WOW, It's Been A LONG Time!!! (sorry so long)

Our Christmas Tree with Too Many Presents!

i'll apologize now as this is going to be quit lengthy with lots of pictures. i don't even know really where to begin. i have not gotten to update the blog in a long time. it started with a surprise visit from my sister, sarah, and her husband, john, from n.c. i am the oldest of three. my sister sarah is 13 mo. younger than me and we are super close. and then jessica is 4 years younger and in college in indiana (we have gotten closer as she has gotten older). for the first time in 4 years we were all together for christmas. not only did sarah surprise us with a visit, but also with the news that they are expecting their first baby!!!!! yeah, i'm gonna be an auntie!!!! :) i am soooo excited. i don't think i showed it very much while she was here, but i really am excited. i have several neices and nephews on my hubby's side, but most were already here and half grown by the time i married into the family. this is just different. this baby will be my first niece/nephew on my side!!! :) she is due august 19th as of right now. she goes for her first dr. appt. on jan.10th. i personally think she is going to have a boy as does her hubby. i also used the ancient chinese birth gender chart on her and it said she was going to have a boy as well so we will see. in case you are interested, here is a link to the chart. it was right for all 3 of my pregnancys (it doesn't do twins, but it said girl for the twins, it just didn't say two :) ) http://mypage.direct.ca/j/jfeng/gender.htm. she nanny's for 4 girls so i think a boy is in order. anyway, on to other news.

christmas went great. the kids got more toys then they will ever need. the twins really liked it this year and were old enough to get the concept. of course, every toy they opened, they immediately wanted out of the box, so christmas took a little longer this year. here are a few pics from christmas:

Jordan with his favorite toy (a huge fire truck)

Toya with hers (both toys just happned to be from auntie sarah....hmmm)

Kelsey(top) and kaylee(bottom) couldn't wait to ride their bikes, so they rode them in the box! :)

Daddy making room AGAIN for more trash!

The girls in the trash box (kaylee front and kelsey back)

kelsey with a bow :)

shortly after christmas, the twins became quit sick. of course it started out as a cold and then turned to croup, as well as conjunctivitis because of all the junk. of course we went to get antibiotics and they were put on a nebulizer as well as amoxicillian. these did not go well with the inh that kaylee take for the tb. both kelsey and kaylee immediately got really bad diahrea and then kaylee also got a yeast infection from all the meds. through the course of that, jordan also became quit sick. for the past three days, three of the four have been on a nebulizer every 4 hours. this definitely made things quit interesting. the girls finally got the hang of it. the first few times they would scream as soon as they saw it and until it was over (10-15 min. per girl). towards the end they would just sit and watch cartoons while wearing the mask. thankfully the twins are all done now and are alot better. here are some pics of the twins with the masks, they looked so cute and grown up that i had to take pics:

Kelsey Kaylee
Daddy and the girls (kelsey~left and kaylee~right)

jordan welcomed the new year with a bang by throwing up on me. he has since been running a fever between 102 and 103 as well as coughing. we went to the dr. today who was sure that is was strep because his throat was very red and his glands were extremely swollen. she was surprised to find his strep test negative. she did a couple of tests and came back with nothing, so he is thought to have just a very strong virus. he seemed to be coming out of it a little tonight after literally staying in bed all day. hopefully we are seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.

last but not least, we had a birthday party/family get together on saturday. we were celebrating my grandmothers birthday(my mom's mom) and the new year as well. no one thought she would be around to see another year, but once again she proved us and the dr.s wrong. she is the mom of nine children, the oldest being my mom and the youngest being my uncle who is actually 6 mo. younger than me, yes, that means that my mom and my grandmother were pregnant at the same time with my mom giving birth to her first before my grandmother gave birth to her last. (i know, i thought it was weird too) :). here are some pics:

My Grammy

Grammy with 8 of her kids (the youngest wasn't there)Grammy with (left to right) Me, Sarah (middle sis), Jess (younger sis), and my momGrammy with me and the kids
Grammy with the grand kids ~ 14 were there (one is hiding in the back). the youngest is 3 (not in the pic) and the oldest is me at almost 29.
Great grandkids (the two adults have great grandkids in their bellies, plus one more in a belly that couldn't be there) ~ 4 of the kids are mine :) the youngest is the baby boy at 3 mo.(i think) and the oldest is my daughter latoya at 7, plus there are three waiting to be born.

and here are just a couple of cute pics, like you haven't seen enough...lol:

toya's hair done curtesy of auntie jess

kaylee (left) and kelsey (right) in sweatshirts curtesy of auntie jess as well

well, that is all for the update. hopefully it won't be so long between updates this time. i hope you enjoy the post. thank you for reading. if you made it this far, all i can say is WOW...lol :)