Pre Disney On Ice

February vacation is coming to an end, and I can honestly say that I am so glad to be able to go back to work!! Don't get me wrong...I love my kids, but they've been tough this week. Julia's teething experience is quite different than Gabrielle's. We never knew Gabrielle was teething, and Julia...we'll she lets it be known she's uncomfortable. Needless to say, sleeping has been a thing of the past, and mama's exhausted! (I'm sure my own mood(s) have had NOTHING to do with all of the craziness. Ever feel like you're trying to stuff so much into a little amount of time, in addition to all the house stuff that needs to get done, too - all the while still trying to enjoy your time with your kids?)

We were also all across Massachusetts and parts of NH all week. April vacation is going to be a laid back, stay in Beverly so I can actually enjoy my kids (hopefully outside). I am praying that Julia will have all her teeth by then, and that Gabrielle will have been able to play outside a bit before then so she doesn't have so much pent up energy. It's been a tough, cold winter!

Tomorrow is one of the grand finale's of the vacation. All 4 of us are going to the Disney On Ice show. We haven't told the girls. We're just going to go to the train station and get it there to surprise them. I can't wait to see Gabrielle's face when she can see all the princess stuff and Cars things! Hopefully Julia will like it all, too! Such a fun time to be able to do things like this and have it really be enjoyed by the girls!

On a completely different note, I am so excited to say that I finally have a niece!!!! I love all of my nephews, but it's so nice to have another girl in the family that isn't mine!! :) Welcome baby Cora! Congrats Rob, Lisa, Caden and Cole. Lisa...you're my hero...I hear she was 10 lbs!!!!! I can't wait to hold her!

Hopefully we'll have some good pictures to post of the show after tomorrow.

Trip to the Manning's in NH

We went to Matt and Rebecca's for the weekend. Their son, Cameron, is Gabrielle's age and their other son, Liam, is Julia's age. We also met up with Joe, Kelly and Keira. The kids played so well together...no one fought the whole weekend! The ladies and the kids all piled into my van and went up to Littleton to a music class. The kids had a blast and every single one of them fell asleep on the way home!

The guys had lunch waiting and then we hit the slopes! (Well, a little one anyways.) We went to the sledding part of the hill and had a blast sledding. Gabrielle and Keira both tried skiing for the first time and Gabrielle LOVED it! Chris was going to have to stay on the top part, but Gabrielle told him to not to touch her and to let her go down the hill! What a little dare devil. We had a really fun time!

See more pictures to the side in a slide show!

Only bad thing is....Julia had her turn with a viral something or other Sunday. It was too good to be true that she didn't get an illness!

winter in New England

Well, not much to show in the way of pictures as our house has been one sick pod. We noticed Gabrielle had a fever a couple of Fridays ago (102), and it didn't end up going away until early Wednesday. We even ended up in the ER one night at 11:00 because her fever shot up to 104.5!! Ends up she had a viral infection that just needed to run it's course. Let's just say it ran it's course with me, too. So scary when they have a fever that high for that long.

We had a couple of days of a healthy lull, and Chris came down with a fever Saturday afternoon. He thought he had strep, but it was just a nasty bacterial infection! Today is the first day he's felt somewhat better and it's Wednesday! In the midst of barackading him in our bedroom so no one else would get it....we have yet another snow storm! Talk about salt on a wound...taking care of my poor sick husband (who I have never seen that ill), two kids, two dogs, and needing to shovel on top of it all. Why do we live here???

As if all of this is not enough, Julia woke up today and had a low-grade fever (99.7). Jeez, Louise!! Hopefully this one is just from teeth!

Well, wish us luck. Hopefully everyone will be healthy after this. Hope everyone else is doing well and feeling ok. This has not been a fun stretch and wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy! How many more weeks until summer??