Christmas Lights

Sunday my nose stud got literally no comments so either they were thinking "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all...." or no one really cares. I haven't had any issues with it, it's healing nice and I still think it looks fun.

Tuesday afternoon I went to Grace's house to take their family picture for them. I am so awkward and was worried I was ruining it with my unsteady hands and my tendency to accidentally get my fingers in pictures. They did not seem to like any of their inside pictures but liked the ones I took outside. Hopefully it was good enough for their Christmas card. That night I took the girls to the Commerce library while the boys were at archery. It wasn't too crazy busy but it was busy. A friend from the ward was their as well. Her daughter has tutoring Tuesday nights at the library. It was nice to chat with her and it was nice to get Ruby out of the house.  

Wednesday while the girls were at school I ran a couple of errands with Ruby and just walking from the car to the shops was enough to knock the breath out of you. It was COLD. When we got back, we watched June. Her mom had to go put their dog down and did not want to bring her along for that sadness. June was kind of weary of us at first but eventually got comfortable and played with some toys and ate a bagel. She's a cute kid and helped me out by telling me that Ruby was on the table when I was upstairs putting something away. Ruby has been driving me crazy with her table climbing antics all week and I have taken to just moving the chairs into the living room. She is exhausting. That night while the kids were at their church activities, I asked Tyler to take Ruby out on an errand and he was very nice and did that. It was a much needed break from my busy toddler. He even came back with a Lego Christmas tree for me to make. Can you spot them both on my mantle?

 

Thursday Lucy had her annual check up in the afternoon. When the nurse came in to do her shots, Lucy started breathing loud, short, rapid breaths because she was so anxious about it. I think it freaked the nurse out because she insisted that Lucy stay for 5 minutes after she got the shots, just in case Lucy got light headed. The nurse said that the vaccine Lucy got could cause fainitng but I really think it was because of Lucy's panic attack that she made us stay.

Thursday night we went to do our traditional drive of the Wayne County Lightfest. We went to Mariah's house first and swapped kids. Mariah had a girl's night so she didn't come but Jeff did with all their kids. Our car had all the girls (so we got Jessie) and their car had all the boys (so they got Steven and Ben). There was no line of cars when we got there so we drove right in which was nice but there also seemed to be more dark parts with no lights than usual. Not sure if we were misremembering or if they really did have less lights on. Ruby said "Wow!" a lot. Penny complained that we were driving too slow. And Lucy and Jessie seemed to enjoy the leisurely drive. It's hard to get good pictures in a moving, dark car.

Friday I went to pick up groceries and all the spots were full. Apparently the pick up has not slowed down, even though all the deals are done. Thankfully they had enough people working that I wasn't their too terribly long, just 30 minutes. That evening the older 3 kids were at the temple so we took the younger 2 to Culver's for dinner. Ruby was very popular. She kept making eyes and smiling at all the older people and they were soaking it up. It's fun when people pay attention to cuteness. 

Saturday Tyler got up with Ruby and for the first time in a long while I was able to sleep in, like actually sleep. Usually my body doesn't let me fall back asleep. It was really nice change. That afternoon Mimi came over and I felt like doing some crafts while she was here so the girls made some snow globes (that hopefully won't leak) and some ornaments out of a plastic cup (you color it and then it melts flat in the oven). They also spent hours playing school. Silly girls hate doing homeschool but love to pretend to be in school...

After being cooped up in the house because it was especially cold, I attempted to take Ruby out at the end of this week and she did not want to wear all the cold weather attire. She screamed and kicked but once she was outside on her "car" she was very happy. I am not sure if we are going to survive winter. 

And a list of the words Ruby knows- words she signs: food, more, please, all done, out, color, thank you (she also says thank you) words she says: bro (for Ben), wow, Lou (for Lucy), hi, night night, woof woof (for dog), ma, da, mwah (for kiss). And that's all I can think of but she's doing pretty good with communicating.