Angry with the FLU!

After Christmas Eve about four people got the flu, including Kyle.  I was dumb and talking about how I hadn't gotten it and that if I did get it I would get it around JoAnn's funeral.  Well guess what, I got it yesterday!!!  I was so angry and upset, I had to miss the visitation and the funeral this morning.

I don't think I can remember ever being so sick, thankfully today my tummy feels so much better but I'm just exhausted.  It did cause a 7 pound weight loss for me, too bad it's not in a healthy way and it will just come back.

I woke up at about 5:30 this morning, my arms had been bothering me a little in the night and my face felt kind of weird.  When I looked in a mirror I looked like a freaking chipmunk, seriously it's like I have a giant hive on each cheek, my face is totally swollen.  Both of my arms were also covered in hives and swollen, I have no idea why.  I didn't eat or drink anything unusual, so I decided to go back to bed.

Now that I'm up and moving around my face is still totally swollen but my arms seem to be a little bit better, it's just so WEIRD.

JoAnn Koch - You Will Be Missed

My Aunt JoAnn passed away on Friday, she has had a tough battle with cancer for quite a while. She had beaten it before with chemo and there was another tumor found, she decided against treatment this time. Her body had already been through so much when she had beaten the cancer before.

JoAnn was such a fun loving, special woman. No matter what she went through she always had a smile on her face and kind words for everyone. Eventually she was moved into a nursing home, surrounded by pictures of her family and letters and cards from loved ones. I was able to visit her while she was there and even being away from her family, she was still so joyful.

I pray for my Uncle Louie and my cousins who will deeply miss their wife, mother, and grandmother. We will miss you so much JoAnn, our hearts will ache for a long time, but now you are in a better place and your body can finally rest. I love you JoAnn.

Christmas Eve

We ventured out to Newhall for the yearly Christmas Eve gathering.  The roads were alright, although pretty snow covered, just love Iowa ;)  We were fortunate enough to have ALL of our immediate family to celebrate with, all 24 of us :)  It was a great, crazy night filled with yummy food and lots of laughter.

Bella had a BLAST with all of her cousins, my niece Ashlee was able to be there with her son Elijah.  Elijah will be one in January and he already weighs more than Bella, he is such a sweet boy and he had a lot of fun.  The girls had a great time with their usual squealing and make believe games :)  Tanner was content and slept most of the time, although I was lucky enough to get some shots of him with his eyes open, he is already 12 pounds and getting so big!!

It's been great having Missy and Ed home, it wouldn't have been Christmas without them.  Matt and Leah had some exciting news, they are engaged!!  I noticed Leah's nails and then all of the sudden realized she had a giant diamond on her left hand, yay :)  We started off with a dual table Risk tournament and kind of gave up on that (it's hard to do when you have to try to lay a 2 year old down at 11pm!!).  But John, Larry, Ed and Casey did play the annual game (I wimped out because I was too tired :(), and Larry Allen won.  We did enjoy a game of Trivial Pursuit this morning though!

Bells had a great time playing with the girls and she loved her foo-foo dress that Aunt Laura was able to get for her :)

The boys did their annual shot of whiskey in honor of our Grandpa Schmitz, we love you Grandpa.

Here are a few pictures I had some fun with.  Christmas Eve has always been my favorite holiday of the year, I love being with family and watching the kids have so much fun!  I'm sad it's over, but it was a blast :)

Casey's Awesome Birthday Fun

Saturday night I ventured out to the Piano Lounge, it's one of my favorite places for going out in Cedar Rapids.  They have every martini you can think of!  My new buddy Jenn introduced me to the Pineapple Upside Down Martini, WOW......seriously, it tasted like cake!

Missy and Ed are visiting from North Carolina and they joined us, it was such a great night :)  I took full advantage of Happy Hour with the $3.50 martinis, I should have known better with me being more of a beer girl than a liquor girl.  I got some good shots before the liquor really hit at least ;)

I can't take credit for this next photo of Casey and Mindy they take great self portraits :)

Of course there are some random ones that I didn't take or at least don't remember taking them!  It really was a total blast, thank you to Mindy for driving my butt around, Missy for taking care of me and making sure I closed out my tab, and Jenn for introducing me to the delicious martinis and hanging out with me :)

Silliness

I just had an amazing moment with Isabella.  She was a little upset and making her frownie face at me, so I made it back at her and she just busted up laughing.  Then we journeyed into a little game of try to make the frownie face but you can't because it's so silly and you just can't stop laughing :)

Simple Gift

I have a hard time deciding what to do for gifts for Bella's teachers at LaPetite.  This year I found an idea in a magazine to give cookie mixes in a jar.  So I decided on chocolate chip cookie mix in a jar and I made tags for the recipe cards.  Here's how one of them turned out :)

It was so easy to make and they look like such pretty gifts I think. It was super fun to make! 

Loving the Big Bed

Bella was very surprised when she saw her new bed.  It was so neat to see her reaction and know that she felt like she was now a big girl :)  Thankfully we aren't having too many problems with her getting up, but she has done that a couple of times.