Update...

Just a quick update. After Jenna was sick yesterday in the store and then right after her bath---nothing. She took a long nap and woke up and wanted to eat French toast and apple juice. She held it down and then ate a little dinner later. She even ate a piece of chocolate from her Christmas countdown calendar. Weird. And no one else got it. I just don't understand the stomach flu viruses we've had this year. In October, Kristen got it and then Jenna did. Five weeks later, Kendall got it. Five weeks later, Jenna got it. For the most part, they throw up twice and it's done. No fever or anything. I am praying soooo hard that it's done with us until after the holidays.

On a happier note, we had our ward Christmas party this morning and went, since it had been 21+ hours since she threw up. It was a breakfast with some entertainment and was a lot of fun! We came out of the party to snow! It's windy and snowing and from what I hear, we're in for a big one. YAY!!! Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!

'Tis the Season...

I am totally humiliated!!! We got up this morning and every seemed normal. Jenna was up a lot from 4:30 am on and seems to be getting a cold--stuffy/runny nose, cough, sneezing, etc. I needed to run to Walmart to get a few craft things and treats for some upcoming parties, so we dropped Jarren off at school and ran. Jenna refused to walk or ride in the cart, and since she seemed tired, I just carried her. I got most of the things on my list and was standing there debating between two things, when Jenna threw up all over her, me, and the floor. No warning at all! I just stood there for a second, frantically trying to see if there was someone who could help me. Of course there wasn't. I grabbed a lady walking by and asked her if she could find someone to help me. She did and they cleaned it up while I tried to clean Jenna up. I hurried and checked out after that. I had NO idea Jenna was sick and I'm so embarrassed she got sick in the store! Now I'm sure we'll all get it. I just hope it's over with by next weekend so we don't have to miss our family party.

We Need a Little Christmas....

I'm feeling a little inadequate this Christmas. I think my shopping is done, but there are all the neighbor gifts to get out, candy to make, gifts to wrap (I HATE that part of it), carols to sing, and memories to make. I just feel like I can't do enough to make good memories for my kids. I just know they'll look back and think of the rotten childhood they had--a mom always running around stressing. :) I think I'm just grumpy because it's hard to really get into the spirit of things when there's no snow and the sun's shining so brightly (I'm sure you'll laugh at this Charisse). Maybe this weekend's storms will help.

The tadpoles are slowly changing. I'm sure they are. But they don't look like it. They have a little ledge in their pools that they like to sit on and they almost seem to be sticking their noses out to breathe in some air. Popeye looks bigger than Skipper. I need to do some research to see if males are generally larger than females or if it doesn't matter. I do know they won't mate for 4 years, if we even have one of each gender. I wonder how long they'll live....

One more thing....

First of all, I couldn't stand not writing one more thing--this is the 100th post for me! Wow!

That said, the kids went back to school today. They were off-track for 4 whole weeks! With my kids, the first week is great. They're excited to be home and out of school and they have fun. The second week, the newness wears off and they start bothering each other a little bit, but it's still kind of fun. The third (and final) week is tough! They start teasing and fighting and start getting bored. That's why I like year-round school. Just when they started getting burned out and need a break, the go off-track. Then just when they start getting bored, they go back on-track. This time, for some reason, they had 4 weeks off and then the next time, they'll only have 2 weeks off. I was sooo worried about it! But they (for the most part) did great!!! They had fun, we had Thanksgiving in there, they played hard, and it wasn't bad at all. I'm sure going to miss the sleeping in....

I got thinking about it yesterday and got really sad. Kendall has 6 more off-tracks and two summers and then he's in Jr. High. Where does the time go? And does time seem to be going faster???

Meet Brownie....

When I was a child, we had a little elf that came to our house the day after Thanksgiving every year. Every day, it would hide in a new place and watch us to see if we were being naughty or nice. If we started to fight, my mom would say, "Pixie's watching." because every night, Pixie would go report back to Santa Claus. It sure kept us good!

Well...we have an elf that come to our house, named Brownie. Kristen loves to write notes to Brownie, asking him questions such as: who's your favorite reindeer? how old are you? is Santa nice? etc. And for some reason, the kids are scared to death of the Santa in the mall, so instead, they write letters to send to him through Brownie.

The other day, Brownie was hiding in the Christmas tree and the kids went to add some more decorations to it, and Kristen accidentally knocked Brownie out of the tree. She was appalled! She wrote a note to him apologizing. It was sooo cute!

The kids wonder why they can't see the elves at their friends houses. Maybe they're too small. I don't know....

Sweet Little Candy Canes

Kristen's dance group performed tonight at a festival. Their recital is in 2 weeks, but this was fun anyway. I took Kristen's best friend, Hannah, too. And of course, the girls were hyper and excited. Their costumes this year are sooo cute! They look like sweet little candy canes. The girls danced to the song "Jingle Bell Rock" and they did such a cute job!! I thought they saved the best for last---these girls were awesome!! I wish I could find my cord to get video on here..... Anyway...after they performed, we walked around for a few minutes and Santa happened to be walking by. He took a look at them, handed them a candy cane, and wished them a Merry Christmas. I think it made their day!

Jarren and Anakin Skywalker

Jarren is obsessed with looking like Anakin Skywalker, from Star Wars. He wants his hair long and curly. He's also obsessed with not liking Jenna and the reasons? Because she poops her pants and has curly hair. I think he's jealous that her hair looks like he wants his to. Yesterday, Kristen comes out of the bathroom and asked who cut their hair in the sink. We figured out it was Jarren. He showed me a picture of Anakin and told me that he doesn't have long hair in one part in front. Well...that's because his hair's so long that with the part, it goes over to one side or the other. He cut one little part of the front of his hair so it would look more like Anakin's. It's not too noticable, but it's pretty funny. Can anyone see the similarities? I just hope Jarren doesn't turn to the dark side. :)