Celebrate Good Times...

Once a year, sometimes twice, me and some of my girlfriends who scrapbook get together to spend the weekend scrapbooking. We have been doing it for 9 years now and it is something we all look forward to. My friend Michele's parents have a cabin in Greenwood Lake, NY which is the location we go to. It is about 30 minutes from my house. In the past we have made a couple road trips out of the weekend to Maryland and Pennsylvania to friends homes who join us each year but have moved away.

It is a weekend of getting away from everything, scrapbooking our memories which is digitally for me, eating some of our favorite snacks (we even have some food traditions we have to have) and being with the girls.

We had a lot to celebrate this year, hence the party hats, blowers and leis. We always like to make our group shot fun. Our friend Lisa just came through 4 months of chemotherapy for a rare form of cancer called gestational trophoblastic disease. Plus, 3 of the girls are pregnant (Susie, Christy and Amanda). Unfortunately Christy and Amanda couldn't make for the weekend because they were sick. We missed them being with us.

This time around we got several inches of snow on Saturday. Thankfully it was a light snow and could easily clean off our cars. It sure was pretty coming down.

We have such a great time and lots and lots of laughs. I always leave the weekend relaxed and refreshed. This weekend was no exception.

Brayden Bear

Our little guy has been sick this whole week. Sunday night he started with a fever. I took him to the doctor on Monday thinking maybe he had a left over ear infection from a couple of weeks ago, but his ears were clear and the strep test came back normal. The doctor said it was viral and he should be over it in a couple of days. However, his fever has continued throughout this week, up and down, up and down. He also get really congested and the cold went into his right eye, so it is all red and watery. I decided to take him back to the doctor today just to double check him and sure enough he has a double ear infection and will go back on antibiotics. She also gave us some eye drops to help with the redness of the eye.

He has his up and down moments. He will have a burst of energy for an hour or two and then crash. Even as I type this he has fallen asleep on the couch and is snoring away. I feel so bad he is so stuffy.
Thankfully he took his first dose of medicine tonight and we should be on the road to recovery.

I'm Back...

I guess you probably were wondering if I would ever update my blog again. It has been almost a month since my last update and a lot has gone on since then. So here is a recap...

Christmas weekend was a little different for us. Jason was sick with a viral cold that went into his eyes and he wasn't able to be a part of any of our services at church during the Christmas weekend. We had Brayden stay home with Daddy, so Sarah and I felt a little lonesome at church without our 2 guys.

With Christmas being on a Sunday and since we had church that morning we decided to celebrate our Christmas morning on Christmas Eve. In the midst of our opening presents Jason had a doctors appointment to check out his eyes, you can tell in his eyes below. We let the kids open their presents and then when Jason got home he and I opened ours. Both Sarah and Brayden got what they wished for. Sarah a Kindle and Brayden a Spiderman shooter.

Oh, by the way, baby Jesus did appear in his manager on Christmas Day in our Advent calendar. He was a bit different from the original but what he represented was the most important thing. Thanks to MeMe for supplying him. He was actually a porcelian little baby doll that my Grandmother had made.

Sunday afternoon, Christmas Day, we drove to Maryland (4 hours) to Jason's sister's home where we celebrated Christmas with the whole James family. We learned that night that John & Susie were pregnant and we would be having a new niece/nephew at the end of July. In October Kyle & Christy told us they were pregnant as well. Two new James babies this year. We can't wait to meet them.

We enjoyed an afternoon at the Gaylord Hotel in Washington, DC while were there. They have a Christmas show along with an ICE show. Sarah and I got to go ice skating while the other little cousins got to ride a train.

We headed home from Maryland on Wednesday and Brayden and I had both come down with Jason's cold. We were both put on antibiotics and a week later were feeling much better. In the meantime my laptop had stopped working, so it had to be taken to the shop and repaired. Ugh! Thankfully they could repair it and it came back practically brand new.

The next couple weeks were spent catching back up on things from Christmas, being sick and getting back into the routine of school and church activities.

Well, that is a short story of our Christmas and the first couple weeks in January. 

I promise to post again sooner than a month from now. Thanks for checking on me.