Jessie's Play

Jessie's first grade play was on dental hygiene. They did it based on the Magic School Bus. For those who don't know what that is, it is a series of books and now tv about a group of kids with a teacher who can make the school bus shrink, fly, etc so they can explore all kinds of places you wouldn't normally be able to, in this case the mouth. They had all the characters of the book and the teachers were played by the teacher of course. Some of the kids were teeth, mouthwash, plaque, you get the idea. Jessie was Lizzie the lizard that always goes everywhere with the teacher and kids. She got the part because she is the smallest to fit in the costume which was from the kindergarten's zoo phonics play. She really got into the dancing. It was really cute, especially her, but I am not biased or anything.

                 

side view

Jessie in her costume

                                              

Jessie's Birthday

Jessie turned seven on the seventh. She was at school on her actual birthday but we took her out to dinner that night since it was on a Thursday and they didn't have school the next day. Friday she got to do anything she wanted, which meant we watched princess movies. Saturday we took the kids to see GG since they wouldn't see her at the party. They were a little nervous seeing GG not acting like herself but they were fine after awhile. Then Sunday Scott's sisters came out to give their gifts. It is always fun for the kids to stretch their birthdays out for a few days. Jessie won't spend her birthday money on anything yet because she wants to save it for something special. We were exchanging a movie for her because she already had it and there was one for three dollars more she really wanted. I told her that she would have to pay the difference and she wouldn't do it. She said she didn't want to waste her money on a movie when she was already getting one, so she picked out one that was the same cost. I am not sure if she is penny pinching or just being wise.

                                         Jessie's Cinderella carriage

                                            She wanted a butterfly cake

                                          She wanted a broom set because she loves to sweep, we found a mop and broom set that was purple with peace signs.

                                             Her birthday crown

                                                Typical Jessie, you can't see it but she is barefoot

Another typical Jess, barefoot, fancy dress and making silly faces. The rest of the birthday and portrait pictures will be on Shutterfly in the next few days. She wore several different fancy dresses and had her hair done differently, but was barefoot in all. She looks so grown up in the ones she is being serious in.

Update on GG

GG is doing much better now that the infection is under control.  Her confusion almost completely gone.  She is finally getting the pain managed and is able to move around more. She is walking better and able to sit up on her own. We are hoping that by the end of the month she can go back upstairs to her apartment.

GG's surgery

GG finally had her surgery on Jan 30th. She had called Mom and said they had scheduled her for that Friday and she had to go in for her preop on Monday. Mom couldn't take her because she was in Texas for my Aunt Laura's funeral so I took her. They couldn't find that she had been scheduled so that took awhile to get straightened out and then they called her that night and said they moved her to Wednesday instead. So we had to change everything again. Mom just got back into town Monday night and couldn't get off for work so she took GG in the morning because she had to be there at 6:00 and I took over after I got the kids off to school. The surgery went well and took less time than they thought but they were going to keep her in ICU for a day or so to watch over her because of her age. She ended up staying in the hospital until Feb 6th. Not in the ICU but in the regular area because she was getting bad muscle spasms and was in a lot of pain. They finally moved her to the skilled nursing facility at the towers on Wednesday. When Mom visited her that night, GG was very confused and disoriented. The nurses said that was normal for someone her age and she would be better but Scott and I went on Thursday to bring her upstairs to get more clothes and she was even worse. Mom called the doctor and they said she could have a bladder infection. Apparently, confusion is common with the elderly when they have a bladder infection. She does have one and they finally started her on antibiotics this morning but she is still very confused. It is hard seeing her like that because she is no longer our GG. They had to put an alarm on her wheelchair because she kept escaping and last night she fell out of bed because she thought she was at her old home and tried to get out of bed without her walker. We don't know when she is going to be able to come back to her apartment. We took the kids to see her today so GG could watch Jessie open up the present from her since she can't come to her birthday party tonight. She's better in the morning so it wasn't as scary for the kids. Hopefully she will be better mentally anyway in a few days. I will send an update in a few days if anything changes.

Christmas

 The traditional Jesus birthday cake made on Christmas eve.

The socks and garters from Uncle Jim

We went to Chris' for dinner and opened the presents from the kids and the santa hats Pat and Jim gave the boys. It was very loud with three of them going at once. Goldie was afraid of it at first and now she gets all excited when she hears the hat.

 Brandon's Santa gifts

Jessie's Santa gifts

The kids got up at 4AM. I didn't find out until later that they had flashlights and peeked at the presents. I made them go back to bed and they slept until 6:30. They opened stockings and their santa gifts. Jess got a purple ukele and a box for her seashell collection. Brandon got a firetruck pumper and a military jeep. They were very happy. We went over to Mom's to open our stockings and then back to our house for the rest. GG came for lunch and stayed for the gift opening. It was a good day. No one was sick, no arguments, and everyone got what the wanted.

The doll house we made for Jessie. The boys built it and Mom and I painted it and decorated it.

I asked Brandon if there was something he would like us to make for him since we were making the dollhouse for Jessie and he wanted a me to paint him a landscape

 
Mom, Brandon, Jessie and I made a four generation painting with some of GG's paintings.

Christmas

I can't believe it is already Christmas Eve. It has gone by so fast. The last few weeks were rushed because I got behind between helping at the Santa shop at school all day for a week and then with the kids being sick off and on. Santa shop was fun. I love seeing what the kids pick out for their families. We didn't make it to the riverwalk this year because Brandon was sick but we still went to the Electricritters with everyone. We also went to Chris' Christmas party. We were going to go to the nature center but found out that it wasn't much and decided it wasn't worth driving all the way out there. Last night we went to Scott's family and met the two new babies. Get this one of them is named Harrison Jones. Go figure that we would have two in our family. They were really looking forward to seeing babies but didn't much know what to do with them once they saw them.  Tonite we are going to Chris' house for the Eve party and during the day we will read the Christmas story and bake the Jesus birthday cake. The kids figure Christmas Eve is just as good as Christmas because we keep them so busy and they still get to open presents. They both still believe in Santa but I think at least for Brandon it is more of a choosing to because he doesn't want us to tell him it is not so. This will probably be the last year. Jessie is doubting too. In some ways I will be glad because it is so much work making sure they don't find out. I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas.

Goldie's blog of shame and other pics

 In case you can't read the sign it says " I got on the counter and Mommy's sugar cookies twice! I also like to steal Daddy's chair and I am not sorry at all." Don't let the look fool you. she just doesn't like having her picture taken. She has been really onery lately. It's like she has two personalities. The shy, I know you are going to beat me one, and the I don't care if I get into trouble, I will do it anyway.

 Here is when she is being sweet. Her and Socks are best buddies. You wouldn't know it to look at her that she tries to eat any other cat.

                                                      Beautiful Colorado sunset

                                   BJ being a good boy pretending to be the sweet one. This will be his second    Christmas and Goldie's first at our house.