First, Second, Third, Fourths, FIFTHS?

Ever heard of it? Fifth's Virus. It's a skin rash...Berkeley's was on her face. It started Friday and just looked like a few little pimples coming up on the skin. Then, throughout the weekend it spread a bit. Berkeley's cheeks would go really red and blotchy. It would come, go away, come again, go away. Lotion didn't help. Allergy medicine didn't help. Weird, right? Well, after going to the doctor, it turns out she has a skin virus called FIFTH's. It doesn't hurt, burn, itch...nothing. And there's no treatment. You just "wait it out." However, you CAN'T be near pregnant women if you have this virus. It's very dangerous for them...or their babies....and I'm not sure why. I guess you usually get a fever right before the rashes come (we didn't notice this in Berk) and that is when you are contagious. Unfortunately...we were around my pregnant neighbor AND my pregnant friend on Friday. But...just in case we saw YOU on Thursday or Friday...and you are hiding a secret pregnancy ...this is your ALERT to call your OB. Tell them you were exposed.

I'm posting the pictures just as an FYI. You can watch for when your kids get it. It isn't "severe" looking...just rashy.

Anyhow...Christmas was quick and chaotic. I hope to mail out our "Pre-Valentine, Happy Late Christmas and New Years" packages this week. Sorry to those we have failed miserably....we try hard! I just did a lot of photo cd's this year and all the editing takes FOREVER. I love it...but it's time consuming. Here's a review of what our Christmas entailed:

Gingerbread houses.... Always a fun tradition.

I love how you can take this:

And turn it into THIS:

Traditions Continued...We also had a great time this year painting our own wooden ornaments. We did this when I was a child...and although I don't remember painting the ornaments...it was always so fun to see what I had painted and hang it on the tree each year. Here are ours:

McKenna's are all the orange ones...a Christmas color delight for many in the world! (Not.) But hey, she had fun! I had fun too. Berkeley took her time and did her best work. They were excited to hang them on the tree once they had dried.

We did make it to the Zoo Lights this year but not until after Christmas. You would think at this point in this paragraph...I would talk about how cool it was...how much smaller the crowds were after Christmas....or something of the sort. Not so.

People...we are going to talk about hot chocolate.

Lucky for us, going after Christmas meant we got hot chocolate mugs at half price...$4.00 ! WHAT THE HE**!? $4.00 for hot chocolate in a light-up mug? That is insane. And did I mention that was HALF PRICE !?!?! Who pays $8.00 for freaking hot chocolate in a light-up mug??? And, whomever you are, STOP DOING THAT! Shame on you, crazy people. YOU are the reason Hogle Zoo thinks that they can charge this amount!! For that price....it may just be cheaper to treat frostbite. (You don't need all of your fingers anyhow. You have ten of them.) For EIGHT DOLLARS - that mug better wash itself and put itself away. IT WASN'T EVEN DISHWASHER SAFE!

Truly, what is the zoo thinking? It's a mug and it's filled with hot chocolate. EIGHT DOLLARS??? How do people with more than two children afford it? It's a good thing I was able to look past the SICK prices and enjoy the scenery...right? Can't let a little posh hot chocolate ruin the Spirit of the holidays!?

Since we are on the "Spirit" of the season though, our little family did have a GIANT surprise blessing this year. It's hard for me to talk about it, because it still touches my heart so much. But we had a couple "secret" angels of Santa (and Heavenly Father) donate a load of extra presents to the girls for Christmas morning. This came after these two "angels" already had spoiled them openly with gifts. It truly made the girl's Christmas morning, to wake up expecting only three presents each...and seeing such a "plentiful" display. It was overwhelming to me and our cup truly "runneth over". Thank you to them again, you know who you are. You'll never know just how much it meant.

It's always so funny to me how neatly wrapped gifts start like this:

And end up leaving a room looking like this:

It's the MERRY part of Christmas, I suppose!

Jenny Miller, you wished us a very "pink" Christmas.....and I thought I would take a picture of the livingroom Christmas morning...just to show you how accurate you didn't know you were (lol):

Two little girls = A LOT of pink! It's so much fun. It' won't last long.

I get so intimidated as each year as the costs to raise children get bigger and the budget stays the same. But there have been many this year who have helped us out and done little (and BIG) things to help us function comfortably. Obviously my Mom and "Grandpa Russ" are two of those people. They've gone beyond the normal to help us out...and we can't say "thank you" quickly enough...before help is on its way again. This goes the same for Shannon, John, Grandma Debbie, Wolfy, and so many others. I used to be great at getting "thank you" cards out...but not-so-much lately. If I missed saying "thank you" to you...."thanks so much."

Finally, I wanted to mention my absolute gratitude, for the ability to witness yesterday's Presidential Inauguration. I'm so proud of the progress we have made as human beings. I am so grateful my children will be able to live in a world where positive change occurred. It's cheesey...but I stood in my livingroom, made Berkeley hold my hand and watch too, and teared up as Barack Obama took his oath of office. I told Berkeley and McKenna that, one day, they would want to remember where she was in that moment. At four, Kenna most likely won't remember. But at seven-years-old, there's a good chance Berkeley will. I hope so.