Merry Christmas

It was wonderful and very Merry Christmas around here. The kids kept us busy right from the start. On the drive home from Thanksgiving weekend they asked, "Can we set up the Christmas Tree?" By the following weekend they were singing Jingle Bells and asking to watch Frosty The Snowman. How could I say no?

With stockings hung by the chimney with care


It was time to begin the festivities. Claira had a long but pretty performance one night at school,

Why do the little girls began fussing as soon as I turned on the video?

A couple days later the two little ladies and I made it over to William's school for a sing-along. It was a bit of a crazy LOUD event. There was about 500+ kids in the gym all singing and dancing together at the top of their lungs, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, Aby LOVED it!!!

William received a 'Gingerbread Man' book from his teacher so we made Gingerbread Men with our neighbors and friends. The kids loved it!
As we got closer to the actual holiday friends began to come into town. And it was wonderful to see Aby giggle and "klippty klop" on her God Fathers knee.

William also had a great time playing light sabers with his Mississippi Best Friend Michael. It was so cute. William got his backpack full of his favorite bug books, nerf guns, light sabers, and then dressed his 'nice' clothes to head over and see his friends. He is still talking about it a week later, begging to go to Mississippi this summer to see other good friends he remembers. I don't think our Van could carry all the treasures he'd want to bring.

Finally it was Christmas Eve and time for our annual living room picnic.

Cheers!

And quickly all the yummy fancy cheese was gone and it was time to open one gift. AbyKate could not have been happier with her Dora panties that William gave her. There were 7 pairs and as she tried on each pair she would holler, "THEY FIT!" then shake her bootie and try on the next pair.

Twas the Night Before Christmas...

The children were nestled all snug in their beds...

Then it was morning!

And it was all smiles!

What was Santa THINKING???? Hold on tight!

MERRY CHRISTMAS

AbyKate's Vacation

Not what you and I would call a typical vacation, but she called it a hotel.
It all started with a high fever and sweats at 1am. I just figured this was the beginning of some kind of virus, nothing too weird. But she just kept waking up screaming then would fall back to sleep, by 6am she was struggling to breath. I had her in bed with me and had already called Andy to see if he'd already gotten on the bus for work (he'd already left the house). She was all sweaty and her little chest kept caving in and it was all she could do to breath. As long as I was with her she was calm and could breath comfortably. I contemplated the ER since Andy had already gotten on the bus by my call but I still had 3 kids in tow. I decided to get Wil on the bus and off for the day, get everyone dressed and just head to the pediatrician at 8:30. This worked well as AbyKate started to act less stressed and started talking again. The Doc office got us into a room and took her stats very quickly. She was in a lot of distress but what they called a "Happy Wheezier" since she was all smiles and talked their ears off between wheezing gasps. They gave her a breathing treatment and well that hardly improved her situation so I dropped Claira off at Gymnastics with her car seat and off she went with her best friend Natalie for the day, THANK YOU GREG.
She had a great day and Greg, Natalie's Dad, taught her how to pump her legs on the swing!
Now I had the two little girls at the ER and again they got AbyKate right in, gave her another breathing treatment followed by another one. Her heart rate was up to 190BPM and during this third treatment my little pixie started to scream and fight then suddenly she passed out. The nurses just said to keep holding her and do the treatment. Her heart rate came down to 150 and she started to perk back up. After some juice and some graham crackers she was all jibber jabber and seemed to have turned a corner. As the afternoon approached she started to struggle again, and again they did a treatment but this time they also decided she needed to be observed and was too unpredictable to send home. I called Andy and had him head home. By 3pm he was at her side, and I kissed my pixie goodbye. It was so hard to leave her but a mother of four has to wipe the tears away and do what is best for everyone. Daddy is almost as good at giving cuddles as Mommy so that is who she got. I had to get William home from school and couldn't be the parent to stay for the night because I have the wee Emilia attached to my hip (aka boob :-) He did better then I could have in the circumstances. He had taken his laptop so he could work from her room, but come to find out they have no kid channels on the TV and being barley 2 she doesn't really do movies yet. So the nice Daddy went to Nick Jr and let her watch Dora show after Dora show. Then a very nice nurse gave her a new baby, that she got to keep, whom she quickly named "Doctor Baby" and the kids and I brought by their doctor kit so as you can imagine the hours she made her Daddy play with her. Thank goodness she had no big episodes all night and Andy was able to go to work the next day and I was able to bring her home in time for a good long nap.

The following weeks have been spent with lots of breathing meds that make her crazy. I mean look at those eyes!

The diagnosis, asthma. We're not too sure about that since she did start with a fever, but time will tell and if it happens again we'll be more apt to accept that diagnosis. For now we just keep a rescue inhaler close by and hope we never have to use it. And when asked if she wanted to go back to the 'hotel' she replied "No tank you" I hope we never take a vacation like this again!

Thankful for Memories

I am so very thankful for my world...

Even if they won't cooperate and take a picture. Seriously that is what she is screaming about, "NO TAKE PICTURE!"

My little Claira is happy its the holidays. Here she is enjoying her feast at school.

William also had a feast. He was an Indian and his friend, Fisher, was a pilgrim. All the kindergartners were dressed up and sang such cute songs.

Once school was out we headed to Austin to spend the rest of the holiday with the O'Connor's

Thank you Auntie Lynne and Uncle Don

Its great to have family time and watch all the relationships grow

Great Grandma & Great Grandma
Claira LOVES her Uncle Allen
And everyone knows how thankful we are to have Dennis in good health and close by to visit and hug often.
The kids love nothing more then messing up Grandpa's garage and

building a boat for your rolly-pollies out of scrap wood

But you know the best part might have been the constant treats

Want some pie with that whip cream?

Cheers!

(check out Wil's flip top head! LOL)

Crazy Week filled with Birthdays

Andy was out of town a couple nights this past week. The first evening William and his friend, Fisher, were running around and William slipped and hit head on a door jam...and well the four kids and I spent the rest of the evening in the ER where William received two Staples. He was such a good trooper, so brave! After the long night I crawled into bed and thought to myself, "I've got some wonderful kids" All four of them were on their best behavior and that continued all week.

Tuesday was Andy's 30th Birthday and though he wasn't home and our celebration plans for later in the week were put off due to babysitting and work issues. We still found time later in the week to celebrate.

and since William had his 6th Birthday on Wed Grandma and Grandpa came over!

William's actual birthday landed on Wed, so Daddy was certain to come home in time to get him off the bus. Then it was family time to open gifts and enjoy some cake.

He got some neat toys and some very fancy books, like this one from Steve and Julie Kirby. When you look through the lens it makes the pictures 3D!

By Thursday it was time to get ready for William's party! I was lucky enough to have the kids help me a little. It was an insect party...

I couldn't find a pinata so we made one :)

I think out Ant came out quite well!

And it held up to some major beating from all the kids.

Then it was time to dig into the Grub cake...YUMMY! Who doesn't want to eat a giant bug?

I think all the kids had a great time.

I know I did!

Halloween Festivities

Turns out, Halloween is one of my favorite Days. I love all the crafts and candy. I had such a fun time making Williams costume, decorating the kids and our house, even our food!

Good Morning little Goblins

The week consisted of a fun evening at the preschool were they had built a maze out of boxes. On Tuesday night they left the lights on so it wasn't too scary and the kids LOVED it! When we finished running around there we went to the pumpkin patch at another local church and the kids each picked out a pumpkin. William picked a warty green pumpkin, strange kid :)

AbyKate made all kinds of "EWWWW, GROSSS" noises while she cleaned the inside of her. They all loved the roasted pumpkin seeds.

By the end of the week all pumpkins were cleaned, carved and we were almost ready...

Though Claira didn't enjoy cleaning the pumpkin she really enjoyed drawing and cutting to make it jack-o-lantern. It even had eyebrows!

The preschool also had 'Fall Field Days'. I was lucky enough to enjoy the whole morning with Claira and her class,

But I think AbyKate had a bit more fun playing.

My two girls are really forming a great sister bond. Since William has been in Kindergarten and away so much of the day Claira has had to learn how to play with Aby and how to be the 'big' kid of the house. She is doing a great job and seems to be enjoying the new role. Aby sure loves having her big sister play with her more. She does everything her big sister does.

And here is the crew excited to head to get on the show on the road.

Several of out neighbors hosted a block party, it was great fun. Lots of yummy and cute food, a bounce house, pinata, and the most important kids EVERYWHERE!

It was a hot Halloween, about 90! After bouncing for a bit our little Duck was too sweaty and from across the party this is what I saw...

yep! My little Duck took it all off in front of the neighborhood! After a bit of negotiating I convinced her to take off the tights and put all the rest back on. And she still looked cute :)

My little Black Kitty Cat Witch

Sweet Little Flower

And my handsome Robot.

Who also lit up!

Once back at the house we hung out with out our neighbors,

Ate some yummy hot dog spiders

and tore through our loot!

It was a very fun Week!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!