thankful trees, the park, the temple, sprite, crackers, letters to santa and doctors visits

We've had a lot going on in just the last 5 days!  Life really keeps us (especially me) on our toes and I'm trying to take it all in stride!
The weather down here has been AWESOME for about the last month and a half and I hope, hope, hope it stays around for a while longer!  Thursday afternoon, while the girls napped, Drew and I played outside...he is one sweet and silly kid!

 Jillian woke up happy as a clam that day!  Sweet girl!

On Friday we went to the park with some friends and it was a gorgeous day.   It was a tiny bit windy which made it feel cooler than I had dressed for but as the morning went on, it just started feeling soooo good!  Our city has already put up Christmas decorations at the city hall and around the park...seriously though...I'm not into skipping right to it and leaving Thanksgiving in the dust!  The kids loved Mickey and Minnie though!

That night we went to the temple with some dear friends and our kids played and played with their kids.  I didn't get any pictures but it was definitely something I needed...little did I know what my weekend entailed!

First, Drew got strep...

then Mike and I got stomach viruses...

 Susanna took advantage of being able to drink all the 7-Up and Sprite she could handle and Jillian was just the sweetest thing.  We ALL took some super good naps and thankfully, I was not as sick as Mike or Drew and could keep up with it all.

 (cute & happy overload!)

 We stayed home from church so we wouldn't pass it around.  Drew caught a lizard and was super pumped about it.  

 We all took more naps...

 We went to the doctor to get an official diagnosis and he got a shot, which was traumatic at the time but helped him feel better very fast.

Mike worked late on Monday but when he came home we put more leaves on our Thankful Tree, (which we started last year as part of our Family Home Evenings during the month of November...see about our first ever thankful tree here) and wrote our letters to Santa.  Susanna has been talking about this for about a month and the only reason I allowed this to happen before Thanksgiving is because she was so dang excited, and it'll help me plan gift-giving a little better as I try to do little bits at a time so I don't get stressed and lose the spirit of the holiday...we really have so much to be thankful for.  Sometimes my mind can't even wrap around them all and in the words of Drew lately, they make me so happy and excited "I could just explode!"

 Then Susanna woke up in the night with a fever, a stomach ache and vomiting this morning and off we go to the doctor in about 30 minutes.  I hope we all get to feeling better soon but my prayers were certainly answered and I'm so glad that I feel well and can take care of these precious people of mine.  

We are looking forward to a weekend of pretty much nothing, which is good.  I'm giving a talk on Sunday too, so I'm praying for peace-of-mind so that I can be in tune with the Spirit and know what it is I should talk about...I'm thinking gratitude should be in there somewhere...yes?!