1st Christmas Eve with Girls and Jenna's First Christmas

Wow what a Christmas, it was crazy at our house. Christmas Eve started out wrapping last minute gifts and making cookies for Santa (minus the frosting, lol). We went to Grandma Jan's house for dinner and gifts just us girls. David had to work so he came straight there just in time to eat dinner with us. After we ate we all opened our presents. Jenna was pretty funny, she couldn't figure out what was going on with all the boxes and wrapping paper but after she saw the Elmo from Grandma that kept her busy and the bottle of lotion she found under the table.





We left Grandma's to get ready for Santa. Becca had to get ready for Santa by putting some Reindeer treats on the front lawn made up of oats and some glitter to attract them and then put some cookies on a plate, it took her about 3 tries to keep the cookies on the plat, she kept loosing them on the floor, it was pretty funny. Then she had to put some carrots on the plat too so the reindeer had a snack too. Kayla had to help with the carrots and their Daddy loves to play jokes on them by telling them they had to bite off the tip of the carrots before they put them on the plat, that was pretty funny too. Jenna was already sleeping from our ride home so she didn't get to help get ready. So off to bed the girls went and of course Becca was to excited to go to sleep.David and I had to take care of some last minute Christmas stuff, wink, wink and he had a little snack of a Christmas Peep (marshmallow gingerbread man), I have to tell this story because it was just the funniest thing. He was being silly by squishing it through his teeth when it squished to hard and went in my ear, we laughed so hard we couldn't breathe and tears rolled down our face after about 15 minutes we finally stopped laughing and decided we better get to sleep, by this time it was about 1am. Of course as usual Jenna woke up in the middle of the night, which she seems to do alot lately, about 4am I think it was so not much sleep for me that night.We slept in a bit for us, about 7:30 am, which Becca was going crazy by then to do downstairs to see what Santa brought. We finally went downstairs but wouldn't let the girls come in the family room right away, aren't we mean. We let them in and they were really excited to see all the gifts and Becca was excited to see that Santa ate most of the cookies and drank the milk and saw the partially eaten carrots, Santa was a bit messy though by leaving several crumbs of cookies on the table.We started the way we usually do by opening our stocking gifts first. Then Kayla and Becca pass out the gifts that are under the tree. Usually the girls are the first to start opening their gifts as they can't wait. Jenna tried to open one but lost interest, she just wanted all the boxes and paper and things that we had in our hands until she opened the purple teddy bear from her Great Grandma, she got very excited and took it from daddy and started hugging it and saying "awww" as she hugged it, it was the cutest thing. David helped her open most of her other gifts both Christmas Even and morning where she got lots of clothes from Both grandmas.

The girls ripped through their gifts and then found a couple of gifts hidden in the tree from Santa, Kayla stared to open her's first but had to wait for Becca because she was so excited. Santa brought both of the girls Nindendo DS's and they each got a dog game to go with it, needless to say they didn't put them down the entire day, not even long enough to charge them. My mom had one of Jenna's gifts shipped directly to our house so I brought it out, it was a Fisher Price Lion that Jenna could either sit on or push, she was so excited she figured out if the nose was pushed that would start the music so after a bit I put it together for her and off she went with Becca pushing her around the house.

David got lots of shirts for work, a few movies, some yummy popcorn, backpack, umbrella and even a Vodka decanter with shot glasses, you can't have the decanter without the vodka so David's mom brought out a bottle for the decanter. I got a couple of shirts, slippers, money, and I am and have always been a big Gene Autry fan so mom got me the newest autobiography that I can't wait to start reading. We had Christmas dinner at our house in which Kayla helped her Daddy make the traditional meatballs to go in the homemade sauce for the ravioli.

It was very stressful getting ready for Christmas but overall it was well worth it to have Kayla and Becca there for Christmas morning for the first time and enjoying the look on their faces to see what Santa brought them. Now we get ready for New Year's eve, we are staying home with the kids and I beleive Grandma Jan will join us for a little while. We will have lots of snacks, watch some movies and maybe play some Wii.

So for those of you we missed with the Christmas cards (sorry I didn't order enough this year) we hope you had a very Merry Christmas and have a Safe New Years, if you live near us please feel free to join us if you like.

Christmas update

Things have been so busy so sorry for no update lately. We were hurrying to get shopping done to ship packages out of town and finally got them packaged and shipped on Tuesday, nothing like waiting until the last minute. We were also a bit delayed in getting our Christmas tree so Jenna and I went after work on Wednesday, we picked out a great one, it's about 7 foot and really fat. Ever since I was a kid I have always had a fresh tree and I just couldn't see myself with a fake one just yet. David was off yesterday and got the lights on the tree and Jenna and I started to hang ornaments. I let Jenna put on her first ornament, that was pretty funny since she likes to shake everything to see if it makes noise. We got the boxes packaged and shipped out to my mom and David's brother in California so now we can focus on the rest of the shopping.



We are really excited for the first time in 7 years the girls will spend Christmas Eve at our house and will wake up to Santa gifts with us and it will be Jenna's first Christmas so it should be fun.

Sounds like a barking Seal, oh no it's Croup

Our little Jenna is pretty sick right now with Croup. She started out with just a little cold and then she started getting a cough that turned into a deep seal type cough. David looked online for her symptoms and what she had sounded like Croup but we weren't doctors. I called her Doctor Sunday night and he suggested that we take her to the emergency room for a breathing treatment. But with our luck David's insurance with Countrywide ended on the 30th so we were without insurance so David suggested we keep a close eye on her that night and he would work out the insurance mess with Sears the next day. Well what a mess that was, he was on the phone for a total of about 4 hours with help from his boss also. David was finally able to get most of the bugs worked out and took her back to the doctor yesterday. They gave her a breathing treatment in the office and said her poor little throat is just raw from coughing. The doctors office loaned us a nebulizer so we can give her breathing treatments at home every 4 hours and they also gave her meds for her throat.

The poor little thing sounds just terrible and she won't eat much, except last night I guess she was hungry and ate about half of Daddy's pizza. Today is a different story, I can't get her to eat at all. She is very sleepy today so hopefully she will rest good. David and I have been taking turns staying home with her which is really hard for both us having new jobs.

New Jobs

David and I both have new jobs, David has been at Sears now for abut 3 weeks I think. He is having some trouble getting the training he needs but I'm sure he will take care of that soon. He seems to like what he is doing except that he is having trouble keeping people employed, they all seem to not want to work. We took a visit to the McHenry store so he could see how it was set up and we both got some good ideas for his store.

He survived Black Friday without any trouble in his store but the K-Mart next door was a different story. There was some pushing, shoving, hair pulling (extensions left on the floor) and even a head went through a jewelry case.

I am on my second week at my job now. I have two great bosses and my co-workers so far seem really nice. It's pretty funny, I have always worked really hard in the mortgage industry and those of you who have been there can relate but this job seems really slow to me. I guess it will from the fast pase and hustle of the mortgage world.