Blah....

The stomach flu hit our house last week. Hard. And it snuck in out of nowhere. I went from happily preparing pot roast to head in toilet in less than an hour. And when you have kids (one who is nursing) while you are sick, it just makes things that much worse. I did get a good chuckle (after the fact) once when I was puking. Chloe comes into the bathroom and asks, "Whatcha doing mom?" Like I could really answer. And then, "why are your glasses on the floor, here, put them on." And she tries to hand me my glasses as I have my head halfway into the toilet.

And of course, when mom gets sick, one of the kids has to get sick too. I got sick Tuesday night. I was looking forward to a recovery day at home on Wednesday, but Chloe started puking about 10 mintues after Jeff dropped her off at Miss Linda's. And when he brought her home, she proceeded to puke all over me. Three seperate times. I had one of those "you know you are mom when..." moments when Chloe is sitting on our brand new carpet and starts to heave. I stick my hands out and catch it. Gross, I know, but I didnt really want to try to clean puke out of brand new carpet either.

Chloe luckily got over her illness quickly. Mine however refused to let go and I was sick for 6 days. The good news was that I finally reached my goal weight! 125 pounds! Not quite the way I wanted to achieve it though.

Unfortunetly I was sick for our anniversary. Not that we would have done anything romantic anyway, but we had a nice home cooked dinner planned. Oh well, maybe next year.

Never had a doubt...

About my Tigers' ability to beat KU! It's kind of the end of an era I guess. MU is leaving the Big 12 for the SEC. I am not sure how I feel about that just yet, but I am glad that Mizzou has beat KU in football and now at home in basketball. They still have one more game to play in Lawrence, but the Tigers pulled off a last minute win at home on Saturday. We went to Heather and Gary's to watch the game. MU was ahead at the half, but trailed all of the second quarter, even letting KU build a 8 point lead. But we rallied in the last 3 minutes. Poor Bg thought her parents had gone mental. I was shaking and pacing the floor. Heather had to hold Bg so I wouldnt accidentally throw her across the room! Chloe saw a picture of a Jayhawk on Sunday and told me that, "we dont like those!" Good girl!

And yesterday was the SuperBowl. Boy, Superbowl party at Jason's sure has changed in the 10 years I have been with Jeff! Everyone is married with kids now. The party is much more family friendly! The girls had a blast. CHloe cried when we left.

February

So could this February possibly start off any different than February of 2011?? Remember the blizzard? Well, yesterday was sunny and in the 60's. Chloe and Bg were able to play outside all afternoon. Chloe's legs are bruised black and blue- from falling out of trees, to tripping over twigs and falling down hills. But she is loving every minute of country living. And in our backyard is the most fun dirt pile ever!

But all this crazy weather gave me a nasty sinus infection. So while my children were outside delighting in the beautiful weather, I was inside sleeping. Poor me, but enough of my sob story.

We had a scare last night. Dad called around 9 and said mom had been having chest pains all day and went to urgent care after work. They did an EKG and said these scary words: Heart Attack. They gave mom some nitroglycerin and said get to a hospital. Dad rushed mom to the ER and they did another EKG, but these results were better and they werent sure about a heart attack. So mom was admitted and is undergoing tests today. My mom is way too young for this! She already yelled at me for harping on her about her diet, but she does need to take better care of herself. And I say this out of love. I want my babies to have the kind of relationship with their grandparents that I had with mine and that means no heart attacks!!

Go Tigers!!!

For Christmas, the girls gave me tickets for a Tiger basketball game. Tigers were ranked 2nd in the nation, so it was pretty awesome to go see such a great team playing. I was also very excited to take the girls to their first game. Chloe was pumped up and practiced cheering the entire way to Columbia. Nothing is cuter than hearing a 3 year old yelling MizzouRah! At first, we thought we had crappy seats. We were all the way in the top of the arena- the last row. But we ended up loving our seats. We were right at the top of the stairs, so we had a straight shot view down to the court. Chloe didnt have anyone in front of her, so even when everyone stood up, she could still see. She also had a wider platform to stand on since there were no seats in front of us. Of course I forgot a bottle, but was able to privately nurse Bg since we had more foot room and no one was behind me. She somehow slept through the first half even with all the noise. But because there was no one in front of us, I could still see even when everyone was standing. Of course, the Tigers won, beating a Big 12 opponent- Texas Tech. Next year we are moving to the SEC. Chloe is already asking when we can go back, so I am hoping this is the start of a new family tradition.

Tea Party!!

For Christmas, Heather, Gary and the girls gave Chloe a Princess Cook Book with recipes for cupcakes, cakes and cookies. Someone made a comment about a tea party and my little elephant never forgets, so she has been begging since Christmas to have a tea party. I thought it would be a good time to also show off the house, so we planned the party for yesterday.

I am starting to become a bit of a baking snob. No more box stuff for me- I am having fun playing with new recipes and making everything from scratch. I have always made cookies from scratch, but I thought the boxed stuff was so much easier for cakes/cupcakes/icing. But honestly, it really isnt. Yea, I have to measure out more stuff, but it is so much for fulfilling when someone compliments your baking to say that you made it all on your own. So I spent Saturday baking vanilla and chocolate cupcakes. And I must say, they are DARN good! I am not the best decorator, but I am learning and am getting a bit better.

The tea party was yesterday. Chloe had a great attendance- Grandma and Papa Michael, Grandma and Papa Tyler, Granny and Great Grandparent Michaels, and the Hoeppners- Scott, Amanda and her friend Calle. We had tea, coffee and cocoa to drink and several types of fresh fruit and cupcakes to eat.

Chloe had practiced all morning saying, "Welcome to my tea party, may I take your coat?" She said it so sweetly to Grandma Judy. But in the excitement of seeing her other grandparents arrive, she somehow cut her toe open. It wasnt a bad cut and I dont think it hurt her, but it was bleeding and I couldnt get her to sit still so I could get the bleeding to stop. She freaked when Jeff got a band-aid, so the rest of her guests all walked in to a kid having a meltdown. Lovely.

It was good to see both Grandpa Michael and Granny out and about. 2011 wasnt the best year for either of them and I pray for continued health in 2012. It is so hard seeing your once strong grandparents getting old.

Stairs

We now have to keep a sharp eye on the stairs. Bg has made it her mission to climb the stairs as much as possible. She really figured it out over the weekend.

On Sunday, I walked into the living room and Chloe had climbed up the outside of the stairs. She was hanging 10 feet above our living room. And then I notice Bg had climbed the inside of the stairs and was standing up (holding on) on the third step. Like a good mother, I yelled for Jeff to come see his monkeys. And then we made them get down.

However, we failed to tell Miss Linda about Bg's skills. The kids were playing downstairs and Linda ran upstairs to get something. When she started to come back down, she realized Bg was climbing up. Linda started to rush down and Bg decided to go back down, which she hasnt mastered. Bg fell down the bottom step and got a nice red mark on the side of her face.

That didnt teach her any lessons though, as she instantly headed for the stairs when we got home. Jeff stayed with her and she climbed up about 6 or 7 steps before she decided to try to go down them head first. Luckily dad stopped her! And CHloe thinks it is great fun to still go up the outside of the steps. I am curious as to how high she will go. She hasnt gone to the top yet, but I am sure it will happen sooner rather than later.

Another case of the Mondays...

Mondays would be much easier if we didnt have such good weekends! I like my job, but I like being home with my kiddos even more! Bg was super sick with a nasty cold last week but was better over the weekend, so on Saturday we went to Alli's basketball game. I love seeing how much she improves each year and it was exciting to watch her play. Even though I want my girls to stay little forever, I am also looking forward to the day when they can play sports.

I did my fair share of baking this weekend. I did a practice run on homemade cupcakes/icing from scratch so I can make some for Chloe's tea party next weekend. And I also tried a new recipe on my quest to make the best chocolate chip cookies. And I think I may have finally found the recipe. YUM!

We had dad over for a fish fry Saturday night. Mom's stepmom Sharon was in the hospital, so mom had gone down to Springfield for the weekend.

The weather has been amazing for January. Yesterday Jeff and Chloe went down to Rock HOle and played for a long time. They came back wet, muddy, cold and happy. I was a bit jealous, but got to nap with Bg so all was okay with me.

Chloe cracks me up with what she calls one of her favorite treats. She always wants to eat, "Fishgolds." I used to try to correct her and have her say Goldfish, but I actually think Fishgolds sound so much yummier!