What a week?!?

Let me start by saying, I love this picture of Ellie.
For several reasons.
One, because she is my first born and I love her dearly.
But also because I finally convinced her that a side ponytail would be cute.
And I can't help but notice the blue toothpaste on her shirt and the big wet spot where she tried to clean it off herself. :-)

We have had some good times lately...
and some really bad times.
I guess it could always be worse though, right?!?

Jeff's Christmas present:
UK tickets at Vandy.
GREAT game!!
Then, we spent the night with my parents because they kept the girls while we went to the game. At about 3am, my dad comes rushing in to my bedroom and said my mom was sick. I needed to get Ellie out of the bed with her. My mom was VERY sick. My brother and his family had it the week before and they were VERY sick.

So, we came home early the next morning and decided to play in the sunshine. That is, after we sprayed Lysol on everything, took hot showers, and washed all of our clothes. But, to no avail. This picture is amazingly cute and the girls look healthy as can be on their cute little scooters my parents gave them for Christmas...but Ava was SUPER sick that night.

Then, we got up Monday and everyone seemed fine, so we went about our business Tuesday.
Which is where this picture comes in. I get allergy shots now because I am allergic to EVERYTHING outside. They tell me not to let my injection site get larger than a quarter...uh, that was like 7 quarters?!? I finally measured it and it was over 3 1/2 inches! However, that turned out to be the least of my worries that night. Jeff came home SUPER sick...and I woke up at 1am SUPER sick. Thankfully (I guess is how you would put it), my parents had already had the bug and my amazing mom was able to come watch the girls. She stayed at our house, just in case Ellie got sick. Long story short, the girls ended up spending the night the next night at my parents' house and I don't remember much of any of it?!? It was HORRIBLE!!! I don't remember being that sick...except one time when we lived in Texas and I had to call my wonderful friend Sheri at 6am on a Saturday morning to come get Ellie because Jeff and I were so sick we couldn't get her out of her crib. Not fun! We are all over it now, though, and SO thankful...hope we are now immune to that stomach bug. (Everybody had different symptoms and thankfully, Ellie got the milder version with only a fever and sore throat.)

aaahhhh...back to my love of pictures.
I was so sick I didn't even LOOK at my camera those few days?!?
Now that I am better, let the nesting begin.
Not me, of course (although I have been doing some spring cleaning),
but we ALWAYS have little birds building nests in this house attached to our swing, so we watched out the window today as a bird chose this as its family's home.
The girls and I love watching the mama birds go out and get food for the babies, but have never seen them actually building the nest. Very cute!

Here's hoping for a better week.
Starting with Landy's (or Merk Merk's) birthday party tomorrow,
tubes again for Ava on Wednesday,
then we will be packing for a mission trip to Texas next week!