the best camel ever!!!!

Anthony's Christmas program at WEE school was last week and he was the cutest camel I have ever seen. I was a little worried earlier in the month because everytime I asked him what he was going to be in his program he always said "I'm not doing it because I don't want to." I could totally see him refusing to go on the stage because he does get pretty shy with a lot of people around. Well, about 3 days before his program he decided that he was excited and finally told me he was going to be a camel.

He has had a cough for about the last month but I really think that sometimes when he coughs it's totally fake. Well the morning of the program he coughed all morning. I gave him cough drops hoping that would help but I guess it didn't because he proceeded to cough through the entire program! I'm sure there were some upset mothers that thought I brought my sick child to the program but I think half of the time he was coughing up there it was fake. LeAnna told him in the middle of the program to quit coughing. LOL. Anyway, I still think he was the most handsome camel ever and he did great. By the end of the program his camel was having some issues though.

Anthony coughing! It was quite dramatic.
Camel starting to go sideways.

Camel even more sideways!

At the end of the program his camel was completely backwards. He said he knew it was but thought it was ok that way and didn't want to disturb the camel by messing with him.

Caroline at the reception after the program. She loved to watch the program but gave us a running commentary of the whole thing. She would say "Oh look a MOO cow, a baby, a dog". She was too cute though.

snow and lots of ugly sweaters!

The kids had a great time with the snow last week. We played outside forever and built a snowman and had a snow ball fight. Caroline definately likes it more this year than she did last year. I told Anthony to go put his snow clothes on so we could go outside to play and when I got my clothes on and came out of the bedroom this is what I found!

Making a snow angel

My daddy

Anthony, Nanny, Papa, and Caroline had a snowball fight. Here is Anthony getting his Nanny.

Our snowman!

We also had my family's Christmas party on Saturday and we had an ugly Christmas sweater party. I had already made my sweater for the work Christmas party but I added a few more things to the outfit for this party. Charlie found these "fabulous" stirrup pants for me to wear. I looked totally ridiculous but so did everyone else at the party! We had a great time though.

Everyone with their ugly sweaters.

The guys!

Terrified!!!!!!!

Today we went for our annual trip to see Santa. We decided to go to the Blue Ridge Mall, and I highly recommend that Santa. He was the best one we have ever been to. Well, I have been talking to Caroline for a few weeks about Santa and everytime I ask her if she was going to sit in his lap she would say "Don't want it, don't want it!" I figured she would cry a little or maybe even be ok if Anthony sat on his lap. Boy, was I wrong. When we walked in the mall I asked her if she was going to sit on Santa's lap and she said "Yes" then right after that she said "Don't want it Santa Claus." So we went and got in line, when we were about 15 minutes away from Santa he stood up and Caroline started crying. She kept saying "Don't want it Santa Claus." I then figured out that it would not be an easy trip to see him. I kept telling her that she would have to sit in his lap to tell him what she wanted for Christmas. All she would say is "Don't want baby doll, don't want it." She was totally willing to not get any presents from Santa if she could just get the heck out of there. She continued to cry, and when everyone around us in line figured out that she wasn't having a meltdown she was just terrified of Santa they were all laughing. It actually was quite humerous! When we were about 2 people away from seeing Santa she asked to get down. I put her down and she tried to run away!!! I picked her back up and held her as she continued to cry. There were tears and snot everywhere. I started to feel a little guilty but no way was I missing a year of her seeing Santa, plus Anthony was quite excited to see him. He totally thinks he is cool. When we were next in line she really started screaming, the photographer was laughing hysterically at her. Santa was trying to bribe her with a Twizzler and she totally was having no part of it. So, we finally get our turn to see Santa and Anthony is so excited because you know, Santa is magic and that's just cool. I sat on the side of the chair with Caroline thinking that would make her happy, um no. She continued to scream. Santa asked if I wanted him to go behind the chair to see if that made it better and so he did and that didn't work either. She continued to scream like we were killing her. She couldn't even see Santa and she was a total mess. When we got up from seeing him I asked her to just wave at him and she said "Don't want it". I planned on only buying 1 picture but the pictures of Caroline are so priceless that I had to get all of them. So, here they are!!! i just love all the looks that Santa has in these pictures.

After we finished with pictures we let Anthony get back on Santa's lap to tell him what he wanted for Christmas since Santa totally couldn't hear him while Caroline was around. He told him that all he wanted for Christmas was a remote control motorcycle. Sure wish he would have told Santa that a while back, because that totally was not on Santa's list!!

When we were walking out of the mall I asked Caroline if she liked Santa and she said "Oh Yes"! What??? Then I asked if she sat on Santa's lap and told him that she wanted a baby doll for Christmas and she said yes again. Then on the way home she told me that she wanted to sit on Santa's lap again. So I'm going to try to take them again to see him to see if it is any better next time. Totally not holding my breath on that one and if she doesn't like him again then I won't make her sit on his lap.

off roading!

On Sunday we went to the Land Rover Winter Off Road Event. We had a fantastic time, although it was bitterly cold. When we left Land Rover Asheville it was snowing and I definately didn't dress warm enough. I was also extremely nervous about taking my brand new car off roading but I am so glad I did, it was the most fun I think I've ever had!

Chad and I standing on the platform at the top of the trail. When you stand in the middle of the platform you are in NC and SC. It was beautiful up there.
Leaving from the top of the trail.

This hill was so steep that we couldn't see where the trail went. I kept asking Chad "do you see the road?" His response "Nope, lets just hope we are supposed to go straight!" There were a few other hills that we went down that Chad had his head stuck out the window to see where we were supposed to go. There was also one spot that we only had 2 wheels touching the ground at a time, I'm pretty sure I almost had a heart attack on that one!

One of the mud puddles toward the end of the trail.

My shiny white car not so shiny anymore. It still has mud caked under the fenders and on the tires. Guess I'm gonna have to actually wash it because the drive through car wash just didn't get it.

I also took some pictures from inside the car but I was bouncing so high and trying to hold on that I didn't get very many. There were no photographers standing in some of the roughest spots where there were huge rocks/boulders and holes so we don't have any pictures of that. It was so much fun that I can't wait until the summer to do it again!
Chad asked me if I was going to drive it next time. I told him sure I would drive, I think that would be tons of fun. I don't think he thought that I would ever agree to drive it because as soon as I said yes he gave me a crazy look and told me that he would never ride with me through something like that. Thanks for the vote of confidence Chad, I think I would do just fine!!

Christmas tree "hunting"

Wow it's been a long time since I have posted anything, so sorry, things are just a little crazy around here most days! We had a great thanksgiving dinner with my mom with tons of great food and I totally ate way to much. After we ate with mom and dad Charlie, Quentin, Anthony, Caroline, and I went to Zeiglers Christmas tree farm to pick out our tree. We decided not to go to the same place as last year hoping that we could find a place that wasn't quite so steep. Well, we found a place that wasn't so steep but it was 6 miles up a dirt road! We kept driving and driving and driving but when we arrived it was totally worth the drive. It is beautiful up there and they have tons of trees and many of the places weren't very steep at all. So then we started walking around looking for the perfect tree. Anthony kept saying "let's keep hiking, we are on an adventure." He got tired of walking pretty quickly and made Quentin carry him on his shoulders and I carried Caroline on mine. I wish we would have gotten there a little earlier so we could have walked around more but it was getting dark and we did find the "perfect tree".

Caroline hiking
Quentin carrying Anthony after he got too tired to walk.

Our tree. We had to cut off about a foot to get it in the house and it's a fat tree but it's great. Anthony is so proud of his tree.

Petting the dog. It's supposed to be an Eastern working dog but the owners of the Christmas tree farm said they think he must be a Western lazy dog. He was so sweet and great with the kids.

On Friday I invited Charlie and Mom over to help us decorate. We turned on Christmas music and made hot apple cider and set to work.

Caroline loved the "balls" She proceeded to break 2 ornaments by throwing them because she thought they were balls. She also tried to put all her ornaments on the same limb of the tree.

Anthony concentrated so hard to put his ornaments on perfectly but the only place he wanted to put his were on the back of the tree.

The final product. The Galloway family's PERFECT Christmas tree. It was decorated almost completely by the kids so it's definately not perfect but to me it really is!

Happy Halloween!

We met some friends from work and went trick or treating in Brevard tonight. Thank goodness we started at 6:00 because by the time we were finished it was dark and we were totally afraid we were going to lose a kid or two! All the kids looked super cute and had a great time. Thank goodness for Charlie coming with us or I swear we would have lost Caroline. I don't know what was up with her but she was WILD when we got there, she ran and ran and ran some more and sometimes just ran in circles. We were all running to keep up with her. Anthony had a great time to, he was a little hyper but nothing like Caroline. She was definately a swarming busy bee but it was tons of fun.

All 8 of the kids that we went with.
Of course I only got one really good picture because Anthony and Colton were running out of the picture as soon as we would try to take it!

The kids got TONS of candy and toys and I dread the sugar high that they will have for the next week. I have finally convinced Anthony to take some of his candy to my dentist's office where they are giving money in exchange for some of the candy. It was a hard decision for him because he loves candy and he loves money. Chad of course told me that I could only take the crappy candy and sell it because he wanted to keep the good candy, he is worse than the kids when it comes to sweets!

meeting the Ringgold's & Jonah & the EB race

Halloween weekend was super busy. On Friday Melanie, Lacey, and I drove to Winston-Salem to meet Jonah, and the Ringgold's (Bella's family). It was great to finally meet someone we feel like we know so well, although I was a little nervous to meet them because I know a lot about them but they don't know a lot about me. It was great though, they were wonderful to talk to and super sweet. Jonah is even cuter in person than in his pictures!!! It also made me know with all my heart that spreading the word on EB and teaching area hospitals is what I want to do. It will be extremely rare that someone with EB is born in this area but there is always that chance and I want to be able to educate the staff about what to do and not to do just in case. We got some great information from Tim (Bella's dad) and also I emailed a nurse at CHOC (Children's Hospital Orange County) and she sent us all of her information on EB. After the EB gathering we drove home and I got home around 11:30pm and then the next morning got up to go run a 5k race for EB. It was FRIGID! I am definately not a cold weather runner and it was 32 degrees that morning. For the first 1.5 miles I totally couldn't feel my face and I was running with the sleeves of my shirt over my hands. The last 1.6 miles was a little better, I just had to keep thinking about those precious babies and the pain they live with. We hope to help organize the race next year and gets tons more runners to be able to raise money for DebRA.

Melanie, Lacey, and I after the race. (I also won a free night at the Grove Park from buying $10 worth of raffle tickets!!!! So excited for that.)

The back of our shirts. We wore these while running and many people asked us about the kids at the race. We all wore our shirts the whole day and many people asked about them so we were able to get the word out to more people. It was great to be able to let people know that this disease exsists because most people have never even heard of it.

Lacey and I before the race.

Melanie and I before the race.

Tim and Ali (Bella's sister) at the EB gathering on Friday.

Ali and Jonah

Jonah LOVES to swing. We had to get all of our pictures with him still moving because that was the only thing that was making him happy.