Lots of Singing, Copsey Christmas 2013, Sleigh Ride & The Boys are Buds

Wes:  1 Year, 1 Month & 2 Weeks Old

Ty:  3 Years, 2 Months & 2 Weeks Old

Last Friday we had a semi-relaxing day at the Edwards’ house.  The boys did some more ATVing and Ty/Sonia/Amanda made Christmas cookies, and then came the unrelaxing part.  Packing up.  That took forever.  We left Heath’s truck with his ATV at the Edwards, so we could go on to my parent’s house in 1 vehicle.   We had eaten a late lunch before we left and Tyson had spent the whole lunch singing (sometimes screaming) “Jingle Bells!”  When we got to my parents, we had a late supper, bathed the boys, and got to bed.  But not before Tyson insisted on being wrapped up like a present and put underneath the tree.  It was very cute.  That night Tyson was completely hoarse, no doubt from screaming/singing all day.

The video cut off a bit early, but he really started screaming

 It's so sad when he forgot the words - he hung his head down!  Sweetie pie.

Sabbath we went to Conway church with my parents and Nanny.  We saw Sonia, Amanda & Levi there too.  I spent most of the time in the Mother’s Room with Westin, but even with the Mother’s Room…it’s still a chore and a half to keep that kid quiet!  He likes to take the blocks and bang on the window with them.  Then he likes to hit the door, saying, “Boom!”  A few times Heath actually turned his head around to look at me – are you kidding me?  It wasn’t like I wasn’t trying!  Devin had worked the night before and Leigh was working that night, so they weren’t at church and Shannon & Sean had to pick up Sean’s brother at the airport…so they couldn’t come until the afternoon.  Great Christmas family time, guys. C’mon.  I know I complained about it last year, too.  We just can’t even get 2 full days completely together.  It is disgusting.  Anyways, after church, we went home and had a small snack of hot dogs, because we were having our Christmas meal at 4 PM.  At least Westin got to take a decent nap.  Ty’s naps were mostly nonexistent during the Christmas holidays.  There were just too many things going on.  So at 4:00ish, everyone had arrived and we had a nice turkey/Special K dinner and it was delicious.  After dinner, we just hung out and then had a showing of “Cars” for the kids (well, some of us adults too).  Then it was off to bed again.

Ty found the chocolates after church

Nanny had a difficult clasp in the back of her sweater that she couldn't get off!

Noni & Griffin

Sunday was our Copsey Christmas, after a nice brunch at about 10:30 AM (Leigh only slept for a couple hours).  We did things differently this year – something that I vow I will never do again.  With everything that had happened with my grandfather, no one had really felt like shopping.  We didn’t want to ruin the kid’s Christmas, of course, so we were just buying for them.  Late in the game, Devin had decided that we should do a Secret Santa, so the adults picked each other’s names.  That was fun, but I definitely can not believe that I did not buy my parents a present this year.  I love buying presents for everyone.  The unfortunate thing for me was that I had picked Devin’s name.  I love my brother, but I could strangle him sometimes.  We had all decided that we would do a group text and everyone would give out some ideas of things they would like for whoever got them for Secret Santa.  I started the text off, reminding people of dollar amount limit, and then gave some ideas for myself.  Everyone responded EXCEPT my brother.  So I wrapped up coal for him.  I ended up having a Dick’s gift card for him, which is the closest thing to actual coal that I could think of (even though I love getting gift cards)!  But enough about the adults, the kids were adorable.  Ty was definitely the most excited again and really tried to get Westin into it, but as the video will show…Wes would just walk away!  After the presents, we let a few kids nap (Westin, for one), and we packed up (again) and went to our friends, the Blakeney’s house.  They have horses and their son, Jason, does sleigh rides.  So we took a sleigh ride and it was very fun.  The kids loved it and it was cold, but not frigid.  At the end, the expected snow storm started.  We knew that it was going to be a rough drive home, but we had decided to go on with things as planned.  We had some hot chocolate around a bonfire and then the 4 of us boogied back to the Edwards’ house to get Heath’s truck.  It was right on the way to where we were going out to eat.  We went to the Pizza Barn for supper, but the snow became really bad, so Devin & Leigh didn’t come.  Leigh was exhausted and it is like 40 minutes away from their house.  We had a great meal, but we missed them.  Then we all drove home in the storm.  We ended up getting about 10 inches or so, and the roads were horrendous.  It was very unfortunate that I had to drive as well, since we had 2 cars.  Heath lost control on a hill in front of me and was fishtailing towards a car and I thought that I would see him wreck right in front of me – but he was able to get it back just in time.  That was awful.  I fishtailed twice myself, but was able to get control again, thank goodness.  It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get home, when it would normally take about 50 minutes or so.  Long day.  But thank goodness everyone got home safely!

Westin loves Griffin so much

Sleigh ride

Gorgeous scenery

Thanks to Mom for the borrowed gear - I brought everything for the kids & then forgot to bring warm sleigh ride gear for me!

Well, on Monday, it was great to be home after 5 days away!  Heath was still off from work, so that was great!  I worked on about 6 loads of laundry and unpacking our mess and it was just unbelievable.  It definitely gets worse year after year, even though we keep saying every year that we are going to tone down Christmas.  I kept getting anxiety attacks about the toys when the boys would open their presents.  But it was better than after their birthdays this year, surprisingly.  I was able to move some things around and bring older toys up to their rooms, so it was better than I thought!  Heath worked on digging us out after the latest snowstorm.  Ty went outside with Heath for awhile too.  I wasn’t surprised when the boys took 3 hour naps this day – they always seem to do this after being away.

The mess

I had to work Tuesday, on New Year’s Eve.  I was still not completely finished with the mess, but it was manageable.  As I headed to work, the boys were headed to a New Year’s Eve party at Heath’s uncle & aunt’s house.  I was bummed I couldn’t go, but this was my 1 winter holiday that I am required to work, so I couldn’t complain.  It’s not like I had to work Thanksgiving or Christmas.  As a general rule, I could care less about New Year’s…but I would have loved to go to the family party.  They all had a great time and they stayed until about 10:30 or 11:00 PM, when the boys were obviously too exhausted for any more!  I actually had a good shift and had one of my most memorable moments in my career, so far.  I was in charge and our staffing wasn’t too bad (for a holiday) and the New Year’s crowd was definitely out.  I can’t tell you how many alcohol & drug-related problems came in and we were busy.  But without talking about it too much, a young girl came in after a car accident and she was dying.  She had ruptured part of her heart and one of our cardiothoracic surgeons just happened to be right in the hospital when she came in.  He opened her chest right in the ER and I got to see a live beating heart, beating in someone’s chest!  It was absolutely amazing.  Then she went into cardiac arrest and I actually got to see the heart stop beating right in front of me!  But we shocked her, got her back, and got her to the OR.  She is supposedly going to make a full recovery.  It was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen.

Our yard covered in snow

Wednesday was New Year’s Day and I tried to sleep in a little (since Heath was there and I thought the boys would sleep in after being up so late – but they didn’t), but it didn’t really happen.  Heath worked on putting a door on our shed – and it looks great!  It looks like a barn door – he did really good work, as usual.  Wednesday night we went to Fratello’s with the Edwards, Amanda & Levi (they were going back home the next day), and Danny, Janet & Heath’s cousin, Chris.  We had a good time and the food was fantastic, as usual.  We had a near catastrophe with Ty.  Ty was playing with a pipe-cleaner-type of toy that the restaurant gives out to the kids when he decided to throw it over the balcony and hit a woman, who was eating underneath us.  Heath took Ty down to apologize and she was very gracious, but are you kidding me?  Westin hadn’t gotten his late afternoon nap, since we headed to the restaurant at 5:30 PM, so he was pretty awful there.  He can really be a pill if he doesn’t nap.

Making a bridge for his monkeys at the restaurant

On Thursday, Heath’s vacation was officially over.  Including the weekend, he had had 9 days off.  It went by way too fast!  Unfortunately, he had to go back to work on a bad weather day.  It snowed all day long – we probably got about 8 inches or so.  That was also the day my parents were bringing my grandmother back to Florida and they were at the airport forever and didn’t get to Avon Park until 5 AM the next day!  Since it was snowing so badly, Heath took the Outback to work and we weren’t going to be able to go anywhere or to the grocery store.  So we stayed at home and I should mention a few tid bits about the boys.  Westin is just so darn cute.  He has been doing this awhile, but I don’t think I have ever mentioned it.  He will walk all around, holding his hands behind his back!  It is so cute, but a little dangerous when he falls!  Tyson continues his dramatic ways.  I told him on Thursday to say goodnight to Westin, when Wes was going to take a nap.  Tyson threw himself on the floor and had a whole fake crying episode because Wes was leaving.  Actor?  They are getting so cute together.  They are really playing and doing everything together now – it is so sweet.  The other day I heard Ty saying to Wes, “Westy, let’s ride bikes together!”  (Westy’s bike being one of his sit/push toys)  Then when he didn’t get much response, Ty said, “Westy, come hold the back of my bike!  Ty will drag you around!”  Oh my.  They are getting so close, that Ty even shared a bite of a chocolate treat with Wes!  That is saying a lot!  That’s about it!  Have a good week!

Riding Westin's "bike" together

Sharing a juice box

"Oh!  Ty, I like that!"

Playing balls together

Ty said, "I'm making a snowman!"