Sick December

We have just been dealing with round after round of sickness here. If every December turns out like this, I will very much hate the month that used to be my favorite.

Between all the snowstorms, we've had a horrible stomach bug ravage the house. Poor Westley has had his fair share with it, to the point where I wondered if he would just always have stomach issues because his bout with it lasted 13 days. Yes, 13 DAYS!

It all started on December 15th, the day of the Voice Male concert. I was driving Corey to work so that we wouldn't have to drive separate cars home from our date. The plan was to get up early, eat, and take him down to work and then drive back up to drop Westley off at school, preferably by 8:30, but probably he would be a little tardy.

On the way home from dropping Corey off in Orem, Westley threw up in the car. I chalked it up to motion sickness because Westley is especially prone to it, he was bundled up in all his snow clothes (this corresponded with one of those snow storms) and the heater was on, plus we'd been in the car for nearly an hour. When we got home, he threw up one more time, and I let him lay low until taking Caleb to school later, thinking that he just needed some time to get over the motion sickness. I was in the office checking him in when he told me he didn't feel very good and didn't want to stay at school, so he came home. For the next 12 days, he had episodes of vomiting and diarrhea between periods where he felt fine and even ate normal food. He never had a fever, never acted lethargic, so I was unsure if it was a stomach bug.

On my birthday, December 21st, he had a really bad bout of vomiting in the morning, so I took him to the doctor. By the time we got to the appointment, he was acting perfectly fine and felt perfectly fine, so I even dropped him off at school later that day, after the doctor confirmed it was just a virus, he wasn't dehydrated and he was fine. He missed four days of school over a period of six days. Yet he was well enough a lot of the time, that it just didn't seem like a virus.

Eliza had diarrhea on Wednesday, the 22nd and then threw up, but she has been fine ever since. Caleb had a bout of diarrhea on Christmas day, but then he has been fine since. I even got the bug on Monday, December 28th, which started with diarrhea then I had severe vomiting later that night that lasted all night long and went to Urgent Care yesterday to get i.v. fluids and a Zofran drip for the nausea. Travis started with the diarrhea on Monday and it has continued since then, today is day #3 and now he's also throwing up.

So I guess it was a virus, but Westley had it so long that we took him in on Monday, December 27th, to get tested for other things. He has a UTI, which is rare in boys, so that is also being analyzed for possible kidney problems, and is being tested for a number of other issues that might cause vomiting. But more than likely, he just had several rounds of the virus. I guess he was due, since he hadn't been sick for almost two years, not even a cough. Poor kid.

I just hope that Travis recovers quickly and then we can be done with it.

Did I mention how much I hate stomach bugs? I think they are the worst kind of normal illness that we tend to get. Compared with croup, sinus infections, even ear infections, and other types of lung issues and stuff, I really don't like dealing with stomach bugs. They always go through everyone and seem to take forever to eradicate from the house and by the time we're done with it, I'm so stressed out by it that I'm paranoid it's going to come back, so every little toot or burp, I'm afraid will turn back into diarrhea and vomiting.

Hoping to never have another December like this.

Corey's birthday

Corey turned 32 big ones on December 9th! Unfortunately, he worked all day. Also, we didn't take one picture of anything that whole day, so this picture is from the In-N-Out picnic in June.

Corey's sister Traci was still in town, so she and Jamie came over for dinner. We had lasagna, which I tried making from scratch. Now I wish I had written down what went wrong so I can correct it next time, but now that I'm writing this, I don't even remember. It just didn't quite turn out how I envisioned it, but it still tasted fine. Lasagna is one of his favorites, so that is what I made him. I also made him a banana cream pie for dessert. He opened gifts and we played some games after the kids went to bed.

For a birthday gift, I bought us tickets to see Voice Male the following week at Thanksgiving Point. Unfortunately, we also didn't take any pictures that night. We used the Outback gift cards that my parents had given us both for our birthdays and went to dinner and then to the concert. It so happens that the date was on the 15th, which is exactly 6 days after his birthday and 6 days before mine. So we thought we'd start a new tradition of doing something on the 15th every year, unless, of course, it falls on a Sunday.

We sure do love and appreciate Daddy and all he does for us. Happy birthday Corey/Daddy!

Temple Square Christmas Lights

When Aunt Traci was visiting from December 6th through December 10th, we went downtown to see the Christmas lights on Temple Square. We rode the train downtown and then walked over to the Lion House for dinner.

On the train ride:

After dinner at the Lion House, we walked over to Temple Square to see the lights. Between the Church Office Building and Temple Square were some nativities from around the world that were life size and the kids had fun looking at those.

Our family with the Salt Lake Temple behind us.
Looking at the lights:

Making Ariel's Mermaid Outfit

I decided to get all crafty and make a Little Mermaid outfit for Eliza's Ariel doll. I bought her the Ariel doll a few months ago when we were walking through Walmart. It was already cheap and then they took even more off because there was a smudge on her cheek. Anyway, the doll came in a dress because it was Ariel after she became human. Eliza has loved playing with her, but I thought she'd love it if she could also dress Ariel up like a mermaid.

I also needed to use the doll in my cake for Eliza's birthday, and the doll needed at least the purple bikini because I didn't want to just frost one on. So I made the bikini out of a shiny purple ribbon about a week before Eliza's birthday. It wasn't until her birthday that I decided to go ahead and also make a tail so that once we took the doll out of the cake, she could play with Ariel the mermaid, not just Ariel the human girl.

So here is the step-by-step process in which I made the mermaid tail:

I started with some cheap green fabric, some green thread, and some green sequin elastic.

I measured and cut the green fabric by using the doll as a guide. I'll be honest, it actually took three different attempts to get it to the right size. Then I sewed down one side of the fabric and ironed the seam.

Again, using the doll as a guide, I cut the sequin elastic into a belt and sewed the ends together by hand stitching. I reinforced the stitching with a hot glue gun.

I hand stitched the sequin belt to the top of the tail. Then I created a fin by cutting out two pieces of green fabric in the shape of a fin, sewing them together like sides facing each other, pressed the seam after turning right side out, and stuffed with cotton balls. Would have used regular quilt stuffing, but couldn't find my roll of it anywhere. Then I sewed and hot glued the tail onto the fin and then I hot glued the sequin elastic to the tail.

And here is the finished product.

Eliza loves her mermaid outfit for her Ariel. It was a fun birthday surprise for her.

Eliza's Third Birthday

On the Saturday before Eliza's birthday, her aunt Jamie came and took Eliza out to get her nails done, eat lunch, and see the movie "Tangled". Eliza had a grand old time, and she loved being pampered, as you can see here.


Eliza's actual birthday was on Monday, December 6th.

For Eliza's birthday cake, I made an Ariel doll cake. It wasn't until too late that I realized the pan I had used wasn't deep enough and we hadn't figured out a way to have her sit up higher to look more like a mermaid sitting, but it still turned out fine. At least Eliza thought it was wonderful.



Aunt Traci and baby Noah were visiting that week, so they got to be there for Eliza's birthday. She enjoyed opening her gifts:

And here she is blowing out the candles on her cake:

Last picture of the cake before we cut into it

I can't believe my little girl is already three!

Three fun things about Eliza:
1. She can hold her own with her brothers. Often, it's, "Mom, Eliza hit me!" that I hear, rather than hearing it from her. The boys are pretty good about not hitting her, but we are working on her not hitting them.

2. She loves to be girlie--she loves having her hair done, her nails done, and wearing pretty things.

3. She is full of personality. Like she's about to explode all the time because she's got so much inside her and it has nowhere to go.

Happy birthday, my sweet little princess!

Trav's New Glasses

At the beginning of December, Travis got some glasses. He'd been through a series of testing since his eyes started turning inward in September. He'd had neurological testing done, including an MRI, to rule out a brain tumor, and then he went to the pediatric opthamologist who said he needed glasses and that the glasses alone should correct the problem before he's even a teenager. So the glasses finally came in the first week of December and here he is!

Visit to Santa Claus

On the last Monday in November, the city had this big event--Santa's Arrival. Of course Corey had to work the night shift, so we trudged through the heavy snow over to City Hall without him and stood in line to see Santa. Since we got there right at the beginning, we managed to only have to wait about 30 minutes in line. The kids sat on Santa's lap and then we went outside and got some hot chocolate. We ended up not staying because the kids were grumbly and they kept spilling their hot chocolate. But it was fun to go. Maybe next year Corey will have the night off and he can come too. I'm not sure I'll do it again with FIVE kids!