Sick of Sickness

This winter has proven to be a doozy for our family when it comes to being under the weather!!  Looking back, I don't think we have had a cold/flu season this bad in our house since I worked at Head Start for that year!!

Addy by far has had it the worst--I think she has had some form of a tummy flu 3-4 times this winter!  Sometimes she has been kind enough to share it and it passed through all of us, or just Anna and Zach, and then other times it hits only her!?  This last one was the worst--she had the stomach flu last Wednesday (30th) and she started out fine...all my dc kids got here and she randomly threw up!?  Not a big deal I thought, maybe just something she ate...OH NO...she puked every 30 minutes from then until 9:30 that night. I ended up closing early that day when two of my dc kids also got sick!!  I had my turn  that night at about 8 and by the next evening Josh, Anna, and Zach all had it.  It seemed like a fairly quick bug though and by Friday night everyone was fine!  We went to Rick and Tara's for a fun Super Bowl party and then Zach ended up getting sick again that night---I thought it was from eating wayyyyyy to much junk, but then when I heard that others from their party got sick as well---I just felt horrible :(
So exactly a week to the day from her being so sick....she gets it again!!!  This Wednesday(6th) it started at midnight and she didn't stop dry heaving until 4pm on Thursday when we finally got some anti-nausea meds for her!  Poor Adders :(  There is nothing worse then seeing your little one so miserable and knowing there is really nothing you can do for them!
Not only is it hard on her little system that is trying to fight this junk away...but it's also hard on the family!  I HATE having to call daycare families and tell them I have to be closed :(  It's the worst feeling ever to know that you are closed when they are depending on you to watch their little ones!  I also hate having to depend on others to do what needs to get done!  THANK GOODNESS Grandma Alyce has moved to town to help grab Anna and Zach from school or run and pick up some meds for Adders----I honestly don't remember how we functioned before they moved to town :)



You know she's not feeling well when she voluntarily naps :(



One perk of being sick is getting to eat in Mom and Dad's bed...

 With that being said, I think Addy is on the mend this morning, for the first time since Wednesday she is up and playing a little with Zach...ok, she is watching him play the Wii, but it's better then laying on the couch or sitting on the pot!!! 



 In other news, Anna is just finishing up her basketball at the YMCA--she has really came along way from when they started last fall!  She did her first round through the Bis Parks and Recs & they played at the schools, now this one is with a different team and they practice Tues nights from 7-8 @ the YMCA and have games Saturday mornings @ 10!  She also just started Volleyball!!!  Finally a sport I can relate to ;)  She has practice for VB(this one again is through Parks and Recs at her school) M, T, TH from 3:30-4:30.

I know every family has their own level of craziness and I know as our kids get older, it's only going to get worse before it's finally over and then I will whine about how much I miss it....but here is a look at the Jeffers typical week:

Monday: Anna has violin @ 7:30am before school, Addy has preschool from 12:30-3:15, Anna has volleyball @ 3:30 Zach (and somtimes Anna) do the evening running class at the YMCA and I have trainer from 6:30-7:30pm
Tuesday: Tuesdays aren't as bad, Anna has VB @ 3:30 and I do YMCA bootcamp from 5:45-6:45pm, then I come home and grab Anna as she has Bball practice from 7-8pm
Wednesday: Sara and I meet Nicole to train at the YMCA at 5:15am, Anna has violin @ 7:30, Addy has preschool from 12:30-3:15 and Addy has gymnastics frm 7-8pm
Thursday: Addy has preschool from 12:30-3:15, Anna has VB after school and I have bootcamp @ 5:45
Friday: Ahhhh....we love FRIDAYS!! 
Saturday: Anna has had basketball games and I TRY to get grocery shopping done for the following week
Sunday: Sunday school is at 9:30 w/ church to follow!

Zach isn't on the schedule much right now...he's thinking he would like to give wrestling a shot again, he tried it last year and wasn't too sure as the poor guy has to take off his glasses while he does it, so I'm sure all he sees is a big blur coming in his general direction! 

Busy weeks, but I'm sure very typical for most families!  We also have a craft club that meets once a month and a supper club that meets once a month!! :)

Happy 5th Birthday Addyson Grace!

I can't believe that our little Miss Sassy is the big 5 and in a few months I will be the Mom bawling as I drop her off for the big K!!!  It seems like time has flown with her since she has been a baby---never ever does a day go by that she doesn't do something that I either bust out laughing at or one of us is shaking our head!  She definately keeps us on our toes, but we can't imagine her any other way :)

This year Addy chose a Hello Kitty theme--and boy oh boy did we have fun shopping for this party!  Hello Kitty is EVERYWHERE!!!!

Since Addy started preschool at Merry Go Round this year, she had an actual school friend party--I still think that nine 4-5 year olds are a lot less noisy then Anna and her group of giggling 11 year olds ;)  They were a great group of little girlies....we set up a 'tatoo station' and Anna gave everyone a shimmer tatoo!!

We played pin the bow on the Hello Kitty!  And no party is complete without a litte kids bop and DANCING!

Before we knew it, it was time to have cake and ice cream then open gifts!!

On Sunday, we went to Sunday School and church and then out to lunch with Gma RuthAnn and Papa Leon, Gma Alyce and Papa Ralph, Paul, Julie and Casey--then it was back to the house for our family/friend Addy-palosa part 2!  I didn't get a chance to snap many pictures of this event, but you had another full house of people coming to help you celebrate!!  You got SOOOO many amazing Hello Kitty gifts and lots of Lego Friends--your new favorite right now!!



Your amazing Hello Kitty cake Gma RuthAnn made you

Monday, on your actual birthday, we had a daycare celebration here at home and then took you out to eat at Space Aliens(your choice) for supper!  It was quite the three day birthday bash!!  Happy Birthday Addy---we love you :)

See you 2012...Hello 2013!!!!!

I have come to the conclusion that we really do have the best friends any couple could ask for...how many children/adults can you shove into a duplex on New Year's Eve and still have the best time ever???

The answer is A LOT...I think we had 15 adults and 8 kiddos there at one point during the evening!  It was a fun night filled with WAY too much food and drink, lots of games and laughs and some sore throats due to a mean game of PIT!  Thanks guys for the fun night :) 

Christmas #2

The weekend after Christmas, we drove up to Powers Lake to have Christmas with Josh's mom RuthAnn and step Dad Leon.  His brother and their family also came up that weekend so the kiddos all had a blast together and with a trip over to Grandma Ruth's house to see her and the rest of the cousins who were there that weekend, we had a blast!!!!

It's amazing to see this family when they are together--in Josh's generation there are 13 cousins and in our kids generation I think they are close to 28 now!!!  It is awesome!!!

The cousins showing the little ones how sledding is done!

It was a great weekend!!!

New Traditions!

Playing a little catch up this morning...

This Christmas we decided to try something new...staying home for Christmas!!  Over the years we haven't minded traveling to be with all of our familes on the west side of the state, but this is 'hopefully' our last year at the west turnpike address so we decided to STAY PUT the weekend of Christmas and it was GREAT :)


Kiddos making sure the tree looks perfect!  This is my favorite part of Christmas every year--when they dig out all their orniments and talk about where they got each one from :)


The weekend or so before Christmas we got together with my folks and did some holiday baking--we did tons and tons of cookies and had a lot of laughs with Christmas music playing in the background, it was a great afternoon :)

This year we also had our First Annual Craft Club Cookie Exchange or (FACCE) ;)  We have had so much fun with the un-craftiest club ever this year and I think our first cookie exchange was a huge success!!

One of our other new traditions we adopted this year was Alfred the Elf!!!  He brought us so many laughs--he was kind of a naughty little guy, but he came with a great story and fun lesson--if you haven't heard or read the Elf of the Shelf story, you should definately check it out!!  Here are a couple of our fave Alfred memories....




Alfred told us this is how Elf's take baths at the North Pole...in marshmallows!!!



And one morning he left the kids a little note in toothpaste :)

Christmas Eve we looked for a candlelight service here in town, we ended up going to Good Shephard and it was a beautiful service!  Mom and Dad, Paul and Julie, Brooke, Todd, Casey, and JayLee were all there as well---it was nice to all be together :)  After the service we headed over to Mom and Dads appartment for supper and gifts!

Kiddos all ready to go to church!



Candle light service

For supper we had lasnagna, garlic bread, and a few salads--after supper the kiddos were great to want to hurry and get the dishes done and unto gifts we went!!! 



Josh got us matching Browns shirts :)

Christmas Day we woke up at home!  It was wonderful!!!  The kids ripped open their gifts and dumped out some very full stockings!!!  They must have been good all year as Santa brought some very nice things :)  Our other favorite thing we did that morning was make Santa Clause pancakes---we had a lot of fun!!!

We were so thankful for a wonderful Christmas :)  Some of the Kriege family were under the weather on Chrismtas Day so we had a smaller gathering for lunch and then Gma Alyce and Josh took the kids sledding for a little bit in the afternoon! 

Thankful.

We had the pleasure of hosting Thanksgiving this year, 13 of the Kriege/Jeffers clan came together in our duplex!  We tried out some new recipes this year....some were better then others ;) but oddly enough we had sooo much food that in the middle of the meal we noticed that we didn't have Julie's 3 salads she brought!?!  Here's our sign--so much food you don't know when you are missing some!?!  WOW!

Every Thanksgiving in the afternoon, we bust out National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation--this year marked the 11th year of this ongoing tradition!  I love the laughs and the reciting of everyone's favorite parts :) 


This year Josh drew a  family tree and each of us put our thumb print on it, a neat visual of our family tree--we gave it to Mom as a keepsake of this day!

We then went around the table at lunch time and all said what we were thankful for--it's neat to hear the little ones say what they give thanks for :)

Black Friday is also one of our yearly traditions---we have so many fun memories of this day!  From the time in Grand Forks we thought we were going to get beat up as the crowd behind us was pushing us into the crowd waiting up front....to getting matching socks for our shopping extravaganza!  The hustle and bustle and waiting in suuuuupppper long lines is a fun tradition for us girls!!  It's always fun to get home and see all of the neat steal of deals you got for your family that morning...or night ;)

When we were done shopping Thursday night/Friday morning--Zachary got to go in for some allergy testing!  He has had allergy testing done before back in 2009 and it came up that he was allergic to quite a few foods including peanuts, cashews, eggs, and some fish, we were just curious to see if his allergies had gotten any worse or if any have gone away!

So they poked him 38 times with various allergens--they did cats, trees, molds, trees, grass, and foods.

You can see the ones starting to swell, I think the big ones on this side were the grass and trees mix.

And this was the aftermath--eggs, peanuts, cashews, mold, trees, cat, and grass mix.....the doc laughed and said, well winter is going to be about his best season!  He was such a trooper though and we are just thankful we have an understanding and have it under control!

This year we have so much to be thankful for...family, friends, and our health!  We are so looking forward to this Christmas season as well...this year will be the first year that all of our kids will wake up in their own beds to their own Christmas tree on Christmas morning!!  I've pinned about 20 things on pinterest that I can't wait to do with our little family, more to come on that in a later blog :)  Happy Holidays from our house to yours!!

Time to play a little catch up.....

So again it has been almost 2 months since my last post...lame sauce!  Where oh where does the time go!?! 



 Anna Marie had a big day that I missed blogging about, so without further or do....Happy 11th Birthday Miss Anna Banana....here is your story :)

Josh and I were youngins(19) when we found out we were expecting our peanut!  She was born on a freezing cold October 8th day in Grand Forks....we found out she was a girl at our 20 week ultra sound and she had a dresser full of pink dresses, pink blankets, and pink outfits the very next week!  Good thing you didn't surprise us by being a boy Anna, cause you would have been a very oddly dressed one ;)  My blood pressure was high with this pregnancy as well--but our delivery was perfect!  We had company the night before--Kristy and Tyson had been up to our (tiny GF) place to watch the NDSU and UND football game, so we were up later then normal....and by normal I mean I was up past 9pm :) Josh and I climbed into bed and I was just about asleep at midnight when my water broke!!  So up and off to the hospital we went!  Josh called everyone in his phone and ran around our tiny appartment in classic nervous Dad form....we got to the hospital and our friend Danny from Fargo nearly beat us there :)  It was so neat to have our two very close friends there for this special event---especially since our family lived so very far away!  Some pain and pushes later and Anna Marie made her big debute at 5:27am.  She was 7lbs 8oz and 20 in long--perfect :)
We love watching the video of Anna coming home as by this time most of our family was there and we looked like quite the caravan of people leaving hospital, for those of you who know how tiny our first appartment was on campus---it was a cozy homecoming!

Anna was a great baby--she did have a lot of ear infections and was the only kiddo of ours that ended up getting tubes at 18 months.  She was walking by her first birthday and her first word was Hello!  I was lucky enough to be able to spend Anna's first full year at home with her before I gave UND a go and when we did finally send her to daycare, we found the most wonderful home daycare in the world, a Mom and Daughter team up in GF who I still keep in contact with to this day! 

Anna LOVED and still to this day LOVES animals!  We ask her what she would like to be when she grows up and it's a Vet...or a singer...she does have a beautiful voice :)

Anna is our classic first born, she is smart and sensitive---she is a people pleaser and tends to wear her giant heart on her sleave!  She is thoughtful and loves school.  Her smile is contagious and the world is a better place because she is in it!  We love you so much Anna Banana!  Happy Happy 11th year of life!!