Christmas 2010

Wow we had a great Christmas week with family and friends. We got such wonderful gifts from everyone. Thanks so much. It was a rough start with everyone sick. Carl in I lay in bed one night after we had both been puked on by Owen and Nathan earlier in the night and said if there was a song to describe our start to Christmas it would go like this. The twelve days before Christmas at the Priechenfried house.
12 prescriptions from Walgreen's
11 boxes of Kleenex
10 loads of laundry
9 dinner parties
8 hours of sleep in 7 days
7 more loads of laundry
6 more perscriptions
5 humidifiers humming
4 trips to the doctors
3 runny noses
2 kids puking
1 and a cat that poops on the floor!

Don't worry things got lots better, Aunt Ali and Troy showed up with Grandma and Grandpa we got help. Mom got lots of sleep. Everyone got better and all is well. We had a fun, we had snow and boy did we eat too many cookies! Carl has been home for two weeks, Aunt Ali and Troy got stuck here because of the snow and Aunt Ali started cleaning well okay organizing, she left no closet untouched! Grandma took the kids for some fun a few days and things are great. Monday is going to be a such a shock to my system! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!


The cousins sit for a picture on Christmas Eve.

Carl captured Nathans first look at the presents from Santa.

Caitlin was not far behind.

Caitlin loved her West Virginia Univ bear from Uncle Bob and Aunt Roberta. I have never seen her so happy to get a gift, I had to take the picture twice because she was running around screaming I love it I love it!

Caitlin painted Grandma a dolphin and gave it to her for Christmas.

Owen and Caitlin sit with Ali on Christmas morning. Poor Owen he was so sick . Wow was he sick!

Owen got a horse from Santa.

Nathan asked for a speed boat from Santa! It is so fast.

One of Owen's favorite toys , this car! He loves to drive.

Caitlin got a baby doll and matching outfits!

Nathan watches his speed boat go!

Oh and about the 13 year old cat, she is still here but the carpets got steam cleaned yesterday and she now has her own litter box in the garage!

Christmas Fun!

Well , we made it happen, the tree is decorated, the stockings are hung and the cookies well, we ate them all so now we are in the kitchen making round two! Now if only I could say we are all better, not quite. Catilin is all better now those boys! I took Nathan back to the doctors on Monday but by Wednesday we were back and I took Owen with me as well. Owen was almost done his antibiotics but his cough/chest did not sound good. Now Nathan and Owen have just started antibiotics round two! The doctor seems to think that we had three different bugs and the kids have just been passing it around. Lucky Us ! We have been in this house for days. We have so many prescriptions I have to sit down and think for a few minutes to remember what everyone gets. We have had visitors and lots of fun though! We had Janelle , Jason, Bryn and Morgan down for dinner and gingerbread house decorating. Next it was Granny and Granddad for a whole day. Ms. Dee showed up with presents and cleaned..... and then last night we had Aunt Susan and Uncle Jeff for yummy oysters and crab cakes! Good times.

Nathan puts an ornament on the tree! In his holiday jammies.

Daddy holds Caitlin

Bryn and Caitlin decorating gingerbread houses.

The boys decorating.

Owen loves the tree.

Wow those look great!

The boys!

Owen opens his present from Dee, its a winner!

Uncle Jeff holds Owen. Owen just loves to be held , don't put me down!

I love the wrapping paper best!

Uncle Jeff and Nate.

School Christmas Party

Here is Caitlin at her school Christmas Party. She is on the far right sitting down. I love love love her teacher. She teaches them so many songs. They sang about 8 songs (Away in the Manger, Here comes Santa.... ). In the end Santa walks in. I am thinking about posting video. The only problem is I get the blog made into books . I use the blog as a baby book, we are in our third book right now. I usually do about two years of posts in one book. Anyway video does not show up in the book so I am not sure I want to start that. hummm... maybe I will do a separate blog of just videos? Who knows... Any ideas out there?

I missed the red shoes!

Nathan made this in kindergarden. Cute, cause he is five. I hope he dosen't want to wear it when he is ten HAHAHAH

Nate's Class

Uncle Jeff Flys Jet Planes!

Here comes Uncle Jeff, jet number six. We got to see them fly over in formation and then four landed on the runway and two hovered to a landing!

Nate watches Uncle Jeff park his jet.

Uncle Jeff back safely after flying in from Yuma.

How cool would it be to have an uncle that flys jet planes! This week I took Nate to watch Uncle Jeff fly his jet. He was telling his teacher as he left school. My uncle Jeff has a jet plane and I am going to watch him fly it. You see he acts like this is something everyone does, you know hops on a jet and flys around. It was cold cold cold cold! Of course they did a really cool fly over with six jets but I am just not that fast with my camera. I mean I asked if they could go up and do it again so I could get ready... Oh well maybe next time!

New Camera

I got a new camera for my birthday. You know one of those fancy DSLR cameras. I don't actually have time to read the instruction guide, but I would love to know if you think my pictures are better. I can tell a difference... Can you? Leave a comment.


Last week before the sickness, Caitlin and I made some chocolate sugar cookies

Owen loves bathtime.

Owen looking ....

This was with the old camera but too cute not to share... I have lots of blog posts coming your way...

Its Christmas Time

The family , Caitlin picked the headband!

The kids, Caitlin is no longer jealous of Owen and is really helping take care of him now.

The girls, Mom and Ali happened to be here on picture day so we took a girls picture.

The family, well minus Jeff and Susan. Like I said I had only planned on doing the kids but then Carl talked me into a family picture and everyone was here so here we are November 27 , 2010.

IT WAS SO COLD OUTSIDE! CARL MADE US WALK DOWN TO THE DOCK BRRRRRR!

Okay okay time for us to get with the program around here. Wow what a week! IT WAS HORRIBLE. That is all I can say, everyone was sick and I didn't get a break nope I was up all day and all night! Let these kids get better and soon. All I want for Christmas is a some sleep! Carl is home and our goal for the weekend- Christmas! We need a tree, we need to make some cookies.... not a problem with an extra set of hands I feel like I can conquer the world!

Oil

We all know that the word shy and Nathan do not go together. Nope my boy has no problems expressing himself. Last night I went to a parent, student meeting at Nathan's school. The teachers were showing us ways to teach our children to be better readers. The parents were sitting on the floor watching the teacher read the children a book. The teacher was giving us a little background before she started. Across the room Nate yells " I don't need any help!" " The book is called " I've seen Santa". He was right, it was so funny. He is doing really well reading.
Okay on to my story about oil.
Last week the teacher sends a note home that says : Ask Nathan to tell you the story about "oil" in Mr. Kings class. Hum, I thought .....
Background, we live in eastern North Carolina and some of the people have what they like to call a down east accent. It sort of brings southern twang to a new level. Carl goes out of his way to try to make sure Nathan and Caitlin do not develop this southern twang. Its going well with Nathan but not so good with Caitlin. Any way Carl is constantly correcting them.
So I said, Nathan tell me about oil in Mr. King's class. Nathan said Mr. King said oil.. pronounced "all" in these parts. Nathan says " I told him the correct way to say it is " oil". When I went to parent teacher night the teachers were still talking about it.

Guess whos walking?

Owen took his first steps this week. Dad saw him take a step on Sunday but I was in denial. On Tuesday evening he took two steps and tonight he walked four steps to get to Nathan! Walking at 9.5 months! Oh boy I will try to post some pictures soon I am just so exhausted! I am sure it will all get so easy now that he can walk!!!!!

Brrrrrrrrrrrr Its Cold Outside

Nathan paints a star.

These were fun to make and only cost 1.00$ I am sure they are made with lead and will kill us!

Good looking tree Nathan and Caitlin had lots of fun decorating!

The train provides hours of fun!

Its feeling like Christmas now! Okay that's enough for me, can we have 75 and sunny now. We have started decorating. With Carl gone its slow going, okay even slower because of Owen the destroyer. The tree will wait to go up until closer to Christmas when Carl is home and he can stop Owen from climbing it. We have the stockings up and the train is a favorite. Last weekend we put a little tree on the table and spent the day making ornaments. The kids painted some some canvas rectangles, made some stained glass (plastic) and colored some. They turned out great. I will take pictures of my favorites and post them later. Nathan has been home from school for two days with strep and impetigo ( ew gross). My days are spent doing load after load of laundry , cleaning every surface with bleach , using my new steam mop. Oh the good times. I just can't wait until tomorrow when Ms. Dee (maid) comes to save the day! I am really looking forward to Saturday when Carl is here. Many of you may not know this but Dad is the Christmas cookie guy around here. I usually have the vision but he does all the work! Okay time to go to the grocery store and get all the stuff. Cookie pictures later!

Happy Birthday Caitlin!!!!!

Caitlin had so many parties , where to start. After the tea set painting we had a party with the cousins on Thanksgiving at Granny's house. She requested a unicorn cake and had a great time playing with her cousins. On Friday we had a party well actually it was a party for Mom and Aunt Ali and we let her help blow out the candles, the kids didn't really like the cake choices but we sure did, pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie and devils food cake with cream cheese frosting! Yummy Next Caitlin had cupcakes at both preschools yes one on Monday and then today. Yes that is a total of five birthday parties for a four year old. The funny things is since I made cupcakes for three of them and left the cake at Granny's (no leftovers) the kids asked if I could make a cake for her birthday tonight! HAHAH NO NO I am done!!!! Caitlin Happy Birthday! I love you. I love how you are so independent, I love your zest! I love your hugs and I hope you had a great 4th birthday!

Heading off to Granny's for Thanksgiving Getting ready to break the pinata

She had a unicorn party this year!

Check out that cake!

Party number three for Mom and Aunt Ali who were also celebrating their third birthday!

Okay I would love to post more but there is a little monster attacking my computer while I type!!!!! More about him later!

My baby girl is turning 4

Caitlin painting a tea set.

The only colors Caitlin used pink and purple. Her favorites!

Cupcakes with pink and purple frosting and sprinkles.

My little baby girl is turning 4 next week. Four is a big birthday, it is the leap from toddler to child. It will be a week of celebration here. We started last night with a pottery painting party with Caitlins three best friends. We had Bryn , Carlie and Kelli. Bryn and Carlie will both be having a birthday next week as well so it was a party for everyone. After painting we had a pizza party and finished with cupcakes. Granny, Granddad, Aunt Susan and Aunt Caren were all there for the fun. We can't wait to see the finished products! The fun doesn't end here , party number two is tomorrow!