Aly's gift from Mommy and Daddy

Aly's gifts from Santa

Aly's Advent Box

Aly candies from her Advent box

Aly and Grandpa Eddie playing

Aly and GG

Little princess and Aunt Cheryl

Christmas morning

Looking in her stocking

that took about 2 seconds to start eating one of those suckers from her stocking

Austin and Nate

Aly opening her new baby doll Gracie

Uncle DJ is looking for his other present, Oh wait, I forgot it at home

Aly and Papa

Alice's Gingerbread man from Austin

Melissa and Maddy

Whoo hoo, brett got some new PJ's!!! (just kidding, they weren't his)

The kids got a basket of goodies for John and Alice for there road trip

All the boys got snow shovels

Aly and Uncle DJ

Aly and MiMi

Whew, what a wonderful Christmas we had! We are so blessed to have so many generous and loving people in our lives. We have been working hard with Aly making sure she knows what Christmas is and why we celebrate it. If you ask her what is Christmas she will tell you “Jesus’s birthday.” We really want her growing up knowing that it’s not about Santa and all the presents but what all of that represents to us!

Aly was really into Christmas lights this year. We have a few snow men that we have in the front yard and everyday when we came down the street she was so excited. Everyday it was like the first time she was seeing them. She pointed out lights at every house that had them on, I know she is going to be sad when people start taking them down.

We had the annual Stone Christmas party at Aunt Lanes house on Sat the 17^th. It was a great time. It’s funny how much it has changed in the past few years. We went from it being all big kids to lots of little ones. All the kids had a great time playing and opening gifts. Aly got a new pink kitchen from Aunt Lane and an Easel with a white board and a chalk board. She loves them both but I think the Kitchen gets the award of the year for the favorite gift. She didn’t think much of it when she opened it because it was just a box but now she loves it so much!!! The Easel came in handy this year too with our Elf Rosie, Rosie enjoyed leaving Aly messages on it too!!! JV and I also got a few wonderful gifts that will go to great use!

Alice has always had a tradition of doing the Advent boxes for the grandkids and this year Aly was old enough to understand so she got to play too. She had a treat in her box everyday (usually it was teddy grahams or Reese’s pieces) and she loved picking which box to open and getting her treat. She is still asking about opening her box so its taken some explaining to make her understand that its only for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we went to Dad’s house this year (kind of sad to think this might be the last Christmas Eve we get to spend in that house though). Again the kids had a blast and were spoiled way to much. Aly receive 3 laptop computers, a few games for the Wii, a baby doll, some PJ’s, shirts and a new bank to keep her money in (following the Dave Ramsey system). When we got home from Dad’s we set out some milk and cookies for Santa and put the little one to bed.

Christmas morning we had to wake Aly up at 8:00. She was so excited to see what Santa brought her. Here is the run down: In her stocking was some play dough, a Dora sippy cup and snack bowls, crayons and candy. Then Santa left her a Dora lap board, some coloring books and a few other books. From mommy and Daddy Aly got: A mobigo system (kind of like a game boy for little ones) a Mickey Mouse game, 2 princess books with her name in them, a shopping cart, some PJ’s, some crocs and a purse. She was so excited!!! We went to church also at 10:45 so we had to hurry out of the house. It was a great service. There wasn’t any child care so Aly stayed in there with us. Dad and Aunt Cheryl came too (along with the entire Manderscheid group) so it was good to spend a little extra time with them too!!

After church we went to the Manderscheid’s for the day. We had a wonderful brunch and then opened gifts. Aly got more wonderful things: A few games (Eleafun and 2 craft games) some clothes, a new baby doll with long hair to brush, coloring stuff, a soccer ball and a soccer goal to play with outside. I think she was on present and stimulation over load by this time. She actually asked to take a nap, Lol. We stayed over there for most of the day. The kids went down stairs and watched Kung Fu Panda 2 while the adults opened there gifts. Again we got several very nice gifts. I got a Cricut machine for scrapbooking which I’m so excited about (its an electronic paper cutter for making stickers and things to decorate my scrapbooks with). JV got some shoes, a sweatshirt and several other things. It was a great, relaxing few days.

On Monday JV and I were home from work so we got to spend the day with Aly playing with all her new games and toys. We are just so so blessed and couldn’t have asked for a better Christmas! Thank you to everyone for making it a wonderful Holiday!!!!

Aly's Elf Rosie

This year we took part in the Christmas tradition, Elf on a Shelf. We changed it a little to adapt more for us but it still was a lot of fun. For those of you who don’t know the tradition here it is: Every year Santa sends an Elf to your house at the beginning of December to help keep watch over the children to make sure they are good enough to stay on the Nice list. Every night your Elf will fly back to the North Pole and give Santa an update about how the kids are behaving. When the Elfs return to your home they sometimes get into things but they are in a new place every morning. The kids find the Elf in the morning so they know where he/she is to see if they are watching.

Our Elf that Santa sent was named Rosie. She was a cute little thing. Rosie was sitting on our door step on Dec. 3 with a letter from Santa explaining everything to Aly about who she was and what she was doing there. The letter also stated that Aly couldn’t touch Rosie because if she did, Rosie would loss her powers to fly and then she couldn’t go back to see Santa. Rosie got into some things during the night but most of the time was a well behaved Elf. She got hungry one night and ate some of Aly’s fruit loops. Then I guess the next night she got bored and played with Aly’s blocks. We found her reading a book to baby Molly and Elmo one morning too. She brought Aly a sucker from Santa one morning too just to let her know he was proud of the good job she was doing. On the 23^rd Rosie brought Aly a slinky and hid it in her kitchen and wrote a poem on Aly’s new board telling Aly where to find it. Rosie was a great Elf but she had to return to the North Pole last night and we won’t see her until next year. She let Aly give her a hug and kiss goodbye though since that was Rosie’s last day!

Aly really enjoyed this. Every morning she woke up and said “Where is Rosie?” When she found her it was always the highlight of her morning. She would say “that silly Rosie” So cute!!! We can’t wait for next year to see what kind of Silly things Rosie will get into!

A poem from Rosie " for my last day here, I have left you a surprise, go to your kitchen and open you eyes!" There was a slinky inside her kitchen from Rosie!

Sitting in the high chair attached to Aly's kitchen

We found Rosie reading a book to baby Molly and Elmo

And watching TV on Aly's chair

And playing with Aly's blocks

Eating her fruit loops

Thanksgiving Week 2011

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year (not that we didn't last year but it was defiantly a much better experience. Aly had hand foot mouth last year so it was interesting). We went to Dad's house on Thursday and then had the Manderscheid's on Sunday. We had decided after Easter this year that we were not going to celebrate with both family's on the same day anymore because it was just to hard on everyone so it worked out nice to have them on different days so we didn't miss any one or any thing!! We had the traditional Jackson Thanksgiving (Fried turkey and casseroles galore, Yum) and had a great time. Aly spent some time on the swing out front and had a good time. The Deegan's were in Charleston this year so we missed them.

Then on Sunday we had the Manderscheid Thanksgiving after church and it was also a good time. Lots and Lots of yummy food and great company.

On Friday after Thanksgiving we had such a great family day. We went to Home Depot and picked out our Christmas Tree, Aly got to have the final say so this year and she picked a great one. Then we went to Stevie B's pizza (its like CiCi's) and had lunch. JV and I ate Pizza and Aly ate Salad! Who's kid is this???? Then we went to pets smart and walked around and looked at the animals. We were in no hurry and thought it would be fun just to wonder a bit. Aly loved looking at the fish, birds and all the people Dogs they had there.

After her nap we decorated the Tree together. Aly put all her ordainment on the tree and helped Daddy with the lights. My dad has a habit of giving us singing toys and Aly is having a blast playing with them. Most of the time she turns them on at the same time so we have 2 ridiculously loud Christmas carlos going at the same time. We realized last night that one of them had mysteriously jumped on top of the refrigerator behind the crock pot so he is in a time out. I was struggling to find a place to put my Christmas town so I had decided to pick 2 and just put those out but when I went up stairs I couldn't chose so they are all out but in 2 different places but it makes me happy to see them so its ok! :)

On a few other medical notes, Aunt Cheryl is doing much better. She seems to be getting stronger every day (she was in the hospital for a little over a week for some colon issues) so all the wonderful prayers are/were working!!! Aly has had some troubles this week. She started getting sick on Sunday and then I took her to the Dr. on Tuesday and she had strep throat and a pretty bad cold. She stayed at home with me on Tuesday and then went to MiMi's and Papa's house yesterday to recover. She looks and sounds so much better today so I think the antibiotic is working!!!

On another note, it looks like my Dad is moving to Panama City, FL. in the next few months. He has a wonderful friend Kyle who owns 2 body shops down there and is opening another one in Panama City and he has asked Dad to come and run it for him. This is a great opportunity for everyone involved and we are excited about the possibilities that it brings for everyone. Its going to be hard to see him go and not have him here everyday (and it looks like no more lunches from him for a while). I am going to be running this shop here for now and we will be looking for someone to help me with the body shop operations soon.

We are so so excited about Christmas this year and have so much to be thankful for.

Gymnastics

So Aly has been doing Gymnastics for the past few weeks and is absolulty loving it!!! We go Sat. mornings for an hour. She is having a great time. Its hard to get pictures because i'm having to help her with everything but I go a few this past week. We did a little bit on the bars and rings and then did an obstical course kind of thing. If you ask her what she learns at "Nastics" as she calls it, she will start jumping up and down and thats all she thinks she learns but its not. She really like the rings and swinging on them and loves walking across the balance beam. I think her favorite thing was the long trampoline, she bounced all the way down and then starts running back to the line.

Its nice for her to be around some other girls too. Since our family's have so many boys she doesn't get a lot of girl time so we are working on it. They have a castle bounce house and I am struggling to make her get in there. I talked her into this past week and she jumped once and freaked out and we got her out. There is a slide in there and before this session is over I will get her down that slide. Me and another mom tried to get her to go with Taylor and go down and she wouldn't do it. Taylor is our little energy, fearless child so we are working on getting her to play with Taylor.

They get 2 stamps after class and its become an issue for washing her feet afterwards because she doesn't want them to go away. I'm going to have JV come one day and take some other pictures so I can share those too!!!

Trying to learn a Kart Wheel

Jumped off the balance beam

Swinging on the rings

Playing ring around the rosey on the parachute

Before class in her leotard