Holidays

We made it through Thanksgiving, by far the hardest holiday for me these days. It was 2 years ago, Thanksgiving morning, that my amazing Grandpa was called home to Jesus. He was a great man... exactly who I hope to be in life (well the female version)! He was sarcastic, smart, hard-working, but most of all he loved everyone he met and would take them in as his own family. It didn't matter if you screwed up over and over, he would put ya to work and help you back to your feet. I love you Papa, and can't wait to see you again! :-)

And now it is almost December, is it just me or is time going WAY too fast this year? Nick is almost halfway through Pr-Kindergarten and he is doing really well, if we get any 'bad reports' it's usually something you would expect from a 5 year old boy! Such as today it was just that he was having a hard time standing in the line after school. He kept moving out of the line and whatnot... seems completely normal for this age (and yes we had a talk about it because the teacher has valid concern since it is right next to the parking lot and there are some crazy parents that drive through there!!!!)! This is really good because I was scared of how he would adapt to school since he's never been in daycare or away from me for more than church time.

I made it through the first half of this term in school with 3 classes! Thankfully one was only 4 weeks and it's over now. I am now down to two classes (both subjects that are really hard for me, so not too much better) and only have 3 weeks left till Christmas break! After this term I will be down to 8 months of classes left and then I will have my associates degree in graphic design! Weeee! I haven't decided yet if I will go on to a bachelor's or not, but if I do, I want to take some time off of school first. I love online school, but it is SO fast paced with very little breaks (did I mention Christmas break soon?!?!) that it requires a lot of personal motivation and lots of hard work. I wouldn't change it for anything though because being home with Nick is so special to me. I love that I can do my work after he is in bed or while he is playing with his own toys right in front of me. I can take a break to do things with him and love on him. What's more important than that? Nothing. Nothing I say!

I have been on and off sick for the past 3 weeks, well since Nick's birthday party. And to make it harder, Nick was sick for a good part of that time too. He came home from school one day with a horrible middle ear infection that had busted while at school... when I picked him up there was this nasty, thick brown puss matted on the side of his face and shoulder. I was not at all thrilled with the fact that neither teacher in his class (a sub and his teacher's assistant that day) noticed it at all. But it is what it is. I sent in a letter to the principal so that it was documented on what happened, hopefully nothing else like this happens since this was my biggest fear in sending him to public school. I know that no one will ever watch your child as you do, but this made me remember why I was so set on him being home-schooled. He loves school though, and we haven't had any other real reason to not like it, so we are sticking with public school... for now. I am, however, thankful that I am educated on my options and know that there is online public schools, private schools, and of course home schooling available. I have already done all of my research on how to do it all properly and through which channels, I just hope to never need it unless Nick decides that it's what he wants.

Anyways, that's what is going on with the Ferris fam right now... I feel like something big is coming, something amazing.... although I can't put my finger on it. Maybe 2012 will be a great year for us! I wish you and your family the best holiday season ever! Cherish the month of December; take time to take your kids to see lights or visit Santa, time to drink hot chocolate and cuddle under a warm blanket on a cold day. Most importantly, remember to teach them (and remind yourself!) the real reason for Christmas. Make memories to last a lifetime and keep your priorities in check at a time when it is so easy to focus on material things!


Love,

Nick's 5th Birthday

Nick turned FIVE last week, can you believe it? I can't, I am still in denial. We did a little surprise for him on his actual birthday, mostly to give him the presents from us and to keep it a bit more personal that what would happen at the party, but also so his day was special even though there was still 2 more days till the party. We decorated before bed, so he could wake up to the fun!

He was of course so surprised and love it to pieces. He got a hand-me-down iPod touch and a Power Rangers Morph thingy. Then of course, his favorite which has become a tradition for birthdays, a bag of the little donettes and chocolate milk. His favorite part was, like any 5 year old... the balloons hanging from the ceiling! :-)

For his party, we did a small carnival, which I have worked on for months now. We got this extremely disappointing call around 8:30 am saying that the bounce place wouldn't be bringing out the inflatables we had rented because there was a possibility of a wind advisory later that day (the wind never got bad, but what can ya do?). Thankfully, our church has a small bounce house and they were super awesome and called to offer it to us as soon as they found out. The party went absolutely wonderful, with the small exception of me getting extremely sick in the middle, with what we now know to be the beginning of a pretty bad asthma attack. I pushed through and made sure that my baby's party was amazing, thankfully with the help of some amazing friends!

Karen, Patty and Phylicia, I don't know how I could have done it without you. All three of you could tell something was up and jumped in to help without me asking... even took the time to make me slow down and take care of myself. I couldn't ask for better friends!

Josh and Andrew really rose to the occasion too, and rocked the games and keeping the kids entertained! I think they actually had more fun than most of the kids did!

There were many other friends who helped too, but I couldn't possibly mention them all! Please know that I appreciate every single one of you. Thank you for helping Nick's party flow so well!

Now for some pictures!!!

This one is Nick and his 'girlfriend' Emme. They tagged along together all day, they held hands and cheered each other on for games. They adore each other, and it's a great thing her mom and I get along, because I see a lifetime of friendship beginning!

 And another of them in clown attire:

This is him wearing the hat that Emme gave him (she also had several pictures she drew for him!) *awe*:

 Ring toss:

Finger painting wall:

Donut on a string:

Victory:

The cake I made him:

Just so you can see the inside of it:

To do this, I made the cake batter and separated it and colored it with gel food coloring. You want the batter to be the color you want the final result to be. Then I used my cake ball/doughnut hole maker (bought at Target) and made several different colored balls. Then when I poured the cake in the pans, I put the cake balls into the batter. I cut some in half to put against the edge of the pan, although, with stacking cakes and frosting it, you can't really tell, so next time I will just do the full ones. Then I colored the frosting again with the gel food coloring (you can find it in the craft section of Walmart by the wedding cake stuff). Then I covered it in sprinkles.

I found the little bitty cones at Target and stuffed them with the trimmings that I cut off the top of the cake and then used the chocolate frosting in a squirt can to make the top look like ice cream, and then topped with a sour cherry. :-)

And just because I can... here is my hubby! He was awesome and even had a dino tattoo on his check! Hot stuff! :)

 The day was absolutely perfect, and wore us all out!!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing our special day!

Welcome!

Hello, and welcome to the new blog. My other blog became too personal a few months ago, so I hid it from the public and made it for close friends only. So this blog will become the new place for family things! I hope you will all stay around and become part of our family! :)