the not-so Happy Birthday to Me!

I woke up on Friday to a sweet little Jacob next to my bed saying "I feel like I'm going to throw up Mommy!" Ugh. Talk about jolting you out of bed! I took him to the bathroom where he got sick, then laid back down - not feeling well myself. I had to shower and get ready to go because my sisters, Mom and I had some special plans. I kept hoping that it was just the competition of being up early and Jacob being sick that was causing my stomach to feel so unsettled. I said goodbye to David (who was staying at the timeshare with the older 3 kids) and took Caleb with me and headed to Kelli's house. Kelli had arranged for a babysitter to come and stay with Caleb and Joseph at her house while the girls and I went and enjoyed breakfast and pedicures together! I was really looking forward to it - until we pulled into the parking lot of the restaurant. I got out of the car really fast and got sick - right there in the parking lot. Strangest thing. Felt better afterwards - seriously, gross I know - and didn't want to ruin everyone's great plans. So I washed my mouth out, blew my nose, and went to join the rest of the girls at the restaurant! I just kept hoping that maybe it was just some random fluke!

John G's is the name of it - it's right on the water and has a beautiful view. Great food - perfect place to start the morning (if only I'd not just thrown up in the parking lot!) I managed to eat a few bites of breakfast...
We did go on and get pedicures - which was awesome. I always love it and always say that if I ever hit the jackpot, regular pedicures would be my regular indulgence! :) Makes me feel so relaxed!!!

We headed back after our fun girls morning out and I took a long nap that afternoon. Jacob said he was feeling fine (and David said he had acted fine all afternoon). I woke up still feeling "off' but not really sure. Josiah had been sick once randomly earlier in the week, then Jacob that morning, so I suppose it was just some kind of 24hr bug. I was just so mad that it was on my birthday - and on our last day of vacation!! We decided to drive to the beach - since it would have been a crime to vacation in Florida and not even SEE the beach. Chris and Kristen were following us in their car. As we were caravaning there, we were on the phone with Kristen giving directions when all of a sudden she said "gotta go! jacob just threw up in the car!". I could have died. Kristen is a bit fanatical about her car. And my kid just threw up in it. Could it get any worse? She handled it well, but I felt terrible. David said he really had been fine all day, so I guess it was just carsickness (he does tend to be our carsick kid). Oh man. He was fine when they pulled into the parking lot though.

Caleb loves the beach - just wants to be set free to go and play!!!

I was just sort of watching. My sweet family. And not feeling very good at all. But content to watch them and feel extremely blessed.

I love my Mom. Am so thankful for the relationship that we have. She's the BEST!

Look at the curls on these two blonde babies!

the newlyweds :)

My precious family - December 2010

real life :)

We headed back to the timeshare for my birthday dinner that Kristen and Chris made for me. Homemade macaroni and cheese, salad, crescent rolls - YUM! It made me so sad that I couldn't eat much of it! :(

Scott and David enjoying Lego Rockband :) Perhaps a little too much!

Scott - the financial trust planner that deals with multi-million dollar estates.

David - the worship pastor from a Southern Baptist Church.

ROCK OUT! :)

Kristen even made my favorite cake - ever. Carrot cake with homemade cream cheese frosting. OH man. I was just getting sadder and sadder. Hated being such a downer on the last day of vacation. This is NOT how I wanted it to end, but what can you do?

Callie helped me blow out the candles

You can tell from these pictures how I was feeling. I was there, but that was about it. At this point in the night, I was present, but didn't really have enough energy to even pretend. Bummer.

sometimes I think my kids don't even notice. Maybe that's a good thing. They're still all up in my face wanting to see and be a part of everything. Doesn't matter that mommy feels awful!

Beth got me a pineapple wedger from Pampered Chef - Kelli was checking it out! Beth & I have a thing for fresh pineapple - LOVE it! Goes way back....back to when Beth had Jackson and I brought her some fresh fruit including fresh cut pineapple which she'd never done before....She discovered this very cool invention and knew I would LOVE it! She was right!

Courtney sent me the book "Jesus Calling" by Sarah Young. I was so excited to get my own copy - had been hearing about how wonderful it was from several different people! She knows me well!

A beautiful necklace/earring set from Kim

A little friendly competition between Kelli and Scott...

They both can talk some trash!

So that was my day. Not how I had planned it to be. But I was overwhelmed looking around at my precious family all around me. Even though I felt crummy, I was surrounded by the people that I love and that love me and was so grateful that the Lord put me in this family!!! Thank you God - for our relationships and that in spite of our differences, we still remain close! It was a GREAT week together!

The Circus and some swordplay!

It's a little hard to concentrate on breakfast when...there's a girl under the table pretending she's a cat!!! :)
David and I had a good, hard run this morning! I had run the day before by myself (because Kelli bailed on me that morning -too tired to wake up) and had a good 6 mile run. It's always fun to run in new places! So this morning, David got up and ran with me, but he always pushes me because he's definitely faster! We did another 6 miles - harder, but still good! I love vacations when we get to actually run together!! :)

playing with dishes in the kitchen

We left the timeshare after lunch and drove back up to West Palm Beach for a little surprise that we had planned. We didn't tell the kids where we were going until we arrived and they saw this:

There was a Circus Holiday Show in town that week at the West Palm Beach convention center, so we took all the kids to go see it - and had a blast!! Caleb was totally riveted the whole time - never once squirmed or wanted to get down. The kids were just totally captivated! Callie either wants to ride elephants when she grows up or spin from her hair way up high in the sky!! :)

They were super excited - had never been to a circus, so they had no idea what to expect. It was technically not the "whole" circus - just a holiday show. It was sort of a scaled down version - only 1 ring instead of 3, for example. But it had everything and was awesome! 2 hours long with an intermission in the middle...

...which was needed to buy some popcorn and...

...swords!!

(funny story about these swords. We sat through one of those "timeshare sales pitches" earlier in the week - much to my mom's severe unhappiness - she hates pressure or sales pitches of ANY kind. David and I do it all the time - we know what to expect, it doesn't really stress us out at all. We sit through the presentation, nicely say no thankyou, and then collect our free gift at the end. Kelli and I were both going to get $75 VISA gift cards for sitting through their pitch and felt like it was worth it. It was a little nuts with all the kids there, but at the end of the pitch, Josiah said "when can we leave?" I told him we had to listen to them talk because they were going to give us $75 at the end if we listened to all the information. Well, that got Josiah's attention. He and Jacob then came up with a plan of their own - they asked if they could have some of the money since they sat and listened too! Smart boys, aren't they? So we told them they could each have $10. They used that to buy the swords! :) )

After the circus, we got to head over to Chris and Kristen's house. I hadn't seen their home yet and so they hosted everyone for dinner that night! I loved getting to see their first home - they've done such beautiful things to it, recently painted - it's beautiful! (much nicer than our little 500 sf apartment that David and I lived in when we first married!!)

Kristen's house is beautiful and immaculate - both things that make for a disaster with 5 little kids around. So as soon as they were done eating, we pretty much banished them to the screened in porch...where they broke in their new swords.

Joseph was trying to figure out what in the world these things were!

It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt!!

Callie taking on Josiah

Uh-oh - another brother goes down...

...and the hands of Callie! (and I'm betting that those flower petals all over the floor weren't there when we arrived....)

Tired baby - full day!

Kristen is a wonderful pianist - she kept up with it the longest of all of us. I got her some piano books for Christmas and so she played a solo for us - a solo that she remembered playing years ago, and it really did come back to her! :)

Joe was willing to play a duet along with her if needed!

Thanks for opening up your home to us Chris and Kristen! It was wonderful spending time with them and seeing where they live! (and I'm sure that as soon as we left, the carpet steamer and Lysol came out to get the house back how Chris had it before we arrived!!)