Lauren's visit

Lauren and Nick came to visit for Thanksgiving. It was so fun to see them and their two sweet babies. I don't think that Emma and Lilly got put down unless they were asleep. They are do cute. It was so fun to see everyone. Cole has always made such a special bond with Nick but this visit tightened it. He was so ready to go home with them. I told him I would miss him too much and he said, "Mom, I will send you pictures." I guess I have been demoted.

Christmas

For the church Christmas party, Cole was a shepherd and although Sage wasn't in primary yet, they let her be an angel. The angels were the choir singing all the songs. She later told me (in a very enthusiastic voice) that "next year, I will even know the songs!" I will give her credit though, she was trying as hard as she could to sing the right words.
Cole was having a wardrobe malfunction while getting ready and I told him to hold his elbows tight against his sides to hold his costume to his body. Then, I found the ponytail holders I had brought and fixed his costume so that it would stay up. I told him he could relax now and just enjoy the play. He forgot and the whole time he had his elbows bent in close to his sides. Will told me that he was so nervous, he could tell be looking at him. I told him it was because of the earlier talk. Will then spent the next 5 minutes trying to get Cole's attention to tell him to relax his arms. He never did so a few minutes after that, he just went up and put his arms down. It was kind of funny.



Christmas Eve, we played the paper bag game, musical pillows, had snatch grabs, watched the King is Born, and read the Nigh Before Christmas. My kids were having a blast but as soon as we were done, Cole was all about getting into bed and going to sleep so that Santa could come. They all wanted to sleep together in their sleeping bags. I got them all ready and told them to go to sleep so Santa could come. About 15 minutes later, I hear Sage crying uncontrollably (not worried because she loves to cry uncontrollably). I go in there and as soon as I walk in, Cole looks at me and bursts into such frustrated tears. I ask what is going on and Cole says, "Sage is acting crazy just like McKelle so I hit her because I really want Santa to come and he won't come unless we are asleep!" (insert sobs between every word). I get him calmed down and he asks to sleep in his own bed.

The next morning, McKelle wakes up at 5 because she is coughing so hard. She decided to get up. I tell her Santa came and she says, "good". Then I ask her if we should wake everyone up and look to see what he brought. She says, "um, I just want to watch Strawberry." So we let the other kids sleep for another hour while McKelle watched Strawberry shortcake. She didn't even notice her stocking. When we woke up the rest, she looks over and was then thrilled at the treasures left in the night. The rest of Christmas was just wonderful spending time with family and enjoying everyone's company. Also, I really loved having Christmas on Sunday, I wish it were that way every year.

Coles Birthday

Cole turned the big 5! This year, he decided that he was going to have a friend birthday party. So a few friends came and had a safari party with him. They had their faces painted as some jungle animals. Then, we painted some balloons to be the prey for whatever animal they were. We hid the balloons and the wild animals had to find their prey and eat it (pop the balloons). After that, the person going on the safari had to go on an adventure to see if he could find any safari animals (playing hide and seek). We then did presents and then cake. It was so much fun for me to be able to do a themed party and Cole is finally getting into the party games. HURRAY!!!!

It's burning me up!

Okay I am finally over the embarrassment and have decided to share this little story. The reason I share, I will tell later.

Last March I was STILL raking and burning leaves. I have a big yard with a ton of really big, bushy trees. Anyway, it was kind of windy and I really was just trying to get my back corner raked up and burned. Our yard is fenced in. Anyway, it is way too windy to be burning but I really want those leaves gone so I decide to make a small pile to burn and just add a few leaves at a time so I can keep it under control. I clear out about a 2 foot area around the fire so if it spreads it won't go anywhere.
I am doing good and have been burning for about an hour or so. Cole and Sage were jumping on the trampoline. All of a sudden, we get a huge burst of wind, it blows the fire out of the burn pit and catches a few leaves, I go to rake them in and here comes another burst, I try to rake them in and then another burst of fire. I am now trying my hardest to get the fire back in control. Soon, it takes off to my neighbors yard, and then my other neighbors yard. I am fenced in on both sides. I yell for Cole to run and get Aunt Victoria. He kind of saunters in, I tell him to run, so he walks faster (seriously, I can't get them to slow down in a parking lot). He goes in and a minute or two later, Victoria kind comes out in her flip flop kind of shoes. I don't think she was at all expecting to see this. I am trying to bring buckets of water out (our hose is not even close enough to reach)but it is not working at all. So I throw her my rake and have her jump the back fence to rake a fire line while I try to put my other neighbors yard out with the water. Not working, at this time, I decide I had better call the fire department. I do so and then I grab my neighbors rake (it happened to be sitting there and it was missing almost all of the prongs) and jump the side fence to make a fire line over there. The fire is spreading at an uncontrollable rate and starting to go up some trees. By the way, my yard is not on fire at all! The people behind me have a Huge back yard and they only rake about 1/3 of it so there are plenty of leaves to feed the fire. People are all the time riding four wheelers on their property and stuff. This man goes by on his gator and just watches Victoria and I. A few minutes later, he comes back with a few teenage boys with him and he points out a spot we are missing. Seriously?! Did I mention I was 9 months pregnant? After about 15 minutes of this, the fire starts to put itself out. Ahh, still no fire trucks so Victoria says I should call back and tell them it is under control and they don't need to come. So I do. We are hauling some buckets of water to hot spots just to try to put them out when 2 fire trucks pull up. Victoria (did I mention that she rock?) walks up to the firemen and tells them that their assistance is no longer needed. They say they would like to look things over just to make sure. She tells them that we don't want them to because we don't have any money to pay a fine they will surely give us. I am so embarrassed about this whole scenario. Okay, this is why people like firemen and not policemen: They say something to the effect of: Mam, we are not here to give any fines. We don't do that, we just come to help. Let's take care of this before a policeman or the forestry people come and do give you a fine. So I hop back over the fence to my yard and ask if they want any help or any water or anything (trying to reconcile my imbecilic behavior. They decline but do give me a small lecture on burning. They were very respectful about it though and they didn't demean me at all. As they go to work, Victoria asks me why I asked them if I could help. I told her because I felt like a fool. She looks at me and starts to laugh, she says "you are hugely pregnant, how would that look if they actually let you help?" After they are done, they let Cole, Sage, Zeke, and Dempsey take a tour on the fire trucks. THANKS ROSSVILLE FIRE DEPARTMENT.




It is about 3:30 when this is all over. You look out and the very back corner of our yard and the two neighbors yards are black. Victoria asks me what I am going to tell Will. I tell her, I am not going to tell him. She asks how I am going to manage that one. I told her that he was mowing tonight, the next day, he had had some other stuff going on and he wouldn't be home in the daylight for the next 2 days, after that, I would just play dumb. If the kids mentioned it, I would deal with it then.

I get in the shower so I can wash the clothes and get rid of any smelly evidence. As I get out of the shower, my phone rings. It is Will.
Will: Hey, what is going on there?
Me: Nothing much, what are you doing?
Will: Is everything alright?
Me: Yeah, are you okay?
Will: Polly! What is going on? How come the fire department was at our house?
ME: Which neighbor has the big mouth?
Will: Matt
Me: Tell him to mind his own business especially if he won't come over and help.
Will: What happened?

***

Later that night, Will is working on his truck (he didn't have to mow after all so my plan wasn't going to work anyway)and I am out with him. My neighbor behind me comes over to the back fence. I can tell he wants to talk. I just stare at him and ignore him. I tell Will he is standing there. Will tells me to go over and talk, I tell him no because he sure didn't want to talk when he was watching Victoria and I put out the fire. I just stare at him and don't move. Finally, Will gets up to talk to him, I go inside. Turns out, it wasn't him who saw us, it was someone down the road. He just wanted to know why I didn't start on the other end of the yard so I could have burned all of his leaves for him. HA ha ha, everyone is a comedian aren't they.

***

Why did I tell this little/long story? Well, now every time I burn leaves or boxes, Cole has to say something like, "Mom, please don't burn our yard...or the neighbors." I think it is kind of funny. He really is concerned though and since then, fire makes him a little nervous.
***

p.s. the pictures are not actually from my fire, they are stolen off of google images.