THE GOOD, THE BAD & THE UGLY

I feel like I can barely keep up with anything going on. I am happy to get the laundry done, food on the table and remember to pick the kids up from school and drive them to whatever tennis facility they need to be at. That means that my blog isn't the top of my list but today we are home and have a few minutes. I have much to catch up on so I figured I would make a list of how our last month went.

THE GOOD
1. Maia got a fish named Santa for Christmas.
2. We got a pet mouse named Ella the Speedy Mouse - Ella is short for elephant since she was a white elephant gift.
3. Santa brought Addie the last historical American Girl doll for Christmas.
4. Joey got me a beautiful diamond and sapphire ring for Christmas!! Total Suprise!
5. Kids played great in tennis tournament over Christmas break.
6. Joey got promoted to President of Drive Marketing. Well Deserved!!
7. With the inversion we have sunshine.
8. We got to see Adam & Angi at Christmas time!
9. Addie got a foot spa that she loves using to give me pedicures.
10. Macy is finally past the puppy stage and did not try to open a present or take ornaments off the tree.

THE BAD
1. Nicholas missed the entire month of December due to headaches and stomach aches.
2. We have to pay for all of the Doctor appointments & tests Nicholas is having.
3. Ella the Speedy Mouse died after only two loving weeks in our house.
4. Santa doesn't know what to get Addie for Christmas next year. (He has loved American Girl Dolls.)
5. Nicholas had to get glasses. He didn't really want to look any more like his dad.

THE UGLY
1. Nicholas is still not healthy and has missed two weeks of school in January.
2. Nicholas has to do some really "crappy" tests to figure out what is wrong with him.
3. Maia has been home for over a week with a fever between 102 & 103 degrees.
4. I feel twice on my tailbone and am barely able to sit on it without pain.
5. Joey and I both at different times fell of the ladder with bruises to show.

NUTCRACKER

Life goes on, even with an sick kid at home. We had tickets for our family to go to the Nutcracker this year. This is something I remember doing as a little girl and something that our family has done the last several years. This year we had a kink in our plan, Nicholas. That meant that Joey and Nikko stayed home, believe it or not Nikko seemed a little sad to miss it. Since Nikko couldn't go we got to invite Aunt Erin and Cousin Afton. I was a little worried about Afton staying awake or getting bored, boy was I wrong. We were on the 4th row so right up front and I think she loved it, she is a little princess after all.
We have friends that are in it so it is fun to go and watch them & sit with their families. Sophie and Ellie practically stole the show. Sophie was a party girl in the first part and was on stage for a good 15 minutes. I couldn't tell you what happened because my eyes were glued on her. She was so fun to see and could really show her personality. Ellie was one of the soldiers, actually the main soldier and was the one who got to shoot the mouse. When either of them were on stage we all got so excited. Can't wait to go again next year, hopefully with Nicholas and Joey.

BAD CHRISTMAS CARD

Like I have said before I love everything about Christmas from putting the decoration up to the Christmas music to sending and receiving Christmas Cards. This year has been a bit of a struggle getting our cards done with Nicholas being sick. When we finally got him outside to take a picture we had to keep telling try to look like you don't have a headache. We finally got a picture that worked. Next we had to design and print the cards- Joey's end. Then the girls and I cut the cards. Next Joey worked on merging our address list- for some reason this year it wouldn't work- I may have heard calm Joey throwing things in his office. He stayed up until about two in the morning getting them done. Finally, stamp and mail. Wait!! Yes, Wait!! If you look at the picture you will see the envelope addressed, stamped and ready to go with the Christmas card underneath it. If you look closely you will see that the card is quite a bit larger than the envelope. Awesome, please don't move so we can use those envelopes next year, they do have the forever stamps on them. If you are lucky we may still get this years cards out. Merry Christmas!!

NEW BRAIN PLEASE

I keep telling Nicholas that this is getting old and he should be done with this headache. He is not very good at obeying his mother. We are beyond two weeks with this headache now. Nikko went to Primary Children's Hospital on Friday for an MRI/MRV still trying to figure out what is wrong. The results did not show any reason why he should still be having a headache. The nurse said he was very good at holding still unlike most other kids. I think since I have had over 50 and prepared him he had an advantage. He liked the movie that he got to watch on the glasses and has now decided to ask for the glasses from Santa.

Nicholas seems sometimes to be doing better and then an hour later he is asleep or moaning or both. Every night I pray that the next day will be better - we are still hoping.

This morning we started the 48 hour sedation. This was recommended by the neurologist at Primarys. He is sedated heavily on drugs that knock him out, he wakes up about every 6 hours where he is given the drugs again. This as Nicholas called it it hibernation. He was willing to try anything as has been feeling like junk for the last several weeks including the stomach pains he had right before the headaches came on. PLEASE let the sedation work!!

GET BETTER!!

Nicholas is still pretending to be sick. Okay, not really but I wish he were because he has now missed 9 days of school during the last three weeks. He had really bad stomach cramps about two weeks ago and that lasted around one week. This week he has been home with a terrible headache. No one in either of our families has a history of migraines so they don't think it is that. He went in for a cat scan today and it came back normal. The Dr. has prescribed him a strong headache medicine and is hoping it will run it's course. I am just hoping it will run it's course faster than it has so far. Not only is Nicholas sick of being at home, he had a 4.0 first quarter and as of right now has four F's. Not his usual style but is hard to keep up when you are not in school and feel to yucky to do any make-up work at home. I am just hoping he starts feeling better soon!!

IT'S THE MOST WONDERFUL TIME OF THE YEAR

I always LOVE the day after Thanksgiving because that means it is Christmas!! Most people can't wait for Black Friday to shop, I have most of my shopping done so I can't wait for the day after because that means it is officially the holiday season. The Christmas music is turned on, the cinnamon candles burns and the Christmas decorations come out. Decorating for Christmas at our house is a major event- the main floor of our house is transformed. Did I mention that I LOVE Christmas. We have been collection Christmas decorations for as long as I can remember. When I was younger I would get Nutcrackers when I would travel to Germany to see my Aunt Linda and have kept up that tradition when we travel there & Joey has added to the tradition by giving the family a new Nutcracker every year on December 1st. We also have collected nativity scenes and add a different one every year to the collection. We also have several snow globes, Santas and little Christmas trees made out of different things like metal and cloth that we like to put out. All of our coffee table books are put away and the Christmas books are pulled out and read by all of us. All of the pictures on the walls come down and Christmas pictures go up. It is a two day even the decorations take a day and then decorating the tree is the second day. In the middle of the decorating we always have time to stop for a nice warm cup of Hot Chocolate with marshmallows that Addie is a pro at making. I can't wait every year for the holiday season and am always sad when they are over. Like I said "It's the most wonderful time of the year."

OUR 1st THANKSGIVING

We had our first Thanksgiving at home this year. We do every other year with my parents and siblings & up until a few years ago had dinner with the Linebaughs, my mom's side of the family on the opposite year. This year since it was the odd year we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner. I prepared as much as I could before Thursday so it would be easier. I premade 3 pies, sweet potatoe casserole, gravy & salad dressing as well as toasted the nuts for the salad. This was supposed to make Thanksgiving easier. There is still so much you can't do in advance like rolls, corn, mashed potatoes and the turkey. Everyone was in charge of different parts of dinner- divide and conquer. Addie preset the table and made name plates for everyone. I premade a menu that sat at each persons place setting. On Thanksgiving day everyone had jobs as well. Joey was in charge of the turkey. Luckily Martha Stewart was on the Today Show showing how to make a moist turkey so we followed her step by step. I made the stuffing & mashed potatoes. Addie made Orange Rolls that melted in your mouth- ask Nicholas how much he liked them or how many he ate. Nicholas was in charge of corn and the drink, which was a cranberry spritzer. Maia made the cranberry salad & had also premade a 4th pie - Tollhouse- delicious. The turkey turned out perfect & moist- I think the four (yes four) cubes of butter that Joey basted on the turkey every 30 minutes helped with that. The dinner ended up being delicious and nice to be home where we could enjoy laying around on the couch watching movies and the traditional Thanksgiving Cowboys Game. I was just "Thankful" that our turkey worked & Macy - the puppy- was happy to eat all the scraps of the floor.

NEW YORK CITY

We had more fun in New York City. We saw a few more shows The Adams Family, Billy Elliott and the Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show that stars the Rockettes. I secretly have always wanted to see the Rockettes so that was great. We wandered around Central Park and walked up and down 5th Avenue. We ate at lots of restaurants including our favorite Mexican restaurant, Dos Caminos, where we get the best Guacamole. We also meet our friend Cate who moved back to NYC from SLC. We meet Cate at a fun restaurant in the Chelsea area called 202 for brunch and then did a walk along The Highline Trail, a fun walking trail along an old railroad track.

ADAMS FAMILY

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BILLY ELLIOTT

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I LOVE MUSEUMS & BROADWAY

I came in to NYC to meet Joey on the redeye flight- yes that means I am a little tired. Joey had meetings so I went out by myself for the day after I tried & failed at sleeping. I love the Museum of Modern Art so I walked down there from our hotel. Like usual I get so excited to see what the next painting is going to be I have to try & control myself & not run from room to room. They have so many great paintings from Van Gogh to Monet to Warhall. I love it!! I also got a delicious lunch, blue cheese tart with salad, in the restaurant looking over the sculpture garden. After several hours with a huge smile on my face Joey called and was done without his meetings so I headed back to the hotel.

For the evening we had dinner reservations & tickets to a show with Nat- one of Joey's employees. The restaurant we went to was Cuban and was good but the show was awesome. Getting to the show we couldn't get a cab- rush hour- so we had a guy pull us in his rickshaw. If you think taxi drivers are crazy try this at rush hour- I don't know how we lived!! The driver was pulling in-between cars- getting honked at- then he caught the mirror of a parked van. Yes, it did jerk us to a stop - we had to backup and get uncaught- of course it was on my side & the owner of the van was sitting in it. We did make it to the show and loved it. Sean Hayes played the main part with Kristin Chenoweth and then Molly Shannon was In a couple unforgettable scenes. The play was great but with the few parts with Molly Shannon it was very funny .

FUNNY

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I love the MOMA in NYC

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MISSING SCHOOL AGAIN??

Nikko has been home from school for three days now with some sort of stomach thing. I figured after three days it was time to go to the doctor and see if we can get help. He isn't throwing up or having any other stomach issues - you know what I mean. He is eating at meals and isn't sleeping all day so I am not sure what is wrong except that his stomach hurts. We went to see his Dr who really couldn't give us any solid answers. He did suggest that we go have lab work done because it could be his pancreas or some other odd thing or maybe just a pulled muscle in his stomach or maybe even just really bad heartburn. Nicholas has never had blood drawn so it was an experience for him. The "just was a pinch" part was okay, just after the pinch was not. When I asked him if he was okay he said "I feel really dizzy." At that point he was rushed to the room next door so he could lay down and not faint. After a few minutes, okay maybe about 10, he felt like he was able to get up and head home. Now we wait to see if his is going to live...

JUST A LITTLE PINCH

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DIZZY

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1 OF 17

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PARTY ANIMALS

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WE REALLY "FELT" IT THIS WEEKEND

We had the annual Bradley Girls Trip this weekend in St. George at Grandpa's condo. It was AWESOME. We ate, laughed, shopped, laughed, CRAFTED and then laughed some more. I flew down Friday morning because I had book group on Thursday night. Once I got there Barb, Lisa and their girls picked me up we went to the condo where Jill Dorrough was and waited for Judy, Stacy and Jenn to come over. From there the party started.

We started shopping at Taipan where I got a new nativity scene and a couple new angels for Christmas. YEAH!! Then we all meet back at the condo and started the craft- a Happy Birthday Felt banner. This turned into a felt banner marathon, I kid you not. We all have so many creative juices that this turned into a felt banner weekend. Many hands make light work- right? We went from Happy Birthday, to BOO, to Give Thanks and on and on and on through every holiday and of course adding the names of our children and then our favorite person of all- our husbands. I ended up with 17 banners, yes I did just go count them. I love when we were starting a new banner and we would ask "Who's in?" and then you would see 9 hands pop up in the air & the assembly line would start again. The best part was the talking and laughing that went along with making them.

We also had the outing to the craft store to get ribbon for the felt signs. All ten of us there to divide and conquer. Maybe it works better if we are all on the same aisle looking at buttons and ribbons together. Also it is better if all of us are standing in the check out line together, we don't want to loose each other. The only problem checking out was we didn't realize that we had to have the ribbon cut & priced. We had people running back and forth trying to get cuts & prices on the ribbon while the the cashier was ringing up what we had. I just watched as people in the line behind us gradually moved to the next line over.

We had great food all weekend thanks to Jill who loves to cook. She made dinner both nights, delicious blueberry struesel cake, brownies & cookies. Barb made her traditional pumpkin waffles, I was worried about them but were delicious, her families tradition on Thanksgiving morning. There was a pile of treats that everyone brought down that were always available. Needless to say we did not go hungry. I only had to drive down to get a diet coke once each day or bribe someone to get one for me.

We played some new games that I am excited play with the kids and also had a favorites gift exchange. With this exchange you get 3 things that are your favorite that are under $5 and then we draw names and exchange them with everyone else. I got three things of Bubble Bath for my favorite thing and them ended up getting a ouch-less brush from Stacy, a hand knit hat from Jill and a star napkin holder and napkins from Lisa with a cool pan scrapper that I can't wait to use.

There was one rule I think we need to consider changing for the weekend. We all have to go to bed at the same time- these Bradley Girls party all night long. I can barely keep my eyes open to type this trying from fatigue. The amazing thing is when you are crafting until two in the morning you really don't even realize that it is that late until two days later when you are dragging!!

I "felt" I had a great weekend and wish I were still there in the sunny St George weather not looking outside at the snow storm swirling around my house. Can't wait for next year.

VEGAS

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