Black Friday

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Ours was so nice, we spent it at my parent's in Okoboji and had a great time catching up with everyone. Mom made a wonderful turkey with all the fixins, Ben made his homemade rolls and Kelley made FOUR delicious pies for dessert. YUMMO! We also celebrated Black Friday together. Not the Black Friday most of you probably experienced.....the one where you hit the stores for great shopping deals. We had our own Black Friday. We all had the stomach flu! Not a great way to end the Holiday weekend! There were 15 of us and all but 2 were down and out, including all 5 kids under 5 years old. It is one Thanksgiving we will not soon forget. Oh yes, the ones who stayed strong were Darci and Dave. I have no idea how, but they managed to go unscathed.

I was the first to go down on Friday afternoon so I missed the dance party they had in the basement. But Dave tells me everyone danced and Layla asked her cousins, Sam and Henry, to marry her at least 20 times. I'm sad we don't have it on video, but I am told there are pictures of the event.

Sometimes......

.......you just need your big sister. Cooper was ready for his morning nap very early this morning. But, I didn't want to put him down only 1 hour after he woke up! So, it became a stall game where he just wanted to be held and snuggled. Layla, seeing that I was trying to get breakfast cleaned up and it was hard to do with 23 pounds of baby in my arms, says to me, "Mom, mom, mom, here, just let me take him. Here, I'll go lay on your bed and he'll just lay with me." Hilarious......but worth a shot. So, here they are and it was just what Cooper wanted. He stayed perfectly still for at least 5 minutes and stayed snuggling with sister for at least 15. Ahhhhhhh, a nice little break!

He Crawls!

The little man finally did it today. He finally got all limbs moving in the right direction at the right time and is now crawling. He turns 8 months on Novemebr 27th so he hit this milestone just a few weeks before his sister did. Cooper is such a happy, easy going baby, but he is a man on a mission! Not only did he crawl today, but he also walked around the entire dining room chair. Oh was he a proud little boy. Its time for some rebabyproofing in the Handsaker house!

No post is quite complete without a Laylaism or a Layla story. Her preschool participated in a food drive this week so I sent her off to school Thursday with canned food in her backpack. In the last 6 months we've been working on being a blessing to people and donating items to various drives and organizations. Its been a great chance to talk to Layla about sharing what we have. So Thursday morning I reminded her the food was in her backpack and then went into the bedroom to get dressed for work. When I came back out she was sitting with her backpack and stuffing toys into it. I asked, "honey, what are you doing?" Layla replied, "I'm taking my toys to the people who don't have any food." Oh my goodness, I'm thinking, how sweet is this girl? All of these months and her heart is really getting it! I gushed, "Layla, you are so sweet to give your toys to others." She looked at me stoned faced and said, "No mommy, I'm not giving them the toys, I just thought they would like to look at them." Bubble bursted.

Pay Day

I went to work today and it was pay day. Not the kind where I was paid, but the kind that I paid for. Yesterday afternoon (after I cleaned the bathrooms) the pressure in my head and in my left ear were building to the point that I knew I was going to have a ruptured ear drum. It happened to me last winter and its not a pain you soon forget. So, I call the doc and he subscribed an oral steroid to quickly reduce the swelling. Lets take a moment to tally what I'm now on: antibiotic, antihistamine, a steroid to shoot up my nose and an oral steroid. Let me tell you, that last steroid was goooooooood! Within an hour I was golden! So great that I thought I'd go to work, after all, I only work one day/week. Well, I'm now glad to be in bed and feeling better after another dose of steroids. I don't know why I always have to push my limits (mom and Dave, no comment please)! I'm praying Dave and the kids don't get this!

Mommy Down

.....or as down as a mommy can be! I have been battling a cough for weeks and Friday night I knew I was starting to feel worse. Finally, late yesterday I went to my doctor and I have bronchitis, sinus infection and the start of an ear infection in both ears. Lovely! At least Dave doesn't have anymore overnights this week and I'm hoping to take it easy today.......after errands and Layla's haircut.......oh, and after I clean the bathrooms. I just can't help myself!

Pink Eye, but Still No Pink Snow!

There is still no pink snow (or any snow) at the Handsaker House, but we do have pink eye. Little Mr. Cooper DD started getting gunky eyes yesterday and sure enough, the Dr. confirmed today that its pink eye. As you can see by the picture, its not bad and he's not too upset about it. Its so crazy to me how kids pick this stuff up. He's not in daycare, school and we haven't had any play dates this week. So, how he got it is a mystery. Our goal now is to keep the rest of us from getting it.

This week has gone so fast! Its already Homemade Pizza Friday so Layla and I just prepared the dough and set it to rise. We had a fun picnic lunch in Layla's room today. She was pretending it was the Iowa State Fair and we were camping out. While taking her picture she informed me that this wasn't a "party picnic", this was a serious picnic because "we had a lot of projects and oranizaaashion to talk about." Of course I bust out laughing and she tried very hard to stay serious. Happy weekend to all!

Waiting for the Pink Snow

Last night, while watching the weather forecast, I got very excited! They predicted we might wake up to snow this morning.....just a dusting. I said, "Layla, come here. Look, the news says we may have snow when we wake up in the morning!" Layla is ecstatic and replies, "Mom, this is fabulous! And its going to be pink!" No sweetie, that's just the color of snow on the radar. Snow is, always has been and will always be white!

"How did you get that many?"

When I tucked Layla in for her nap today she wanted me to remind her how old I turned on my birthday yesterday. When I said 36, she asked, "How did you get that many?" My answer? "By the grace of God!" When those words came out of my mouth I was half joking, but when I heard them it gave me a different perspective on my age. Instead of feeling like its a ton of years and I'm old, it made me realize how blessed I am to have had all of these years filled with God's blessings.

We spent my birthday weekend in Kansas City with some of my family and IT WAS WONDERFUL!!!! My mom, Dave, Cooper, Layla and I invaded Uncle Bruce and Aunt Toni's house and were so spoiled! We loved reconnecting with them and with my cousins Donna, Alan and Shannon and Alan and Shannon's little girls Kylee and Alaina. On my birthday Dave and Bruce took the kids and us girls headed out shopping. I was treated to Starbucks and lunch. When we got home Toni made us a delicious dinner and I was surprised by amazing gifts. I mean TRULY surprised! Mom and Toni had bought me two things that I really liked while we were out shopping. These were wonderful items that I loved but didn't buy because they weren't a necessity. Do you know what I mean? Just things I wouldn't buy for myself because it felt extravagant. They were sneaky and bought them behind my back!

And my wonderful husband, who had already bought me a present, then surprised me with a gift card to my favorite nail place AND A WEEKEND AWAY WITH MY MOM TO A BETH MOORE CONFERENCE ANYWHERE IN THE U.S.!!!!!!! And, I can't forget the great t-shirt that Layla picked out for me from her and Cooper. They bought it at Cabelas. That should clue you in that it is a special shirt! It's a white, short sleeve baseball style shirt with pink camo sleeves. You can imagine the beauty! I told her it would be the perfect shirt to wear as PJs and I was relieved when she agreed. But the relief was short lived as she added that I could also wear it to church, to school, to work and when I take her to tumbling. Hmmmmmm, how far will a mother's love go?

Thank you to everyone who called, emailed and sent me facebook birthday messages. You all made me feel so special on my birthday!

"Did Daddy win or did the Hawkeyes?"

If you read this blog you know that Layla has been very into the election this year, or at least as much as a 3 year old can be. This morning she wanted to know who won the president of Americas.....Daddy or the Hawkeyes. OK, I said she was very into the election, I didn't say she knew a lot about it! Dave and I purposed to take both kids with us when we voted. I know they're young, but they are never too young to understand that we live in a blessed country with amazing rights and privileges. When we went to the Winterset courthouse and I finished in 3 minutes Layla asked, "that's it?" Yes baby, that's it. It may not have taken long and the election may not have ended up how we wished, but what we did was very important!

Daddy's Home......ATTACK!!!!

There are 2 boys in this house who love Layla very much. And because they love her so, they tend to get roped into a lot! So, when Layla wanted to play "beauty salon" with Daddy and Coopy, that's what they did. It started with daddy designing Layla's hair and ended with everyone in hair bows (even though I cut Dave's off in the picture). Don't worry James Dobson, Dave and Cooper did get a little masculine time this weekend. They layed on the couch and watched/slept through some college football and took a trip to the hardware store. Two things to ensure that Cooper regained all the masculinity he lost wearing a white, grosgrain, double tie hair bow. Of course, I'm sure it will all be lost again when he's 16 and looks back at these pictures.

Other than that, we really had a nice weekend at home. The weather was great and we were able to get all of our outdoor winterizing done. We had a great time with the Gibson's Saturday night and relaxing Sunday. My favorite dog, Lola had 11 puppies today. Yikes, yes, that's our biggest litter. My least favorite dog, Georgia, is set to go any day as well. This is always a fun time for Layla and she counts down the days until she gets to hold and handle the puppies. She likes to remind them all that she is "the boss of all the dogs."