Christmas time.

Oh Christmas Tree!
Abby at her worst! (yes, that's really her...)

Sorry in advance for the long post...This post is pretty much just recapping what has been going on in the Rylander home for the past couple of weeks. And boy, has it been a lot. On the 1st, we had our ward Christmas party. I sent Richie out with Isaac beforehand to get a haircut. For some reason, our son has an absurd amount of hair and the 'fro just had to go. Since I planned on having a perfect picture with Santa at the party, I thought he needed the cut. Well you can see the picture...That is the closest Isaac got to Santa, Abby sat on his lap for 1.5 seconds and started screaming. Plus our lovely camera decided that it didn't want to use the flash for the picture. So oh well, no Santa picture this year, maybe next...The party was wonderful by the way.

The next day Abby woke up sick, probably as a result of our outing the morning before to cut our Christmas tree. I did not document that experience on purpose because I still get a headache just thinking about it (I'm sure all you moms out there can just imagine, but you can see the picture above...and I do have to admit I love our tree!)

So both her and I stayed home from church. The next day Abby was doing better but Isaac started running a high fever. He told us his "stomach hurt." I asked him to point to his stomach and he pointed to his throat. I then pointed to his stomach (the real one) and asked him what that was. He proceeded to tell me that was his "tummy." So I figured he was getting a cold or something. I then started to have the worst sore throat of my life, and Isaac's fever kept getting higher. After a doctor's visit it was concluded that it was not strep (luckily) but probably just a bad cold. After a few days Isaac was back to normal which wasn't so fun because I was still sick and still had to chase him around all day.

I FINALLY started to feel better that Thursday. On Friday morning we were all healthy. Hallelujah! I started to get excited for Christmas and could not wait to start our shopping the next day. But fate did not want me to shop...Abby woke up from her nap with a yellow gooey eye. So to the doctor it was. She was diagnosed with conjunctivitis (sp?) and the doc said that sometimes that was a telltale sign that a cold was on its way.

My poor Abby got the nastiest cold ever, which she then proceeded to oh so kindly pass on to me. Luckily mine only lasted a couple of days but Abby is still coughing up a lung today. She has been waking up at all times of the night and has just been miserable. Today is actually the first day that she seems a little more happy, maybe finally on her way to recovery.

On top of our nasty colds, Richie hurt his right shoulder somehow last weekend so for a couple of days he could only use his left arm. That meant no holding kids or changing diapers (oh so fun for me!). He is finally starting to feel better also, but we still have no idea what brought it on!

Well my friends, please don't expect a Christmas card from us this year. I apologize ahead of time. We cancelled 2 appointments to get our family picture taken. I'll see if I can manage to have someone take our pic this weekend and we'll post it at a later time. But anyway, no Christmas cards, I will try harder next year!

My mom is boarding a plane tomorrow morning to Portland to pick up the pieces (for all those worrying about my sanity). It had been planned for a while so she's not really coming just to fix everything, but it's a very nice coincidence.

I just wanted to add that while I was feeling sorry for myself this week I happened to turn on the TV and caught the end of Dateline or one of those news shows. This one was about a set of septuplets (yes that's 7 kids!) that had recently turned 10 years old. They were showing how far they have come since they were born. They had shown 5 of them so far and I was thinking to myself "How do those parents do it??" I mean I only have 2 kids, which feels like 4, but still, they are tons of work. So while I'm wondering how those parents are still alive and happy they show the last 2 kids. Both of which have cerebral palsy. One of them (a boy) had undergone several surgeries and was able to walk with some help. The other one (a girl) could not really walk. Her muscles were too weak to hold her body up, and although she could walk with a walker for a little while at a time, most of the time she was just so tired that she would just crawl to get to her destination. I then realized how blessed I really am. I have nothing to complain about. My life is so easy...Those parents have been given so many trials to overcome in their life and they are still so happy to watch their children trying to lead normal lives. They are an inspiration to me.

At the end they showed the older sister, who is 1 year older than all the kids. They were talking to her about her siblings and were saying how she had developed a great amount of empathy for her sister who could not walk. This 11 year old girl then went on to say that she wished she could take her little sister's place.

I'm glad I was able to stop for a minute and remember what Christmas is really about. It's about being selfless, just like this 11 year old girl, and being grateful for our Savior, who selflessly gave his life for all of us. I still have a lot to learn about the true spirit of Christmas, and I'm glad that this year, this young girl reminded me of how I ought to be.