Monday found us headed to the mall. Going to the mall here isn't an easy task, you have to drive an hour to get there so I planned for an off-schedule day. We left about 9:30 in the morning and didn't get home until nearly 6:00 that night. We spent some time at the mall's playground which both of the kids enjoyed. I was able to do some Christmas shopping and so was my mom. I was so thankful that she went along to help with the kids, I'm not sure I could have done it without her.

Tuesday found us recovering from Monday and just hanging around the house. That night though, I woke up to Blake throwing up. It scared me a bit because neither of my kids have done this before. I did make a call to the local hospital and the on-call nurse and I both agreed that it was probably just a virus as he had no other symptoms. We spent Wednesday at the house again and seeing how Blake would fair the rest of the day.

By Thursday he seemed to be better so we went on with our plans which was another trip to the mall except this time with Papa so we could help him with his Christmas shopping. Again, we made several stops and played at the mall. On the way home BeBe met us at the Christmas tree farm. It is tradition in my family to do go the farm and pick and cut the yearly Christmas tree. After getting all bundled up, we piled into the grandparents pickup to look for the "perfect" tree. I'm not sure Samantha understood the significance of it all but she was a good sport and endured the cold better than she has in the past. Blake acted like he almost liked the cold as he was fussy in the truck but as soon as we got out his was quiet. We found the "perfect" tree and headed home.

That night, I got sick and by the next morning, both of my parents were sick to. So much for getting up that perfect tree! That meant we spent Friday and Sabbath taking it easy, very easy indeed and trying to keep the kids entertained with as little as we could

By Saturday night we all had cabin fever so we went for a ride to look at some lights which I think the kids really enjoyed.

Blake has taken a bit longer to recover and I hope he gets his full appetite back soon.

We finally got up the Christmas tree Sunday night. Samantha so enjoyed putting on all of the ornaments. She put them all on the bottom, almost all in the same spot. My dad especially enjoyed watching her put them up and getting such a joy out of it.

Blake is all over the place and has found several new drawers that he can safely play with. We brought the walker with us and he can almost run in it and he can also back up in it. He's nearly dangerous!

Samantha has learned a whole new vocabulary up here-words like...snow plow, feed truck, milk truck, etc. She keeps on wondering how come when we say it's warmer that she still has to wear her "heavy" jacket (warmer is 36 around here).

Samantha has also started to us the "big" potty a bit. I am really going to push her when we get home because she can almost do it when she wants to. We've been bribing her with stickers and M&M's. I think right now it takes to much time away from playing for her to really focus on it.

Random shots of the kids....

Getting and putting up the Christmas tree.....