Christmas Review

Totally behind in the blogging, so I'm doing a whirlwind tour of the Hughes Zoo Christmas....

Christmas Eve at our house....

Grandma, Gigi, Uncle Ryan and Kristy.....


Presents literally engulfed our living room....




Lexy delighted in GIVING gifts more than RECEIVING (melted my heart)....


Ryan gave THE gift of the night-- a rocking horse that makes galloping sounds for Tori-- so cute!....


Both girls were a little under the weather with what we thought were "just colds." HA. When will we learn our lesson....

Tori had the barking cough of croup all night and I had to take her outside into the cold air twice in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve. When she would settle and go back to sleep, I'd hear Lexy start crying for me. She was complaining of a sore throat and telling me that her ear hurt. I alternated between the two all night. Oh, the joys of motherhood.

Christmas morning....

(Big gifts this year: Lexy-- new bicycle [or "bike-a-cil", if you ask her], Tori--new baby stroller)

Hughes Zoo (running on VERY LITTLE SLEEP), Grandma, and Gigi.... Not willing to let our "colds" dampen the spirit, we charged on ahead and had our traditional egg casserole breakfast-- A Hughes Family tradition-- cinnamon rolls and apple cider. Oh. And we opened all the gifts from Santa. (How could I forget that) The morning is kind of a blur. Not many pictures to document it because no one was in a picture-taking mood. We were all just going through the motions in a daze. To wit, we forgot to open our stockings until lunch time.

After breakfast, we headed straight for URGENT CARE!! Isn't that where everyone goes on Christmas morning?! Thankfully, the answer was "no", and we didn't have to wait long.




Diagnosis: 2 ear infections, one in each daughter. Antibiotics all around!! And I hope you don't mind driving 20 MINUTES ACROSS TOWN because there's only ONE pharmacy open on Christmas Morning! Merry Christmas!

Still in pajamas after long morning naps, we headed over to Grandma Holly's house for the traditional Christmas dinner. We had a nice gathering of family that hadn't been together for quite awhile due to various circumstances.


Christmas 2008: One that will not be forgotten anytime soon. :)

The Nutcracker

Grandma Holly treated Lexy and I to a performance of The Nutcracker at the local community college this year.

We took a few pictures before heading out the door, and Lexy insisted on carrying a purse and wearing a scarf just like mommy.

I was able to find a little black purse to coordinate, but wasn't so fortunate with the scarf. As you can see, hers didn't match. At all. Oh well.

Lexy LOVED the show and has been talking about "ballerina girls dancing around on their toes" and "guys spinning on their heads" (authentic Russian dancers) ever since. She spots nutcrackers everywhere we go now. She's already talking about going with Grandma again next year. I guess we've started a new tradition. :)

And just to prove that she is, in fact, 3 years old, she decided to ROAR at the camera. I'm shaking in my boots. How 'bout you?

Christmas Card 2008

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas...

...with love from the Hughes Family

I love Christmas Vacation

The scene:
Home, the first 5 minutes of his "Winter Break."
Both girls so excited to have Daddy home.
Celebrating the quiet moments.

Wishing you all many quiet moments this Holiday season....

Birthday Wishes

Happy Birthday to the most wonderful man ever!

(we're kinda partial :) )

Thanksgiving weekend swing

We've got a video camera that uploads now!

Geography 101

While putting together our plastic shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child a couple weeks ago, Bill and I were confronted with an alarming realization: Our knowledge of geography is lacking.

We don't know where this is. Do you?

Thankful

We sure know how to have a good time...

We are really hoping that we are on the tail end of our own Puke Fest 2008, which has been Live! and in Full Effect! here since Wednesday night.

Sweet little Tori was the first victim. Bill and I spent the better part of Wednesday night and wee hours of Thursday morning trying to make her comfortable-- never without a puke pail at arm's length. Watching your 16-month-old throw up has got to be the worst thing ever. She just stared at us with her big .... blue? green? hazel? (we're not sure yet) eyes pleading for us to "Make it stop!" I felt so helpless.

Thursday seemed relatively calm-- I thought maybe we had all dodged a bullet. Tori seemed much better, and of the rest of us appeared healthy. Then Thursday afternoon, Tori began puking again. If there was any humor at all in the situation, it was watching her BEG for food all day long. This is my ferocious eater, after all. And the few saltines I had given her were just not cutting it. Who knows, maybe I should have just let her eat to her heart's content. May have prevented the numerous dry heaves later in the day.

Friday rolled around and shouted "LET THE FESTIVITIES BEGIN!"
At about 11am, I realized that my stomach didn't feel quite right.... I laid down to take a nap at 3:00, and by 4:00 I was puking. Lexy woke up from her nap about that time and went outside with Bill to check on their vegetable garden, and then I heard all this scurrying around by Bill. Lexy was throwing up. Good times, people. Good times.

Thank God Bill was still healthy at this point. I really don't know what I would have done if I would have had to take care of both girls-- one of whom was PUKING-- while I felt so horrible.
I just kept saying, "I'm so sorry!" to him as he rinsed out puke pails and dealt with Lexy.

He had his hands full, to say the least. And poor Tori, who is now seemingly healthy, wasn't making life any easier. She wanted to be right at his side during all the action. And she also wanted to EAT! since it'd had been a while. Again, thank God Bill was healthy, because there was no way I could have made her dinner. He ended up putting her to bed at 6:45pm just so he wouldn't have to keep her hands out of the toilet and such anymore. (She's still asleep at 8:37am as I type. I guess she needed it.)

Of course, you guessed it, Bill started feeling sick around 10pm, and then all bets were off. Misery all around.

I pretty much bed-hopped between the couch, my bed, Lexy's bed, and the blow-up air mattress Bill had set up in the family room all night. And I use the word "night" very liberally considering that I started napping at 3pm, and never really got out of bed from that point on (except to visit the restroom myself, or hold a bucket for Lexy). Longest night of my life, hands down.

My dreams all night, which were frequent, seemed to revolve around liquids. Dehydrated, perhaps? I swear I had visions all night that looked like this:

I had my first sip of water at 4am this morning, and so far, so good.
With the exception of Bill, who is still down for the count, we all seem to be feeling better today. Although I have NO DESIRE to eat anything yet. That's always a good barometer for me.
Now, if I could just get a Haz-Mat team over here to clean up the mess. And a maid to do LOTS of laundry.

Silver linings abound:
Thank God it's the weekend!
Thank God Bill and I rotated shifts of sickness!
Thank God it was JUST the flu!
Thank God we have indoor plumbing!
Thank God we'll all be healthy by Thanksgiving! (our extended family will be especially glad about this one since we gave the gift of flu to everyone two Thanksgivings ago)
And so many more....

Here's hoping that you and your family stay healthy this season!

It's been awhile....

Hello again.
I feel like I need to re-introduce myself, it's been so long.

I've been in a state of "mourning" for the past couple of weeks. Not due entirely to election stuff-- more so because the of the sin in the world. Some unfortunate family circumstances, along with the election, have put a great big spotlight on the sin that exists all around us.

We've been studying The Beatitudes in church for the past few weeks, and I have been particularly moved by verse 4, which says,"

Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.

I've always read that to mean people who are mourning the loss of a person, but our pastor said he believes it can also be extended to mean mourning the sin in the world. Kind of a "loss of innocence" as you realize how utterly corrupted all of human kind are. And when you think about it, most of the horrible things that we "mourn" in life all have to do with the fallen world we live in. Were it not for sin, there would be no wars, no famines, no diseases, no disasters ...etc. So it really all does boil down to SIN.

Anyway, all of this has been on the forefront of my mind for the past few weeks. I've been particularly stung by professing Christians who have made choices that go against God's word. The bible is not a book of "gray issues."

As for my feelings on the presidential election, my friend Veronica summed up my sentiments quite nicely here. (Thanks, Veronica for putting words to my thoughts EXACTLY!)

All is not lost, though.
Bill and I both feel as though recent developments in our world point even more urgently toward Jesus' triumphant return being near(er). And we know that regardless of what is happening in our world, however desperate times become, Jesus wins! THAT is our comfort!

Despite my mourning, life has actually been wonderful at The Hughes Zoo. God's provisions for our family have been amazing and humbling. I know we've all heard this before, but it has been particularly relevant to me recently:

"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want." Psalm 23:1

Phrased another way, "The Lord is my caregiver, He will take care of all of my needs."
All our needs, down to the littlest details, have been more than met. We are rejoicing in His blessings.

And on a much lighter note....
We had our friend Orna (who also happens to be our dentist!!) over for dinner last night. She arrived with a yummy pumpkin pie in hand, and no one was happier than Tori.

Yes, our little scavenger pulled the entire pie off of the counter and was sitting in the corner eating it with the pie server. "Little Tori Hughes sat in the corner, eating her pumpkin pie."
Thank goodness Orna had a camera to capture the moment.

Funny

Halloween

We attended our church's Fall Festival again this year, and what a fun night we all had.

Princess Cinderella

Little Indian Girl
(with blond hair!)

Lexy invited one of her friends from school to join us. She and Shami were inseparable all night. They were holding hands everywhere they went!! So cute.

Two sassy teenagers-in-the-making.
"ENOUGH pictures already, MOM."


"Trunk or Treating"
Buckets so full of candy, they had to carry them with two hands!

Face Paiting fun

Pumpkins!

All family members age 3+ particitpated in the pumpkin carving this year....
(Those under the age of 3 were napping.)

Trying to capture the same pose as last year.....
(not nearly the same results due to two squirmy girls!)

Pumpkin Patch

Wearing matching sundresses appropriate for the typical 97 degree fall day in southern California, we headed to the local Pumpkin Patch for some Kodak moments. Taking into account the aforementioned temperature, I should have known better.

Needless to say, the great shots were FEW and far between. Neither of the girls were too into the picture snapping. How could I blame them? We were all hot and bothered.

Here are the the best of the bunch....

All was not lost, I suppose....
We did pick out three prize pumpkins--- One for Mommy & Daddy, One for Lexy, and One for Tori, per Lexy's designation--- and will be carving them for Halloween.