve got to.  It’s a hoot.  I knew she’d love this shirt.

And, her very favorite was her new bow.  She’s been wanting one for a while, and was thrilled.  She spent all of Christmas day shooting, and by the days end was in love.

Marley…

It’s hard to say with Marley because she didn’t really ask for anything big this year, and she seemed to love everything!  She noticed these shoes at the mall a while back and I quickly snapped a pic without her knowing.  So, she loves them!

This one could be her very favorite.  She wanted a purity ring this year, but wanted it to be something different that SHE picked out.  It’s a single pearl with a couple of diamond-like stones on the side set in sterling silver.  Beautiful.

Payton…

He was easy this year.  And, that’s saying a lot.  In the past, he’s been our most mysterious kid…never wanting anything specific.  Not this year.  The tailgater speaker system was high on the list.  As was the robe he’s wearing.  He found it while we were out shopping and fell in love with the thing.  Now, all he needs is a pipe.  Just kidding.

Ethan…

This one’s easy.  Although, he might say his bag of Skittles and Simpson’s movie from Abbey ranks pretty high, he was pretty surprised with this new 17 caliber air rifle.  Much larger than his last one, which he used so much it broke.  It’s heavy and loud…sounds like a .22 going off.  He’s very happy.

Lainey…

Again, easy peasy.  She asked for a kid’s tablet with Wi-fi.  She got half of her wish.  (does a 6 year old NEED wi-fi?)  This is her reaction when she opened it.

She immediately jumped into my arms, yelling THANK YOU, MOM!!!!

One of my favorite moments of the whole morning…

Dylan…

Well, I can’t figure this kid out.  I wasn’t sure what his fav was, so I asked.  Turns out it was the clearance slip-on shoes I found at Old N*vy…bought them as an afterthought, not planned at all.  They are cute, white with black little skulls and crossbones.  Ethan wanted to borrow them.  Heh.

Randy…

Biggest surprise for him was that I went to the ABC store and picked up his favorite whiskey.  I’m so cool.  I also gave him an NC State coach’s polo which he loved.  And, a Steeler’s sock monkey.  That last one goes without saying.

Me…

Love my new Justin boots…I’m fitting right in around here, now.

Biggest surprise?  An Ip*d mini.  I had hinted about a new e-reader…didn’t expect him to spring for this!

And, because I love them so much, I’m sharing all the sibling hug pics.  The kids drew names just like last year, and had so much fun picking out just the right thing.  They were all so excited for their sibling to open their gifts!  I love that…

Payton to Dylan:  Hulk hands

Marley to Lainey:  Slushy Magic cup

Abbey to Ethan:  Skittles and the Simpson’s movie

Ethan to Marley:  red and black plaid jacket

Dylan to Abbey:  bracelet and earrings set

Lainey to Payton:  Itunes card and his fav candy

After all the opening was over, Randy suggested they walk down to the downstairs garage.

Dirt bikes, for sharing.  And, for the littles to grow into (they got hula hoops and a pogo stick, too).

And, this is how the family room looked like AFTER…

Like I said, it was a wonderful day.  We ate left-over Christmas eve goodies and the kids spent the day outside, playing with their new “toys”.  Ended the day with a Christmas movie.  Perfection.

Next post, I’ll share some random Christmas pics that I never had time to share before!

Unfortunately the “something” isn’t very close to the 40, but it’s not TOO close to the 50.  That’s all I’m saying.

I’m a Christmas baby, born 1 week before Christmas Eve.  I used to hate it…especially when I was in college and had to study/take finals around my birthday.  Yuck!

And, it’s been a while since anyone was guilty of combining birthday and Christmas presents (gasp)…Randy learned long ago that doesn’t fly with me.  I mean, c’mon…

I got to choose my birthday dinner destination, as is usual with us.  Ever heard of the place with the huge porch and lots of rocking chairs in front?  Half shopping / half down-home, southern comfort food?  Yep, that’s where we went.

Afterwards, we made a stop at Wal-*art.  This, in itself, is crazy, since I truly despise the place.  But, stop we did and made a few purchases….vowing to never go again.  Like I always do.

Back home, and it was present time…

New winter coat!

Gloves that work with my touch-pad Iphone :)

Beautiful black cardigan sweater

A picture, just for me!

A goofy boy to look at.

Marley has in mind what she wants to get me, and Randy has taken her to two different places with no luck.  So, I’m still waitin’ on that one!

I’m one blessed mama…

And, a happy birthday girl.

We live about 30 minutes north of Charlotte, and the motto of our little town is “Race City USA”.  We’re home to about 60 different Nascar teams, with many of them having their homes on Lake Norman.  We have the largest collection of retired race cars, and Dale Earnhardt’s museum is also here.  It’s all Nascar, all the time.

Funny thing is…we don’t care for any of it.  Never been to a race, and we never watch them on TV.

But, this is the second (and won’t be the last) year we’ve driven over to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to check out “Carolina Christmas”.

It’s a drive-through light show…and, the route goes ONTO the actual racetrack.  And, yes, Randy always drives up on the bank to scare us to death.

See the tilt?

It’s also a petting zoo, mini carnival complete with fair-type goodies to eat, Bethlehem scene, pics with Santa, and a little shopping just to make it more fun.

And, we did it all…

Randy made me feed the calf…huge tongue, eating verrryyy slowly.  Ick!!

I spoke to the woman at the petting zoo…turns out she’s local and has a HUGE amount of goats, all kinds.  She gave me her contact info so I can contact her in the spring.  Have I mentioned we’re thinking of getting goats?  Thought I did…

After this, we went inside for some treats, shopping (the same incense guy is there every year and I love it…), and pics with Santa.  They insisted that we ALL get in the shot, and he got us all looking in the same direction AND smiling in one take.  Nice.

We barely had time for the carnival, they were almost closing!  The bigs rode the spinny thing that you couldn’t PAY me to get on.  The littles chose a tilt-a-whirl ride (think teacups at Disney).  Come to think of it, I wouldn’t get on that either.  I’m getting old.  Spinning makes me woozy.

We had a blast, and it’s now officially on our “gotta do” list every Christmas!

If you’ve been visiting my blog for any length of time, you know that Testify Youth Choir is a big part of our kids lives.  Made up of 7th-12th grade kids from many area churches, Testify puts on Christmas concerts each year.  With song and dance, they perform in local churches.  In the spring, the kids do a full (song, dancing, drama) concert singing locally and on tour (last year they went to Atlanta and Ohio).

This year, the concert is called “Cradle that Rocked the World” and we’ve watched them perform twice…so far.  It can get complicated, since all four of them are in two separate Testify choirs…one large, one small.  Which makes for double the number of concerts they’re scheduled for.  We make sure to attend at least one for each choir.

I forgot my camera for the Mooresville choir last week, but remembered it this past Sunday for their North Meck concert.  Good timing actually, since Abbey dances and has solo/duet, Payton sings and has a speaking part, Ethan dances and has a solo/duet, and Marley sings!

It’s funny really.  When the kids were little, we spent our weekends watching them play basketball, baseball, and cheer.  Weeknights were spent at practices.  With all good intentions, Randy “tried” to foster a love for athletics and sports…it’s what he grew up loving, afterall.  And, of course I had visions of my girls doing cheerleading for years.

God, in his wisdom and sense of humor, had better ideas.  Ethan is very musically inclined…he sings, and plays guitar and drums.  Payton loves the choir, but he’s in it for the drama…and, he’s good.  Abbey is very comfortable on stage, loves to sing and dance, and wants to try her hand at acting in the spring.  Being on stage doesn’t come naturally for Marley, but she’s grown into it and is a joy to watch sing.  As far as sports?  Abbey plays a mean game of volleyball; she’s the only one still in organized sports.  And, all six of the kids take tumbling/fitness classes….5 our of 6 are on their way to doing back handsprings.

Truthfully, it’s been such a blessing, watching each of our kids unique God-given gifts take root, grow, and blossom.  We could never have planned them so well.

Here a few (ahem) shots from their last concert…enjoy :)

Abbey, far left, with pony tail.

Marley, with her new dark underneath hair color that she loves!

Payton in the middle, he does a salsa type dance…best shot I could get, they moved fast!

Abbey, far left, and Ethan (hidden by the girl’s arm!) in the hip hop dance.

Payton had a speaking part, he did a great job….lots of emotion, and I love how he made it conversational instead of “here’s something I memorized”.

More dancing…Abbey far left, Payton behind her (hard to see), and Ethan in the middle.

Better shot of Abbey and Payton

Abbey sang so well, she had solo parts and then sang together with her friend, Aaron.

Ethan was in the final song.  It was a duet, but he had a large part of it.  He was actually subbing for someone else who couldn’t do it, and only had 1 practice.  He nailed it.

Very thankful and proud mama, here.

Lots going on here, as I’m sure it is with everyone else…

We’ve done two parades, a Walk Thru Bethlehem event, went to the Charlotte light show at the raceway, the bigs have had 3 Christmas concerts (so far), and we’ve decorated inside and out.

Oh, and did I mention it’s 12/12 and I’m done with shopping?  Yes, I’m that good.  (this is not usual, folks)

I even did a craft with the littles!  I know, right?  It’s so unlike me.  I used to be very crafty, but that has waned big time as I’ve gotten more OCD…uh, I mean older.  The mess and clutter that crafting makes drives. me. nuts.  But, this one was quick, easy, and fun.

I poked holes in the tops for hanging after taking this picture.  The littles hand prints will be dry by Saturday, ready for painting!

I still have to get our cards out in the mail, and do our usual (and some new recipes I’m excited to try) baking/cooking done.  And, enjoy my 40-something birthday in 5 days.

Since our picture taking is in warp speed lately, I’ll just post our “putting up the tree” shots for now.  We bought our tree at the usual spot, a local farmer’s market in town.  Same place we get fresh apples, local honey, amazing chocolate pecan pies, etc.  Since our ceilings are really high in the house, we weren’t bound by height, only price :)

Tradition calls for us to all decorate the house, while Randy (with Marley’s assistance) wrestles with the lights.  He’s VERY particular about how they’re done, so it’s off limits for me.  I’m quite okay with this.  We’re a non-garland family, just lights and ornaments.  We do have about 30 tin icicles that we’ve had for years and they always go on last, right on the ends of the branches.

When we’re ready for the ornaments (which we have scads of…), I sit beside the bin  and pass them out to eager big and little hands ready to hang…with Randy’s guidance on where.

It’s also mandatory that I get a shot of each kiddo hanging their “baby’s first…” ornament.  (It usually takes me a few seconds to decide which baby is Marley, Payton, or Ethan).

Decorating mayhem…

and cuteness.

Someone was trying to avoid a photo.  Bah humbug.

Final touch…adding the beautiful angel that Randy and I bought early in our marriage, to the top.

Christmas tree, 2012, complete.

It’s been TWO years since Dylan YuHai Clark joined our crazy family…and, we celebrated him last Thursday night.

As is our custom for both birthday and forever family days, the special kid chooses where we go out to eat.  We KNEW that Dylan would choose the same place we went to last year.  He brings it up all the time, always asking us WHEN are we going back there?!

But, no.  He decided to confuse us and picked one of our favorite Asian restaurants from when we lived in Florida.  Problem is the closest one to us now is a 45 minute drive.  So, we drove.

While we’re driving, enjoy some of the shots I got of our little guy earlier that day…

Mom, the sun is in my eyes!  (moving to another outside spot…)

I had nothing to do with it, so I don’t feel bad saying….he’s just so dang cute.

There’s the silliness.

Time to eat…

And, because an ice cream place was right next door…why not?

Giving the special kid a book is also a tradition with forever family days.  I’d been sick, and ordered the book a little late.  And, it hadn’t arrived in time.  It showed up the next day, though.

He’s big-time into all things super hero, so a huge pop-up book with all of them was just the right choice.

Dylan has come a long way in two years.  As with any adoption, there are bumps in the road as the child learns to be part of a family.  And, more bumps as the existing family members make room for another.  We are fortunate, in that Dylan’s adjustment-pains have been relatively easy.  Bedtime used to be a bear…we believe due in part to losing his crib-mate(s).  Now, he loves his room and his bed.  He also used to zone out when things just got to be too much for him to handle….no more.  His biggest struggle is self-control over his emotions.  He becomes upset/cries very easily, especially if he feels like you’re mad or disappointed in him.

But, most of the time he’s a very laid-back, low-maintenance kid who loves bursting into ninja-like moves when you least expect it.  How can you not smile at that?

We love you Dyl-pickle!