More Christmas Pics

**The Monday after Thanksgiving is when we traditionally put up our Christmas Tree. All of our lights on our pre-lit tree were out, so this year we spent that Family Home Evening night painstakingly removing all those wonderfully attached lights. An hour and a half later, it was too late to get the ornaments out. So, Mike agreed to let the kids do it without him the next day. Our sweet boys didn't want Dad to feel left out, so they decided to save 13 ornaments for Dad to put on when he came home from work (Don't ask me why it was 13, that's just what Andrew said, and the others agreed!)

**The train, however, is Mike's department. I never had a train around the tree growing up, but it was one of Mike's favorite parts. Our boys love this tradition with their Dad!

**The following FHE, we went to see the Lights on Temple Square with Bridgette & Josh, and their baby Jesse. It was a bitter cold night! About like Pennsylvania's cold weather, but without the wind. We went inside to see the Christus - it's so wonderful that we can drive down and see it whenever we want! It's always awe-inspiring to me. Then we watched the Nativity presentation, and walked around a bit. But before long, we were too cold to continue. We were glad we had done it, though.

**The First Grade at Andrew's school always does a Christmas Program. Andrew grew more and more excited about this performance as the day drew nearer. He began to sing parts of the songs to us, even though he had originally said they were supposed to be a surprise. His two favorite songs were "No 'L'" and "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." They were cute! Andrew looked right at us the entire program. He even blew a kiss to us with a different hand than everyone else, since we were on his left instead of his right! (And I had thought it was because he's left-handed.) Another day, at the Larsen Christmas party, Andrew sang some of these songs for Uncle Gavin and Uncle Andrew on cassette tapes. He had his Aunt Jayni and Aunt Annie laughing so hard they almost couldn't finish their dinner! It was great!

**The Chase family Christmas party almost didn't happen this year. Grandma Chase has had such a hard year and a half, she just wasn't sure if she was up to having it. (Among other trials, her twin brother and her father passed away within months of each other, her son, Kevin, came home from the MTC after only one day there, and this time of year is alreay so hectic.) However, with a little prodding from me, and calls from our favorite Santa's Helper, we had our party on Dec. 19th.

The kids listened well to Santa's story he always reads I Believe in Santa Claus, even though they had already heard the same Helper read the same book at the ward Christmas Party the Saturday before.

They all got to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Ethan was near the beginning.

Then, after a few people had had their turns, Alex just figured he'd like a turn and went up to stand between Santa's knees, waiting to be picked up. Miraculously, Alex's gift was the next one he pulled from his bag. It really was his turn!

Andrew was the last one to receive his gift, but he sat patiently and didn't say one complaint!



Sammy, Tyler, and Alex (of course, my own kid is the one I didn't get a picture of! lol) al got the same kind of stuffed dog from Grandma and Grandpa Chase (or was it Grandma Donahue?). Sam really wasn't sure if he liked it - obviously - Tyler liked it, but Alex LOVED it! He's been really into stuffed animals lately!

Carina got Dad and Danette a scanner/printer that could scan slides, since we all know that all of Dad's mission pictures are slides. We went in on it, along with several others of my siblings.

I received pictures from each of us that have kids and put together photo books from Snapfish, for Danette and Grandma Bertie (Donahue). (We also mailed a copy to Nana and Poppy! They loved it! And, I printed out all the pictures that were in it and made a photo album for Grandma McClellan, or G.G. as my kids know her, and one for my brother Bryan.)

Grandma Chase loves to play with the babies!

**This was my puzzle for the year! It looks big in the picture, but it's actually fairly small, and the puzzle pieces are VERY small. We got this "World's Smallest Puzzle" from Dad and Danette for Christmas last year. This was my distraction from having sick kids. They actually enjoy watching me work on it. Ethan would often ask me, "When are you going to know where this piece goes?" Or, "When will you finish that roof?" It was fun for all of us - except Alex, who was banned from getting near it, for obvious reasons.

**Although it was the 25th Annual Christmas Carole Sing-in, this was the First year we'd ever heard of it. We went for the free Jazz tickets, and other free stuff, but we had a really fun time too. Even Ethan enjoyed, despite leaving with a fever of 102.3, (at least, that's what it was when we got home and checked it.)

**Since Andrew was sick again on the third Sunday, when everyone else was at the Slades', we went over there on Christmas Eve (which I have another post about, or will soon). It turned out that everyone, except Kathie and Henry, was there too. It was lots of fun - despite the dangers the kids experienced! Here, Uncle Will has Jase and Ethan upside-down:

**On Christmas Eve, like many people, we let our kids open ONE gift at home. This year, there was no choice - the only gifts there were the ones from Mike and I. Alex's light-up wiggle worm was a hit for everyone.

Ethan got "Feetie Jammies," since he wants to wear the one other pair he owns every single night (despite the fact that his drawer is overflowing with two-piece pajamas). He said, "That's not what I wanted." Later I learned that, while he did want more feetie jammies, he didn't like the UFOs and rocket ships on them. He wished they had trains on them.

Andrew had been feeling and shaking his gift all day! He was POSITIVE it was an XBox game. (Mike was given an XBox 360 Arcade for his birthday from his siblings, thanks to Will. :-) ) When it was finally his turn, he tore into it. Mike and I braced for the moans of disappointment once he saw that he'd unwrapped his own hardbound Book of Mormon, for which he had been asking. But, surprising us as usual, he beamed when he saw it! Not only that, but he hugged it, hugged us, and started reading from it that very minute. What an awesome moment for us!

**Skipping ahead, now, to the day after Christmas: Grandma and Grandpa Larsen made the rounds among their grandchildren's homes to see what they'd received, and came to our house around 2 p.m. It was wonderful to have them all to ourselves. The boys each took turns showing them what they got, and spending some time with them with some of the toys. We fed them lunch, since they hadn't eaten anything yet. Alex's favorite thing was getting "rides" on Grandma and Grandpa's legs!

**That night, we invited my brother Kevin, and his fiancee, Kylie, to come to dinner with us. We had yummy Chinese! Then we put the kids to bed and played The Office Trivia card game with them. Then, Mike fell asleep on the cuddler, but I stayed up talking with them until 11:30 p.m. I'm sure it put them right to their curfews by the time they got home, but we had some great conversations! In my mind, it was totally worth it!

**The next Monday, Mike returned to work, and Grandpa Slade brought the desk they'd given to Ethan, and the mini trampoline they'd given to Alex. He wrestled with the boys while I put the desk together. Alex wanted to help me, but when I insisted that he use his new tools from Santa, as opposed to the screwdriver I was using, he was very upset! He pushed away his tools as if to say, "No way! These things aren't even REAL!" It was cute, but sad.

Ethan couldn't wait to get started on his paint-by-number, once the desk was finished.

**That night for FHE, being the last Monday of the month, we had Game Night. We've been trying to institute the last Monday as Game Night since September or October, but there are so many holiday things we've been doing at the end of each month, that it hasn't happened. Ethan was in charge this time. He chose to have us play Whack-a-Mole, and Star Wars Risk (which, when we play it, isn't really Star Wars Risk. We use the directions that Andrew came up with when he was 3. Luckily we have them written down, and it's actually fun! It does take a while, though.)

For the treat, Ethan wanted to make the Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees we'd seen at one of the preschools we've been scouting out for him, for next year. (One day he could have made them at Elliott's house, but he took too long to complete his chores, despite my nagging and urging, so he missed out on the fun. - Kim said he could still make one, but I didn't let her have him do it, to teach him a lesson. I can be such a mean mom sometimes. But, I guess that's all part of the job!)

So, those were most of our holiday celebrations. (At least, the ones I remembered to bring my camera to! I wish I had brought it to both the Larsen Christmas Party - Dec.19th, and the McClellan Christmas Party - Dec. 27th.)

Merry Sickmas, er, uh, Christmas!

Andrew now completely believes that he will ALWAYS be sick on Christmas! (Read last year's Christmas blog, if you're confused.) We don't know what's going on with him, really. He got a stomach flu on Dec. 17th, and missed his Christmas party at school the next day, but then he was fine. Ethan and Alex got the same bug two days later, but again, it passed and all were well again.



For a few days.


Alex began to be very irritable, and rightly so, since we discovered he was cutting two molars at once. Then, one night, I checked on him and found he was burning up with fever and panting to get breath. A trip to the doctor the next day revealed something like Bronchiolitis (the doctor never really said what it was, just that his bronchioles were constricted, but that it wasn't Bronchiolitis, nor Pneumonia - thank Heaven!) He was put on an antibiotic, to kill any bacteriall infection that may have brought this on, and a steroid to help open his airways. We (Mike) also had to dig through every box as yet unpacked (I'm ashamed to admit there are quite a few - Office stuff, you know, my Nemesis!), to find his Nebulizer. Alex is better for the treatments than he was as a baby, but one day he turned it on by himself and it scared him so much that he now calls it the "Loud."

The day I returned from that doctor visit, Ethan began coughing. The following Tuesday, the 23rd, I went back to the doctor to find out more about what might be causing his 102.3 degree fever that accompanied his now constant cough. The doctor who saw him, (not his regular pediatrician, since he was booked already), said he definitely had Tonscilitis. The Strep Throat culture came back negative (again - Thank Heaven!), but nonetheless, we left with a prescription for amoxicilan (his best friend would be so jealous, since he loves the stuff and didn't even get it when he was diagnosed with Bronchial Pneumonia that same week, poor guy!), and a cough syrup that Ethan loves so much that he's now faking coughs to see if he can get more of it.


Finally, I thought, "We've had it all. The drugs are in the home, and in their systems, we can peacefully enjoy our Christmas!"

Not to be. On Christmas Day, Andrew threw up in the car between Grandma & Grandpa Slade's house and Grandma and Grandpa Larsen's house. We tried to push it off as having eaten too much junk food, (which he really hadn't overdone) or getting motion sickness as he played his new Leapster game in the car, but when he did it again once we were home, we figured it must be a real bug. The thing is, after a while, he was FINE. There were no more incidents at all, from anyone, Saturday or Sunday. Then, yesterday, he threw up in the morning, got better in the afternoon, then was sick again at night. This morning he threw up again, but by 1 p.m. he was FINE again.
We made our now weekly visit to see Dr. Amann, and all he could tell me is that it must either be a virus that his system is having trouble getting over, or several individual flu viruses, one every few days. The strangest thing is that I haven't heard much of any of the people he's been around getting sick. We just have to give it more time for him to get better, I guess.

Aside from all that, we did have a WONDERFUL Christmas! Mike and I had to actually wake our kids up (by turning off the humidifier, ha, ha) at 7:30 on Christmas morning. Mike read the Christmas Story from Luke 2, before we began unwrapping. We took nearly two hours opening only a few gifts each, since they wanted to take each present out of it's theft-proof packaging. (Mike's multi-tool got more use than ever!) We were all very happy with what we received!

We had a delicious brunch at Slades', around noon, and were spoiled with presents! (My personal favorite being a significant boost to our Food Storage, including such things as Toilet Paper, Soap, Toothpaste, and Sanitizer!)

Then we made it to the Larsens' in time to say a few words each to both of my brothers currently serving missions - Andrew in Argentina, and Gavin in Mexico. The boys had a blast with all their cousins, and we munched on all the goodies Grandma Larsen always has at Christmas time! (We had already done all of our gift exchanging with that side of our family at the Christmas party on the 13th.)

We even got home with plenty of time to play with our new toys afterward. We're now looking forward to New Year's Eve, though all we're planning to do is the same thing we've been doing for many days now, with the exception of Christmas - keeping to ourselves until we're sure the "ickiness" is all gone! At least we have a lot of fun new ways to entertain ourselves now!!


We haven't made it down to Grandma and Grandpa Chase's house since the Christmas party on the 19th, but we're hoping to get well enough to visit them soon!

Here are each of us with our goodies from Santa:
Andrew has a ring-pop in his mouth. He got Night-Vision Goggles, a Spyder Trap, which he's attached to all his gifts, a Glitter Ball, a Webkin, and a Batman Leapster game, which teaches math skills on a 3rd-4th grade level. (He loves to multiply and divide!)

Ethan played with his "dragon castle" for nearly two hours straight. He got new goop for his Bug Maker, which Santa brought last year (when he opened them Ethan exclaimed, "How did he know I have a Bug Maker?" LOL). He also got a webkin and, yes, Thomas the Train train tracks and a set of cars to be pulled by his motorized Percy car. We knew the day would eventually come when our house would be littered with train tracks, and it's finally here.

Alex dropped his ring-pop, forgot completely about the Hershey kiss he'd been crying for, the very second he saw that the present he was opening was his very own "Mawn Mower!" Luckily it was the last thing he opened, or he wouldn't have gotten around to opening anything else. He enjoys his new broom, (" 'weep"), his toolbox full of tools, his puppy dog, and his motorized train (which he owes to Ethan's comment after arguing with Alex over his own motorized car, "Santa should bring Alex a train car of his own. Only it HAS to be in his stocking!" Santa aims to please!)

I love my new cooking supplies and the boots that will keep my feet warm! We had fun playing the Office Trivia game with Kevin and Kylie one night, and I'm just getting into the book.

Mike and Andrew have made great use of the new XBox 360 controller, and we're anxiously awaiting a respite from illness so we can use our new two-seater snow tube!

Christmas Saga Continues: Ethan Learns the Power of the Priesthood

After we opened presents and played with our treasures for a while, we were able to webcam with some grandparents. It had been hard for the kids to see all the wrapped presents that had been sent and have to wait until we could webcam on Christmas Day to open them. Once they were opened, it seemed that Grandmas and Grandpas did a better job of choosing the right gifts than even Santa. They were all thrilled with each one.
The rest of that day was pure bliss. We spent time with each other playing games, watching movies, and eating our candy, along with a little "real food" as well. This year I made the "Christmas Quiche" (sausage and egg casserole) that my mom usually made for us on Christmas morning. Of course, neither of my kids would touch it (picky, picky), but Mike and I enjoyed it.

That night, we all laid down sleeping bags in the family room and had a sleepover together. It was great fun! - Until around 1 am.

I was in Alex's room, feeding him, when Andrew began throwing up. At first, Mike (who had already cleaned up Andrew and his mess by the time I left Alex's room), and I explained to Andrew that this is what happens when you eat too much junk and not enough "real food." However, when Mike threw up about an hour later, followed by Ethan about an hour after that, we decided this was more than just too much junk food. We brought our sleeping bags and blankets into the kitchen (so we wouldn’t have to keep scrubbing our new carpet), and each slept with a bowl nearby.
After the first time Andrew threw up, he asked if Dad would give him a Priesthood Blessing. Afterward, he threw up a few more times, but was then able to keep some ginger ale down (luckily I had bought some for the Christmas Eve Party), and went to sleep. He has been fine ever since! Ethan, on the other hand, refused the offer to receive a blessing, and he is still sick today, with both diarrhea and vomiting. We are having a Brother from the church come give him a blessing with Mike this afternoon. We have faith that he will soon get better with the help of the Priesthood! Alex threw up Friday evening, and I had been feeling pretty yucky myself that day, so we received blessings from Mike, with the help of another Brother from our ward. Except for a little bit of diarrhea, we’ve both been doing well since our blessings too.

Christmas Ups and Downs

We had a wonderful Christmas day! We woke up at 7 am, saw our presents, examined the contents of our stockings, and read through the Christmas story in Luke 2. Then we opened presents, one at a time, taking some time to play a little before moving on to the next thing. It was a little sad to watch Andrew get so hopeful that each present he opened next would be a Nintendo 64. He really enjoyed playing on Uncle Levi's when he was here earlier this month. We didn't know, but Andrew said he told Santa's Helper, that had come to his school on Dec. 23rd, that that was what he wanted. We decided that Santa probably wanted to keep that a special thing just between Andrew and Levi, and that's why he didn't bring him one.