Kids lately:

What happens if Layla and Finn get your phone.

Finn made a "griller," just like Papa's. 

 Layla sitting on the back porch, morning of day 2 of croup, right before we went in to the Dr for some steroids.  She said..."Hey, weren't you just here 6 weeks ago for this?"  Yes.  Yes we were.  Thankfully, it was still mild, but seriously...I'm ready for this all to be done with yet.  Layla is a full 2 years older than most kids are when they outgrow croup.  I'm done with it...and I bet she is too!

Poor Layla, such a good sport.  

Finn's creation at Church, during the Christmas Service.

The older two singing "Away in a manger" on Christmas service day, the 18th.
I was in nursery that day, so I missed it.

 Last week Jonas built a big fort for the kids with the chairs and couch in the living room.

Cora brought in some awful LED glowing flowers that Layla bought with her money at the church bake sale on the 18th.  They worked great as a flashlight for her.

Mama's Day Off:

Last Monday Jonas took the kids so I could try to get a ton of stuff done around the house.  What a guy.  :)  Here are some pictures from their day of adventure.

Hanging out at the Mall of America. 

ALL the Little People came to see Baby Jesus.

Christmas Day 4:

It's the 4th day of Christmas!  How are you celebrating today?

Me??  Well, I'm making Chicken Tikka Masala, obviously.  The traditional 4th day of Christmas dish.  We're having the Gustafsons over for diner tonight...should be a lovely time!

The kids are all off playing with Layla's friend from school Ella, and I'm going to use this time to get some cleaning done.  Washing floors has never been so delightful around here.

This is the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe I always use, but I'm sure there are many more wonderful ones out there, floating around the internet.  Speaking of:  where do you all buy your Garam Masala?  I get mine on Amazon, but I feel like it's C-grade stuff.  I want to try cooking with the A+ stuff sometime.  :)

4:27 a.m. on Christmas Morning: how we roll

Merry Christmas!! 

I made the kids take this picture at 10:20 p.m. last night, right before we all ran up to bed.

You can tell they are just a touch bit tired, right? Haha.  Cora had napped until 4:20 p.m. that afternoon, so at least she wasn't going insane.  Normally she goes to bed at 6:00 p.m. (more like 5:45, asleep by 6:00 p.m.), so that was an unusual night for her.

It was funny, too...the older two fell asleep in about 27 seconds, snuggled in beside me in our big king-size bed as we looked as the Christmas lights strung around the top of the bed.  After Finn had been asleep for no more than 2 minutes, snoring loudly, he started mumbling in his sleep:  "Alexa.  Alexa.  ALEXA!"  It was perfect.

Why am I up so early, you ask?  Christmas excitement?  No, indeed.

Layla, the one child who seemed perfectly healthy up until now, hopped into my bed 10 minutes ago with a croup cough.  For the LOVE.  

She's doing okay with her breathing (meaning no hospital run needed, thankfully), so she is sitting on the back porch while the cold air works its magic for an hour or two.  I'm going to see if I can talk some on-call doctor into renewing/refilling her prescription for decadron, otherwise I'll have to take her in to Urgent Care in a bit to get that taken care of in time for tonight (nights 2 and 3 of croup tend to be the worst).  Fingers crossed for that:  it's a $10 vs $500 difference.  

We had already been voted off the island for family Christmas, so we were already going to be home as a small family today, but if we ever needed a nail in the coffin to seal the deal, this was it.  Merry Christmas, folks!  If you need us, you know where to find us: over here in our little petri dish house of infection and disease...haha.


Update:
Most of my family came over for about 45 minutes on Christmas night to drop off some food and presents for us.  Finn got a Snap Circuit Jr. kit...LOVE.  Uncle Jon helped him with it the most, so when Jon came to pick up Anja on a different day he was immediately pulled into doing one more "experiment" with Finn.

Layla got another little shop for her Calico Critters.  She loves it, and says the only thing she needs now is the flower shop (Woodzee stuff from Target) before her life is complete.  :)

Christmas Eve Day:

While on Facetime with Grammy and Opa today we decided to open the kids Christmas gifts early...and man was that such a good idea, haha!  They have been playing with them happily for the last 6 hours.  Nice job, Grammy and Opa!  Cora and Layla got the jackpot of Barbies:  a house, furniture, barbies, clothes, shoes, accessories, a car...and on an on.  It's a massive hit.  Finn got a telescope, and the first thing he said when he looked through it was "I can see PLUTO!"  So, that must be an amazingly powerful telescope you got there, Grammy.  ;)  

Spying on the neighbors

Taking in the Christmas tree star.

Finn made this "stand" all on his own.  :)

While we were opening gifts, Jonas opened his gift from Scooter.  It was an Amaon Echo Dot.  The kids were THRILLED.  I mean, Jonas and I like it too, but the kids went wild.  Now we have all sorts of new rules in the Schaefer house:

1.  No yelling at Alexa.

2.  No asking Alexa to play the poopy song.

3.  You can only ask Alexa to tell you a joke AFTER Mama is done listening to her music.

and on, and on.  Haha!  Good times, folks!  Fun for sure.  :)