The next morning it was still raining and we went to see some friends from Huntsville that had just moved to the same neighborhood as my brother and his family. We had a short visit as Caroline had a couple of meltdowns and Luke was ready to nap, but it was good to see them! Then we came back to my parents and ate lunch and took naps before meeting my brother and his family for dinner. We had to wait a long time but it was fun visiting with them and watching Caroline play with her cousins. Luke got really fussy and I fed him his baby food, but he just got tired and wouldn’t go to sleep with all the noise. He fussed through most of dinner, so we were glad to get home and put him to bed!
We had planned to have dinner at my brother’s the next night (Friday), but they all came down with a stomach bug that morning so we decided to reschedule. We went to lunch with my sister and her hubby and some of her friends and had a good time. That afternoon during naps, Chris and I went to look at minivans! After making a long roadtrip with two kiddos and all our stuff, we thought we might need a bigger car! We had some frustrations (the first place we went was out of minivans! and the second place was hard to get to and just terrible service) but then came back and had a low-key evening at my parents’ house.
Saturday was Christmas Eve and my mom and sister and I went out to run a few errands. Then I came back to feed Luke and they shopped some more. My sister was starting to feel bad that morning and she ended up coming down with the stomach bug too :(. We all took naps that afternoon then went to the Christmas Eve service at my parents’ church. It was good and the kids did fine in the nursery; then we came home and my mom fixed us a delicious dinner. That night, Luke started getting really congested and was up several times in the night. I had to nurse him once which I haven’t had to do in MONTHS!!
Another attempt to get pics of the kids together:
Much easier one at a time!
Christmas morning we woke up and got ready for church. Chris stayed home with Luke since he was so congested and I wanted to let him sleep, so I took Caroline with me and my parents. Church was good again and we came home and waited for my brother’s family to arrive. When they did, the kids played and we exchanged gifts! The kids had SO much fun and it was fun for us to see them together. It was a little crazy with all the presents and 4 kids under 4, so we didn’t really get good pics, but here are some:
Caroline ready to open gifts:
Caroline and Aubrey:
One of her favorites – a doctor kit!
And another favorite – the bubble wagon:
Luke got quite a few things too:
My mom made sure to get Luke’s “sugar”:
The grands and grandsons:
Best attempt with all four:
And the Howie 3:
My brother and his family stayed until it was naptime and we had a great time visiting together. Luke had another rough night and was up several times.
The day after Christmas, Chris and I and my sister and her hubby did a little shopping. Chris and I only ended up going to Target, but we got some more diapers and a travel humidifier to help Luke (hopefully) be able to breathe and sleep better. That evening we all went to my brother’s for dinner. The food was delicious and the cousins had fun playing together again. Luke did sleep better that night, so I figured he was on the mend. Here we are with Aunt Sarah:
We had planned to leave Tuesday and go back thru B’ham again, but we decided to stay until Wednesday and just make it all in one day. So Tuesday my sister and her hubby left that morning and we went to look at minivans again that afternoon and had a MUCH more pleasant experience! We really like the Honda Odyssey and the salesman at the dealership was really friendly. He had sold my parents a car and even let us test drive the van by ourselves and take our time looking at it! That night we went to Cracker Barrel to eat and Chris started feeling bad afterward. He ended up catching the stomach bug that had been going around so we decided to stay another day to make sure he wouldn’t be sick in the car for so long.
So we stayed at my parents on Wednesday and Caroline got to make a gingerbread house with me and my mom. She enjoyed putting the candy decorations on (and eating them!):
Luke started running a high fever (over 103) that night - there seemed to be no end to the sickness! But we knew we needed to get him home and to see his doctor so we left Jackson on Thursday morning after a rough night. We made it home in good time and saw Luke’s doctor first thing the next morning (more on that in the next post!).
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