Sick Kids

All three kids have a cold right now, but Riley has it the worst. She has been having temps off and on for a couple of days and has been extremely clingy. She was wheezing really bad when she woke up yesterday morning. I took her to the doctor where they did a breathing treatment and an x-ray. The x-ray showed that she has pneumonia. The cold settled right in her lungs. No wonder why she was feeling so crummy. She now has to take an antibiotic (amoxicillin), oral steroids, and albuterol breathing treatments. She HATES all three. She has to take the antibiotic for 10 days, the steroid for 5 days, and the breathing treatments are every 4 hours. It's going to be a long 10 days! I even had the amoxicillin flavored, and she still spits it out. She takes tylenol and ibuprofen just fine, so I figured I wouldn't have any problems getting her to take the medications. I've mixed it with pop (she took a sip and then wouldn't take anymore) and with yogurt (she took one bite and refused to eat it.) I'm going to mix it with some chocolate milk tonight. She took a 3 hour nap yesterday and seems to be feeling a little better today. She has just enough energy to be crabby and throw fits. I think I liked her better when she was lethargic. Haha

Christmas With the Schmidt's

We celebrated Christmas with Mike's family a few days ago. His parents and brother came over to our house on Sunday, and we opened gifts. The Schmidt's do appetizers on Christmas Eve, so we had some in the afternoon. That night, we had some lasagna. It was all very tasty. The kids received some nice gifts. One of their favorites is a pink robotic penguin. It's very cute. I bought the kids some vintage Fisher Price toys. We used to play with them at my grandma's house and loved them. Mia, especially, likes to play with them.

It's been a great Christmas! I have to work this New Year's Eve, so we won't be having our annual New Year's Eve party. I'm thinking it's going to be pretty tame this year. Mike will have all three kids, and none of them feel well. Everyone be safe!

Poor Riley had a fever of 101. She opened a couple of gifts but I could tell she felt like crud.

Penbo the penguin

The scary robot toy. He liked it until it started moving. He usually doesn't get scared of things.

Ethan, after the scary robot toy.

Christmas With the Krause's

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! I'm always a little sad when the holiday is over. It's definitely my favorite time of the year. We spent Christmas with my side of the family in St. Cloud. My older sister, Amber, and her fiance, Shayne, live there. They were nice enough to host Christmas this year.

There were a total of 19 people that stayed the weekend. There are seven kids in my family, and everyone brought a significant other. It was crazy, as usual! The kids had fun playing with their cousins and loved all the attention they got. All three were really into opening their presents this year. Mia had all ready opened hers and then went over and opened Billy's present without him noticing. The funny thing is that he only had two presents to open. He got a bigger gift from my parents, and that's the one Mia opened.

Our tradition is to have soup and munchies on Christmas Eve. Amber made Chicken and Rice soup and it was really good. Ethan ate it, and he's really picky! We had prime rib on Christmas Day and it was equally as good. Jenna made peanut butter cookies with chocolate kisses and reese's in the middle. I swear, Mia must have eaten a dozen on Christmas Eve. She only ate the center out of the cookies, where the chocolate was. I'd tell her no more cookies, and I'd find her hiding under the dining room table with another cookie! Stinker!

The kids were decently behaved at Amber's house. They did get into her makeup and spilled her Bare Minerals powder all over. Riley took a crap on her dining room floor (thank goodness it wasn't carpet), and Ethan peed on her blanket, but nothing was ruined! :) At least I don't think!

We decided to leave on Christmas Day to go back home. The kids don't sleep very well when we're away from home, and that means I don't sleep very well! It was a fun weekend! I always look forward to getting together with my entire family. It doesn't happen as often as I'd like, but we sure make the most of it when we do!

Nathan gave her a black eye. He threw a roll of wrapping paper and it happened to hit her eye. Poor thing!

Jenna, Kelly, and Mom.

Jenna and Kelly. You might notice that Kelly is in every single picture. She was the one taking the pictures!

Amber's fiance, Shayne.

Janai and Kelly.

Dad, Mia, and Kelly. A lot of little kids are scared of my dad. I remember having friends come over when I was little, and he scared them! The funny thing is is that Mia isn't scared of my dad. She always wants to sit on his lap and she'll chew him out if he gets after her. It's funny to watch!

Jenna's boyfriend, Matt. Can you believe she had him spend the entire weekend with our crazy family? I think they're still together. Haha

Shayne cooked and cleaned the entire weekend. He's a good man! :)

Jenna, Kelly, and Jude.

The girls - Kelly, Jenna, Sarah, me, and Amber

All seven of us - Billy, Kelly, Jenna, Sarah, me, Amber, and Nathan

One of those sing-a-ma-jigs. It's a really neat toy!

Jude-bug. The poor thing has had a nasty cold for a couple of weeks. She was nice enough to share it with my three! I'm praying that they don't get it as bad as Jude!

Nate bought Mike Axe body spray. :)

Ethan wants to do everything Noah does.

Noah's gift - the kids all fought over!