The next few days...

...We spent playing.  Well, I guess I should clarify.  Most of us spent the next few days playing.  Poor Ethan was sick as can be for five days.  He spent most of his time like this on the couch or on his bed.  I felt so bad for him.  It also made it tricky to go out and do much as a family, because we didn't want to leave him out.  So we spent a quiet week playing at our house, playing in the snow, and the older boys played with their friends a bit.  We had lots of snow that came on Christmas Eve, and then the storm resumed the day after Christmas and kept dumping.  It was perfect.  

Lauren and Austin had a lot of fun out in the snow.  Devon would pull Lauren around in a circle, and she loved it.  She would laugh and giggle.  It was so cute!

Of course when Austin wanted to give it a try, she did not like that.

Look how instantly she changes expressions as it changes from Austin pulling to Daddy pulling.  Little stinker!

 

 

 And then the fun was over after she tipped out in the snow.  This sequence of pictures just make me laugh.

Four wheelers pulling sleds was a very common scene during this week.  With tons of snow, and the snowplows not coming through our neighborhoods (can't figure this one out), it made it perfect for this kind of fun.  This neighbor was awesome because he was so careful pulling all the kids.  He went just fast enough that it was fun for them, but not so fast that I worried that my child was on one of those sleds.  I heard someone joke that he was like the Pied Piper, because as he went around the neighborhood, more and more kids hopped on.  Jayden is third from the very back.

And Lauren finally ate her candy necklace and bracelet.

Can you say sweet tooth?  This girl was in heaven with all the candy she had.

Christmas

I love Christmas!  I love the excitement and to see others open their presents, and see the excitement they have for what has been given to them. I love to just spend time with my family and feel like nothing else in the world matter, except us, right then.  I think it was about 6 am that Devon and I woke up.  The house was still pretty quiet, although I'm sure Dylan and Jayden had been awake downstairs for a while.  I decided to take a quick shower, and then we waited a little more, and finally decided to just go wake up the other kids.  

The morning started off with a bad omen of Ethan saying his tummy hurt, but we just figured it was nothing, because he still complains of slight tummy aches frequently.  He acted fine, so we figured once he ate he would be good. When we lined the kids up to have them come downstairs - youngest to oldest - I thought that perhaps this year I wouldn't have to carry the baby down the stairs.  It seemed logical to me to say "Lauren, come see what Santa brought you."  Of course as soon as I said that, she darted into her room, and I found her holding her necklace the Santa had brought two days before.  She loves that thing!  Funniest thing is that she still doesn't really know what it is.

Santa was especially nice this year, although there were a few things that I guess he couldn't find that the kids had asked for.  That, or they asked for too many things and he picked what he thought was best.  I think Jayden was really excited for this PokePark Wii game he found in his stocking.

Lauren was so excited to see all the candy and then this awesome rocking horse Santa brought her, that she didn't care about opening any presents. The ones for her piled up next to me, and a few we just opened for her.

Austin had been hoping Santa would bring him a train.  He was so excited!  For weeks he was wondering when it would happen.

Dylan loves Legos, and was excited for this Heroica game that Santa brought him.  He wanted it last year, and I guess Santa remembered.

Ethan was so funny when he opened this.  When someone asked him what he was he said something like, "I don't know, but I think I asked Santa for it."

Jayden and Dylan got these cool helicopters.  Let me tell you, they are lots of fun!

Austin has seen four wheelers all over in stores, and always points them out to me.  I think he was pretty surprised that Santa brought him one!

Now this is what Ethan had been excited for Santa to bring him for weeks!  His very own Slurpee Maker.  

Jayden's big request from Santa was electronic Battleship.

I finally forced Lauren to help me open one of her presents.  Once we finally got it open and she could play with it, she didn't mind.

And this is the point in which our adventures began.  The kids had all seemed fine - eating, laughing, playing, and then just when its time to leave... boom, boom - Dylan and Ethan are throwing up.  They both had been every once in a while mentioning their stomachs kind of hurt, but they hadn't really acted like it was a big deal.  Nice.  We needed to go up to Grandma and Grandpa Kirk's house to celebrate Christmas with them and talk to Uncle Ben on his mission over Skype.  Devon was needed to help set it all up, I really wanted to be there.  We also thought that some of the other cousins were still sick with the same thing (at least the day before), so we figured, we may as well all just go.  It ended up we were wrong, and no one was sick anymore (sorry), but I'm still not sure what we would have done.  I guess I could have stayed home with Dylan and Ethan.  Of course it wouldn't have mattered, because just minutes before arriving at the Kirks, Austin threw up in the car.  Oh, lovely.  All the kids at this point still acted totally normal, so we weren't sure what to do.  They wanted to play, so they did for a little bit.  Then Dylan started to really feel sick, so the poor kid just laid on the floor the rest of the time we were there.  Ethan was feeling pretty good, until a little while before we left, so he eventually joined Dylan on the floor.  Austin, however never acted the least bit sick.  Strange stuff.

Enough about sickness...

We had fun exchanging gifts with everyone.  Rachel and David and their family were part of the fun through Skype.  Devon added them to the picture with all these cousins showing off the awesome BYU stuff from Grandma an Grandpa.

I think this just might have been a highlight of the day for my parents (that and talking to Ben, of course), what do you think?  It was fun to see how much they liked the gifts from all of us to them.  

Once we were done at the Kirks, Devon dropped me and the sick kids off at our house, and took those healthy and not napping (I guess that leaves Jayden), and went to have Christmas lunch at his parents house. Later that day I switched him and ran over so that I could be there when his parents opened the gift from all of the families to them.  Its a scrapbook of the Disney Cruise they took us on. Its a big project, since there are so many people, and so many fun things to scrapbook, but we filled one entire book with what he had finished so far.

It was a memorable Christmas, complete with our tradition of sickness... I can't figure out what is up with that.  I don't know how many Christmases we have spent with sick kids, but it feels like a lot.  Hopefully next year we can take a break from that tradition.  =)