Reminder

Last week I felt like I needed a reminder. I needed to be reminded how lucky I am. That even when I have bad days, they truly aren't that bad. That even though I am busy, I am blessed.
And then I got the reminder.
Today, I am heart heavy for all the families and friends in the United States as we are heart broken over the tragadies of Shady Hook Elementary.
I got my reminder and my heart is broken and I know that it will be a while before we as a nation start to put the pieces together and live in a new normal. A normal knowing that there was a shooting in one of our schools. A normal where several families are missing someone. A normal where heaven gained angels a little too soon. A normal where we will constantly question our saftey and the safety of our loved ones. A normal where I will be more aware of the things that I am thankful for and a normal where I will love just a little bit harder.
Prayers to all the families and friends effected by the shooting.

Super Hero Christmas

This year's trip to visit Santa was unlike any years before.
This year it was an event that we were able to spend with Terry's family and my mom was able to join as well. This year instead of the craziest and cutest Christmas outfits, my kids convinced me to allow them to wear superhero attire. And this year was perfect!

My Super Hero Littles 

We all met at our house and took some pictures. Terry's mom and sister along with her son and boyfriend, my mom, Aunt Jordan, and even Uncle Joe all participated in some part of the night. I love having everyone together, especially when it comes to the holidays and occasions. I feel like those are staple memories that I have from my childhood and I was to make sure my children have the same vivid memories... family, laughter, tradition, hope, peace, and love. Most of all love.

Remedy

Justice - my nephew

My littles

Lyric

My sister in law Jessica and her boyfriend Chris

Hubby

Love that rotten little face!

My husband and his mom and sister

The boys!

We went to Bass Pro and played and then ate dinner at Nakato. It was Jessica's (my sister in laws) first time to eat there and she was of course impressed!

Justice riding the Christmas reindeer

Lyric

Remedy and Daddy

The Cousins in the ATV

Silly Boys

After dinner we all made our way to the mall for a little shopping and of course the candy store.

Eating with their chopsticks

My mommas!

Big kids walking through the mall

The Candy Store... 

Bags Ready!

We ended the night at the McDonalds play place and I honestly think that my children slept better that night than they have in a very long time. :)
Happy Holidays from the Scott Family!

Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree!

So I finally put up our Christmas tree!

Yay!
I say finally because it is December 11th and I like to have my tree up on December 1st... this year that just didn't happen.
But all is well... I am so happy with the way the tree turned out this year.

I love ornaments and we have a few on our tree that are special.
We have a black 'S' and that is the first ornament that Terry and I bought for our first tree 6 years ago, Crazy!
We have a fire place ornament that has three stockings, all hung in a row labeled, Daddy, Mommy, and Lyric from our first Christmas as a family.
We have several ornaments handmade by a close family friend... she makes the kids an ornament each year... this year we added a bottle cap Santa ornament and a over sized bell that says, Blessings. They are gorgeous! She even made Terry one that is a Mr.Fix It! Too cute!
And we have two new ornaments on the tree this year... Lyric and Remedy both picked out an ornament and we made a full night out of the process.
We went and ate at Tongs, amazing Thai cuisine! Then ornament hunting! It was so fun! Lyric and Remedy found their ornaments very quickly and they are now hanging on their new home... :)

Lyric's Power Ranger

Remedy's Olivia

I am so ready to have all the packages wrapped and under the tree... and even more ready to lay out milk and cookies so Santa can visit :)

It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!
I love that... I love everything about December...
I love the weather.
I love the lights.
Decorating.
Hot drinks.
Parties.
And most of all the magic.

Ever since I was little holidays have always been a big deal in my family. My parents always went above and beyond and it honestly was a staple in my childhood. Now being a parent myself I totally understand why they worked so hard to make sure that we did all the fun, little, marvelous things that I still to this day remember. It is truly amazing to see my kids faces light up when they realize all the magic and wonder centered around the holidays.

Tonight we did lots of Christmas-y things...

I printed off the cutest holiday coloring pages and we made pictures for some of our favorite people...

Get your coloring pages here.

We also make sugar cookies, iced them, and added green sprinkles.

I made some, if I must say fabulous hot coco... and Lyric enjoyed drinking from a festive cup :)

We got into Christmas jammies and snuggled up on the couch to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I think I will always love the song, Where are you Christmas that Cindy-Lou-Who sings...

Perfect night with my littles... just wish Terry could have been home to have all the fun with us.

On another note...
Last night we introduced Lyric and Remedy to the newest member of our family, Fred the Elf. It was wonderful. We all sat down and opened our Elf on the Shelf box and read the book first... Such a wonderful idea and honestly Lyric was listening so intently and he understood the entire concept. Then it was time to name our little scout elf and Lyric had been thinking all day and Fred was the choice. Our first night/day with Fred has been wonderful... I can already see a difference in the behavior since he is watching and reporting to Santa... can I keep Fred year round?

If you haven't gotten your scout elf you still have time... Here you can find all the Elf Adoption Centers near you!

We also got email videos from Santa! Lyric and Remedy were thrilled... they were personalized and Santa gave them an update on what they needed to work on so as to stay on the nice list... Such a wonderful experience. If you want a video emailed from Santa and his elves, take five minutes and do it here.

It's beginning to feel a lot like Christmas... and I love it. I am so excited to see what Fred has coming up for the Scott household!

Visitor :)

This past weekend Lauren came in town from Joplin...
We had the best time :)

Lauren and I - She is so pretty :)

Me and my gorgeous best!

Girlies!

High School Besties... such awesome girls!

:)

Deck the Halls

It is Christmas season and that means lots of work for my husband. Since he has a bigger bar now he is working the Christmas parties... this week he works every night but Wednesday. While he is at work I have started decorating the house! I have almost everything done with the exception of the tree... that will wait til Daddy is home and we can all do it together!

We are also starting 'Elf on the Shelf' tomorrow night... I will share all the fun details, promise!

All the Stockings Hung in a Row

Remedy's plush elf Ellen :)

Countdown to Santa!

It all lights up and plays music... the kids love it!

Entry way table

My jingle bell centerpiece

I love bows :)

Of course I will be posting pictures of the tree once we get it up!

In other news, mom is doing wonderful and Lyric will be playing basketball again this winter.

Crazy news... Remedy will be 2 in three months!

Stay tuned...

Operation

Well Monday was the big day... My mom had gastric by-pass. I woke up very early, being that we had to arrive at surgery admissions at 6am, and I was so excited. I was prepared. I was ready to be a supporter on the sidelines to a stead handed team of professionals and a brave woman as they took the first steps into a whole new life for my momma. My mom however was not as ready as I was. I was not expecting her to be as nervous as she was... I was expecting her to be just as calm as she had been through the support group meetings, lectures, and long conversations we had for months about this surgery. But she wasn't... She was scared. She was scared and questioning if this surgery was worth all of the risks.

My mom and I in the holding area waiting to check in for surgery

At about 8am she finally went back to surgery and after many pager malfunctions we were finally told that she had a perfect procedure. At 10:45 am, I finally got to say that my mom was a post-op gastric by-pass patient... and I could not wait to see her!

A window full of flowers for mom!

The night of surgery she did amazing. She was up and walking and in little pain. All things were going according to our plan and the doctors agenda. That was until Tuesday night...

Tuesday night she started bleeding and with the amount of blood she lost her blood pressure dropped dramatically. It was so scary. This was not according to our plan. Long story short, my mom had 2 blood transfusions, got a pic line for the mass amounts of fluids that they gave her, was transferred to icu, had scary low blood pressures, and recovered from it all. Ahh... she never ceases to amaze me by her strength. She is so tough and a fighter and she is my role model.

Lyric and Gramie after she got out of  Intensive Care 

Today she is being released from the hospital. She will go home without the pic line or the drain and she will start living and losing!

Headed home :)

Thank you all for the prayers and hugs to everyone who has followed the journey this far here and through Facebook. I cannot wait to post progression photos and updates for you all.

Lots of  love!