Our Gift is Type A

Oh how I love the Christmas season!  We put our tree up weeks ago, I've been listening to Christmas music for even longer and my growing Santa-like belly fill my heart with joy.  And there is nothing quite like celebrating our Savior's birth with Influenza... Type A to be more specific.  And it's even better when you're eight and a half months pregnant!

That's right.  Last week, starting around Wednesday morning, David started feeling achy and had a mild cough.  By Wednesday night he was having hour long spells of the chills, a fever and terrible body aches.  The next morning he was able to get a doctor's appointment and they confirmed that he had "The Flu" and put him on the miracle drug Tamiflu.  His doctor also wrote prescriptions for myself and the kids as a preventative measure.  Thursday morning I didn't feel great but I chalked it up to this very rough pregnancy I've been having.  David was down and out so I was on full kid duty and was trying so hard to stay focused on taking care of their needs I didn't realize I was getting so sick.  Friday rolled around and I took Blaine to school and went to my regular midwife prenatal appointment and realized just how sick I had gotten.  Baby's heartbeat was strong and he was moving like a champ so they told me to go home and rest and stay on the Tamiflu which should shorten my symptoms.  By the time we got home David started to emerge from his sickness and I started to go downhill quickly.  He managed to muster the strength to care for the kids Friday evening while I came down with the fever, chills, body aches and the worst cough I've ever had.  Saturday was another day of the same for me but David continued to improve and the kids were happy to watch movies and play around the house most of the day.  Wow, it's been rough.

It's taken me almost five days to write this post.  David had to make a quick trip to Portland for work but is back in the saddle here now.  Today is the first day that I am not coughing to the point of wanting to vomit - so I consider that an improvement!  After yesterday, Blaine's holiday party at school (which I was in charge of), I think it will hopefully be a relaxing time until we celebrate Christmas and have this baby.  One good thing about being under the weather is being forced to lay on the couch here in front of our beautiful Christmas tree with the fire crackling, listening to Christmas music.  It is nice to slow down like this, I just wish I wasn't hacking up a lung at the same time!  I am praying to get well (much more quickly than the snails pace I'm recovering right now) so I can have all my strength to deliver Baby Sev.  

Santa brought us a fancy new camera for Christmas (thanks Santa :) and we've really been enjoying that.  Here are a few pictures we've taken with our very amateur abilities.

Mister!

Yes, Mister is hugging HG.  And yes, Mister is holding a stick.
You fill in the blanks. :)

Right after this picture was taken a bird took HG's sandwich away.
Then there was devastation. :(

Well, Well...

Look who it is... Me :)

If there is a long break in me writing you must know that lots of things are happening, weird things are happening, or I ran off to Hawaii to live forever.  And since it is snowing... well, you know the latter is not true.

To catch you up, I'll resort to my favorite past time: List making!

1. Baking and Gift Giving Galore: The whole month of December was spent preparing for Christmas, family and presenting teachers, friends, and neighbors with homemade gifts.  They turned out beautiful and everyone raved about how good everything tasted.  If that doesn't get my kids moved up in the teacher's book, I don't know what would! :)

2. Grand Theft Auto (or something like that:)  Remember when I wrote about my purse being stolen?  Well it happened again.  Yes, I said I was robbed... again.  This time my car was actually broken into but I was at Hannah's school (instead of Blaine's) and my car was locked.  My purse was on the passenger side next to a brown paper bag.  I went in to drop Hannah off and 20 seconds later heard a car alarm, and when I went back outside this is what I saw:

Glass was/is everywhere.  In the trunk, the vents, the kid's car seats, under the seats and shards of glass were in every crack and crevice in my truck.  It's currently in the shop being cleaned.  For the second time in a month, the thief got my purse, including wallet and my second iPhone.  But this time they didn't throw my purse on the side of the road down the street.  Everything was gone and only 4 days before Christmas.  It was not a merry and bright day to say the least :(

3. Family: David's side of the family made the trek from Texas to be with us this Christmas so we had a full house and as it turns out a very white Christmas :)  It started snowing on Christmas Eve and snowed through Christmas morning.  The news said that Denver only has a white Christmas 13% of the time, so we were all very excited.  Marie made wonderful food for us and we ate out for several meals but there was no shortage of calories last week :)  Christmas Eve dinner, when we had Jesus' birthday party, was fondue and crab legs.  Uncle Matt and Pops skied a few times and David got out to snowboard once while they were here.  David has not had a vacation since starting at Trada last May so the time off for him has been wonderful to say the least.

Dressed up for church



These are our children who refuse to look at the camera.
Blonde1 and Blonde2!

Oh look, they have faces.

Many days of no nap = sleeping on the couch.

Christmas Eve dessert.

Perhaps the world's best carrot cake... Happy Birthday Jesus!

Before...

After.

Singing Happy Birthday to Jesus :)

So sweet.

4. Snowboarding: As I write this Blaine is taking his first ski/snowboard lesson at Eldora with David.  David has been texting me and says he is doing an amazing job!  (More proof that he did not get my non-athletic gene.) 

5. Much Needed Rest: I've taken all the Christmas decorations down today and after multiple errands which I hope to knock out tomorrow it will be time to rest and ponder what 2013 will bring for us.  I feel totally wiped out from this year's activity (not to mention the MOVE we made this year), a very enjoyable but hectic December, two invasions of my privacy and theft of my things and just life in general (like everyone else I'm sure.)  Hannah is a 13 year old in a 2 year old's body and Blaine is growing so fast now that my eyes fill with tears when I think about him entering Kindergarten in 2013.  I tried to carry him somewhere on my hip the other day as a joke and my back practically broke!  He's going to be so tall!

An iPad for Christmas which is now permanently
attached to Mister's hands.

I hope this update finds you all well.  Sending love and praying you have a happy and healthy new year...

Gifts

Today in the mail we received a beautiful gift.  My 80 year old grandmother (aka: Gram, Grannie, Grandma) sent the kids Christmas cards today but not your store bought variety... handcrafted, artistic cards!  I was shocked because I had no idea my grandma possessed such talent! 

Inside the cards she put a picture of her and her six children (my mom and her five siblings) for the kids' memory boxes.  So sweet.  Thanks Gram :)

I have been busy with the kids' busy schedules, baking (unsuccessfully at this high altitude), decorating and planning for the party we had last night.  We hosted the Christmas party for our Flatirons Church small group which was an Ugly Sweater/Gingerbread Man decorating party.  We had a lot of fun and I'll probably regret posting this picture but here are our sweaters.

Mine wasn't actually that bad... I mean, snowmen throwing snowballs is kind of cute... not my style, but cute.  David on the other hand sported a festive (ladies) turtleneck and a festive (ladies) sweater vest.  We looked awesome.

Everybody brought their best to the Gingerbread man decorationg contest.

THE WINNER!

Adam n' Eve.  This was David's idea, my creation.
David also added that this was the "Senior Version"
because of their wrinkles...

Now that the party is over I feel like I can breath a little bit.  I love hosting and preparing for a party but it takes a lot of work and it's always nice to host a lovely party and then know it was all worth it :)  Christmas shopping has been done for several weeks now so I don't have that looming but I do have teacher and neighbor gifts to prepare which I'll work on this week.  Blaine is also back in O.T. (back to a lot of driving) and I'm beginning to look at our Kinder options more closely now... 2013 is almost here and Blaine will be 5 in February!  (me=freaking out)

It's not all about business though.  The kids and I do something fun every day and last Friday we went to a great Festival at the Hammod Candy Factory.  They had games, decorating and (of course) candy!  We didn't do the factory tour because the line was long and since we live here I figured we can go anytime.  We had a blast!

Hannah's Gingerbread Man.  The more candy, the better.

Blaine's Gingerbread Man.  Very Nice!

Other than that we're counting down the days to Christmas.  We actually have three different calendars so Blaine can know (wherever he is in the house) how many days until his Texas family arrives and how many days until Christmas.  What a fun and blessed time this is - I love it.

And in case you haven't met her, this is Hannah Grace... my 2 1/2 year old that is going on 10!!!!

How pretty is she?  So grown up...

I am off to bed to rest up for the busy week ahead. 

Love you all!