Christmas Fun!

I almost titled this post "Winter Fun," but decided we haven't really had any winter fun since we've had hardly any snow! The winter fun we did have was actually the weekend before Thanksgiving. We got a few inches of snow that Saturday, and it was perfect for snowman-making.

And then it melted. The snow was gone before Thanksgiving!

But the past few weeks we've been having some Christmas fun- doing some of our traditions as well as some new things!

We rooted for the Hawkeyes in the Big 10 Championship game against Michigan State. The game was so close and quite a nail-biter, but the Hawkeyes lost. :( Thankfully that gave them the opportunity to go to the Rose Bowl, which we are SUPER excited about since we are hoping to go to the Rose Bowl parade when we are in California! Fun!!

J and I did some Christmas cookie decorating!

There are none left for Santa.

We also went to The Critter Barn  to see their live nativity! We picked a pretty warm (for MI in December) evening, so it was nice to be outside looking at and feeding the animals!

 Of course we also had to visit Santa! We went to the same place we did last year- a store in downtown Holland called Home & Company. It's free, take all the pics you want, and very short line. Perfect!

J told Santa that he wants a chopper for Christmas. And then he had to explain to Santa what a chopper is (kinda like a combine). 

Hope hates Santa and was trying to climb up and over Adam to get away. Fun times!

Hope loves the Christmas tree! And she hasn't wrecked anything yet! :)

The 17th was Adam's birthday! J and I collaborated on a birthday cake.

Although the writing may look like J did it, that kindergarten frosting handwriting is mine. :) J was in charge of sprinkles! 

No one wanted to cooperate for a picture, so this is the best I got!

Jeremiah had a fun last week of school before break- they had red day, green day, ugly sweater day, and red & white stripe day. Here he is all ready for the last day- pajama and Santa hat day!

Since we will be out of town Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, we had to do our own little family Christmas early (J was quite excited to find this out!). On Friday night we let the kids open Christmas jammies and their stockings.

I couldn't find Christmas jammies that I liked for awhile... and then Target had 40% off pajamas plus free shipping, AND I found their matching family PJ section. When I saw these I just knew we needed to have Santa and his elf! :)

Cutest. Elf. Ever.

Hope missed the part when I said to wait to start until I got a picture!

 

H is getting good at opening presents and even says "Oooooo!"

Saturday evening we opened the presents under the tree! I think  over the course of the day J asked approximately 1.2 million times if it was time for presents.

We stick to the "something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read." J is a VERY fast present opener, H is a very careful present opener.

Unfortunately, often along with Christmas fun comes something very not fun- sickness. And we have two under the weather kiddos! :( J has had a cold all week, but never had a fever or anything and it never hindered him from school or normal activities. Then all of the sudden Friday night Hope woke up wheezing with a very croup-y cough. We brought her into urgent care Saturday morning and she was diagnosed with croup, and was given a prescription for a steroid which made her throw up her lunch, and made her wake up at 4 am Sunday morning (like, for the day woke up!). No thank you, good-bye prednisolone. Saturday J started to fade..... complained his tummy hurt, fever 100.3, vomited (WHY does that always happen to him when he's congested?!?!). Thankfully ibuprofen helped both kids power through the present festivities!!! Then J woke up at 4:00 am Sunday morning (not a lot of sleep for any of us last night!!) crying that his ear hurt. More ibuprofen for him. 
 So this morning we made our second trip of the weekend to urgent care- J has a bad ear infection and was given a prescription for Zithromax. We had Hope looked at again, too, because why not? Her cough is not croupy anymore, so that is good. Her lungs are clear and her ears are also clear, and I really hope they stay that way, especially with our trip to CA coming soon!

Snuggling with Daddy helps when you're sick!

So, we have 3 days to get healthy and hit the road! We are really hoping and praying that both kids are back to their normal healthy selves in the next day or 2. Dealing with sickness when you are out of town is no fun, so we're hoping this is IT for our family for a good long while (earlier this fall we also had H with a month-long cold and then ear infection and crazy rash, J with a stomach bug, J with Strep......)!! 

I will be back in the New Year to write about our adventures in Dubuque and California. Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and Happy (HEALTHY) New Year!! 

 
 

 

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

Thanksgiving 2015

We had a nice Thanksgiving and long weekend at my parents house in Wisconsin! Jeremiah had a full day of school on Wednesday, so rather than rush and then sit in Chicago traffic Wednesday night, we got up Thursday morning (grabbed Starbucks, of course!) and hit the road. The trip was a breeze! Only had to make 1 potty/diaper change stop and practically flew through Chicago (even though we drove through rain the entire way!).

We arrived with a few hours to spare before Thanksgiving dinner! Aunt Abby & Uncle Neil and Uncle Ben joined us, too. We had a delicious turkey dinner, and then of course peach, pumpkin, and apple pies to choose from for dessert.

And I only took 1 picture, and that is of Hope enjoying mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes with Grandma.

Hope was happy to see Aunt Abby again!

Friday morning Grandpa made his famous pancakes for breakfast, and Hope approved!

This girl can eat. A lot.

Friday afternoon, the ladies headed up to Cedarburg for lunch at the Creme & Crepe and a stop at Amy's for carmel apples. No food pics this year- but it was all as delicious as it usually is!! Also Friday afternoon was the big Iowa/Nebraska football game!

Go Hawkeyes! And they won- woohoo!!!

Friday night Abby and Neil made homemade pizza for dinner. J was eager to be a helper!

On Saturday morning J woke up complaining of a sore throat and tummy ache, but perked up after some ibuprofen. We took the kids to a fun indoor play place called Kids in Motion. They both had a blast! J really liked the construction room, and H really liked walking around carrying toys from place to place. :)

J was dying to head outside and do some yard work with Grandpa, and Grandpa was kind enough to take J outside for a bit (which made Jeremiah's day!)!

Saturday afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa were kind enough to watch the kids so we could go see a movie with Abby and Neil. We saw "The Martian" and all really liked it! I can't remember the last movie Adam and I have seen in the theater...... seriously, I can't. It quite possibly was "Gravity" (coincidentally another outer space movie) which came out in 2013, so it's been awhile! 

Unfortunately when we got home, J had gone downhill- was complaining about his throat and tummy and also had a fever of 101.3. He slept most of the evening and then we woke him up to go potty and put him to bed. So not normal!! He then threw up about 3:30 am, poor guy. So Sunday, Adam and J went to a Children's Hospital Urgent Care, and Hope and I went to church and lunch with G & G and Abby & Neil. Adam was very impressed by the urgent care experience, and it is so nice that they have urgent cares specifically for children!! They did a Strep test, which came back positive, so Strep throat it is. (I was SO happy that they didn't say "it's just a virus, let it run its course"!). So he's on amoxicillin and was feeling better the next day! Yay!

Lunch at Panera for the rest of us:

She inhaled her mac & cheese. Can't blame her, really.

Monday was a day off of school for Jeremiah, so we packed up in the morning and hit the road for Michigan. It was nice not having to rush back on Sunday- especially with a sick boy!

We are so thankful for a wonderful weekend spent with family. It's hard to believe that now Christmas is upon us and we have our own family Christmas, a trip to Dubuque, and a trip to California all coming up this month! Yay!