I just want to know....

Who are us moms supposed to call when we need to call in sick?
Peter got sick sunday evening and had to call in sick monday. He spent the day lounging/sleeping on the couch while I made him jello and kept the kids away and all that good stuff.
Well, I spent the majority of last night with my face in the toilet. I haven't thrown up again today I just feel like I was hit by a train! And, feeling like that, I had to get everyone breakfast, change diapers, entertain a 13 month old and get lunch and change more diapers and later I will have to get dinner for everyone and get kids to bed....where are my sick hours?!?!?

I can't believe I bought these!!

Well, Hadley has been asking for a pet for a while now. He really wanted Hamsters so I went to the petstore to get some. The guy there told me that Hamsters and gerbils are actually kinda mean and tend to bite alot. Also, you can only hold them cupped in your hand. He said the best pet for a kid Hadley's age was actually a rat. yup, a rat! ewwww!!! We talked for a while. He told me that everything I think I know about rats is wrong. They are really smart animals. they are kinda like having a little dog. They can learn their name and learn to do tricks. They are very social so they like to be held and be around people. And they are very agile so you can carry them around on your shoulder or whatever. Well, it took a lot of convincing but I ended up getting two rats. They are actually really cute and have grown on me. I have actually held them! Technically they are both Hadley's but we told Devin one was his so he wouldn't be sad, but he doesn't even pay attention to it.


We kept the cage hidden for two days then on christmas peter put it in their room and we told them there was another gift they had to find.

Hadley was so excited when he found them!

There they are, actually kinda cute.

Hadley's rat is white with Black on it's head and back, he named her Lucy.

Devin's rat has identical markings but it brown and white instead of black. He named her Carly.

Hadley carries the rat everywhere. We found him the other day watching a movie with Lucy just chilling on his head. He already loves the stupid thing to death!!

Hanging out on Hadley's shoulder. He walks around all day with this rat on his shoulder.

You can't tell me that's not cute!

If you had ever told me that someday I would allow rats in my house, and actually hold them and like them...I would have had you committed!!

Our Christmas Day.

This year Peter had Christmas morning off. They split the day into two 6 hour shifts instead of making some people work a full 12. He has always worked Christmas morning before but I think that I much prefer him to work the afternoon. We have alot more time with him when he works the morning cuz his shift is half over by the time we even get up:) but it's really hard to pass the time. The kids are dying to open gifts but I have to keep them away til 2pm. nothing is open yet to go do anything. Also, peter's parent's always have us over for Christmas dinner so he gets' home, we open gifts then the kids have to leave their toys to go eat dinner and then the day is over.

But, this year it was much nicer with him home in the morning. We got to open gifts right away. He had to leave for work at 11:30 but the kids had their toys to keep them entertained so they weren't devastated:) Because it was afternoon, the movie theater was now open so I took the kids to see "Bedtime Stories" which was really cute. Then we headed to Grandma's house to hang out and have dinner and open their gifts. Peter ended up joining us right after dinner so he got to be a part of the evening too.

While we did see him less this year, it didn't seem like it because we had more stuff and options to keep us occupied while he was gone.

but hey, on the bright side...only 4 more years at the hospital and he will have enough seniority that he only has to work 1 holiday, which will be new years day cuz we don't care about that anyway! So, the countdown begins!

Christmas!

Hadley posing with his Ben 10 Chamber...my awesome find from a few weeks ago:)

Lexi trying to figure out the stockings.

Santa brought Hadley a remote control helicopter.

Santa brought Devin the power ranger helmet he had been asking for.

And he brought Lexi a rocking horse...she is a little scared of it.

Unwrapping presents and handing the paper to dad.

My baby girl with her first Cabbage Patch kid, see how lovingly she pokes at her eyes?:)

Hadley with his stash. He got everything he asked for. A ripstick...which he can't use cuz there is 12,000 feet of snow outside. his helicopter and ben 10 thing and a bunch of other stuff. Santa also gave us some Wii games.

Devin with his stuff. He got his batmobile and Ben 10 omnitrix and his "gameboy" which is actually a v-smile portable game thing. For some reason his stash looks alot smaller than hadley's in this picture...I promise they got equal stuff. I had a list and made sure they got equal amounts of gifts:) Too bad they can't understand that some gifts cost more...they just care that they got the same:)

Lexi playing with her toys.

Peter and I also got some stuff but those pics aren't any fun. I wouldn't care if I never got anything for Christmas, to me, it's all about the kids. I love giving gifts and seeing their excitement!

Christmas Eve.

For several years now I have been meaning to do gingerbread houses with the kids on Christmas Eve. We finally got around to it this year. I cheated and bought one of those kits from Costco but the kids seemed to enjoy it.

Getting started.
Putting it together.

Devin, blowing a bubble. He ate more of the candy that actually went on the house:)

Concentrating so hard!

Posing with their house.

Looks good enough to eat! (but I think I will pass:)

I cooked my traditional Christmas Eve ham for dinner. Peter didn't get home from work til 8 that night so we had a late dinner but it was still fun. This is a picture of my awesome ham...it was sooo yummy and we are still eating leftovers.

I love Christmas Eve. I think I enjoy it more that the actual Christmas Day. Something about the night/day before that just seems so magical and full of excitement!

Christmas Eve.

Before opening our one gift, we sat and read the story of Christ's birth from the bible.

We always open one gift on christmas eve...and it's always jammies. Hadley, for some reason, forgot that it's always jammies and was a little dissapointed:)

Devin loves his Jammies.

Lexi turned out to be a neat freak when it came to unwrapping gifts. She would pull of a piece and then hand it to someone to put in the garbage. It took forever for her to open her gifts, she did it for EVERY gift this year.

My cute kids in their new jammies.

On Christmas Eve. I always let the boys make cookies for Santa. They get to do it all...I don't help. So far, Santa has survived:)

Cutting out the cookies. They wanted to do circles, but we couldn't find our circle cookie cutter, so they decided to use the gingerbread man one...but then they discovered that they could just squish in the arms and legs of the man and you had a circle...kinda;) They were very pretty.

Decorating the cookies.

All finished.

We put out our cookies and milk for Santa and we always leave a plate of oats for the reindeer too. Now off to bed to wait for Santa!

We had a fun Christmas Eve. I love building these traditions and memories with our kids!

Neighborhood treats.

For our neighborhood treats we always do chocolate covered pretzels. We start out with the big 6lb coscto bag and 4 bars of almond bark. I ended up buying about 4 more bars to get it all done and we got sick of it around 4lbs of pretzels and quit. Normally, for the last 5 years, I have hand dipped each pretzel. It took forever! This year, for the first time, I happened to read the back of the chocolate and it said to dump the pretzels into the melted chocolate and then just pull them out...what a concept!! They weren't as pretty as usual but it sure went ALOT faster!!!

Don't you just love how kids still think chores and work is "Fun"?!
They were big helpers this year and actually did more than half of the pretzels for me.



These are our first two papers full of pretzels.
We ended up with about 27 plates of pretzels plus a bagful leftover for us. I think I have to find something easier to make or give out less treats:)

Sledding.

I forgot about this picture but I can't figure out how to add it at the end so it ended up here:) This is cute Lexi snoozing away during sledding.

Peter had the 23rd off, so while I did some last minute shopping with Lexi, he took the boys sledding. Lexi ended up falling asleep in the car so rather than wake her i just went and parked by the hill and watched. They went to Evergreen park, which is just a couple blocks from our house, but it is the only hill around here that we know of so it's always packed. It started snowing about 30 minutes in so lot's of wimps..I mean people left. The pictures aren't very good because I didn't want to get out of the car since I was just in a short-sleeve shirt.

This is a shot of the hill from the car. I think this was after alot of people left.

This is Hadley going down, he is the one at the top of the picture in the blue and black coat.

This is Devin, plodding up the hill with his short little legs. Sledding is not a ton of fun for him yet, it takes him FOREVER to get up the hill. He was walking up it this time and a tube with 3 people on it ran right into him. he flipped end over end and they hit him so hard that both his boots flew off his feet and landed about 20 feet away from him...that's a hard hit! he got the wind knocked out of him but was ok. Needless to say, he was done and came and watched a movie in the car with me while we waited for Dad and Hadley to be done.

I sent Peter out with the camera and told him to get a pic of Hadley coming down the hill...this was the best he got:)

Snow!

A few weeks ago we were wondering if we were going to have a white Christmas. Well, I would love to go back to that time! I am SOOO SICK of Snow!!! The first storm was awesome cuz it was our first real snow, we got about 8 inches. But, ever since, we have had a storm about every other day and each one brings at least 3 or 4 more inches...a couple 8 inchers again. I have had it with the snow. I am sick of driving in it, and walking in it and shoveling it and then shoveling some more, and then, when you think you can't shovel again...you have to.

The boys were out helping shovel and some friends came to help.
Peter refuses to let me buy a snowblower. He says its a waste of money cuz he is perfectly capable of shoveling. Well, Peter isn't home til 8 or 9 most nights which leaves me to figure out how to get out there with Lexi and shovel...which doesn't happen. Or I just have to floor-it up the driveway all day....our driveway is a hill so if you don't gun it up it when there is snow...you don't get up it.

Feeding the recruits some hot chocolate. Thanx for your help boys!

My big "helper".

Lexi was "helping" me make dinner the other night...until she discovered olives! Now, I just have one more kid to steal olives from me while I am trying to cook.

hmmmm...what's in this can?
What?!

Oh, you can't be mad at me and you know it!! I am too cute!

Another Christmas program.

Hadley's school did their annual Christmas singing program the last day of school before the holiday break. This happened to be the week that we were all passing some 12 hour stomach bug around our house and it just happened to be my day to have it. I don't remember much about the program because I was busy just trying not to puke and look like I was going to die. I took off as soon as the 2nd grade was done.

This is the whole 2nd grade at Barratt Elementary.

There's my handsome Hadley...right in the middle with the black vest on.

Marching off stage and back to class.