Birthdays For Everyone :)

I haven't posted in a while because there has been a lot of illness lately: firstly my brother James is suffering from a mysterious illness, still being looked at by doctors. Please keep him in your prayers. Then my mom was in a car accident after leaving work; a girl in the oncoming traffic turned left into my mom, who was driving straight. She is okay, but has multiple spasms in her neck and back according to Xrays, the car is going to cost $4,000 to repair, and she doesn't know how long or even if the other girl's insurance is going to pay, meanwhile she is trying to work to be able to afford gas for the rental car her insurance gave her for a few weeks. Please also pray for her to get through this.
     And now, all of us have come down with a bad virus, that feels like the flu, but evidently was not. First Norman, then me, then the kids, and John and Susan. Everyone exhibits the symptoms differently--mine and Lucas' seems to be our sinuses, everyone else their throat. Frankie had a little bit of the symptoms, but I am pretty sure the antibodies in my milk prevented the worst for him. The kids didn't get as bad off as I did, and I credit that to our new vitamin regimen. I give them Elderberry syrup, with a vitamin D drop, a gummy multivitamin and Vitamin C chew daily. Since we have been sick, I also have been buying Oscillococcinum, which is a homeopathic remedy, derived from duck heart and liver. Who knows if it works, but it's better than taking constant medicine. I should've been taking all those vitamins as well--my second day I had a bad fever and couldn't stay awake, but had to for Frankie. Susan helped me and John stayed home the next 2 days thankfully---but now they are sick. I hope this is our one bad cold for the year to strengthen our immune systems! We are all on the mend now.

   The day I got sick, was John & Lucas' bday but we also celebrated Olivia's (which was the week before), and we went to the big Grapevine Mills mall to let them pick out a toy. We went to this "Play" game store that has all the cool strategy games and they were moving so everything was 50% off! So we picked out a bunch of fun stuff with the kids.

  L & O's godparents sent them bday gifts too---Olivia got more "Olivia" Lego Friends toys, Lucas got an aquatic 200 piece puzzle (he is determined to do it without my help...not there yet though!), and a 'spot it jr" game to share. Thank you~~ they have way too many toys now! Need to buy some more shelves :)

Then we let them ride the carousel (by this time my sneezing was constant...no longer thought it was my allergies..). 

 And then we had dinner at the Rainforest Cafe, which we had never been to. It was fun for the kids to see and hear all the animals, and it seemed to be EVERYONE's birthday that night. The food was surprisingly really good ! I had half a clam chowder, half salad---a delicious vinaigrette salad with cranberries pecans and strawberries. John had a pasta dish with zucchini and squash.

Ages 30, 4 & 5 :)

 Grandma brought them some gifts from her work~~they never tire of opening presents!

We also got this hot wheels set half off:

 Olivia picked this real key-lockable locker---and loves it.

And here is my honey bunny :)