From Our Home To Yours

Wishing you many blessings this Christmas and in the New Year!

Love,

The Cheathams

Michael, April & Jonah (2)

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Christmas Cookie Decorating

Last Friday we got together with some of our church friends and decorated Christmas cookies. I headed this up this year and it turned out really good. It was our first year to do this so we didn't have all of the kids but we had a great group.

We decorated the cookies and then packaged them up to be handed out to the widows and shut-ins in our congregation. Everyone enjoyed the cookies.

We also did a Santa scavenger hunt where we hid some of Santa's things he needs for Christmas Eve. Like his hat, the key to his sleigh, his pocket watch, his white glove, etc. They all seemed to enjoy that. We also had some finger foods and The Night Before Christmas was read.

I wasn't sure how Jonah would do on the decorating part but he loved it. My Mom helped him while I was prepping things. He loved placing the green and red M&M's on the cookies. He probably helped decorate around 15 cookies. Pretty good for a 2 year old.

Here are some pictures from the party.










Jonah was cheesing. All the kids that helped decorate.



Jonah cheesing again and Nana...ready to get started.



The littlest decorator, Lily-Kate.






Some deep concentration for decorating.









Emma was working on her masterpiece.






Jonah and his buddy, Neely, exchanged their gifts. Jonah got new pajamas, a magnet for his artwork and a puppy. He loved it all.



We gave Neely a bag with her name on it, some coloring books and a crayon roll.



Can't wait to do it all again next year!

Santa Claus Visit 2012

Praying for the families, teachers and community in Newtown, CT. Heaven has gained such beautiful angels. I pray for those left behind in this fallen world. May they one day see their children again. 

 We went to the mall on Saturday evening to go see Santa Claus. Last year we just picked a bad time and day to go see him and Jonah did not want to have anything to do with him (he was 1.5 too).  Santa wasn't at his chair when we got there so we grabbed some supper, which probably worked out better anyways (hungry child = not happy). So then when we came back the line was pretty long. I stood in line while Jonah and Michael walked around (Jonah in the stroller) and took in the sights of the lovely, busy mall. LOL

We finally made it to the front of the line and Jonah was raring to go see Santa. Once they let us in he wanted me to pick him up. I did but then set him in Santa's lap and stepped back and NO TEARS! He was happy to sit and smile for the camera. Santa asked him some things that he wanted for Christmas and he said yes to them all. LOL. Santa said "He wants it all!" LOL

We had a really good Santa with a real beard and his outfit was great. Just take a look at the evidence!

 

SUCCESS!!

Random Post..Again

You gotta love a random brain-dump every now and then.

1. I keep seeing where all my local facebook friend's kids are dropping like flies with either the flu or stomach bug. I am sooo worried/anxious/nervous that we will be next. We have just a couple of parties with kids and I'm so afraid Jonah is going to be the next victim. I just really do not want a repeat of last Christmas where we all got sick on and the day after Christmas.

2. I am done with my Christmas shopping!!! All are wrapped except what has not come in the mail yet.

3. I feel much more "on the ball" with Christmas stuff than I ever have in past years. I think it's because I started shopping in October. I got my cards out on time and the tree up early. I feel much more relaxed and ready for the season this year. I am excited for the fun stuff now like going to see Santa and riding around to look at lights.

4. Whatever teething or moodiness Jonah had last week is all but gone this week. Sure he is still a 2 year old but his mood is much better. I hope it stays that way through Christmas. Also, his appetite is finally back.

5. I have 72 sugar cookies to bake today for our church's cookie decorating party tomorrow night. I hope it goes pretty smooth for us and we have a good turn out. We are decorating cookies to take to our shut-ins and widows. I am so excited and hope to get some pictures too.

6. I am in love with this Christmas CD. I haven't bought it yet but I've been listening to it all on YouTube. My favorite song is You're Here. Check it out. Francesca's voice is amazing!

7. I made these for Jonah's little library Christmas party today. I hope they like them. I don't know what I did before Pinterest.

8. I will be 30 in like 3 and half months. This is blowing my mind. That is all.

9. I made these for our annual Christmas cookie exchange and ornament swap. They turned out really good and were actually the first cookies I had ever made from scratch. The best tip was to mix them up and roll into logs and then refrigerate overnight. Then I just cut them and baked them.

10. I am so thankful that God sent His Son down to earth...but I am even more thankful for His Son's death, which saves me from my sins and washes me in grace each and every day. I hope you have a blessed Christmas season!

Christmas Around Here...So Far

Whew! What a busy and fun weekend we just had. Friday night was my Christmas party for work and it was held in a high-rise in downtown Nashville. Honestly I had been dreading it because I knew traffic would be awful. The downtown Christmas parade and a 5K were also taking place and several roads were to be closed. Thankfully we made it on time and had a great time. We even got to watch the fireworks display from where we were and had the best seats! Jonah spent the night with my parents and they took him to our Church's annual Christmas breakfast the next morning. I hated that we missed that but Michael and I got some of our last-minute Christmas shopping done for each other on Saturday morning. Then we caught the mid-day screening of Breaking Dawn Part 2. We just recently finished watching all the movies so we were anxious to wrap it up. And no I did not read the books. I don't intend to either. I just like the movies....very entertaining and totally no reality to them.

Yesterday (Sunday) we went to church and then I came home and baked 40 cookies and made a 7-layer salad for our annual Christmas cookie/ornament & tea towel exchange at Church. We had a wonderful time and had lots of good food to eat. There were 35 gifts in all! We play dirty Santa at this one and it's always a fun time. I also got a lot of good cookies. Too bad I didn't get to taste many of them. I came out from putting Jonah to bed to find Michael chowing down on them and he had already demolished half the plate! He felt bad after. He thought I told him where they were so he could "take care of them." LOL Oh well it's probably best I didn't have them around anyways. :)

I cannot believe how close we are to Christmas! Time is just flying by. I am excited about the kids Christmas cookie-decorating party I am working on for this Friday and then the countdown will be on! We are doing most of our visiting Christmas events on Saturday the 22nd due to everyone's work schedules. So Christmas Day is looking nice and relaxing for us. :)

I have been meaning to post some pictures of our tree all decorated.










This ornament was give to us by my parents for our first Christmas as a new family. (2010)



First Christmas in our new house. (2008)



First Christmas married. (2004)



Jonah's 1st Christmas (2010).



Ornament I won (dirty Santa style) at our annual Fall shopping trip in the mountains. It had everyone's name on it. (2009)



A little church ornament Mom gave me one year that I just love.



Our tree again. I love our tree even though it takes up most of the room. :)

Pigeon Forge 2012

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with our family. I hope you did too! I did not get a single picture that day but it was a busy and fun one. After eating turkey our little family of three hopped in the minivan and headed for the Pigeon Forge/Gatlinburg, TN area.

We had decided a couple months back that we wanted to take advantage of the long weekend and go on a little family vacation. We had an interesting trip and by interesting I mean.....some fun times and some really not fun times. Jonah only slept 30 minutes on the ride there (5 hours) and was running a low-grade fever. We thought maybe he was working on some molars because he always has a low-grade fever with his teeth. After we got to our room that night and gave Jonah a bath and put him to bed he woke up shortly very upset and was very warm. He then proceeded to throw-up. Michael was holding him at the edge of the bed and it went ALL over him. I felt so bad for both of them! Sorry for anyone with a weak stomach.

We checked him and his fever was at 103! He was also wearing one of those fleece one-piece pajamas so I immediately took him out of that and it came down and then we gave him more medicine for the fever. It eventually went down with the medicine and he got some rest but we had a mess to clean up that night and Michael had to just take a shower. Looking back we are glad he caught the brunt of it and not the bed, pnp or carpet.

We had planned to go to the Ripley's Aquarium that next morning but we felt we should wait and see how Jonah was feeling. He was in a good mood despite still having a fever and having to keep meds in him for that. We decided to forgo the aquarium that day and just hang out near our room in case he felt bad again. He would not eat much besides fishes and water. We considered going home but he never threw up again and the fever was reduced by the meds so we decided to make the best of it since we had the room for 3 nights.

The first day we took a ride on the trolley through town. Jonah was excited to get to ride on a "school bus." He did so good and loved looking out the window and eating his fishes. About halfway through the trolley ride, he fell fast asleep sitting up and Michael grabbed him and put him in his lap. He was so tired. I did a little shopping at the Carter's outlet while Jonah napped and then we got lunch. Jonah still would not eat any of the normal things he likes (fruit, banana, pb crackers, oatmeal, french fries). So we looked like the bad parents just munching away while our child sat without any food. Ugh!









We also went to visit the geese near the Old Mill area down by the river. Jonah liked watching them but didn't want them to get too close. It was chilly but not freezing that day and he felt up to walking around. There were a ton of pigeons that would fly down to the banks where we were and just walk right around us. It was freaky because they would all of sudden just take off in flight and scare us. Jonah would just laugh and laugh when they took off and it spooked him. We got a few pictures down there too.















Those pesky pigeons.



The mountains looked especially smokey on this day.







That night was not too bad but Jonah starting having a hard time breathing with his stuffy head. He likes to breath through his nose when he sleeps so that was the problem and he still kept getting a fever so we had to get up and give medicine in the night. The next day we went to the aquarium and basically Jonah liked the first part as you come in the door where they had a big tank of little fishes and it was nice and bright. After that all the places were very dark and they had loud music playing throughout it. He really hated the rest of the aquarium and we just struggled through since we had payed $60 to get in. He was pretty much miserable. Also it was SO crowded. We had no idea it would be like that or we would have known he wouldn't like it with the darkness and loud music. It was definitely better for older kids. We won't go back for a while. Oh well....live and learn. He was so ready to leave and so were we. The rest of that day was spend relaxing at the room and napping and then going out to eat. Jonah seemed to feel some better but that darn fever came back again at bedtime.



This was the first tank in the main entrance that he actually liked....it was all down hill from here.





See what I mean about dark?



This is how he looked most of the time in the aquarium.





That night was not fun but his fever did break that night and then the head cold got worse. And he would not take any medicine from the cup and got very upset. None of us got much rest that night until he finally took some benadryl. Needless to say the next morning we packed up and were headed home by 7:00 that morning. We got home safely at lunchtime on Sunday and laid low. Thankfully his fever was all gone and he was eating a little better. It was a trip with some fun memories and some really bad ones. I think the main thing we learned was that we really need to research better about places we want to take him that cost a lot of money because he may not even like them. The $1 trolley ride that we thought of last minute was more fun for him than that big expensive aquarium. LOL

I will just end it with there is NO PLACE LIKE HOME!! Especially when your baby is sick!