Christmas Jammies

We celebrated two Thanksgivings this year.  The first was lunch at Tami and Todd's and the second was dinner at Chad's parent's house.  By the end of the day we were stuffed and tired.  The boys spent the night at Grandmommy & Haha's so Chad & I were able to go home and crash!  On Black Friday Chad & I did a little shopping, getting Chad some new shoes and also some new clothes.  I also mailed out my Christmas cards.  Riley had helped me stamp all the return signatures.  He is becoming a really good little helper!

Don't gag and choke too much that my Christmas cards are already mailed.  I just really lucked out this year.  I scored a great deal on Groupon for my cards and since Zuilma had already done our fabulous family photo shoot, I was able to order the cards early.  They then they sat at my office for weeks and I decided to bring them home the day before Thanksgiving.  I knew that if I let them sit at home too long before mailing them out, they would get sticky and messy, so I just went ahead and put them in the mail.  It's nice to cross that one off the To-Do list, but don't think I'll be able to be this organized EVERY year.

This weekend we enjoyed some downtime as a family.  We made a fire and both boys were obsessed with the fire tools.  They didn't actually put them in the fire (we're not bad parents!) but eventually their obession meant we had to ban them from touching them.  Carter's just not old enough yet.

On Saturday Riley was running a very low grade fever.  I had just gone out to run to the grocery store and buy tickets to the Muppet Movie for us and the Loveladys when we discovered that he had a fever.  I gave him some Tylenol and he perked right up so I didn't think anything of it.  We had a great time at the movie and at The Lovelady house afterwards.

 On Sunday we got up and went to church and that afternoon Riley got really upset and when I was comforting him as he cried, he just laid in my lap very still while I rubbed his back.  The TV wasn't on and Carter was napping so I should of known something wasn't right.  He's never that quiet and still while awake.  A bit later I tucked him into a blanket on the couch to watch a movie and I went to kiss his forehead.  He felt really warm and I discovered that he had a 103.7 degree fever!  He also started complaining of a sore throat.  We alternated Tylenol and Ibuprofen and that kept his temps down to around 100.  The next day I stayed home with him and after taking him to the doctor, we discovered that he had his first ever case of strep throat!  Poor kid!  After the doctor we went to fill his prescription and while we waited for it to be filled we went to Sonic to get some milkshakes to ease his sore throat and followed that up by an ice cream cone at Braum's.  I know...I'm a pushover!  But how could anyone resist this cute face?    

Chad stayed home with Riley on Tuesday because he had to be on antibiotics for 24 hours before returning to school.  By yesterday he was back to his healthy self, which was good because Santa came to his school.  I can't wait to see the pictures.  Supposedly, Carter did not cry so that is good!

Last night we went to Nana & Papa's for our annual November 30 tradition.  Dinner and remembering Jake.  We also draw for the fire pit and quilt raffles and both Riley and Carter helped draw our winners this year. (and yes, Carter is wearing two bib....his  choice!)

When we got home we discovered 2 boxes on our porch.  I had ordered Riley some Christmas jammies and the first pair got delayed and so they sent me a 2nd pair and both pairs arrived on the same day.  He was really excited about them and so I let him wear one pair while I washed the other for him to wear clean tonight.  I also let him load up the advent calendar boxes with Hershey's kisses and with Nana & Papa's help we got the boys in bed at a decent hour.  Riley convinced me to read him the 3 books that Nana had given him the day before and I told him that since it was a special day I would.  He asked me why it was special and I said because I was remembering my brother today.  He said "Who's your brother?" and I told him that Jake was my brother.  He then told me that he was going to write Jake a message today and it would say "Dear Jake, I love you and my mommy loves you a lot too."  What a sweet, sweet boy I have!