I love my family.

The last couple of weeks have been interesting for us.

We started out the week of the 8th in the ER with Lexi. She had a bad case of croup and when I called the 24 hour nurses line at 3:00 that morning, the nurse listened to her over the phone and said I better get her in to the ER. Not what anyone wants to hear. I was so worried about our poor little girl, but after a couple of respiratory treatments and the steroid they gave her, she took a turn for the better pretty quickly. However, as croup goes, we still had about another week and a half of coughing through the night and not feeling the best.

On top of Lexi's illness, Jeff has been sicker than I have ever seen him in our 7-1/2 years of marriage. I think he must have had a pretty bad flu bug. He was miserable for most of the last couple of weeks as well.

Pretty downer post so far, huh? Well, never fear my friends! I am here to share some positives that have come out of these sort of downer few weeks we have had.

With being cooped up and not able to take part in a lot of the activities we would do normally, I have had the chance to spend a lot of one on one time with the girls. My amazing girls. We have played and played and played. I've had the chance to just sit and observe more than normal and that has been fun.

Lizette is so in charge all the time. She really wants to do the right thing, and expects the same from everyone else. I really think she is a smart girl and is going to do well in school. She loves to learn and picks up on pretty much anything academic so quickly. She has such a vivid imagination. Hence, her new imaginary friend, Olivia. Olivia even said our family prayers for us the other night. Lizette makes a bed for Olivia next to hers. She is really becoming part of the family. At first I was a little worried, but I have to say that I really like Olivia too. She doesn't say much and I totally respect that.

One of our many "dress up" moments from the past few weeks.

(I'm not going to go into detail here about my childhood imaginary friends. But for my family who might be reading this, I'll just say that the apple does not fall far from the tree.)

Lexi is sort of a breath of fresh air and hell on wheels all in one package. She is so sweet and loves to just get in your face and smile and kiss. In the next moment she is yelling at us when we take too long getting her dinner. She gets into absolutely everything and tries to do it quick before we stop her. I love this girl. It's going to be fun to watch as she gets older to see how this little personality develops.

You know how I was bummed that we didn't get any cute pictures of Lexi in the Marie costume on Halloween? Here are some post-Halloween pics that we forced her into last week. Poor girl.

"What in the world are you making me put this on for? Didn't you get the memo? Halloween is OVER!"

"Okay, I can take it for a few minutes if you'll tickle me!"

"Seriously Mom, take it off!"

And then there's Jeff. Jeff and I have never had what a lot of people would call a fairy tale romance. We are not super lovey dovey. In fact, we can often be quite sarcastic with each other. But I have to say that I think the one thing we have going for us is humor. We laugh at ourselves and at each other with a lot of ease.

So, here's a couple of funny moments we've had these past couple of weeks.

As I mentioned, Jeff has been pretty sick. He hasn't felt like doing a whole lot lately. He has watched quite a bit of TV and laid low a lot. This hasn't bothered me, other than I just wish he could feel better. But, I think the line was crossed the other night. I left for a couple of hours after the girls went to bed. When I came home I asked what he had been up to. He smiled. I figured he had been watching some documentary on Steve Jobs or something. Fox News? Oh no. None of the above. He was watching Teen Wolf. You know, the Michael J. Fox movie from the '80's? He made me promise I wouldn't tell anyone. (hee hee)

The other funny moment came when I realized the other night just how predictable Jeff and I are with each other. I kid you not, almost every other night just before we go to sleep he says "Man, I got some SERIOUS heartburn." And he says it that exact same way...every time! He said it the other night and I just had to laugh. We are soooo predictable. Every time he runs out of something like soap or toothpaste or some sort of toiletry, he'll say "I'm almost of out this, do we have any more?" And every time, I get so annoyed because I have a closet stocked with these supplies and have gone over and over with him where stuff is. So, I'll storm off to the closet, grab whatever it is he needs and storm back into the bathroom and hand it to him. It's hilarious. When we are 80, we are going to be having this same conversation. I love it.



I love my family. We are all a little crazy, some of us a little "unbalanced", but I'm so happy we have each other.