Bah Humbug!!

That's exactly what the holidays this year have felt like to me. I was so sad last year when Avery woke up sick on Christmas day.....to the point where she had no interest in even opening her presents. On top of that, Derek was deployed. I never ever imagined this year being the same. The Saturday before Christmas (first day on break from school) Avery started complaining of her neck hurting. In hindsight now, I think she was trying to say she had a sore throat?? She wasn't herself that day and even took a nap for me without much fight. That should have been an indicator right there that something wasn't right. We were having new friends over for dinner that night. A new family moved out towards us about 5 minutes away. One of their kids is in Avery's class. They just moved into their house Friday night but their household goods weren't arriving until Monday.....so the Saturday night get together was arranged. Shortly before they came Avery started taking a turn for the worse. Unfortunately, I had no way of contacting them. No phone or internet for them yet........and I knew what town they moved to but didn't know where their house was. We had a good time but of course Avery started "throwing up" while they were here. When Avery gets sick, even if it's something small like a cold, she is on her death bed. I don't know if she just exaggerates everything or if her body really can't tolerate it. So her throwing up was actually phlegm and snot since she doesn't know how to cough up the junk and refuses to blow her nose. We were so excited to finally make some friends here and I highly doubt they will be in touch again after being around our sick kiddo.

Fast forward a few days, the night of the 23rd Avery seemed to be getting worse. Sometime early on the 24th Avery woke up and came into our room and seemed to be hallucinating. She just wasn't making any sense, said she couldn't see anything. Derek rushed her to the ER right then and there. They were gone for a LONG time and there was no wait at the ER either. Avery had to have 2 breathing treatments due to her terrible wheezing. She also had to have chest x-rays which revealed she had borderline pneumonia. They gave her some antibiotics and an inhaler to bring home. She seemed so much better after all of that. I'm sure part of it was relief for us in knowing she had been seen and now had some medication to help her along.

But then, that night, Blake comes in to our room coughing and crying, burning up. Go figure! I was kinda depressed Christmas morning. It's supposed to be a fun and exciting time for the kids. We had two that were sick! My morning got even worse when after the Santa gifts were opened all of a sudden Allie dropped to the floor clenching her stomach. She then took off running for the bathroom. I was so upset I wanted to cry. She came back into the room as white as a ghost. Thankfully, all of that was just because she was hungry. She didn't like our Christmas Eve dinner so she didn't really have anything to eat the night before. Avery was still better than she was last year and was up to opening presents but the excitement was missing. Blake really is just bad at night and early morning but once he gets up and going he seems okay. This was the first year he actually had an interest in opening gifts but still the total excitement wasn't there.

There was a moment during the day when I did crying. Just a mixture of emotions of various things. That was a good thing because I was starting to think I couldn't cry anymore. It all just got to me on top of missing my family at home. Also feeling a little sorry for myself. Even though I miss family and friends I don't always feel like we're missed  much. For example, Christmas cards........we got like 9 cards from family/friends this year. 9!!! Derek has more than 9 siblings alone........my extended family is huge and then that's not even counting friends. We have twice as many cards from people here that barely know us! I guess I should feel loved in that sense. Yes, I realize people might not be on the ball like I was with their cards or they could be lost in the mail like ours did....time will tell I guess. On top of that, I went out of my way to send little goodies to EVERYONE in my extended family to have during their get-togethers. I thought at least one person would want to thank us (other than my parents, grandma & brother's family).There are other little things that make me rethink who our friends are and who really cares. I know it's all stupid and maybe I just shouldn't care.

Anywho...on to Christmas day. So, added to my disappointments we didn't really get the kids any toys for Christmas and we told family not to either.......so they were kind of disappointed themselves. We thought we would do something really great and got them a 4 day trip to Disney and tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. They were super excited about both but when everything was done they didn't have anything to play with. Bad call on our part. I don't want to spoil them and I thought the gift of travel/experience was a great idea for while we are in Europe. But we have to get them at least one or two toys! Noted. That will never happen again. Then I had the stress of fixing a huge meal for people coming over for dinner. We had invited all the single guys Derek works with to come. We had no idea how many were actually coming so we prepared for a lot......I told him he needed to at least call the ones he knew about to tell them about our sick kids. He decided not to b/c none of them had kids and he figured they'd think we didn't want them to come and since they were planning on it then they probably wouldn't have anything to do for their meal. Only 3 people ended up coming. The kids pretty much stayed away the whole time. We did play games which was fun. They actually ended up staying for 4 hours so I think Derek was right in them not minding the sick kids. The meal was good but we have SO many leftovers. I'm getting sick of it. We even sent a bunch home with the guys/gal!

Now for the pictures

First, the kids requested certain things for their Holiday parties at school. Allie's teacher actually had her students fill out a paper of what they wanted to bring and then sent it home to the parents to circle yes or no on whether or not we could bring it. I asked Allie what other kids wrote down and there were things like Cheetos. I'm sure it was an interesting party! :)
Allie requested pretzels with icing so this is what I made.

Avery's teacher didn't want to have much of a party and said we could send something small in if we wanted. Well, of course, Avery wanted to because her sister was bringing something in. We decided on this....Grinch kabobs

 

Monday night we got in the car and went on a Christmas lights scavenger hunt. We pretty much found all that we were looking for at this one house.

Christmas Eve we usually act out the Nativity. It was a one woman show this year.

Santa came!

Parents/Grandparents.........delivered!!

Christmas morning before heading down the stairs

To give you somewhat of an idea on what our Christmas morning was really like

Coming down the stairs to see if Santa came....

Opening presents.....

Taylor  Swift concert tickets

Disneyland Paris Trip

The cutest thing was watching the kids open up their gifts from each other. Seeing the expression on their faces as the recipient opened up the gift that they had picked out for them was so precious. The girls each got Mom & Dad something too....they did all of their shopping at the school Santa Store.

Allie's gift to Avery

a giant pen, a smaller pen that says #1 Sis and a notebook

Avery's gift to Allie- a package of stickers and a package of rubbers (erasers)

Allie's reaction made my eyes water.

Allie's gift to Blake

Blake's gift from Avery -- a car, lion placemats & coasters, and a bag of chocolates.

Christmas Breakfast
We just quickly threw something together. We were already running short on time. I started preparing our lunch/dinner right after this. Avery and Blake didn't really even eat since they weren't feeling well.

Putting on new outfits before visitors arrive

After our visitors left we were able to Skype Mony & Papa, Buddy, Kim & Hannah. I took this while Derek was trying to get everything set up. Kids in their new pj's! Can't even tell anyone is sick.

And last picture.....after our long day at the dr's office yesterday

Thanks to those that thought of us this Christmas, sent cards, letters, emails, talked, Skyped, sent gifts, etc! We love you!

12 Days of Christmas

This year we decided to wrap up some of the kids' smaller gifts and let them open them up one day at a time leading up to Christmas. Most days were gifts they had to share. There were a few days that they each got to open one. I know they were getting anxious to open up their presents.....seeing them sit under the tree almost all month long was tough. I know how exciting this time of year is so this was something fun for them to look forward to each night. Most of the gifts were things we could do together -- puzzles, crafts, books. They also got new Christmas shirts and of course the night before Christmas they opened up their new pajamas.

of  course it wouldn't be Christmas for us without a sick kid. Seems to be our new tradition.

 

700

This is my 700th post! So crazy! I started the blog back in May of 2008, first actual post was about Allie's first time on the potty! :) My how things have changed, how our family has grown, all of the experiences we have shared and places we've been!

I wish I had something super exciting to post for # 700 but I really don't. I was just looking back through some pictures and found some I never blogged and thought I'd do one of my "miscellany" posts.....and just update you all on us!



{Allison}

Oh, Allison! She's still sweet as ever. She has her bad days of course but she is always so quick to apologize for any "bad" behavior. Mature beyond her years! Still loving school and exceling!
She went to her first birthday party here a few weeks ago. She didn't want me to stay so I just dropped her off. I was able to get a few pictures from one of the other parents. Allie wasn't afraid to get out and dance on the dance floor, sing songs, etc.

{AVERY}

Still ornery as ever! She can still be a little sweetheart though. I think she is SO much like me. So shy at school but LOUD at home. She likes school but I wouldn't say she loves it. She always asks if tomorrow is a school day. She's bummed if it is, so excited if it isn't. She LOVES her teacher though. She says they are "stuck like glue." I have since found out that she gives not just her teacher, but the teacher's aids and her specials teachers at least 10 hugs a day. The girl loves attention!
Avery also went to her first birthday party last weekend. She was actually invited to 2 but we felt that was too much. No pictures though.

{BLAKE}

Blake is changing every day! He is starting to talk in sentences and saying new words. He usually blows me away each day with something new. His favorite show is Peppa Pig........of all shows! There are so many boy shows out there but that is what he always asks to watch. He sings the little theme song right in tune with it too. He is so sweet. He is always using good manners........please, thank you, excuse me is his favorite.......and it's pretty darn cute because he actually says oh cuse me and then laughs. :) We are quickly learning that he is going to be a stubborn one. I guess that was bound to happen though. We've recently been trying to get him potty trained. He hates having a dirty diaper but has no interest in going on the potty either. You can't tell in this picture but he is usually terrified to sit on the toilet.

 

After Halloween Blake took every opportunity he could to sneak candy. He loved when I had to go take a shower because that made it super easy for him to get into it.....

And, ever since we've moved here grocery shopping has been so easy. Probably because it takes 20 minutes to get there and that is just enough time for him to fall asleep....and he stays asleep!!!

Now for the rest of the missed pictures

We've been having a ton of issues with the house lately. The power goes out at least once a week, usually more. It's a huge pain because in order to get to the electrical box in the garage I have to climb over the car to get to it! I think it's just that it can't handle our transformers. Even though we are really only using one. A couple weeks before Thanksgiving we had a whole set of lights burn out in the kitchen and then another set right before the holiday. The kitchen was so dark.....especially since it is completely dark outside now at 3:30/4pm. Someone was finally able to come out the day after Thanksgiving. Turns out the dimmer switches had blown so now we can't dim the lights but I am OK with that. Also right before Thanksgiving one of our toilets and our kitchen sink started backing up. By the time Thanksgiving rolled around and our visitors were here it was getting really bad. After our friends left then the shower upstairs started doing the same thing and actually flooded the bathroom and the water came through the ceiling into the kitchen! We contacted a plumber and he gave us a few suggestions. One was to check the septic tank. Sure enough, it was overflowing!! So disgusting. The landlords had just emptied it 3 months ago. So either we are full of shiste or something was done wrong when they "emptied" it. :) We got it taken care of but it wasn't very pleasant.

Of course that wasn't the end of our problems. After the tank was emptied we were told to run hot water through all of our lines for a few minutes to help clear them out. Shortly after we did this we heard water dripping. We went into the kitchen and once again water was spilling out from the ceiling! Different spot this time. Turns out the water heater pump thingy is set up completely wrong so every time we use the hot water pressure just builds up and loosens up the pump. With all the hot water we were using at that time it caused it to come completely loose. It's seriously never ending. I do not want to move AGAIN but we are considering it at this point. Not just because of the house problems but the 40 minute drive to and from work is starting to take a toll on Derek too.

School Project. Had to decorate pumpkins as a character from favorite book. Allie chose Henry B. Wigglebottom

And I guess I didn't take a picture of Avery's.......hers was Pinkalicious.

Lastly some pictures from Portugal that Nicole took of our family!