A Holly Jolly Christmas

Ho Ho Ho! I hope that everyone had a Merry Christmas!

We are adjusting back to normalcy after a crazy month of December in the Glur house!

We are finally all healthy, knock on wood! I hope we all stay that way for a long time!

I finally have a picture of our Christmas tree all decked out...

(Pictures just don't to it justice. This is a 12 foot ceiling but doesn't look nearly that tall in the picture.)

We started our Christmas celebrations with Darren's mom and brother and sister and families. We went up to Fargo (that's a story for another day...blizzard...puking child...) the second weekend of December. We got to break in Nate and Char's brand new house as well as take our traditional limo ride around Fargo to check out Christmas lights. We then enjoyed a wonderful lasagna dinner and opened presents. The kids had a great time! Landon still wasn't feeling the best so he wasn't his normal self. Come to find out he had strep this entire time! :( It was quite challenging getting both kids to sleep in the same room at the same time.

Here we are in the limo:
Landon and Daddy playing hockey in Nate and Char's basement:

Opening presents...a new loader and dumper:

Next we celebrated with Darren's dad and his wofe Deanna. They came out to watch the kids for an evening so that Darren and I could get our shopping done and enjoy a nice dinner out. They brought Landon a cool new battery-operated Toy Story four-wheeler!

I've done the most holiday baking that I've ever done, even with the challenge of having two little ones at home. Darren was home two nights last week and I took advantage. Addison already likes to help with the baking...lucky me!

For Christmas Eve as well as their "Happy Birthday Baby Jesus" party at daycare I ordered the kids iron -on patches from etsy.com. They were super easy to iron on these shirts and looked absolutely adorable!

On Christmas Eve we went to my Mom and Dad's house for our traditional Hegle/Fouquette gathering. We opened quite a few presents during the day and then ate lasagna and the works with our whole family. After everyone left we continued with the presents! The kids were verrrrrrry spoiled this year, just like every year!
Addison and Blake like to share Papa's lap:

Grandma Rita and Papa Bear with all five grandkids:

(Jackson-3, Lilly-2 (almost 3), Landon-22 months, Blake-7 months, and Addison-5 months)

Our annual family picture next to the tree:

(Jess, Chad, Lilly, and Blake...Ashley, Loren and Jackson...Kristin, Darren, Landon, and Addison)

My how our family has grown in four short years!!!

Our Little Family:

Santa was definitely very good to the kids this year...look at this stash:

(He may have gone a little overboard, but hey they were good this year!)

Christmas morning we woke the kids up to see what Santa had brought for them! Boy were they excited! Here's Addison playing with her new "Sing-a-ma-jig!"

Landon displaying the cute ornaments that he made for Mommy and Daddy at daycare:

The kids ready to head out to Auntie Susan's house for Christmas lunch:

We went to my Aunt Susan's house in Annandale and had our traditional chow mein lunch (can we say yummy???) and then went home to relax with my mom and dad with some Papa Murphy's take and bake for supper. It was quite an exhausting few days!

One of the best presents that Santa brought this year was a huge jumping castle filled with balls! Santa was at our house until after 3 am inflating it for the kids...well worth it when we saw the looks on Landon's face as he jumped in it on Christmas morning!
Here they are enjoying it the next day:

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas! We are looking forward to the new year! Can't believe it will soon be 2011! We are already thinking about Landon's 2nd birthday party coming up in February!

Happy New Year!

Sick of the Dr.

Here's a run-down of the last week for us:
Last Monday-Landon's cough had been going on almost two weeks and he started to tug/pull at his ear...
Tuesday morning- More coughing (up all night) and more tugging at the ear. Time for a Dr. appt. Get in at Cokato Clinic so I don't have to make the trip up to St. Cloud and get a sub. After a very dramatic chest X-ray Landon is diagnosed with a minor case of pneumonia as well as the start of an ear infection. Put on amoxicillin.
Thursday afternoon-I get a call from our daycare mom saying that Landon has a 104 temp. Get a sub and rush to pick him up. Back to the Cokato Clinic we go. Blood work. They tell me it's a virus and to give him Motrin/Tylenol to get the fever down. If it doesn't go down to go to the ER for more testing and fluids. Fever goes down.
Friday morning- Wake up to Landon having a 105 degree fever. Call the St. Cloud Clinic (where we normally go) and they want to see him asap. Darren brings him there while I worry all day at work and wish I was with him. Another chest X-ray. They tell us it's NOT pneumonia and is an ear infection. Keep him on Tylenol/Motrin. As long as he is eating/drinking/playing and we can keep the fever down he is okay. A fever is a good thing.
Saturday morning- Off to Fargo we go through the blizzard. We get to Monticello and I notice Landon is white as a ghost. Hop in the back seat of the Suburban with him. 105.3 temp again! More Tylenol. Half hour later he vomits all over himself, me, the carseat! One hour pit stop at Alexandria Target to get everyone cleaned up and to Fargo we go! On and off fever the rest of the day. Not himself.
Monday afternoon- Daycare mom notices a rash starting on Landon's neck, chest, arms. Hmmmm, weird.
Tuesday morning- Rash is spreading. Call the St. Cloud clinic and they want to see him. Could be Scarlet Fever. I get an afternoon sub and bring both kids up there. Rash is Roseola...a rash common after a fever breaks. One strep culture later and we determine the poor kid has strep throat. New antibiotic...he's now on Zithromax for 5 days. Still not himself. Fell asleep in the living room floor at 8:00 while I fed Addison.
Soooooo, we shall see what tomorrow brings! I hope this is the end of this mess and that the new antibiotic will take care of all of this! I feel horrible for Landon and life is getting a little too stressful for me. I told Darren that I just might lose it soon. Thank God for understanding husbands, great co-workers, and Moms who can come to the rescue!