Oh, I must report why Tom should once again win the "best husband of the year" award. I mentioned that my feet were cold during dinner. Before I even realized he had left the table, here he comes with my slippers, warmed by the hair dryer. I definetely don't deserve him!

This post will have NO pictures, we all look gross. Emma threw up repeatedly for about 15 hours, starting at 1:00 AM. Poor thing was just miserable, as were the rest of us who had to listen to the repeated trips to the bathroom! She is starting to feel better and a few of us are questioning whether we are sick or just imagining/wondering "when will it be my turn?" So, the day wasn't a complete disaster. Charlie and I had lots of together time, once again. We did more puzzles and the weather was beautiful, so we played in the snow for a few hours this afternoon. It was about 20, sunny and no wind, a perfect outside play day. I pulled him in the sled, up and down the front yards of our very close neighbors, with Hershey on a leash in the other hand. He wants to be included in the fun too! I am sure, once again, we looked like quite a sight for the neighbors! Free entertainment, I say!

Tom and I are off to watch a movie that I fell asleep to last night, I think I saw about 5 minutes! I was tired. I am guessing I will not get much sleep tonight, waiting with one ear on gaurd ready to jump out of bed to help another to the bathroom. Unfortunately, Em is the only kid of the 4 who can make it to the potty all the time, the rest just puke where they are and yell for me! Lovely.

Charlie and I did puzzles for about 1 1/2 hours tonight. He is taking after his big brother, Luke, who is crazy about puzzles. Here is a picture of him almost done with Thomas for the third time. At schoool this morning, Charlie went on a field trip, on a SCHOOL BUS! He was very excited. They went to the Children's Theater to see a play. When I asked him how he liked it, he said, "It was VERY FUNNY!" Tom is out with Luke, Nicholas, and three of Nicholas' friends. They went to a movie then out for pizza. It is what Nicholas wanted to do for his birthday (which was two months ago...) Nicholas was excited, saying many times this week, "I can't wait till Friday" Nicholas rarely shows the emotion of excitement! Glad it is the weekend, I need a few days off from the craziness at work. By Sunday, I will be looking forward to getting back to work to get away from the craziness of home. Funny how that works! Here come the boys now, oh, boy!

Okay, I have heard from enough people wondering what happened to the "one entry a day" Wallisch blog. I guess things have been pretty busy here (that is an understatement). So, here is a weak attempt to catch up. I feel like all I do these days is "catch up", so I am getting used to it. Here are a few pictures of what is keeping our lives so crazy. Here's a hint, it is not the humans in the picture... Yes, Hershey is, no doubt, way more work than any baby we have dealt with. He chews EVERYTHING (his favorite thing being dirty undergarments and kitty litter), attacks anything under about 3 feet (poor Charlie) and torments the kitties. Nonetheless, we all adore him, how could you not when you see the kids cuddle with him, and he is pretty cute.

The kids are all doing well. It is amazing how much more smoothly this year is going than last. Even though things are busy, we are all fairly healthy and functioning, which is not how I would describe last year... What doesn't kill us makes us stronger, right? I realized this morning that a year ago today, I had the little surgery at Mayo that probably saved my life, at least made it so that I wasn't debilitated by another stroke! Whew, I am thankful for those doctors every day. Another reason our lives are more sane this year is because of Emma's progress. She is "graduating" from OT and her social worker, which is a bit scary for me, but I think we are ready. It is amazing to see her and the control she has. She will always be our handful, the "spirited" child I suppose you could call her, but she is happy. She smiles and dances. She has the best sense of humor, she keeps us on our toes and in stitches constantly. She still has her naughty moments, sneaking food and exploding at her brothers, but like a normal 9 year old, I think! Maybe, okay, maybe not normal, but what is "normal", anyway? She is VERY into stripes, she was incredibly proud of herself when she came down for school yesterday. All stripes. Different colors, sizes, oh, she was a sight. She seemed a bit disappointed when I told her she looked cute.

Charlie comes to mind next. What a funny kiddo. Yesterday, he and Tom were chatting, and Charlie asked Tom what 5 and 5 were. Tom said, 55. Charlie said, "THAT IS WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY!" What about 4 and 4, Tom asks. Charlie said, "44!" How about 3 and 3? "33!" "What is 2 and 2?" Tom asked. "Twody-two"! How cute is that?

Luke, oh, Luke. He is really into Calvin and Hobbs. Unfortunately, we realized too late during "Santa" pictures that he was "performing". About 10 pictures showed him with these really goofy faces that he made just as the photographer snapped the picture, just like Calvin does for school pictures. We were laughing so much looking at the pictures that tears were forming. Little stinker.

Nicholas. My responsible, 28 year old in an 11 year old body. He saved $150 to buy his own ipod. He is really proud of it and is now saving to download music from itunes. He and I ran a 5k on Halloween, also very proud of himself for that. I was pretty proud as well. He is having a really late sleepover/birthday with three of his buddies. They are going to see a movie, go out for dinner and then probably play video games until the early morning hours. He has great friends who have super parents. That is a blessing for a 5th grader. He is happy, easy going and likes quiet, alone time as much as his mamma.

I'll try to keep this up, but I am not making any promises...