Life as a Yowler

The beginning of this week consisted of a lot of just keeping the children alive. My eye was so sore, I could only do the bare minimum. It really made me appreciate my health. I am so much more capable when I feel good. The good news I discovered through the whole thing, was how capable and responsible my kids can be. They knew I wasn’t feeling well and they were very helpful.

I was really shocked at how able these two are to do their own school work. I know that sounds ridiculous. I should know these things. What I mean is, I basically just told them what to do and let them do it without helping them much at all. Instead of intently staring at them and watching them work, I literally closed my eyes(resting and recovering) while they did all the work.

 Brandon was helpful and helped to entertain the older kids while he was home. He even took them out driving all afternoon while he was trying to get an eye drop prescription. After trying several pharmacies, the eye doctor had me come in and gave me some drops in his office. They helped so much. I finally started to feel some relief. Here, almost a week later, my eye is almost completely back to normal.

We attended a baby shower last week of an old high school friend of mine.

We also had family pictures taken.

Thanksgiving morning we had brunch with my Gascho family. After brunch, my mom drove the kids and I to Indiana to visit her side of the family. I love going to Indiana. I have so many memories of going to see my cousins growing up. Most of us have kids of our own now. Laramie is a gracious enough host to let our zoo stay with her. She has the funnest house. My kids love going.

My mom’s family is famous for playing games. There were so many games played. Here is Joah playing with Great Grandma Hochstedler.

Games with cousins. I love that the kids are getting big enough now to play some games on their own, without any help from adults.

My cousin Laramie, my cousin Mindy, and I even managed to escape and go Black Friday shopping. We put all the kids to bed Thanksgiving night and had their husbands stay home with them. We had plans to go to a possible 3 stores. After our first store, we were reminded that we are tired mom’s. Somewhere around half way through, we started to crash slowly. Target only it was! We were home my midnight.The next day, here the kids are settling down from all the playing with a movie. It was a wonderful 15 minutes(that it lasted).

We even bathed the kids one evening. We assembly lined it, and it was beautiful. I wish I could recruit cousins every single bath night. I would sweat and cry way way less.

My cousins were even sweet enough to bath Isla for me. After warning them all of her dramatic screaming the ENTIRE bath, the little booger proved me wrong. She didn’t make a peep….. in fact she played and had a blast. Turns out she is just being dramatic and terrified for me. Unreal! Insert dramatic eye roll.

Brandon joined us in Indiana on Saturday.  Isla was so happy to see him and cuddled with him during the big Michigan vs. Ohio State game. I will not say anything about the Michigan Ohio State game. Brandon will take of all of the talking in that department for me. As much as I really wanted Michigan to win, I really like a happy husband. So in some cases, a loss is actually a win.

We ate our Thanksgiving meal with the Hochstedler family.

After the meal, we celebrated Christmas. We have done this every year for several years. We celebrate Christmas the weekend of Thanksgiving, since everyone has so many other family gatherings as Christmas gets closer. It is always the first of many Christmas gatherings for us. I love this time of year and all the celebrating with family.

 We read a Christmas story.

Then we started the gift exchange.

Brielle with her goodies she got.

My mom matched my Aunt(her sister) Amy.

Believe it or not, this is only half of the second cousins. There are twenty of us first cousins. My mom has 3 sisters and all 4 girls have 5 kids each. A lot of us first cousins have kids of our own. My kids love playing with their second cousins and consider them first cousins(since they don’t have any).

Like I said, I absolutely love this time of year. I love family gatherings and get togethers. I love doing fun traditions together. It’s my hope that the memories made, will have a lasting impact on my kids. We are very blessed and very thankful!

Also we literally just passed the Michigan football team and their police escort taking them back to Ann Arbor on our trip home from Indiana. That was cool!!!