Hanukkah AND Christmas!

Yes, that's right...my kids are spoiled!  They are fortunate enough to be able to celebrate both holidays.  I know it's going to get a little more tricky as they get holder, but for now, they are pretty darn happy to get a double dosage of presents!

Hanukkah was VERY early this year, on December 1st.  I made sure the kids had a present to open each night and we lit the candles each night as well.  On the 4th, we had a small Hanukkah party at our house with a few family and friends.  While I was cooking and cleaning, Jason took the girls to the movie theater to see Tangled.  I'm pretty sure they ate a lot of candy!  By the time they got home, it was party time!  The Miller crew was supposed to come, but Morgan had to go and break her arm which lead to emergency surgery!  Peter showed up to represent the family though!  Sydney and Lizzy had a blast eating and playing with Lily, Jake, and Nathan.  I think the highlight of Sydney's night was that she got "Twinkle Toe Sketchers" from Grandpa.  They also got some pretty sweet furniture from Grandma Sharon for their Bitty Babies.  All in all, it was a really fun night.

Skipping ahead now a few weeks later...CHRISTMAS!!  We headed to Jason's parent's house in Midland, which we do every single year.  It kind of works out well that my family doesn't celebrate, so we never have to decide on which family to celebrate the holiday with.  Jason (I mean...Santa) bought the kids a TON of presents, so our car was packed!  When we got up to Midland, we went to the Santa House with Tyler.  That was NOT my favorite.  We had to wait outside for like 2 hours in the freezing cold...I don't do so well in the cold!  Lizzy and I had to sit in the car for a little bit, but we lasted most of the time.  They had a big blow up santa that she loved for some reason.  She kept saying, "BIG Santa, BIG Santa" really loudly!  After about an hour and a half, she went and stood at the front of the line and chanted, "open the door, open the door, open the door."  It was really cute and she still keeps saying it all of the time!  FINALLY they got to see Santa and Sydney was so upset because her pants were wet, but we threw her on his lap and she shaped up really quickly...this girl is all about the presents!!

The next day, they opened up all of their loot and then we headed to Polly's sisters house for dinner with all of the family.  We had fun and ate pretty well! 

The next day we decided to go to Traverse City for a day to see my Grandpa and cousins.  Although I was glad to see them, and the kids had a blast, it turned out to be a BIG mistake.  When we woke up the next morning, Peyton threw up and everyone knows about my phobia and how I can't deal with it.  So, we packed up and left instantly so we wouldn't catch it.  TOO LATE!  We made it back to Midland just in time for Sydney to start throwing up.  I was so beside myself...Jason had to do everything.  Finally she stopped and was in bed just in time for Lizzy to start throwing up.  It was such a disaster having two kids sick at the same time.  I think I stayed up the entire night, I was just a wreck.  Fortunately, Jason's mom and sister were very helpful as I was useless!  I felt so bad for Jason, but he handled it great!  The next day we all just laid around the house, the kids ran slight fevers and were really miserable.  I was so tired and out of it that I just laid on the couch all day.  Finally, the next day we went home.  We had been gone for 7 days so it felt so amazing to finally be back home.  I thought all of this sickness was behind us until that night, Lizzy started throwing up AGAIN!  This time I didn't have Jason's family to help out.  Jason still did most of the work...I did the laundry, but that's it.  Jason ended up sleeping on Lizzy's floor and took the day off of work...which I was very thankful for.  We kept Lizzy in her room the ENTIRE day and just hooked up a DVD player in her room and she watched videos all day.

Finally, today (Friday), I think everyone is finally feeling better!  Jason went to work and I cleaned the house while the kids played with all of their new toys.  I think they were happy to finally be home and to be able to play with eachother.  I'm sad though that this week is slowly coming to an end.  I always hate that stretch after Christmas break with no holidays...just a whole lot of work...what a bummer!  Tonight for New Years it looks like we are just laying low to make sure the kids are fully recovered....and let me tell you...they better be!

We shall see what 2011 has in store for us!

Recital

This past weekend, Sydney had her first dance recital ever.  She had been practicing a routine in dance class, but when I asked her if she knew what recital meant, she had no clue.  So, I was a little worried how she would react when she saw the stage.  I kept telling her she would be on a stage and she would say, "no, the stage is just pretend."  Obviously in dance class the teacher must have been telling the kids to pretend that they were on stage, but Sydney was confused and thought the stage wasn't real.

We had to arrive a little early for dress rehearsal and when Sydney saw the stage, she kind of looked petrified.  They practiced their routine twice and were all so awful that it was cute.  They had no idea what they were doing and had to watch their instructor in the wings.  There was also a 4th grader who had helped out in the class as a demonstrator and the poor thing had to wear the same costume as the the 3 and 4 year olds.  She went on stage with them for the recital, so half of the kids watched her and the other half stared off into the wings.  Kids were just basically looking every which way and all off rhythm.  But, I have to admit, Sydney did an amazing job.  I was very impressed.  She came out with a smile on her face and rocked it way better than rehearsal.  I was so proud of her!

I was also very surprised with Lizzy.  I thought she would be terrible in the audience.  She loved the entire show though.  She would keep saying, "what's next, what's next?"  She was a dancing machine sitting on my lap and would mimic all of the moves the kids on stage were doing.  It was so adorable.  She wanted to get up on that stage so badly.  After intermission, they sent the "little kids" back to the audience with their parents.  So, Lizzy took Sydney's hat and thought that if she put it on, that she could go up on the stage and dance.  I had to chase after her once...we were sitting really close to the front in an isle seat...so she was pretty darn close to that stage!  I ended up letting her dance in the isle next to me...she really had a blast.  Maybe Lizzy will be our dancer (she had some moves) and Sydney will be a swimmer.  Only time will tell!

(That's her stop taking pictures of me face).

When Life Gives You Lemons...You Make Lemonade!

Well, this Thanksgiving weekend didn't go quite as planned, but it's not necessarily a bad thing.  It all started when I picked Lizzy up at daycare on Tuesday night.  The poor thing had a fever and sounded like a barking seal.  The saddest part was that, every time she coughed, she would cry and she just looked so pitiful, so I took her to the doctor.  They confirmed that she had croup and didn't like the way she was breathing, so we had to put her on breathing treatments.  We were supposed to go to Midland the next day, but since Polly hasn't been feeling well (for almost a year now) we couldn't take Lizzy there and expose Polly to anything because she is very susceptible right now and we had to be careful.  So, that threw our plans completely out of whack.

I ended up staying home from work on Wednesday to take care of Lizzy.  So, the positive side to that is that I got an even extra long weekend and I was able to clean the house and do the laundry...none of which would have gotten done had I gone to work (I can only imagine how clean and organized my house would be if I didn't work...).  But that night some friends were getting together and even an old friend, Beth was flying in from California and I was going to have to miss out on the gathering because we were going to be in Midland.  So, I was excited that I was able to get together with the girls.  I even took my heartbroken Sydney with me...she was so sad and cried the whole day because she couldn't go to Midland to see Tyler...sure, she likes her other cousins too...but she LOVES Tyler.  It was nice for her to at least go somewhere! 

Fortunately, Jill came to the rescue on Thursday and met Jason half way so that we could get Sydney to Midland and put a smile back on her face.  She was ridiculously excited to go.  I was a little sad not to have her home for Thanksgiving, but she was doing what she wanted to do.  By Thurday night, Lizzy didn't have a fever, but just a little cough so we went to my mom's new boyfriend's house for Thanksgiving.  His name is Ira, but Lizzy refuses to call him by his name.  She calls him "guy".  She even says it to his face..."hi guy".  It was kind of last second...but at least we still got a nice meal!!

The rest of the weekend revolved around my old college roomate, Angela's wedding.  I was standing up in the wedding, so we had to go for sure and I still had Lizzy on my hands.  She was supposed to be in Midland with Sydney while we were in Mount Pleasant for the wedding.  Fortunately, Jason's cousin Kim came to the rescue and offered to watch Lizzy for us.  It was the most convenient option since she lived in Midland as well, so both of my kids were at least in the same city!

The wedding weekend was a ton of fun.  Since the wedding was in Mount Pleasant, there was no way that I wasn't going to hit up the casino...and that's exactly what we did after the rehearsal dinner!  I can't say we won, but we didn't lose big.  I lasted a pretty long time at the blackjack table, since I wasn't so lucky with craps.  While I was playing, Jason managed to keep himself busy at casino bar...supposedly they have really cheap drinks!  Don't worry...I drove home!  The next day we partied until the DJ stopped playing.  It's nice when the party is also at the hotel you're staying at!  It was also nice because we (well, more like Jason) was pretty whipped after the 3 hour party bus and then the reception!  We don't get to have fun like this very often, so we definitley enjoyed ourselves!  And the best part is that Angela married a great guy...make that an excellent guy, because he's also a fellow Spartan!!

So, even though are long weekend started out a little rocky, we were able to make the best of the situation (with the help of Jill and Kim) and it ended up to be quite nice.  Lizzy now has a favorite babysitter for the next time we go out of town.  I'm pretty sure Lizzy cried for a good hour and a half because she didn't want to come home!  She must have been spoiled!