Monday, December 30, 2013

Christmas 2013

We had a great (albeit short) Christmas! Christmas Eve we had a huge dinner at my house. I just wasn’t up for turkey and all the trimmings, so Mom made a couple of her classic arabic dishes, my sis in-law brought a huge salad and I made my corn casserole, not to toot my own horn but it was a hit! The kids had a blast playing together and we enjoyed some good ol’ fashioned family time.

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Everybody cleared out, and we got the kids to bed then Santa got to work. We had so much fun putting all their stuff out and stuffing their stockings!

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Christmas morning Zayd popped out of bed and came downstairs to greet us with a lot of excitement, although I’m not sure who was more excited, him or us!

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The Dora motorized riding toy was from Aunt Talia and the bike was from Nana. I think Z will be riding that bike for years to come! He loves it! Lu loves her “Doh-doh” riding toy too!

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Nick bought Z the nerf bow and arrow, and it is definitely one of his favorites!

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We’re still working on the whole don’t aim at your sister thing.

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Christmas day is so great because you have to stay home, even if you wanted to go somewhere you can’t, and there’s just something really great about that.

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Wednesday, December 25, 2013

Love from the Gax's

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas filled with love, laughter, and cheer! We had an awesome day with the kids filled with presents, treats, naps, and lots of playing and spending time together. Here's to more fun with family!


Tuesday, December 24, 2013

Monday, December 23, 2013

12 Things About Z

I’ve decided to do a little series called 12 things you didn’t know (or maybe you did) about my children.

1. Z is really into superheroes and Star Wars (still). He also loves Power Rangers, many mornings he wakes up declaring he is the red ranger today, or Batman, or Spiderman, just depends on the day. And if you call him Zayd, he will be sure to correct you!

*Baba, you have to get these!!

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2. He’s gotten so much better at coloring, and can somewhat stay inside the lines. He is still working on writing his name, right now it just looks like 4 or 5 lines going in different directions.

3. His favorite color is red.

4. He still sleeps with his 2 winnies, right now they are joined by Mario and Luigi. And, they have to be in the right “pattern.” Winnie, Mario, Zayd, Luigi, Winnie.

*They’re both pretending here

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5. Speaking of, he LOVES video games, especially the Lego series, like Lego Marvel Superheroes and Lego Marvel Batman. That is usually the way we get him to leave Nunna and Jido’s house without crying is to tell him he’s going to get to play Lego Marvel Superheroes with Baba and the “black nin-trollers” (Playstation).

6. He saw his first ever theater movie yesterday! It was Frozen, which according to Nick bored him a bit and he is referring to as “The Princess Movie.” I guess it is geared more toward girls. On the bright side, he loved the previews and can’t wait to see How to Train a Dragon 2 (after he sees How to Train a Dragon, which lucky for him is coming on TV on Christmas)

7. He’s been really wary about having bad dreams. So, we tell “stories” every night to try and fight that. They are the same stories, although we recently replaced the beach trip story with the “going to the hotel” story (about when we stayed at the Opryland hotel). We also have to talk about going to the “blue store” (Walmart), is he a southern kid or what?! Particularly about how we go to the toy section and pick out toys. These things obviously make him happy.

8. He is taking swim lessons all through this winter so hopefully we’ll be a little more comfortable in the pool this summer. They are going pretty well, he’s not as freaked out about going under, but he doesn’t really want to do it a bunch either. He has started using the paddleboard and the noodle somewhat unassisted, which I think is progress, and he doesn’t dread going anymore either. He actually likes it now.

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9. I don’t really think he has a favorite food. He’s just not that into food. He does LOVE blackberries and macaroni and cheese and pizza (who doesn’t?).

10. He loves playing Candy Crush with Jido. He commentates and his little toes are going crazy the whole time they are playing.

11. Nick has started reading more complicated chapter books to Z at night, and he really likes them, he even recognizes some of the words like in, is, and the.

12. He loves to look at “people pi-chures” (instagram). He asks me all of their names and when we don’t know one, he says “Paddison!” I have NO idea where he got this from, but it is an ongoing thing, and one night when we already had a lot of Paddisons, he threw in “Pacha!” So, if he doesn’t know your name, don’t be surprised if you are called Paddison or Pacha.

Bonus Fact: He loves music and dancing! He really has his own taste in music, but he also takes a lot of cues from us. If he hears Nick or me singing loudly to a song, he immediately starts to like it. He likes “Don’t Stop Believin,’” “Safe and Sound,” and wait for it, “Cruise” by Florida Georgia Line. That may be his favorite! (Nick would want me to clarify that Cruise comes from me and NOT him).

This list had to be totally boring for anyone not related to Z, and even those of you who are probably skimmed it. I’m sorry, I just wanted to stop and dedicate a whole post to each of my babies. After all, that’s what this thing is supposed to be about anyway. 

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Thursday, December 19, 2013

Holiday Activities

This holiday season has been busy busy. We’ve been birthday partying

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Bass Pro Shopping

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Teacher gifting

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Santa picturing

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School partying (and tacky Christmas wearing)

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and Opryland hoteling

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It has been so fun so far! We had a blast at the Opryland hotel with Nana and Tata! It was beautiful, and I think Z’s favorite activities were swimming in the (awesome) indoor pool and eating breakfast with Shrek! When he was packing his suitcase, he told Nick “I love suitcases and adventures!” We do too, man. However, pretty sure we need a vacation after that one!

Otherwise, we’ve been busy making and eating treats, wrapping presents and getting excited for a lot of time off, good food, and family time! Happy holidays friends!

Thursday, December 5, 2013

Thanksgiving and Such

Now that Thanksgiving is long over, I guess I’ll try to sit down and blog about it.

Let’s see, there was talk of snow on Wednesday, I only remember that because it jeopardized my once a year “day of fun” (the one day that the kids’ school opens and my office closes). Fear not, they only had a delayed opening, which was actually really nice because I got to eat breakfast with them and hang with them for a while before school.

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I promised Z that I would pick him up early and overheard him tell his teacher “Ms. Tracye, my mom said she’s gonna come pick me up in just a few minutes.” Not exactly, but you better believe I wasn’t letting him stay a full day.

I went home and mashed some potatoes and made some desserts for Thanksgiving, which made things much simpler, totally worth it. Then, me and mom and Margo went went shopping (it couldn’t be all work and no play). The kids were excited to have extra visitors at pick up that day.

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We spent the evening at Nunna and Jido’s where an impromptu dance party took place.

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Then, Thanksgiving. All I remember was a lot of cooking and preparing, eating, then feeling very sleepy…

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We were happy to host my parents this Thanksgiving, and I was also happy to have both of my kids at our Thanksgiving table eating some of the food we worked so hard to prepare! That was a treat!

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I really have very little recollection of the rest of the weekend, mostly because Lu started running a fever Friday afternoon that turned into a double ear infection, and I can only think in terms of degrees.

It was a great weekend though (besides Lu being sick). We even got in some decorating, video game playing, a Christmas movie (or two), a girls mall trip and a family trip to the outlets.

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