A little bit of this... A little bit of that...

The rest of December is as follows...

We watched our good friend's kiddos one evening. This was all of them eating a nutritous meal of chicken fries, mac & cheese and applesauce! I kept telling Jeremy how nice it was to have a full bar of babies but I'm not sure he agreed. I'm actually thinking this was right before Thanksgiving but wanted to get this picture in here!

Alta Vista had it's annual parade and Santa came to town. As you can see... David was not impressed.

Dill was really trying to figure out Santa's beard.

I got the boys dressed up in their holiday jammers and took a few pictures under the tree. I know my photography skills could use a little perfecting so please bear with me.

 Dave is holding a chocolate chip in his hand... I'm not above bribery in order to get him to sit for 2 minutes!

For comparision, the picture on the left is Dillon at 6 months and the right is David at 5 1/2 months! I forgot what a chunky guy Dave was! BTW... this picture of Dave and his daddy is one of my favorites. They look so sweet together!

We had Christmas with Leilani & family one weekend and on Sunday the grandpas put together the boys Christmas present of a new swing set.

The girls... Leilani, Me, Dill, Laken, Miranda & Dave

Laken and Dave reading a book.

That night, the bar in AV had it's 1 year anniversary of Jeremy's aunt and cousin owning it. They had karaoke... I may or may not have had one too many adult beverages and sang.

This picture cracks me up because it looks like a "couples" shot. Maggie and Lucas (Jeremy's cousin and wife and our close friends) and Jeremy and Harv. I'm not even going to explain Harv.

Harv is infamous for trying to dance with all the ladies and just being obnoxious most of the time but we all like him anyway. When we were leaving he told Jeremy, "You got a pretty little lady there." I'm not sure if I should be flattered or not...

The next day the guys were up bright and early to put together the boys Christmas present from the grandparents. Richard, my dad, and Jeremy took 6 hours on Sunday to put this together. Dave already loves it and I'm sure Dill will too!

Dave "helping"

David and Dillon were watching out the window all day to see when they could go out and play!

Sitting at the picnic table. Yes, this thing is so cool it has a picnic table!

My attempt to get a picture of me and the boys.

Dave and I watching cartoons before he goes to bed.

David won a stocking full of toys at the gas station in Council Grove. I think his grandma signed him up for it. There was actually some awesome stuff in there but we decided that David nor Dillon needed all those toys so we donated them to our local church here in AV to give to kiddos who needed them in the area. I wish David was old enough to understand giving to others, especially at the holidays, but he doesn't quite get it yet.



 The below picture is of Dave with his Oatmeal Rasin cookies and milk for Santa in front of the fireplace. We put them on the hearth because we figured Santa wouldn't miss them there. David and I went to read a Christmas story shortly after we put the cookies out and when we were walking back into the kitchen David yelled "BELLA!" Bella had eaten all but one of the cookies for Santa! We had to replinish the cookies and put them somewhere where she couldn't reach!

We had a pretty quiet Christmas. We were to have Christmas with the Young side on Christmas Eve but my mom was in the hospital that day, so I went to Council Grove for a while in the afternoon and met my brother & his family in the hospital room for a while. We just relaxed that night and opened presents Christmas Day at our house.

The boys with their stockings.

Bella Boo

Bella must have been a good doggie because she had TONS of treats in her stocking.

David's first remote controlled race car.

Dillon got the book, "God Gave us Christmas." It's really good. I would recommend for little ones.

PRESENTS!!! Yes, we did wrap up fruit snacks for Dave. He might have been most excited for those.

The aftermath - halfway cleaned up.

Our happy little family.

Say a little prayer...

I have started and not finished a bizillon posts this past month. Needless to say - it's been a little crazy in the McDiffett household. Let me give you a rundown.

When I left you with our house tour and my mom's birthday/retirement party, none of the Young Family knew what we were in for. My mom has since been admitted to the hospital 3 times and my dad has been admitted to the hospital once. Long long story short... my mom got whooping cough but was undiagnosed for about 3 weeks. She coughed so hard that she ended up being in quite a bit of pain in her rib area because of brusing and possibly pulled muscles. We found out Friday that in the month since her retirement party she's had and maybe still has pertussis (whooping cough), the flu, mono, and a virus. She also will have to get her gallbladder removed sometime as soon as she's well. She's very weak right now and just trying to get better.

My dad was admitted to the hospital on Friday because of the flu but they've since found that his bowel is blocked. Pretty much how he explained it to me was that literally his stomach was in knots. He is better now (Sunday) but my mom was actually admitted to the hospital today (3rd time).

Jeremy, Dave, Dillon and I have all had the flu this week and Dave is just now getting over it for the most part. It's been a bit of a crazy past week. :(

On a more fun and lighter note... I'll be posting pictures in just a few of what has been going on in the past month!

If you are reading this... a quick prayer for health in my family would be greatly appreciated. Not one thing is a huge deal but all the little things added up are getting quite stressful!

A request

It's been requested that I post about my fall on Saturday night...

Saturday night my family had a birthday/retirement party for my mother. My brother, sister-in-law, niece, nephew, dad and Jeremy & I and boys met at the Hays House to surprise my mom with dinner. I had been rounding up a high chair and booster chair for the boys and had noticed a slick spot on the floor but had gingerly walked over it. Well later during the night, I was making a run to the bathroom apparently too fast and wiped out. I'm not talking about a graceful fall... I completely slipped with arms flying up in the air and landed on all fours in the restaurant. Thankfully it was in the corner of the restaurant not in the middle!

My beautiful niece and me at dinner.

My mom, brother and me at dinner.

The birthday girl and her grandkids.

After dinner we had a surprise get together at my parents house with cupcakes, cake and coffee.

 

Yummy cupcakes...

Dave and his cousin Truman wrestling. They play so well together.

Dill, mom's good friend Susan, and friend/former employer Eleanor.  

Two of the couples my parents hang out with. (Betty and Sam, my parents, are in the middle)

Dave doing the dishes after the party. He's such a super helper!

Baby Dill. He turned six months on Sunday. My baby is growing up before my eyes.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

I promise you... I am thankful for much more than just 22 things... I just never got around to positing about all my thankfulness!

It's been a little crazy at the McDiffett household the past few weeks. We had Thanksgiving with my parents, Jeremy's parents and our good friends the Talley's. Jeremy and I made a quick trip to Minnesota for his work. It was a great trip together and I got to go to the Mall of America while he was in meetings. I am not necessarily usually a loner but I LOVED shopping by myself and just spending the day doing exactly what I wanted to do. And maybe it was because it wasn't quite close enough to Christmas or everyone in the Midwest is friendly but I seriously was so impressed with how cheerful and helpful everyone in Minnesota was!

My mom retired on Saturday and her 60th birthday is today. We had dinner and a shindig for her Saturday night. It was fun... pictures to come on that later...

Sunday our house was on the Christmas tour of homes in Alta Vista, along with two others. It was not a big deal, the house just needed to be clean and decorated. I was a little freaked out, to say the least, because I wanted it to look perfect and with two little boys - plus a very sloppy mother - that's hard to do! It ended up being a great day and looking pretty good. I realized I've never posted any pictures of our house so I thought I would do so now!

The Front Porch

My "free" tree... I made this Christmas tree out of a tomato cage and garland I had in a bag from a few Christmases ago... I thought it turned out pretty good considering it was free and I didn't spend the $60 on one I saw from Target that was smaller!

Front Door - I made this inexpensive wreath a few years ago and just fluff every December!

View near front door. The blank wall behind the t.v. is where my shelves will eventually go.

View from near the t.v. That's my mom coming upstairs! She helped me get everything ready.

The Christmas Tree - I'm thinking this is the last year of my tree looking like this. It's so pretty with red, silver, polka dot and striped ornaments! Next year I'm sure Dave will want to have his hand with the tree so we'll cross that bridge then. Might be fun to have all sorts of different ornaments and ones we've made!

Fireplace

I didn't take a good picture of it but our kitchen/dining room is one big room with the fireplace at one end and the kitchen at the other... I love it! It's so warm and cozy in the winter with the fire going!

Our table has rolling chairs and flips over to also be a poker table. Now that we have kiddos, we realize the rolling chairs aren't ideal... we're going to move this to the basement and get a different dining room table but I'm incredibly picky so it may take a while to find something we want for upstairs.

Leilani's step dad made this china cabinet and Jeremy bought it for me our first Christmas that we were married. Herb has since passed away and this piece has a very special place in my heart.

View from the table

Bar

We renovated the kitchen a bit about a year and a half ago. We kept the cabinets but purchased new appliances, put in a new back splash and counter top. Also when we moved in, the house had fake shingles over the soffit above the cabinets. We took that down as well and it's MUCH BETTER!

Our bedroom

Boys Bedroom

Boys/Hall Bathroom

K-State Basement

Spare Bedroom in Basement.

We also have a master bath and bathroom in the basement that I didn't take pictures of. I didn't take pictures of the laundry room or office in the basement either... but there you have it - our humble abode!

Now the most important part of our house...

Dave kept pinching Dillon's cheeks to make him smile.

Mean face

Happy Face

 Happy Monday!