Break from Christmas part 2

So yesterday's photo dump was leading up to New Year's. Now you get everything after it.  Whoo hoo!

New Year's day Mom wanted to have a family dinner at the house. She made chicken and mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and of course black eyed peas for good luck.  

Here's the deal. I hate black eyed peas. I never eat them on New Year's. I don't believe in superstitions and I don't believe in luck. BUT. After the super sucky last two years I figured I'd give it a whirl.

 

Proof that I ate some. See them on the left? It's the little part on the left under the salsa. Hey, I am Texan after all.

After dinner the party got a little crazy. Evan became THAT GIRL with the bucket on her head.  I promise it was just milk in her sippy cup.

The next Saturday Mom and Dad took Luke to a train show that was in Ft. Worth. Being the seasoned mother that I am, I waited until that morning, mere minutes before they were due to show up, to let him in on the plans.  

That was his excited face. And he had a right to be excited. He got to ride on a little train, have a beloved cheeseburger for lunch, and have Nana and Papa all to himself while Sister stayed home with Momma.

Yes, I stayed home with a sister that still doesn't always remember that pillows are for sleeping ON. Not to be avoided totally. But, she is getting better about it. I'm thinking maybe March I'll switch it to a toddler bed.

Unfortunately this last Monday (today is Friday) Evan got sick. I mean PITIFUL. When the kids' grandmother brought them home on Monday night I had to hold back the tears when I saw her. I have never seen a person's nose so red and raw from blowing it too much.  I mean, on Tuesday it was bleeding from being raw. It was awful.  She was wheezing and digging at her ear, so I made the executive decision to take her to Acute Kids that night.

It's a good thing I did, too, because it turns out she was only breathing at 94% and had an ear infection. Two hours and two prescriptions later (antibiotic and an oral steroid), she was home dead asleep. Tuesday I took off from work to keep her home, and it happen to be Luke's first day back to school.

 There was a little girl that really wanted to go with Bubba, but had to stay home with Momma.  Mom got that "pack pack" for her for Christmas, and although you can't really see, it's got her name embroidered on the flap and that's an owl on the sack part.

Wednesday she was better enough to go on to Cindy's, but that night I kept them home from bible class, just to make sure. I tried my hand at sausage gravy with busciuts for dinner, and I had no idea it was that easy to make! The sweet sweet part was when Evan saw what I was doing, she ran off to get her own pan and sausage from her kitchen to cook with me.

This was after she raided the cabinet of all my tupperware and took them back to her kitchen.

Congratulations! You made it through two days of photo dumps!