Bedtime Stories and Santa

Life has not been super interesting lately, and so I have found it difficult to post much. I was reminded by a friend at church today (thanks Lori!) that some people still would like to keep up with our life even if it is uninteresting, so I will do my best tonight to catch up.

I guess one of our newest things is that Jake has started reading Little House in the Big Woods to Ivy every night before bedtime. She is eating it up! We have the Little House series and I would occasionally see it sitting on the book shelf and wonder to myself if she would enjoy it yet, but then quickly dismiss the thought because they are pretty detailed and long and the pages don't have any pictures. I also didn't think that she would be able to follow it night after night. How wrong I was! Every night after bath time, she eagerly gets dressed and runs downstairs to ask daddy to read her another chapter. I kind of get a warm fuzzy feeling whenever I see them reading it together because many of my greatest memories with my dad are of him reading books to me all throughout my childhood.

It is also a season of crafts in our home. It is so cold out right now (I think maybe like 14 degrees and tomorrow we're supposed to have a high of 11) and it has been blizzarding all day... and this week in general was just yuck. Talk about cabin fever! My mother in law used to be an art teacher in Indonesia and she is a really creative person, so I called her the other day to see if she had any craft books laying around for Christmas/Winter themed crafts. Sure enough, she has tons of ideas- two book-fulls of ideas for Ivy and to devour. When we were out the other day, I picked up some basic crafty stuff like construction paper, glitter, paper plates and pens and we are going to make it a week of crafts. There's not much else to do when the weather is so gross like it is.

Sickness has also continued to plague our household (one of the reasons I have been a bit discouraged to post on here). On Sunday night (last week) Ivy was up all night long crying about every ten minutes with an ear ache. Took her in on Monday to the Nurse Practitioner and yep, another ear infection. So back on antibiotics she went and the nurse also gave us ear drops to put in every 12 hours because the ear had some drainage going on. Genesis started developing a cold that same day... took her into the Dr. on Wednesday for her 15 month check up and yep, she has an ear infection as well as a viral infection with a fever of 103 and a rash on the left side of her body. Oh brother... can we get a break? I guess not. So she is also back on antibiotics. They both seem to be doing much better... but I am nervous because everything seems to go downhill about a week or two after we stop the antibiotics. Anyone have advice on pro-biotics? I've heard they help.

We had a surprise visitor on Friday. Our friend Tom, from Chicago was in town and stopped by to say hi to the girls and me. He brought us some taco bell and then helped me figure out the instructions on how to put together a ginger bread house village. Ivy loves Tom and was so excited to see him. Too bad he couldn't stay and visit very long.

I bought some actual brand name Dove bath soap the other day too. Usually Jake uses Dial bar soap and I use whatever happens to be available. But our skin has been so dry lately, Jake's hands were cracking and bleeding a couple of days ago so I figured we had to make a drastic change... new ultra-moisturizing bath soap and serious lotioning-up after showers. It's miserable to be dry, itchy and cracking in the winter months. I know you all agree.

We went to see some real reindeer yesterday. That was fun. They came out of their little house to see us and show off their huge racks. Ivy thought they were pretty cool, but it was raining and freezing out so we didn't spend much time looking at them. After that, we went to see Santa at the mall. I had taken Ivy several weeks ago, but this time the whole family went. My sister in law and husband took their new baby Phoenix, and we included Genesis too. It was a nice evening, finished up with dinner at a cool little place called Khaki Jack's in Peoria- an Australian themed sandwich/burger joint that also serves ostrich. Jake got the ostrich burger, but says he wouldn't get it again... it left a bad aftertaste.

A lot of people have been asking how I am feeling. I am feeling great, in comparison to my last two pregnancies. I have been experiencing tiny amounts of nausea, mostly when I let myself go too long without food, and I have also been really tired but that is about it. When I was pregnant with Ivy, I threw up at least 5 times a day and could not hold one single thing down. It was a little less with Genesis, maybe like throwing up 3 times a day :) and with this one a lot of days I don't even throw up at all. So, definitely an improvement. I have been super tired though and it is so hard to get any kind of a nap in when Ivy doesn't take naps anymore. I usually end up sleeping for a while on the couch sometime during the day when Gen is napping and I put in a movie for Ivy. Otherwise, I don't think I could make it through the day :)

Alright, well there it is. I've caught everyone up to speed on life. I'll try to do better. Thanks guys! No recipes tonight. I don't have the "ummpf" to get up off the couch and go find a good one.