Just when you thought you were done with Christmas. . . .

My parents flew us out for Christmas since we were the only members of the family who weren't going to be there this year.  This was our kids' first experience flying.  Since our flight was at 8:10 a.m., we got a hotel room near the airport that night.  The kids were really excited that we were going out of town for Christmas, but we didn't tell them we were going to Utah until the morning we flew out.  We thought they would be really excited about going to Grandma's house.  Initially, they were just really disappointed that we weren't going to swim in the pool.

Our first flight went great, except for Tyler being scared of takeoff and landing.  After surviving the layover in Denver, we boarded on time, then sat for an hour.  It was miserable.  Especially since I had decided to take Tyler as a lap rider on a completely booked flight.

We finally made it to Salt Lake, where my sister picked us up and whisked us off to Grandma's house (which prospect had really climbed up the priority list for the kids).  That night we had a family party at my sister's clubhouse, where Tyler fell in love with his Great-Grandpa Olsen.  He has always really liked my dad's parents.  It's so cute.

 Christmas Eve was movie day.  The moms and kids saw Arthur Christmas, while the guys saw Mission Impossible.  Those guys really missed out.  Zack threw up on himself before the movie even started and ended up in his 9-year-old cousin's extra shirt that was in their car for the rest of the movie, while my nephew peed in his mom's lap.  Good times, right?

Since we couldn't bring any wrapped gifts, I helped the kids with their gifts that afternoon.  After the Christmas Eve festivities, we actually got the kids to bed at a decent hour and started on everything else.  There were presents everywhere (yes, we did bring all of our gifts on the plane).

I was grateful I made it to bed when I did since Tyler threw up all over his bed at 12:30 a.m.  I found out in the morning that we had missed my sister and her son when he threw up at 11:30.  I had planned on getting a picture of all of my kids in their Christmas jammies in the morning, but Tyler needed a change of wardrobe.  He finally fell asleep like this, in the family room with the tree and gifts he hadn't even noticed.

 When all of the kids came up in the morning, this was the most excitement he could muster at first.  He would dig around in the stocking, look at what he had grabbed, set it down, and dig some more.  He moved up to Ben's lap once presents started.

 I wish you could see the huge grin on face.  This boy loves Mickey Mouse.

 Time for church.  I've never been so grateful for 1:00 church in my life.  As you can see, Tyler is feeling better.  It was a quick bug, which made its rounds over the next few days.

 We got to stay and play for the next week.  On Friday, the day before we flew home, Tyler woke up with a fever of 102 and wouldn't eat.  I took him to Urgent Care and found out he had strep throat.  Poor baby.  At least the amoxicillin and pain killers got him feeling better pretty quickly.

We flew home on New Year's Eve.  Sydney did not do well with the ear pressure on the flight into Kansas City.

 Tyler finally got a seat and was totally happy.

 Zack and Tansy enjoyed the entire experience.  We even got to fly out of Las Vegas when it was dark.  It was awesome to see all the lights.

 Our plane got in to Kansas City at 10:00 p.m.  We went straight to the family bathroom where all of the kids got into their pajamas.  Once we had the luggage, I settled in with the kids and my new Kindle Fire (awesome!) to watch some Netflix while Ben took the shuttle to get the car.

Once we got there, he found that the van was dead.  The airport parking staff gave him a jump, but we were the last people out of the airport.  We finally got on the road at about 11:15, wished each other a Happy New Year at around Lone Jack, and got home shortly before 1:00 a.m.  Sydney's ears were still hurting, so I gave her another dose of pain killers and and decongestant.  She finally went to sleep around 2:00.  Tansy's ears were bugging her at 3:00, and by morning, we knew that Ben and the kids would be skipping church.

The kids, especially Sydney, were really disappointed that we didn't celebrate the new year.  So Sunday night, we had some treats, and at 9:47, we counted down from 10 and shouted, "Happy New Year!"  The kids hated their sparkling cider but felt like they had gotten what they wanted.

 Real life hit faster than I was ready for.  Sydney went back to school on Tuesday, and Tansy went back Wednesday.  Tyler spent most of the week acting like he had an ear infection, which I knew he couldn't because he was already on amoxicillin.  After three sleepless nights, I finally took him in to the clinic, and his left ear is badly infected.  Once again, poor baby.  A change of antibiotics has him bouncing around again.

Sydney's first basketball game is next week.  She is in a higher age group this year so I hope she isn't overwhelmed. 

Zack starts basketball next week, and Tansy started music class and returns to tumbling. You can't say we don't have fun.

Despite Sydney being sick, we took the kids to visit Santa yesterday.  I had this great plan to have the girls (who I knew would sit on his lap) go first to reassure the boys.  However, it didn't work that way.  Tyler decided he wanted to go first, which really surprised me.  He didn't like the feel of Santa's beard so he tried to get some distance, but he talked to him.

 Zack knew exactly what he wanted.  When Santa asked, he said, "A bike and Diego."  He said thank you for his candy cane and moved on.

 Sydney totally forgot what she wanted to ask for (she hasn't slept much over the past few nights) so we had to send an email last night.  She was just happy to be there.

 Tansy asked for a new piggy bank (or "penny bank" as she calls it) since hers and Sydney's broke last week when Tansy decided to hang from the top of the dresser and pulled it over on top of herself.  Ben and I were in adjacent rooms so we got to her quickly.  She was scared but not hurt.  She had wanted to ask for My Little Pony, but the bank is her new priority.

 Merry Christmas, Santa!

Behind again.  I know when I do super long posts, my readership goes down.  So I apologize in advance.  I'll try to make this more of a picture captioning than a history paper.

Sydney loves to be silly and say, "Take a picture of me!"  If I posted every picture they asked for, you'd be here all day.

 Tyler was really sick a few weeks ago.  He had started with some nighttime coughing on Sunday evening, and by Wednesday he was whistling and wheezing.  Despite being the 3rd person in line to make an appointment with pediatrics, they didn't have one for me and wanted to send me out to Urgent Care in Warrensburg.  Since it was his asthma, I wanted him to see his doctor so I had them leave a message for the nurse.

She called me back after lunch and found a 1:40 appointment for him that day.  When I took him in, he  sounded awful, but he was still happy and playing.  About an hour and a half into his breathing treatments (it took four) I felt like he was getting hot.  I asked the nurse to take his temperature.  It was 102.4.  He was 98.4 when we had arrived.  Twenty minutes later, he was 103.7.  The doctor came to check on him and both of he ears were badly infected.  Poor baby.  By the time we left, with six prescriptions in tow, he was hardly moving.

The doctor was still worried about his breathing so I had to give him nebulizer treatments every two hours until 9:00 a.m. the next morning when the doctor would see him again.  I was one tired mama.  I really hate my alarm clock.  But Tyler improved and after four days of treatments he was good.  The antibiotics helped too.  That fever really knocked him out.

 This is how anyone managed to get any sleep through this ordeal.  My couch is not as comfy as it used to be.

 Sydney was very impressed with her flat hair after her shower, so once again, she wanted me to take a picture.

 Sydney and Tansy finished their tumbling class.  Award were given out on the last day of instruction then their performance was after Thanksgiving.

 Dress up is always fun at our house.

 Zack decided a couple of weeks ago that he is old enought to make his own sandwich.  He didn't do too bad either!

 This past weekend, the girls had their tumbling performances.  We forgot to take the camera to the Youth Center performance, and Sydney came down with a cold so I didn't get any pictures of her at the Veteran's Home.  But here's the best I could get of Tansy.

 I couldn't believe how much some of these people enjoyed the show.  We were supposed to be able to stay and talk afterwards, but they had to mop the room and were trying to usher us out.  I asked Tansy to say "Merry Christmas" to a couple of men there, which she did.  Then she fell into their arms and gave them both hugs.  You should have seen their smiles.  Zack gave them high fives, which they loved too.  We also saw a man about my age that had had some brain damage and kept saying "Thank you" again and again to Tansy.  She smiled up at him and said, "You're welcome." 

Tansy also had her Christmas performance at school.  Here are about a bazillion pictures of her singing and reciting poems.  Watch the ties on the back of her dress.  What happened there?

 On Monday, we got our first snow of the year!  Impressive, isn't it?  My kids were all out the door by 7:30.  Tyler was back in by 7:32 when he realized that the snow wouldn't come off of his gloves.  He totally freaked out.  Tears pouring down his cheeks and everything.

 And one last "Mommy, take a picture!" for you.

This totally deserves its own post.  Sydney earned her yellow belt!  The pictures are terrible because I forgot my camera and only had my phone, but it's better than nothing.

Sydney started karate on August 24, and her sensei said that she would be tested after three months of instruction.  However, there were some kids who were coming up for testing on November 2, and he said he would like to test Sydney as well.  That was only 10 weeks after she started!

She was a little nervous, but she easily earned her yellow belt and amost made yellow belt 2nd!  Ben was able to come watch her test.  She is so intense and focused when she is doing karate.  I've been surprised how much she likes it and how talented she is.  She actually missed the promotion ceremony with the other kids because it was the day after ER trip and she still had lots of hives so she had her own little ceremony on Wednesday.

Go, Sydney!

We're going all the way back to Halloween.  We carved pumpkins on Saturday.  They don't last long here in Missouri, so you have to wait until the last minute.  From left to right, they belong to Ben, me, Sydney, Tansy, Zachary, and Tyler.

On Sunday, we made our traditional Ding Dong spiders.  Tyler didn't care about the instructions, but he enjoyed himself anyway.

The fancy one with the yellow and black legs is Ben's.  Mine is the one sneaking up behind him.

The kids were really excited to go trick-or-treating.  On base, it goes from 6:00 to 8:00.  Ben was working swing shift (4:00 to midnight, which usually turned into 2:00 a.m.) so the kids had to wait until he came home for his dinner break at 7:00 so we could all go together.  They were absolutely tortured for the first hour watching all of the other kids come and go.  They managed to have pretty heavy buckets themselves when we got home.

Last weekend, Sydney started breaking out in hives.  Now Sydney does this occasionally.  When her allergies are bad in the spring or when she has a fever, she can get hives.  Sometimes she'll get a mild case for no reason at all and a dose of Benadryl will knock it out.  That's what I thought was happening when I got a call Saturday night from Sydney saying she was really itchy.  Ben and I were on a date and the babysitter didn't know what to do.  I had her give Syd some Benadryl and went back to eat my dinner.

After I dropped the babysitter off, I came home to check on Sydney.  She still had a lot of hives so I gave her some Claritin and sent her to bed.  She was fine most of the day Sunday, but at dinner she started itching.  She had about four dozen hives the size of the pencil-eraser.  Ben and I couldn't come up with any reason for her to be breaking out so we had her take a shower to see if there was some on her skin that was irritating her.  Bad idea.  The heat made them spread, and in less than an hour and half, nearly half of her skin was covered.  There were a lot on her face and around her mouth, and I worried that they would spread to her airways.

I took her to the ER where they monitored her for a couple of hours since she does have asthma.  The Benadryl finally started working and she was looking better by the time we left with a prescription for Prednisone.

I kept her home from school on Monday since she still had a lot of hives and wanted her close in case she got bad again.  Besides, I just couldn't ask a 7-year-old to go to school looking like that.  I gave her everything the doctor at the ER told me too, and I was applying hydrocortisone cream like body lotion, but by late afternoon, she was going crazy with the itching.  I called her allergist to ask what else I could give her.  He had me add some Zyrtec and said he wanted to see her Wednesday if she was still getting hives.

On Tuesday, she only had hives on her feet and ankles, so I sent her to school.  The nurse called at 11:00 to see if she could use some Solarcaine to ease her itching and keep her at school.  That worked for a while, but a half an hour before school let out, she had broken out pretty badly and the kids in her class kept asking what was wrong with her face.  I picked her up and brought her home.  I loaded her up with her meds because he had her swimming test that night and was freaking out about missing it.  She made it and passed her test.

On Wednesday I called the allergist and took Sydney in at 11:30.  He pretty much said the same thing as everyone else, "She has a bad case of hives."  Isn't that what I told you?  He put her on a new medicine and said that if it didn't work, the next meds would also be sedatives, and he wanted to avoid going there.  He also said she was fine to attend school and do anything she wanted to.

Since we were in town, I picked up a couple of things I needed, then headed home.  I got Sydney some lunch then put her back in the car to get her to school for the afternoon.  I was nearly there when I remembered that it was an early out day and school would be dismissed at 1:00.  It was 12:50.  We went in anyway so I could talk to the nurse and Sydney's teacher about her medication and condition.

Fortunately, the new meds worked and Sydney has been hive-free for two and a half days.  Sorry for the long story.

I got all of the parts for my food rotation system this week, and Ben and I built it on Friday.  I would tell you the story about that, but only one long story per post.  Here was the condition of my food storage before the rotation shelf and the new shelf we bought at Walmart.

And here are the after shots.

Doesn't it make you smile just to look at it?  Aaahhh.

The kids had their Primary program today at church.  I am so glad that we are done singing those songs for a while.  My fingers are tired of playing them.  They did a great job.  It was a lot of fun to watch them.

Ben goes back to day shift starting tomorrow.  Finally, life is getting back to normal.  I hope.

We have had some fairly varied weather over the past couple of weeks.  We have worn everything from capris to heavy coats.  Today is a capri kind of day.  The end of this week is a different story.  We did have a nice windy day for Zack and Tansy to have their first kite flying experience.  The $1 Walmart kites actually held up this time.  Although I do have to say that the last time we tried to fly a cheap kite we were in a tornado watch, so it's probably not a fair comparison.

 And we did find a moment to decorate for Halloween.  We have had the witch inflatable for a few years.  The kids call it Grandma Halloween because they think it looks like my mom.  We bought the vampire this year.  The kids immediately dubbed him Grandpa Vampire because, well, he does kind of look like my dad.  And Ty spilled water on himself.  I do change his diaper.

On Thursday, I had my first Shelf Reliance party since becoming a consultant.  I was so nervous!  We had it all scheduled, and the day after my friend sent out the invitations, Ben told me that he was working nights because of an exercise on base.  On top of everything, I now had to get a babysitter.  I was able to work things out, and the party was great.  I had so much fun!  I really like this product, and it was great to see how much everyone else liked it too.  I've got several orders, and my friend is going to get some great host benefits.  I'm so glad I signed up to do this.

Back to the exercise.  Starting on the 18th, Ben went on the 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. shift for an exercise here.  It continues through next Thursday.  After five nights of this, we are all wiped out.  Ben came home early this morning (4:30 a.m.) and told me he was going to swing shift (4 p.m. to midnight).  I was so happy.  That would help him get so much more sleep.  Then, right before I started writing this, he got a call saying he doesn't have to come in tonight!  Happy day!  Maybe we'll carve some pumpkins!

I have become a coupon lady.  Not quite crazy yet.  No matter what Ben says.  I have been having a lot of fun.  I got started at a good time and got some great stuff for our food storage and Christmas.  Yes, I have a binder.  Yes, I am that person squinting between a little piece of paper and the shelf.  But when I save $40 at the register, I love it.  I will never appear on Extreme Couponing.  But I will smile a little when I think about getting batteries for FREE.

Things has been pretty normal around here.  I threw a baby shower with a couple of my friends last week.  A family from church was able to adopt a baby a few weeks after moving here.  It was a lot of fun to get to know her better and help her get a few things for her new baby boy.  They had very little notice that they were getting him.  They already have a 5-year-old girl they also adopted.  Such a great family.

Zack finally finished his second potty chart last night.  On this one, he had to keep his underwear clean all day to earn a sticker.  He had some cheap toys that he could choose from each time he got three stickers.  Once he got 30 stickers he got this:

This is quite possibly one of the most annoying toys ever.  It makes shooting noises and the green and orange striped part rotates and has blinking lights.  I took him to the store to pick out his big reward, and he fell in love with this.  He couldn't even be persuaded to look at anything else.  But you know what?  It is totally worth it to have him potty trained.  Just one more to go.