December . . . so far

December has been a busy month so far. On Thursday the 2nd we went to the El Dorado Christmas Parade. Mitch had helped decorate the Miracle League's float but was not riding on it. Last year Will was scared at the parade, but not this year. Both kids enjoyed all the sights and sounds. I was glad it was fun for him this year.

I went shopping with the rest of the Hope Landing staff on Friday 12/3. We met at 8:30 that morning and took 3 cars to Monroe. We hit up the mall that morning and ate lunch at Longhorn . . . After lunch we stopped by several other stores close by. I rode home with Jennifer W., Leslie, Kristi, Allyn and Jennifer S. and we went home through Ruston so that we could stop at Beehive. I found some jewelry on sale and enjoyed browsing. We had a fun time and I got some good shopping done.

The next day was the Wildcat game in Little Rock (here).

We went to the Deacon's Banquet at our church the next week. Here are Mitch and I after the banquet.

Here are the kids with Mitch's parents, also after the banquet.

The next day was the lunch and "dirty Santa" exchange for the staff at Hope Landing. I got a cute plate and mug with big Christmas trees and ribbon on them. Mitch had goodie day at his office on Thursday. On Friday night we went to Jennifer Wylie's for the HL Christmas party for the staff and board members. Saturday went got up and drove to Guy and Julie's for Shepherd's 1st birthday party.  We celebrated that night at supper with yummy cupcakes and cookies for dessert. Julie's family was there, so all of Shepherd's grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins were able to help him celebrate.

That night we put the three kids in their matching Christmas pajamas and tried to get a group picture. Needless to say, that did not work out so well. They had fun playing together though. Shepherd opened his presents (Ainsley tried to hijack this activity!) and also celebrated Will's, Julie's and my mom's birthdays since we were all together. No one slept really well that night so we stayed in Sunday and ate a late lunch before we had to head back.

On Tuesday the 14th, we had to take Will to ACH for and ENT appointment and an MRI with sedation. We had to be there at 7am, so we got up at 4 and left at 5. Long story short, the x-ray showed some sublaxisity in the C1-C2 area, which is common for kids with Down syndrome. The radiologist noted during the MRI that he also had cervical stenosis - the cervical spinal cord is too narrow. We don't have a lot of information about those two things and we were referred to a neurosurgeon that we will see next month. The good news about the MRI is that it did not show anything that would be causing Will's sleep apnea. The bad news is that we don't have any answers about what is causing the sleep apnea - - or any "fix" for it. Dr. Bower, his ENT, wants us to see the neurosurgeon first and then we can decide whether we'd like to try a CPAP machine or remove his tonsils for the obstructive apnea. Thankfully we got an anesthesiologist who discharged Will a few hours after the MRI and there were no complications from the sedation. It was a long day.

Wednesday 12/15 was Will's class Christmas program at school. He played a wiseman. They performed on the stage in the fellowship hall complete with props and costumes. All of the kids had at least one line. Will's line was "Let's each take him a gift". The class also collectively recited Luke 2:8-11 and sang several songs. Will knew the words to the scripture and the songs; you could even hear him singing. All of the kids did a fantastic job. They nailed their lines and there were no missteps. Mrs. Lindsey said that was the best they had ever done it; she couldn't have asked for a better performance. We were so proud of our little wiseman #3!!

Thursday the 16th was Mitch's chili cook off at work, Will's art exhibit that evening, and my mom's 60th birthday. I worked that afternoon and met Mitch and the kids at the Arts Center at 6:00 before going to my mom's house. She was hosting her birthday club's monthly party at her house. She has a ton of Christmas decorations and her house always looks great during the holidays. She has a sweet group of friends in this "lunch bunch". They shared their yummy treats with us and the kids entertained the ladies. Friday was Will's last day of school and I helped with his Christmas party. We'd made cookies that we gave to each of his classmates. He gave Mrs. Lindsey a gift card to the movies, which she was very excited about. Santa even made an appearance! Will does not like Santa too much, but he just stood on the opposite side of the room with me and did not freak out. He did wave at Santa as he left.

Saturday we took the kids to the Museum of Natural Resources in Smackover, where they decorate the oilfield in lights. We did this last year and it is a fun tradition.

Sunday after church we took some goodie plates to several widowed ladies that we know. We gave them cookies, sausage balls and little oranges. Four of the five ladies were home and we went in and visited each of them. Ainsley was with us (Will was under the weather) and she did very well. The ladies loved visiting and we enjoyed it too. This is something else we started last year and it is already one of my favorite things to do!  That night was our Sunday School Christmas party at the Shepherd's house. We ate and played "Catch Phrase", a game where something funny always seems to happen (at least with our class).

So far this week we have taken it easy and relaxed as we have nothing major on the calendar until this weekend. That is a great feeling!

Go Cats Go!

On Saturday the El Dorado Wildcat football team was playing in the 6A State Championship game in Little Rock. This was their third trip to "The Rock" and they won the title last year. I really wanted to go this year, so we loaded up the kids and hit the road Saturday. We did a little shopping first - we went to PetsMart where we saw a man collapse and have a seizure right in front of us. I saw him out of the corner of my eye fall down and thought maybe he was just bending down, but I turned around and he was flat on the ground. Another couple was nearby and we told a store employee to call 911 . . . she never changed expressions and I didn't know if she had even heard us so I was trying to get my phone out of my purse when she came back and said that she'd asked someone to call the paramedics. By this time he was seizing. He came to shortly and began talking. He said he may have passed out from exhaustion and that he'd get it checked out later. Then I heard him tell the paramedics that he was a doctor . . . hmmm, not too sure what that was about all that, but when we left he was still with the medics. Then we went to Toys R Us, which was completely overwhelming and nerve wracking as it was packed with people, but we did get some Christmas presents. We ate at Purple Cow, which has terrific turkey burgers and the best peanut butter and chocolate milk shakes in the world!!

We got to the game and it was cold!! We had the kids in layers and mittens and had two blankets with us. We saw some people from our church and sat with them - the Morelands and the Craigs. It was fun being at War Memorial stadium. El Dorado was playing Texarkana. Both teams had lots of fans, but I think we had more. The kids did pretty good considering they were cold and had had no nap. The game started off with El Dorado not playing so great, but they pulled away in the second half and won 31 - 21. State Champs, 2 years in a row! It was exciting to be part of that and even though it was cold, I'm glad we went.

Our pictures did not turn out very good, but they are proof that we were there!

Oh Christmas Tree!

On the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we decided to go get our Christmas tree. We always get a live tree and drive down to a farm outside of Bernice, LA. We have never gotten a tree this early, but the next few weekends are busy, so it was really the only time we had to get it up. The farm has tons of trees and the kids had a great time running through them!

We only got a few posed pictures, as the kids would not be still and pose, but that is nothing new! The kids wore their personalized Christmas tree shirts that I ordered from a friend of Julie's.

We finally selected this tree as our 2010 Colvin family tree.

The guys cut it and strapped it to the top of Mitch's vehicle. We ran into his cousin's wife and their kids, so we visited with them before we were on our way. At home I worked on the tree lights while Mitch worked on the outside lights. We decided to use the red and green lights that we've previously put outside on the tree this year. They didn't show up in the picture but we both really like them on the tree and decided that may be what we use from now on.

Also that weekend, Milton - our Elf on the Shelf - arrived for the season.

And the kids started wearing their red and white stripped pj's.

It was a good start to a busy holiday season!





Thanksgiving 2010

Our Thanksgiving holiday started with Will's party at school Tuesday morning. Two other parents and myself helped with their Thanksgiving "feast" - and it was a feast with turkey, corn on the cob, grapes, carrots, crackers, cheese, and two kinds of cookies. Mrs. Lindsey spread out a long roll of paper where the kids had written their names and drawn what they were thankful for. Will was proud to show me where he had drawn me and the rest of the family - even Daisy. We were all different colored circles with eyes and hair. The kids put on their pilgrim or Indian hats while they ate. I even got to hear some of their lines in their upcoming Christmas play.





I worked Tuesday afternoon and we went to the Thanksgiving meal at our church that night. Then we were all off on Wednesday. Mitch took the kids to his parents house for a while and I cleaned the house.

On Thursday we got up and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade. It made me really want to go back to NYC! At lunch we went to my mom's house for a meal with her, my aunt Arti and uncle Ray, and my cousin Jo Beth and her husband Troy. It was very nice of them to come down and we had a good visit. The kids had them reading books to them, looking at pictures with them, and Arti even played the piano with them.






That afternoon we went to Mitch's mom's family get-together at Lake D'Arbonne. We visited and ate some more. We left the camera in the car and it was raining while we were there, so we didn't get any pictures. The kids had a great time playing with their cousins again. There were about 9 of them of all ages who played together, running from one bedroom down a short hall to another bedroom, tagging each other "It" and repeating the process, over and over. Ainsley usually had her milk, Brownie Bear and/or a bag of pretzels in her hands the entire time. The adults watched the Saints/Cowboys game - all of whom were all Saints fans so they were happy that they won. It was a good day of family and fun!