Happy Holidays!

Chicken Pox- Christmas 2008- gross!!!- luckily it is not on my face or neck!

Me opening my awesome slipper socks from Greggy Poo.

Christmas Eve

Getting into the festivities

Christmas morning

Christmas Eve Luminaries- to "Light the way for Christ"

Christmas Eve jammies that Greg's mom made everyone

Yah! The Holidays were wonderful and we had a great time! We got to go to some events this December. We first went to the Trans Siberian Orchestra- which was great. I really enjoyed all the male hair flipping. There was also a narrator, that from our view, never had a head. Then we went to the Nutcracker. This was Greg and my first ballet, and I will have to say that we both loved it!! The costumes and dancing were amazing and it was cool to finally know the story. I will have to also mention the amazing New Kids on the Block concert that I got to go to earlier in November with my awesome friend Merideth, Jamie, and Amy. They could still rock it!!

We stayed in Missouri for Thanksgiving, which was at my mother-in-laws house. It was wonderful. My favorite thing about Thanksgiving though, is the day-after-Thanksgiving-sales!! I went out by myself that morning, and enjoyed getting some "hot sale items", but didn't have as much fun as I anticipated, because I didn't have to wrestle anyone to the ground for anything- actually someone did that to me in Idaho last year, but I won!!, and I didn't have my mom and sisters with me that can totally outshop me (which is quite a feat because I can usually outshop anyone). I've come to realize that I come from a family of experienced, professional shoppers. Especially, my older sister. She can walk into a store, fill her arms with merchandise, and only pay pennies. That is the whole game. It isn't any fun unless it is on a supersale. Never pay full price! Those are just a few of the rules. Anyways, back to the Holidays.

On Christmas Eve, we were back at my in-laws, where we ate ham and opened jammies. But, this year my mother-in-law made all the jammies. They all have doggies on them. Ruff! Then Greg and I took our 3 sleeping children home, put them in bed and went to work. We put out luminaries that night to light the way for Christ- which we filled with Kitty Litter (no, we do not have a cat-I bought it just for luminaries). It is tradition in my family to put the luminaries out on Christmas Eve and I wanted to start doing it with my family also. Then traipsed all over the wood floors with our muddy Santa boots to make footprints and took a bite of cookie and emptied a glass of milk- set presents out, and went to bed.

The kids loved their presents- this was the year of the Ninja Turtle. If you haven't seen the TMNT movie that came out in 2007- it is awesome! It is animated, but even I love it!!

They opened their first gift and thought they were done. They just wanted to play with their first gift. (I love when they are so sweet and wonderful). But we made them trudge on.

Greg's family all came over that day for brunch and lunch and we had a wonderful time.

I also got to speak to my brother, who is on a mission- which made the day even more special. I love the Holidays!!

I will have to say that I did get something I wasn't expecting for Christmas... I got the Chicken Pox. I started noticing them on Tuesday and by Christmas Eve evening, I was breaking out all over my stomach and back. I have been pretty itchy, mostly my back. I had them really bad the first time when I was around 5. I was reading that only 5%of adults get them for a second time. Also, that it is usually very mild the second time with just a few pox popping up. Right! I enclosed a picture of my side/back from yesterday. Beautiful!

6 MONTHS

So, for those of you who didn't know... Greg mentioned to me a little over 6 months ago that he had skin cancer behind his ear. I almost rolled my eyes and told him how dramatic he was being... but being the great wife I am, I looked at it and told him, "Maybe you should have it checked out". It hardly looked like anything, maybe a little scar from a scratch. So, on Monday he made his own dr.'s appointment- (I am so proud of men when they make their own hair, dr., dentist, etc appointments) and went in. The dr. told him he needed to go to have it biopsied immediately, which, of course, made us concerned. Well, on a freezing cold day when we just happened to have spent the whole day in the emergency room for Caleb (short of the long story- I threw a sheet with a Buzz Lightyear rolled in it over the bannister and it went through Caleb's forehead- no, I didn't know there was a Superhero in the sheets, and my laundry is downstairs and the kids like to lay on the ground and have me throw the clothes on them.) Well, after getting out of the ER, Greg gets a message that it WAS CANCER! They had been trying to reach him all day and couldn't, so they left him that message! I was a mess, but it turns out that they can just go in and remove it quite easily. He had surgery a week or so later. They removed a big portion behind his ear on his scalp. We were there all day, because they do the surgery and then they send it off to the lab to see if they got it all. They ended up not getting it all the first time in, so they had him go back in again, and they got it all that time. They did kind of a backwards face lift and it looked terrible at first. He had stretch marks on his scalp- yah, he has no hair so you could see them, and it also looked like they cut off his ear and reattached it. They told him he had a 60 % chance of having it again and will have to go in every 6 months for the rest of his life because he is so young.

So, the reason for this post is that he went in for his first 6 month check up yesterday and he had no cancer! I am so thankful for all our blessings and am thankful that something (HG) prompted Greg to take a closer look behind his ear. I think this is a very appropriate time for me to really think about all the wonderful things I am thankful for.

CLOTHES

So, my dear sweet Macie is getting so old... she is 8 weeks old yesterday. Happy 8 Weeks! Where has all the time gone? It seems that when you are pregnant for 2 months it seems like an eternity and that the child will never arrive, but when they finally do arrive, 2 months is like a glimmer in time. I love being a new mother again, but with is comes the new mother bread dough of a midsection that reminds you everyday of the shirt you want so badly to put on, but will not because of the image staring back at you in the mirror. So, I have decided my game plan.... and here it is. I will be working out daily and watching what I put in my mouth. There it is plain and simple. No Acai berries- thank you Oprah, no Atkins, no South Beach Diet (though I do love their peanut butter breakfast bars for a snack). I have been working out spiradically since I had Macie, but have just really started going for it this past week and can already tell a difference- High Five! My goal: to feel good in my clothes. My clothes have this wonderful and terrible quality about them. They are the same size they were before I had Macie, and I want to wear all of them again!

Sickies

Today was a momentous day in motherhood. It is called Dr. day. It seems that not just one person can be sick in a family. Because we all love each other so much, we must give what we have to others and do as our mothers have taught us and share. So, when Brady came to me this morning with no eyeballs, just cake battered lashes and insanely puffy upper and lower lids, I knew that Dr. Yanette was going to have to be seeing us today. They luckily had one spot just open up at 10:40. Yah! But, low and behold, my mouth cave was killing me and my dr. called just after my scheduling of Brady's and said they had one spot open today for me and it was at 10:30- in 10 minutes. I rushed over there, they swabbed my non-existing tonsils, and then I rushed out of there and sped down to the Pediatricians (with all three kids), where Brady was checked out for Pink Eye! Yah! This is our first time with pink eye, so I am very excited. While we were there we gave Brady a Hep A shot- just for fun! and then I had him check out Macie's belly button.... which is infected. Dun Dun Dunnnnn. So then I rushed back to my dr.'s office where they came out in the parking lot and finished my vitals and said that I was awarded with Strep Throat. So, two presciptions of oral antibitics and one eye dropper later (with a 2 hour trip to Walmart), we are sitting pretty and I am exhausted. We are on the mend though and have filled our sick quota for November, and it is only the 3rd day of the month.

Posting for the 2nd 1st time

Okay, so I created a blog a couple months ago, and I posted once. Now that Macie is here and things are dying down, I tried to go back to post again, and can't find my blog. Where did it go? I think someone else stole it and is trying to take over my life with my old blog. So, I am just going to have to make this blog awesomer- yes, this is a word in my world. I am now making a pact with myself that I will try to post on this blog and get to know it very well so my friends and fam can see what I am up to.