It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

On Saturday, Mike and I put up the lights on the outside of our house.  It didn't take too long, because we really don't put too much up.  Unfortunately, the lights on the top of the tree aren't working, we'll have to figure that out.  Also, that ridiculous bush in front blocks half the lights on the porch.  Despite all that, I really do think it makes our house look festive.  Funny side note:  While we were putting up the lights on Saturday, the girls were playing in the back yard.  I heard dog barking and children screaming but I didn't go running because it really didn't sound like them.  Then I thought, maybe I should go check.  Well, our neighbor's dog had jumped the fence!  The girls were playing t-ball and the dog thought it looked like great fun.  The girls were TERRIFIED.  That is the downside of not having pets, the girls are just not comfortable with animals.  (Neither am I really, not growing up with pets either.  I do try to fake it around the girls though.)  The dogs owner was up on his roof putting lights on as well!  He couldn't do much more than yell at the dog.  The girls spent the rest of the afternoon inside.  Today, our neighbor came over and apologized and offered to have the girls meet the dog and spend some time with him, to hopefully overcome their fear.  How nice!

Here is our tree inside.  The girls helped quite a bit decorating it.  

Here is our mantle.  Look, the prophet is on TV!  

The banisters.  I sure love decorating for Christmas.  It is sure sad when it all comes down and your house looks empty.

A Thanksgiving to Remember

Why don't I have pictures of this year's Thanksgiving?  Let me tell you.  FOOD POISONING!  Not from the Thanksgiving turkey thank goodness.  But from ham.  Deli ham.  My family got here on Monday.  On Tuesday I served ham, along with turkey and chicken for lunch.  Late afternoon my brother Steven says he doesn't feel well and starts throwing up.  My dad follows soon after.  I go to my young women's activity and can feel it coming on.  I get home and I begin a lovely evening of sickness.  Mike gets it in the morning.  My brother Joe gets it Wednesday afternoon.  My mom and sister in law don't get it - they didn't have the ham.  Thank goodness because they took care of the rest of us.  Haley didn't have ham, we are not sure about Maya, but she did get slightly sick, so she may have had a little.  Now Caleb is a different story.  He was sick all week, but not from the ham.  He threw up and had diarrhea because of some virus.  He was sleeping on the pack and play in our closet so guests could sleep in his room.  Do you know what happens when your child throws up while sleeping in the pack and play?  It all soaks into the "mattress".  Delightful.  I was so excited about hosting this Thanksgiving and having my family come.  Too bad they will never come back to this sick house.

Note:  This will be the last post about throw-up, poop, diarrhea, etc...  I have looked back at recent posts and that is all I have to talk about apparently!  I have got to come up with something else to write about. 

Problems with Poop

Someday Maya will not be happy about this post.  But I have to record it so we can all remember and laugh!  So, I have two stories about Maya.  No pictures, thank goodness.  In the late summer when we took a trip to Colorado Springs, we stopped at the Air Force Academy.  We went to the visitor's center and then walked around on campus and looked at the cathedral.  On the way back to the car, which was about a 10 minute walk from the campus Maya says she needs to poop.  We are no where near a bathroom.  We get to the car and she starts crying, "It's coming out!"  Well what do you do?  Let her mess her pants?  We chose to have her drop her pants in the grass in front of our car and leave her mess there.  Of course the parking lot was deserted right until Maya started doing her business and then a car drove up.  Mike tried to block her with his body and I could not stop laughing.  

Yesterday we were invited over for a playdate at a friends house from preschool.  After lunch Maya said she had to go to the bathroom and so did her little friend.  They went into the bathroom together.  Her friend came out a few minutes later with a piece of toilet paper saying that she needed help picking something up.  Her mom went to the bathroom to see what was wrong and right about then we both realized that Maya had pooped on the ground.  I go in there and Maya is sitting on the toilet but the poop is on the bathroom rug.  What?  I ask her what happened and she says that she was sitting on the toilet but her poop shot out and landed on the ground.  How do they make this stuff up?  I asked her several times if she pooped before she made it to the toilet, but she stuck with her original story.  I was more than embarrassed at the time, but now I can't stop laughing about it.  

We may never be invited back to the Air Force Academy or the friend's house again.

The First Snow

This is what we saw when we woke up this morning.  The girls were thrilled to say the least.  I just thought, crap, didn't get the snow tires on early enough.  My tires are in bad shape.  I slide all over the place in the snow.
Later on Maya came out to stomp in the snow.  After she finished in the front, I sent her in the back to go on a "treasure hunt" for the lids to our sand and water table that had blown off and then got covered in snow.  She thought it was great fun, and I didn't have to go out in the cold.  Win Win!
 

We have a fish

We received this fish as a gift.  We have actually had it for going on 5 months now.  I am so not a pet person, and have grudgingly fed and cleaned up after this fish.  Well, Mike mostly feeds and I mostly clean, but I definitely have the harder job.  I have to admit I will not be sad when this fish dies.  It should happen soon, right?  It's been 5 months!  I know, I'm awful.

Anyway, this fish was originally named Goldie.  Then a few days later Maya changed its name to Cinnamon.  It went as Cinnamon for quite a while until one day Maya told me, "Mom, Cinnamon has a last name.  It's Life."  So now, it goes by its full name, Cinnamon Life.

A first time for everything

Yesterday Maya complained to me that her stomach hurt.  I wasn't really concerned because she usually tells me that 10 times a day.  Later it moved on to, "I'm going to throw up."  We spent some time at the toilet and got out the throw up bowl, but no success.  (As an aside - the throw up bowl when I was growing up was an old cool whip tub.  It always grossed me out to read food words on the label when I was sick.  Why, mom?  Why a cool whip tub?)  So, we get in the car to take Haley to gymnastics class.  I DIDN'T BRING THE BOWL.  Do you know where this is going?  Maya falls asleep on the way, we drop Haley off, and then head to a store.  On the way to the store, Maya wakes up and says the dreaded words, "I need to throw up."  I don't have anything to catch it and I am driving.  I grab a baby wipe and tell her to try to throw up in that.  Ha!  So, she covers herself and her seat and the floor mat in front of her.  We drive home where I have 30 minutes to clean the car and Maya before we have to go back and get Haley.  I put Caleb in his crib with toys and took Maya's clothes off her and sat her in an empty tub.  (After I cleaned the car, I came back and bathed her).  I put Maya's clothes and the car seat cover in the washing machine and then went out to the car.  I threw away the floor mat, scrubbed her seat, car seat, and the carpet.  I thought I did a good job until we picked up Haley and she said, "What stinks?"

BOO!