Unexpected Merry Christmas

This year we stayed in Charlotte for Christmas. All of us, except Addy, got the flu!

It all started on Saturday Dec 13th. Jackson came home from Mimi's house feeling sick. He ended up testing positive for strep (no flu test). He was out of school all week. Monday Mimi got sick. Wednesday Josh and Aaron felt bad. Aaron tested positive for influenza A. And yes, we all got the shot.

Friday Benny started with a croup cough and tight breathing. He got treated with a steroid Monday night. His fever has been all over the place and he's had it the worst. Tonight will be day 7 for him with a fever. He also had a chest xray which showed no pnuemonia.

I started feeling sick Sat night with a scratchy cough. Never got a fever but still have the head cold.

Joyce made Christmas Day very special by having us over for a meal, games, and gifts. Josh also went shopping Christmas Eve night to get the kids each a gift since all of theirs are in Ohio. (They get so many from others, we usually don't buy them anything.)

Love and miss our extended Ohio family. Still so many reasons to be thankful.

Great Wolf Lodge

For Christmas, Grandma & Grandpa Neville treated us to a weekend at the Great Wolf Lodge in Charlotte.

Our room had a special sleeping area for the kids with their own TV. Benny's standing on his bed.

Who knew a set a stairs could be so fun? We spent our first night exploring the lodge.

We watched a Christmas show in the lobby which included fake indoor snow.

Ready to go to the water park, bright and early on Saturday morning.

Everyone's watching a huge bucket of water about to dump.

The wave pool was one of our favorite activities.

The kids were so entertained by all the squirting water coming from the ground.

Mimi drove over to visit on Saturday. We made crafts in the Cub Club area.

The kids made snowflakes. We've got them hanging in our windows at home.

We were able to ride some of the bigger water rides with Addy & Jackson while Mimi watched the little ones.

One of my favorite parts of the weekend was bowling, made especially for kids.

All of them LOVED playing. Benny was the cutest bowler ever!

The last night, we ordered pizza and hung out together in our room. Thank you Neville's for a great weekend!

Another early Christmas gift came last week, these much needed couches. We got them for only $199 each on Black Friday. Thank you Grandma!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

The kids had Thanksgiving Day feasts on their last day of school. Aaron has no shame. He dressed up even though it was not required.

Thanksgiving morning we went downtown Charlotte to the parade.

It was chilly but still worth it.

The parade put us in the mood for Christmas since they had tons of Christmas themed displays and music.

After the parade our friends came over and we shared a yummy Thanksgiving meal together.

The kids got their own table.

After eating we walked in the woods. The boys especially liked throwing rocks into the creek.

The day after Thanksgiving was Addy's big 1-0 birthday! We celebrated by taking her and her friend Keira to the Discovery Place Museum downtown.

There was lots to see and tons of hands on exhibits.

At home we opened gifts with the rest of the family.

No birthday is complete without one of Grandma's famous ice cream cakes.

We experienced our first raking of the yard. Even Grandma helped.

Our sweet neighbor next door stopped me from sweeping the driveway. He insisted on using his blower.

The kids had a blast in the massive leaf pile.

We did it! And here's the end product, a leaf free yard.

The failed attempt to get a family picture for a Christmas card this year.

Jackson's latest masterpiece.

Random

The kids school pictures were taken outside this year. Addy's was my favorite.

I wish Aaron would have showed his toothless smile.

I didn't order any of Jackson's. He looks so awkward posing for pictures.

Aaron dressed up as Aaron for bible character dress up day at school. He loved it.

Here's my little monkey playing on our swingset while the kids were in school.

We went trick or treating in Mimi's neighborhood. Jackson chose to hand out candy instead of dressing up.

On November 10th Aaron turned 6! He really wanted Josh and I to have lunch with him at school so we did. This is his kindergarten teacher, Mrs. Fields. She's wonderful and I could see us as friends outside of school.

After school we had a scavenger hunt to find his gifts. Aaron had to read all the clues himself.

Crazy present opening chaos.

Here's one of his gifts all put together.

Mimi made one of her famous ice cream cakes. So glad she's around for birthdays again.

As a special birthday activity, we went to play mini putt with some of Aaron's friends from school.

Aaron's best friend is named Ben in the navy blue shirt. His sister is in Addy's grade. The guy in gray is Aaron's teacher's son and is another friend in his grade.

This is my favorite picture Jackson's ever drawn. He drew it looking at a picture of a dragon but his is much more zoomed in.

A rare appearance on my blog. I got some black boots for my birthday and thought my mom would be proud to see me wearing them with a jean dress and my hair fixed for once.