Merry Christmas!

Aubin's still sick with a virus, but she'll be okay. She ran a fever of 106.1 overnight, but I was able to get it down with the alternating of Motrin-Tylenol trick and sponge bath. Don't worry, everyone. I have an all access pass to Dr. Grandpa and Nurse Nana who talk me through on what to do and when to worry. Thanks guys!
Being sick half the night didn't stop Aubin from waking up at the CRACK OF DAWN along with her brother to see what Santa left them. After presents, H and I went to have Christmas dinner with the family and brought food back for the rest of the gang. It was delicious and greatly appreciated!!! Rick then let me have a couple of hours of blissful sleep (thankyouthankyouthankyou)and now I'm ready for round 2 tonight.
Tomorrow we see Grandma M-H! (I've Lysol-ed your room and the house..hope you like "Fresh Linen scent" (: )

....And to all a good night.

The kids are VERY excited about Christmas. Of course Aubin has been coughing and running a fever of 103 off and on since last night....sigh. We made the most of the holiday spirit today in between fever spells. We made Christmas cookies for Santa. I used the French butter cookie recipe from Epicurious.com (use the salt even if you use salted butter and dust with a bit of sugar before or after baking for those of you who are interested). Delish...the cookies are more buttery than sugary (is that a word?), which I heard Santa likes. The day passed quickly and soon it was time to set out the cookies and milk (plus reindeer snacks). The following video clips sum up Hayden's curiosity this year and Aubin's current physical state.

Gingerbread houses

Sort of. I stole the graham cracker idea from my sister. The kids had a lot of fun with it. They LOVE fresh icing like their Dad. I like the picture of Hayden closing his eyes enjoying pure sugar heaven.

Reindeer

The kids got this from preschool. They are so excited about putting this magic food (oatmeal,red & green sugar) out on the night of Christmas Eve.

We have quite a bit of deer around here. The other day, the kids and I saw 3 deer leap and bound across the road. Hayden casually told Aubin that they were just practicing to fly on Christmas night.

Yesterday we went to the R. family party and everyone had a good time as always! Thanks to G. for snapping the only photo of the day for me! (it's my fault that Aubin looks blind in this picture...I was telling her to look up, and look up she did!)

School Christmas party

Both kids enjoyed their Christmas cookies at the party.
I'm sure glad that I'm not like those crazy camera-capri moms in that last picture (wink-wink).

Christmas letters and hot cocoa

So much for raising children who wish for world peace.

Christmas trip slideshow

Yeah, yeah. I know I'm late getting this up. Sick kids and a sick mommy, what's new??! We are feeling better just in time for Santa.
Double click on the slideshow below and then select "slideshow" on the upper left hand side.

Cinderella's icy demise

Poor Aubin for the wily ways of her older brother!
I should explain. Since last April(!) Hayden has been recreating a preschool science "experiment" with water and ice to see which has more volume. At first, Rick and I would find random plastic cups of ice in the freezer with a line drawn on it (apparently to measure the difference b/w the water & ice). I didn't mind too much because this process would bust a few of the cups from Rick's plastic cup 'collection'. (Do we really need 50 "Eeyore's birthday party" cups from years 1990-2007?"
Anyway, H's ice party now includes freezing random toys, such as a confiscated Cinderella and the parachute man he earned at school from moving up all of his "good deed beads".

Random news & thoughts

Number 1:
Rick was at the bank making a deposit at 6:30am when he heard an announcement on the radio. "Hey fans! Come by the Whataburger on blah-blah street for a free breakfast and a FREE pair of Crocs" (you know, the shoes). Soooo, Rick has a major case of heartburn and a Longhorn-burnt-orange pair of Crocs. Sweet.

Number 2:
So it's actually cold outside, which means hot chocolate weather. Yum. You can't have hot chocolate without marshmallows. We have none. Hmmmm, maybe I can make my own beautiful, tasty ones from scratch. I looked up the recipe on cookingforengineers.com, easy enough. I found the unflavored plain gelatin that's been in the cabinet forever..left over from me trying to make healthy jello jigglers with fruit juice when Hayden was like 2 or something. Emptied the packets in the water as directed. How can I describe the olfactory experience? NASTINESS. Pure nastiness. It smelled like wet, sweaty horses....I mean dead wet,sweaty horses. I wish your screen was a scratch and sniff screen because and I would have you smell it. It was that bad.
Anyone up for "just add water" hot cocoa with those delightfully dehydrated marshmallows??

Snow!

I could hear the "wintry mix" pelting the house last night at 9:30, and brought Aubin downstairs (she was awake with one of her random fevers). I told her it was snowing outside and she said "It's snowing?! It's snowing fur weal mommy? Oh happy Christmas to you mommy."

Oh my GOSH! It's sleeting outside. It was 76 degrees today at noon and now it is 34 degrees and SLEETING. Crazy town.
I'm on the lap top tonight since the upstairs computer is having a tantrum for some unknown reason. Which means, no pictures tonight. Lo siento, mi amigos.

Plasma Car

We had a nice trip to Arkansas to see some of my family. I will try to post more pictures tomorrow night. The most exciting part of the trip revolved around the "plasma car". It's a little kid toy that moves by twisting the handles back and forth. We all took a turn with Dad down a hill at my sister's house. Later that night, Rick and I raced Aunt Jessica and Uncle Brian a few times. Good times.

Road trip

Tomorrow is our annual road trip for a few days.
Thank you Granddad! I am NOT a long car ride gal, so traveling in my Grandfather's RV is a nice treat. There is something special about getting up at any time while on the road to stretch one's legs or use the microwave to make a frito pie or two.

Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Rick's birthday.
Happy birthday, Daddy-o. The big 3-8. Wow!
We were lucky enough to have Granddad around to help celebrate last night. We all went to "Logan's" and ate a tasty meal then came home for cake. (and NO I did not make it...to everyone's delight!**)

**family history: I made Aubin's 1st birthday cake. Problem number 1: I substituted wheat flour for 1/2 of the white flour trying to make it "healthy". It was heavy as a brick, dry as a bone. Problem number 2: Although it was suppose to be a butterfly cake (I had the butterfly cake pan), it turned into a "moth" cake. I couldn't get the colors bright enough! Here's the picture for proof:

Helping out the Griswalds

Rick made a huge 3-D star out of PVC pipe for the neighbor's Christmas light display. What are you rgmjr? A structural engineer or something?