Let me just start out by saying &%^$ >?@!~&^%(*&!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ok, now that that's out of my system I can go on.  Whew I needed that!!!!


Have you ever known anyone that never misses an opportunity for "I told you so"s and tries to always tear down everyone they ever come in contact with and brings everyone down that they interact with by digging at them and making them feel worse than they did when they ran into you? I know someone like that and I really hope and pray that I can be the complete opposite of that! That when I run into someone I can uplift them and make them feel better for having talked with me and spread a little sunshine around. I know that I'm not like that all the time and that life is hard and sometimes I ooze negativity too but I really don't mean to or want to and I hope I can be better. I know being torn down and brought down and stomped on by someone has a tendency to rub off on those around them and I really hope to rise above it and to be positive and good.
~I LOVE Christmas time! I love the snow, the music, the food, the smells, the lights, the ornaments, the trees, the wreathes, basically everything about it and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE being able to see it all through my little children's eyes! Makes it even more enjoyable!
~We went to my family Christmas party last Friday night. It was tons of fun! The kids made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and the adults made real gingerbread houses. I was so going to try making my own this year but chickened out and bought one at the last minute for $10. Zack finished his and was moving it from the table and dropped it and all the candy fell off of it and it broke. Poor kid! We decided to let him decorate the one we had bought. He had fun and that's all that matters! This year the kids bought gifts for each other and the adults decided that instead of exchanging gifts this year we would play a white elephant game of sorts. It was actually bingo. Each adult purchased a $5-$10 gift to wrap and bring to the party. The gifts were placed in the middle of the table and each time someone got a bingo they were able to either pick a gift from the middle or trade with someone else if they wanted their gift. Once your bingo card was completetly full you could either open the gift in your hand or steal someone else's to open. It was so much fun!!! Brian ended up with an air soft bb gun and I had a nice bottle of bath and body works lotion and a Christmas towel with a snowman on it. So cute! It was a really fun night!!!
~I finally made pumpkin bars. Now moving on to all of my favorite fattening Christmas goodies! HOORAY!!!
~All of our kids and Brian have had a cold. Matthew hadn't had it yet but started to cough a little here and there on Sunday and I thought for sure he was starting the cold too. That night he was eating some chicken noodle soup for dinner and started having problems breathing. I thought he was having an asthma attack and had Brian give him a puff of albuterol from the inhaler. Well, he just got worse. Brian gave him benedryl. He still didn't improve. I was wondering if it was asthma or if he had accidentally been exposed to nuts or something. He said he didn't breathe the inhaler very well so I decided to give him the liquid albuterol he had left after the swine flu. He got so bad he was not able to catch his breath. I thought I should call 911 but we live really close to the hospital and decided it would be faster to drive him. I was afraid by the time we got to the hospital he wouldn't be breathing at all he was so bad! I expected him to pass out any time. As all of this was running through my mind Brian suggested we use the epipen. Now any of you who know Brian know he doesn't get upset or excited about ANYTHING! If HE is suggesting this it's BAD!!! So I held him down and Brian gave him the shot. Matthew really was very brave through the whole thing I might add! He started breathing better and we took him to the hospital. Once we were there he started doing the barky cough of croup. Matthew had chronic croup from the age of one to about 3 or 4 but hasn't had it for a couple of years. Max has had it a few times and so did Zack when he was a baby. I KNOW what croup sounds like and trust me the kid was not showing signs of croup until we were at the hospital. With croup if you have them in the cold air or if they are drinking ice water or something the restriction in their air way improves and they can breathe better. We wonder if the warm soup made his air way constrict and that's was the problem. We don't know! We do know however that albuterol makes croup worse so the double dose of albuterol didn't help him out at all. Thank heavens we have an epi pen!! Anyway, that was too much excitement for me and I hope I never have to watch him struggle that hard to breathe ever again. SCARY!!! That's the second time in his life he's been that bad and I hope it doesn't happen again!
~Our computer is broken again and I have to share again that is why I don't post very often. Brian is hoping to fix it tonight. Cross your fingers for me please!!! 
~I totally love the setting on blogs that makes it so you are notified of comments made on your blog by email!!! It's the best! BTW: My spell check option is gone on my blog so please don't critique too much. I have been typing with a very chatty 3 year old talking to me and a very squirmy 6 month old on my lap.
~I hope you all are enjoying this fun Christmas time!!! Happy celebrating!!!