InstaFriday ~ Where Have I Been?!

I have nothing but bad excuses, so I am not going to even try and make up something good!  

Our life, the past couple of weeks!

Celebrated Chad's mum's birthday and took her to dinner then went home and treated her to a smore's dessert outside by the fire!  

We took Christmas pictures so early this year (way earlier than we usually do), however, it took me forever to actually address them.  Boo.  Sent them out later than normal.

Rainy weekend, kids posed like that all by themself.

Girls Christmas party at Candis', we stopped by Brion's grave to say a prayer before we went.  We love and miss him every day.  Lola tries so hard to remember who he was.

Spirit Week at school, College Sports Day...thankful for the ASU sweats I bought on Black Friday because I got the stomach flu something fierce that Monday morning and I shouldn't have probably went to school even.  My husband had the day off and dropped off Pepto and a magazine (he said for when I was stuck on the pooper)!  I lost one whole day of lots of stuff to do before Christmas, as I went home and went straight to bed to try and sleep off any bad that was coming out of my body.

Snow day at school for the kids!  Made sure they were nice and bundled up before we went to school.  It was also concert day for Kyan during the day.  He loves to sing, and while the program was crazy, he and the rest of the kids didn't care!  Nothing but smiles from them!

I hand painted 5x7 wooden silhouette's of each of my students (with the help of my room mom and dad) for their Christmas gift.  Meet my class. 

Snuck away from my classroom to hear Lola sing her little heart out at her Christmas program.  Kyan snuck too!  She was so excited to have us come and watch her!  Santa visited the school later that night at our family fun night that PTO sponsors and her brother wasn't feeling well, so she made sure to tell Santa what her brother wanted too.  It was sweet, in fact, she made sure to tell Santa about him first before she asked for herself.

Picked up my parents at the airport on Thursday the 20th (I am so behind on this post, trying to keep the dates in perspective here)!  Lola went with me!  She was so excited.  There plane was late and every other second she was asking if they were here yet!?  She batted her eyelashes at her grandpa and begged to stay with him that night (and skip school the following day) and wouldn't you know, grandpa is a sucker for her?!  She went home and told her brother the good news!  Ditch day with grandpa and grandma!  Don't worry, it is not like anything super productive was getting done at school, so I approved of the skip!  I wish I could have skipped too!  

Errand running requires glasses and a hat - how I roll when I don't want to get ready but have a ton of stuff to do.  These are days that I wish I had long hair to throw up in a pony.  We made Christmas Eve dinner and Christmas Day dinner so I had a lot of stuff to get from the grocery store and I wanted to try and avoid it at all costs on Sunday (I was gonna cook all day then anyway)!

Another project hung, this one a jewelry holder made at a Super Saturday almost two months ago!  It is in my closet so I can just grab whatever I need after I get dressed!

 Ugh.  I love them.  

We went to church with Donna and Michael the Sunday before Christmas and went with my parents on Christmas...and thus begins the first of our Christmas traditions that I am going to talk about - - in no particular order, just wanna make sure that I get it written down  (I meant for this to be a post separate from all others, but then pneumonia came a knocking and ruined everything), so I give it to you in one giant post!  Long story short, we go to church with my parents on Christmas morning.  Just so happened that it worked out and we got to go with Chad's family this year too!  We would like this to be able to happen from now on.

Tradition:  Prepping Christmas Eve dinner the day before.  We have spaghetti and meatballs every year (my Aunt Jan's recipe).  She used to make it at her house, but as time has passed, I have taken over.  We make this meal about three times a year and every time, Kyan gets so excited!  Meatballs are our favorite!  I duct taped them so no one would try and steal them before dinner the following day!  It was a dumb move though.  I totally ruined my tupperware.  Lola helped me make cookies (Aunt Heidi's chocolate chip secret recipe and my Aunt Sue's chocolate peanut butter balls and Mexican Wedding Cake balls).  We were in the kitchen all day long!

 We spend it with my side of the family, eating all that yummy food we spent prepping the day before.  I grew up opening presents Christmas Eve, so that is what we do with my parents and our kids.  They were spoiled rotten this year and both agreed that their favorite gift was their mini iPad's from grandpa and grandma.  They come in handy and keep them busy when we are on the go.  Plus, I get my iPad back!  It was a win/win gift for sure!  They kids always sprinkle reindeer food outside for Santa's special helpers.  He gets enough cookies, so we feed his sleigh pullers!

Tradition:  Chad and I open presents at midnight.  I set my alarm every year.  Why?  Well....I grew up opening presents Christmas Eve, he grew up opening Christmas Day.  We are both stubborn and wanted it our way and weren't willing to compromise, so midnight was our compromise.  Technically I think that makes him the winner because it is December 25th, but we open them before Santa makes his delivery, so I feel like the winner too! 

Tradition:  Santa brings one present for each of the kids.  The ONE present that is on the top of their list (we have been able to afford it so far, as they grow up, not really sure how this is going to work out?).

 Tradition:  We celebrate with Chad's side of the family on Christmas Day.  We take turns on who hosts and this year, it was our turn (actually is this the first time we have hosted?  No way?!).  We spent the morning prepping yet another dinner.  This time Chad took over in the kitchen, he bossed me around and I was perfectly happy with that!  We pop crackers too, an English tradition!

The day after Christmas the stuff always comes down.  I don't really like Christmas decor as it is, so I am happy to take it down and get rid of the dead tree!

Favorite Christmas present, my new Michael Kors watch.  My husband did good!

Lola had a never ending cough, so I took her in to get checked out.  Looooooooooong and very frustrating story short, they diagnosed her with strep and sent us off with meds.  Kyan spent the next few days with grandpa and grandma and Lola and I hibernated at home and tried to away from civilization as much as possible.

 Modern Technology keeps 'em busy so I can have an uninterrupted dentist appointment.  Thankful for the mini iPad's the kids got for Christmas.

Lola felt better and was able to join grandma for lunch at her favorite spot, Pei Wei!

Kyan tried ribs tonight at dinner with my parents at Dillion's at the Zoo!

Sons of Anarchy, the new show that I am obsessed with!  I got the first three seasons for my husband for Christmas (it was a selfish gift, we needed a new series to watch together)!  I didn't know I would be so hooked on it from the start.  We already finished season one in like 3 days!

After grandpa and grandma went home, my sleeping buddy was back.  We were doing okay for awhile, but this is where things took a turn for the worst.

 How we spent our New Years Eve.  It was riveting.  NOT!  Lola was not improving, despite antibiotics and her fevers were outta control.  I called her doctor who said it didn't sound right, but they referred me to Urgent Care, as they were closed.  Awesome.  Urgent Care was the most packed it has ever been.  We waited an eternity to see the doctor who couldn't determine what exactly it was that was going on with her.  So they recommended we head to the ER to confirm/deny pneumonia.  More waiting.  The ER wasn't too busy (shockingly) and we were there for another 4 hours, where they confirmed she had pneumonia.  They gave her a shot of rocephin and more antibiotics and sent us on our way.  It was almost 10:30 before we got home with medicine.  We were exhausted (did I mention we started at Urgent Care at 2pm)?  

 The next day we still battled fevers, I could get them down with medicine, but they were the highest I have ever had a kid have one.  It was scary.  Because I could control them, I did my best to wait it out handle things on my own until we saw the pediatrician the next day.  In the meantime, because Lola has been so sick, I have been disappearing into some great books.  Just a few that I have finished in the past week and a half and highly recommend reading are:  "The Coincidence of Callie and Kayden" by Jessica Sorrensen, "Hopeless" by Colleen Hoover*****, "The Sea of Tranquility" by Katja Millay*****, and "Ten Tiny Breaths" by K.A. Tucker.

If you are thinking about picking up any of those, I really do recommend them all, but the two that are ***** I would read first!  But they should come with a warning label, you won't want to put them down!

 So those fevers weren't getting better.  Lola woke up Wednesday HOT!  I was on the phone making an appointment with her pediatrician begging them to squeeze us in first thing.  I was rushing us out the door and Lola was just crying saying she was too hot (but I was trying not to give her anything, as I wanted the doc to see how hot she really was) and she puked up all the water she chugged.  I felt so bad, but her fever was getting the best of her.  She was a mess and we were late for our appointment.  It was explained that the fever was Lola's body trying to rid her sickness on its own, that the medicine alone wasn't working.  She needed something different.  The pediatrician heard wheezing this time around and prescribed breathing treatments every 4-6 hours until we see her again on Friday.  She also said if we wanted her better faster, which we obviously do, we needed to do another shot of rocephin. I talked her into the first shot, but there was no way I was going to be able to do it again.  Then the pediatrician delivered even more bad news and said she needed to delivery it in two shots.  My heart broke for my little girl.  So sad.  I have heard that rocephin is like peanut butter going into your skin, so I can only imagine the pain.  I begged for another nurse to help, as I wasn't going to be able to hold her on my own.  She screamed and pleaded with me to not have to do it again.  It broke me and I couldn't help the tears as I held her down and they gave the shots.  It was so, so sad.

We went home and painted her nails and toes a sparkly pink and Grandma Julie sent her flowers all the way from Nebraska.  It did brighten up her day and lift her spirits.  Being able to sleep in bed with me another night too helped!

 I tried my hardest to do something yesterday.  When your kid is sick, you hang out on the couch in pj's all day, but I was bound and determined not to let this sick-ation go completely to waste!  So I filled out my birthday banner with friends and families birthdays before it got hung on my big ol' frame that is at the base of the stairs!  That is something new that I am sharing too!  That frame comes in just shy of 4x5 feet, wrapped in fabric from an old shower curtain that I saved from our old house (I saved it for a rainy day, we have doors, so I cut it into strips), and backed in chicken wire!  The cool thing about this project is that it was completely free!  My parents bought me the giant frame at a garage sale for a steal of a deal ($15), knowing I would do something with it, I had the shower curtain in my fabric stash, and my sister in law has a crazy amount of chicken wire from grandma's sale, so I raided it!  The birthday banner was a Christmas gift from my SIL as well!  She knows, along with the rest of the universe, that I struggle with birthdays (did I mention it drives my mother crazy?  No?  Well, it does) so she made that banner in hopes that it would help me!  I filled it out and hung it up!  I have a nice jump on it, but I am sure I will miss a birthday or five, so I will fill it in as I go and send cards....errrrr, next year (love you mom)!

 I make no promises to update every week, but I will try.  This is the place where I store all of our family memories.  I wish I had more time to post full projects on here, but Insta posts are all you are gonna get for now!