Living in Munchkinland

Despite illness and lethargy and Michael being out of town, we made it out on Friday night to Sights and Sounds of Christmas. This festival is a tradition in our family and we love attending. We met up with my sister and nephew and mom and our friend Tom and his son Tommy. We ran into my friend Claudia and her girls when we arrived early and Davis hopped on the faux ice skating rink to twirl with his good friend Natalia. They had a lovely time and Claudia and I were able to have a great conversation. After ice skating we toured Bethehem, dipped candles, made bread, learned about pottery and locked each other in jail. Then the kids descended upon the carnival and my nephew and sister and Davis went crazy, riding some seriously intense rides. Samuel stayed close by and missed Graham and wished there were some less intense rides. Still, we all had a good time until Davis threw up after riding the "vominator" and went home with my mama. That was the end of his good tim...

We are at home. At home. Two words that have so many meanings these days. We came home from our cruise on Saturday night and went straight to my grandma's house to visit with my cousin Marcie and her family. We were tired and Sam and I were sick, but we were very anxious to spend some time with them before they drove back to New Mexico early the next morning. Sunday we spent the day at my parents house. My other home. I spend so much time there. It is a beautiful home. It is always full of music and food and love. We had a quiet day puttering about and just being together. Michael flew out again on Monday for California. He is traveling so much for work now, at least half to two thirds of the time. But he is happy with his work and I support him. Plus, miles. I am sick with a terrible evil viral infection. Samuel is sick too, but he has pneumonia. I took him to the doctor and they did a lung x-ray and it showed left lung lobal bacterial pneumonia. He is on antibi...

We spent our Thanksgiving onboard the NCL Escape. We were very excited about this ship as it was brand new. We flew to Miami on Friday and spent the night there. We were exhausted because Michael had flown in only four hours earlier from California. Saturday was Samuel's birthday so we opened some small presents and headed for our ship. We were first to embark and met some great friends while waiting in line. We went straight to the desk for Vibe passes which ended up not such a great deal because we also had Spa passes and the spa was so amazing we didn't want to do anything but that! We explored the ship and the kids played in the aqua park and we had a great time. That evening we ate at La Cucina as Samuel requested pasta and bread for his birthday dinner. Sunday was a day at sea. Michael and I worked out and did the spa and then picked up the kids for lunch in the buffet and more water slide/aqua park time. Then they went back to the club and we headed up to t...

We drove down to Port A last weekend with my mom, dad, sister and nephew. We had such a wonderful, relaxing weekend. It was as good as it can be these days. I went on a long walk with mom and Tiffany and the boys played with rockets on the beach and Michael and dad stayed upstairs. We had a lovely lunch at Shell's. Tiffany hung with dad while Mom went to the owner's meeting (the reason we all went down) and Michael and I took the kids to the sandbelt races. I cooked dinner and we all had happy hour and laughed and ate and went to bed early. I love being with my family. They fill me up with joy and love.

Our elementary school sponsored various Veteran's day themed contests for each grade over the last month and yesterday hosted an assembly honoring Veterans. Davis spent hours working on a poster and an essay about my Grandfather Lane Davis. It was so fun to watch him interview my grandparents and Uncle and Mom and learn about his great-grandfather. It was a wonderful project to participate in. Samuel also participated by drawing a greeting card picture in honor of Veteran's day. He won second place in his grade for his project and was given an award and recognition at the assembly. I wasn't able to be there as I was on a whirlwind 24 hour trip to Denver for our house inspection, but Michael and his parents were there and took pictures for me. They said it was a very impressive assembly with a choir and speeches and adorable children.

Samuel is going to have a birthday month. We started with his friend birthday party last weekend. Pictures are above. It was supposed to be an outdoor family movie night, but it was cold and the wind was really strong and the screen would not have been able to stay standing. We changed the party to a drop off your kids and we'll screen the movie inside kind of party. But then I realized as the RSVPs rolled in that we would have 25 kids. We decided to pick up ten large pizzas and Samuel and I ran to Target to get party favors and cupcake mixes. I made three dozen cupcakes while Samuel sat on the floor bagging favors. Michael and I pushed the furniture against the walls and Michael figured out how to aim the movie projector at the ceiling so we could project the Empire Strikes Back above our heads. We raided the camping bin and laid out lots of sleeping bags, blankets and pillows and a party was made. We even had time for Michael to build a rocket in the garage with Davi...

On Halloween we celebrated my mom's birthday. We took her out for lunch at Cody's and then went back to the house for cupcakes. I really wanted to make the day good for her. That evening we got in costume, trick or treated on the ranch, and then went over to our friends Alex and Kyle's house for our annual Halloween Potluck Party. We love this tradition and are grateful that we are included. We ate, the kids played baseball in the backyard, and we trick or treated down San Antonio street. It was really fun. It was nice to have some normal enjoyment after the crazy flood day.