Christmas Review/Good-bye 2007!

I've got to get better about blogging more often. Sorry for all 2 of you that actually read this! Our Christmas was amazing! On Christmas Eve, we cooked all day to get ready for that night and then we attended our church's Christmas Eve service. Paige actually did pretty well during the service and only yelled out "It's Funny!" a few times. I think everyone got a kick out of hearing her say that anyway. After church, we went to my mom's house to celebrate with mom's extended family....aunts, uncles, and cousins. We came home and got to bed at around midnight. The next morning, we woke Paige up bright and early to see her Santa haul.

*Paige is crying, so I'll finish this post later!

Ok, it's the next morning now, but I'm able to finish this post. Where was I? Oh yeah......SANTA! Santa brought Paige lots of kitchen accessories and Barbies because my parents got her a huge play kitchen and hubby's parents got her a 3 story Barbie dream house....yes, she's only 21 months old! We lucked out and were able to just buy accessories! After Christmas at our house on Christmas morning, we headed to my parents house who thankfully live 4 minutes from our house. It's a major blessing to have them so close. We opened lots of presents there, too! Hubby got 2 tickets to the George Strait concert on January 12-I'm so excited! When we left my parents's house, we headed 25 miles up the interstate to Hubby's parents. We had a HUGE Christmas with his brother, sister, and their families. Too much stuff. After all the presents were opened, we all sat around and talked and were able to catch up on some much needed sleep!

As 2008 is now here, we're hoping for a healthy, safe new year. Paige has been battling some sort of virus off and on for about a month now and we're getting pretty tired of her feeling rotten. We're praying for some wisdom on what to do for her and what doctor to take her to. I hope everyone had a safe New Year's Eve....we went to dinner with friends and then bowling. We were in bed by 10:45....fuddy duds, I know! Blessings to all!

Christmas is almost here!

I cannot believe that Christmas is 5 days away! That's just insanity to me. It's been quite the busy week around the Banning house...but what week isn't crazy around here? Kids Count Preschool got out for Christmas Break yesterday afternoon after a large "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Party. We watched a movie with all the kids in the Worship Center of the church on the big screen, then we ordered pizza for lunch and had birthday cake for Jesus...with candles and everything! My kids absolutely had a wonderful time. We made lots of homemade ornaments for their parents and talked over and over again about the greatest Christmas gift of all-JESUS! I was worried that my students wouldn't want to crash for a nap after all of the party madness, but they actually slept better than normal. :) Praise the Lord!

Stephen went shopping for Christmas gifts with his brother, dad, and brother in law last night. They left right after school and didn't return until after 10pm last night. After Paige woke up from her nap yesterday, she was running a 102 fever. I gave her Tylenol, but by bedtime it had actually gone up to 103! I gave her Motrin then and she went right to bed. When she woke up this morning, it spiked at 104...poor baby! She was shaking all over trying to get rid of the fever and didn't want me to let go of her. I wasn't planning on taking her to the doctor if her fever had stayed around 102, but I would have been a bad mother if I hadn't taken her with a 104 temp. Dr. P. said that it was just viral and to keep her very hydrated and keep Motrin in her system. I'm thankful that she doesn't have an infection somewhere, but in the same breath, it's very frustrating to hear the "it's just viral" answer.

Stephen's school is having snacks this week to celebrate Christmas/Christmas Break, so on top of taking care of my sick baby, I got up this morning and made mini-muffin omelets. The recipe is super easy and Stephen LOVES them. I think he got lots of requests for the recipe and the school secretary told him that he could have an entire box of red pens (he needed them to grade with!) since I could cook so well! I took that as a huge compliment.

I'm preparing today for our annual Banning Family Christmas dinner tomorrow night. I have Stephen's brother and his family, his sister and her family, and his parents over every year for ham and all the "fixings". This year I'm baking the ham, making hashbrown casserole, corn casserole, green beans with brown sugar and butter, black eyed peas, and puff pastry breadsticks. For dessert, I'm serving Christmas tree shaped sugar cookies, brownies, and banana nut bundt cake. Anyone hungry yet??? Please pray for my sanity!

It's been a trying morning!

Bless her heart, my new little girl, S, is having a rough morning. First, she took the baby doll stroller away from L and growled at her. Then, during recess, she took a plastic bowling ball pin and threw it down the slide towards one of my little boys, B. I took her aside and talked to her and prayed with her and told her that she wasn't making a good decision. She absolutely refused to aplogize to B. She just sat next to me and cried "I want my momma!" She did that when I got onto her for taking the baby doll stroller away from L. She's an only child with Dad not being around much and you can definately tell! Right now, she can't keep her hands off of B while they are watching a Christmas movie. UGH! I'll update more later after the day is over.....

So thankful....

I'm so thankful for many things in my life....my God, my husband, my daughter, my family, my job, my friends, my house, my warm bed....the list could go on and on! I think that so many times, especially during this Christmas season, we get bogged down with the "gimmes" and the "I wants" when we should be so thankful for God's many numerous blessings. It's so easy to get caught up in the gifts (which are fun to give and to get!) or decorating or baking or whatever it is, but it's so important to stop and give thanks.

Enough on my soapbox! I have a new little girl in my class today...S. S is cheerful, smart, and loving....but most importantly, she's a GiRL! I have 3 boys and now 2 girls....L and I were drowning in testosterone alone! Now S can join along! She's been a wonderful additon to my classroom today. Her mom told me that she doesn't nap at home, but she was my first student asleep at naptime today! Praise God! He's so good and provides exactly what we need. S reminds me a LOT of Paige, and that's comforting to me somehow.

I'm just in one of those "God is AMAZING" moods and had to share!

I've forgotten to blog this week!

I've realized every day this week that I haven't blogged, but then I'll get busy doing something else and forget again to blog. Oh well, not like my life is that exciting anyway! The school week for me was pretty good...we decorated the hallway for Christmas and winter. It looks really cute! Paige has had a good week. We've gone to 2 of my Dad's basketball games, so that has kept us busy. We're looking at going to Conway tomorrow with our good friends and their son, who is just 7 weeks younger than Paige. They play really well together! Seriously, there's not much going on around here-just trying to gear up for Christmas! I've still got a few presents to buy, but I'm ALMOST done! Woo HOO!

I've been a Myspace blogger......

I've been blogger on myspace off and on for a few months now, but for some reason I can't figure out how to post pictures to those blogs, so I hope this is much simpler for me!

I'm Maranda...married to Stephen for almost 5 years (WOW!) and we have a beautiful daughter, Paige Allison who will be 2 in March. We have an incredibly blessed life. We live in Clarksville, AR where Stephen teaches and coaches at the Junior High. I'm a part-time 2 year old preschool teacher and a stay at home Mom. They are the best jobs in the world!

Starting after this post, I'll just type about what happened in my crazy life that day or some other random thoughts. Being a preschool teacher and a mom can bring along some pretty hilarious sayings/thoughts! I'll share those, too.