We really wanted a laid back, easy going fourth this year, so we opted out of the parade and fireworks. We instead had some friends over for a picnic lunch on our porch after we had a lazy morning together:
After naps all around we packed up and headed to our friend Nehemiah's second birthday party. We had a GREAT time! The kid's played in the pool and sprinkler and we ate a lot of food and did sparklers. Brent and Ben made their own "special" firework..*cough, piros*. Here are some pictures:
I remember as a kid every year at Christmas at least one of my family members would be sick over the break, and I think we're going to follow that in our family. Hunter had that fever on Tuesday, but seemed to be feeling better yesterday. He was really whiny, but I just thought he was still a little tired, and he didn't have the fever any more. We went along with our Christmas Eve plans as normal, although we stayed later than I had anticipated. When we came home around 9:30 and were getting the kids ready for bed we noticed that Hunter had a rash all over his body! I was worried about it and called the insurance 24 hour nurse line and after talking with her she said to have him checked out within the hour. This meant driving 45 mins one way at 10 pm on Christmas eve. Brent called and my nice sister-in-law, Anna, agreed to come with Hunter and I, so we took Hunter to the emergency room. It was pretty deserted, so we were able to get right in thankfully. They did a strep test which came back positive, and the rash was part of the strep. So...he's on some antibiotics and to his delight is recommended by the doctor to have ice cream and popsicles. We don't have any ice cream, but I made some juice popsiciles. We got home around 1:15. A business had dropped off some presents at the hospital for kids who had to come to the ER on Christmas Eve or Christmas day, so Hunter got a present and that perked him up some. The boys slept in till 9 this morning, and Callie got up at 8. I'm very very very tired and am really looking forward to sleeping tonight. I don't think it put much of a damper on our Christmas morning. The kids were excited to open presents and greeted us with a "Merry Christmas" this morning. They've been playing with all their gifts today, which has made it a little easier on the tired parents. Here are some pictures from last night and this morning: I think I'm going to go spend some time with my sweetie now. Merry Christmas!
When the view from your window is this(it's been snowing steady all day): The best thing to drink is this: I enjoyed my hot chocolate today. Today has been a challenge. Hunter woke up crying this morning and said he'd had a bad dream. Well, I thought he was just being crabby(b/c some days he wakes up really crabby...I usually send him back to bed and tell him when he's more ready to be happy to come on out and it works every time) but today was different. He wanted me to make him Malto Meal but once I did refused to eat it, and wouldn't get off the couch, so I figured out it was more than just the bad dream. He's got a fever of 102 and has been sleeping all day. I'm not kidding ALL DAY. I wonder what this will do to bedtime??? I'm really hoping he feels better by tonight or tomorrow morning, I'd hate to miss out on all the fun Christmas things we have planned. While I was trying to coerce Hunter into eating something this morning I turned the corner to find Tate using HIS Malto Meal as finger paints on my walls. That was a mess that took a while to clean up. Then, after Hunter was in bed and Callie down for a morning nap(the first one in a week Praise God it was today!)I decided to whip up some banana bread with some bananas that were going bad. Tate wanted to help, and while I was measuring the second cup of flour out he turned on the mixer and banana bread batter went flying everywhere! It was another big mess, but the stove top is nice and clean now;) I've decided not to expect too much out of this day. Tate ate about half the loaf of bread for lunch. It felt like I just had two kids all morning. I got to spend some one on one time with Tate and I've never heard the kid be so chatty before! He talked the whole time. We built some towers with his blocks:
We are VERY excited to not have to drive to Iowa in this snow, we have over a foot, and when we went over Thanksgiving there was no snow at all. We are also excited to be able to be at our own house on Christmas morning this year. I love being able to see my family for Christmas, and I will miss seeing them, but it is SO nice to be able to have our first family morning Christmas EVER! I'm so happy the kids will get to open their presents on the actual day of Christmas. Tomorrow the kids and I are going to make my mom's homemade cinnamon roll recipe for us to have on Christmas morning.
Hunter was a shepherd in our church's Christmas program the other night. He had a hard time keeping his hat on and he tried to talk into the mic(even though he didn't have any lines). He looked pretty cute, though, and Brent was sure that he was wearing his old bath robe from when he was a kid.
We had fun in Iowa. It was nice to see friends and family. I got the pleasent suprise of visiting my childhood friend who is back from Tiawon. We celebrated our Christmas also, and it was nice to cash in on black Friday with our Christmas cash. Brent and I pooled ours together and bought a GPS and two new tires for the van. They had a GREAT deal on the GPS, so I went to WalMart at 8 on Friday morning and picked one up. We had fun geocaching around Osky a couple days with it, and it was fun to travel with on the way home. It calculated our arrival time, which was right on, and it calculated how long we were stopped. We(including stop lights) were only stopped for a total of 27 minutes the whole trip. The kids did pretty well considering that. Callie did the best, she must like her new carseat. The boys got some big blocks for Christmas, and they have really enjoyed playing with them(plus, there's so many of them that fighting over them has been minimal).
We got home about 4:30 yesterday. Brent hung up some Christmas lights in the boys room, and they were very excited about that. We put up the tree this morning, and I love how festive it is in here now.
Since Callie didn't take a morning nap, she was very tired by lunch. I only got a few bites in her before she started falling asleep....
As I was looking up ideas for things for the kids and I to do together the other day I came across this idea and we made it yesterday. We are going to add one leaf each every day until Thanksgiving with something we are thankful for. So far the boys have been thankful for mommy and daddy. Hunter told me that tomorrow he is going to be thankful for Lightning McQueen and Tate said he's going to be thankful for Mater. Here is a picture of our tree:
