Christmas Time

The last several weeks we have been gearing up for Christmas. Two weeks ago mom and dad came up for the weekend to take in the Christmas show at Beef and Boards. They went to the midday show and then Drew and I went to the evening show which worked out great. While they were up here mom, Emma and I made some cookies. We made chocolate chip, peanut butter kiss, sugar, and molasses cookies. Mom also made some Peanut Brittle. Emma had a blast being able to cut our sugar cookies with mom and ended up with quite a bit of flour on herself.


When we were home over Thanksgiving Linda had given Emma a Little People Nativity Set so we put that up by the tree this year instead of our ceramic one. Emma plays with her nativity set pretty much every night. You can rotate the angel that is on top of the stable, one of the doors makes animal noises when it is open and closed, and if you push down on baby Jesus music plays.


Also Drew finished up my Christmas present and being a sweet husband he went ahead and let me have it. I know that he put a lot of time and effort into getting it done and I really do love it. If you cannot tell exactly what it is in the pictures below it is a new billfold/clutch purse. Drew not only stamped out the entire design he also did all of the painting.


As for the babysitter situation after a lot of phone calls and going to visit several different places we have found a new daycare for Emma. She will be starting the begining of next year and beleive it or not this one is within walking distance of our house. I think in the long run it will be a great move because they will be working with her to get her ready for school. Since they do so much with the kids we will not even need to put her into preschool which is great because I do not know where Drew and I would have found the time to take her and pick her up.

We will be heading to Jasper today after I get off work to spend the holiday weekend with family. Heres hopeing that everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

St Nick and New Babysitter

Sunday Emma and I went to Jolly Days at the Children's Museum. Emma has been telling me that she wanted to go see Santa and the timing worked so we went. She had a blast going down the yule slide and playing in the Christmas Exhibit and she did really well with Santa even though it was definitely nap time by the time we got to him. It was really cute because she told Santa that she wanted a barbie doll and then as soon as we left she asked me if we could go buy her a barbie now.




Tuesday morning Emma woke up to find that St Nick had come and could not wait to check out what he had brought her. I told her she could look at it but we had to wait until we got home that night to get into anything. She loved what she got.
Drew could not wait until that night I guess because he had a good deal of his gone by the time Emma and I got home.

Yesterday when I went to pick Emma up from the babysitter I received some unpleasant news. Our babysitter is quiting as of Dec 23rd. Apparently she is getting married and they are moving to Florida. Two weeks to find a new babysitter right before Christmas. Thankfully after several calls today I have found a couple of possibilities that I need to talk to Drew about. One happens to live a couple of houses down from us and she sounds really nice. We were planning on switching some time next year to find someone that would do Preschool with her so maybe things are working out for the best anyway.

Play Date and Circus

We headed for Jasper Friday morning after Drew got off work to spend some time with family and celebrate Thanksgiving. We headed to Vince and Linda's to spend some time with them because Emma and I had plans to be in Evansville most of Saturday. Vince had to work Friday so he did not get to see Emma but she had fun playing with Linda and Tony while Drew took a nap. Friday night was the Hartings Thanksgiving so more time visiting Family. That night nobody in the Sander household got a full nights sleep. Emma woke up around 1:30 and did not get back to sleep until 4:30 or so. Kaden woke up several times and so did Aubrey.

Saturday morning Barbara moved Aubrey and Kaden's car seats into the Van and we all headed for April Freeman's house for a get together with friends. Kaden took a little nap on the way there which was great. The kids had a ball playing with each other and it was really nice being able to catch up with everybody. The group has been getting together around Thanksgiving for 3 years now and this is the first time that I was able to make it.

All the kids together. This is the best picture I was able to get because it is not easy getting 10 kids 3 years and under to sit still. If you check out Matt Schenk-n-Family Blog there is a full list of the kids names.



Emma thought that Mattison was hungry so she was trying to feed her a bottle. To bad it was a play bottle.


After the play date we meet up with some of the Hartings cousins and Mom and Dad for the Circus. I was really hoping that Emma would take a little nap on the way over but it only took 30 minutes or so to get between the two and Emma did not fall asleep until right before we got there and of course she woke up when I get her out of the car seat. We all enjoyed the Circus and the only down side was that Mom and Dad could not sit with the rest of us because of dad needing his cart. They kept one of the kids with them and Barbara and I took the other two with us. We got back to mom and dad's house a little before 9p.m. with Kaden being the only one to get any nap so needless to say the drive home was a little stressful.

Overall it was a wonderfull day even if we were all pretty tired by the end of it.

There is one other post from today below. Just could not include it with this one.

Rest in Peace Jessie

As everyone probably knows Jessie had not been in the best of health for some time. She was mostly deaf, blind, and very arthritic. Not extremely surprising seeing as how she was around 16 years old. Here recently she started to have trouble controlling her bowels so it was decided that it was time to put her down. I could not bring myself to do it so Vince said that he would take her to the vet and then bury her with their family pets. We waited until Barbara and I were both able to make it home to see her and say goodbye.

While we were in Evansville Saturday Vince and Drew took Jessie to the vet one last time and then to her final resting place. I will be forever thankfull to them because I honestly do not think that I could have gotten through it.

To a great friend I hope you are in heaven now enjoying the return of your health.

Play Time

Drew's cousins Myron and Becky came up this weekend with their kids and went to the Children's Museum with us on Sunday. All of the kids had a blast playing together which made getting Emma home for her nap a challenge. She ended up falling asleep in the car and then not going back to sleep when we got home. Thankfully we were able to get to bed a little early that night.

Emma and Aaron on the Carousel

Alli and Emma got to make outfits for Barbie in the Barbie exhibit. I was really surprised the Emma did really well with the project. Now she just needs some barbie dolls to dress up. The girls ended up spending over on hour in that exhibit while the boys went and looked at everything else.


Tuesday night Drew and I went out to rake some of the leaves together that were in our yard so that Drew would have an easier time Mowing and Emma decided that she needed to play in the leaves. Last year she did not want much to do with them but this year she did not want to stop playing in them which made it hard to get them bagged up. When we moved on to the back hard she went from playing in the leaves to playing in her sand box so by the time we went back inside she was filthy.

Gatlinburg/ Grandma & Grandpa

Drew and I celebrated our 5th Anniversary this year and were finally able to get away to celebrate a couple of weeks ago. We took off the entire week and spent Monday and part of Tuesday getting some things done around home and then headed to Jasper. Thursday morning Drew and I headed to Gatlinburg leaving Emma in Vince and Linda's care. We all have a really great time and it was a much needed vacation.

Emma had a blast with Grandma and Grandpa. She got to help grandma make apple sauce, pie filling, juice and homemade noodles. Linda also took Emma trick or trunking at one of the local churches with Becky and the kids. It did not seam like she missed us at all but she was definitely glad to see us when we got back on Sunday. When Emma was asked if she wanted to stay with Grandma and Grandpa again some time she immediately said yes.


Emma thought that Grandpa looked better in her pirates hat

The drive to Gatlinburg on Thursday was pretty horrendous because it rained the entire way down. I cannot count the number of times that we hydroplaned on the way down. Thankfully the rest our time there was great. Friday we went out to eat at the Bubba Gump Shimp Factory (Forest Gump) and then walked around downtown doing a little shopping and just site seeing. We ended up meeting up with Margie and Steve and their kids while we were walking around. Go all that way just to see your relatives. Saturday we went to the Ober Gatlinburg Ski Resort and spent the day playing around up there.

Above is a picture of the cabin that we stayed in and below is the view we had from the balcony of the cabin.
Going up the chair lift at Ober Galinburg.
A picture from the top of Mt Harrison. Elevation 3590 ft. You can see how small the town of Gatlinburg looks from that height.
A picture of the Alpine Slides. These were a blast to go down and it was nice that you could control your speed. We wend down them twice. The second time down we tried to race each other going as fast as we could but Drew got stuck behind someone going pretty slow.

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Check out the post below for whats been going on in our family lately.

Happy Birthday Mom

Mom celebrated her 55th birthday yesterday. Drew picked up a couple of extra shifts at work this weekend so Emma and I decided to head to Jasper and surprise mom for her birthday. We left about 7am Saturday morning which got us there about 10am and mom was definitely surprised when we pulled into the driveway. Dad knew that we were coming.

Saturday the Hartings family had a party to celebrate Bryce's 1st birthday and just to get together. Emma and I had made a cake for mom's birthday so we took it with us to the party.
All of the kids had fun running around and playing together. They even got to decorate some pumpkins. Barbara and the kids came down and it was good to see them as well. It did not work for us to go to Kaden's birthday party last weekend so this was a good substitute.

Trying to get the girls to bed Saturday night was a difficult task as always. They both want to sleep in grandma and grandpa's room but will not just lay down and go to sleep. We ended up having to separate them just like we always have in the past. Maybe one day.

Sunday Dubois had their Church picnic so after Church we ate there and played around a little before heading back to mom and dad's for nap time. Barbara and I did not know that they had moved church up half and hour, normally it is a 10am and not 9:30 so at 9:00 we are rushing around trying to get 3 adults and 3 children ready for church. Dad was the only one that was already ready. Needless to say we were a little late for church.

Emma let mom put her hair up for the party Saturday. To bad that it did not last long after we got there. I'm going to have to cut her bangs or something if I cannot figure out how to keep them out of her eyes.

Playing at the Elementary School play ground during the church shoot.




It really was a great weekend for visiting family.

Nap Time's Over

I have discovered 3 words that I NEVER want to hear in the middle of the night.

This morning at around 1:30 I heard Emma fussing so after awhile I went to check on her. I get over to her room and her door is open and the light is on. Walk into her room and she looks at me and states that nap time's over. I'm surpised she was not out in the living room playing. After turning off the light I told her that it was still the middle of the night and she needed to go back to sleep. Took awhile but I did get her back to sleep. Unfortunately she woke back up a couple more times last night.

Being Sick and Company

Last Friday I received a phone call from our babysitter saying that Emma was throwing up everything she ate so I had Drew go and get her and told him I would be home as soon as I got the necessities done at work. This all started around 9am or so and thankfully by around 5pm she started to feel better.

Mom and Dad came up for a visit over the weekend and on Saturday one of Drew's coworkers came over for Supper. It was very nice being able to meet Lea because Drew talks about her quite a bit.

Anyway Sunday Drew came down with whatever it was that Emma had but it took him awhile to get over his. He did not start feeling better until Wednesday and it was good that he felt better then because I did not feel good all day Wednesday. Thankfully I do not think that Mom, Dad or Lea ended up catching it. Hopefully we will not have any more bouts with the flu.

Sunday mom and I did some shopping before they headed home and mom thought she had to go ahead and give Emma some of the things she purchased. Emma ended up with a new puzzle and a pair of rain boots. She LOVES the Boots. The boots have a monkey on the outside of them but she would not corporate to get a picture of them.
Putting her new puzzle together with Grandma. It is a 5 little monkey puzzle and it goes with the "5 Little Monkeys with Nothing to do" book that she has.

This is a hamper that I had in my bedroom at home. I brought it up to use in Emma's room but wanted to make it more kid friendly so here is the end result.

Around the House

Things have been pretty quiet around our house lately which is a good thing I guess. We spent Labor Day weekend in Jasper with Vince and Linda. Drew, Vince and Tony did some squirrel hunting and fishing. Vince and Linda got Emma a fishing pole so she had fun playing with it. They ended up with 4 squirrels, 4 frogs, and 5 fish (4 of which were 23 inches or over).

Emma was supposed to start swim lesions yesterday but they were canceled because they did not have enough kids. The only other group for her age is on Saturday and we did not want to sign up for that one knowing we would miss several classes.

Like I said pretty quiet around our house. Here are a few pictures that have been taken recently.

Checking out one of the squirrels

Playing with the Fishing Pole

Go Colts (don't ask me why but she reminds be of my cousin Heidi Sander)

Two and a Half

Emma had her 2 1/2 year Dr appt yesterday and the doctor said that she is doing great. She weighed in at a little over 27lbs and is 37 1/2 inches tall.

Unexpected Trip to Jasper

We were hoping to have a nice quiet lazy weekend at home this last weekend but plans changed when we learned that Mary Brelage passed away. Her viewing was on Friday night with the funeral on Saturday morning and I wanted to attend since Mary was the Hartings adopted Grandma. Everything worked out really well and overall we enjoyed our weekend in Jasper.

When we got into Jasper Friday night we headed to the funeral home to pay our respects and then headed out to Beaver lake where some of Drew's family were having a get together. Emma had a good time playing with the other kids and as always there was plenty of good food.

Saturday morning Drew watched Emma, Aubrey and Kaden while the rest of us went to Mary's funeral. After the funeral Drew and Dad went in to the Sheephead tourney at the Strassenfest. Emma and Aubrey both took good naps so when they woke up Barbara and I took them in to ride some of the rides. I was not sure how Emma would do because she has never been on anything but the carousel but she had a blast.

Barbara was putting Aubrey's hair up and Emma wanted her's up as well. We only got a few pictures though before to took the hairband out.

The girls got their arms painted. Emma picked a ladybug while Aubrey picked a rocket








Saturday night Linda brought her brother Henry back to their house and we played some cards. He seamed to be having a very good time. He got there shortly before Emma was supposed to go to bed so he got to see her at least a little bit. Unfortunately we realized at bedtime that we forgot buddy and kitty (Emma's blankies) over at Mom and Dad's house so Drew had to go back over there and get them before Emma would go to bed. I guess we had been make sure we never leave them somewhere they cannot be retreived in short order because she refused to lay down until she had them.