Addendum

I received a call from Crystal Lake Elementary around 12:50 pm today.

Ellie threw up in her classroom.

Guess my hopes that she would avoid it were for naught.

Another day of quarantine for us all.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had an eventful Thanksgiving weekend. While Thanksgiving Day itself was in fact a low key affair with just us at home, we made up for it by all getting the flu over the long weekend. I was hoping to avoid it as I had a flu shot but apparently that was just not to be. Anyway, as my dear dad informed me today that it has been a week since my last post, here is our weekend in a nutshell:

Ellie didn't have school on Wednesday so all 3 kids got to play at the child center at the gym while I worked out. There was face painting that took place and each picked out a different picture for their face. Ava has a snowflake, Ellie a pumpkin, and Carter a turkey.

Not wanting to be left out on Thanksgiving, I filled myself a wine glass with sparkling grape juice. While it was delicious, the kids didn't like it and I ended up drinking the whole bottle myself. Our meal was divine and I'm really starting to outdo myself with my cooking skills! I may have burned a few of the potatoes when making mashed potatoes but I learned a valuable lesson. 11 potatoes to feed 4 people is probably a bit much anyway. Also, when stirring, it is best to make sure that you get all the way to the bottom of the pan. Otherwise, our meal was fantastic!

Friday I did my Target power shopping. The stores keep opening earlier and earlier (Target opened at 4!) so I don't know if I will keep this up every year. I only went to Target so I was back home and in bed again at 5 am. I just need to pick up one more item for the twins and my Christmas shopping is complete! A great feeling, especially since Jake and I usually wait until about 3 days before Christmas to get anything.

Friday afternoon, Carter wanted to go "play out in the winter." He really likes the snow and the only thing that got him back in the house was a potty break.

Friday was the day Ava got sick, but by afternoon she was feeling better so she went out to play with Carter for a little while. As soon as her mitten fell off and her hand got wet, she was done though!

Sunday was the day Jake got sick. I banished him to our bedroom in the hopes that the illness would be contained. The kids and I scrubbed down the main level and then I took them outside to play again. (Did you catch that Mom? I took them outside, purely on my own initiative!) I was hoping to freeze out any remaining germs that we might have come in contact with.

Sunday night, I slept with Ava in her little twin bed in the hopes that by staying clear of Jake, who hadn't left our room all afternoon or evening, the rest of us would be in the clear. But alas, it was not to be. I woke up around 3 am Monday morning to the sound of Carter throwing up in his bed. I don't think I've ever moved that fast in the middle of the night before! I spent most of the night up with Carter as he got sick a couple more times. Finally, Monday lunchtime everyone seemed to be on the mend. Jake stayed home from work and was feeling better and Carter was starting to get spunky. Then I was struck down! I ended up getting sick shortly after lunch and spent the rest of Monday in misery. We all were tucked in by 9 pm last night and a good 10 hours of sleep has me finally feeling better. The only who hasn't been sick yet is Ellie. I'm hoping she stays healthy as she wasn't here this weekend and went to school Monday so she hasn't had too much exposure. Today, the twins and I are scrubbing down the house and washing every item that came in contact with any of us. What fun!

All I want for Christmas.....

are my two front teeth!

The other one has popped out. Literally. Ellie had been working on it and it was kind of just hanging there. She was talking to Grammy on the phone and just like that, it popped out! I feel I was also missing both front teeth around Christmas time. I wonder if there is like a law of teeth physics were every child must lose both top front teeth before Christmas?!

Weekend Fun

This was actually last weekend, but here we are baking cookies. I usually help Mom by getting all the ingredients out of the cupboard but this time I decided that I was going to do the actual mixing.

Here's Carter jumping for joy because the cookies are almost ready.

No pictures of Ellie last weekend as she was off with Dad for Papa's birthday party. The roads were icky from the first snowstorm of the season and Mommy got stressed enough driving to class (she did get bonus points for being one of 11 to show though, which is exactly why she went!). So Carter, Mom, and I stayed home while Ellie and Dad went to Amanda and Tony's for Grandpa's party. Ellie had fun bowling and getting some attention from all the adults and we got to hang with Mom at home, bake cookies, and curl up in front of the fireplace watching Toy Story 3.

This weekend was much of the same. Ellie had her first reconcilliation on Saturday. Carter and I got to hang out with Papa as Mom & Dad didn't want to take us to church with them. I wonder what Ellie confessed?! I hope she apologized for all the times she's been mean to me! Today we all just hung out at home and made a mess of the house. Mom seems glad that tomorrow is Monday and we have preschool. She must want to actually get the house back in order.

Hope you had a great weekend too!

Love, Ava

Fall Photos

We had our annual family photos taken in early October. I decided to switch it up this year and try a different photography, Annie Torrini. I love the photos that Melissa has done for us in the past but many people in my multiples group have used Annie and I have loved how their photos turned out. Both photographers run about the same cost-wise so I decided to give Annie a shot. I couldn't have been more pleased!!

Photos were taken at Minnehaha Falls in Minneapolis. The leaves were perfect!

That said, I still love the work Melissa does. We know Melissa because she is a teacher at Rich's (my father-in-law) school. Of course, being someone who tends to stew on things and feel far more guilty for something I shouldn't, I have been feeling really bad we didn't use her again. This feeling was compounded by the fact that for my education class, I needed to spend 25 hours viewing a classroom, preferrably a grade level I'd like to teach. Melissa teaches 6th grade math, which is ideally where I'd love to be someday. So every Monday for the past 7 weeks, I have had to see Melissa and feel guilty that we weren't using her for the third year in a row! Anyway, to pacify my guilty conscience, we will likely be using Melissa for either maternity photos (if Jake can fully convince me) or for Finito's first baby photos. Both are fantastic photographers so we might just have to start doing semi-annual photo shoots and using one in spring and one in fall! If only I wasn't so conscientious!!

They're Clothed!

Behold! A picture of Ava and Carter dressed!

Yes, in Ellie's shirts and they still don't have pants on, but I'll take what I can get!

Stick Horses

Here are the troops with their "horses". I thought it was a bit much when Jake felt we needed to buy 2 more stick horses for the twins last year for Christmas since we already had the one, but I'm glad he insisted. All three love to "ride" around the house on their horses. The brown ones do not have names, but Ava has named her pink horse Bella.

This is a video snippet of them riding. Of course, as soon as I started videoing, they stopped doing what was cute and started putting on a show, but still enjoyable.

Halloween

Here are our belated Halloween photos. Took me a few days to get the camera upstairs to the computer to download them! We had Gabriella from High School Musical and Woody and Jessie from Toy Story.

The kids had a great time trick-or-treating! I didn't know what to expect since it was the first time out for the twins. They had a blast! Carter would say "Trick or treat" and "thank you" after getting his candy. Ava just held her bag out and ran away as soon as she got some candy. She was all about heading to the next house and getting more! All in all, it was a fun evening.

Jake stayed home to man the door. He felt it necessary to hand out candy even though I told him to forget it and come with us. He's decided that next year forget passing candy out, he's coming along after I told him how much fun the kids were to watch.

These are the only pictures I got of the kids all night. Every time I'd try to turn my camera on to sneak a shot, they'd start running or yelling at me. They recognize the chirp the camera makes when starting up and were not going to be photographed in their costumes!

Each kid came home with 3/4 a bag full of candy, so we did pretty well. We just went up and down our street, so not bad for maybe only 30 houses. Of course, all the good stuff is gone now! All that's left is the kinds nobody likes so I think it is time to toss the rest out and give everyone a good teeth brushing and flossing.

Time to start brainstorming for next year's costumes. I'd love to find a theme that would incorporate all four kids. Ideas?

The Little Republican

When I got home from my board meeting last night, Jake was watching the election coverage on tv. We started discussing the people who were running and shifts of power in the government. Ellie was still up at that time and was listening in our conversation.

While they didn't get to have a mock-election this year like they did when she was in kindergarten, the class still got to say who they predicted would win the gubernatorial race. Ellie said that she had predicted that Tom Emmer, the Republican candidate would win.

In kindergarten, Ellie had voted for John McCain. I have to smile at this because she knows absolutely nothing about politics. I'm sure she overhears Jake and I discussing things but I find it very amusing that she is voting consistently Republican. Whether this is a fluke or due to the fact that she is actually taking in what our discussions involve or even due to the fact that Fox News is far more likely to be on in our house than a more liberal station, it humors me to see my budding little Republican.

The interesting part is that I actually consider myself moderate. I tend to vote either way depending on the issues at the moment or how I feel about the candidates running. It appears, however, that I am already outnumbered by the Republicans in this household and there are two, soon to be three, without an opinion yet!

On another note, Carter was very excited to go see a boat yesterday. I kept trying to stress that we were going to "vote" but he was sure we were going to get to push a boat in water. When we got to the polling location, he was looking everywhere for the boat. Thankfully, he got an "I voted" sticker so it made up for the lack of boat!