Christmas Morning at the Sullivan's . . .

The first time that my eyes opened and the clock said 6:20 I rolled over...the second time that I saw the clock and it said 7:30 I knew we HAD to get up - we needed to leave the house no later than 9 or 9:15 in order to get to MaMaw Ada's house in Livingston LA....and we still had a sleeping boy, presents to open and play with, a car to pack, and the whole getting dressed bit...and NOT much time!!!

Richard was SOUND ASLEEP when I peeked in his room so Ty thought a good idea would be to have his Mickey Mouse racetrack talk - sure enough, after having it "talk" a few times, a sleepy headed Richard came wandering out of his room rubbing his eyes....the race track was what he headed straigt towards (he had drooled over it every time that we had been to WalMart) - he also enjoyed the presents that Mickey Mouse sent from Disney World - a backpack, a jacket, a sweatshirt, a tshirt, and a coloring book...he also enjoyed the art supplies and two big hits were his new "Cars" and his new Poingo book - I LOVE it - it has a reading pen that "reads" the text on the page as you run pen over it - as you go over the illustrations it either asks you questions or gives you tidbits of information....he LOVES it - the starter kit included the Cars book and Nemo...what fun is in store and now mommy doesn't have to read EVERY single book (although I LOVE reading to him.) We cooked some biscuits while opening presents and then quickly headed out the door for Louisiana.

Christmas Eve at MeMe and DD's house. . .

Christmas Eve day I had planned to go on over to mom and dad's while Ty was at work, but I wasn't feeling very well so Richard and I didn't get there till about 2:30. Richard had fun baking cookies with MeMe, but the hit of the day was mom's train - he LOVED playing with it and was so gentle. Ty joined us when he got off of work and we enjoyed Christmas Eve supper as a family..although I didn't eat since I still didn't feel well - OOPS - then I got sick and realized it was not food poisoning from supper the night before - I had a virus!!! I felt TERRIBLE - not only physically but emotionally that I had brought germs to daddy's house and he still has to be sooo careful...I just tried to keep my distance from him. We exchanged and opened our presents (Richard LOVED his Buzz Lightyear from mom and dad) and then Ty led the way home, mom drove my car with me and Richard home, and daddy followed us in his car so that he'd be able to bring mom home. Even though I was sick I enjoyed our family time - I continued to be sick the rest of the night so poor Ty had to be an elf pretty much by himself till about 4am getting everything ready for the next morning.

P.S. Thank the Lord, neither mom nor dad got sick!!

MeMe and DD lovin' during the holidays...

Richard enjoyed just a bit of "extra" MeMe and DD loving during the holiday season...we met mom and dad at the mall one day,and another day they came out to the house to spend the afternoon...this year has been even more special due to a renewed sense of family - after the health issues that daddy has faced this year I am even more thankful that daddy is healthy and has the energy to play with Richard unlike the earlier part of this year. We love you MeMe and DD!!

I Can't Believe It!!!

Ok, so I know that this post is out of order chronologicaly, but I did want to include it. I cannot believe that I am 35! I don't feel 35! My birthday was December 10th and I gave myself a gift I have not given myself in the last 15 years - I took the day off of work...I know some of my friends thought I was crazy because I spent the majority of the day cleaning my house (sweeping, mopping, dusting, vacumming, laundry and such) but that is what truly made me happy: you see once I reach my bday the rest of December is just a blur because of the holiday season. I also was able to have lunch with Ty - such a treat!! That night, Ty and Richard had a cake for me and we went as a family to see Bolt. Unbelievably Richard sat through all of the previews and the entire movie without moving an inch...good flick....good birthday.

Precious Christmas Gift. . .

A sweet couple, Rusty and Diane, live across the street from us....they are like grandparents to Richard. Mrs. Diane brought Richard his Christmas present over a few days before Christmas - it was the book "The Crippled Lamb" by Max Lucado. It is THE SWEETEST story - the main character is Joshua a little crippled lamb - his friend Abby the cow is always encouraging him that he has a special purpose or plan - the shepherds decide to take the livestock to different pastures but due to his leg he can't make the journey so he and Abby stay in the barn - that night he hears a strange sound and discovers that it is a baby crying - he goes over and snuggles the baby and keeps it warm - just then Joseph comes back in with some rags to keep baby Jesus warm, but Mary shows him that Joshua has already provided the warmth that was needed - then the shepherds enter the barn and see baby Jesus and Joshua keeping him warm...if Joshua had not been crippled then he wouldn't have been there in the barn that night to provide the newborn King the one thing in life he needed - to be kept warm. All throughout the rest of the holiday, Richard would look for and "find" Joshua everytime that he saw a nativity scene.

Christmas party at Mrs. Beth's House. . .

This year we had the Christmas party at Mrs. Beth's house on Thursday since Friday would be a half day. Santa came and delivered presents and each child had the chance to sit on his lap and tell him what he/she wanted for Christmas. They had sssoooo much fun (and this year Richard absolutely adored Santa), but Emma was missed - she hasn't been coming to Mrs. Beth's because of the chance that she might bring germs home to her preemie sister Emily (see blog friend the Beckwith family on my sidebar.) Thank you for coming Santa and I hope that you liked the Rudolph cookies that Richard made for you the day before. Emma we look forward to seeing you soon!!

Cookies and a Babysitter that loves a good laugh!

Beth told me when I dropped Richard off that she would let him come in that day, but she wasn't sure about the next time that I dressed him in his LSU attire (she is a die hard Ole Miss fan) - she said that it is bad enough when I send him in his MSU or Arkansas razorback stuff....about mid-morning she texted me and asked if my in-laws could take a joke - I said sure - so she sent me these pics with him in his Tiger outfit but sitting on an Ole Miss blanket and holding a Rebel football. That night Richard asked if we could make some cookies so of course I said yes...what mom wouldn't want to spend special one on one time with her little boy!

"Mrs. June's Library"

Richard absolutely LOVES to go to the library - most weeks Wes, Claire, and Kate go as well. Mrs. June always has fun books to read, songs to sing, magnets to arrange on the board,

toys and balls to play with, and "free-time" with the board books.... Richard loves every single second of it!! When we were helping him count the weeks till we went on our trip to Disney World I made a calendar that had a picture of the library on each Thursday and that way we could count how many more "library times" we had before we went to see Mickey.

Happy Birthday Jesus!!

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

An Unusual Day in Mississippi

Where I wish that I had been.....

Where I was. . . .

To say the least, yesterday was an unusual day for us here in the South. We went to school, only to have sleet begin to fall within the hour, then snow, then slush....then a big mess! At times the snowflurries were so BEAUTIFUL - big and fluffy like cotton balls - all the while we had to look through the glass and not go outside....sigh.....

A couple of hours later they did dismiss the students and once they all were gone, we also were allowed to go home to our families....by then the "pretty" part of the snow had passed, but I still enjoyed being able to spend the afternoon with my munchkin - would have been even better if Ty had been off work, but amazingly where he works in Madison they didn't have ANY snow; neither did mom and dad in Clinton!

P.S. A BIG thank you to Ashley for going by to Mrs. Beth's house to help take the kiddos out for a few minutes to experience the snow....

That'll do it for now...

After the football game, we headed to the drill field - all kinds of memories to make - frisbee time and tickle wars.... we also walked around campus sharing special spots with Richard. I'm so thankful for my Big Bully (Ty) and how he has blessed my life - I love you hunny; and for my Lil' Bully (Richard) your infectious love of life brings me both laughter and tears...I love you too.

A Few More....

Richard had a wonderful time finding all of the "Bullys" all over campus....thanks Beth for telling us about the life size cowbell! urrr umm I meant to say "artificial noise maker" LOL

maybe some pics...

ok so maybe we were a bit drastic - we cut off both our cable television AND our high speed internet, so we are now depending on our dial up which we had as back up - Oh how very spoiled I was and didn't even realize it....I could care less about the tv stations being gone, but I am going into withdrawal with the amount of time it takes to blog or facebook...so I just give up and don't log on... I will try to post some of the promised pics from our first MSU football game with Richard - hopefully we will soon recieve an offer in the mail we cannot refuse and be wooed to a new provider for high speed service once again!!!

p.s. ok so it changed the order from which I uploaded them, but oh well, you can figure it out!

Richard's 1st MSU Football Game!

This entry is a work in progress - I now have picasa installed so that I don't have to write multiple posts in order to accomodate my pics, but I can't figure out how to make a collage - it seems I can find the directions in the HELP section but my dashboard doesn't look the same- no buttons - oh well, I will hopefully tackle this tomorrow. :o)

Trick or Treating in the Neighborhood. . .

After a fun time at the Park, and as other families began filtering in, we headed home....I thought I'd try one more time with Pablo - ABSOLUTELY NOT!! I did, however know where last year's costume was (it was big last year so I figured it just migh fit) - well what do you know - he wanted to wear "doggie" - so doggie we were for our actual trick or treating. Half the night he had the head up and half the night the head was pushed back - oh well. . .such is life with a two going on three year old. We had a great time - he was wonderful about knocking, stepping back, waiting patiently, saying trick or treat, and then saying thank you....way to go - can't wait for next year!