Happy New Year 2008

I should actually have titled this one "Some Christmas Pictures, Finally". Here's a slide show of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. We've had massive amounts of fun, and our fair share of sickness since Christmas Day, but I don't want another day to go by before I get these pics up, and for those of you who care I will be adding pictures to Shutterfly very soon.

* Parental Disclaimer: In the photo slide show there aren't many pictures of Kate, and that is because on Christmas day she was the one who was sickest. When the girls read this one day I don't want her to think I left her out on purpose... she just wasn't into as much as the other three were.

Since Christmas we've been wading through all the 10,000 parts and trying to figure out why in the world we did this to ourselves.... all the toys with parts, I mean?!? Note to self: No Toys With a Million Parts Next Year!

The girls are all enjoying their new kitchen and Ella's new "booty pawyer" -for those who don't know E that is beauty parlor. There are thousands of new hair bows, curlers, pieces of food, dishes- you name it, and if it goes in a pretend kitchen or beauty parlor, we've got it- lying around here. Oh, and they also got several cute Little People sets... can you say pieces and parts??? I must get organized or I'll go crazy. My strategy before for keeping the toys manageable was that all the toys with parts stay in a huge red bin that only came out on special days (i.e. when I'm home alone with them) and then at the end of the day we put them all back in the bin. That way they stay new and exciting and aren't underfoot, spreading from room to room all the time. Now it seems that just about everything they got for Christmas came with parts, so I'll have to devise a new plan I suppose.

On Christmas night Scott and I had a fun time out at Richard and Beth's house for their annual Christmas cranium party... except very few of the same old people were there, and we played Apples to Apples instead. I was absolutely drained by the time we were heading out the door to go, and must admit that no part of me wanted to leave the comfort of my own home, but I am so glad that we went. Scott never ceases to amaze me with how funny he is in situations like that! It was fun to just sit back and be a couple who didn't have four kids with them for the evening. The girls were all in bed asleep dreaming about scattering their new toys from one end of the house to the other by that point anyway.

The day after Christmas was when all the excitement of baby Noel (our friend's new son) occurred. Not much else to report for the 26th except that Scott wasn't well and stayed home from what was supposed to be the only other trip he had to fly for 2007.

All the rest of the days between Christmas and now are a blur... somewhere in there Scott and I both caught the cold/virus that the girls had been passing around for a while. We woke up one morning, both of us feeling awful. Scott ran to the store to get us some cold medicine. He came home and gave me a big dose before taking one himself at 10am. Only minutes later, when I went to the kitchen to get something for one of the girls, did I notice that he had just given us both a huge helping of NIGHTTIME cold meds... at 10am... with 4 grumpy girls in the house. We struggled through that day and made it to the next, which, if I remember correctly was cold and rainy and neither of us was feeling all that well still.

Scott finally escaped back to work last night, and thankfully I can report that I am on the mend too after having a couple full nights of sleep without any of the girls waking. Now it looks like Ella and possibly Maggie may have some sort of stomach bug, but perhaps it'll go away tomorrow? Here's hoping!!

Wishing you all health and happiness for 2008!