the staggs

12.24.2014

Christmas Eve Morning

After Stratton got the all clear from the Doctors office that he didn’t have the flu, we continued with our plans. Mom and dad came over and we had breakfast and then opened presents with them. Dillon and Brandye decided to stay home, Darcy was already a little cranky and feeling rough from shots the day before. We had a good morning. My breakfast recipe was really good! Both kids got lots of presents, and just what they wanted! Imagine that?! Arden’s favorite was a vacuum cleaner (with no off switch, I might add) and Stratton got a lightup mohawk!

Stratton’s new hairdo

Jarrod’s turn

Gigi got a new picture with all the 3 grandkids!

Stratton helping Pops open his presents

Still vacuuming!! I wish it really worked!!

Eek!! It’s Christmas Week!

Friday Jarrod took off work, he had some days he needed to use before the end of the year, and Stratton was out of school so they stayed home, did some Christmas shopping and came to my office and took me to lunch! Then when I got off we headed to Searcy via Hickory Ridge. Spent the night, had Christmas with the Staggs on Saturday and then went back to Hickory Ridge Saturday night late and spent the night at my mom and dad’s. Sunday we went to church and then the rest of the family came to my mom and dad’s house for Dillon’s birthday lunch and cake! We stayed there fairly late and decided not to go to church that evening. There was so much strep, and flu and virus’s going around I was crossing my fingers we wouldn’t be a victim!

Stratton was out of school, so he spent Monday at work with me. He was very good! Monday night we took the kids to Santa’s North Pole. It’s a large building that has been decorated like the North Pole and you walk through a path with displays of motorized elves, and animals doing all sorts of cute stuff. . .The kids loved it (I thought it was a ~~racket~~ slightly overpriced attraction. . .) But we got to meet “The Real Santa” as Stratton said, so it was worth it! I think we will make this a tradition, I think waiting till the 22nd to do it was a good idea! It wasn’t busy at all!

This picture is priceless! He was so excited!!

Arden didn’t want anything to do with him!

Tuesday Jarrod took the kids with him and took them to my mom and dad’s for the day. We had our Armor Seed company wide Christmas party/Lunch at our office, we had a great lunch and then all got to go home shortly after noon! I did some last minute shopping and errands (among everyone else in the world apparently! It was crazy!!) Got home wrapped some gifts, got supper going and started on my list of things to cook and make for our Christmas eve breakfast and Christmas dinners! When Jarrod and the kids got home we ate supper and they took baths then we watched Home Alone while I went back and forth from the kitchen checking on this and that and taking one thing out of the oven and then putting something else in. . .it was actually a really nice night. We may have to make this another Christmas tradition! I knew the kids, mainly Stratton, would think the movie was funny but I had no idea how much so! They both just laughed and laughed! It was funny. I hadn’t seen the movie in years and I forgot how funny it is!

We had planned to have my mom and dad and Dillon and Brandye and Darcy over Christmas eve morning around 9am for breakfast and Christmas with them. I had found an awesome recipe for Blueberry Pancake French Toast Bake, so I put that together Tuesday night before we went to bed. I’m not sure how exactly the morning went, but by 7am we knew Stratton had a fever. He was acting normal, but we felt like a fever might be a sign of things to come like the flu. Even though I felt sure he just had a sinus infection or something. So, Jarrod took him to urgent care at 8am. I called the fam and told them what was going on. D&B wanted to keep Darcy from any potential virus’s (understandably) but mom and dad had both been sick and I was almost positive that he was fine. Jarrod and Stratton got home around 10am and sure enough the flu test was negative! With a dose of motrin his fever went away and was fine the rest of the day!

12.21.2014

Stand still and smile!

Sunday before Christmas we went to Hickory Ridge for Church and birthday dinner for Dillon. The kids looked so cute in their Christmas attire that I wanted to take a picture. Well, you know how that goes. . .

“Ok, Ya’ll stand in front of the tree and let me get your picture, you both look so nice!!”. . . “Stand, there, ok stand still and smile!”. . . “Stratton, stop looking at the candy cane and look at the camera.”. . . “Arden, smile!”. . . . “Stratton! Stand Still, Arden, get your finger out of your nose!”. . . “Ok, Look at me!! Look at the camera!!” . . . “Put the candy canes down and just smile so we can get this over!” . . . “Fine. You win, I give up!”. I tried.

See! They do love each other, sometimes!

My dad did Stratton’s hair on this morning. Ha!

That look on her face, scares me a little. . .

Let’s try one of all four of us. . .

It’s decent. {I edited the color, obviously}

The three grandkids, now. . .

(Note to self : Send this to mom so she can update her FB profile picture. . .)

After lunch we got to play with baby Darcy! She’s growing so much!

12.20.2014

Christmas with the Staggs

We decided to get together with Jarrod’s family the weekend before Christmas. We didn’t have plans and it’s always nice to get to spend time in one place instead of rushing from one place to the next on Christmas day and not really getting to spend time at one place for long! I’m grateful that Jarrod’s parents are so understanding and would rather have the quality time with us than have us there on “Christmas”. We went to Searcy and stayed the night Friday evening. Terry and Margie had a Christmas party to go to so we didn’t get in any hurry to get there, and then my mom called and asked if we wanted to meet them for dinner at the restaurant in Hickory Ridge. They were having dinner with all the farm employees and my grandpa and wanted us to join them. So we stopped there on our way to Searcy and ate supper. Saturday we didn’t do much of anything, just relaxed and then a little after lunch Jennifer, Daniel and Archer came over and the kids had lots of time to play! We opened presents, then Uncle G and Memaw came over for an early dinner. We had a great time, the kids are such a fun age to watch. Arden just thinks she’s as big as the boys, and she holds her own pretty good! She loves “her Archer”

CrAzY Kiddos!!

We tried and tried to get them to smile and stay still in front of the tree. Literally impossible. They were breaking out into a dance here. This was after presents. In the future we will make them do it before presents and use the presents as a bribe! Lesson learned!! Obviously, Stratton was at Nan’s house. Otherwise he wouldn’t have on shorts!! That boy drives me crazy! He always wants to wear shorts! He would wear them outside in freezing cold if I would let him!

Arden “helped” Memaw open her presents

Arden with her new baby Leila (yes, she’s already naked!)

Silly boy!

Jarrod and Daniel enthralled in conversation.

The Best picture I got of the three of them- they were acting like dogs. Go figure?

Did I mention they were crazy??!

12.19.2014

Stratton’s School Christmas Party

Stratton’s Christmas party at school was on Thursday the 18th. His party was at 10:00. Nothing like jacking kids up on sugar in the mornings!! We were asked to bring a snack mix. So I made Christmas Crack (Thanks, pinterest) it was just popcorn, pretzels & m&ms drizzled with white chocolate and sprinkles. It was pretty good! I let Stratton do the sprinkles. At his party I made him take the bowl around to each student and ask them if they would like any snack mix and serve them. It was good for my shy guy. The other kids’s moms were doing all the work, and I wanted Stratton to help with his and take some ownership. He really likes confidence sometimes and nothing boosts your confidence in groups like serving a purpose and helping others. He did such a great job and was so polite and very careful when putting it on their plates! There was a low point at the party where, while he was up handing out snack mix another mom skipped him with some goody bags she was handing out. He just came up to be tears pouring but he was very quiet (not to draw attention) and told me they skipped him. . .I didn’t understand what he was saying, other than they skipped him. When I asked him with what he This happens every so often with adults he doesn’t know well, he won’t tell them what the issue is because he’s scared, but he is hurt that he was left out so he gets really really upset and we can’t figure out what’s wrong. FINALLY, Mrs. Rankin, his teacher figured it out. And the mom didn’t have any bags left, she had made just enough so THEN we had to go through every kid’s take home bag and sure enough one kid had two of the goodies bags that Stratton was missing. But is was traumatic. The mom apologized, and I felt like my lesson on serving was shadowed by the fact that he was away from his seat so he missed out. So much for teaching him about serving!! We left soon after. They played some games, but by then he was embarrassed about what happened and didn’t want to play. We were having Soup Day at my office (On Monday I send out a soup recipe to everyone in the office and on Thursday we all bring ingredients and have soup for lunch) So we ran to Wal-Mart to get some disposable bowls we needed for lunch and grabbed him a lunchable (his favorite) and a juice drink. Soon after lunch he laid down in my floor on a beach towel, watching Netflix and he crashed! He slept in my floor for almost 2 hours!

Here are the only 2 pictures I got. They were busy!!

They did several games and activities and it kept them moving and that was better than them just sitting around eating and watching a movie . But, why, WHY, would you have them paint reindeer antlers when you KNOW the paint won’t dry before they leave and they will have to take them home with WET PAINT. Seriously. The mom that planned this particular craft should have had to take them all home with her to dry and then delivered them to each kid’s house on Christmas eve. Or shot?? Either would work. (Just kidding. . .sort of. ) That might {might-but highly, unlikely} have made up for the fact that I got glitter paint-not washable- on my favorite black leggings and in the back of my vehicle! I tried to get Stratton to leave his there, actually I tried to leave without him noticing that we left it. . . but thank YOU, Mrs. Rankin for noticing it and bringing it to my attention, and his. I would have been devastated if we had gotten home and realized we left those realistic looking red and green felt antlers adorned with blobs of glitter paint and jingle bells, I will forever be in your debt. . . . said no one ever. So, I’ve never “loved” his teacher. She’s older and very unorganized and scatter-brained and I question her teaching methods, they don’t seem to jive well with Stratton’s style of learning. . .I don’t know that an active 5 year old boy need to be doing sitting at a table doing 10 worksheets a day, and told he needs to sit learn to focus and sit still. . .but I’m not a teacher so maybe I’m wrong. . .anyway this is the same teacher that came up to me at the party and asked me when the baby was due. Yep. And I wasn’t feeling too bad about myself! The holiday pounds haven’t even been packed on yet!! Well, upon learning that I wasn’t in fact expecting she realized she had me and another mom confused. The only upside is the mother she had me confused with is teeny-tiny. Even at 5 months pregnant you can’t tell it, she’s so skinny. So, I wasn’t AS offended. Plus, honestly you never know what Stratton is going to say, so I wasn’t that surprised. He can be rather convincing with his “story telling”.