The rest of Christmas Break...

Lots of good moments, but also kind of a bummer break with lots of sickness.

My cold turned really nasty the days following Christmas. But I was glad that at that point I was the only one who was sick. So Lars took the boys sledding in all of that fun new snow the day after Christmas while I laid on the couch finishing a good book I'd been reading.

I'm glad they could get out and have fun...I wish I would have felt up to going with them, but I'm glad Lars has learned to take good pictures for me when I can't go. Love these!

He took the cute neighbor girls with him too...

 Saturday we got up and got ready and took the boys to the Jump Zone...they had been begging for weeks to go play there and we had a coupon for buy one hour get one free. So we stayed for 2 hours! They loved it.

 

Then we went to Pizza Pie Café for lunch...another favorite place of theirs, then to see Into the Woods at the movie theater.

My favorite part of the day...I loved it! It is almost all singing, so they weren't as sold on it as me, but it still kept them entertained the whole time :) (Lars slept through a tiny bit of it...haha)

I still wasn't feeling well, but it was fun to get out of the house!

 

But then Sunday was a day I had been looking forward to for at least a month or so. I had signed us up for a great volunteer opportunity preparing meals for Feed My Starving Children and it was scheduled for early Sunday morning. We had to be out at the cross fit gym in Hyde Park (also the gym where Gunnar practices soccer) at 7:45 am to get started. It was such a great experience for our family. Feed My Starving Children is a wonderful charity that packages food packets that consist of rice, soy, veggies and vitamins to be sent over to 70 different countries. So we got to put the actual food packets together that day. Our group worked from 8 am till 10 am and were able to prepare over 14,000 meals!

Some pictures from our day...

We all had to wear hair nets :)

My job was to make sure the packets were sealed tight and pack 36 in each box...

 Gunnar's job was to weigh each packet to make sure it was within the correct weight range, and if it was not, he had to either add rice or dump a little out...

He did such a great job!

Ashton scooping the veggie mix in...

 Even though I still didn't feel good, this was honestly one of the highlights of our whole Christmas break for me. Such a great experience. Anytime the boys can be involved in helping others and get to see how hard it is in other parts of the world, and how we can make a difference...it just makes me happy.

I can't wait to do this again!

On Monday, Lars decided to head up and going skiing alone and the boys were excited to be going over to play at Jace and Owen's house. I stayed home and cleaned.

When Lars got home I couldn't believe it when he told me his skis and poles had been stolen while he was out at the truck eating his lunch!!

We filed a police report and checked in with the pawn shops in town, but no luck. They're gone. So sad that people do stuff like that.

So he had no choice but to be done skiing and to head home. And now he'll have to get new skis!!

On Tuesday Gunnar started running a fever, but seemed fine after he had ibuprofen in him.

Then on Wednesday morning early I woke up to Ashton puking down the hall!

He didn't quite make it to the bathroom in time :(

So I had Lars get up and help me. He is so good about cleaning up puke, I just can't do it!

And poor Ashton...he laid around sick all day. Then by late afternoon Gunnar was running a fever again too and they were both laying around feeling horrible on New Year's Eve.

I had borrowed friend's carpet cleaner that morning, so I spent a good hour and a half cleaning all of our upstairs carpet...especially the hallway!

Then we just had a quiet New Year's Eve and none of us made it till midnight. Ashton ended up getting really sick and throwing up again that night.

But they both woke up feeling better on Thursday so Grandma and Grandpa Harry came down for the day to celebrate Christmas a week late with us.

It was lots of fun to have them come :) 

They got the boys these cool things to attach to their bikes that make them sound like motorcycles as well as these really neat wood crosses and a dart game to share.

And Aunt Kelli sent them these fun books :)

We all went to lunch at Café Sabor, then came home and played Cranium Cadoo.

That has been one of the best gifts of Christmas this year. We have played it over and over again. It was especially fun to play with Grandma and Grandpa...and get to see Grandma act out an earthquake and mold stuff out of clay to get us to guess...haha :)

 After Gunnar's ibuprofen kicked in on Friday, since he woke up yet again with a fever (and he perked up again) we ended up going ice fishing yesterday to Idaho. It was a beautiful day, but we didn't land a single fish! Lars and I had a couple big ones break us off, but other than that...nothing.

So the boys were bored and got really cold towards the end of the day.

Gunnar's little hands were freezing and he ended up falling asleep on the way home...

Then today he woke up yet again with a fever as well as his nose being all swollen big and red!

Poor kid :(

So I finally took him to Urgent Care today, but still didn't really get any answers. They checked for the flu and sinus infection and it's not that, so we got a prescription for an antibiotic that we will start tomorrow if he's still sick. He just felt miserable all day :(

Oh and Lars got my nasty cold a few days ago too!

So we have had lots of fun times, but too much time at home sick too.

I really do feel grateful though...I honestly can't remember the last time I've had to take Ashton or Gunnar to the doctor besides for a check up. Such a blessing to have healthy kids most of the time!