Santa was at the Promenade!!

So Sunday afternoon, we told Anniston that Santa Clause was visiting the mall from the North Pole. She was so excited to tell Santa that she had been a good girl. And she also was ready to tell Santa that Treyson had been a good boy since he can't talk.

We got all dolled up and only had 1 person in front of us. Anniston spotted Santa and was beside herself. It was the moment she had been waiting for for so long! She marched right up there like a big girl, hopped on his lap, told him how good she was, and smiled for a picture! Treyson wasn't smiling, but it least there wasn't crying!!

We made our usual pit stop at the Cookie company (yes, usual....you know how our Dadoo is with his cookies!!), got Treyson some way too expensive shoes that he'll outgrow in a month, then headed home.

As Anniston was about to go to bed, she realized that she forgot to tell Santa what she wanted. She only told him she'd been a good girl. So....Elfie to the rescue! We had her sit next to Elfie and tell him everything she wanted so that Elfie could tell Santa last night when he flew back to the North Pole....whew! Thank goodness for Elfie!

Uncle Don and Aunt Tina Wedding!

We went to Don and Tina's wedding in Eureka Springs on Saturday. It was at the Thorncrown Chapel, and was so beautiful! I've never been there, and I thought it was so perfect. It was gorgeous at night with the low lights, and then all of the poinsettias that were up for Christmas. Jerry also commented that the ferns were so beautiful and GREEN (mine are in our whirlpool tub trying to be saved because they were left outside too long....trust me, I'm trying to chunk them but my squeaky tight husband (God love him!) wants to try and revive them!).

Treyson thought about fussing but ended up doing great through the ceremony. Anniston did great and sat in Aunt Robin's lap the entire time. She was so excited about the wedding. She got to wear a new "fancy wedding dress" and hairbow (with the shiny brown shoes that were mentioned in a previous post). This is not at all related to the wedding, but it's an appropriate time to throw this in....Anniston has this new thing going where she will walk into a room of people and throw her hands up in the air (you know, like a gymnast after she's done something spectacular?!!!) and just wait for somebody to say something (usually something to the effect of how cute she looks). I'm not sure if we're over-inflating her head at home (we are slightly partial to her cuteness!!), but she did this at her babysitter's Christmas party, and then again at a birthday party she was at on Saturday afternoon. Anyway, she had that same "look at me" attitude on Saturday night, so she ate up all of the "oohs and aaahs".

So the wedding ceremony was short but very sweet. Then we headed back for the reception....where our daughter turned into the energizer dancing bunny!

She started off dancing with Sheradon for awhile.

Then she came back for a punch re-load and drug Aunt Robin out on the dance floor with her. By the way, I didn't get a picture of Don and Tina (I know, horrible). But you can see a little bit of her on the right side of this picture....she looked beautiful, and her dress was amazing!

This is a picture of her running circles (sorry for the fuzziness)

Here is when she is observing all of the dance floor doing the "Cha Cha Slide"....she didn't know what to think about that!

Here she is helping Mommy do the "Electric Slide" (yes, I first learned this from our Sunday nights out at Red Roper teen night in junior high!!)

Then Anniston and Mommy were dancing to Britney Spears' "Womanizer" (thank goodness Anniston doesn't pay attention to the words of these songs yet--YIKES!!)

Then a congo line was started

Nanny and PawPaw were on the floor dancing with Anniston for a long time....can you guess which song was playing??

I think Dadoo was trying to give PawPaw a break, but I don't think that worked!

I definitely don't want to leave Treyson out. He was having a great time being passed around from relative to relative....he's so laid back! Then he just laid his head down and was out for basically the rest of the night (minus getting loaded into the carseat to drive home). He got his fair share of "oohs and aahs"

Don and Tina...we had a great time. Your wedding was beautiful, the reception was great! You're a great couple, and we wish you all the best!

Christmas Program

Anniston's school had their Christmas program on Friday evening at the church. We had been talking to her all week about how exciting it would be and how she would be singing for alot of people. We just didn't want her to freak out when she saw all of the chairs filled and lots of clapping going on. We knew that she knew all of her songs because she's been singing us to them for the past couple of weeks; we just hoped she wouldn't get stage fright....

....well, she hammed it up! She bounced and kicked up her leg while singing loudly the entire time (she can multi-task like her mother!). Of course we had the entire first row with our family and friends, so she spotted us quickly and was giving us quite a show! She was moving so much that she almost ran over the sweet little boy next to her a few times. And I'm pretty sure we should've done some bloomers under her dress because with all of the moving around, her dress did get a little too high at times (we try for her to be a lady..haha!).

Afterwards, she had snacks and played with her grandparents. Santa Clause also made an appearance. She sat on Santa's lap, but the face looked incredibly familiar, and she figured out that it was a teacher at her school....so we discussed that Ms. Patricia was just dressing up for fun as Santa. We asked her where the REAL Santa Clause was at and she said the North Pole. So I think we're still good on that! WHEW!!!

Anniston, Mommy and Dadoo are so proud of you! You're such a great singer and performer! We love you!

Congratulations!!

Jerry and I have been following a blog of a couple that we went to school with. They were a year ahead of us in school; like Jerry and I, they were junior high school sweethearts. They are such a nice couple, and we've been following them on "their journey" to having their sweet twins. They were born last night, and are a really good size and healthy.

Congratualtions Michael and Mary Kate (and Cooper and Hadley!) Your family is absolutely beautiful!

You can check them out at "Our Journey" on my blog list, or click this link:
http://michaelandmarykate.blogspot.com

Exhausted

We had Mommy's work Christmas party tonight at Nana Cindy and Dado Hemi's house. Since we were all dressed up, we decided to try for the Christmas card picture....we were all worn out, especially the kiddos! I thought this was too cute not to share....sorry, no sneak peeks at the actual picture that turned out (and it is great!!).

Surely not...

So, it's just a typical Thursday at work (yes, this is my first official week back to work....I made it, not without tears though!). I make it through the first half of the day. Eat a very unfilling frozen Lean Cuisine meal, decide that's not near enough, run to Hardees for the 2 burgers for 3 bucks, and eat them on my way to vacuum out the car....very productive lunch.

Then I begin my afternoon of seeing patients. Around 2:30, the office manager comes up to me while I'm in the middle of a prophy (that's a dental cleaning term). She says to me, "it's the daycare".....I panic: FEVER, THROW UP, BROKEN ARM....my mind is racing! So I say to my sweet patient, "oh no, that's my 2 year old's school", and she responds, "no problem, you hurry and get that" (so nice!). So I race towards the phone, so nervous as to what awaits me.

Me: Hello, this is Amy.

Director: Hi, Amy. This is Tressa at Children's World.

Me: Hey there. What's going on with Anniston?

Director: Well, when Anniston got up from her nap she told us there was something in her nose. I've shined a flashlight, and there's definitely a foreign particle.

Me thinking: You've got to be kidding me!

Me: Oh my goodness...any thoughts on what it could be?

Director: Well, they did do dry noodle art, and we're thinking it might be a small piece of that. We don't have a bulb syringe, and she can't blow her nose for us. She's quit crying, but says it hurts. We need you to come get her.

Me thinking: Like I can do anything???? HA

Me: Ok, I'm sending a girl I work with there to get her...she'll be there in a few minutes.

Director: I'm so sorry...thanks!

Me thinking: SORRY? I don't think you forced a foreign particle up my daughter's nose! Just wait till I have a little talking-to with her!

So, Trish gets back with Anniston and is joking about how they were tickling her nose with a feather trying to get her to sneeze when she picked Anniston up. We kind of laughed it off, thinking "whatever". So I finish up my patient, and take Anniston to the back of our office. I ask her which nostril it's in. She points to the right side. I push on it a little and ask her if it hurts..."yes", she says. Then I push on the left, "No, Mommy, over here" (pointing to right side). "Don't pick it Mommy", she says. It's WAY up there....like I don't think I can even get a dental tweaser up there (and they're long and skinny). So I'm starting to call Jerry's cell so he can call the nurse and get an appointment for after work. Meanwhile, I will see my last 3 patients. Well, as the phone is ringing, Anniston SNEEZES! And out comes this plastic little piece. Let me tell you, I would be crying if it were wedged up my nose. It was huge! It was 3/4 inch!

So then we have a little talk about how we don't put anything up our nose, unless Mommy or Dadoo puts medicine up there. We also told her that Elfie (see previous post) knows what she did, and that Santa doesn't want us to put things up our nose either.

So then Anniston stayed at work with Mrs. Berniece in the front office area and talked her ear off. Poor Berniece...I don't think she got anything accomplished from 3:00-5:00 today.

Hopefully tomorrow won't be nearly as eventful!

"Elfie"

So last night, we introduced "Elf on the Shelf" to Anniston and Treyson (well, really just Anniston at this point). If you haven't heard of this, it is the CUTEST thing ever. Basically, Santa sends this Elf around Thanksgiving to your house, and you adopt him into your family by naming him and following the rules. The Elf acts as Santa's eyes to let him know whether you've been naughty or nice. Then every evening, "Elfie" (the name Anniston came up with for our elf) will fly to the North Pole to let Santa know how we all acted that day. He tells Santa if we followed the rules, said our prayers, helped eachother out, etc. Then each morning, we look for Elfie because he always lands in a different spot in our house.

Here's a picture of Elfie

Well, yesterday Anniston was pretty down in the dumps attitude-wise. She hadn't napped and she was feeling icky with her cough and snotty nose. So I asked her this morning what Elfie must have told Santa yesterday. She told me that Elfie told Santa she was naughty. I asked her what this meant. She told me that she won't get presents if she's not nice. So then she went to find Elfie and apologized to him and told him she was going to be a good girl today...we'll see!

Here's Anniston getting up close with our new Elfie last night....one rule is that you can't touch him....boy was that tempting!