Sunday, December 25, 2011

Christmas Cheer

Merry Christmas! The house is decorated, the presents are wrapped, and the cookies are baked. We've seen Santa, looked at lights, and decorated gingerbread houses. We've had lots of fun this Christmas season, despite the unwanted presence of colds, croup, and a suspected sinus infection.

We wanted to mail out our Christmas card this year, but it cost more to print than we could justify spending and we ran out of time with all of us sick. So...here's our virtual Christmas card. Maybe next year we'll be able print and mail.
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Our Christmas tree, complete with wrapped presents - and the best gift of 2011 ♥
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I'll share more of our Christmas festivities later; I'm going to go spend time with my wonderful little family. ♥ Merry Christmas!! ♥

Monday, December 19, 2011

12 Days of Sickness

It's that time of year! Christmas is almost here! We love spending time together as a family, doing fun festive activities and celebrating the birth of our Savior. We love this time of year in so many ways.

But there are other things I hate about this time of year.

Tis the Season...for spreading germs. Cold and flu season. The season of runny noses, sore throats, and croupy coughs. The season of tummy bugs, vomit bowls, and high fevers. The season of doctor visits, ear infections, and antibiotics. Oh yes. It's that time of year.

And boy is our family being hit with it. All 5 of us have at least some degree of cold. I'm starting to feel mostly normal again, except for a lack of voice. John mainly just has a cough. Emma is congested with a croupy cough, sore throat, and occasional fever. Hyrum has the same symptoms as Emma, and then some. Nathan seems mostly ok; he has a little bit of congestion and cough. Lucky baby gets my antibodies.

But Hyrum...our poor little Hyrum went to the ER last night. His breathing sounded eerily like Darth Vader. He was wheezing and pulling at his shirt collar. John took him in while I stayed home with the other 2. Poor baby has croup. They gave him a breathing treatment and a steroid shot. He's doing much better now, but he still sounds too much like Vader. And he's entirely too good at impersonating Gollum. He's also incredibly grumpy from being sick and lack of sleep.

Ha, we're all grumpy from being sick and lack of sleep.

In light of the "joy" of cold and flu season, I reworked the lyrics to a well-known Christmas carol. Parents everywhere will understand entirely too well.

12 Days of Sickness

On the 1st day of sickness, my children gave to me a week of quarantine!

On the 2nd day of sickness, my children gave to me 2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 3rd day of sickness, my children gave to me 3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 4th day of sickness, my children gave to me 4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 5th day of sickness, my children gave to me 5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 6th day of sickness, my children gave to me 6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 7th day of sickness, my children gave to me 7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 8th day of sickness, my children gave to me 8 bowls of vomit
7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 9th day of sickness, my children gave to me 9 new prescriptions
8 bowls of vomit
7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 10th day of sickness, my children gave to me 10 croupy coughs
9 new prescriptions
8 bowls of vomit
7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 11th day of sickness, my children gave to me 11 grumpy days
10 croupy coughs
9 new prescriptions
8 bowls of vomit
7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

On the 12th day of sickness, my children gave to me 12 boxes of Kleenex
11 grumpy days
10 croupy coughs
9 new prescriptions
8 bowls of vomit
7 doctor visits
6 ear infections
5 sleepless nights!
4 sore throats
3 runny noses
2 days of fever
And a week of quarantine!

I think I'm going to print that off and give it to their pediatrician next time we go in...

Happy cold and flu season! Try to stay healthy. And please, please - do me a favor and keep your sick kids home. Stop the spread of germs and help them recover faster. I'm all for sharing, but not when it comes to germs. Please keep them to yourself. We don't want them.

Here's to hoping we get better by Christmas. I've pretty much given up on everyone getting better for our 5th anniversary on Wednesday. Yeah, no chance of everyone being well in just 2 days. So much for going out on a date...we'll postpone it for when we're all 100% healthy again. I just hope that's sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, we'll do what we can to get well again.

I think I'll go drink some more orange juice. Or maybe disinfect something.

Friday, December 9, 2011

Tangled Up in Birthday Fun

When I asked Emma what theme she wanted for her birthday party this year, she consistently told me she wanted a Tangled party. And I started asking like in May. What can I say, I like to start mentally planning early. Since her birthday is so close to (and sometimes on) Thanksgiving, and John's birthday is a week after hers, we usually have her party about 10 days early.

I wanted her party to be special for her, so to the web I went! I spent lots of time brainstorming and stalking the blogosphere for fun Tangled theme ideas. Some ideas I came up with myself, others I found in my research. All in all, it was an awesome Tangled party. See for yourself!

The invite:
Emma's 4th bday infite
Kit: Sweet's Tea Party, geniaBeana Scraps

I did lots of pre-party prep, like make yarn braids for Pin the Hair on Rapunzel, cute themed signs for the food table, and a tower pinata.
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I strung up yellow streamers ("hair") and hung yellow balloons from the ceiling ("floating lanterns").
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We served the food in frying pans. A special thank you goes out to John for prepping the food while I decorated. Didn't he do a great job? Apparently he has a not-so-hidden talent for presentation.
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I hung up a bunting banner around the table. I found a free PDF on Paging Supermom.
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We started out with a coloring activity as kids arrived. I printed off coloring sheets from Disney Family's website.
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Emma's picture. She's great at coloring for a 4 year old.

Then we released floating lanterns, aka yellow balloons.
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We played Pin the Hair on Rapunzel:
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Emma went first...

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Not bad for having her eyes closed!

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I think it's safe to say Emma won that one.

Then we tackled the pinata - with my smallest, lightest, cheapest frying pan.
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Present time! We let her choose one of the presents from us to unwrap at the party. She got a lot of great gifts; thanks to everyone who came!
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Time for cake!!
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I am not a cake decorator. I can bake a delicious cake, but decorating it prettily...not so much. So I let a local bakery do it for me instead ;)

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And that was her Tangled party! It was such a blast. Now I get to plan a Cars party for Hyrum in January ;)

Emma's actual birthday landed on a Sunday, so we spent a good chunk of the day doing church stuff. I did snap a picture of her exactly 4 years from the moment of her birth. Since she was born at 12:59 AM, she was asleep when I took it.
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All dressed up for church:
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We had a small family party with Tori and Adam. We had pizza for dinner, opened presents, and ate cheesecake for dessert.

Surrounded by presents:
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She was super excited about the Rapunzel doll and dress she got from my mom!

Emma requested lemon cheesecake for her birthday cake. She saw a picture of one when I was looking for Thanksgiving dessert ideas and decided she had to have it for her birthday cake. Good choice! It was delicious.
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Emma had a fabulous birthday!! I can't believe she's 4! She had her 4 year check up today and she's still very tiny; 29 lbs and 37" tall. 6th percentile for weight and 5th for height. But developmentally she's right on track or ahead. She's such a wonderful little girl. I love her so much.