December 11

Advent Calendar - Make gumdrop pops

Remember This - Olivia got a better deal and left Whit and I making gumdrop pops by ourselves. She got an invitation to hang out with Papa Steve and of course, that was waaaaaaayyyy cooler than hanging out with us. So, Whit and I made a few gumdrop pops and enjoyed watching Christmas shows together waiting for Olivia to get home. I honestly can't think of a better way to spend a Friday night! Even though we got verrrrrrry sticky and Whit ate about 30 gumdrops, we had a ball together. He is such a goof!

December 10

Advent Calendar: Have hot cocoa with candy cane stirrers!

Remember This: The kids were sooooooo excited to have hot cocoa. I'm still not sure why they love it so, but they definitely enjoy it more than I've ever seen them enjoy anything else! We served up the cocoa and they drank every drop and finished the candy canes completely! I'll have to remember to make hot chocolate for them more often!




This little mini-post is for Erin:
Whit went on his Limo & Lunch Date today. Yep. He got to ride around town like a real pimp (or a high schooler at prom...whichever way you choose to look at it). He had a fantastic time until some little girls booted him out of his spot for the ride back to school. Anyway, thanks for the "BIG SALE" that pushed his little total over the quota to earn this fine treat!

December 9

Advent Calendar: Make Christmas cards for teachers

Remember This: The kids and I had a great time making cards for their teachers. We all sat together and used my paper punches to decorate simple construction paper cards (just like I used to make). The kids wrote sweet notes to their teachers, too {BONUS - educational activity!!} Unfortunately, once we finished, I packed the cards up, cleaned off the table and totally forgot to take pictures.

I also finished up our teacher gifts. I forgot to take pictures of those too, but I did take some the night I wrapped them up.

I decorated tins with the teachers' names using my Cricut machine and some adhesive vinyl.



Then I decorated some white coffee mugs with each of their family members' names and big polka dots. (One mug for Mom, Dad and each child in the family). I stuffed the mugs with packets of hot chocolate and marshmallows.


Finally, I added a package of Keebler mint cookies and attached a little note to them like this:



I made the note digitally with Krystal Hartley's Homemade Holiday kit from Sweet Shoppe Designs.

I have to say, they turned out SO cute! I really hope the teachers liked them as much as we enjoyed putting them together! I know Mrs. Sophie's family liked them because she sent me these pictures of her boys sipping the cocoa through the cookies!! YAY! Thanks, Mrs. Sophie! ♥





I think they liked 'em!! :)

Oh, and in total Leigh-fashion, I totally forgot to add the hand-made cards that the kids made to the gifts. I didn't even realize it until AFTER the gifts had been given out. Oh well...I won't tell the kids.

Hey, at least I'm trying here!!

December 8

Advent Calendar: Make ornaments

Remember This: So, tonight is the first night that the kids aren't "feeling" the Advent Calendar. They really weren't thrilled about making ornaments (which is weird for them), but I figured why push it. Instead, I let Olivia take a picture of her favorite ornament on our tree. I'm not shocked at the one she picked. It truly is her favorite one!

Whit wasn't interested in any of it. I guess I can let him off the hook this time...8 days in...I think that's pretty dang good!!

December 7

Advent Calendar: Walk around the neighborhood and look at all the Christmas lights.

Remember This: Ummmmm, I DON'T THINK SO. It's like 35 degrees outside and this chick isn't even thinking about stepping foot out there. Maybe next year I'll wait and write out each day of the Advent Calendar the day before so I can check the weather!

Olivia and I had a SUPER fun time at Briley's tea party today. The girls had so much fun dressing up and REALLY having tea at The Broken Teapot. They got to decorate their own cupcake as well as their own teapot to take home. They ate little heart-shaped sandwiches and finger foods. They served themselves tea from real porcelain tea pots. They had an all-around fantastic time! {And, I just added a real teapot to Olivia's Christmas list and I'm hoping to find one somewhere soon!} Olivia had another birthday party tonight that she attended (one was enough for me). I was so thankful that Rhonda offered to take her to give me the night to work on ornaments and such!

December 6

Advent Calendar: Greer Christmas Parade (with Santa hats for treats)

Remember This: I had to work the 4 year old classroom at church this morning, so the kids and I bundled up and took off. We had a great time together with the other kids. I traced life-sized angels of the kids and they decorated them with markers, glitter and glue (messy, to say the least). They loved it!


Then we headed over to Greer to get situated for the parade. We first ate at our favorite hot dog spot and I snapped a picture of the kids in their Santa hats. They were getting soooooo excited!



When we finally got to the parade, we got ourselves situated and began to enjoy the festivities. That is, until we started to FREEZE. TO. DEATH. It was so stinkin' cold we couldn't even stay until the end of the parade. That didn't stop us from having a great time while we were there, though!

Notice the sign and where it's pointing!


Notice Olivia trying the "Don't look at me, Whit!!" face. They were showing me their hand warmers.


Sitting in their chairs watching the parade.


It's cotton candy:30!

December 5

Advent Calendar: Breakfast with SANTA (with hand warmers for treats)

Remember this: I gave the kids hand warmers so they would have them at the parade tomorrow. They don't know we're going yet, but they'll be happy to have them once we get there! Erin and Eric took all the kids (W, O & G) to have breakfast with Santa. The kids had so much fun. Erin said Olivia was really shy at first, but Santa whispered some secrets in her ear and she perked right up! She was TOTALLY shocked that Santa remembered her name without her telling him and we all wondered really how in the world he knew her name. But, later in the day Whit burst all our bubbles and announced that HE told Santa her name when she was being shy...little stinker! He let us all wonder for HALF A DAY how Santa knew her name! Anyway, they all had a fantastic time!

At Erin and Eric's (getting ready to go to breakfast):


A little shy around the big guy. He's whispering to her (who knows what) and she's listening, at least!


He must've said something she liked.


Working on some ornaments that now hang on our tree.

December 4

Advent Calendar: Watch The Grinch (play Grinch Bingo and have special snacks)

Remember this: My "Grinch night" was almost ruined when I came home last night to find Nana and Papa watching "The Grinch" with the kids while I was at the dentist. I don't think the kids must've paid too much attention to it though, because they were ready to watch it again tonight. It might be because I bought a new game for them to play afterwards. We had so much fun playing Grinch Bingo together. Playing with Whit makes any game fun because he gets so into it! He loves board games. We also had Grinch milk (a new concoction I came up with because I couldn't think of anything else). The kids loooooooved it. I mixed green food coloring in their milk and then added sugar and vanilla flavoring. What's not to love, eh?

December 3

Advent Calendar: Game Night (with bedroom shoes for treats)

Remember this: Whit loooooooves game night! He was so excited he could hardly stand it. I guess that was a good thing because he didn't love the slippers I got him in the Target Dollar Aisle. Olivia, on the other hand, loved the slippers and could care less about game night. I guess you can't please everybody all the time! Papa Joe and Nana Georgia ended up staying with the kids for a little while since I had a dentist appointment. They split up and played with the kids individually since Olivia wanted nothing to do with game night. W & O were soooooo sad when I came home because they didn't want Nana and Papa to leave! They both ended up slipping their shoes on and piling up in my lap for a quick Christmas show before bed. I love these little moments where everyone gets along!

December 2

Advent Calendar: Read a Christmas book (with bath fizzies for a treat)

Remember this: Tonight the kids got bath fizzies in their advent bags. They were sooooo excited! They couldn't WAIT to open the bag and it almost killed them to wait until the evening to open them. I decided yesterday that we need to wait to make sure everyone is on their best behavior all day to earn the treats. They loved the fizzies but were disappointed when they unwrapped them and realized they were plain white (the wrapping was cute snowmen and polka dots and it looked like the fizzies would be those colors as well). They had a great time in the bath watching them fizzle into nothing. When they got out, they each picked out a book and snuggled up in Whit's bed to read Christmas stories. I wish the picture of them in the bed was scratch-n-sniff because they both smelled soooo good from the fizzies. When we read Olivia Helps with Christmas they both laughed until they almost cried. They love that book (and so do I)! I'm back on track thinking the Advent Calendar was, in fact, a good idea!

December 1

Advent Calendar: "Write Santa a letter."

Remember This: (these are notes I jot down everyday to help me remember the events and the "little things" I might normally forget).
"Whit you almost had a nervous breakdown writing your letter to Santa tonight. Olivia knew just what she wanted to ask for and started writing quickly, but you only got to the first item (Transformers). Once you saw O's "hair salon" you freaked out and tried to come up with something BIGGER than hers. You couldn't even think about items you might truly want, you just wanted something, ANYTHING, bigger than her hair salon. Eventually, you went into total meltdown mode and ended up being sentenced to bed for almost 30 minutes while you cried it out. When you realized you weren't even going to get to write the letter to Santa, you really lost it!! After about an hour, you calmed down and decided to pick some things you would really like to have. Your list included a rocket that would shoot 100 feet and a bowling set (both of which I've never heard you mention before). At this point, I am ready to give up on our family Advent Calendar.... Is it really worth it?

Hello, December!

Nice to see you again!

Yes, I know it's December 14th and the month is half over, but I've got lots to catch up on! I figure now is just as good a time as any, right?

Here's a little background:

This year, I truly want to make December count.

You know, spend some quality time with my family doing things together to make REAL memories {especially for the kids}.

Not baking and cleaning and shopping and scurrying around like a mad woman. Trust me, I do all of that, too. But, I want some MEANINGFUL memories together as a family, especially now that my kids are at the PERFECT age to remember our special times!

During November, I decided to make an Advent Calendar for us. Some activities on the calendar are big, some are small, but all are things we do TOGETHER every single day. Here is what my calendar looks like:



I created my little version of an Advent Calendar and decided to give it away on the Girl Talk Blog. You can click over there to get a full tutorial on how to make your own and the downloads are still available, so check it out if you think you might like to do something similar! I've even had people tell me they downloaded it and are doing a 12 Days of Christmas Countdown or even the Week of Christmas Countdown. Trust me, your kids are not going care how long you do it...they will LOVE it!

In addition to the Advent Calendar, I've been snapping a few pictures each day to go into my December Daily album. The album is a scrapbook of our December moments day by day. There's a page for each day of the month and I try to get a picture of the special {or not-so-special} things going on in our lives. December just seems to fly by! I want my kids to remember all the little things we do together that make December special. Hence, the album!

So, for the next few posts, I am going to show you our pictures from each day. Some will be part of our Advent Calendar activities and some will be random, spontaneous moments, but all of them will be what makes December special for us!

It's not about the presents or the shopping or the hustle and bustle. But about spending time together as a family and making sweet memories to cherish forever.

Okay, enough with the mushy stuff.

Here comes December; Theo style.

Love and hugs,
Leigh ♥

This is going to take a while...

so just get ready.

Here's the thing, we really haven't had anything that exciting going on lately.

Not that I'm complaining. Please, Lord, know that I'm not complaining!!

But, really, I'm just not sure if anyone really wants to hear about the mundane daily activities of the Theo clan.

I mean, a gashed head, sure. People want to know about that.

Cute freebies. Maybe.

But, regular old life?? I doubt it.

But, since I've really, really missed writing on the old blog, I thought I'd give her a little update.

Just in case you don't know, I really LOVE the writing part. It's kind of cathartic for me. I've always loved writing, so this blog is a great way to get my writing-fix! Plus, I'm sort of treating it like a scrapbook...I'll record my memories here in the hopes that one day each one will make their way into a real scrapbook about our lives.

So here goes.... I'll start with back to school. I think I'm ready to talk about that now.

Waaaaaay back in August, Whit, Olivia and I all went back to school. For most of us, it was no big deal.

For Whit...well, yeah...it was a big ole' rotten, stinkin', no good, very bad deal. He didn't want to go back to school. Not even one little bit. He was having a veryfinetimstayinghomealldayeveryday, thankyouverymuch. He really wasn't sure school was even necessary at his age and asked repeatedly why kids have to go to school.

A couple of times he made the argument that he could learn anything and everything he needed to know just by "browsing the internet." I mean, seriously, how can I argue with that? He is, in fact, correct. But alas, as I said at least 1000 times the week before school started, "all kids go to school and unfortunately, Whit, you are a kid, so that means you, too." I really couldn't think of a better argument that would make him understand and "because I said so," just never seems like a viable option with Whit.

The day school started, we got off to a rough start. I mean, just look at the excitement on his face:



Things got a little better after I begged for just a little smile. Okay, maybe it was a fake, but I don't care.




Once we were on our way, I was pleasantly surprised by the chipper attitude I could see peeking out behind the nervous smile!




But, once inside the school, I could tell the anxiety was starting to take over and his little lip started to quiver. I swear I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown standing right smack dab in the middle of the brand new Spartanburg Charter School.

I don't know. There's something about sending your child into a situation that you KNOW is going to provoke the worst possible feelings for them that just makes you feel like a bad mom. I KNOW I'm not a bad mom. In fact, I think I've probably earned a few stars in my crown for the things I've endured as a mom already, but geez...this was awful.

The worst part was he was being SO BRAVE!! He was trying SO HARD to push his nervous feelings away and be strong. He wants to like school, he really does. He just can't.

His doctor explained it well this summer. Imagine something that terrifies you. For me, it's public speaking. In college, when I had to give presentations, I would literally feel like I was going to throw up. And, when I say throw up, I mean PROJECTILE VOMIT MASSIVE AMOUNTS. My heart would race, my blood pressure would soar, I just generally felt horrible. For days in advance, I couldn't concentrate, I couldn't breathe, I couldn't get the fear of the presentation out of the forefront of my mind. No matter what I was doing, that fear was always present.

Well, guess what? That's the way Whit feels almost EVERY SINGLE DAY. Unless he is at home, he feels this exact same way. The uncertainty of a new routine or new situation (even if it is a safe one) scares the life out of him.

Imagine that. Imagine feeling this way ALL THE TIME.

It's awful. He can't concentrate, can't sit still, can't focus. Last year, we thought it was possibly an attention problem. But no. His doctor thinks it's the anxiety?!? How could I not have known that before?!

My heart was just breaking for him on the first day of school.

But, he put on a brave face and walked right in.

I lost it. I literally had to go outside the school building and cry. It was like years of not-knowing and uncertainty all came out in that one moment. Not that we know for sure what, exactly, is going on, but at least we have a better idea. We are scheduled to see another specialist soon, so hopefully we'll know more then. Anxiety just seems much more reasonable to me than ADHD (in my humble opinion). I mean, the kid can sit for HOURS and play something that interests him (like his DS, for example). And, he's not hyperactive (usually). I can do science experiments with him for 8 hours straight and he never once loses concentration. But, put him in a new situation and whew, what a different kid!!

So, Whit's first day at school went okay. He asked his teacher probably 60 times, "how much longer" and "what comes next?" On the second day of school, she not-so-nicely suggested we buy him a watch. Good idea! We bought the watch and now, after a few weeks, the questions of "how much longer" have ceased. He can also successfully count down how many hours he has left until Mommy comes in any given day. The first few weeks were hard. We had some random "adjustment moments" and a few days of sporadic crying spells in class, but overall, he's done great!

Early on, I was shocked and amazed to hear Whit talk, with excitement, about his days at school. He really seems to thrive in the type of environment the Charter School offers. He tested high on his MAP test, so twice a week, he gets to go into an "advancement period" with others his age who scored highly on the test. He really seems to enjoy everything the school is offering (even the yoga class and especially Spanish). We have been very pleased with our decision to try the Charter School! We wanted something different, which is why we switched, and we have been so excited to see how well he's done!

Needless to say, I'm proud of this little guy!



Then, there's Olivia. The school-loving, friend-seeking girl that loooooooves to try new things. Loves school. Loves learning. Loves going ANYWHERE that involves leaving our house.

How is it possible that they came from the same womb? I just don't get it.

She started school a few weeks after Whit and has been having the time of her life.







I just pray she continues to love school as much as she does now!

So that's it! That is our back to school story.

I fully intended to get more written, but now I'm tired. I think I wore myself out emotionally once again.

I'll write more soon. I know I promise this a lot. Okay, an awful lot. But, seriously, I will try to write more soon!

Love and hugs, everybody!

Have a great week!