Show Choir and the rest of our February

On Saturday the 23rd, Cousin Robin, Ali and Aaron came to visit for the weekend. Ali and Aaron were going to hang out with Cody and the kids while Robin and I went up to Strongsville to watch Antonio and his high school show choir perform in a competition. Cody, baby Hazel and I went to another competition last year and had a lot of fun. Hazel was a little under the weather so Cody decided to stay home and help Ali out. It was really fun to have a girls afternoon/evening with Robin and watch all the talent perform.

This was the starting set up for Antonio's choir. I loved the lighting in the back.

They won for best costumes. It is hard to tell from this picture but the girls skirts and boys blazers have newspaper print on them. They were really cool and flattering to everyone. Not many of the schools could say that about their costumes. "What were they thinking?!" came to mind a lot that night. A blurry Antontio is dancing in the middle there.

This was the second costume for the boys. Antontio is the blurry one in yellow in the middle front.

Crazy singing faces was another fun feature of the day. Check out the girl stage left of Antonio. She was almost unbearable to watch.

Taking a bow.
Their school came in 3rd and did a great job. Lots of fun songs, dancing and very good vocals.

Robin, Antonio and I did not get home till about 1:30 in the morning. I was exhausted. Then the next night was the Oscars and I of course had to stay up again till 1ish. I am not cutout for such late night partying and after a couple days of that my body started to rebel. I'm not sure I've recovered yet!

One night when I went in to turn off Pepper's light before going to bed, this is what I found.

Another morning while Pepper was at school, I went in to make her bed and this is what I found.
Many days I find her dolls and animals all lined up or posed together. Makes me smile every time!

Here are some random pictures of the girls playing in the playroom. I took these with my iphone. I think I'm finally getting the hang of its camera.

Hazel of course has a hat on.

Those cheeks!!!

Pepper hard at work.

Whenever I tell people Hazel's sleep schedule, no one believes me. She still takes two naps at 16 mos. Morning nap goes from 9 to 11:30 and then she goes down again around 1 till 4:30. And yes, this is how I find her most of the time. She goes down for the night around 7:30 and gets up at 7:30/40. Yes, my daughter sleeps around 18 hrs a day! And we are all very happy about that! To further cement Hazel's best baby award, if she has to miss a nap she is usually still very pleasant and just jumps back into the schedule without getting thrown off.

Here's a pic from Morgan's 6 yr well check up. He loves wearing the gown and it was nice to be able to take him alone and spend that time with him.

Crazy kid.

Morgan started gymnastics again in January. He goes Wednesday nights, which is not always fun for me and the girls but he is really enjoying it.

Pepper wanted me to take a picture of her watching Morgan. This girl is not camera shy!

Another funny pic of Hazel with hat. I just love babies in footie pajamas.

Pepper now loves all mascots and demands a hug and picture from anyone she sees.

This was from the family reading day on my phone.

Guess Morgan gets kind of hot when he sleeps in his footie pajamas.

This was another choir group, the one that won the whole thing. I had to take a picture because they were singing a Metallica song, "Enter Sandman," wearing vampire themed costumes and making THE craziest faces ever! I could not stop laughing. I was trying to be discreet because you never know who is sitting next to you in the audience but I could not stop shaking with the giggles. I know James Hetfield was feeling a disturbance in the force somewhere!

Now to the end of our February. On Saturday the 23rd, Hazel started being fussy and a low fever. I was hoping she was just teething but overall she was just not herself for a few days. Then on Tuesday night Pepper did not seem hungry at all at dinner. I decided not to push it and good thing because starting at 10pm she started throwing up. Luckily, my book club had been cancelled so I was home and Cody got home from High Council around the same time. We got her cleaned up and back in bed. Cody decided just to camp out on her floor, since I wasn't feeling very well myself. Good thing, because about every two hours she woke up and threw up. Pepper is pretty good about making it into the bucket so fortunately there were no more messes. Morgan had the day off of school on Wednesday so we all just camped out while Pepper battled a fever and an upset tummy. Everyone was fine through the night but Morgan started complaining about his tummy hurting Thursday morning, so once again we all just camped out at home for the day. Morgan was bouncing off the walls for most of the day and never really seemed sick so Friday morning, I thought Morgan could go to school. Well, I was not too surprised to get a call at 10 am from the school nurse saying that Morgan had stomach pains and wanted to come home. Pepper had started the morning off with some horrible diarrhea so I knew my day was not going to be fun. Morgan made it home and into the house before running to the bathroom to throw up. He also had a low fever but never got sick again. As soon as he finished being sick he wanted to play on the ipad and asked me what there was to eat. Boys!! Along with all this I have not felt well all week. As soon as Cody walked in the door on Thursday, I turned over the kids to him and went to bed. I got up for a few minutes to help finish baths and put the kids to bed then got right back in bed. I was asleep by 8pm and stayed that way till 7am. It was much needed rest but I'm still not 100%. I am writing this on Saturday, March 2nd. Pepper threw up again this morning and still has the runs so she missed ballet. Morgan and Hazel seem to be getting better but my stomach is still iffy and I feel super tired. I'm so, so grateful that it is the weekend and Cody is home with us. He is such a great father and husband and tries to help as much as he can. I am a lucky lady.

Poor Pepper does not handle fevers well at all. This girl has barely eaten anything since Tuesday and keeps falling asleep during the day. I hate watching my kids in pain or be uncomfortable, as I'm sure all moms do. I just kept telling her I was sorry and tried to keep her comfy. Spring can not come soon enough around here!!!

Now, we're ready for March's new adventures!