Happy Memories

The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Well, we certainly hope everybody had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did. We were blessed to see all of our family on both sides. Russ' family lives a little over half of an hour away from mine. That is nice at Christmas, but it makes our Christmas very busy! Rusty saw many new faces, but he did very well. Aside from the time that I dressed him in the Santa suit and his little cousin stole his passy. Rusty is shy and I think that the Santa suit brought much unwanted attention. I had trouble picking out which pictures I wanted to post, but here are a few. Maybe I will figure out how to put one of those slide shows on the blog.

Rusty is trying out his new tractor. Aren't the overalls fitting?

This picture is one of my favorite of all time!! Granny bought us ALL matching PJ's. And when I say ALL I mean about 15 of us. The girls received Hello Kitty and the boys received these Big Slugger pants. We took this back at my mom and dad's, but how I wish we would have all put them on at Granny's for a picture.

This is our niece Madison. These bloomers match a dress that she got, but Josh told her to put them on her head, so she did!

Rusty is directing Mom and Dad here. Whenever he hears music he starts beating that hand up and down. (Dad, I must say these pants are quite flattering!)

Rusty with Grandpa Bowles.

Rusty loved watching Santa through the window.

Opening presents on Christmas morning.

Daddy working on the eggs and stirring the gravy!

Rusty and Madison trying out their presents from Papa and Granny Jones. They both need to grow into them a little.

We are home now and trying to get settled in. Rusty's schedule is messed up as you can imagine. On top of that he did get his two front teeth for Christmas and he is cutting two on the bottom. Some people say their kids never had trouble, but Rusty is miserable with his. However, we have this week off to get things back in order and ready for the second half of the school year. Hope everyone has a good week!

Busy, Busy, Busy

So each night this week has held some sort of obligation for the McDonald family. Our Christmas Cantata began Thursday night with performances also on Friday and Sunday night. Russ and I are in charge of the Drama. So we've been rehearsing and Russ has been building and poor little Rusty has went from person to person to person. He loves the attention, but I miss the little guy.
So to make up for the missed time we went to the Emergency Room Friday night. Rusty woke up wheezing and it just seemed like he was struggling for breath. They took some X-rays and checked his ears and said there was just a little something in his right lung, so we spent the weekend with a vaporizer and Vick's Vapor Rub. Rusty seemed to like it actually. He is doing okay now, just coughing some.
We are getting ready for exam week. This is a great week for me. Since I'm considered a "Special" teacher I don't give exams. (I teach Computer, Yearbook, and Drama.) However I have a HUGE yearbook deadline that is looming over my head. I really want to get that completed before the break.
Come Friday, though, we will be heading to Alabama for a glorious week! So there is a great big light at the end of this busy tunnel.

Our drama cast and half of the set. This is the car and house that Russ built. Jason helped him paint it. Jason is the guy in the green shirt. This is the guy Haley is dating. :o)

Rusty is wearing his Christmas outfit his cousin Rebecca sent. It was precious!

Rusty was demonstrating a dramatic pose!

I know it's weird but you have to admit that it's pretty cute. It's amazing how many people have never seen a kid cut his eye teeth before his middle teeth. (I hadn't either until now.)

He's getting ready to let go!

I can't keep bows on the presents this year! I love it, though. We just let him walk around with this bow on his cute little bottom for awhile.

Enjoying a snack with Daddy!

Thanks to Mimi

God has blessed us with a very good friend that also loves to spoil us with handmade gifts. Her name is Barbara, but we call her Mimi. She brought Rusty in a hat this week to keep his head warm and it is so precious. Thank you, Mimi!!

Mimi was one of Rusty's first visitors in the hospital.

Here Rusty is sporting a sweater from Mimi.


This was the softest blanket ever!

Rusty sporting his new hat! Maybe soon it will be cool enough for a coat, too!

Shortly after this picture he bumped his noggin. It was great protective wear, too!

You can see his goofy teeth in this picture here. They are hard to see, but he was laughing hard. The top teeth are about to pop through any day. Thankfully, they are coming!

A Good Break

So we have had a wonderful weekend! It helped that it was 4 days long, of course. We have the house decorated for Christmas, and we've started our shopping.
Rusty has been eating some table food and he is a bottomless pit! I let him feed himself some beans last night and what a mess! He loved it, though. He loves anything. The other night he wanted something off my plate and Russ told me to give him a piece of an onion. Well, I did and he even wanted more of that!
He was so sweet this weekend. He woke up Friday night with a low-grade fever and he is about to chew his hand off so I think maybe those top teeth are coming through.

Sweet, happy boy!

Santa Claus was mine and Rusty's favorite Black Friday purchase.

The almost finished front porch. We still have some icicle lights that are going up. I love it!

Our little Christmas tree

Rusty checked out Santa's sled.

Helping Mimi in the kitchen.

Looking for leftovers.

Found them!

Happy Thanksgiving!

It was so nice to wake up this morning and just be able to stay home for awhile. We ALL slept until 7:30! I got up and started cooking a few things. My kitchen smells like a mixture of pumpkin, green bean casserole, and chocolate cookies. We are going over to Phillis' (Russ' mom) to eat around 1:00. We watched the parade and Rusty is now taking a nap.

I was talking to the kids yesterday and we went around and mentioned something we were thankful for. A couple of the kids had two or three things to say, but I came to this one boy and he said, "My parents are divorcing and I'm not thankful for anything." I pushed him a little and he went on to say that he was thankful for a friend that had been helpful to him. I am sad that my entire family isn't together for Thanksgiving, but I am sooo thankful for our family. I've already talked to mom twice this morning while making the banana pudding. I am thankful that they are only a phone call away. I am thankful that we have Rusty this year. He makes the holidays much more fun. God has given us a wonderful babysitter for him and that is a huge blessing. I am thankful for Russ. I have never met anyone more willing to help out than him. In fact, it's hard to keep him from volunteering for everything he can. Most of all I am thankful for God's mercy. He has been merciful to us to give us a loving family, a wonderful church family and a place to work, and He has given us eternal life. So Happy Thanksgiving!

Here are some snapshots from the past week...

Rusty has learned to take his cup "to go"

Bundled up for a walk to Walgreens. (There is a Walgreens about 4 blocks down. Walking there is a family favorite.)

Rusty was helping pull out the Christmas decorations.

Ready for church on Sunday.

Rusty loved his Thanksgiving card from Granny and Papa Jones!

OCA Drama

My drama class did a presentation of Lady Jane Grey in chapel yesterday. This was the first time we tried our hand at a full length drama of a serious nature. We do great at melodramas and comedies, but I wanted to push the bounds a little and I was pleasantly surprised! I have some real talent this year. Maiya, the girl who played Jane, was amazing! She even had me in tears and I've watched them practice for the last 2 months. It's so neat to think back to when we first read it and then see it come together (even though I always have my doubts!). Here are some pictures. I took these AFTER the play, so it was hard to get them back into character. Oh, well!

And would a post be complete without a picture of Rusty?