Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Our week of Chirstmas was definently less than perfect. Not that I really expected perfection but I sure wasn't looking for a bag of poo to explode in my lap either.
As previously mentioned we have been taking turns being sick in this house for the last few weeks. I figured that by the time we got to Chirstmas we'd all finally be back to (some what) normal. I was sorely mistaken :-(

Monday everything seemed fine. Tuesday again normal. Eliza, Alayna and I all ran errands here and there and successfully forgot multiple things over and over and over again. I swear I walked in the store with a list and still somehow managed to walk out without some of the things I needed. There is nothing more irritating than that a few days before Christmas when there's horrible traffic and lots of crazy shoppers.

Wednesday Ben had the day off and woke up feeling terrible so he spent the day in bed or on the couch feeling really miserable. I tried to get Ben and my gift to eachother that day and was utterly unsuccessful because the only close store was totally sold out. (We're getting a food dehydrator!!). So instead we got gift cards for Christmas.

Thursday was a Happy Christmas eve... until about 3pm when I started to feel really yucky... We went over to the Merritt's for the traditional family devotional and dinner, I was really very excited about doing all of this. But shortly after arriving I started violently vomiting. (perfect Christmas gift right!?) Then Eliza joined the party. So by definition Ben felt lots better and promptly jumped on top of all of the parenting duties including cleaning up lots and lots and lots of sick. He set up Christmas eve and stayed up extra late (due to some miscommunication) helping Santa get the toys all ready for the girls while I tried to sleep and not puke anymore. He also got to clean up Eliza change her cloths, sheets, pillow, etc after she got sick in bed.

Christmas morning started far to early. Eliza still wasn't feeling any good so she woke up for the
day at 5am. By 5:45 I gave up and let us get up for our own Christmas morning. I layed on the couch... Eliza thought her new toys were awesome! and unwrapping was lots of fun! We then hurried over to the Waite's house to make sure I could talk to Jaron. Again lots of gift opening... After a good long nap (I still felt pretty horrible) we headed over to the Merritt's house for dinner and more gift opening. Dinner resulted in Eliza getting sick again (poor baby) but at least it wasn't all over the carpet that time. By the end of the day we all made out like bandits as far as gifts were concerned... I was reminded how thankful I am for such wonderful family to share this special holiday with. I love them all so very much!

Saturday Eliza wasn't back to normal yet... much closer but still felt really yucky! She spent the day laying on the couch or cuddling in my lap. We were suppose to go to the Waite's for sibling gift exchange that night and almost backed out of it but decided we'd go anyway. (I'm very glad we went!) When we got there I got the greatest Christmas gift ever!!! Rachel, Bruce, and Hailey showed up! They weren't suppose to be coming at all and I was thrilled to see them there. The funniest part was how they annouced their arrival (it was a supprise to everyone but Lindsay). They ding dong ditched Hailey (who is 3-4wks old) on my mother's door step. My mom was in total shock to see a newborn in a carseat on her door step with no parents but once she really looked at the baby she knew who it was and was thrilled that Rachel had come!

Today is Sunday.... No one is sick in our house (outside of the runny noses) and hopefully it will stay that way (knock on wood!) for a good long time. I'm ready for all of us to feel better and not be so miserable! Our lessons in church were fantastic and I got a special visit from my bestest friend Melinda. I love our visits and am so thankful she was willing to sacrifice what little time she has home with family to come see me! What a sweet heart, no wonder we're such good friends!
There are no pictures from this week because we were too sick to remember. Sorry. No Christmas morning pictures.... sad day.

Mush.... yes mush.

Grandma Waite and my beautiful little angels!

My brains have turned to mush. I thought that pregnant brains were suppose to leave after you weren't pregnant anymore, but apparently they don't leave they just get worse. I am having a terirble time remembering a good portion of the week...

Monday was normal until that night when Eliza apparently didn't feel well and was up enough that Ben and I finally just put her in our bed so that we could all get some sleep. By morning she was fine. We were exhausted from being poked and kicked all night long by a two yr old but at least she felt better in the morning.

Tuesday... nothing too exciting in the day... that night I got sick. (yes timing is everything) I hadn't felt really super for a couple of days but by Tuesday night I started running a temp therefore i was freezing cold with chills. I tried everything i could think of to help it and nothing helped. by about 4 am I woke Ben up because I was in such bad shape I couldn't get myself some more water at which point we realized the reason was that my fever had reached 103.5 and I had sweat off every last bit of nutrition in my body.

Wednesday started off with Ben helping me get the baby downstairs and me calling my mom to come help me. She couldn't come because my grandmother was in the hospital so I called my mother in law to see if she could take me to the doctor before going to the temple. She being the sweet and incredible mother--in-law that she is canceled all her plans for the day and came and took Eliza for me. I discovered that I have mastitus and just needed an antibiotic. Alayna and I spent the rest of the day trying (in vain) to control my temp and sleeping.

Thursday I woke up feeling like a whole new person! As did both my girls (well maybe it was just my attitude change but either way we were all a lot happier!) We spent the day running errands with my mom in Loveland and getting that much closer to being 100% ready for Christmas! We also took the adorable pictures of my Mom and the girls!

Friday Hailey, Brian, and their kids were here for the day so we spent the day playing with the cousins. Eliza was good and exhausted by the time we went home but loved getting to play with the boys!

Saturday Ben went snowboarding with his dad so I took the girls and myself to Loveland to finnish off my Christmas shopping and hang with my family.

Today Eliza officially has a cold... but church was excellent! They did the Christmas singing program and it was beautiful. Ben sang in the Choir and Eliza has been telling me about it all day because I happened to be feeding Alayna when he went up to the front so apparently I couldn't have noticed that was where he was at. She was so proud of her daddy!

Potty Training

This week the weather has been terrible. And by terrible I mean nightmareishly cold. It snowed a ton and then it got crazy cold. The highs of most days were in the single digets anywhere from 5-8 degrees... pleanty cold. So due to the intense chill in the air we opted to stay home all week, at which point Ben suggested that we venture into the world of potty training Miss Eliza. So that's what we did all week long. I dedicated myself 110% to getting this whole process over with as fast as possible. I will not lie the first few days were terrible. My carpet saw a whole lot more action than my toilets did and my furniture is still carefully covered to prevent having to figure out some way to clean those as well.

Alayna has been a trooper this week with all the trips to the potty she has spent a fair ammount of time in the swing and bounce seat being basically ignored and she has done great with it all the way around. Eliza finally figured things out around Friday and is only having a few accidents a day rather than the 12+ she was having before. My washer and dryer thank her for that.

Friday we had our ward Chirstmas party and it was fantastic to finally really get out of the house. Eliza was probably the most excited to get out, she gets cabin fever really bad!! So we really enjoyed the singing from grandpa and the visit from Santa. Well sort of... Eliza still really hates Santa. As you can tell from the pictures. In fact I mentioned the other day that he was going to bring her presents and the conversation ended quickly as she cried and told me she didn't want Santa to come!

Saturday we went to my mom's for the day and played. I got some more stuff to crochet and am keeping busy with my many little projects. Eliza loved getting to see the twins and of course Lucky. As a side note for Jaron's benefit, Lucky is really sick and they aren't sure that he's going to pull through... it's going to be a very sad day for the twins and for Eliza when I have to explain that one to her.

That was the week... I hope everyone has a fantastic week to follow

Happy Birthday Eliza and Hailey

Enjoying cup cakes and ice cream!

Blow out the candles!... it took a little help but she sure tried!

Coloring on her new easel... a definent favorite!

Finally got the concept of unwrapping and the presants inside!

Making her cupcakes! my own little chef!

Honest... this is a happy face!

Well this week has been full of all kinds of excitement!

Monday... nothing too exciting.

Tuesday was Eliza's birthday... it's official we have a 2 year old that has invaded our house! In fact she even made a point to demonstrate her two year old abilities at my presidency meeting that morning by throwing a couple of really impressive screaming fits. Thankfully the other leaders all have kids so they understood! After my meeting we stopped by the store so that Eliza could choose what kind of cupcakes she wanted... (funfetti of course!). After nap time Eliza was an excellent helper and got to make her very own birthday cupcakes! The real celebration didn't start until about 6:30ish when all the family came over to spoil her rotten! It took a little convincing to get her to open the presants but once she got the hang of it she was VERY excited. The hardest part was that we kept opening these gifts and not letting her play with them right away... what mean parents!

Wednesday Rachel's doctors finally decided that her baby needed to hurry up and get here so Rachel and Bruce welcomed little Hailey Elizabeth Sommerfeldt (7lb 9oz 19.5 in) into the world. We spent the day in Loveland playing with my mom, making bows for Rachel's little one, and running errands it was a little crazy by the end of the day but totally worth it so that I could be there when Mom found out they were inducing Rachel! (if you can't tell i'm a little excited for my sister)

Thursday Eliza spent the day with Grandma Merritt and mommy got a much needed little bit of quiet time and time to run errands with just one baby in tow instead of two! I even got my house picked up a little!

Friday normal day. Eliza and I have been very busy playing with all her new toys, computers, easels, painting and coloring to our hearts content! Alayna has been spending a lot more time awake these days and a bit more interactive and vocal. She's still incredibly quiet but she's learning to speak up when she needs something!

Saturday Ben went snowboarding with his dad so the girls and I made it a jammies and movies day... all the snow and cold made me very uninterested in going out. That evening the Merritt's were sweet enough to take both girls for us for a little bit so that Ben and I could go out on a much needed date!

Today was fun... I'm working on a really cute hat for Eliza (provided it ends up being the right size) and church was good. Ben and I both taught lessons and they went well for both of us. Eliza had fun in nursery as usual...