Road Trip

I guess I'll write about Christmas and Elena's birthday later because I am using Dan's laptop right now while he sleeps in the room where my computer is.  These are the only photos I have available.

A few factors led me to decide to take a trip with the kiddos:  #1 Jonah is finally old enough to make traveling easier (nursing less, eating non-baby foods, actually interested in toys), #2 Elena had no school on Friday, and #3 Dan had to work Saturday and Sunday.  We wanted to visit friends on the way and then go back to the city where we lived during medical school.  It was my first time returning since we moved 18 months ago.  We've missed it so much!

I actually packed Thursday night (snacks and everything!), so we got on the road on Friday early enough to miss almost all of the winter weather that the east coast experienced that day.  We arrived safely at the Condons (they live part-way between here and our final destination) and had a great time.  Anne plays peek-a-boo!  It's adorable.

The kids played, the babies crawled around, and Shelby and I talked.  I love Shelby. :)

We went to their nearby Children's Museum Saturday and it was fantastic. The kids had a ball and I was very impressed with the variety of exhibits and things for the kids to play and enjoy.  Warning:  There are a lot of museum pictures.

There was a fish tank in the baby area.  I love how it looks like he's "in" it.

 Trying on costumes on stage.

 Cooking in the kitchen.

 Giant water table with waterproof aprons.  Thankyouverymuch.

Kevin and Elena both loved putting on the flippers.  It was so hard to get Kevin away from this ship in order to keep checking out different rooms in the museum.

Laurel first met Elena when she and Shelby came to the hospital to say hi when Elena was 1 day old.  It's amazing how much they have in common and how well they play together.  It's a shame that we no longer live in the same area.

The pink feet at the top of the photo belong to a huge piggy bank.  When it gets full of the green balls, it dumps them out on the kids' heads.  Then the kids gather them up in buckets and run them to the "bank" and the cycle continues.

 In the exercise room

Elena (by the goal) and Kevin (second from the right) had a lot of fun slipping in their socks on the "ice".  As you can imagine, Kevin especially enjoyed falling down over and over and over.

Saturday night we arrived at the Hiatts.  We loved going to our old branch for church on Sunday and the kids were able to have several playdates on Sunday and Monday while I got to catch up with some good friends (but not everyone I would have loved to have seen for sure). All 4 of us were exhausted Monday night, so we had a leisurely evening and slept well before returning home Tuesday.  

We visited with Yvette and her family after church.

Reese and Elena dressed up as "fancy ladies".  I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of Presley too.  The girls had fun together and Kevin had fun getting into trouble...

 Becky and Skye

 Haha. I bet Tyler and Andrea didn't know that they were in the picture too.  What a great family!

Sister and Brother Hiatt could not have been sweeter to the kids.  They played with them nonstop while we were there.  Their granddaughter is a lucky girl. :)  I think Kevin's favorite part of the trip was staying with the Hiatts.  He has asked to go back and he has told me that he wants to spend days here at our house, but sleep at theirs every night.  So cute! 

I'm not sure how this happened. I tucked them in their beds, but I guess the sleeping bags that they insisted on bringing were too slippery and they slipped right out of bed in the middle of the night.  This pic was taken at 2 am.

  Sadie and Elena had a lot of fun.  Kevin had a liked driving cars down the stairs.

We drove past our old house.  It looks so small from the front.  I hope that the new owner loves it like we did!

We always stop at the state border when driving this way.  The welcome center rest stop has a playground.  Lucky for us it was a beautiful January day (65 degrees).

 

Both of the families that we stayed with were so hospitable and sweet!  I am truly blessed to have such good friends.  Dan was happy to see us Tuesday afternoon.  He was actually home when we arrived instead of being at work because he came home early due to illness.  Poor thing. 

The kids were super excited to go to Granny's house as soon as we were back in town.  In this picture they are excavating Egyptian artifacts that are inside a pyramid.  It's some fun little thing that my mom won at a museum.

I love this boy!  He is so happy and sweet and good. And he looks so much like Dan.

Christmas is almost here!

Wow!  It has been a crazy couple of months.  I feel like I haven't had time to breathe.  That's what life is like with 3 kids apparently.  December has been extra busy for Dan, but he loves working in the NICU, so it has been a rewarding month for him too.  We miss him when he's not around much, but I am so grateful for the contributions that he makes to the family.  He works so hard 6+ days and 80+ hours a week.  Plus he has a 35 minute commute each way just so that Elena could go to the school that I wanted her to.  And I am thrilled when he gets home in time to help me put the kids to bed (0-4 times a week depending).  We can't get enough of him when he's home!  Just 4 1/2 more years of residency and fellowship...

Dan has Christmas Day off (woohoo!) and then he'll have some time off around New Year's which will be awesome.  Even though I'm not even close to being done with Christmas preparations, I wanted to take a quick moment to post some family photos that were taken in November.  There was a lot planning involved for this one hour shoot (timing it with naps and Dan's work schedule, picking coordinating outfits without buying anything new, layers for a cold day, alternate outfits because Jonah loves to spit up on us all, etc.) but these pictures make it all worthwhile.  Every time I look at them in the future, it will take me back to this time in our lives.  The photos were taken by Kathryn of Kathryn Rinckner's Photography.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 Dan was actually walking this way with the kids naturally as we went from one section of the park to the other and I was walking ahead chatting with the photographer.  When I saw how cute they were, I jumped in to the pic. 

 I love this one because I am laughing at something ridiculous that Dan is saying.  I don't remember what it was of course, and I don't like the way I look in it particularly, but this is very "us".

 

 

Elena's Poem

Elena came out of the playroom yesterday with a paper in hand.  She wrote a poem that was so simple and cute, I just wanted to share.  My scanner's not working, so I just transcribed it - mixed up lower/upper case and all.  I love how kids write.  It's one of the many things that was so fun about teaching kindergarten!

My fish HAD A wish
foR ANATHR fish
SOO I GOT WAT
she wishT

We Love Halloween!

We had a great night.  We didn't bother to do matching costumes this year.  I bought Elena's and Kevin's on sale at Target last November (I would highly recommend it) and stored them away until a couple of weeks ago.  When I brought them down from the attic, they were thrilled: a princess and a boy riding a dinosaur.  Kevin decided to make his costume "a monkey riding a dinosaur" (using a mask that we already had) and they were both so excited to go out and knock on some doors.

Jonah suited up in the same elephant costume that his siblings, a cousin, and a friend of Elena's had all worn in the past.  Lucky for me, it kept him warm.  He just hung out in the stroller the whole evening and was an angel as usual.

We went to my sister's house before heading back to our neighborhood to trick or treat.  I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture of my sister with the kids.  She didn't have a costume on, but her Halloween tights were awesome!

 

Dan bought a super fun costume to wear to work and while passing out candy at our house.  You can imagine how much he hammed it up.  

Now I must begin the search for a Mrs. Incredible costume because I've already decided that next Halloween, we have will have a family theme. :)

Sweet Baby Jonah

Jonah has had a very active month.  He is now 7 (almost 8) months. In the past 30 days or so, he has had many "firsts".  So many, in fact, that I think I'll use bullets to list them.

• Jonah now crawls very well
• He claps often 
• He pats your shoulder sometimes when you hold him
• He can go from sitting to crawling and from crawling to sitting
• Yesterday his first tooth came in (Finally!)
• He pulled himself up to standing yesterday on a kid-sized chair.  He stayed upright for about 2 whole seconds before he and the chair tipped over.  
• He says "Mama" so often that I have decided to declare it his first word.  In his mind it either means, "Mama" or "pay attention to me" because he uses it consistently when I'm around. 
• He eats Cheerios and small bits of crackers, bread, and pancakes.  This is a big step for me because once my kids can "snack", I feel like I have more flexibility when I'm running errands, etc.
• Pobrecito has also had his first illness.  He woke up yesterday with a fever and cough, but seems to be better today.

 

Jonah is such a happy, precious baby!  He is so good and sweet and patient with us all.  It's almost like he's trying to make up for the those very difficult first 3 months by being awesome.  I think that he is as glad as we are that he no longer has colic!

Bonus photos:  I took a couple pictures of my favorite people at the aquarium Friday.

 

An Interview with a 3 Year Old

Kevin has his first day of preschool back in September.  We're part of a co-op again. This time with two other 3 year olds, once a week.  It is Kevin's first year of preschool and he loves it.  He's a smart kid in my totally biased opinion. :) Check out his car organization below.

I love the way Kevin talks.  His mouth is so beautiful!  But that's not the only reason I love to watch him speak; he is funny and imaginative.  I'm often surprised by what comes out of his mouth.  I wanted to post a short video, so that you can all enjoy some "Kevin logic".  Here he explains how and why he cries.  It's all very scientific apparently.

New House (updated)

I worked really hard this week to get the house clean for a couple of hours (having 3 kids has made this nearly impossible for me lately), and I took pictures for y'all. Now you can see the inside of our lovely little rental. We didn't have to paint a thing which was nice.

Front yard:  Dan and the kids are mowing the lawn.  Elena is using the popcorn popper toy and Kevin is pushing the dolly/hand truck.

Front room:  This is what you see to your right when you walk in the door.

That's the front door and what it looks like to your left.  The hallway leads to the bedrooms and the dining room is straight ahead.

Dining room:  The kitchen is to the right.

Kitchen:  I must have taken this picture right before we got the new dishwasher.  It is wonderful and I love it. I never want to be without a dishwasher again!

It is great to look out the kitchen window and watch the kids playing in the back patio/deck.  To the right is the laundry area (there's no door, so I think it is more a laundry hallway than a laundry room).  The area with light yellow walls on the right is also where you will find the pantry, back door, and playroom.

Playroom:  This will always be a work in progress.  I can already tell that I will continually be trying different ways to organize things in here.  Behind me in this picture is a stack of boxes that are waiting to go in the attic.  To my right, is the craft table which Elena is constantly using.  To the left is the play kitchen and easel.  I love having a playroom! 

Kids' bathroom:

Elena's room:  Jonah naps in the pack'n play by the window while Elena is at school because Kevin still naps 2 hours everyday.  Besides the decals that we added and the wall color, this is pretty much the same as her room in our last house.

Kevin and Jonah's room:  We added the train stickers and the valance.  Kevin will soon be sleeping in the bottom bunk of his new bunk bed, so that will be a definite improvement. :) Dan will put it together his next day off...

I love my funny kids!  I am all unpacked now, so the bookcase is no longer half empty. :)  The kids' rooms were finished first, so these pictures are actually from late July/early August.

We bought the boys a bunk bed, but we haven't put it together yet. Maybe this weekend?  Kevin said that he won't mid having a bed, as long as his tent can still go on top. :)
When we bought the bunk bed from an actual store a couple weeks ago, I started to think about which other furniture items in our house we bought NEW.  It's a short list:

The baby crib and changing table. 2 small bookcases and a sofa table.

That's it!  We have been so blessed by the generosity of our friends and family and so happy to have found some good deals on craigslist and whatever we used to use before craigslist (mass emails and the big bulletin board at BYU?).
There are no pictures of the master bedroom or bathroom because they're boring.  I haven't even hung a single picture on our bedroom wall.  Below there's a picture of the kids taken in the doorway, so you can catch a little glimpse.  Hope you liked your little tour of our casa!

Bonus pictures:   2 out of 3 looking at the camera ain't bad. ;)

Dan took this picture for a lecture he's giving to the med students tomorrow about the prevention of spreading germs or something.

My boys!

This was Jonah in late August.  On all fours but not yet crawling.  He likes to do push ups a lot too - which is hilarious.  He is now a professional crawler. :)