Christmas Eve 2007

Libby was so sick Christmas Eve, we didn't go to mass, one of my favorite events at the holidays. Lots of things were different this year than years past.

I was thinking next year we will have 7 little ones at Christmas. Since we have been married the number of grandkids at mom and dad's have been: 0,0,0,0,0,1,2,5,5,5, and 7 next year. Once the grandkids started coming, the floodgates were opened. :)

Christmas morning
I love this picture. All in a row opening gifts at the same time.
We missed having Grandpa B's presence, he is still in the hospital. A big suprise Christmas morning was that he opened his eyes. We joked that he was just looking around for his presents. :) Unfortunately he has not made much progress beyond opening his eyes and a bit of response here and there. We are still hoping for the best. Everyone tried to make the most of Christmas without the patriarch of the family. Grandma taped the events of the morning and they have been playing them for Grandpa to hear throughout the week.

What a crazy week.

As I mentioned in a previous post, last Thursday our "Kansas City Grandpa" Harold passed away. His funeral was Monday morning and the kids took up the gifts. Thankfully we had a one day window of all feeling well this week and it just happened to be at the time of the funeral.

Friday evening we took the kids to a kiddie concert at a bar. When we walked in the door back home the phone rang and it was Jeff's sister telling us his dad had a fall and was in the ER. Mom came to get the kids so they could sleep at their house. Jeff and I went to the hospital. He had a stroke and hit his head falling on the stairs. Currently he is in the ICU trying to cope with several issues caused by the stroke/fall.

While we were at the hospital we called to check on the kids and they were both throwing up. Something they ate at the bar, or the stomach flu. Who knows. By Saturday morning they were finished throwing up, but Libby is still having diarrea a week later.

This has been an incredibly busy week for Jeff at school writing finals, giving finals, grading finals, and tying up all of the loose ends and paperwork pertaining to finishing up a semester. It is a bit different than teaching middle school where possibly no finals are given, most of the students will be remaining in the class the following semester, and making a mistake in grades won't have the potential of causing a senior to lose out on a scholarship or college admission. A lot of stress. Getting the hang of an entirely new school and way of doing the "check out" procedure is no picnic. With all of the finals being given my tutoring schedule was packed.

Most of the week Kolbe has been suffering from a nagging cough. He has been to the doctor's office twice this week. Wednesday night he came down with a fever and is just now seeming to get over that. Also Wednesday night Libby got a bit overheated and threw up all over her brand new clean sheets. And, I came down with some stomach bug on Wednesday. Luckily by Thursday evening I was almost back to normal.

Unfortunately, with all of our maladies the kids and I have not been up to see Grandpa B. We don't know what Christmas holds in store it is hard to get into the Christmas spirit when Grandpa has been virtually unconscious for just over a week now. For an update on his condition please log on to http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/cy_____. In the blank please insert our last name.

Now for some good news... Kolbe has gotten to feel "Squirt" squirming around in mom's tummy. He loves sitting in the chair with me and just resting his hand on my tummy watching a show and feeling the baby move. Several times throughout the day he asks me if I feel the baby moving. The kids love talking to the baby and telling "Squirt" how much they love him/her. Kolbe wants to go to the sonogram to see a picture of the baby. Jeff and I have to discuss it though. The first time I saw Kolbe on a sonogram picture it was a tad scary to see "Skull baby" I don't want Kolbe to get any wierd mental pictures. Kolbe also wants to find out the gender. Again something mom and dad need to ponder. For now we don't even have the sonogram scheduled though we are at week 19.

Lots of pictures... Jeff had a snowball fight with the kids after our last snow.

Libby has no idea a snowball is coming right toward her.

Once it hit she jumped up and looked right at Dad--he thought he was getting away with it.
Kolbe gladly joined in the snowball fight.
Libby's having a ball!
We caught him laying in the snow having a treat. Last week after eating snow he said he wasn't hungry for dinner since he had eaten so much snow. He was convinced snow was a healthy dinner alternative. We'll see if our poor little tree can make it through to next spring. Libby was trying her best to uproot it.We enjoyed a Knight's of Columbus Christmas dinner at church. Kolbe is a huge fan of the K of C. Santa made a showing and Libby kept gazing lovingly into his eyes.
Kolbe gave Santa a quick rundown of his Christmas list. All construction items of course. I can't imagine what kind of construction items he could possibly need, he has every vehicle and tool known to man. His latest desire is trash trucks. He takes Libby's doll stroller and uses it as a trash truck when he emties the trash cans around the house. He typically does this twice a day.
This was our feeble attempt at our 2007 Christmas picture. The kids were dressed up for Great Gpa Harolds funeral. They brought up the gifts. After we finished the task Kolbe asked me when we were going to take up the gifts. I told him that's what we had just done. He looked at me with a suspicious look in his eyes and asked why the gifts weren't wrapped.

Idea stolen from Suzanne, but check out this link... http://www.elfyourself.com/?id=1145846018