Thanksgiving, Pictures and Santa

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My sister and her family did not fair as well. Mallory spiked a very high fever and after a trip to the ER in Iowa it was believed she had Sixth Disease so they came home without spending any time with the family they intended to. They had dinner, via Hyvee, in the car on the way back to KC. How sad is that? At any rate Mallory is feeling better and that's most important.

With help from my mom I hosted Thanksgiving dinner for 12 at my home. It was nice. The food was yummy! What more can you ask for!

Friday we went for pictures. Mostly for Kori's 7-year birthday pictures (seven already!) but I figured we'd throw the little girls in there too. They day was off to a great start. Morgan and Alexis were unusually quiet and clingy. I worried they were getting sick. I gave them juice for breakfast, just in case. Milk coming back up is never good. They perked up after some breakfast which was great! Got everyone dressed and such. They looked great, all 4 girls. Everyone cooperated with hair fixing, except Alexis. Nothing in the world was going to convince her to have ponytails in her hair like her sisters. I choose not to make an issue over something silly like that so she won that round. As we were getting ready to leave she threw up. It isn't your normal throw-up (probably TMI here I'm sorry). It was mucousy and just something she couldn't process so it came out. Nothing on the clothes which was good. We cleaned up and were on our way after she proclaimed, "I feel better!" My nephew was staying with us so we had an extra pair of hands, which is alwasy good. Jason grumbled as we were trying to find a place to park. He wondered why "anyone would take pictures on the day after Thanksgiving". I pointed out we've done it for the last 3 years. We finally made our way in and got taken right back. Jason had to run back home to get my who gets what picture list (I can't function without it). Kori did her pictures and did GREAT! No surprise there! Add in the little girls and there wasn't a smile in the house, except for Kori. We muddled through, picked the best shot of the 4 of them (NONE of them were great). Seriously not a smile from any of the little girls. At any rate the pictures were done thank goodness.

After pictures we headed off to the mall to see Santa. It's the same Santa Kori has seen every year. He's great! The girls walked right up there and plopped up there for the picture. Not huge smiles but no one was screaming or freaking out so that's good.

Today was my niece Mallory's 3rd birthday. Man that went by fast! We went to their house for pizza and cake and ice cream. Her party was supposed to be Saturday but with the illness it was canceled. My brother-in-law's grandmother is in the final stage of her battle with lung cancer so he was in Iowa visiting her for probably the last time. It's very sad as she is a super lady. That being said she has lived a very happy and wonderful life! Many prayers for the whole family. The "party" was nice, just my girls and I and my parents but we made the best of it. Mallory had a great time and that's all that matters! We wouldn't have missed it!

So now it's a new week. Back to school. Back to routines. Back to life. Ugh.

Here's our santa picture...enjoy!