Where to even begin....

It seems there is never a dull moment in our household. It is 10:25 pm on Monday night and I am so ready for the weekend...already. We ended up taking Carter to the doctor tonight. He's been coughing for a week or two and I was just treating him with OTC medicine, but it got worse over the weekend. He threw up a couple of times the cough was so severe. Little did I know that whooping cough is making itself an epidemic in Gaston County. He was tested for it, but we won't get the results for a week, but the doctor put him out of preschool all week to be safe. On the way to the doctor tonight, he started a coughing spell and threw up as we drove down the road...Lance pulls the van over and when I open the van door, all I see if red puke all over Carter and his car seat. I had just fed him pancakes for dinner, so I could not figure out what the red was from and then it hit me...he had a red cupcake at Grandmommy and PawPaw's this afternoon. I had to take his coat off and wipe him down while I gagged myself! It was lovely! When we get to the doctor, I had an extra coat in the van...but it was pink...but he had to wear it..he had on short sleeves and my daddy would have a coronary thinking that kid was outside with no coat on! To test for whooping cough, they stick this metal probe in his nose about 4 inches on both sides. It took me and the nurse to hold him down, but he did not like it one bit...and cried so hard...I had to stop and get him some french fries on the way home and of course all is right in Carter's world tonight! Back-tracking over the weekend...We took the kids out Friday night to fill their Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. This was the first year we've done the boxes because they are at an age to understand what it means. At dinner we explained that we were going to buy toys for some other kids that don't have much money or don't have parents to buy them things and that tonight, Ella and Carter don't get to pick anything out for themselves...just for another little boy and another little girl. As we sat in McAlister's Deli they were all excited and couldn't wait to get to the Dollar Store and Target, but boy was it a different story once the choosing process started. We had to remind them SEVERAL times that tonight was about helping other kids, not them. After shopping we came home and sat in the living room floor and packed our boxes and they each held their box and we all prayed for the little boy and little girl that would get these gifts for Christmas. This is a tradition that we hope to continue each year. I got an email last week from the editor of Parenting Life...a Christian magazine for parents raising small children. I had submitted the story of Carter saying the Lord's Prayer and ending it with the pledge of allegiance. He made the cut...his story will be in their June 2009 issue and he is being paid $20...the first member of our family to be published...unless you count his Uncle Brian, but Medical Journals are really that important...HA! On Friday, we were home all day and it was raining outside, so it was a good day to stay in our pajamas. We were upstairs playing and after a while, I came to check my email and they wondered downstairs. I then heard the bathroom door shut and then silence....never a good sign. I go down and they are in our bathroom with the door shut. I open the door and Ella Claire is in the tub with the bottle of soap and has poured it every bit out into the rinse cup we use for their baths and was she has her shampoo bottle squeezing the "pink stuff" into the cup as well. They looked like two deer caught in headlights...but I just laughed and told them the bathtub is not somewhere to play, and we cleaned up and went on about our day! I am waiting for the day that I can't find them and Carter has cut Ella Claire's hair....it happened to Kim and Brent...he chopped her bangs right off once and told our mom...."doesn't she look pewty?" We have a knight in shining armor among us. In Sunday School yesterday, there was a new little boy in their classroom that apparently had some "issues" according to the teacher. For some reason he singled Ella Claire out and picked on her most of the morning. She would ask him to stop and the teachers would move him away, but he was relentless they said. Carter had had enough....the next time the little boy touched Ella Claire, they said Carter hit the boy and said..."you leave my sista alone." Now Carter is a honest as the day is long, so on the way home we were talking to them about it and he says..."Mommy...I was mean to that boy." He may have been mean, but we were proud of him standing up for his "big" sister! Finally, we put up two Christmas trees on the front porch this weekend....I am in an early Christmas mood this year and couldn't wait. Our inside tree is not up yet, but probably will be this weekend. We also have a nativity set we bought last year, just for them to play with. They have had the best time with that scene. I am amazed at how much they have played with it. Tonight while I was giving Carter all his medicine, Ella Claire was working intently with the toys and at the same time singing..."Ah, Ah, Ah, Gloria...in excelsis deo..." I stopped Lance as he was walking in the kitchen and we just stood and watched her little mind take it all in. When I sat down with her she had all the wise men bending over and looking at baby Jesus...she said..."they are worshipping him mama....and giving him their presents"