Post Christmas Break

Jim had another week of holiday vacation after Christmas so we spent a lot of time relaxing at home.  We played our new games, watched a few new movies, and really enjoyed our family time.  Everyone, except me, completely recovered from our virus as well.  We also took our belated trip to celebrate Christmas with Jim's family.  I forgot my camera, so there are no pictures, but we had a nice day with them.  Jim's mom was really excited to have Christmas with her grandkids this year, so she had lots of fun surprises for them. 

Here's my only picture during the break.  We had multiple days where everyone took a nap (unusual!).

Christmas Day

Since we were all sick, we had a pretty simple Christmas celebration this year.  Jim helped me make chicken cordon bleu for Christmas Eve dinner, we watched 'The Nativity Story', and went to bed.  Then we opened stockings Christmas morning before having chocolate chip oatmeal (since nobody had an appetite anyway) for breakfast.

They enjoyed their stockings (aside from Annie being bent on showing how sick she was).

Abby was so cute through everything.

After not eating breakfast, we opened gifts.  Abby was pretty funny with her gifts.  She'd bring it to me to give it a little rip, and then take it to the same spot on a different couch to finish each time.

Alex couldn't figure out what his gift from us was.  Ha ha!

A sled!

Annie also couldn't figure out what her gift from us was, but it dawned on her when she started to open it.  "I do love mirrors...just in case this is a mirror."  Lucky for her, it was.

Abby loved her doll stroller.

Logan received the rest of the Dinotopia series.  

 For Alex's last birthday (in March) we gave him a plastic bug house; it was his favorite thing, but was broken pretty shortly thereafter.  Ever since he's been asking for a new bug house.  So he was pretty happy (although he couldn't seem to smile for the picture) about getting this little one for Christmas.

After presents, we took a five hour nap (thanks to Annie keeping us up all night).  Then we ate leftovers for dinner (since no one had an appetite for the cordon bleu the night before) and watched a new movie.  It was an unusual Christmas, but it was nice that we could stay quietly at home.

Sick, Sick, Sick

The week before Christmas I caught a virus of some sort.  When I'm pregnant, illness is probably 20 times worse and lasts longer than when I'm not.  When we had our Christmas party, I thought I was at the tail end of it, and the rest of my family was still healthy, so I just stayed far away from friends' kids and babies.  On Christmas Sunday (which was also our 10 year anniversary and the beginning of a series of memorable/ unfortunate events to be noted in another post) I was still sick, but again convinced I was at the very end of it (it'd been a full week!), so I went to church...maybe not the best decision.  Then every day for the next three weeks I believed I had to be on the last day of being sick.  Silly virus!  In some degree it was true; my virus cleared up, but left a sinus infection which progressively became worse...and my voice was gone for most of that time.  I'm FINALLY better now...for real (except my singing voice is still pretty scary)!

Anyway, on the Monday before Christmas Jim, Logan, and Abby started feeling poorly.  Abby was the worst.  She just wanted to lay around for a few days.  All of our kids have gone through an illness like this at pretty much this exact age, and I know that I just need to watch for about three days and then they'll perk up.  HOWEVER, the week of Christmas is when the doctor's office is closed for five days straight.  Day four is normally when we'd go see the doctor if things aren't getting better; this year day four fell on Christmas Day!  Our doctor actually told me to text his personal cell phone if she wasn't improving at that point (we have a great doctor), but I sure was hoping I wouldn't need to!  Thankfully she started improving on Christmas Eve and was happy to play and eat on Christmas (though still sick).

My sick guys.

On Christmas Eve day, Annie and Alex started feeling sick.  Alex would lay around when his fever spiked, and then act normally when it was down.

Annie, on the other hand, was EXTREMELY dramatic about how miserable she felt.  She kept Jim and I awake pretty much that whole night (making for a tired Christmas) and moaned and whined and cried about it all.  Oy!

On Christmas day, we cancelled our plans to visit Jim's family.  All six of us were sick!  Wow!

Christmas Sunday

We managed to be ready a few minutes early on Christmas Sunday so we took some pictures before church.

Annie's first shot was great, except I didn't realize my flash was off.  I frequently turn it off to take pictures of Abby because she ALWAYS closes her eyes when it's on, and then I forget to switch back.

This is Annie's dress that I altered the night before.  It fell above her knees (too short by our standards) and the bodice was way to big for her, so it showed a lot of her upper torso.  I took in the bodice and added the black ribbon to the waist and bottom, which gave it two more inches.  Ta da!  

The color is better with the flash.

Our attempts to get Abby in the picture were unsuccessful, but we tried!

She tolerated it for a few minutes when Jim joined the picture.

Oh Logan...ha ha!

Being silly...

Abby suddenly decided to pose for a picture so she sat right by me and smiled.  I'll take it!  (Flash OFF!)

Alex wanted to pose like Logan.

Annual Christmas Party

We had our annual Christmas party the week before Christmas.  This year we had all new families who were able to come, and we had a great time.  As usual, we did a salad bar with nachos (everyone seemed to enjoy it) and then our white elephant gift exchange.  Also as usual, the exchange was the only point I thought to take pictures.  :)

I didn't realize until I was loading these pictures today that I must have had the flash on my camera off...bummer.

Passing...passing...passing.

After the kids opened their gifts and cleared the floor we had the slightly more complicated adult exchange.  There were some fun items in the pile this year and we had some funny exchanges

Thanks to everyone who made it this year!

Christmas Craftiness

My morning all-day sickness hit right about Thanksgiving, so we didn't do many extra Christmas activities during the month of December like we usually do.  I was feeling pretty happy to make it through the basics most days. 

This was one of two times we made Christmas cookies, and that was the extent of the 'extras' I did with the kids.

We took these to the 'Nativity Celebration' (mentioned in a previous post) and also stayed to enjoy.

The other thing I managed before Christmas was a bunch of sewing.  Audrey gave me her old sewing machine, which is quite superior to my old one, and I ended up making 22 projects.  Most of them were extremely simple and fast, but I was pretty happy about it.

I made these 'his and hers' Broncos scarves for my sister, Sarah, and her husband, Dave.

I made these pajama pants for Dave and my dad.  Dave is a fireman, and apparently everyone at the station has different super hero bedding; Dave wanted Batman pajamas to go with his.  :)  My whole family are huge Broncos fans, hence the Broncos projects.

I also made 16 infinity scarves; they were super easy and fast!  Sarah had suggested them when I asked her for ideas for Christmas, and I loved the idea.  I gave many of these as gifts this year, and kept a few for me and Annie.

Last, (actually these were the first items I made) I made these microwavable heating packs for Jim's grandma.  She always loves warm things.

This is the scarf Annie chose to keep.  She wanted one really bad.

A close up of my favorite fabrics this year.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we had a nice dinner and visit with Jim's family.  His sister Cami was even able to come from Utah, so we really enjoyed seeing her.

Kids Say

I have a TON of updates which will hopefully be coming soon, but until then...

I had a hilarious conversation with Alex this morning all about the farm he is planning to have when he's grown up.  First of all, he's planning to build an elevator in the barn and the chickens with ride in it to get where they live upstairs.  Then he'll close their window when they sleep.  This was getting good, so I started recording quotes. 
 "My barn will break and I will fix it cause I will glue it.  And it will never break again cause I glued it!"
"I will get animal toys and chicken toys so they can play games with each other.  'Bok bok!  Our house is breaking!'  That's a game."
"And then we'll have all the doors off and all the animals will escape!  But I caught them.  And then I will put the chicken doors on first and then all the animal doors.  But some chickens sneaked and I caught them!"
"I will live in the barn with the animals, and have kids for fun."
"Maybe just in case the animals squish it up, I'll have a house.  Okay, Mom?"
"But we'll still sleep in the barn when it's bedtime and when it's raining."
"And then the house that we were building started breaking cause we were taping it!  And then we learned something.  When we're building something we should build it with GLUE!  And then we finished it in two days."
"And then I got new animals cause the other ones got stealed by bad people who want to steal animals from barns."
"And the chickens get to live in the house, but only the first days."  Me, "What about the poop?"  Alex, "We have a birdcage so they could go potty."
Finally, he informed me that he will be called 'Farmer James'.  HILARIOUS.  I love this kid!

Alex, "My yo yo is a bird elevator.  But right now they're eating in a bird feeder in the house.  Someday could we make a birdcage so they could go potty?  And make a birdfeeder so we could catch a bird?"  Consequently, we DID make a birdfeeder today, but it was totally unconnected to the conversation.

Alex, "I have one grown up toe! ...  Two I mean!!"

Alex, "Mom, I have more toes than you!"  Me, "How many toes do you have?"  Alex, "I have one more than you!"

Alex to Jim, "Would you brush your teeth?  I will show you how."

Annie received a full length mirror for Christmas, but couldn't figure out what the long gift was beforehand.  Just as she was about to open it, it must have dawned on her, but she didn't want to act like she knew, "I do love mirrors...just in case this is a mirror."  Funny girl.

Alex was naming animals in a picture book when he came to a picture of a panda, but didn't know what it was.  His confident guess: "Dog skunk."

Kids Say

I was feeling super 'pregnant-sick' today, so I made boxed mac n cheese for lunch for the first time in nine months.  The kids literally celebrated dancing through the house and repeating over and over: Alex, "I love mac n cheese!" and Annie, "When you're sick we get to eat JUNK FOOD!!!!"

Alex during church, "I'm feeling sick."  Me, "Why?"  Alex, "Because I played with cars too much!"

Alex using a blanket as a cape, "I'm Mopper Man.  Call me Mopper Man!  And I can't be kissed."

As we drove passed Applebee's, Alex, "I saw a applesauce place.  Yeah, they just sell applesauce."

Alex is always talking about how he's going to be a farmer someday.  Alex, "I am going to have lots of animals on my farm."  Annie, "What if you can't find the animals to buy?"  Alex, "I will find them cause I will go barn to barn."

I told Alex that we were going to wait until Daddy came home to get the Christmas tree down from the attic because it was heavy for me.  Alex, "Oh yeah!  Cause Dad is bigger than you and could carry you.  He could carry you on his shoulders!"

First Snow Day!

I'm not so sure I'm ready for the cold weather, but the kids are thrilled.  We had our first snow day last week.  :)