Just wishing!!

This time of year I find myself frequently wishing for Summer!! It isn't until this time of year when the air is yucky, when the kids get sick, when the snow is dirty that I just want to skoot along quickly to April and May. I was organizing my pictures and came upon some summer pictures that just shot me back to summer time and made me wish!!! I love seasons but for some reason I am really, really wanting my warm summer days!!


I love looking back at the year and all the things we did and Love remembering!! and love wishing!!! Soon enough our warm days and daily bike rides will be back. But for now we will stick it out indoors with my husbands injured knee and finger and just count down the days!!

Christmas 2010

On Wednesday Dec. 22, I came down with very real Flu symptoms. I had Ali and Cam get thier flu shots, but I woke up all achey and freezing, then really hot. I didn't feel great but with fro out of work because of his knee, I was hoping it wasn't anything and I headed off to work. After being there 10 minutes I realized I did NOT not feel good at all. My boss decided to send me home to take it easy. Well after getting worse I ended up staying in bed all the next day with Ali by my side. She would sit up to puke and I would hold her hair and then she would lay back down and we would both pass out. We were wiped out. On Christmas Eve we were feeling a little better, but I was still struggling to keep my eyes open and keep from passing out of feeling horrible. I couldn't eat and my whole head throbbed. I hadn't had the flu in a long time and was seriously regretting never stopping to get the flu shot for myslef. On Christmas Eve cam woke up with Croup and I was worn out. I slept on the floor of the kitchen so I could let the cold air help Cams lungs. It was horrible.
My kids were the biggest troopers. Although we all felt horrible and wanted to pass out, the knowledge that Santa came perked us all up. We got to enjoy opening presents and then we all headed back to bed. It was fun opening presents, but Christmas is just not the same when you feel like crap!!
The following monday i went to the doctor for her to tell me " You have the REAL flu!!" I am so glad I don't have that fake flu that goes around!! She told me i was contagious for another couple of days and so Fro made sure i wore the mask to prevent any further sickness in our family. The holidays seemed to drag on forever and it is no fun when you don't get to spend it with family.

 

This Christmas was a complete blur. I don't ever remember Christmas coming and going and doing absolutely nothing. With 3/4 of the house sick it definately puts a few dampers on the holidays. Despite haveing the Flu, cam with Croup and the flu, and ali with the stomach flu- we still tried to make the most out of the holiday! Once we were feeling slightly better we tried to do anything. It was sad how exciting just going for a drive can be!!

Phinney is Back

Every year our elf Phinney comes on december 1st and stays with us until Christmas Eve. Ali counts down to when Phinney comes more than she counts down to christmas. Phinney comes to watch that they are good, and ali gets to ask him questions and he answers them with candy. Over the years they have become good buddies, and this year Cam even got so excited when he got here. I love the Magic of Christmas!!

Christmas Catch up

I took some pictures of our trees when we set them up but never posted them, so here goes!! We had two trees this year, one big one downstairs and a smaller one up stairs. I love that i have a picture of ali putting the star on top of the tree every year since she was little. This year was a little tricky since Fro just had his knee surgery, but he still made it happen!

I went crazy with red and white stuff this year. I love the way it turned out though!! The next morning we heard a crash sound and sure enough the bottom leg popped and the whole tree fell over. I was totally bummed because it was perfect and then on the ground. Luckily Fro thought to use our outdoor umbrella stand to hold it up. It was a little crooked, but at least it wasn't laying sideways!!

Christmas Fun!

since I have been working full time, I have had a hard time feeling the Christmas spirt. Usually at this point in the holiday my shopping is done, my christmas cards are done, and we have done a lot of christmas related activities. I was feeling a little behind since none of that had been done. So with half a day off of work, I tried to make the most of it!! Ali had a skit at school that all the kids had a speaking part and I was so relieved to find out I was able to get off early to make it to it. It was a short little play but well worth going to see. The second I walked in the door and saw Alis face, I knew I was so glad not to miss it!! It was called the gingerbread caper and Alis' line was "I have an idea, Lets make a whole bunch of gingerbread kids, and then he won't be lonely anymore!" She did wonderful and I was so glad to see her personality shine a little!!

After her play we headed to the mall to meet up with all her cousins to see santa. We were lucky to have the majority of the family there, even sunny and pappa came. Brittany even came with her brand new little girl Paige!! We had a great time and the Santa was so Great with the kids!!

Then we saw the train the goes through the whole mall and of course it was a must with all the kids. Pappa rode up front and was hollering Merry Christmas to everyone, it was a lot of fun and Cam loved that it puffed smoke- the Train was awesome!!


When we got home after the mall, we planned to decorate gingerbread houses. We do it every year just because!! My brother and Camille came over and we had a good time decorating our houses. The only down side to the evening was Camille is a culinary school graduate with her degree specialized in dessert type foods and she is AWESOME with a frosting bag!! While mine was gooshing from all sides, hers was perfectly clean and amazing- I just had to remember I had two awesome helpers that make things look Kid beautiful!! It was fun and they are ALWAYS fun to hang out with!

Cam took this picture of Bud and camille and I have to side note that whenever uncle bud comes over he tries to confuse Cam and he tells him that whatever Cam is playing with is something different. Example- Cam is holding a firetruck, so Bud says IS that a transformer- Cam gets so mad!! Yesterday he tried to convince Cam that a frog wasn't a frog but a dinosaur or something dumb, and Cam got so mad he hit him-- Well deserved, but so funny!!


the end product!! We bought it at Walmart so I am sure there are a million replicas of this same house- maybe one year I will create my own but until then, this is perfect!!

Paige Erin (Nicole) Helm is Here!!!!

I simply had to steal this photo from my sisters blog because she looks like a little angel, and I love her so much. It is amazing how you can truly just love your little nieces and nephews and they have a special place in your heart-- well mine do anyway!! I am so lucky to be bestfriends with all of my sisters, and i just love them so much, and with each new addition to our family I get so excited.
Last Wednesday I woke up and phoned to see how Brittany was doing and her husband told me they were waiting to get her water broke. I got off the phone and exclaimed,"This is just like christmas but better!!!"
I was so excited all day and the day seemed so long as we waited for the good news.....Paige Erin Helm made it saftely here!!! at 2:51pm-It was wonderful news!!

I have been so excited about her from the get go because my sweet sister has 3 boys and this is her first girl, so we are all just ecstatic!!

So naturally I had to set out to find the perfect outfit for my new niece. As I found what I thought was perfect and left the store, I get the text that she is 8 lbs 10 oz.!! Holy Cow!! I glance at the Christmas outfit to see the size read 5-8 lbs. -- No good- She is way past that!!! What a chunky monkey!!

We decided to give her some time to recover and the whole family planned to go see her at 5:30-We couldn't wait much longer than that. So I leave work and am heading to go to the hospital. As I am leaving I send a quick text to make sure that it would be okay. I quickly get a text back from Steve her husband saying that she just started hemorhhaging and the doctors were trying to get it under control, so not right now. I quickly contact my family and siblings and relay the message of what was going on. I decided to stop and kill some time at Target because I really wanted to see them SOON!! I waited to hear word and waited some more, and the news that came was so scary. My brother in law told me that she just started feeling sick and then all of a sudden she started hemorrhaging and didn't stop. The nurses rushed in brittany said all she remembers was it was like a scene in ER where there are nurses rushing everywhere and stabbing her with needles, and pushing on her belly to help with clotting and it was CRAZY. After all was said and done she lost over 2 LITERS of blood. HOW FREAKING SCARY!!! We all mentioned that is why the hospital is the best place to have a baby. She was doing better and they were not sure exactly the cause other than her uterus hadn't fully contracted and there was clotting which is scary- so luckily everything went well and she is okay. We weren't allowed to go see her that night so we all had to wait till the next day!!


Ali and Cam were so excited to see thier new cousin. Cam kept saying "Paige, Paige, my cousin, noahs sister is at the hospital!!" It is exciting for everyone!!

I had to force Ali to hold her, she didn't like how much I was drooling over paige- she is used to all that love and affection headed her way- but finally she broke down and really liked the sweek Paige!!

I am so glad I am already her favorite Aunt. Her real name is Paige Nicole(after me) but Brittany had to pretend it is Erin so my other sisters don't get mad-- I am so glad she has my name sake in there!!!!

Brittany is a trooper for even letting me take any pictures, she had quite the day and was still smiling and wonderful, amazing, and is such a great mom. Paige is one lucky girl!!

Love the Snow

Just had to capture the fun in the snow!! I love the snow a lot, as long as I am not driving in it. I could spend all day outside building stuff with my kids. We need a hill in our yard we decided so we could build fast sledding runs. Growing up my mom used to spend all day building the greatest snow ramps of all time. As kids it was one of our favorite parts of winter. I remember getting in our "laundry baskets" and sliding down what always seemed like the greatest slides of all time. My mom got major brownie points for being the coolest mom ever. I hope my kids remember the times we play in the snow together, they are some of my favorite.