Back to work tomorrow?

Christmas is over and tomorrow is back to work. Well, for me at least. The girls still have another week off of school. By the end of next week, Scott will probably be ready to give all the kids away. I think he is going to have the kids all day tomorrow and he has a shoot in the morning, plus he says he has a lot of work to do. Hopefully Amy can watch the kids on Tuesday to give him some quiet work time.
I had a really nice 5 day weekend. I had all day Christmas Eve off- Scott and I finished ( actually started and finished) our shopping. It's nice to actually get out shopping just the two of us once in a while. Christmas Eve night we went to my mom and dad's for our traditional pizza and presents. Travis was home so that makes it extra nice. Christmas morning mom and dad and Travis came over to our house to watch the kids open presents. I have invited them over for a few years cuz I don't want them to sit around all day on Christmas with nothing to do. At least this way we spend a couple hours together. Then we were off to Steve and Colleens for egg bake and presents. Their house gets really crowded with all of us, but no one seems to care. It will be interesting when Kyra starts bringing a boyfriend - just to see if we can fit more people in! There will always be room even if we have to sit on top of each other. That's what I like about our families! Christmas night we went to Scott's grandparents house for supper. Seemed a little weird without his grandma. I don't think she would have really liked it with everyone there though. She probably would have been more scared than anything and that's not healthy for her.
The kids got some stuff they really wanted- Haley got the complete set of Harry Potter books and a new camera. Hannah got a new camera and an ipod. Will- well what did Will get- Dinosaurs, tools, trucks- all the boy stuff any 2 year old boy could ever dream of!
Friday and Saturday were days to just play with new stuff and find room for all of it. We did pretty good. I was even able to put my whole new set of pots in the same cupboard as my old ones! Will's room needs to be a little bigger, but of course he has the biggest toys to find room for, so that will be a problem for a few more years I am afraid.
It was nice to have a couple of days to just spend at home. I even got some time to relax! We had movie night 2 nights in a row- wonderful family time!
Today I took down the tree and other decorations. Now I just have to get it all back under the stairs. Not really in the mood for that right now. Maybe tomorrow..........oh crap I have to go back to work tomorrow.

Christmas program day.....

This morning the girls had their Christmas programs at church. This is the first year that they are in seperate groups. Haley has moved up into the older group so we had someone to watch in each! This year I am helping with the primary Sunday School music, which in turn means I helped with the program. The prek- 3rd graders just had a little reading that was kind of like the 12 days of Christmas. The kids didn't have parts to say, they just had costumes to correspond to the reading. Hannah was Mary. Then the kids all sang 4 songs and they were done! Here is a close up of Hannah during the singing.

Then Haley's group did a program titled "Bethlehem Treasure". There were only a few that had speaking parts, the rest of the kids were the "choir". Haley had an extra part - she was the star. She had to wear a star costume and stand on some boxes. She was really nervous about the being up high part. It turned out the heat part is what she should have been worried about. I was watching her pretty close cuz I knew she was nervous. She started out great, but then she was fidgeting more and then I saw her put her hands on her legs and start to bend over. I knew then that she needed to get down! Luckily there was someone standing next to her just to keep her safe. He got her down just in time. 2 more seconds and I think she would have come down with a fainting thud! She came and sat with us instead of getting back on stage and she looked awful. There was no color in her face at all. When we got home she went to bed and took a 1 1/2 hr nap. Poor kid- I don't know if she is fighting off something anyway or if getting too hot was just too much. Here is a picture of her as the "star"

Well, Travis made it back today. His flight was supposed to come in yesterday, but due to a "crew shortage" his flights were delayed by a day. We met at the studio and took a family portrait before he even got to go home. Hopefully we got a good one for mom!

I suppose I should get the kiddos going and go get Scott. Mom is making a turkey for supper tonight since this is probably the only big meal she will cook for Travis this week. Our traditional Christmas Eve supper is pizza. Every year she asks what we want- like we are going to change a great casual tradition like pizza! Crazy thoughts!

Goal- MAINTAIN

My goal for the next 2 weeks is not to lose weight, it is just to not gain weight! With all the goodies and busy schedules, that will be a tough one to keep. I have been really good and lost some weight in the last couple of months. I really, really don't want that weight back to start off the new year! I have been unmotivated to work out the last week or so. I still try, but have a hard time getting too much time in before I get really bored and come up with some excuse to stop. So - I must MAINTAIN until after Christmas, then I will work on trying to lose a few more. Think it can be done? Boy, I hope so!

As for Christmas- we haven't done much shopping, but we are probably done anyway. It's depressing to not be able to buy a lot of gifts, but we have to keep our priorities in check. No one really needs anything anyway. I guess this year we will learn to appreciate just spending time together. Not such a bad thing to concentrate on!

I think next year for Christmas I am going to ask Santa for 70 degree weather. I am not getting into this -10 stuff. The kids aren't real thrilled with it either. Everyone is going to get a little punchy over Christmas break if they can't get outside to blow off some energy. Gonna be tough on Scott- I think he is keeping all 3 of them most of the days that they are off. I'd better get him a big bottle of UV and Red Bull!

I suppose I should get to getting ready for the day. Another 2-4 inches of snow forcasted for today. YIPPEE! (note that was a sarcastic YIPPEE- I am not really excited about more snow!)

(Nearly) Toothless Hannah

She is now 6 teeth lighter. Yup, 6. She did awesome. This was the first time she has had to have any work done on her teeth. They gave her some "happy" gas and lots of novacaine shots. Poor kid- her only complaint afterwards was that she didn't like the gauze and she didn't like not being able to feel her lips. She was even able to eat some supper with us. I did take her to Dairy Queen and got her a blizzard for later. Hopefully someday she will have beautiful straight teeth and this will all be worthwhile.

Not too much else going on this week. I have been fighting some kind of crud for a few days and this morning I was pretty sure it was winning. I feel better now, so hopefully my immune system is stronger than whatever virus is trying to rear its ugly head.

Christmas is in two weeks......I have 1 more present to buy for Hannah and then the kids are done. I have bought nothing for anyone other than the kids. Not sure if I am even going to try to find small somethings for everyone else. I guess I'll have to talk to Scott and see what he wants to do. We got our Christmas cards today so Hannah has been helping me get those done. I am missing a few addresses, the rest are already in the mailbox!

Well, the kids are fighting, Scott left to go back to work and I am ready to go to bed- too bad it's only 6:00. Better get busy getting busy!

First place Lego Leaguers!

Haley, Collen and I spent the day yesterday in Sioux City for the First Lego League Regional competition. Haley's team took first place in the "Rising Stars" category. Here is a quote from her coach's email regarding the category:

Rising Star AwardAt every tournament, there are teams that the judges notice and believe will soon be among the best and the brightest. The Rising Star Award recognizes a team that the judges believe stands out and that we expect great things from in future Challenges.

Now the pressure is on for upcoming years :-)

The kids were so excited! Now they are qualified to go to the state tournament on Jan 17 in Ames, IA. Of course the kids are raring to go! We will need to decide if/when we are going to go. Since Haley can't officially participate in the competition I am having a difficult time with justifying the expense of driving and a hotel room. She put in a lot of time and hard work so I don't want to disappoint her. I am sure we will end up going, whether it will be the whole family or not will have to be decided.

Here are a couple of shots from yesterday, the first is of "Shane" the robot. The second is right after the awards ceremomy. The kids don't look just a little excited do they?

Here's a travel tip for you: Don't trust the directions given to you by a third party. We ended up in Nebraska twice and had to call Scott for street by street guidance in order to find the competition location yesterday. It is a good thing that I am always early for things and that I don't get flustered or upset by things too easily. Boy were we ever lost!

my baby's on steroids!

Well, it could be worse. Will has croup so the dr put him on steroids to help keep the wheezing down. Hopefully a couple days of steriods and he won't sound like a baby seal anymore. He certainly has not lost his sense of humor though. We were in the exam room waiting and he was coloring. We were practicing our colors, he pulled out the yellow- and said "this is yellow, just like pee". Now there is something the girls would never have said. Most kids would compare yellow to the sun- not my little bubba!

I suppose I should get to making supper, just thought I would give a bubba update and give you all a little chuckle as well!

Barkin Bubba

I knew something was up when my cell phone actually rang yesterday. Normally Scott just sends me text messages to call when I have a chance. He called to tell me to call Amy so that I could listen to Will. Well, I called her and I could hear Will wheezing as soon as she picked up the phone. I tried to talk to him and he couldn't even get any words out cuz he was working so hard on breathing. I called the dr office and it took them an hour to call me back. By the time the nurse called I had already checked on Will 4 times and he was getting better. I made him an appt for this morning thinking that I would probably be able to cancel it. Well at 10:30 last night I was glad we already have an appt for today. The poor thing was barking and wheezing. Scott sat in the steamy bathroom with him for awhile and that seems to calm the cough down enough so Will can relax. I had him in the bathroom again at 5 this morning. So I am taking the day off work and making a trip to the dr. Hopefully it's just one of those things that will go away in a couple days, but with the wheezing I think we'd be better off making sure.

Other news? No, not really. It snowed last night- about an inch is all, but it looks like there is a chance every day starting Saturday. I just hope it doesn't snow alot on Saturday cuz I have to drive to Sioux City and back. I'd rather not have yucky roads to contend with!

Well, I suppose I should go see if Will is still awake. He was wanting breakfast 20 minutes ago, but I tried to get him to go back to sleep.

Wish us luck at the dr!