Cupcakes and Rainbows

Hello, out there you 0-2 readers. It's been a busy few months for us and probably for you all, too. Christmas, the New Year, family time, traveling. It's enough to make your head spin! Here are a few updates from our hiatus from the blog-o-sphere.

This is a favorite photo from the holidays. Ethan got a remote control car and Emily got a baby stroller. However in this photo, it looks as though Jeffrey got a remote control baby stroller. Is this funny only to me? I don't care. I continue to laugh when I scroll through my photos and come upon this one. 

Here is the one family shot from Christmas morning. Thank you to Angie and Dermot for your patience and trickery in getting us all to (sort of) look at the camera at the same time. 

In January, we had a birthday party for Ethan and Emily...together. Both kids had several buddies there and we had a great time with friends and family. Yeah for winter babies!

This is another giggler when I'm scrolling through my pictures. My dear friend, Laura, and I are posing for what could have been a decent picture. It looks as though we've given Emily a tranquilizer, but this was just a post-my-first-cupcake slump. 

And here's big boy Ethan at the party with gal-pal Marley. I had similar feelings about those cupcakes, Ethie. Yum-o! (Jeffrey made them.)

After the dust cleared from the party, a few weeks later we had another visitor. The norovirus (or at least that's what we called it thanks to WebMD and other online sources). Since I'd hate for you to have to read the words "vomit" and "diarrhea" over and over as I describe what happened, we'll refer to that ferocious combo as "cupcakes" and "rainbows" for the purpose of this post.

Emily had what I thought was a 24-hour bug one Monday. By late Tuesday she was stealing cars and ripping down buildings (I'm referring to Ethan's toy cars and his Lego creations). By Wednesday afternoon Emily had "rainbows." By 5 pm that day Ethan had "cupcakes" all over me and the bathroom. I gotta give it to him - convenient location choice. By 6:30 pm, I also had "cupcakes" and Jeffrey was home and able to care for both kids. But by late that night, Jeffrey had "cupcakes" too. Over the next 3-4 days, we all had "cupcakes" and "rainbows," including our dog, Phoebe. I'm not making this up, people. The hot water heater also died, making it extremely difficult to clean all the "cupcakes" and "rainbows" off of everything. 

We survived,  huddling together and praying for healthy days. Those days came, but after a lot of saltines and rest. 

The nastiness is gone and we've emerged with some good memories. Now if only the cold and rainy season could pass and we could see some actual rainbows. Help me keep a lookout. I'm sure Spring is coming...