December 22, 2013

I am playing catch up for the past few weeks.  We spent most of December 22 on the road traveling to the family cabin in Donnelly, Idaho so I missed our post for that week.  Here's what we were up to:

A local veterinary office hosted a live nativity on Monday night.  It was FREEZING outside.  But the kids really wanted to go.  Jeremy was still sick with a fever and cold so I took all three little by myself.  We had a blast getting to touch all the animals.  We walked through it three times.  They had a cow, horse, donkey, llama, chicken, sheep, pigs, and some rabbits.  Everything was real except for the baby Jesus - he was a doll - which the kids were a little disappointed about until I explained that it was too cold for a real baby to be out at night.

The kids wore their new Angry Birds hats and we kept getting so many compliments.  Thank you Papa for the fun hats.  The kids really love them.  We missed Daddy.  Hopefully he can come with us next year.

 

Tommy wants to play the piano with Mommy now.  I can't sit at the bench without him hurrying over to join me.  He loves music!

 The rest of the week, every single member of the family (except Mommy) was sick with fever, chills, nausea, sore throat, and a cough.  It hit Daddy and Annie the hardest, but Lily's fever had us a little worried for a couple of days.  With lots of prayer and rest everyone was well enough to travel  by the 22nd.  And we were counting our blessings that Mommy stayed well so she could get the packing and errands done and still play nurse to the rest of the family.

To help break up the cloud of sickness we were happy to get an early Christmas present from Puna and Papa.  It is a kitchen play set.  The kids were so excited to open everything.  It took Mommy nearly seven hours to put together.  It probably didn't help that the kids were "helping" me.  But we love it and the kids play with it all the time.

Annie managed to get well enough to venture out in the snow for a while.  She is a snow bunny like her Mommy.

 I let Lily go to preschool even with her cough because I knew she was looking forward to making her gingerbread house.  She was really proud of it and I am so glad I got a picture because she and Annie devoured it before the end of the day!

The trip out in the snow set Annie back just a little in her path to getting well.  But she kept herself entertained.  Silly little bug!

Here's Lily putting some finishing touches on her gift for Papa.  We wanted to thank him for giving the kids such a memorable first trip to the ocean this summer so we framed some shells and photos from the trip.  On the back of the frame the kids did their hand and foot prints.  Lily wrote a thank you note and drew some pictures too.  She really wanted to make it special for Papa.

With all the gifts wrapped and the van packed we set off for Boise right after church on Sunday.  It was a long day of traveling but the kids did very well.  They really wanted to see their cousins.  More about our trip coming soon!