Northbound

The kids and I are going to go up to Decatur, IL
tomorrow. Grandma Vela is having surgery on her
eye again so we will be there to help her and Aunt Tina.
I'll update as soon as we get home.

Have a Safe and Happy New Year!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Cash & Slade!!!!

You guys are so cute!
I wish we were
there to share your birthday's and
watch you eat your cake.
I'm so glad that your mom does such
a great job with her blog so I can know
you and watch you grow.

Christmas Day

The kids and I went over to Grandma's house

at about 11:00. The kids got tons of stuff, portable DVD

players, PS2, wii and DS games, Legos, CD's and

Sara got guitar lessons and more.

Sara got this great new rain poncho from Aunt Gin.
It's really cute but she keeps running into
walls and stuff when she wears it.


Emma got a few presents too.


I think the piano was her favorite, it is
so cute and it turns out that she has a
natural talent for piano playing.
Jeff and Michelle are so lucky!










Emma didn't want to pose with the kids for a
picture so her dad threw her on the kids and
that was ok.





Sadie got lots of presents too. She loves to open
presents so we had quite a few for her to keep
her from taking the kids presents.



We left Grandma's and got over to Lolly & Dons

at about 5:00. We watched Christmas Vacation

it was really funny. I guess I am about the only

person that has not seen that movie. Then we

played a game called Apples to Apples we're going

to have to get that game it was a lot of fun.

Uncle Don made his famous chili but we had a

huge prime rib dinner at Grandma's right before

we got there.

Sara and Eric played a game of hide-n-seek with

Ava & AJ. They are the sweetest kids.

Demian in his new Star Wars voice morpher helmet.

He was really excited about it because he said that

he can start making prank phone calls again.

BEWARE!

Finally we went to the fire station to see daddy!

After hanging out with Paul for awhile we headed

home for bed. I don't think any of us will have

trouble sleeping tonight!

Christmas Eve

We had Christmas at our house on

Christmas Eve because Paul was

at the fire station today.

Paul and the boys all got radio control

helicopters. It was rather dangerous

in the family room when they were

learning to fly them.

Sara got one of her favorite drinks in her

stocking.

Paul has been growing a moustache for a

few weeks now, isn't he cute!

Our Tree

The kids put our tree up a few

weeks ago. Sara and Alex fluffed

up all of the branches and Eric

assembled it. He did such a great

job that he didn't even have to use all

of the branches in the box! I have always

used all of them what a fool! Eric and

Sara did the decorating and Eric decided

that we would use colored lights this

year rather than the clear ones.

I think they did a pretty good job!
Paul has to be at the fire station tomorrow
so we are going to go to my mom's this
afternoon and I am making enchiladas.
We will eat early at mom's house then
have our Christmas at home tonight.
Tomorrow the kids and I are going to spend
the day at my mom's house then go to
Lolly & Don's in the evening.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Christmas Crafts

Yesterday the kids and I went to

Aunt Michelle's day care and

made Christmas ornaments

with the kids. We had so

much fun that we forgot to

take a picture of the finished

product.

Carson was very serious about his work.

Anytime you can use glue is't going

to be a great day!

When we were done crafting we put

pictures of the kids on their ornaments

they were very pleased with their work.

I miss preschool!

Friday...

TGIF!
It as been the longest week! We had a snow storm earlier this week and the kids were just sure that school was going to to be out. Much to their dismay school was not cancelled (we were the only district in that area that was not called.) It was so cold and yucky out and I didn't want Alex to walk to the bus stop and stand out in the cold and wind so I took him to school. It took me 45 minutes to drive him the mile to school, the roads were a mess. By the time I got back Sara and Eric had left and were at their bus stop (luckily I got there right as Eric was getting ready to make a snow angel) I picked them up and drove them to school, I tried to go up the hill by their school and got stuck behind another car that got stuck on the hill so we had to back down the hill and go around the back way I finally made it and about 1/2 block from the school a stinking school bus ran me into a ditch!!!!! Luckily I was able to get out. I was mad, that guy was just lucky that I was in my PJ's! By this time I was really mad that they had school. I finally made it back home and got dressed, went to work and was there for about 20 minutes and the school called to let me know that they were releasing at 10:45 because of the weather!!!!! JERKS!

Last night we were supposed to have an ice storm so the kids were once again on weather watch but it ended up warming up to 50 degrees and raining so they did have school today, it was only a half day though. Now they are out of school until 2009.

Things have also been crazy at work, which is really good but hectic. I have had to make caramel apples twice and fudge everyday. Today we had an order for 100 trays with 60 cookies each!!! That is 6000 cookies!!! There were 4 of us there and we baked and made platters all day long... We got over half of them done so hopefully they will be able to finish them for the Monday deadline. We had a crazy day in COOKIE HELL!

The rest of the weekend will be full of shopping and wrapping. I hope Paul and the kids don't expect allot of Christmas cookies.

Have a Great Weekend!

Alex

UPDATE:
Alex is home and doing well. He is sore but has good pain meds and has been napping for most of the day. The Dr. said that the surgery went well and his breathing was good. He was very loopy for awhile. They did go ahead and use conscious sedation, the anesthesia doc thought it was better than putting a tube down his throat and irritating his airway. The dentist was the one that wanted to go with the general but the anesthesia doc felt that the other way was best. He was very loopy when I went into the recovery room to get him, he had a hard time walking. He should be doing a lot better tomorrow.


Alex went back for surgery about 7:45am. They decided to do general anesthesia rather than conscious sedation so they can protect his airway easier. He should be out of surgery in one hour then after he is in recovery for about another hour I can go back and see him. I'll update asap.

Alex

Alex is having surgery in the morning. He is just having his wisdom teeth removed but because his asthma is so bad it has to be done in the hospital operating room with a full staff. He will have to have breathing treatments before and after. Hopefully all will go well and he won't have to stay overnight. I'll update tomorrow, keep him in your prayers.

Aunt Tina's

The day after Thanksgiving we went

to Aunt Tina's house. We got to see

Grandma Tweety and had allot of

fun playing Rock Band.

Uncle Paul was a little slow putting

socks on.

Jack, Carli and Sara made a
gingerbread house. It turned out
really cute!



I love taking pictures of the
knuckleheads this way.



We had a great time as we always
do at Aunt Tina's we only wish
we could have stayed longer.

Thanksgiving

We went over to my mom's for Thanksgiving.

Mom made a big dinner with all of our

favorites turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes,

candied yams, noodles and Sara made

her famous green bean casserole.

Sara also made a vegetable tray and a

meat and cheese tray.With all of the birthday parties lately

Emma has decided that when we

all get together it is a birthday

party. So we put a candle in the pie

and sang happy thanksgiving to Emma.

Emma told Eric all about her

princesses.

Alex has learned to levitate.

Actually he was trying to put Emma's

tea cup down before I could get a

picture of him with it.

Zona Rosa gave out 1000 $25.00

gift cards at midnight. We decided

to open at 10:00pm because of all

the people in line. It was totally

crazy!!!!! There were thousands of

people waiting in line. We opened

the doors and had a line out the door

until we closed at 3:00am. We ran out of

hot chocolate, coffee, chai and tea. It

was allot of fun but next year Mary

and I will be more prepared to handle the

crowds.

The Porch Swing Inn

Paul told me to have a bag packed

when he got home from work

on Friday. I wasn'y really sure if

he was going to toss me out or

take me somewhere. We went to a

wonderful Bed & Breakfast in

Parkville. We stayed in the Calamity

Jane Suite, it was very nice, there

was a fire place, a little

sitting room with red leather

furniture and a whirlpool tub!

I hope my skin will unprune

soon.

This is the spiral staircase that
led up to our attic hideaway.
I forgot to take my camera so
here are some pics of the room
their website.

Thanks to Grandma and Demain

for babysitting.