Christmas 2008

**Updated to correct grammatical and spelling errors pointed out by my husband :-)**

It's hard to believe that the Christmas season is already gone! There is so much I want to tell you about, so I'm just going to post pictures and write along with them (that way my old brain won't get too overwhelmed).

We spent alot of time talking about the real meaning of Christmas. I want to make sure that the girls understand that not every kid is as lucky as they are. One of the things we did to emphasize this point was to pack food boxes for needy families. It was a test in patience and organization for the packers (simply because of the little helpers), but the end product was worth it!! Our church packed 500 boxes of food with essential food items and people lined up for blocks the next morning to pick them up. It certainly gave me some perspective on how blessed we are. Molly said she was "just amazed at how many people need food."





When they talked about Santa (which was quite often), I would remind them that the reason Santa was bringing gifts was to celebrate Jesus' birthday. We have a several "kid-friendly" nativity scenes that they enjoy playing with. One afternoon they thought Baby Jesus needed some entertainment, and I found them doing this. . .

Sadie has quite the imagination and had us laughing at the scenarios she created for Baby Jesus. One night while we were eating dinner, she told us that Baby Jesus had to go to the back of the hay because he couldn't behave. Another time she put Mary on the corner of the sofa and said that Mary had gone back to Bethlehem to have another baby because Baby Jesus was bored!!! She keeps us entertained, to say the least.



Molly's class did an adorable Christmas program where they all had a small part with one or two other kids. Molly was an angel, and she and her friend Lauren led the angel band. Libby and Reagan came to watch!




We made the trek to ride the pink pig at Macy's in Atlanta. I honestly think it's more trouble than it's worth, but somehow it's kind of become a tradition. Lenox mall completely stresses me out and my main goal is to get out of there as fast as I can. But the kids like to ride, so we go!






Making homemade cookies and homemade icing with Mommy and Daddy on Christmas Eve (Sadie fixed her own hair):




Granna and her girls in the Christmas dresses she made!





Christmas morning, headed down the stairs to see the goods:



Merry Christmas! Off to start taking down the decorations!

Santa visit

The preschool that the girls attend hosts a wonderful Santa breakfast every year. It includes crafts, pancakes, and a completely low-stress Santa visit where you take your own pictures. I LOVE that they do this and we can move along at our own pace and not have to wait in line for hours to see Santa. Santa is very friendly and has time to spend a few minutes talking with the girls and reading their lists. Molly and Sadie really enjoyed the time with him, however, Reagan did NOT!!!!!




Sadie reading her list with Santa. Sadie's list includes: Bitty Baby, Mickey Mouse Racetrack, Ponyville, and bunkbeds for her baby dolls.



Molly reading hers, which includes: Puppy that grows and knows your name, Cat that grows (Santa is getting creative with this one as there is no such toy), and crawling Cinderella baby doll:



The girls with Santa before Reagan's breakdown:



Reagan figures out who is holding her and is not happy--this series of pictures cracks me up. . .





We did rescue her quickly, and she recovered well :-)

Thanksgiving 2008

I'm way behind on my blogging, but I want to include our Thanksgiving festivities for posterity's sake, so here it goes:

Our tradition is to spend Thanksgiving with my extended family every other year. On the off year, it's spent at home with immediate family. On the years for the extended family celebration we usually go to Alabama and make two stops--one to see my Nana (my Dad's Mother) and the other to see my Mom's side of the family (which is quite extensive, as she has 6 sisters and one brother, all of which have at least 2 children (Amy, I'm counting Johno for you)!) This makes for a group of about 40 people. We hosted Thanksgiving for the extended family at my house this year, so we had a houseful--but it was a blast! It worked out great that I have no dining room furniture because we rented tables and chairs and were able to accomodate everyone!! Kelly was on call (Thanksgiving is a four day call, so it's brutal), but was able to come home and enjoy the food and visit with everyone for a while. The girls especially had fun playing with their cousins Macey and Jodi. They are several years older than my girls, so Molly and Sadie think they are the cool "big" girls. I'm so thankful that they are so sweet to my girls and are happy to play with them, it means alot to Molly and Sadie (and to me).


Both Molly and Sadie were pilgrims in their school programs--and cute pilgrims they were!!!



Macey and Jodi even brought an art project for Thanksgiving:



Molly and Sadie helping Granna break up the cornbread and biscuits for the dressing:



I love this action shot with cornbread in the air:



Reagan enjoyed her first taste of Thanksgiving food:


Happy Thanksgiving (3 weeks late!)

Molly and Sadie's photos

I've been saving a few (of the hundreds) of pictures that Molly and Sadie have taken. I think looking at them gives me a whole new perspective on the world at their level. Among the photos are many pics of dolls, toys, the TV, the dog, extremely unattractive shots of me (the angle from below enhances my double chin), and most recently they've learned to photograph themselves. Here are some of the great ones for posterity:

Halloween 2008

Halloween was a bit of a crazy day at the Mayfield house. We hosted the neighborhood party, which was complete with a trick or treating hayride (thanks to our great neighbors, the Mumbers)! Our neighborhood only has 20 houses, but when kids are included we ended up with 65 guests, so we had a houseful. We had a blast and so did the kids. Thanks to Kasey for coming to help me with the girls while I got ready for the party (Kelly was on call!).

The girls dressed up as princesses early in the day, and then changed into their "real" halloween costumes. Here they are as princesses (Molly's doll was also dressed as Cinderella):


The real costumes:




The hayride:


If you want to see some really adorable costumes, head over to Jmom's blog and check out the "number 1 combo". Happy Halloween! Now to move onto Thanksgiving!

Pumpkins

We have had three trips to pumpkin patches this year, one with family and then both of the girls had field trips. All three were alot of fun and we have ALOT of pumpkins at our house. We have all colors, shapes and sizes of pumpkins and I have no idea what I'm going to do with all of them! I love this time of the year, especially when the weather is as beautiful as it has been. I could deal with 65-70 degrees everyday! Here are lots of pictures from our fall pumpkin patch trips:

Pumpkin Painting with Libby

has become a fall tradition at our house. This year we decided it would be fun to include Reagan, who just turned one. It was her first experience painting and she thought it tasted really good! I helped Reagan get the paint onto her brush but she put the paint onto the pumpkin all by herself. Molly and Sadie had a blast watching Reagan, they love that she is big enough to do things like this with them.

Painting Pumpkins 2008:







Compare this with painting pumpkins two years ago by clicking here. My have the girls grown!

Perspective

I can get so caught up in my own menial struggles sometimes that I am unable to see how great I really have it. Yes, I had a hard day with the kids on Monday. But, a friend of mine has recieved life threatening diagnoses for TWO of her immediate family members. My life is wonderful and I feel very selfish for my previous post. My kids can be difficult and days can be hard, but I have no idea what a really hard day is like. I have a better perspective on my life today. Now I'm going to pray for my friend. . .

Some days just stink. . .

and yesterday was one of those days. From the moment everyone got up in the morning, it was tough. Whining, arguing, backtalking--all the fun stuff, they did it. I couldn't seem to get them under control AT ALL. I'll spare you all the ugly details, but there was one funny (and also frustrating) part of the day that I have to share. Sadie was playing with clay at the kitchen table and managed to get a huge piece of it stuck in her hair, so being the bloggy Mommy that I am, I had to take a picture. . . .




You do need to know that she was screaming hysterically about the clay until I pulled out the camera. Maybe that should be my new form of discipline--you better behave or I'll take a picture of you!!! Whatcha think?