Good Bye

I am so glad to see February go. Nothing against the month in general, just ready to move on to March and hopefully some warmer, greener weather. I'm also excited for Spring Break which is right around the corner. We don't have any plans so far, but the thought of 10 days off of school sounds pretty lovely about now. The weather today was wonderful aside from a breezy afternoon. I'm looking so forward to trips to the park and walking to and from school. So, goodbye winter, it was fun while it lasted.

Whew

I am so glad to have that over with. It took me pretty much the entire weekend, but Tea and Chiggie are now official roommates. I got all 3 kids rooms cleaned, closets and all. They look very nice. It's amazing the mess that was made in the rest of the house while I was busy up there. Oh well, you can't win them all.

This weekend really flew by. Probably with all of the cleaning, but still. We found time last night for a movie and that was nice. We went to church this morning even though we overslept and only had 1 hr to get everyone showered and ready. I'm glad we all made it though. This week is pretty busy with dress rehearsals for Chiggie's play. Opening night is Friday. I'm so excited. I'm watching Friday, working Saturday, and the King will watch Sunday. I will be sure to post lots of pics!

Trading Spaces

The Dauk family edition. Today I made the brave decision to shake things up a bit. It has become overwhelming for me to have 3 kids in 1 room . Both Chiggie and Buster have their own rooms, but the other 3 were sharing. It wasn't so much them that was overwhelming, but their stuff. 3 people's worth of stuff in 1 room is just too much. Especially since we do not have a play room.

Now that Tea is in school I think it's fair to move her up. I wasn't sure how Chiggie would react, but it turns out she was excited to get a roommate. Unfortunately Midge was not too excited to lose one. She doesn't really like change and I think it made her sad to go to bed tonight without Tea. It will be interesting to see how Boo does, being she has crawled into Tea's bed every single night for almost 3 months now. I'm sure they'll all do great once we're through the adjustment period. I cleaned the room really good and even re-decorated their bathroom. Tomorrow I will finish Midge and Boo's room and then the whole upstairs will be clean and organized. Such a good feeling!

Bath Time

Buster sure loves him a nice bath. He gets so excited when I put the toys in.

He likes to stand up and play with the faucet.

Bathtub books provide entertainment also.

Ahhh Buster, I love you so.....

Behind

I am so behind I am quite certain I will never, ever, be caught up. This evening ends the girls Winter Break from school. We had a really good time. My Mom's family went out of town on vacation and invited us to house/puppy sit. We turned it into a "staycation" of sorts. The girls played in the hot tub every night, played with the menagerie of animals, and camped out in the family room at night. Even though we were just across town, it was nice to have a change in atmosphere.

Now we're home, and wow! It was a crazy busy weekend, what with the party and all, and it shows. Trust me. What's for dinner tonight? You got me. What are the girls wearing to school tomorrow? Who knows. I need to get things back under control and finish out this week, but for now I am just decompressing from all of the excitement!

The Big 5!

Midge chose to have her party at a local pizza parlor this year. It was a great choice. The food was great and the kids all had a really fun time.

Happy birthday sweet Midge. It's amazing to think she'll start Kindergarten in the fall. She has grown up so much in the past year! I am looking forward to all that the future hold for her!!!

A Big Day

Tomorrow's a big day for little Midge. She is turning the big 5. I asked her today if she was feeling almost 5 and she said yes. I asked her what 5 felt like and she thought about it for a second and said, "a lot like 4." It's cliche and I say it all the time, but I can't believe how fast this is going. I remember being pregnant for her very well. My first winter baby. She was also my longest pregnancy. I tried everything to get her out. I finally resorted to castor oil and after two full days of cramping and labor out she came. I love her to bits and hope she has the best day ever!!! Click here to check out Midge's first year!

TROUBLE

11 Months

Sweet, busy, Buster boy. You are always moving these days. This weekend while Daddy was home you took your first steps. You thought that was pretty funny. You love to make trouble, but you also take plenty of time to snuggle. You think your sisters are the funniest people on earth and you love to play. Some little boys might be annoyed, but you seem to have a patience for those that adore you. We love you buddy. I can't believe your first year is almost behind us!

Better Ending

I never got a chance to update last night, but it turned out a bit better than it started. We got a heart shaped waffle maker as a gift this year so I decided to make breakfast for dinner.

Chiggie and Tea really enjoyed the whole process. Poor Chiggie was still feeling pretty crummy, but she was a trooper.

Even on a bad day my little Valentine's keep me going!

A Breakthrough

While I cannot say she's better, Chiggie is definitely not any worse today. She even managed to eat 1/4 of a hamburger for lunch and a couple of french fries. I bribed her with Burger King. The poor child has not eaten anything substancial for 5 days. She is drinking, kind of. Small sips of water, but I can't really ask for more. 2 rapid strep tests and a culture and I'm finally convinced they didn't have strep. If it goes away as quickly as it came on than she just might be better tomorrow!

Not So Happy Valentines's Day

But we're making the best of it I suppose. I had planned on attending both girls school parties and bringing them Subway (their favorite) for lunch. Chiggie is still really sick and there is no way she could've gone today. I still dropped off lunch for Tea, but I couldn't stay and I can't come back for her party. (If you can't tell, his shirt says "hunk a burnin' love")
As I was walking her in this morning she kept asking me why I couldn't just find someone else to be with Chiggie for the afternoon. It's hard to explain that when you're sick no one really wants to be exposed. Tonight I'm going to use our new waffle maker to make heart shaped waffles. I hope Chiggie is feeling well enough to try one. I'm really looking forward to things getting back to normal. The plumber came this morning to fix another pipe. We have a partially updated plumbing system and the older section is really starting to fail. There is major rust build-up in the pipes and I guess it's not pretty. Ahhh, one thing at a time please...

A Good Day

Today ended up being a really good day. We all needed that. Unfortunately Chiggie is still feeling pretty rough. She was able to somewhat enjoy going to the movies this evening. We saw Gnomeo and Juliet and the girls really liked it. The King gave me my Valentine's Day gift a couple of days early because he is leaving for school. I love it!

It's so good to see Midge smiling again after nearly two weeks of feeling rotten. She's about 90% now which is great in comparison.

Boo loves to play DS. Anytime one of her older sisters lets her she plays. I caught her today. She is so cute!

I love that Buster loves his Daddy. He is always very excited to see him come home. He never acts shy or reserved, just reaches right for him.


P.S. The cake was a complete and total disaster. It was hilarious though. It looked more like a lumpy bicycle seat than a heart. Ahhh such is life, at least we can laugh!

Mending

I hesitate to say it, but I think we're on the mend. Boo had a fever last night and I was just sure she would be the next victim, but she woke up this morning just fine. Yesterday was awful for Chiggie. Not only did she have to stay home from school, but it was class picture day. Very sad for both of us really. Midge is almost back to normal. She's a little more tired and grumpy than usual, but hasn't run a fever at all today. If everything stays this way than we are going this evening to see Gnomeo and Juliet. Than tomorrow we have church and are going out to lunch afterwards. Being cooped up in the house all week has about done me in.

This afternoon, I'm trying my hand at a stacked cake. I have two heart shaped pans and we'll frost the cake pink. We're celebrating Valentine's a little early so we can all be together. If all goes well I'll be sure to post pictures of the cake!

Mystery

Normally I love a good mystery, but this one not so much. Midge has now been sick for close to two weeks. It started with that darn stomach virus and is finishing off with a horrible combination of high fever and sore throat. I have never in almost 10 years of parenting seen a throat look like hers. Of course I took her in on Tuesday for a strep culture but it was negative. The doctor agreed something was wrong and put her on an antibiotic to see if she improved at all. She got worse, spiking a fever over 104.5 on Wednesday night. She hasn't slept well in at least 5 days. I took her back in today where she was tortured with an influenza swab and had to be restrained for a blood draw. She was tested for both Influenza and Mono both of which came back negative. The lymph nodes in her neck are now visible to the naked eye. It's obviously just some random virus, but yuck. Chiggie has a milder version, but is complaining of severe throat pain too. Winter cannot end soon enough around here.

Still Freezing

This winter has been frigid. There really is no other way to describe it. Of course, the door to the crawlspace under the house got left open again last week and our pipes all froze. Luckily they thawed out with no breaks, but still several days without water is not an experience I want to repeat any time soon.

Today is yet another snow day. Our third one so far this year. We've also had several snow delays. At this point I'm sure we're looking at a few extra days at the end of the year. Today is especially nasty with blowing snow, freezing temperatures, and icy roads. I plan to just stay home and stay warm. I just need to figure out how to get a good fire going without a fire starter, because of course we're out of those.

I had every intention of going to get my new tags on my car today. They expired in December, January was my grace period and of course I got pulled over and ticketed yesterday. In a school zone no less. Whatever happened to a warning? At least the big kids were still in school and didn't have to suffer through it. Ahh well, I'm off to start a fire!

Freezing

Just a completely random picture of sweet little Bussy hat modeling!
This week has been miserably cold. We've had temps well into the negatives at night and not much higher during the day. There have been two snow delays and a cancellation. What a weird week. On top of that Midge has had the stomach flu for a total of 5 days and counting. I'm really hoping she's better today. Even though I've been very careful in what I feed her, it still seems to come and go. Chiggie had it Monday, but everyone else is doing just fine for now. I can't wait for this weekend. Higher temperatures and the King will be home!