Merry Christmas!

It is a lovely, sunny day in central Texas and I am thrilled to be a mommy! This is one of the most rewarding days of the year for me. I love to see the twinkle in my boys' eyes when they see all the Christmas presents that Santa has left them. Alex is beyond thrilled with his Thomas gate, and Colin loves his Hot Wheels Dragon Fire set. Right now, they're outside with Daddy riding their brand new Flying Turtle. Santa really got it right this year!

Here's the big guy himself:



And now, for the big news:


I found out almost two weeks ago, but with Christmas preparations and another sick kiddo, I have barely had time to breathe. Yes, Colin was sick again. This time, REALLY sick. He came home Tuesday afternoon from school and seemed a little out of sorts, but went outside to play. By 5:30, he came inside to eat dinner and started screaming that his head and tummy hurt really badly. He just wanted to lie down. I took his temp and it was 102. This continued for days. We had three doctor visits.

They couldn't figure out what was wrong with him and it was a very scary few days. Finally on Friday they ran a CBC and it pointed towards a bacterial infection. They re-examined him and still couldn't tell us with 100% what was wrong, but they started him on Omnicef. We couldn't pick up the script until Friday night so he got his first dose Saturday morning. Before he took it, his temp was up to 104.

He hasn't had a fever since, but continues with some intermittent tummy pain and cold-like symptoms. He then got fluid in his ear, which drives him crazy. He holds his hand up to his ear all day in order to quell the odd sensation in his ear. Thankfully, we get tubes in his ears in a few days. Just to sum it all up, he is so out of sorts that he fell asleep in church during Christmas Eve mass. He hasn't fallen asleep in church since he was 6 months old!

On another note, I got a huge and pleasant surprise early last week! I won pcLayer's contest with this layout:


I won a wide format Epson printer:

Woohooo! I have won things before, but this is the first time I can remember winning something based on merit. I can't wait to get it in the mail!

Wow - I'm a little behind...

.... in blogging. I guess about what - 5 months? Geez, Louise! Sorry about that. Not that anyone reads this anyway *grin*.

So much has happened since July. I quit most of my CTs - mostly because I wasn't able to keep up anymore because I'M PREGNANT! Woohoo! Not that this is old news - I am 19 weeks pregnant and will find out the gender on Thursday. Too exciting!

The pregnancy has been really draining for me. I had morning sickness from week 5 and still found myself gagging over the sink this morning. November was terrible for our family. We were all so sick. Carl was in the ER twice for severe allergic reactions and they found pneumonia. I was also terribly sick at the time and they concluded I had pneumonia, too. Then Colin got an ear infection which progressed into infected cervical lymph nodes. He had a 103 degree fever for a week before they could figure out what was wrong. Then Alex got a double ear infection which didn't clear up after the first 5 days of his antibiotic so they switched him to another one.

Meanwhile, I got some severe bacterial infection of my throat right around Thanksgiving. It really wiped me out and screwed up my blood count. They did a mono screen and I don't have mono, but man am I wiped out. I am still reeling from being so sick and I think I might be getting another sore throat. It is exhausting. It's all I can do to take care of the kids without falling asleep on my feet!

I have been able to get some work done for Kristy Valshan. They have got some great stuff out:




All of these use Yuletide, a great Christmas kit.

This uses William.
This uses The Traveler.


And this uses Autumn Beauty.

I just had to share some pictures I took of my sweet neighbor Mia the other day. Her mom will be using these for her ballerina birthday invitations:





And this is our Christmas card this year:


For the "glow in the dark" glitter, I used Ztampf's Lumoz Whimzy Page Overlays. Don't they look fantastic?

OK, I'm gonna run now. Colin is due to bust in the door any moment! I will try really hard to keep more up to date!