Ho! Ho! Ho!

I should write a little something something while I have the time. Christmas has come and gone. And although it was amazing I am happy it has. Burt is home now and I appreciate the help even when he annoys me! Let's reflect back though. Christmas Eve I baby-sat Chase so a lot of our normal traditions were plus one kid. We read "Twas the night Before Christmas". I gave the kids their gifts from Burt and I. Which by the way they loved! New Ipods! We left out cookies and milk for Santa. We sprinkled reindeer food on the front lawn. And we left Santa's key hanging on the outside doorknob. It was off to bed around 10pm. Burt didn't get home till around 1:00am. I was passed out on the couch. He trimmed the bottom of the tree. Or should I say cut off half the tree?! By this time my mouth was throbbing. We headed up to bed around 3:30am but I tossed and turned for at least 1.5 hours. Finally after 7 tylenol, 5 motrin, and 3 benadryl, I passed out only to be awoken at 8am. Ugh! They did good though. The day before I asked them not to wake me up until 8am. To buy myself more time I asked Abby to feed the baby her bottle, which she did and at 8:45am we headed downstairs. The older two were super excited to tear through all the wrapping paper. Nathan got his DSI, a remote control jeep, a Wii game, a DS game, among other things. Abby got her camera, a new baby doll, a doll stroller, and a DS game. Alexa hung out on Daddy's lap on the couch as he fell in and out of sleep. After the big kids opened their presents I put Alexa on the floor with hers. She wasn't much interested until I tore the paper a bit. Then she attempted to tear some but soon started crying. By this time it was her morning nap time and so she headed up to bed. She finally opened her presents around noon. I got some cute pictures of her enjoying it all. We spent the rest of the at Debbie's house. I took some vicodin to ease my pain but still stayed in pain. Luckily by the next day the pain was subsiding. The day after Christmas we got our first snow storm of the year. They estimated 12 inches but there was lots of drifting snow so some areas looked like they got maybe 6 inches and others tons more. The big kids by this time had caught a stomach but and my day was spent nursing sick kids back to health. Burt and Frankie plowed snow. New Years wasn't much more exciting but I don't really like all the hustle and bustle so close to Christmas anyways. Abby and Nate stayed up until 2 am snacking on Auntie Anne's pretzels. Alexa took a late afternoon nap and made it to midnight. Now that the holiday is over my house is slowing getting back to normal. In Alexa news...she has started saying her first words. Da-Da-Da! On Sunday January 2nd she started mumbling it. It's funny because two days before that I was saying how I was starting to worry because she never made any sounds or attempts at talking without the binky or a toy in her mouth. No sooner did the worry cross my mind that she started doing it. I love my baby!