A Rough Last Day of 2008!

We've just put the youngest three to bed, in the hopes the beginning of 2009 will turn out a bit easier than the end of 2008. With that being said, let's rewind a few days and enjoy some good memories :)

Christmas Day arrived (of course) with glee from all the children. Here are a few pictures of them opening presents. We decided to start a new tradition, where the youngest opens a present first, then the next youngest, and so on, so that we could all enjoy the gift opening (and Mom could get in a picture or two).

A, as you can rather tell, was barely awake at the time she was offered the first of her gifts. J, who loves gifts - whether or not they're for him, had to be told to "back off" a few times to allow the others to open their own gifts. Santa provided all with their one special gift, and Daddy and I gladly took credit for all other gifts :) At the bottom you'll see M who requested a picture with her boyfriend.





Later on that day we took a trip up to spend a portion of Christmas at Grandpa & Grandma R's house, with cousins to boot. The moment my niece walked into the living room my camera absolutely had to come out. She looked "utterly fah-bulous dah-ling." We managed to wrangle all the grandkids together for a picture before they were too tired out. We learned that the hard way last year. Grandma always starts us out with the tradition of a tiny cup of rice pudding for everyone. The lucky person with the almond in their pudding gets an extra special prize. I won! It was such a lovely time - always is when we're with my brother's family. There are so many laughs, and it's fun to watch the kids interact. We missed my older brother and his wife terribly, however.

Later in the day we visited my in-laws, who are two of the most adorable creatures on the earth. Over the next few days Daddy, M, J and I tried building an igloo. We had a fantastic beginning, a shaky middle, and had no idea how to put on a top. Two mornings in a row one side fell in, requiring some fancy patchwork, but it was all to no avail. When it fell in a third time we gave it up as a bad job. The next time we try it, I'll have to google "How to Build an Igloo in Nine Easy Steps." The last of the Christmas parties came a few days later with my hubby's side of the family. We always have such a grand time with them.



Unfortunately this is where things started to go wrong. J, looking so happy above, had a rather nasty accident. Someone had unknowingly placed the 'key' into his aunt's treadmill (which no one was allowed to touch, but we're talking boys here). Both my boys got on, B started playing with the knobs, and it started. B got off in time, but J was standing at the end of the treadmill. He fell right off and his cheek got a fairly significant burn from the running belt. We immediately applied aloe vera, then I took him home quick to put on some Neosporin with pain reliever. I know - not a good idea. But at the time we didn't really know what we were dealing with. Here's a picture of it that same night.

I bandaged him up as best I could. It looked really nasty the next day, and hurt like mad when daddy put on some Tea Tree Oil. We kept the bandage off after that, but the next day we decided to call the doctor, even if it would only keep our minds at ease. Looking at the next picture, you might understand why.

My poor little man. The doctor did say it looked pretty good considering, so maybe all the stuff we put on it wasn't such a bad thing. He also said it'll look even worse in about two weeks, but we'll begin to see improvement after that, though it'll take up to six months for the redness to go away. As if all this weren't enough, we took the kids sledding today, and J got the bonk of a lifetime. Things started out really well. We'd accidentally come across a new place to try sledding, and everyone seemed to have a great time the first few runs. Then J went down and began coasting to a stop while another grown man did the same. I watched it happen as though in slow motion. My stomach turned as I heard the gigantic crack as their two heads collided, and I was a good 20 feet away! His head hurt mightily, and it took such a long time for Daddy to convince him to try again, this time going down together.

They started off pretty well, but went straight for a giant snow jump where J went flying off, and Daddy rolled over him. It took another hour, a lot of crying, a trip to a nearby Walmart where we bought some Motrin, and a promise to go home right after before I could get him to try one last time with me. I just wanted him to have one last lovely ride down so it wouldn't seem like such a terrible experience. Luckily it turned out to be a successful venture and we all came home relatively happy.

We managed to end the year on a good note, however. Grandmas and Grandpas came over to eat some great food and watch Wall-E - which we all loved!!! M tried to stay up to midnight with me, but I convinced her to head off to bed about ten minutes ago. So here I am, ready to ring in the new year, and hoping it brings a few less accidents and many more blessings.