Somebody's Been Very Good

Actually, I think I just whined and moaned enough for the last month about Mark never surprising me or making any effort with gifts that he was determined to prove me wrong this year--and he did! I was secretly hoping he would get me a new camera but I was afraid to get my hopes up! So I was SUPER. EXCITED. to get this little baby on Christmas morning!!
I've been dying for a new camera (and especially this one--it does video and everything!) since the vacation incident with my other one. I didn't want to just go buy a cheap camera so I've borrowed Mom and JJ's and gone without until I could get what I wanted! I found this under the tree on Christmas Eve night. I actually made the mistake of telling Mark that if he really wanted to surprise me he should have hidden it until Christmas morning. I had to repent of that comment later! He tried to trip me up by wrapping a note and sending me on a hunt for the camera. I must brag on him.... he did a great job and I was surprised!! And I know you all are so excited for me to begin posting pictures again! I told him my loyal blog following (all 5 of you!) would be excited for me too!

And, by the way, I actually stuck to the deal this year about not buying presents for each other so I felt like a heel when he had nothing other than some new socks. Hey... I bought him a Wii last year to surprise him and he took it back. Trying already to think of something good for his birthday next month to make up for it!

A Baby Changes Everything

Merry Christmas!!!!

Happy Birthday, Mimi!

Mom has the great misfortune of being born on Christmas Eve. We've tried each year to make it stand out from Christmas, but it doesn't always work out that way with all the hoopla. That was the case this year; however, her presents were a surprise and big hit so I hope that makes up for it.

Happy Birthday, Mom! You are truly a special person. I've been thinking that you must be since your birthday is almost shared with Jesus! I hope it goes without saying that we all love you!!

Looky What I Found

I have known for the last year there was a box in my laundry room with some leftover Christmas stuff in it but I've never paid much attention to it. So tonight I've been looking for 3 movies and a scarf that I've lost that are absolutely driving me crazy! (One of them is "Christmas Vacation" that I've never seen all of!)... anyway, I just went through that box and found some stocking stuffers from last year (can you say "regift?" My kids are 5 and 3--they won't remember!) And I also found a few of mine -- some very nice body lotion and an evelope with FIFTY. DOLLARS. in it!!! Yippee! Of course, Mark had to tell me that he thought it was his because he has been missing a $50 since last Christmas... oh well. The envelope has my name on it.

And....this just proves my point again that we have way too much stuff if we never even missed what we got last year!

Campbell Grace

As promised, here are a few pics of Campbell Grace that were taken yesterday. As you can see, she's a beauty!

Braxton was more interested in the coke than his new baby sis. We keep saying he has no idea how his world is changing!

She's Here!

My first (and probably only!) niece, Campbell Grace, arrived this morning at 10:25 a.m. She weighed 7 lbs. 15 oz. and was 20 inches long. She's absolutely beautiful! I know I don't have a picture to prove it here, but you're just going to have to trust me on this one.

I have given JJ a hard time about letting me be in the delivery room and take pictures and let me tell you, I almost got to be! JJ had the easiest and fastest delivery ever and her sister April and I almost didn't make it out of the room before CG came! :) I told Mom that I would have 10 babies if it were that easy!! Of course, I'm kidding, because Mark always reminds me that they grow up! And I never had a pregnancy or delivery that easy anway! LOL!!

Pictures to follow tomorrow, I promise!!

Christmas Card Pic....Yeah, Right!!!

The boys had on their matching outfits Sunday so Mom wanted to try to get a picture of the kids for her Christmas card. Try being the key word here. As you can see, Braxton didn't really want to cooperate, even when we tried to bribe him with food. I probably wouldn't expect to get this card in the mail from Mom this year!! But aren't they cute???
I thought we would try to get a few shots of us since we were all dressed in our Christmas colors. Thank God that I already have a Christmas card ready (which is a pic of the kids taken at school together-woo hoo!) because none of these are Christmas card worthy. In fact, I can't even believe that I'm posting these now.

In the 30 or so pictures that Jamie took, my eyes are shut in all but about two of them.
So I tried to open my eyes wide.... not very attractive--but still better than shut!

I think Cooper is saying "I've had enough! You told me one more time 30 pictures ago!" Not sure what Mark is saying...
I'm sure I don't have to tell anyone how hard it is to get kids to smile and look the same way at the same time.... who knew it would be so hard for Mark and me too? Smile, Mark. Your expression says "mug shot."

I decided that there is a recurring theme in all 30 pictures and that our card should say:

"Merry Christmas from the Chin's!"

What do you think? I see a Wii Fit in our future!!!

Overwhelmed

Attn: this post contains much whining so you may wish to just skip it and move on today!

I have felt extremely overwhelmed the last few days with everything going on. Let me just say that I know I'm not alone. This time of year is always this way and every year I get frustrated running around like a mad woman trying to buy things for my family who really don't need a thing. So it's no surprise to me that my shopping isn't finished and I'm ok with that. I'd be shocked if it were.... I don't have this weekend to finish it now like I thought, so that presents a challenge that I'm still trying to figure out.

This is a crazy week and I'm trying to figure out how to do everything and be everywhere for everyone... and this morning it just got to me. I called mom on the way to work and said, "I'm overwhelmed with everything!" and she said, "who's not at this time of year?" So I had a mini-meltdown and felt a little better. I was scripting this whole post in my head and now as I sit here I can't remember any of it... As I commented to my secretary this morning that I felt like I was failing miserably at everything she reminded me that was the enemy talking to me. And she's right.... Satan's got me right where he wants me right now. It's easy to feel like a failure when my house is a wreck, I have 2 kids parties to attend today, a Christmas program to get the kids ready for tonight, presents to buy, yada, yada, yada.... and oh yeah, I need to work!!! I have joked that my job has really gotten in the way of my life this week!! Ever feel that way?

As I was driving back to work from Cooper's party, I thought about my aunt who has cancer, Mark's coworker whose dad is in ICU after a serious car accident, his other coworker whose child she was in the process of adopting was violently murdered this week(read the story here... it will break your hear!t) and I thought to myself, "you are being ridiculous, Robyn!" And I was.... this is a season of spreading joy and celebrating and that's not what I've done the last few days.

So I left work again (I told you my job is really interfering with my schedule!) and headed back to Mae's for Kam's Christmas party and program. It was just what I needed to lift my spirits. The kids were so cute singing their songs and ringing their bells! Kam really had a good time... can you believe this is her last Christmas party at preschool?

Now that I've vented and feel MUCH better, it's time to move on with my day and remember the real reason for the season this Christmas!

Busy Weekend

Another pictureless post!!!

We had an extremely busy weekend. I'm not sure I was home for more than 30 minutes at a time until Sunday night. On Friday night, we went to see baby Kason at the hospital. I spent way too long in the room and left my kiddos in the waiting room with Mark and Dad and Derek's kids. I think they had fun. Mark and I both get baby fever when a new baby is born and when I came back to the waiting room, Mark was holding Grace and I could just see it all over his face. I think he would have taken both Grace and Avery home with us that night! But then we take our two wild kiddos home and we are way over the baby fever thing!!!

Mark said that while they were in the waiting room, Tiger Woods came on the TV screen and Braden said, "there's Karack Obama." We got the biggest kick out of him saying that!

We went to Outback with the family to eat afterwords and the kids went to spend the night with Mom and Dad so Mark and I could get up early and shop Saturday morning. Mark likes to go pick out the kids presents but he gets frustrated with the crowds and any shopping outside of what's on the list so I suggested we go either really early in the morning or late at night. Surprisingly, he agreed and we were in the car at 6:30 a.m. headed to Toys R Us. We didn't get it all done but we were back home by noon before the crowds.

I picked up the kids at Mom's and I think she was ready for them to go, even though she would never tell me that. She had Braxton too... she had a 100 things to do and I don't think any of it got done! Welcome to my world!!!

We went to HS to meet Jodie and the girls to see "The Princess and the Frog." I ran into the mall with the kids before, which was a major mistake. What was I thinking? By the way, the movie was cute even though we missed the last 5 minutes because my kids had to potty! Figures!!!

Sunday we went to church and then to play practice. I said I was going to make Mark take them so he could deal with Cooper there because he absolutely will not sit still! I was exhausted by the time we left. I'm anxious to see how he does on Wednesday night at the program. He's been a little terror the last week, but that's another post for another day!!

We took pictures after church Sunday but, of course, I don't have them with me to post and I think that my eyes are closed in 7 out of 8 of them anyway!!!

We went to Mark's work Christmas party last night at Family Farm in Glen Rose. Of course, we were late and when we got in the car to leave Mark said, "so do you know where the party's at?" I'm not even surprised at that question.... what would he do without me? :)

There were several other kids there for ours to play with and the cabin was big enough for them to just run around without worrying about breaking anything...
Santa was there and both kids sat on his lap and told him what they wanted... he even gave them each a toy. Cooper got a gun with balls that he opened and ran around with all night. My social butterfly, Kamdyn, had lots of fun with the other kids.
They had coloring books with their names on them and crayons for the kids... that lasted about 5 minutes.
Mark went to "check on the kids" in the game area and never came back so I ended up playing Dirty Santa with his coworkers while he played ping pong and air hockey. By the way, his work has the best door prizes... they gave away 2 iPods, a Tom Tom, and a 22" flat screen TV. Of course, we didn't win one but I did leave with an iTunes gift card. Don't tell Mark because it will probably end up in his stocking!

Efird #14

Meet Kason James Copeland.... If I'm not mistaken, Kason is Efird "great" #14.... He was born today at 11:00 a.m. and weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long. He looks like a keeper to me (but we've got to do something about that Texas blanket!).... we're excited to go and meet him tonight!

So Much To Be Thankful For...

This is one of those posts where I wish that I had pictures to document the week. I did take a few at Thanksgiving but they are on Mom's camera and not with me here. So I'll just post those later...

We had such a great Thanksgiving week!! The kids were off all week and really enjoyed being at home. Mark took off on Monday and Tuesday to stay with them and I was off the rest of the week. Although I haven't talked about it on here, Mark has been knee deep in a work project that has kept him away from home a lot the last 10 weeks. I dreaded the project because I knew that I would be a single parent for a while (selfish, I know!) but I never dreamed that it would affect the kids the way that it did. They missed their daddy and I now have a new respect for single and divorced parents and children! So I said all that to say that it was nice for the four of us to spend some quality bonding time together.

On Tuesday, we decided to go 4-wheeling. The kids idea, not mine. My plan was to go to the toy store and let them give me some ideas for Christmas but they decided they would rather ride. So we took off for a pretty chilly afternoon ride and went exploring on Jack Mountain. We actually came upon an area that had some pretty poor living conditions, which made me extremely grateful for what I have and caused me to pause to count my blessings again. I don't think I can do this enough!!

You see, we ride around looking at land because we really want to build a bigger "dream" house soon and I've recently come to the place where I've decided that I will be fine if I never get to do that. Isn't there a scripture about being content in whatever circumstance??? Seeing the poor living conditions made me ashamed that I wanted more when I should be extremely grateful for what I do have because so many don't even have that!!

On Wednesday night we went to Mamaw and Papaw's to have dinner with the cousins. I told Mark that I think we had one of the most enjoyable visits we've ever had. Yes, it was crazy, crowded, and chaotic! All Efird get together's are... how can they not be with 13 kids running around (and 2 more on the way in just a few weeks!)? But we love it and wouldn't change it for anything. I have come to realize in the past few years that not everyone has the bond and closeness with their cousins and immediate families the way that we do and it's another thing I'm thankful for this year!

I also thought a lot about my Mamaw Leota this past week. The holidays at the Nivens have not been the same without her. I have a picture of me and her at my wedding that I would love to scan to put here right now but, of course, my scanner's broken and the pic is at home. Mamaw made the best dressing that I've ever eaten. Mark will attest to that.... she always told Mark that she was going to get better so she could make him some dressing again. My Aunt Sharron watched Mamaw make it for years and does as good a job and she carried on that tradition when Mamaw couldn't make it anymore.

For the first time (other than when Kam was born), we ate at Mom's house on Thanksgiving Day. Aunt Pat is not well right now and wasn't feeling up to coming so it was just us and Sharron and Dennis. Please pray for my Aunt Pat as she begins her chemo treatments. She had her first round this week and she tolerated it well. Our prayer is that the chemo will do it's job to treat the lymphoma and she will have minimal side effects.

Although we didn't have Thanksgiving with Mark's family this year, I am extremely grateful for them as well!! We did get to see Papaw Sonny a few weeks ago and we look forward to spending Christmas with them soon.

Whew!!! This post turned into much more than I intended for it to..... but I just couldn't stop the words. I think there is a verse in Ephesians that says something like "God is able to do immeasurably more than we ever hoped for." That's how I feel... my life is more blessed than I could ever hope for! Thank you, God!!

Branson and Black Friday

Mom, Dad, the kids and I left Thursday evening for our annual Thanksgiving trip to Branson. Mark joined us on Friday night. We had such a blast! Again, one of the most enjoyable trips ever! Mom and I got up at 2:45 a.m. to do some Black Friday shopping. I do the same thing every year on this trip. I buy tons of stuff but come home with hardly any Christmas presents. But it's just so much fun!

We went to Branson Landing and Bass Pro on Saturday night. The kids like to see the lights and as Kam said when we were walking there, "it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!" Cooper loves Bass Pro Shop because they get to see the fish and animals. Santa is always there at Christmas time and we actually talked Kamdyn into sitting on his lap for a family picture, although neither of the kids told him what they wanted for Christmas. I was hoping they would tell him because they've not told me a lot!

Bass Pro had a table set up where the kids could make Santa ornaments out of fishing bobbers (is that right? I'm so not a fisherman!) and as I've said a thousand times, crafts are right up Kamdyn's alley!!!

Cooper went ballistic when he saw the remote control race cars and a huge slot track on display that he got to play with. There was a big train on display that he also managed to derail before we left. Here he is with Pop shooting the guns they had out for the kids...
This summer while I was in Branson with students, I discovered a new store called "Ridemakerz" at the landing and I kept telling Mark that Coop would love it because he is so into cars. I made Mark promise that we go there before he and Dad left to go watch the Razorback game (priorities!!) and let me tell you that it was sooooo worth it! I know that the guys probably missed the first half of the game, but my little Cooper was in car heaven! He literally shouted when we walked in the door. There was no way we were getting out of there without him building a car!

Naturally, Kamdyn wanted to build one too so Mimi had to step in and she offered to take her across the street to "Build a Bear" to buy her bear an outfit. She came out of there with a new dog in a police uniform and boots named Tucker, but I digress.

So in this store you choose the car body, wheels, sounds, stickers, etc and totally customize it. This is "Build a Bear" for boys and men.

Cooper chose a red Mustang with flames.... here they are assembling it together.
We let him pick out his wheels but we drew the line there.... he is 3 after all and it is almost Christmas so we didn't opt for the $25 remote control addition.

So excited...Trying out his new ride... his license plate says "Cooper."
I mentioned this was "Build a Bear" for men. I'm not joking when I say that there were grown men in there building cars and my dad was one of them. Not sure what he built but his license plate says "Pop." Here are he and Cooper walking out of the store with their car boxes.

We only had Mark's blackberry to take all these pics but you get the idea. Can I just say that my heart melted when I saw Coop walking out. He was so excited. The first thing he said to my mom when he saw her was, "Mimi, I built a cool car!" He carried that box around the whole night and acted like such a big boy. This car is now our bargaining chip for when he reverts back to his baby talk mode.

It was a great weekend and I hated to come home. Back to life....back to reality!!!!

Cooper's First Visit to the Dentist

Cooper went for his first dentist visit this morning and did great! It helps when your Aunt JJ is the "high dentist" (this is what Kamdyn calls the hygienist). He really liked the chair, unlike his sister, who still won't lay in the chair to get her teeth cleaned.
I think he was a little unsure when JJ put the mask on and broke out the instruments....
He did cry when Jamie was about halfway finished with his polish. I don't think he liked the toothpaste, but he loved the water being squirted in his mouth. Kamdyn had to have it squirted into her mouth too, of course.
Kamdyn told Cooper all the way to the dentist that it didn't hurt, it tickled, and she didn't cry when she had her teeth cleaned. Then the second we walk in the door she turns to me with a panicked look and says, "I'm not getting my teeth cleaned, right?" She then ran over to my lap when Dr. B walked in to check Cooper's teeth.
I was really proud of Cooper during this part of the exam because he actually laid back, opened wide, and let him pick and scrape for a while. Afterwards, Cooper got a toy and Kamdyn got a sticker. She acted just like she had been there for a cleaning herself and wanted me to tell everyone how good she was at the dentist!