This Week on Television...

-N-'s FAVORITE T.V. SHOW:

http://http//www.nickjr.com/shows/backyardigans/index.jhtml

So this past week our house has been hit by the FLU, no not the stomach bug but the actual respiratory FLU!!! Oh the fun, let me preface this with, we have all had our FLU shots, but we're lucky to have been graced with the presence of a strain not combated against this year! Oh the love we feel...NOT!

Luckily as it has played out the only one of us, thus far, to actually get sick has been -N-. We are hoping to keep it that way!

Last Tuesday, he started out with an unexplained fever around midnight and then we played the waiting game as we treated the fever. By Thursday, we found ourselves at the doctor's office at which point he tested positive for Influenza. He and hubby were given Tamiflu and little -A- and I were left to fend for ourselves, he is too young and since I am nursing, that means I am out too. Since then we have played the quarantine game, so to speak. This game involves every time I touch -N- I wash my hands, I avoid face contact at all cost and if he has snuggled me, my shirt gets changed, all to avoid the 6 month old getting the lovely virus. Did I mention the house smells like Lysol??? -N- has been ostracized from our bed and now sets up camp on the floor in a sleeping bag in the event he needs to come into our room. He has 3 more doses of Meds and with the will of God and a sterile house we hope to not revisit this again anytime soon.

This being his first bought of the Flu in his short lifetime, it has been interesting to say the least. For the first day or two, he and I would argue about him being sick, I would say he was, he would in turn, deny, deny, deny. The only way to get him to be sedentary was to play episodes of the Backyardigans back to back, luckily there are 39 episodes currently saved on our DVR, so there hasn't been any re-watching, yet. This is one of the only shows he watches and he LOVES it!

The Backyardigans are influential to such phrases as:

"The Ping-Pong Bandit is gonna beat you!" (in a game of Ping-Pong of course)

"You gotta have Pirattitude, Mom"

"It's Racing Day"

"Come on Dusty we gotta catch that Bandit"

"I love you Mom, I'm going to Texas" (he doesn't quite understand that he is already in Texas)
"I can do the Funkadilly, watch me now!"

among many others, our life has become quite the reference to The Backyardigans.

At any given moment we could be asked to watch the Backyardigans, and for the past week we have watched all 39 episodes. Being that we aren't out of the woods yet, -N- still needs to get plenty of rest and so we are back to the top of the list, when to my surprise I was told this morning, "Mom, I think I would not like to watch The Backyardigans!"

Wha-Wha-What? Could it be possible that he is as sick of the fun loving imaginative group of creatures as the rest of us?

Well, guess not, I was then told, "Mom I want to watch the Berenstein Bears and then I think I would like to watch the Ping-Pong Bandit. Oh well once he has made a full recovery, we may just have to unplug the T.V. for a week!!!

Time for a Bath, 1 a week whether you Need it Or Not!

Okay so maybe not, but needless to say, these boys have started a journey of bathtime fun together. With -A- sitting up on his own he can now enjoy bathtime with his Big Bro, and boy oh boy -N- thinks it is great.

Usually we do showers, but once a week it has become a habit to follow up that shower with a bath. -N- looks forward to this with growing anticipation and -A- seems to enjoy them too. They are just too cute for words, the bond is there and in a couple of years we are in TROUBLE!!!

No Excuses...

I have been totally slacking AGAIN!! No excuses, Hubby had two whole weeks off and oh the fun we had and the time we spent just enjoying each other, honest, see!

First there was Interlochen and the Christmas light display...

Then on to Gingerbread house baking, assembly and decorating...

YUMMY!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Let's not forget Christmas Morning, we baked muffins and sang happy birthday to Baby Jesus and the boys both enjoyed their awesome gifts from Santa, -N-, so much so, that it was a battle getting him to open anything else! All while little -A- wore himself out jumping up and down!

Then we headed over to Grammy and Grandpa's for Christmas dinner and opening gifts with them, my little bro Uncle -J- and G. Gram, see the tree above?

One word SPOILED!

-A- is sporting his Christmas outfit from Nini and Papa and -N- is sporting his apron made by Mwaaa!

There is not one gift that these two little boys didn't love! -N- constantly wants to wear his "awesome camo jammies" his words not mine, he thinks his "bery own guitar" and "mote car" are great and loves playing all of the new games he received,

thus birthing family game night!

Last week's were Memory, Candy Land and putting together a puzzle.

He is overcoming his fear of the dark with the help of his new bed tent while snuggling his night light teddy bear. -A- LOVES stuffed animals and any toy that lights up or makes sound,

just when I thought we had it ALL, we got sooo much more!

From that point, I spent what seems like an eternity reorganizing and collecting items for donation.

Moving us quickly into a great start to the New Year, Happy New Year!!!

In the meantime, -A- learned a new game of his own,

PEEK-A-BOO!!

Before we knew it, it was all over and hubby was back at work and the 3 of us were returning to a "normal" schedule while Dad worked.

What more can I say, no excuses, just a whole lot of fun, I can't wait to do it all again!

It's Official

This week has turned out to be a rather rough one. -A- has a cold accompanied by the worst cough. In the middle of the night he wakes up due to coughing fits and is rather inconsolable for quite some time and just as we seem to get back to sleep it starts all over again.

In the midst of all of this, last night was the first that he seemed to be feeling better, he wasn't quite so uncomfortable or agitated, while awake anyway.

Then he finally did "it"! For a couple of weeks now he has been working on "it", but due to round-bum syndrome he had yet to accomplish "it". As soon as you got him up, over he went.

Something like this:

or this:

And here are the "I came, I saw, I conquered" pics:

But now we have a semi-vertical baby, look out animals, soon he too will be chasing you. He is officially sitting up all by himself. He is doing it and with an older brother, and Mom and Dad to be proud of him, the little guy was so Happy!

And the official "What about me Mom?", so there ya go! He can do "it" too!

Shuttle Endeavor - What a Sight

Well yesterday NASA sent the shuttle Endeavor on it's way, it made a pit stop out at the flight line over night and will be headed out around 11, this morning. Here are some pics of the amazing site, in "Piggy Back" fashion.

Getting With the Program

Oh my how time has flown by, we have been home for a week now and oh the fun we had while we were gone, we are finally settled back in at home. When we got home we (meaning I forced -B-) got to work, getting out the decorations and setting up the tree. Then we were off to bed, it was long trip home, we were done about three hours away and still had three more to go!

The next morning I woke up with a surge of energy and spent the day decorating and getting into the spirit and such, by the following morning at 9am, I hit a wall, in which NOTHING got accomplished and I sat, and sat, and sat. That being said it meant nothing was posted here. Meaning all of the fun and exciting times we had would be lost forever, that is until NOW....hehe.

Here it goes (prepare yourself):

We had the first Thanksgiving dinner on Saturday, so that we could enjoy some Turkey with -K-, -S- and -R-, before they had to return to work on Monday.

-B- and I.

-K- and -S-.

Jackie and -M-.

-A- and -R-.

Papa and -A-.

Nini with her oldest and youngest (for about 3 more months anyway).

Four Generations of -G- men. -B- with -A- and -N-, his big brother -M- and his son -L-, with their Dad and his Dad, whew that was a mouthful.
It's not often this happens, must have been one busy day, not to mention a lot of time in the car over night.
-B- and the boys in the "truck trailer" behind the "orange tractor".

Our niece -A- holding -A-, she is such a great Big cousin. And let's not forget his other amazing Big cousin -a-.

On the Monday before Thanksgiving, we made a trip to Chicago to see Granny Great, she recently had knee surgery and couldn't make the trip down just yet, so she got to meet -A- for the first time, he gets his first name from her Dad.

When we got back to the farm the fun continued. On Wednesday we had our first attempt at taking the kids for a ride on the four wheeler, we got got out the fron gate and about a mile away, when, uh oh!

No she didn't run out of gas.

She broke down and as we were going to tow her home, she got it running again. She explained to the boys that there was something wrong with the gas getting to the engine.

With a little work by -M- and -B-, and come to find out there WAS a problem with the gas getting to the engine. (That Jackie she is one smart Cookie ; ))

Not to worry though, all was not lost -L- found a furry caterpillar and it is important that you know it is a girl!

On Thursday we indulged in Turkey over at Uncle Bill's house.

Great Grandpa and -A-.

After we finished eating we ventured outside to burn off some of those calories. The children played a bit on the tractors and amazingly enough both -L- and -N- still fit in the wheel wells, well just barely.

And here's -a- too.All while -A- hung out by the horses.

and a few of the cousins with -A- and -a-.

Let's not forget the guys and -A-.

On Friday we made a successful attempt at the four wheeler ride again, and this time we took a lunch for a picnic.

a little mud

and Lunch!

On Saturday -B- played with the "Ole Ford Truck".

And -L- and -N- went horse back riding (hehe).

Then the Tree was put up

and -A- showed off his laugh that he recently discovered.

Whew what a week!! Now you know why it took a week to recoupe. We had a blast!!! Oh how we miss them so!