Staying Warm!

We seem to have finally caught the cold bug here at our house and it is spreading like wildfire!  Sebastian started with it this past weekend, Catie woke up on Monday with a nasty cough and congestion and now today, last but certainly not least, John woke up with the cough and temp.  Lucky for us, we have been homebound this week...oh, other than a quick trip to the doctor for Catie yesterday.  I have never seen her look so rough so I decided to bring her in since last time she had just a cough, it ended up being a double ear infection.  Thankfully, she doesn't have anything this time but a bad cold.  She was tested for strep and influenza and checked for ear infections and all came back good!

The kids and I started ECFE last week and they all had a blast.  Well, at least the boys had a good time.  The teacher said that Catie was "sad", but according to the boys she cried most of the time saying "mommy, mommy"!  The first 1/2 hour I was able to play with the kids, lots of new toys...I could tell they were overwhelmed with all of the toys.  They all went from one toy to the next because they just wanted to explore everything.  You know how if you have a timer set, you really feel like you get nothing done, just running around trying to beat the timer?  Well, that is what they looked like, so many toys to play with before it was time to go home.  Unfortunately, we were not able to go today since we have 3 sick kiddos.  I am bumbed too, it is nice to have an hour of talking with other parents and knowing the kids are just in the next room being taken care of.

I was hoping to make a quick trip down to Arizona to spend some time with my aunt but it doesn't appear that will be happening this year.  This past weekend we had a surprise birthday party for "Big Matt" so my parents took all of the grandkids home after dinner out so that Rhett and I could actually have a night out and both of the boys seemed to have a hard time.  I know a lot of people think, oh they will be fine and get over it, but I feel our situation is a little different.  We have come such a long way since June and I really don't want to take any steps backwards.  Also, if I knew I had 3 sad kids here while I was in AZ, I would also have a hard time.  Lastly, I don't want to put my mom and/or Rhett through that either.  So, I will spend the frosty winter in MN and pray that spring comes soon!!  Maybe next year!

Cate had enough with mom's dirty floor so she took the cleaning into her own hands!  She took the closest "rag" she could find, the dish drying towel.  Let's hope her cleaning desire keeps up!

 John had a quick trip to urgent care, the big gash on his forehead produced a lot of blood but luckily they could glue it instead of stitches.

 I just cannot keep this girl from climbing.  I even started putting the tray on her chair but she goes to get another chair to climb on top of the tray.  Love her determination (I think!)!!

 Cate with her new hat!

 Good sign, I was hoping to have a doctor in the family!!  Could have used him after last years blowing our medical deductible out of the water.

 A few weeks ago, Rhett was traveling and my parents were here and I noticed a deer was sitting by our fence in our backyard.  We tried to distract him...opened the patio door, kids were screaming at him, knocking on windows etc. but he just would not move.  So, I grabbed an apple from the fridge and threw it near him.  Still he would not move.  We left to run some errands and when we came back, he moved to underneath our evergreen tree, which he proceeded to have for lunch!  Then, Grandpa went out to chase him out of the backyard!  He succeeded and the kids are still talking about the apple mom threw in the backyard (funny how they don't even think about the deer!).

 Three Colombian Cuties!

 Look at that mouthful (haha) of pearly white teeth!

 John having fun!

 All smiles from Sebastian!

 Dad was traveling for work so that left mom to shovel, thanks to the neighbor for coming to blow the snow so we could enjoy a rare nice day outside playing in the snow.