Dose of Reality...

I think we have joined humanity once more. Despite the fun Christmas pictures and the love of snow... we have in actuality had a lot of sickness...and down time. But, I think we are done for about 2 weeks! The Christmas cards won't make it out for New Years- they were signed...but nothing was addressed and no year end letter created... Valentines Day? Better late than never....right? We are prolonging the holiday spirit for everyone! hee, hee, hee. Actually, I don't even think I would send them out at all at this point- but, I feel bad. I had the children sign 90 cards... to not send them out seems.... not nice. I did have the thought that we could just be ahead for next year- would their signatures really change that much? :-P If you get an e-card... you know I gave up the battle!!!
It is 2:30 am and I am still out of sync from the past few weeks- sigh. I don't know how to sleep through the night these days. Katie has been feeling a little run down since the first part of November. We have had a few dr. visits, bloodwork, and a specialist (worst dr visit ever) for her and the end result after swollen tonsils (the swelling has gone down some- but they have spent more time touching than not), croup, strep, and a virus... on Jan 7th she will have surgery to take the tonsils out. Our job right now is to keep her healthy as possible (which actually makes me laugh a bit) and gear up for a very long week and a half. She has missed quite a bit of school-- and will be missing at least 1 1/2 weeks more...but, in the end- it should be the better thing. She has had company during her time off from school- the strep and viral stuff had to hit the whole family... all spaced out of course. Josh got strep in the form of not keeping anything down for a few days and off a week of school... and Caleb had a rash- but, it turned out to be strep as well- out a week of school. I got the viral whatever twice (headache and slept for two days both times- slept like I've never slept before... is that why I am up right now?!) and my honey and Shawn C. and Mariah took their turns the first 1/2 of Christmas break. We all made it to church yesterday- healthy! 3 days and counting of no illness- yippeeee!!! The real work has begun though- the washing machine has been going crazy trying to keep everyone from getting sick again... so now has been the busy-ness of sterilization! I will admit that this has still been a wonderful Christmas- but it most definately has been my absolute laziest. I have had no desire whatsoever to go anywhere or do much of anything. We finally visited Dad and Mom King yesterday afternoon and they asked how all our extended family is doing.... we don't know yet. How sad is that? We haven't been in touch with ANYONE. (yes, you- the reader of this blog- are not alone!) I think the only thing I have accomplished is updating the blog.... because it is something I can do at 1 and 2 am :-) So, this is my dose of reality for the blog- all is well... or at least will be well!....but, I have been "off"- not myself- and tired. Very tired. There. Sigh. Okay. Whew.
But, now starts a new week!! YAHOOO! We are all feeling much better- including myself- and I think we are ready to tackle the new year much better than we have the previous two holidays! I love the feeling of a new year... and I need it :-)
So, we missed the Happy Thanksgiving... and the Merry Christmas.... but, I am EARLY on HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!! YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I might be able to sleep now~ goodnight!

Belle had a puppy!! Born Dec 23rd at 3:00 am... he looks just like his daddy- Grizzlee Bear. It has been hard to get a good photo of the puppy because Belle is such a perfect mommy- she does nothing all day long but snuggle and cuddle with her new baby. Okay- she licks him a ton too...but, other than that... they are such the snuggle bugs. It has been so wonderful to watch her mothering~ so wonderful. FINALLY, mommy had to go potty- and we got a few snapshots of the baby puppy by himself...isn't he adorable! Belle did have one other puppy- but, it was stillborn. So, we have one spoiled chubby as can be puppy that will be ready for a new family to love and adore him by Valentine's day!!

By the way.... Santa DID make it to our home and filled our stockings... we DID open presents... AND even played a few games.... and THEN played in the snow and exhausted ourselves :-) I know, you all are wondering if we even did Christmas- it looks like I have never seen snow before.... it was just such an unexpected and fun surprise... just a couple of weeks earlier people were wondering if we were even going to have a white Christmas... I said " a lot can happen in a couple of weeks".... glee- joy- and happiness.... until the shoveling.... I think Santa needs to bring us a 4-wheeler with a huge shovel on the front next year... I still can't believe we shoveled it all out by hand.... well, look at me... back to the snow....so, yes, anyway..... the children were DELIGHTED with Christmas and enjoyed their gifts... which were a mixture of things they really needed in clothes, shoes, makeup, etc... and some fun too!!! We got some new games which we all enjoyed- like Mickey Mouse Clue- I liked the game of Clue...but hated the murder part...well, in this game you have to figure out in what room, and to which Disney character, did which ghost haunt. I see a huge difference!!! hee, hee, hee.... and Othello, electronic rubik's cube memorizing game, Cosmic Catch- which is a BLAST... it is like an electronic hot potato game (everyone has a different colored little dohickey strapped on their hand and the ball- which is electronic- tells you to which color to throw to- way fun!) I did recognize that clothes and useful stuff for Christmas is much more fun for girls than boys... to girls- clothes ARE fun! Shawn and I got a mixer for ourselves for Christmas... we have spent the holidays making healthy drinks and soups... might not be too exciting for many- but we are delighted with it! :-)

More snow fun~ Grizz makes a snowdog angel, the back of Shawn's car (it really is in there), Caleb taking a rest, and yes- sliding off the roof on sleds into huge piles of snow..... for all the hours and hours of shoveling- and us all going to bed early out of exhaustion...we really had a TON of fun!!!!!!!!

Here are the before Christmas day snow pictures.... the snow angel and little tree were the most snowfall we had in the last couple of weeks... it took everything the children could do to get this mini snowman in our front yard! (now, we can see snowman's snow hat... and we dug to find his eyes again...he is recovering and doing well... quite insulated... we won't have to worry about him until next June- whew)

Katie-baby having fun in our snow on Christmas day!! This was actually her first day outside in quite awhile- not feeling well.
(you can click on the picture to make it bigger)

The next thing we just had to notice about our Christmas day.... snow! We had a blizzard in the evening and woke up to this..... Here we have pictures of our birdfeeder- which we always use for measuring snowfall, our rooftops, Grizz trying to get past the part of the sidewalk we had shovled, Shawn's car, our back porch- where snow fell off the back side of the house and plooped on the back porch... yeah- that was real fun shoveling that one... which came after the driveway.... sigh

Joshua's Christmas present to each of us this year was breakfast in bed :-) Yes, I know that the children are not in their beds... they all slept in our bedroom- we started this a few years back to help keep peekers at bay... and it stuck. Christmas eve is a slumer party in dad and mom's room!! So, back to breakfast... it was the sweetest thing. He woke up early- promised not to peek- and made us all eggs, toast, water, and each had an airplane folded in the shape of heart wings. Katie wasn't quite awake... and Shawn C. was trying hard to NOT wake up... but the rest of us were super happy!! What a perfect beginning to our day~

Here is Harry the Snowman... Our first snowman of the season!!

Mariah has been sewing again! She is working on a quilt- the long strips in the picture~ it is fun to see her at the sewing machine!!

Katie didn't think I had done a very good job with her hair one morning....so, we took pictures to PROVE that she indeed looked beautiful (which has nothing to do with her cute hair- she is ALWAYS beautiful) but.... I thought the photo of her side shot told a lot of the story by itself!!! She viewed the photos and decided that it really was going to be okay. :-)

oh so pretty.... I think I am an addict....

Found some more..... I guess she just has a mom that loves the pictures almost as much as she does... they are so peaceful to me... I love the details I can see in each one... I Love to look at them~ and she loves to take them! (click to enlarge)

Here are some more of Mariah's pictures from this fall~ (click on it and it enlarges)

Mariah loves to take pictures of sunsets and sunrises... I think she would enjoy photography~ This was one moment she captured looking outside her window (sooooooo grateful for the new windows- especially in the girl's room... I knew Mariah would particularly love looking outside~)

Katie and Caleb are my last two elementary aged children~ singing in the Christmas festival of trees....I am down to TWO in elementary school- wow! I thought the middle picture of Caleb looked funny- looked like he was really enjoying himself!!! Actually, the bottom picture really is much more acurate- he smiled most of the time he was up there- we loved their singing!!!

This is love.....
Caleb went out and started the suburban for me before work... and climbed on top to get the frost off the windsheild!
What a sweetie

All is calm.... all is bright.... sortof.....
Belle is prego- so she is VERY calm all of the time.... Cuddles LOVES sleeping under the Christmas tree (and is being very behaved about it- no climbing up the tree or knocking down ornaments, etc...) Panda was snuggled cute in Katie's very messy bed covers- awwww....and well, I had to go back to Oct 29th- but, I DID find a picture of Grizzlee Bear sleeping too...... :-)