Back to Normal!

 Here we are at the end of the weekend and I am just now getting around to posting! It has been a whirlwind since we got back Tuesday night. By Thursday, Samuel and I were feeling so much better except for a lack of energy. For me anyways. Kids have this amazing ability to bounce back energy-wise after sickness. Wish I could have some of that! Thursday night when I got to dinnertime, it was like I came up against a brick wall and every motion was through a wall of water. After a couple good nights sleep though, I finally feel back on track!

Friday, Samuel and I looked at each other and said, "We are better!" We had a busy week with school, babysitting, work, errands and catch-up after being gone for over 2 weeks. Yesterday, we recieved a little money to help with Ben's upcoming trip to Scotland and were able to buy him a new jacket, shirt and tie! He looks pretty sharp and best of all, he feels really comfortable in it and happy. He looks very "scholarly" as both of our moms said:)

We were lazy-ish for a little while in the morning before we got ourselves going. It has been VERY nice not to have bored kids, now that they have all kinds of new Christmas things to play with!

Eliana got a stamping set and she was very excited to try it out! I had to stay on guard to prevent her from mixing up all the ink colors like she does in true toddler fashion.

She made 4 pictures, which she passed out to all of us!

The boys got some new lego sets and have played with legos more this past week or two than in awhile! Zakkai really loves legos and is very creative with what he builds!

He gets so into what he is doing, he had absolutely no idea I was taking pictures. That concentration is good sometimes!

Eliana was having fun dressing up her wooden paper doll and going on adventures with "Backpack" from Dora. She got so many Dora things for Christmas. She has been having a BLAST with all of her new toys!

The boys wer enice enough to bring down an extra lego car for Eliana to drive:)

We left shortly after for our errands, one of which was to Toys R Us, where Z got to spend a giftcard. He tried to buy something in OH but it was missing pieces and was broken so we returned it and waiting til we got home. We have to help guide the boys with giftcards so they don't pick out junk that will break in five minutes. Zakkai will have ideas in his mind that he wants but when he gets in the store, he suddenly wants every little thing he sees. He was actually a little pickier yesterday and almost walked away with a soccer ball until we walked down the game aisle. He picked out Battleship on his own and it was a great choice!! We have played many rounds of Battleship in the past 2 days:)

I got Eliana to sleep for a nap (reluctantly) and left Zakkai playing with Legos and Ben working and Samuel and I slipped out to go to Barnes and Noble where he had giftcards! He chose 2 books (a Roald Dahl book and a Hardy boys, which is is newly into) and a little handheld game in the clearance section and even used a little bit of his money to buy a book for Eliana and Zakkai! We were very proud of him for being so generous.

He got Zakkai a wordsearch book (he is just crazy about things like that!) and a My Little Pony magnet book for Eliana. He had a happy brother and sister around here!

It was nice to get back to church today and have a quiet afternoon. I think we are more ready this time to jump into our week! Please keep Ben in your prayers this week as he prepares to leave for his interview and has a lot to do before he goes!