Polar Express... Christmas... New Years EVE... RYLEY'S 7!!!!

We were lucky enough to be chosen in the Polar Express lottery!.. So a week before Christmas, we went on the POLAR EXPRESS! here are some photos.. AND THE SUPER CUTE video of Delaney's rendition of HOT CHOCOLATE dance (uugghh! it's too big.. I'll have to put it on here from YOUTUBE)!!








































love this one.. looking for SANTA:
















THEN..we come home to a foot of snow.. with ANOTHER foot coming!!!!




We had a wonderful QUIET Christmas! Everyone gave EVERYONE else a chance to open and enjoy their gift before they did the same. CONTROL!!! It was very nice... Here is a cute video I took of Addy.. it was shortly after Keelyn and Ryley opened their IDOG's... too funny!









Well, Happy Happy Birthday little RYLEY bear.. who has CROUP!!! This poor kid doesn't get a BREAK! She had strep throat twice this month.. now Delaney has shared CROUP with her! UGH. Dunno know what tonight will bring.. we've invited a few friends over... but it was all left open ended.. of course we didn't invite friends with children as we are a petrie dish of germs right now!

We celebrated Ryley's 7th birthday at Hampshire Hills again. We had a swim party! Lots of fun, but I think 2 hours of swimming will tire anyone out!! Here are some pictures from the day:

My little Addy is growing up!!!




And.. here's the super awesome cool b-day cake I made for Ryley... YES, that is JELLO in the middle.. and YES, it was YUMMMMMY!





Jumping off the diving board





The whole b-day crew:





Family Christmas party.. this past Sunday.. do you know any of these crazy people???






















look at this sweet sweet picture of my nephew Harry, waiting patiently for "his" turn for his gift!




Here is a great picture of my niece Makayla





and Madison.. happy with her Polar Bear Webkinz





Keelyn and her Heart necklace from Auntie Erin:





and Ry:






and, lastly, I love this one of Jean teaching Keelyn a new Christmas song on the piano... to cute:





Shortly before Christmas, Delaney presented the NUTCRACKER to "guests" at her ballet class.. here are 2 short clips of her and her class.. it is just tooo sweet!!!

It's Christmas Time at The Flynn House

I can't believe we've had our tree for a week already! We cut it down last Sat! BEFORE DECEMBER 1st!!! Craziness! But, lots of fun! We found a little GEM of a place to cut our tree, Miracle Acres Farm in Milford. They offer complementary hot cocoa or cider by the campfire and wagon rides. I felt like I was 7 .. running from tree to tree saying "HOW 'BOUT THIS ONE???" Check out the pic's!






That's the one!


Here's Johnny Appleseed:





check out the candid's.. I was pretty proud of myself!










Here we were enjoying our hot cocoa: (w/our good friends the Apovian's)







I love this picture..... I think "serenity" when I see it... (am I getting all sappy??)







and the girls by the campfire:










that night, Keelyn stayed over Kelsey's house and Jack took Ryley to the movies. Delaney had full reign over the tree.. here she was .. loving every second she had it to herself!






And Addy getting her photo op in:





and the finished product:




So this weekend was "craft fair galore". I think there were at least 9 fairs within a 1 mile radius. By the end of the day, the town had planned to have "caroling and lighting of the tree ". We decided to go. I believe it may have been about 30 degrees out .. very very cold! Anyway, we "weathered" the storm, caroled along with the rest of Milford, and watched the tree light up! Here are some shots of tonight:



































And horse drawn carriage rides!







one of the stores in town had a great display in their window:













nighty night

Playhouse Disney... Sunday night & Ryley's got Strep!

I took Delaney and Addy to see Playhouse Disney last Friday. Delaney was the cutest ever! She loved loved loved it!!! Danced and had a blast. Addy on the other hand.. quite a handful. Screaming, crying.. antsy pants. This video is just too cute!





Here is a photo of all the characters we saw..






The last 3 weeks Jack has been traveling. From Ireland to CA, to Maine. The traveling is starting to get QUITE annoying!

So, yesterday morning, Ryley woke up saying her throat hurt. I felt her head - no fever, and her throat looked a little red. Well, her friend Sophi came over then I had errands to do .. when I got home, the poor kid was on the couch with a 101 fever! The rest of the day was spent taking motrin and naps. This morning Jack took her to the dr. and they didn't even have to do a strep test, he could just tell from looking she had a bad case of strep! :-( poor kid! She cried and cried about having to have a throat culture and how it was going to hurt.. lucky for her, they didn't need to do it. Now, she's got a free ticket for the day off school tomorrow! :-) She seems better tonight with just one dose of Zithromycin, motrin and tylenol (intermittently)!

well, that's about it... nothing else much going on up here at the Flynn house. I'm dreading this week.. seems the "artic blast" is finally making it's way here. ugh! Long Winter..............

I had to INTENTIONALLY Call 911 today!

We had an incident way back when .. one of the girls called 911, I didn't realize, they called back, I told them it must have been one of the girls, they had Milford police call back, then they showed up! WHEW

So today.. I had lots and lots of laundry to put away. Like for a "preview" .. my kids had ALMOST no PANTS in their drawers.. and when they do, you can't close the drawers. That'll tell you how much I had to put away. Anyway, I was putting away clothes in Delaney & Addy's room. Keep seeing Addy.. WHO I HAVE TO KEEP AN EYE ON 24/7! Within the 3-4 minutes I didn't have my eye on her, she wobbles into her room as I'm heading out - she has an open tube of toothpaste, MAJOR DROOL/FOAM/SALIVA..etc coming down her chin and she appears to be struggling to breath. I of course panic. I flip her upside down, put my finger down her throat to see if there is something in there.. flip her back over, she still seems to have an issue breathing. I have her upside down across my forearm and I run downstairs.. at the bottom of the stairs, same thing, I grab paper towels to take the visible toothpaste out of her mouth, as I'm "sweeping" with the paper towel, she's gagging .. trying to vomit, I get some toothpaste and notice blood and mucus on the paper towel. I yell to Keelyn to call 911, then I just grab the phone and call. As I'm on the phone I realize "WHERE IS THE F#*&()%ING CAP ?!?!?!?" I scream up to the girls to find the cap. I have no idea what it looks like..size etc. I assume THAT is what she is choking on! After the girls run down with the cap and Adyson seems to be responding and I'm thinking.. maybe I didn't need to call.. Jack comes back from Dunkin Donuts. OH BOY, the second he pulls in .. the paramedics pull in.. he's gets out of his car as I open the door, he's like "8 SOUHEGAN???" the paramedic was like "yes, there's a choking baby?" Jack looks at me, now, I'm feeling a little bad, because I KNOW there is no cap in her airway, and there are now an ambulance, police cars, and aux. fire fighters all running to my door! AND COLLEEN!!! She was driving by the end of the street and saw all the commotion and came RUNNING! After checking little Addy out and calling poison control, she was happy to learn she could NOW have her long awaited morning bottle (I guess the milk absorbs the fluoride - which we were thinking she probably got maybe a tablespoon??? - I still have no clue) anyway... needless to say, we had quite a dramatic morning. Poor little Addy. That kid needs to live in a STRAIGHT JACKET!!!!!

I'm totally jonesing for popcorn.. so I wanted to post some photo's from Halloween...











Here is Jack with our old neighbor Ann (I think she loves having us come visit at Halloween since her kids are all grown up now!!) :-) We love ya Ann! Thanks for the invite and help!








Ryley was Hannah Montana, Keelyn was LOLA - Hannah Montana's wacky friend, Delaney and Addy were Minnie and Mickey!







What a LIFE.. sit back, eat Kit Kats.. and be pulled in a wagon!!!






How sweet is this???






Jack as the HEADLESS HORSEMAN






HAHAHA!





Lastly, here are the pumpkins Keelyn and Ryley carved out completely by themselves! (just a tiny bit of help from me.. 99% their doing)

Keelyn's on the right, Ryley's on the left