Sick again!

Early Monday morning I came down with the flu! Wow, was that horrible, and yet still a workable day. It was an extremely strange illness that kept me feeling achy, ill, and gross all day, but still able to take care of the children, thank God. When Isaac came home from work I was able to get a 2 hour nap in the evening while he fed the kids and put them to bed. Later that night both Isaac and Jeanine came down with the same thing. Isaac still had to work today but like I said, it's a miserable but workable flu. He just went to bed early tonight and we're expecting he'll feel much better in the morning. Jeanine, on the other hand, has had some very different symptoms and it seems to have hit her worse than us big folk, but we think she'll be better soon. Please pray she doesn't get dehydrated, I really don't want to take her to the doctor!

Jeanine Rolled Over Today!

She rolled from back to front when she wanted her new glow-worm from Grandma and Grandpa Hammond! Yay Jeanine!!

Christmas Morning

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Our new Christmas birthday candle, compliments of Jen (who made it, cool huh?). This morning we lit it and sang happy birthday to Jesus, then blew it out and opened presents. It's a cute little tradition and I think we'll keep it up while the kids are little; it seemed to help John understand the meaning of Christmas a little better than just reading the story from the Bible.

Cute Naked Nini

She's such a little chub and we love her so much! Isn't that red bow adorable? Thanks Jen!

Christmas Eve Service

Last night we went to Christmas Eve service and since we were all so nicely dressed, I asked a guy to take some pictures of our family by the Christmas tree on stage. They turned out so nice! For your viewing pleasure:

John in Snow Pictures

The worst snowy pictures in this set are only the beginning of how much snow we got! The camera died before I got more pictures of the really deep snow, bummer!

Even Mike went outside!

Crazy snow coming down!Silly Boy!

Playing in the snow

Eating Snow

Eating more snow!

Pinhead

I forgot to post about Jeanine's 4 month measurements! She's quite the little chunk, weighing 14lbs 3oz (approx. 75th %ile), 26.5 inches long (95th %ile), and her head is about 16 inches around (10th %ile)! She is such a roly-poly little one (almost the same size as her 6 month old cousin!) but she has this tiny little head, lol! I guess we'll be buying child/youth hats for her until she dies. She was the same in utero though, which was the first cause for 'concern' and all those extra useless tests, so at least we know she's consistent! She's also such a joy to have around. She's almost always smiling and trying to get our attention by grinning really big and squealing. Lately Johnny has figured out how to make her happy and he loves sitting by her being silly. She's not really doing much yet and I'm trying to get her to roll over soon so that maybe I can stop swaddling her to sleep and she can sleep on her tummy. We'll see how that goes!

SNOW!

Yes, snow. Lots of it!! I will post pictures tomorrow or as soon as I can find the camera, but we're getting truly hammered with snow these last few days. There is about 8-10 inches of snow all over the place and it's still coming down like crazy!

Santa came to our neighborhood Saturday morning and passed out presents to all the children. It was snowy and very cold, the road was icy, and Isaac pulled John down the street (standing) like he was skiing! The city of Fife is still small enough (about 60,000) that both the Fire Department and the Police Department get together to collect presents and pass them out in every neighborhood of the city. It kind of scared us at first when 2 police cars came down our street with lights blazing and sirens blasting, yelling for all the kids to get dressed and get outside since Santa was coming. They came through again, and were closely followed by a fire truck and aid car playing Christmas music and Santa walking along with them with presents. It was very cute and a nice surprise that snowy Saturday morning. John had no clue what was going on or who in the world Santa was, since we haven't told him about Santa and won't be celebrating Christmas with Santa involved, but he was excited to get a present and be outside during the commotion!

After that we took the kids to a MEGA (brand) sale at their warehouse across the street from our subdivision to finish up our shopping for John. We were able to get all this stuff (about $100 worth of toys) for $36! They had lots of different types of toys, including stuff for girls, so I can't wait to do some more Christmas and/or birthday shopping for both John and Jeaning there next year for cheap!

As for today, we were stuck at home again because of the snow and ice. I'm feeling really cooped up by now since we've pretty much been home all week, but we didn't want to risk the drive to church this morning with the children in the car. Isaac is a pretty confident driver in inclement weather like this, but we're more worried about other drivers who could easily hit us with the kids in the car. Isaac is supposed to be at work early tomorrow morning, so in order to ensure he'd be there and not get in trouble for being late, he left tonight at 8pm to get there, study, and sleep on the floor of the firehouse. It's going to be a long night and an even longer week for our family with him having to drive in the weather, but at least we have chains! I guess every store that carries chains in the area is sold out, so everyone else is out of luck. Please pray for him as he drives back and forth to work this week, and for everyone in our area to be safe through Christmas week as the rain and snow continue. Thanks everyone, I'll post again soon!

A Christmas Tribute to our Governor

Christine Gregoire...The Grinch...
A strong resemblance in both appearance and Christmas spirit!

Poor Sad Baby

This morning Jeanine got her first shots. It was super quick and pretty painless (3 sticks in 3 seconds), but since she has lost her voice from being sick it was the saddest thing I've ever seen. She opened her mouth and screamed but nothing came out except a few little squeeks and a lot of tears. She's sleeping now and I'm sure will be doing that a lot over the next couple days, but otherwise fine. Pray she gets better soon please, we could use it!

A Light Dusting

Here's the yard, front and back, with the little bit of snow that we got Saturday night. Sunday night was so cold we had to put cardboard over the vents that go under the house so the pipes didn't freeze. Sadly, this morning there was a dead little frozen mouse-sicle on our back porch...we must've cardboarded over his home, poor guy!

Johnny wishing he could go outside. Too sick, too cold. Bad combination.

4 Months Old!

Almost 7 "squares" tall! (Meaning about 28")

Shining Boots

Isaac and Johnny shining their boots together...Johnny using just water of course!

Poor Babies

Well the kids have been sick so I haven't posted anything for a couple days, or even turned on the computer! John was very sick on Friday and all he wanted to do was sit with me and watch TV. Then Jeanine got the bug, and was so terribly sick and feverish on Saturday and all that night. We only got about 3 hours of straight sleep so we missed church of course. Sunday was better but not by much, and Sunday night we got a little more sleep than before. She's on the mend but the poor little thing has so much snot that she can't breathe while she eats, so she's practically starving herself these days. I hope she's a little better tomorrow since I'm taking her to get her first immunizations in the morning. Oh well, maybe it's best to give them to her while she's sick so she won't have to feel crumby twice. Here's my poor baby taking one of her many 5 minute catnaps on daddy Saturday night.

I'll Post When I Want To!

Sorry it's been a while since I posted anything, we've been in transition (to all those pregnant and/or had a baby ladies, doesn't sound very fun huh? lol) Anyway, Isaac started his new job and is in the pre-academy stage of his training. It's basically like hell-week in boot camp (0nly it will last an entire month for him!) until he starts the academy January 9th. Then the academy will be even worse, with long days and even longer nights studying. Thankfully, it's only temporary, lasting about 10 weeks. Isaac may even choose to stay at the academy during the week and only come home on weekends depending on the amount of studying he needs to get done in order to pass and do well. It'll be hard on the whole family but we can do anything with God's help for only 10 weeks! Isaac's days right now consist of waking up early, ironing his uniform and shining his boots (just like the military, I think all that stuff is coming in handy now!), driving in rush hour traffic for an hour, classroom time, PT time, more PT time, more classroom time, tests, and lots of other things he doesn't tell me about I'm sure! Then he sits in more rush hour traffic for an hour, comes home to a child who's CRAZY needy, eats dinner, puts the kid to bed, kisses his wife, and does more ironing, shining, and studying until he crashes in bed. Yikes! It's going to be a long first year but after that, not so bad. Please pray for our family as we're going through this time, we're excited and yet a little stressed because of how much extra work it is for the both of us. John doesn't understand why daddy isn't here much and it's already taking its toll on him.

OK, what else? We had the Kent Fire Dept. Christmas party last Saturday and it was lots of fun. We didn't really talk to anyone (or rather, no one talked to us) because everyone tries to stay separate from the new recruits until they're sure you'll pass the academy and actually be one of them. It was still fun bringing the kids there though. There was a 2 foot tall pony to pet, chalkboards to draw on, a train set to play with, a raffle for toys and goodies, lots of good food, and the highlight of the evening was a funny and very crazy show by a professional juggler and entertainer. He even did some extreme pogo-sticking and caught lemons on his spiky helmet! John thought it was all very cool and clapped almost the entire time!

Jeanine is growing up so fast and loves to grin and laugh at mommy. John just figured out how to make her smile in the car by making funny sounds and he has so much fun! We put up Christmas decorations on Sunday and are all loving the new house very much! I'll try to get some pictures of the house all decorated very soon. Watching Wiggles this morning^

Hanging with daddy last night^

Cutie Pie, sitting in the high chair watching mommy make supper^

John and his friend Bennet at the mall food court after we played yesterday^

Goofy Spider Man jammies boy^

Such a happy girl, almost all the time!

Just relaxing!

On another note, Jeanine is now (so very sadly to me) entirely on formula and is doing much much better. She hasn't done the nasty projectile throwing up now for over 24 hours, and is only spitting up a tiny bit. Her eczema is also going away and her cute little cheeks are looking smoothe and rosy instead of scabby and red. I'm hoping she'll get the rest of my milk out of her system and stop the spitting up entirely. As happy as she was before, she's now much happier and a very different baby. She's sleeping well and doesn't seem to be in any pain any more. I'm so sad to have stopped breastfeeding as it was my plan to do so until she was at least 1, but I know this was best for our family. I was so stressed out trying to eliminate all dairy from my diet, and though she got better, she wasn't all the way better. I think there was something else in my diet that she was sensitive to as well, but I just couldn't devote as much time as it would have taken to do an elimination diet and keep track of everything, and also take care of my other responsibilities as wife, mommy, homemaker, and teacher to my children. So I'm becoming more and more okay, and sometimes even happy with the fact that she's a formula baby now. It's also not as inconvenient as everyone makes it out to be! There are perks, yes PERKS, to formula feeding, especially for us Type A moms, who really like to know EXACTLY how much their little ones are eating. I know, I'm crazy, lol! So that's where we're at. One BIG update to last quite a while!

4 (For Lauren)

This is the fourth picture in the fourth album in my computer pictures...pretty huh? I love snow...as long as there aren't shovels involved.

Sibling Love

Tell me this isn't the sweetest thing ever? John was holding Jeanine's paci in her mouth during a fussy time this evening so she wouldn't drop it and scream. (He told me that's why he was doing it, lol!)

Happy Thanksgiving!