Week 52

Week 52...  one year of weekly posts!  It was a lot.  I'm going to shoot for monthly or bi-monthly posts for 2016.  Sorry to all three of you who read this. 

Christmas was really good this year.  We stuck to many of our same traditions and I LOVE that.  Christmas Eve morning we spend together as our family of four.  We opened our presents and saw what Santa brought.  Derek made bacon and caramel rolls from scratch.  Punky actually tried the caramel rolls this year- maybe when the kids are teenagers they will enjoy them like we do. 

I bought matching Christmas PJs for the kids this year.  We are never not having matching Christmas PJs ever again.

We headed to Maynard that afternoon for church and dinner at Great-Grandma Margene's.  She serves lutefisk and Swedish meatballs.  The kids didn't try that.  They load up on bread and the relish tray.  While the ladies are cleaning up and doing dishes, Grandpa Scott takes everyone to school across the street and the boys (young and old) and kids play basketball and other gym activities.  This year was smaller as most of Derek's cousins are now married and have kids, so the gift giving didn't last until midnight like I remember it did when the kids were littler.  We were back to Grandma's in bed by 10. 

Matching church clothes too!

We spent Christmas Day at Grandma Trudi and Grandpa Scott's.  We ate turnovers for breakfast and spaghetti for lunch.  Once all the cousins got to town, we opened presents.  The kids were spoiled but a good amount.  They were really happy with their gifts and didn't get to the "I can't open another present" stage or the "I wanted more!" stage. 

Cousins!

One Week Old

Babies' First Christmas

The forecast was calling for 10 inches of snow and 40 mile an hour wind, so we left that night instead of the next morning like we had planned.  Six years ago, there was a terrible blizzard that prevented us from getting to my parent's house for Christmas and I did not handle it well.  Yes, I was pregnant (and didn't know it at the time) but I think I would've been super sad without the crazy hormones.  The three hour car ride took us closer to five, but we made it. 

We spent the weekend with Grandpa Max and Grandma Debbie.  Auntie Shannon, Nate and Leah were there for the majority of our time too.  We missed Abby this year.  She is growing up and has to work a real job and all that business.  (She gave the kids amazing gifts- Buddy got a remote control dinosaur like he had been asking for!  And Punky got makeup and nail stuff and a stuffed animal.  She was really generous and we sure missed her). We all learned that a five year old boy and a beagle aren't a good mix- it got a little crazy at times.  But it was a nice weekend filled with good food, games, movies and relaxing.  Apparently, too relaxing because I came home with no pictures taken!  (except this one of Leah doing Punky's makeup)

We were able to get outside and play in the snow which felt really good considering how many Christmas cookies I ate. 

We got back home at a decent time today.  The house is a disaster and I don't know where we are going to put everything yet.  That's part of the fun though.  :)

 

Week 51

A quick post tonight so I can keep up with Christmas preparations...

We visited our new nephew/cousin today!  Baby G is 3 days old!  

I didn't get a picture of just Punky holding the baby- glad we get to spend Christmas Day with him soon!

Week 50

Both kiddos had super great weeks!

Punky passed Level 2 Ice Skating.  She's getting pretty good.  She can skate forwards, backwards, stop and glide on one leg.  She's come a long way from her first lesson where she basically skate-walked or fell.  We are super proud of her hard work!

Buddy earned his yellow belt in Taekwondo.  He and Derek had been working hard for the last few weeks and were practicing his form for 5 minutes nearly every day.  The form "Chun Ji" was 19 moves.  He not only had to know which way to face but also which way to turn.  It was a lot for a 5 year old!  And he did it!  He came a long way from one of his first lessons when the instructor asked the class what the name of the form was and Buddy answered "uniform" instead of "Chun Ji".  

 In addition to the form, he also had to know the meaning of respect, the three areas of concentration and a self defense move.  At the end of the exam, Buddy was so excited to get to break a board!  

We also got to visit both kids at school this week.  Buddy's preschool sang songs and had snacks on Thursday.  Buddy is one of the tallest and oldest in his class.  He looked giant standing next to the littlest girl in the class!  

Sometimes when the kids aren't too excited to take a photo for me, I agree to let them do one silly photo after I get a good shot of them smiling.  This is what Buddy did for his silly photo.  Boys!

On Friday, Punky's class performed a play for the parents.  The play was "The Gingerbread Girl" and wouldn't you know our little girl was the gingerbread girl!  (The class did another play about a month ago "The Three Little Pigs" and Punky was the Big Bad Wolf.  She told me, "every play we do, I get eaten!"  Hahaha). She did a great job in the play and has such good expression in her voice- I am so proud of her!

On Saturday we headed to Grandma and Grandpa's for our first Christmas celebration.  

We spent the rest of the weekend baking Christmas cookies with Grandma Trudi and Great Aunt Traci.  Punky was a big helper while Buddy floated in and out.

Week 49

I ended up with strep throat.  It was a pretty bad case as I had to get a shot of antibiotics right in the ol rump at Urgent Care.  Buddy thought that was pretty funny!  I'm still not 100% but am doing better every day.  Friday and Saturday I was not able to open my mouth more than an inch or two.  Today, I am worried about an ear infection.  Hopefully the 10 day course of antibiotics works.

Other than that, we spent the week decorating for Christmas.

Today Punky performed in the Christmas program at church.  It was cute!  They sang lots of songs that will be stuck in our heads for weeks.  

She wore cousin Leah's Christmas dress from when she was Punky's age!

Week 48

We started off the week with Buddy not feeling well.  He had a fever Monday night and fell asleep after Derek picked him up from daycare.  There was no preschool on Tuesday, so we just laid low the whole day. We decided to stay home Wednesday too.

We left for SD late Wednesday and didn't get there until close to midnight!

Thanksgiving was nice as I got to see my cousins who I don't see much.  Grandpa set up a scavenger hunt for the kids.  It was something fun to do and got the kids out of the house.  The little kids had a fun time!  The older kids said, "All that for a piece of chocolate?"  Ugh.

Friday and Saturday were spent in our pjs.  We decorated Grandma's house for Christmas (although she might want to spread out the ornaments on the lower branches of the tree and reorganize the nativity scene- not everyone has to be under the manger.).  We made Christmas cookies and that was a lot of fun to have someone who knows how to do sugar cookies well because I think they are a complete pain.  We hot-pooled, played cards and games and ate lots of leftovers.  :)  It was a good weekend.

The car ride home was uneventful but now I am not feeling well tonight.  Early to bed to prepare for the snow that is headed our way!

Week 47

It seems like we just can't quite catch up.  We are gone every night for activities and sometimes in two separate directions.  It's starting to wear on me, especially since there is no end in sight.  And since I worked both Saturday and Sunday, I am exhausted, missing my family and trying to ignore a messy house.  

Friday was a crazy day.  We noticed Buddy's rash had come back on Thursday and by Friday it was spreading to his arms, wrist, entire leg and foot.  So I took him in to urgent care again.

This time the doctor did not think it was contact dermatitis or poison ivy.  He thought it was acute urticaria (hives) from some type of allergic reaction.  We are not sure from what yet.  He was put on a 3 day steroid treatment that seems to be helping.  He's got a dermatologist appoint scheduled for mid-December for something unrelated, so if the rash is still around then, we will bring it up.  It is more annoying than anything.  Especially since preschool saw it and pulled me aside after class and asked about it.  They want a doctors note for him to go back.  No problem, just feel bad for my Buddy that people are noticing.

The steroids have been no joke.  They make Buddy super hyper.  It was actually quite comical to see him on Saturday night all crazy (more than his usual).

After the doctor trip, Buddy and I went to scho because I was the Mystery Reader in Punky's classroom!  She was so happy and so excited!  Her teacher gave clues about me that I had written.  (Her favorite candy is Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.  Her family has one cat, one fish and two frogs.)  I was waiting in the hallway and could hear Punky squealing, "It's my Mom!"  When she opened the door, she burst into tears (and then I did too of course).  I read The Book with No Pictures and Spoon to the class.  

Her teacher asked to see me in the hallway when we were done and told me about an incident that happened at recess.  Punky and another girl were waiting to come inside and the other girl told Punky she could see her breath and she blew in Punky's face.  Punky said she couldn't see it and then asked the girl to stop blowing on her when she did it again.  Then the girl said "Not only can you not hear, you are as blind as a bat."  The teacher saw Punky crying when she came inside.  The other girl was sent to the principal and her parents were called.  Apparently it was not the first time there were problems with that girl.  I just can't believe that kid could say something that hurt so deep like that, and in 1st grade!  I'm still in shock and I could go on and on, but I will stop.  Punky was sad but felt better after she talked with Derek and I and her teacher too.  I was glad to hear about it at school because I came home and googled what to say to Punky!  What did our parents do without the internet?  Basically we told her it wasn't about you- that girl would've said something mean to anyone (and Punky has proof of that).  She was having a bad day or maybe she doesnt know how much that hurt you, or maybe she hurt you to make herself look better, etc.  Don't believe what mean kids tell you- you have lots of family and friends who love you and know you- believe them.  And finally, we reminded her to never be the mean kid.  She doesn't have to be friends with this girl, but she does still need to be nice.  After a few day, I'm glad this happened because we were able to have a really good conversation with Punky.  I know it won't be the last time someone says something mean.  But I want her to know she can talk to us and she will feel better after talking to us.  She is still young and looks to her parents for guidance.  Hopefully she will in Middle School too.

I was so relieved that Friday ended on a positive note.  There was Turkey Bingo at school that night so we made a sort of last minute decision to go.  We played for maybe an hour and on our very last game, Punky got a BINGO!  She won a frozen turkey!  It was so cute to see her shout BINGO and sprint to the front of the gym.  She was pretty excited!  There were two winners, so they had to draw numbers for the prize and Punky won that too!  (The other girl got candy.)  Punky's prize included a new book, free meals to Applebee's, Culvers, Arby's and a few places.  And of course the turkey!  Hahaha!  Now we will have to invite her BFFs over for a turkey dinner because they gave us their Bingo tickets since they got pink eye and couldn't come.  Sounds like a good deal to me!