Flat Stanley

Flat Stanley came and visited us before Christmas.  We did a few things with him before we left on vacation, but because he forgot to jump in the suitcase he didn't get to come out to NJ with us.

He came to visit Santa with us.

In NJ we found that our Flat Stanley had a friend who visited G&G, so we did get to play with him some.  We took him down to the river.

Stanley thought it was fun to play in the leaves.

When M went back to work after Christmas, Flat Stanley went with her.  He was along for the ride when M's car turned 200,000 miles old (and the location on her commute where it happened!).

On New Year's M and I got some fresh air and left the flu-sick C and D at home.  Flat Stanley played at the park with me.

He even made a snow angel in the snow.

Flat Stanley thought it was a lot of fun that he could ride our Christmas reindeer in the front yard.

Principal's board

I came home about 3 weeks ago so excited because my class had been chosen for the Principal's Board.  For those of you who don't know the honor the Principal's board is I will explain.  It is the bulletin board in the main hallway just outside the office.  As my teacher explained to us we had to make sure we had our best handwriting because all the big kids would walk by and see it!!  So I made sure my writing was the best it could be as I wrote why my snowman melted (he is at the beach!).

Rock Climbing

In February, I've had the opportunity to learn how to rock-climb.  A local shop in town had after-school sessions.  I've been loving it!

(Disclosure:  M apologizes for the poor quality of the first picture and sideways video--still learning that Iphone!)

Skating

In January, we had the opportunity to skate.  Both rollar skating at a friend's birthday party....

and play on the ice at the Y's Dorsey pond.

Sisters

Sometimes sisters just got to dress alike!!

And sometime they are just crazy to each other--notice the tongue lick on the forehead!

Sometimes twice the fun....

 

and sometimes double the trouble...

sometimes perfect little angels...

but always sisters!!!!

Flu strikes

The morning of New Year's Eve, C woke up with a very high fever.  She had been cuddly and warm the day before but M&D still weren't prepared for the 103.6 degree temperature registered at the doctor's office.  Influenza B strain was the diagnosis--yes that same strain that peaked in 33 states that same week!  The next 8 days were spent at home with a very sick little girl.  M's thought is that when toast is the first food in your body in almost 24 hours you can eat it any way you want--even a fork is permissible.

C had it the worst, with D being a close second.  M&I came down with fever and cough Wednesday evening, but not nearly as high a fever as C had all week.  In addition to the 103.6 Monday, 102+ was registered twice at home.  A few sleepless nights with a burning girl and tears from M has she debated about whether another trip to the doctor/ER was required, but by the next Sunday we all had broken fevers and the house was on the mend.  D's thought is that our early morning plane ride back from NJ is where we were exposed.  The only place C had been between the airport and doctor's office was church and she was already cuddly (which in active preschooler lingo means the sickness has already arrived!)--and the fact that no one else in the Boerner family got sick which means we weren't contagious out East.

Game night

One of the presents we got for Christmas was a Wii machine. 

In addition, C&I both got board games.  We spent the weekend playing our new games.

Christmas quilt

While playing in M's excercise room/sewing room in October, I came across some fun squares.  When I pointed them out M she exclaimed, "Oh those are for the quilt that I started making for you before C was born."  Needless to say I got her mind thinking and she took up the challenge to not only finish my quilt, but make one for C.  All was going well--one marathon Saturday watching 2 seasons of Eureka and M got my quilt done.  She took the next week and spent the evenings working on C's.  She was on her last seam before turning the quilt right side out, when the machine whirred to a stop.  M had been watching TV and not paying attention to the bobbin thread which was empty.  After rethreading the machine, the bobbin wasn't responding the way it should have.  SO M decided that the C's quilt would have to be given to her with pins still in it and get the machine fixed!

But after Christmas the newly oiled sewing machine, which didn't need to be fixed--just user error on rethreading--finished up C's quilt and now both of us have nice warm quilts for our beds.

Christmas at Home

We flew home from NJ early Thursday morning and were able to enjoy the afternoon at home unpacking and having our own family Christmas.

C and I modeling the new T-shirts Uncle S and Aunt S bought for us.

Christmas out East

Christmas was spent out East with G&G this year.  After an eventful trip trying to get home to get to the airport (something about a PR error on the last PR of the year after 3 days of input (compared with normal 4 hours) at M's work and only 4 more hours before the bank cutoff to get employee's paid--when M left the IT Director and Assistant Accounting Manager were on the phone in her office with the software company while M spent the entire 2 hours on the way to the airport, through security and to the gate on the phone with them and her boss who was at the Dr. office waiting for his treadmill test--talk about a stressful 4 hours!  But all's well that end's well.  Other than a few hours Friday morning spent on the phone again and getting remote access to her files from NJ, the PR was finished with an hour to spare!)

C was excited because she got gum for the first time on the take-off!

We got in really late Thursday night, slept in Friday, went out for breakfast (which is where M had her first work call), then back to G&G's house for M to work for an hour, then off to the Pocono Mountains in PA to meet up with G and Aunt R. 

The cabins were right next to each other.  It had a fun loft with curved steps leading up to it that M&D let us use as a playroom.

We spent the next 3 days going back and forth between the two cabins and doing fun projects with G and Aunt M and playing games with Aunt R and Uncle W and eating lots of really good food.

We even got to swim every afternoon.

The one day the whole family was together we went on a short 2 mile nature hike a few miles away at the Nature Center.  Even NJ didn't have a very white Christmas.

C showing off the tree damage still in clean-up stages from Hurricane Sandy.

All that fresh air wears out the littlest one!

The original plan was to get up early Christmas morning and head back to NJ for Christmas service, but with a storm moving in it was decided to head back after supper Christmas Eve.  Some very tired girls from all the fresh air in PA.

Christmas morning we woke up and were able to open our stockings and Santa's presents before church and left the rest of the presents for after church.

By noon Christmas day the dusting of snow that was received was mostly melted, other than the shady area in the backyard!

The Boerner clan (minus Uncle B who couldn't get the time-off for a trip East.)