A few days after Christmas

These photos were all taken the day after Christmas. Eva had two friend over to play and Ellis and Lee had Lillian's sister, Mary Morgan, over to play as well. The kids were acting totally crazy outside, so I decided to try to capture some of their fun. I took tons of pictures, and some are too goofy to even post, but let's just say they were all in the posing kind of mood.

Christmas was nice this year. The kids were excited, as usual, how can you go wrong with the promise of presents under a tree? Lee enjoyed himself, he really seemed to get the hang of Christmas and I'm sure he is already curious when this festive holiday will come back around. His favorite toys were the firetruck and the airplane and the Power Ranger movie.

Eva received Hannah Montana tickets from us (not Santa) and she was thrilled and totally surprised. I have it on video but couldn't get it to post properly. Ellis received a doll house, but I think her favorite toy has been the sleeping beauty Polly Pocket doll. We had our God daughter's family over for Christmas dinner. We had a very nice time.
Pretty much all for now. It's been one week out of school and I am beginning to think next week may be a challenge for me trying to find things for the kids to do. As you all know, playing with your Christmas toys only lasts so long...
I loved all of the Christmas cards we got this year, I love seeing the pictures of all of the kids whom we haven't seen for years. Each year it's like a bit of a time warp to see how much some of our friends kids, or my cousins children have grown.

Lee singing abc's and jingle bells
I couldn't get his full attention because he was trying to draw something.

Catching up on posting

I haven't been as good about posting since November. Most of my craziness had died now and I'm happy for a bit of a mental break. Unfortunately, Ellis is sick again now, but with the same fever that Lee had last week. Fevers wear me out. The constant fear of them getting too hot in the middle of the night, or their medicine wearing out exhausts me. Ellis was sooo hot last night, probably the 104 range and to get medicine down her is a real battle.
At any rate, these pictures were taken a few weeks ago.
The girl in the brown dress is our God daughter, Olivia. Her brother, Max, will be 2 in March.
The picture at the fountain is the fountain that was recently finished at the park in front of our house. We think it looks pretty nice. It is to replace the huge tree that used to be there but was torn out by hurricane Charlie.
I have a lot to do today so I need to post and get moving!
I will have more pictures soon...

Sick and busy

Last week was one of those weeks. Monday after school I went to pick up Lee and saw him sitting at the table with no expression and absolutely no movement. I knew he was sick. He fell asleep twice that night before going to bed, the poor boy cried about having a headache, it was pretty sad. He ended up having this virus that has been floating around his class room. His fever was 104.7 at one point. We went to a midnight pediatric facility and they confirmed through tests that it was just a virus. Needless to say, he was not in school for the rest of the week. Ellis is sick too, but hers seems to be a cold and a cough. She has been home as well.
These pictures were taken last week on one of those sick days home while the medicine was in effect. They got so stir crazy I had to let them out on occassion for some fresh air.
Ellis and Lee get along very well and are usually such good playmates. He really does a lot to help her even though sometimes she can be such a stinker to him. They can make each other laugh harder than anyone else. I'm always glad they have each other.

Eva must have been in school when I took these pictures. She is very ready for Christmas break. Unfortunately, after all of the school missed last week by Ellis, her break begins after tomorrow. It will be just the two of us all week.

The bulk of my work is done for pictures. It was a very good season and I got some photos that I will soon have posted on my website to update.

The last picture here is of my girlfriends, Kyle is next to me, then Chris and Monique. We had our four family Christmas party at our house this year. It's my favorite party every season. Our kids exchange $3.00 gifts and the Mom's exchange $10.00 gifts. Otherwise we would go broke.
The shirt that I am wearing, the red patterned one, is one that Eva picked out at Ann Taylor Loft. She really wanted me to buy it and wear it. She said I need to make my wardrobe more colorful...coming from an 8 year old I'm not sure whether to take her advice or not.
I will post more once the kids are out and it's closer to Christmas.