Tummy bugs & Christmas presents

I am sad to say that three-fourths of the Munn family have spent at least part of the last week sick with the stomach flu. Amazingly, Miss Olivia has yet to show any signs of tummy bugs. That's very good news of course for her (and me) but the rest of us have been down right miserable! Jake is such an angel though. Even when he's sick he tries to be sweet and funny. He felt terrible yesterday though. He spent the entire morning on the couch and then took a 4 hour nap. This is definitely not normal behavior for him. He's not usually one for being a couch potato. I'm very happy to report that he's much better today. Mike is really the only one still not feeling well. Send up a little prayer for my wonderful husband if you don't mind.

It has been warmer today and not raining so we finally got to go out and play today. Olivia jumped on the trampoline for the first time and had so much fun! She and Jake are absolutely hysterical together. He laughs at everything she does and she just goes around with wide eyes in amazement at all the stuff to play with. For her of course, this is like living in Disney World. It's sort of sad to me that in a few months she'll be just as spoiled as the rest of us. I'm glad of course to be able to spoil her, but I try so hard to make Jake aware of all he has and here I have this child who is aware and I'm just going to make her rotten. What a peculiar situation.

We had a very good Christmas despite me being ill over the holiday. Luckily Mike and Jake waited until after Christmas was over to get sick. The kids didn't sleep well at all on Christmas Eve so they weren't as animated as I had anticipated they would be on Christmas morning. They had a big time though. Santa brought them a kitchen and that was a big hit with both of them. Jake was of course thrilled with anything that had Lightning McQueen on it. Olivia got a tricycle at JuJu and Daddy Don's and you would have thought she had just been given a Porche. She was so happy.

Aunt Cerra bought them both four wheelers. Yes - four wheelers. Gas powered, electric start, 90 CC four wheelers. Two of them. Holy cow and thank you. That's all I can say about my silly sister and her extravagant gifts. She doesn't have children of her own and she has taken mine to spoil much to their delight. Jake was elated of course and much to our surprise, so was Olivia! You would think she had owned one already. She hopped right on ready for a ride with Mommy on her new four wheeler. It was so funny! We have had so much fun riding them this week even though it's been in the 40's and we've nearly frozen to death. The kids are oblivious to the cold temperatures. They just want to ride their new contraptions. Jake has three other battery powered ride on vehicles so he's a pretty good driver, but we're still showing him the ropes on the four wheeler. I think it will be a while before we let go of the reigns. Even though Mike has them governed down a bunch, it still makes me nervous. The neat thing is that they both have remotes so if Jake is doing something crazy or going faster than he should we can hit a button and it kills the motor. They also have alarms so if Jake goes outside and even touches it the alarm will go off. Poor child. It will probably give him a heart attack.

I so wish I could post pictures. One day surely they'll offer something other than dial up out here in the boon docks. By the way, I wanted to let you know that we are about as settled in as we're going to get, so feel free to come visit us now and you can certainly call anytime. A friend of mine told me that she hadn't been calling because she wanted to wait until I was settled in. Call! Visit! I'm more than ready to talk to grown ups again! If you do visit, please remember my motto: houses are for free expression not for good impressions! The house may be a mess, but it's full of love and laughter!