go ahead and try to decide which one is best....

Brian is 6!

Whew! It's been a whirlwind birthday weekend! Brian officially turned 6 on Friday, December 4th! I really can't believe it's been that long. Where does time go? We started the birthday festivities on Thursday night with a friend party at Chuck E Cheese. Normally, I despise Chuck E Cheese- what with the millions of screaming kids and germ infested toys...but my kids love it, so that's why we go there. Anyway, it was actually really tolerable! There was hardly anyone there, and it was fairly quiet! Brian had a great time partying with his friends. On Friday (his actual birthday), I took cupcakes to his class. However....he threw up when they were eating the birthday cupcakes, so I picked him up early from school. Poor kid- he was so embarrassed! He was feeling ok that night, so we went ahead and went out to dinner for his birthday. He chose to go to Salsalito (a mexican restaurant) because he DESPERATELY wanted sopaillas! Weeeelllll.....before our food came, we had another throw up incident...he at least made it to the door of the bathrooms so that it didn't happen in front of the entire restaurant.
( Now let me just clarify- No, I do not take my kids out if they are sick. No, I do not like to expose the entire world to whatever it is they have. I like them to rest, and get better ASAP. Brian said he was feeling fine, he had no fever or any other symptoms except the whole throwing up thing. So I thought we were ok. )
Anyway, we came home and he opened more presents from matt and I, and my mom and dad. We had one more episode before bed, but after that he was totally fine. Slept fine, no puking, no fever, etc. Saturday, he went to Sea World with Matt and Sydnee, and was great. Sunday comes...fine...no problems- UNTIL- we are having a family birthday party for Brian and Charlie, and he throws up again. Still no fever or any other symptoms. Still acting fine! WEIRD! I have no idea what's going on with this kid! And I feel terrible that his special birthday weekend was plagued by bouts of throwing up. I kept him home from school today, just to be safe, but how crazy is this little bug that he has???

Teaser...

Here's just a teaser of our family pictures this year....I am LOVING how they turned out, and I am having such a hard time choosing which ones to print!!  I'm gonna give a SHOUT OUT to my great friend/photographer KRISTA ADAMS for doing such a wonderful job and making my crazy kids actually look like little angels! HA!

Thanksgiving #2 2009

Every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, we get together with the rest of the Wheelus gang for ANOTHER feast.  i ran 7 miles saturday morning, so i could eat pie! LOL!  We got together at Jenny's house this year, and we had super yummy food contributed by everyone!  I'm kicking myself for not getting a picture of everyone that was there, but WE WILL get one at Brian's family birthday party on Sunday! 

Trimming the tree....

Yes, I know I'm moving in a couple weeks, but I just HAD to put up my tree.  I wanted to actually enjoy it for 3 weeks instead of just one.  We put it up on Thanksgiving night.  Now it feels more like Christmas, and I just love looking at my tree.  It makes me happy to see it all lit up, and the kids loved helping put on the ornaments. Surprisingly,  Lexie has actually left it alone too!  I wanted to get a picture of all of us in front of it, but it was late when we got done decorating, and everyone needed to get to bed.  Don't you worry- I will get one! HAHA!

Thanksgiving 2009

Thanksgiving dinner!  YAY! Every year for the past 3 or 4 years, Nicole and Ryan have come over to eat with us.  We love having them, and they're practically our family anyway!  Sharon orders La Madeline's turkey feast and we RELAX while it's cooking! I used to think it was weird to order Thanksgiving dinner, but now I LOVE IT!  And it tastes really yummy- so how can you go wrong?!  The kids love that they get to have fancy glasses and "bubbly"...who am I kidding? I love to have fancy glasses and bubbly!  

Turkey Trot 4 mile run

In order for me to feel ok about eating Thanksgiving dinner- I decided to run a 4 mile "Turkey Trot" race on Thanksgiving morning.  Matt went to play football, the kids went hiking with Charles and Sharon, and Lexie and I went with Nicole and Becky to run! It was a little cold that morning, but there was a HUGE turnout at the race.  Nicole and I finished in 38 mins, with Becky right behind us at 41 mins!  It was really difficult to run with a jogger stroller on a TINY trail with 2500 people!   We felt like we were practically walking part of the time.  UGH!  Get out of my way people! HAHA!  Anyway, we had a good time, and I will do it again next year, but probably without the jogger--then I may even have a chance to win!