What Timing!

My kids pick the worst times to fall ill!!!!  I say that light-heartedly, but seriously!  Check out this timeline:

• Monday 12/21, 10pm--Sara throw up 2 times
• Tuesday 12/22, morning--James throws up 4 times
• Tuesday, evening--Jordan throws up well over 10 times over the course of about 6 hours
• Wednesday 12/23, afternoon--Karianna throws up, seems to be better, and ends up throwing up the absolute most-well over 15 times-until about midnight.
• Thursday 12/24, morning--JD claims a bad headache, stomach hurts, and lacks an appetite, but never throws up or has any real symptoms.

I have no idea how we all ended up being healthy on Christmas Day!  This was one of the more aggressive stomach flus I have seen in a while.  It started with painful stomach pains, moved into fairly violent throwing up for a few hours (up to 7 in Karianna's case), and ended with a day of being lethargic and not wanting to eat much of anything except a basic BRAT diet, at the most.  After that-just fine.  We were super vigilant washing hands and staying away from whomever was currently sick, but it still spread to all BUT JACKSON!  Crazy that he escaped!  Jared and I both had a day of not feeling great-some stomach pains, but we managed to overcome and never fell ill either.  

Sara definitely had it the easiest, only throwing up twice (albeit, the first time was ALL over a load of clean laundry) and then immediately feeling a ton better.  James actually had a fever with his round-always a sad thing for me, and I actually had JD sleep out in the front room once Jordan started throwing up-the boys' room became the sick room.  Perhaps that's why JD never caught the full blown thing.  

Jordan's round was hard because he resists the urge to throw up with all those strong muscles in his body-and he is one wiry kid.  Once he lets himself throw up, he nearly has a panic attack about it-he says he doesn't like the smell and can't breathe. He lets it get to him, and I end up coaching him through it, almost as if I was coaching a woman through childbirth.  We tease him about it, but I know he dreads throwing up, and it is not easy for him to do so, even when he knows it is imminent.

Karianna by far had it the worst.  She could feel it coming on, and it took a while for her to start throwing up.  She was kind of expecting to throw up a few times, get it all out, and then feel better-tired, but better  Oh, that did not happen.  She threw up so many times, and at some point, it stopped being throwing up, just retching and only having scant liquid and stomach acid/bile come up.  It started burning her throat and nose, and she was so, so miserable.  It finally dissipated around well into the night, and she was able to fall asleep on the couch with a few cold compresses on her head, and a throw up bowl next to her.  I was so grateful she woke up the next day feeling fairly normal-even wanting to eat breakfast. She had it the worst, but she recovered the fastest.  

I still cannot believe Jackson never caught this-talk about a miracle, given how often he shoves his fingers in his mouth! We had to be very careful with handling family get togethers-none of the sickies were able to come to the family party except Sara because she was well over the 24-hour-symptom-free requirement.  For Christmas Day, all the kids were symptom free for over 24 hours, but I still called the Lautenschlager side of the family to make sure everyone was okay being around the kids (they were).  Hard to have some of the kids miss out on activities, but a necessary modification.  Again, I'm just glad Christmas Day was throw-up free, especially since this will likely be the last one in this house.  

And to cap it all off--James has started coughing up a storm, and went to bed tonight with a fever. I am fairly certain I am going to have to pull him out of bed within the hour to give him a breathing treatment. Sigh.  It never ends. 

The After-Math

Today has been all about exploring new toys and activities.  The kids' excitement is totally contagious, and I couldn't help but get caught up with them as they opened new things and dove into new activities.  I ran over to Walmart, bought a bunch of beans, and set up the bean table.  JD and Jordan spent most of the day building their three lego creations.  Jared worked on Sara's marble machine, which would end up taking about 5 hours to make!  Karianna experimented with her rollerblades in the house, and has found them even easier than she realized.  All in all-great, great fun for everyone (except maybe Jared-he was getting frustrated the marble machine was taking so long!).

JD's Hulk gloves :)  WHICH I bought for 75% off after Halloween :)

The bean table!  I love this thing, and I sat with the kids for about an hour to monitor the beans on the floor issue.  I was very consistent with picking up beans from the floor, so hopefully that will set a long term precedent. 

  

So happy together!

JD is a lego master.  He is so good at putting together these 400, 500, 600 piece lego creations!  He did his, and then helped Jordan with a majority of his.  They turned out amazing!

Lots more beans to go around!

Karianna on her blades, figuring out very quickly how to turn, push off, and not fall while doing so!  Tickled that she picked it up so quickly!

Watching Karianna on her rollerblades makes me want my own.  I have done a great job working overtime the past week and a half, so I think when I get my paycheck, I just might treat myself to a pair of rollerblades-how cool would that be to go blading with my daughter!

Christmas Day: Stockings and Grandparents

All righty, time to consolidate-here's the rest of our Christmas Day!

 After opening presents, proceeded into the rest of our day, which flew by in an instant.  We opened our stockings altogether, opting to ignore the order we had selected weeks ago.  These are just little things, so here's a few pictures:

Oh, the excitement!  I cannot contain it!!!!!!!!!

After organizing the presents and cleaning up the wrapping paper, we prepared for family visits, pretty much for the rest of the day minus a brief nap.  We walked down to my mom's house first and took a rare picture!  Woohoo!

Jackson has yet to evidence stranger danger, and had no problem immediately sitting in Grandma Erickson's lap to help her open her present.  I got her a CD she has been wanting, in addition to the family wall hanging I gave her a few days ago at the family party-it looks great in the spot she put it!  I thought it would be nice for her to have something to open at the family party-the cousins exchange gifts, the sibling couples exchange gifts, but we don't include Grandma in that, because everyone gives her a present.....but that ends up meaning she doesn't have anything to open at the party.  I saw the wall hanging and thought it was a perfect sentiment for our family, saying something along the lines of, "although we may branch out in different places, our roots stay the same"-all centered around a wooden tree cut out.  Hard to explain, but again, a perfect sentiment regarding our eternal family.  I digress.  ;)

 All the kids got to open their present from Grandma-she followed a book theme for most of the kids, with some really great toys from Burlington for the little boys.

 Grandma E. always gives us a family movie, and this year it was Inside Out-which I STILL have not seen!  The kids also opened their stockings-which they are always excited about since Grandma hangs them a month in advance!  Jared and I also got a few things that may seem odd, but were awesome for what we need-a gorgeous hose caddy (I know, weird word for it, but it really is sophisticated looking!), some gift cards, and best of all, my amazing, cherry-red crock pot.  I have SO missed doing a crock pot meal every week, and I'm excited to get back to it!

Afterwards, we visited for a while and the kids ran out to play in the backyard and jump on the trampoline.  No one else from the family had stopped by yet, so it was nice to have that little bit of time with my mom.  I am glad the siblings tend to spread out our visits on Christmas Day, as I *think* it probably helps mom feel less lonely.  In any case, it was wonderful to see her and spend time with her.

We zipped home for a quick nap, and then headed over to the Lautenschlagers' house for Christmas Dinner and more presents! To the kids' somewhat dismay ;) we decided to do dinner before presents.  I'm SO glad we opted for that!  The Lautenschlagers do an amazing prime rib for Christmas, and it is always amazing!  We had a grand time talking about our day with each other, reminiscing about good memories, and chatting about the kids.  The kids did a surprisingly good job staying at the kid table and eating their food-even keeping Brielle occupied when Aubrey was sure she would run.  They are all so cute together, I love the fact that the cousins are good friends!

After eating, we sat down together and watched a video about the birth of Christ.  Interestingly, this is the fourth time we have watched this video with the kids during the Christmas season, but it never seems to matter-they are always so into it, and watch intently.  This time around, the kids were asking questions and making comments related to Joseph.  This past Sunday in church, I taught them the song, "When Joseph Went to Bethlehem", and we talked about the character of Joseph, and what he must have been like to be the father of the Savior.  It was wonderful to see them remembering the things we talked and sang about in the context of the video.  Love my kids!  We got together for a rare family picture before moving on to presents-thanks Nikon and tripod! 

 On to the fun part!  Karianna volunteered to be the Santa, and delivered presents to everyone around-I think Sara was helping her too, while I wandered around and snapped pictures.  I always worry the kids are going to be tired of opening presents, but they were just as excited, which I know makes Grandma Lautenschlager happy-she so loves to see the kids loving her time and efforts.


This was actually James' birthday present, separate from Christmas stuff, since we had to cancel our birthday get together with the Lauts a week ago.  These cars are AMAZING!

 Ripping open a shared Chima set that the boys went nuts over!

 Patiently waiting, only to open his own interchangeable car set.

 Happiness!

 Sweet Olivia-still technically recovering from her (hopefully) last kidney surgery and looking adorable!

 Now, this was a creative gift from the Nansels-a 5 dollar McDonalds gift card for each kid.  How smart!  That covers a happy meal and an ice cream!  To say the kids were all excited is an understatement.

 And this is sweet Haizley--I could hold her all day.  Such an adorable baby, the youngest of our Lautenschlager clan.

 Once again, loving his presents with a new bey blade to add to the stash he got from us.  This was a seriously good Christmas for both boys:  legos, pokemon, bey blades, tablet--you can't do much better than that for two boys.

 He would end up spending the rest of the day playing with James' cars while Brielle would spend the rest of the day playing with James' pirate ship!

 At some point later into the evening, the kids started to droop, and you could tell.  Karianna in particular seemed exhausted, which is understandable, since she was the last one to get sick.  James also started coughing a bit in the last half hour before we left, Things started to quiet down all together-even Jared was noticeably tired!

After about 5 hours, we finally said our good byes, packed up, and headed home with a load of presents and tired, but happy kiddos. What a wonderful, wonderful holiday.  So many sweet memories beyond the presents and food, and once again, I find myself so grateful for my extended family, my Savior, my kids, and my husband.  Life can get so busy and loud, and days like today remind me how very blessed I am.  As another year winds down, I find myself invigorated with a goal to have more quiet moments than loud, where the chaos of the world doesn't seem so overpowering, and I can focus on the things that are most dear more often than those that are not.  Merry Christmas to all, and many wishes for blessings and peace.