Catching Up

Back, finally!  It was only after agreeing to play daycare provider for my sister in law, that I realized she did not have internet.  Two whole weeks.  I'm not an addict, I can live without internet, but those were some seriously boring days.  I do believe we just endured the roughest Christmas break ever.  Here's the breakdown:

Travel:  Six hours in the car.

Wrestling tournament:  A present for my little man.  He loves to wrestle.

Stomach flu:  Yeah, because driving across the country with three kids in the car isn't miserable enough, lets throw in some vomit.  I could tell you just how my baby covered me from neck to toe, but I still get a little queasy thinking about it.  I got it the following morning and then my husband too.  The two older kids escaped somehow

More travel:  Three hours waiting for an accident to be cleaned up.  I didn't have my camera close by to take pictures of the snowmen on the interstate.

Babysitting:  Baby-sitting was pretty uneventful because I didn't have enough seats to take all the kids anywhere.  All week, in the house with six kids until the parents came home around 5.  And no internet.  I did get some projects done.  I made these slippers for the baby out of a felted sweater and I finished my daughter's doll house.  I started another set of slippers, but they are so much bigger than the baby's feet, I'll have to wait till she grows a bit to fit them to her.

Christmas:  Christmas was rough.  I had this picture in my mind of a nice, quiet Christmas.  Opening presents together and enjoying each gift before moving on to the next.  That just doesn't happen when you have cousins opening presents too.  We focused on homemade, personal gifts and the kids love them, now that they have looked at them.  Unfortunately, watching their cousins open millions of gadgets and video games made things a bit awkward at times.  The dancing queen was wonderful about it.  She immediately jumped in, finding what gifts belonged to her three year old cousin, helping him open them and then squealing in excitement for him.  She was so cute, but my little man noticed that he ran out of gifts long before the cousins did.  He felt bad at first, but then I noticed how he really appreciated his gifts, while his cousins were already whining and fighting about who gets to play what video game. 

More stomach flu:  Christmas celebrations were kind of shut down by the stomach flu, which made its way through all the extended family, hitting hardest on Christmas Day.  20 family members were knocked down by it.  Merry Christmas to all.  :)

Birthday:  The original plan for my little man's birthday was a big bowling party, but due to the sickies, we had a much more intimate bowling  party...and no cake.  The cake happened later at my mom's house.

Bad weather/travel/flat tire:  We delayed our departure because of the weather, but finally just decided to go.  And it went pretty smoothly until I commented on how quickly the trip was going.  We immediately had a blow out.  I'm talking within a minute after my comment.  I had nothing wooden to knock on, or it might  have been avoided.

Baby fever/cold:  Nothing like a crabby sick baby to travel with.  Actually, she slept a lot.  And cut some teeth.

More travel:  To my parent's house we go.

New Year:  We toasted it with sparkling cider while the kids were awake and played games.

A little more travel:  After a sleigh ride at the ranch, we packed up and made our weary way home.

I feel kind of bad that I don't have any huge goals or aspirations to list.  I know I have some, but with the sickies, cranky baby and holidays, the new year kind of snuck up on me.  Hopefully as I catch up on everyone's blogs I'll be inspired and motivated.

*sigh*  So good to be back.