No snow for Christmas but this morning we woke to about 2-3 inches.

After we all helped serve brunch at the hotel downtown, we let the kids open their "big" gifts. They didn't ask for them but we thought they'd like them since they had both been borrowing mine quite a bit. I even downloaded several books from the library so they'd have some books to read right away although they will probably spend more time playing games.

Kids opened gifts on Christmas Eve after attending mass.

Decided we were going to try an artificial tree this year. Ordered online and arrived today. So much easier than going to a store and hauling one home in your trunk and then spending time trying to get all of the pine needles cleaned up. It wasn't too difficult to assemble. I have a pine scented plug in to help get that live tree smell. We all seem to be fine with it and don't have to worry about watering it or having it fall over (that happened a few times before - waking us up in middle of the night and spending time cleaning up the spilled water).

Spent some time outside today. We stayed here this year and did our own Thanksgiving yesterday since we didn't want to do any more driving - we've done enough over the previous months with the move and all.

Took the kids out from 6-8 through the neighborhoods trick-or-treating. We went with the next door neighbor who is Alyssa's age. Rained the whole time so I was too busy holding umbrellas, extra coats and bags to get any pictures of them fully in their "Cubs fans" costumes. Alyssa carried a glove to receive her candy. I think they had fun despite the cold and rain. Kids were planning to be "soccer players" again but thought it was too cold for shorts. Dad came up with the last minute idea of "Cubs fans" so they were happy with that.

Checking out their candy with a cup of hot cocoa.

We got some snow this morning from "Sandy" and then rain.

What a day on Thursday, October 4th. John went to school breathing hard. (Alyssa was making fun of him saying he was out of shape on the walk to the bus stop.) He had played in the downstairs area the night before - that we now believe wasn't vacuumed well. The previous owners had 2 dogs and we knew John was allergic but had been in the house since Monday with no issues. So the nurse called me because he got off the bus and went straight to have a breathing treatment. Less than an hour later he went back to the nurse so they called me to come get him. Told them I'd take him home and find a pediatrician to take him to or to an urgent care. After getting to urgent care the doctor/nurse there looked very worried and called 911 immediately. That's when I started getting scared. He was turning blue and not looking good. So off to Children's Mercy in an ambulance. John wanted me to go so I got to ride up front. He thought it was cool with the lights and sirens. After I called to update Jeff on all of the events, he headed straight home and called our realtor to get someone over to the house asap to clean the carpets and air vents! It was supposed to be his first full day back to work after taking off several days to get moved in! He and Alyssa ended up doing lots of cleaning while we were in the hospital. Alyssa even cleaned all of John's 100 plus matchbox cars! After they looked him over in the ER and hooked up to an IV and more breathing treatments, they decided to check him into the hospital to stay overnight. I never would have guessed that! Every few hours they would give him more treatments and said he'd have to go 4 hours between treatments with lungs sounding good before they'd release him. They also needed me to get an appointment for a follow up visit with a pediatrician before they'd release him and had to pick up medication (prednisone) from the pharmacy before we could go as well. Friday afternoon I was thinking we'd be staying yet another night, but they ended up releasing us around 8:30pm. Jeff came and picked us up since I'd left the car at urgent care the day before. Our awesome realtor took Jeff to pick up the car from urgent care earlier.

John in the ER after an ambulance ride from Urgent Care.

John was hungry so had a chance to eat after 2:30pm. Shortly after the medicine they gave him didn't sit well.

John was admitted to the hospital so got a ride up to his room on the 6th floor.

Normally not allowed to watch tv during the school week, but I made an exception due to the circumstances!

John was tossing and turning unable to get comfortable with all of the wires and iv in his arm. I didn't get much sleep either in the chair - you can see it behind the rocking chair.

The alarm went off everytime his oxygen levels dipped below 90% (common to happen while sleeping) so they hooked him up to oxygen. Then he kept on pulling it off while sleeping. The nurses told me later that they all came rushing down during the night - only to find he took it off.

That next morning John was able to brush his teeth.

Brought him games and match box cars to play with and I let him play games on the Kindle.

The evening before we were able to leave they let him go to the play area.

John dressed and ready to Friday evening around 8:30pm.

Rained on moving day

Steady rain during move in but they did great job protecting floors and keeping things as dry as possible. Yeah! Nice to be in a home after 51 days in a hotel. Now the fun part of unpacking begins! Kids were amazed that the truck was so big.

Stopped at an old fashioned candy store in downtown Loveland before a meeting with a potential guitar teacher. Alyssa enjoying a cider slushy!

Jeff back in Kansas with the movers.

View from our hotel room. You can see the football stadium.

Spent the morning at the pool.

Then a trip to the Cincinnati Fire Museum.

Had to stop at the library for more books for Alyssa. She read a few pages of the Hunger Games that I had read in my Kindle and decided she had to read it too! May not see her again until she finishes it!

Walk along the Ohio River

September 8th we went for a walk to Sawyer Point and back past the ballpark.

Evening walk

Stopped to play in the fountains after our walk along the river.

We went to Boi Na Braza for Alyssa's birthday. Alyssa and Dad enjoying the steak

until they were full!

After ordering desserts - Alyssa had the key lime pie

and John had the chocolate mousse,

they found out it was Alyssa's birthday so brought her the strawberry cream dessert.

Alyssa still managed to eat them all with just a little help from me!

After church this morning we walked to the Taft Museum. Would have stayed longer than
the 45 minutes we were there but John was getting tired of being quiet and not touching anything!

Took walk to the park several blocks away.

John enjoyed going down the slide.

John also had fun on the "swing" with another boy that was there.

Kids couldn't resist getting wet! Fun! Fun!