Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from the Obreiters! We enjoyed our very first Christmas morning in our own home today. Last night we went with friends to a Christmas Eve church service at their church (ours didn't have one). The girls were pretty good, but I think our pew won the noisiest pew award. Then we came home and watched the new Veggie Tales movie - it's a meaningful life - and the winnie the pooh Christmas special. Abby is finally getting holidays, so she was really excited about Christmas and was so excited she couldn't get to sleep last night. She ended up in our bed since Steve and I were sleeping way, way before she was. And, since she was the night owl, Olivia decided to be the early bird. She got me up and out of bed at 6 a.m. I waited until 8 a.m. until I woke Abby and Steve up to get the Christmas party started.

We've been trying hard to make some meaningful traditions for our family, so we started the morning with the Christmas story from Abby's children's illustrated Bible. Then we let the girls open up their stockings. After that we had breakfast since Abby had quite a few new toys she really couldn't wait to play with. After we got everyone fed it took about an hour to get the presents opened - we had major delays between each present so that the gift could be taken out, played with, and then introduced to its new friends. Olivia, unlike Abby, was way into the unwrapping of the gifts. She even had some that she grabbed on her own and had unwrapped without us even knowing that she had gotten into them. Abby got a real talking Jessie doll that is almost the same as her real talking Woody doll from Grandma Mary and Grandpa Scott (she is way, way, way into toy story right now). Olivia got a doll of her very own and some little people, which she likes to play with. And we got two board games that are toddler friendly that "santa" gave to Steve, so Abby and her daddy have been playing some board games today. We only had one minor mishap - I was uncapping a window crayon for Abby and pulling really hard to get the lid off. The cap came off unexpectedly and I popped Abby right in the nose. So my poor little girl got her first bloody nose on Christmas day caused by me.

And we had "duck" for dinner. Yesterday Steve told Abby that we were all going to pick part of the Christmas dinner. I asked her what she wanted to eat and out of the blue she said duck. There was only one duck at the grocery store, and it was way more meat than we needed for the 3 of us, so we bought cornish hens instead and had baby "duck" for dinner. Abby must have been impressed because she ate a ton of it.

Enjoy your holiday season! And don't forget to reflect upon the birth and death of our savior, Jesus Christ.

The Pictures I Do Have

Pre-present opening with the girls - Olivia, Emma, and Abby

























Meg before the wedding
























The Happy Couple

























Abby and Jack burning up the dance floor

















Abby, Grandpa and Jack - best buddies
























Daddy and Olivia (above) and Mommy and Olivia (below)

Photo Catastrope

We've had a little photo catastrophe. Or maybe a big one... depending on which side of the family you are on. I can't load my card right now, for some reason my card reader doesn't like 8 gb cards. But in trying to load my card I realized that all of my pictures from the Obreiter Christmas were deleted. Melissa and I combined our photos onto mom's computer and then put all the photos back onto our cards. The only problem is Melissa deleted everything from my card unintentionally, so I got back all the photos from the wedding and the Hodges Christmas, but since they didn't need my pictures from the Obreiter Christmas those photos never got put onto mom's computer or back onto my card. So, to Steve's family I am very sorry that all of the photos I took at Christmas got deleted. Next year we'll need to make sure someone else is taking photos too.

We are back from our visit downstate to see family and attend (and participate in) my cousin Meghan's wedding. She was a beautiful bride and it was a wonderful time celebrating the love she and Ron have for each other. I'm sure they have many, many happy years ahead of them. She was so excited to be marrying him and the look on his face as she came down the aisle was priceless. Congrats guys!

So, besides all the wedding stuff and two family Christmas parties, we have been battling the flu. Big time. I had it before we left (December 8th, for those of you keeping track). I spent the two days before the car ride laying on the couch feeling miserable. Abby wasn't feeling too well by Wednesday night either and she ended up throwing up in the car on the way down. Of course she had to choose the most desolate location to throw up, so we ended up stopped on a random exit with only a cell phone tower drive to pull into. It was a very long ride after that, but she managed not to be sick in the car again. We got to mom and dad Hodges' house and they had also been battling the flu around there, so it wasn't a big deal that we were coming sick. And Steve and Olivia almost made it out of there without getting the bug, but they both got sick on the 19th, right before our drive home. So we had two tricky drives, but we made it down and back.

We had a lot of fun visiting and helping out. I was able to clean out a good portion of mom and dad's basement - we took two full car loads of old toys, shoes, and other random things to Goodwill just in time for Christmas. It took a lot of time, but it felt good knowing that someday soon Abby and Olivia will be having a great time playing in the space that used to be overflowing with rubbermaid tubs full of things my siblings and I had played with as kids. I've learned to use cleaning as my form of stress relief instead of eating, and for the most part it's made my life a lot better. Melissa, Mom and I also got to help decorate for the wedding reception. We put together some amazing vases with sparkling sticks, jeweled feathers, and calla lilies. Meghan had great taste and Grandma Jennie did some amazing work. I almost kind of miss working at the flower shop.

Abby and Olivia got WAY TO MANY great things for Christmas. Lots of dolls, especially barbies which Abby is way into right now, a bike for Abby and a trike for Olivia, a ball popper, cool little people sets, some nintendo games, and "real talking Woody." I knew, sort of, that Abby wanted the talking Woody doll from the Toy Story movies - I'd had to drag her out of that aisle at K-Mart a couple times as she sat and talked to the toy in the package. When Grandma Mary asked her what she wanted for Christmas all she would say is "real talking Woody." So, lucky for her Grandma Mary decided that Abby did need a real talking Woody. And she's been enjoying him every single waking minute of her day since we got him. Olivia has been enjoying having her own things that Abby doesn't swipe immediately. She got her own doll house and Abby has come to grips with the fact that its for Olivia to play with and not for her exclusive use. Now we just need to work on that for the rest of our toys, movies, and books.

And... onto the funny to you, but not really to me. In the last couple weeks Abby has decided that bathing is the worst thing in the world. I know it sounds ridiculous, but when I bathe her it sounds like I am wrestling a rabid dog. She goes totally postal. I had to get into the tub last Saturday and hold her in so that I could get her clean for the wedding. It was a punching, kicking, biting mess. We got some bath crayons and gels and that made her a little more interested in bathing today, but she also had an accident that required bathing, if you know what I mean. Olivia on the other hand loves the bath and was trying to crawl and lay down while bathing today. She has no fear of anything. I am going to be totally gray within weeks.

And, finally, I chopped my hair back to a chin length bob today after 18+ months of growing it out. I'm not sure if the stylist wanted to chop off all that hair - she kept commenting on how long and healthy it was - but I am sure I don't want to deal with wet hair or spend the time necessary to blow dry that giant mess of hair I'd grown. And I think I lost a whole pound getting it cut.

Best Of Intentions

I really do plan to update this blog with pictures from Christmas with
both sets of grandparents. Honest. But Steve, Abby, and Olivia are all
sick and preventing me from being effective. Ugh!

Olivia's First Blizzard

Okay... so maybe it wasn't a blizzard by U.P. standards, but all our downstate friends would have been panic stricken over the 12-ish inches of snow we got yesterday. I took Abby out to shovel it while Olivia napped. We didn't get much shoveling done. Mostly I spent my time putting mittens back on and making paths for Abby to walk in, since 12 inches of snow is a little much for a girl of her size. I only got the snow plow residue shoveled up along the road and the sidewalk to the front door before we had to quit. Steve had the hard job of finishing the driveway when he got home.

Olivia is feeling much better. She's finished her antibiotics and no longer has a fever or excessive crying. She still has a pretty bad cold and has been throwing up the snot she has been swallowing, but even that has been much improved from earlier this week. Abby has also been showing some cold symptoms, so we are hoping she is feeling better soon too. We have way to much celebrating to do this month. And that celebrating starts with a trip to St. Ignace on Sunday for a party at the home of Dr. & Mrs. Krantz - the newest dentist who works for the tribe in their St. Ignace office. I'm hoping the girls will be feeling well so we can all go.

And, life around here should be slowly resuming normalcy since Kimberlee and Ryan brought baby Felecia home today from the NICU. We are very excited to meet her once the girls are feeling well again. So I will be back to just my kids and the occasional visit of my other kids. Not that we don't love having them around - I just don't have the energy to deal with 7 kids. I don't know how my mother survived it. I'm still exhausted just thinking about taking care of that many children.

We are hoping that we won't have too much more snow this weekend. We have been scoping out new snow blowers this evening since the 30+ year old hand-me-down machine we have is pretty well past it's prime (and I can't start it so I'm no help with it around - or I should say I couldn't start it and Steve wasn't around to show me the trick). Steve and I are pretty sore from hand shoveling - it was not fun with heavy, wet snow.

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Olivia and Aunt Hannah - Olivia finally made up with her on Sunday after Hannah tickled her and ticked her off on Friday. Abby wasn't too sure about letting "tickle Hannah" near her baby. I'm happy to report we have made progress on Abby letting Hannah play with her "tiny baby sister."
Olivia and second cousin Lydia - they are about 5 weeks apart and had some fun exploring each other and the present pile from Meg's wedding shower.
Abby and Jack showing off their Just Dance skills - Abby has become obsessed with the game, particularly dancing to Ring My Bell. She has some funny moves.
Here's Abby and best buddy cousin Jack taking a break from hockey time.Olivia and Jack practicing their goalie skills.

Well, we survived perhaps our most interesting Thanksgiving weekend. I doubt we will be able to top it for just plain craziness. I had some moments where I wondered what kind of crazy mental illness I had acquired, but we survived and it didn't seem to result in any irreparable harm to my sanity. We ended up filling the car with people instead of luggage and Maize... here's how that all happened.

Since the last post (10 days ago), we've still been waiting for Kimberlee to bring baby Felecia home from the NICU. She's doing much better and should be out soon, but in the meantime there are still lots of kids to take care of. We had last weekend (the weekend of the 20th) off from extra child watching duties since they had a friend come up to spend Saturday through Tuesday with the kids. During that time little Rian had another seizure, so that time got bumped to Wednesday so that they could start him on his medications and watch for any adverse side effects. So on Wednesday we got two 11 year old girls and a 9 year old for the weekend. It filled every seat belt in our car to head to Hastings Wednesday night (and when all the seat belts are full we have no cargo space). Poor Maize had to stay home alone for the weekend - luckily she had an amazing dog sitter letting her in and out.

We had a great time in Hastings seeing family - we got to spend Thanksgiving day with the Hodges family and saw Great Grandpa Harley and Great Grandma Lorraine, who just happen to be two of Abby's very favorite people. She was really, really looking forward to seeing them. On Tuesday night she had gone to bed with big girl under ware on and when she woke up dry on Wednesday morning I gave her the option of calling one grandma to tell them what a big girl she was. She picked Grandma Lorraine. Our big girl friends did good all day, although Evelin's diabetes was a big challenge since she was burning off sugar faster than she was eating it and her blood sugar was going really, scary low. That made for a stressful night of checking her to make sure her sugars didn't go too low.

We spent Friday with Steve's family and the girls enjoyed seeing their cousins. Abby is finally figuring out that big kids aren't going to hurt her, so she is doing better with the boys and with other kids. Maybe it's because we've had so many big kids around for the last few weeks. Olivia is still pretty uneasy with the big boys getting into her personal space, but I have a feeling she will hold her own once she gets a bit bigger. Our big girl friends had lots of fun playing with our nephews, so that made our day much better. We also got a better handle on the diabetes, so it was much less stressful for Steve and I.

We had fun Saturday taking Abby and the big girls to see Tangled. She really loved the whole movie theater experience and was super quiet and attentive to the whole movie. After the movie we had a bridal shower for cousin Meg, who is getting married in like 3 weeks. The girls all did good with the entire Osgood family around. Olivia did lots of cuddling and Abby did some cloth diaper modeling for cousin Sarah's new business endeavor. But, Olivia also started to feel sick. No fun.

Sunday was a long drive with a sick baby, tired toddler, and tired big girls. We survived it and made it home to a house that was 50 degrees. We turned up the heat, shoveled the 5 inches of snow that had accumulated on our driveway, and then headed to dinner and the store. By that point both Steve and I were pretty much exhausted. I'm sure our dinner conversation was pretty lame, but I honestly can't remember any of it. And Olivia was pretty miserable - runny nose, coughing, runny eyes, low fever. So... long night, with not much sleep for us. I ended up sleeping on the couch with Olivia so she could be upright. We didn't end up with any extra kids since they had a little guy with croup and we definitely didn't need to mix our sick kids with theirs. Luckily, a grandma was available to come stay with the kids and big Ryan, so we are off the hook for child care right now. We need that so that Olivia can get to feeling better.

Olivia wasn't better yesterday, so I took her into the after hours clinic when Steve got home from work. She's got a really bad cold and a double ear infection, but as of this morning she was doing much better. Not great... but better. We've got her on antibiotics and ear drops, so that is really helping. She's almost acting normal today and at least a little happier and more on her regular schedule. Now we just need to get her sleeping all night, in her own bed. And I need a vacation... but that isn't going to be happening for months. So we will see... I think I'm still sane, but it may be questionable.

I Learned This From My Mother

I have an awesome mother - how awesome I did not realize until this week when I had 7 kids to take care of at the same time. Now, she may have only had 6 children, and there was a little more space between us than between the group I've had lately, but still... my mom is amazing. I don't know how she survived it, or how we survived it for that matter. This little girl is the reason I've had 7 kids under my roof on and off since Wednesday. Her name is Felecia and she is the little sister of the whole bunch of big kids that have been staying with Steve and I. I have three wonderful friends up here in the frozen north, but of the three I spend the most time with Kimberlee - we go to church together, live closest out of the bunch, and I have a backyard that her boys often need to blow off some steam in. On Monday she had an emergency c-section and we added Felecia to the bunch of babies that come and play at our place. Except that Felecia, like her soon-to-be best friend Olivia, has been giving us a big scare and spending some time in the NICU. She's making major improvements, but there isn't a definite timetable for her to be home. So, until then we are on-again off-again parent stand-ins for the rest of her brothers and sisters. We are off this weekend after a long couple days of entertaining and comforting kids who were really missing their mom.

So here's my happy bunch (from left to right: Huron (2), Nia (11) Nikomi (11), Olivia, Rian (3 1/2), Abby, and Evelin (9). They've been really awesome and the big girls have been super helpful. And we've even learned how to take care of Evelin's insulin pump and manage her diabetes - I hope we NEVER have to do that for one of our own kids!In the middle of all the crazy I took Olivia in for her check-up and flu shot. She was a healthy 18 pounds (50th percentile) and was up to 26 1/2 inches (25th percentile). And she was super friendly and inquisitive, so we got the all clear, good job, looks like she's doing great from the doctor. He'd even forgotten she'd been in the NICU since she's done so well since coming home. We are certainly blessed beyond measure. She is going full bore on the army crawling and stealing of Abby's toys. It won't be long and she'll be crawling for real - she's already up on all fours, she just has to figure out how to make her limbs go. It's amazing how fast she's growing up. It seems like we just brought her home from the hospital.
Abby has been enjoying having some round the clock friends and her first slumber party. It was her first and last co-ed sleepover and all 3 toddlers did fine after some initial tears because the boys really, really missed their momma. The three of them really love each other, so I've had a fun week listening to them play together and enjoy the company of a kid from another family. Pretty soon they are going to think of each other as siblings instead of friends - Abby had already been calling them her brothers for a few weeks.

Abby's also doing good potty training, although she's had a few accidents with all the chaos and me forgetting to remind her to run in and use the potty. But she's back to staying dry all night, so I'm betting we will be done with the pull ups full time in the next few weeks. She sure is growing up fast.

Where To Begin...

Well, I'm not sure where to begin in the explanation of how 10 days have elapsed without me having a single spare moment in which to sit and collect my thoughts. It has been, perhaps, the most stressful week of my life. Or maybe that was Olivia's first week... I haven't had enough perspective yet to decide.

We have managed to have some great times in spite of the chaos that has been going on in life of the Lewis family, who since December have been involved with our bible study and basically become great friends. They have a baby that could arrive at any minute (she is scheduled for her c-section one week from Tuesday), 5 kids on top of that including a little boy who has become very much the terrible two that his age creates, and 3 kids who have medical issues - one diabetic, one who has had seizures since age 6, and another who's seizures that started last weekend and created all the chaos we have been living through). Pitching in to help their family out during some scary medical emergencies made Steve and I so grateful for happy, healthy children.

We tried to get pictures of the girls in the leaves, but by the time Abby decided to join us, Olivia had decided she was over it. Oh well... we can try again later. And we bought clearance Halloween costumes, which have been a source of much entertainment for Abby the Pirate and Abby the Red Queen. So... I am still working on processing my life for the last 10 days. It has involved lots of extra kids, lots of prayer, and lots of hugging my own babies. One of these days I will catch up and be able to comprehend reality again... until then, sorry for my ramblings.

A Message From Abby

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Halloween Hangover

We had a lot of fun on Halloweekend. It is a lot more fun with a girl big enough to be excited about trick or treating and understand the idea of going door to door and saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" to each house. Abby had a great time. We had a party and went trick or treating with all her best friends. When I say we went trick or treating I mean Abby and Steve - Olivia slept through the entire costume part of the party. Now the hard part is regulating the candy consumption, since we had quite a bit of leftover candy (I may have overdone it with 4 bowls...).

Olivia is getting quite close to figuring out crawling. She's been practicing picking her belly up off the floor for the last couple of days. She's going to have me running around chasing her soon. And I'm going to need to get my baby gates up before I want to. Olivia's also working on night 3 of the Cry It Out method of sleep training tonight. I wish she could have been easy like Abby, who started sleeping through the night at 8 weeks and never stopped after that. Olivia, on the other hand, has been up once or twice each night since about 6 months (we had that brief interval from 4 months to around 6 months where she slept all night, so I know she can do it). We started Sunday night with the CIO plan. Olivia woke up at 11:45 and after Steve checked on her and put her back into bed she cried until after 2:00. It was a long, long night laying in bed listening to her cry. I hated every second of it, but I hate feeling exhausted even more. Last night she woke up twice, but only cried for 10 or 15 minutes each time, so I'm hoping after another night or two she will have the system figured out and will just put her little thumb back into her mouth and go to sleep.

Abby is still cracking us up. She has been really into barbies and dancing lately, so we had a barbie dance party last night. She had all her barbies lined up around one of Olivia's blankets and they were all taking turns dancing. She also dances at any opportunity (music on t.v. shows, songs she makes up, even the nintendo wii dancing game). I think dance class will be in her future - and I know her dad is not looking forward to all those dance recitals.