What the UPS man brought....

A GIANT box of presents from Grandma Nay, that's what!

Big enough, in fact to hold BOTH children easily.

And full of packing peanuts, providing en entire afternoon of entertainment.

No, seriously, the entire afternoon. Good distraction from the rain outside.

After dinner and baths, it was back into the box. It's like a pack-n-play for big kids.

The kids got permission from the giver to open one gift early and were ecstatic!

Addy LOVES her "Yittle Peepul" and Baby Jesus--both together is wonderful for her!

And this became today's new entertainment! We love Grandma! Maybe after Christmas we'll reuse that box and just ship the kids directly to you! Cheaper than airfare...

Baby Gus and some Minor Drama

See this cutie patootie baby? This is Baby Gus. He is the firstborn of my cousin Suzi and her nice husband Todd. One of the huge perks of moving here was discovering that Suzi and her family live about 10 minutes away from us. Suz and I have always been good friends, even though we usually lived at least a continent away from one another. (No, seriously. She lived in Japan and Ireland and Africa and Oman and stuff.) BYU was really the only time we lived near each other, and that's been 10 years now, so it's been really fun to hang out and watch her wrap up a looooonnnng pregnancy and have her first baby.

So, last Monday Suzi calls me up (she's adjusting to maternity leave and the inherent boredom of staying home with a baby all day) and asks if she can come visit and maybe we could all talk a short walk together? See, even though it was only about 30 degrees, the sun was out and you just don't waste that here. We agreed, I got the kids all ready to go and then debated whether to feed them lunch while we waited for Suzi and Gus to arrive. Well, in the end, I made them lunch, they ate almost nothing and I really did eat nothing. Suzi arrived, and we decided to head out quick for a brisk 15 minute walk. I was already thinking about the hot chocolate and nachos I'd be indulging in when we got home.

Well, long story short, somebody decided to leave her diaper bag in the house, someone else neglected to grab keys and a cell phone and somebody else decided to be helpful and lock the door behind us, leaving us with two mommies, a very enthusuastic 4 year old on a scooter, an 18 month old in her stroller about 20 minutes away from naptime, and a 1 month old baby snug as a bug in his carseat bundler--all LOCKED OUT of the house. With no keys, no wallets, and no cell phones on anyone. In the 30 degree cold. With both husbands (i.e. the keepers of the spare keys) at work in two different locations, but both of them at least an hour away from saving us.

In the end we used a combination of the phone at a rest home, a neighbors cell phone, and the phone in the Urgent Care center to communicate with assorted people and eventually someone from our leasing agency came and unlocked the door for us. Sometimes it pays to be a renter, I guess. All told, we were locked out for about two hours.

The blessings of the moment were that Gus is a nursing baby so no starvation, no one had a diaper emergency since we had none, that Patrick is actually pretty good on his scooter already, and the warmth of the Harrison medical building with its decently anonymous lobbies to hang out in with three kids. It could have been much worse. And hey, I still got my nachos and hot chocolate. And after all that I REALLY appreciated them!

Thanksgiving

17 hours in the car, each way

+ myriad bags, pack-n-plays, and crap to pack

+ 2 grandparents, 7 siblings, 5 in-laws, and 6 grandchildren

+ 20 different schedules, agendas and opinions

+ 1 large house that nonetheless seems to shrink every time we get together

= A Very Happy Thanksgiving!

(All the big kids, ready for church. The babies were napping.)

We made our first car trip to my parents from our new home, and may I just say that it was a LONG trip. We learned firsthand the dangers of Snoqualmie Pass on the way there, and on the way home learned just how long it can take to cross the state of Oregon with their wretched 65 mile per hour speed limit.

(All six, with Nana in her classroom for a visit.)

All that aside though, it's always worth it to be with my parents and siblings and siblings-in-law and neices and nephews. The kids had a wonderful time running around Nana's house and Grandpa's farm. And Sean, well, he got to go skiing AND to the BYU v. Utah Game. His life is now complete, as you can imagine. He even rushed the field after the game like a college kid.

(Playing "how many people will fit on this 4-wheeler?")

I kept thinking about how much my family has changed in the last five years. Five years ago at Thanksgiving Sean and I were newlyweds. And now, I have four other married siblings. We collectively have six children so far, with two on the way this spring. I mean, in theory, you have to assume that in a family with 7 closely spaced kids this is bound to happen, but actually watching it unfold and watching a family grow that quickly is kind of amazing.

(Patrick is helping Grandpa lead Ella's horse around.)

As you can imagine, there are inherent difficulties in getting all those people under the same roof. The grandkids squabble like siblings, theres a ton of cooking and cleaning and tidying to be done, there are different schedules and needs to accomodate, and the ever important question of WHERE THE HECK WILL EVERYONE SLEEP?!?! But. At least for me, it's all worth it to listen to my kids on the way home as they talk about their cousins and aunts and uncles and Nana and Grandpa and all the fun they had. And to hear them ask me over and over again, "when will we go back?"

(Uncle Chad leading storytime in the classroom loft.)

*I have to make my apologies. I was kind of a photo slacker this trip. Hopefully everyone will post their aweseme pictures and I can steal them from their blogs... :) My only excuse is continuing crappy pregnancy sickness. It's still kind of the pits. Oh, well.

Portrait Time

Patrick and Kennedy were both due for some portraits. Patrick needed a new 4 year old picture, and Kennedy was due for an 18 month shot. (I'm fairly compulsive about this schedule: newborn, 3 months, 6 months, sometimes 9 months, 12 months, sometimes 18 months, 2 years, and every birthday thereafter. It was a revelation to me that not everyone follows this schedule, but Sean has decided to simply concede this one.) Miraculously, both kids were healthy and HAPPY the day of the pictures. I haven't had a picture taking session with both kids involved ever go this well, and quickly. And, I think we got some SUPER cute pictures!

At the last minute, I also decided to grab their new Christmas jammies in case we had any leftover time in our session. I LOVE how these turned out!

18 Months and counting....

Somewhere in the middle of the flu madness around here, Kennedy turned 18 months old. Actually, it was the day before we all came down with it. I remember because I took her to the peditrician and she was acting all out of sorts even then. Anyway, she checked out well. She's well ahead of the curve on all developmentla milestones, so no worries there. She weighs 24 lbs (40th percentile) and is 31 inches tall (15th percentile). I'm kind of waiting for the next height spurt, because she is definately on the short and round side right now. Adorably short and round, needless to say.

Kennedy is a very funny girl. We laugh at her/with her all day long. She has such funny little words and phrases and is suddenly talking in full sentences that are quite amusing. Recently she picked up "Are you kidding me?!?!" as a statement of disbelief when something funny happens. It kills me every time she says it.

No doubt about it--this girl is her own woman. She has always got a plan and can frequently be caught executing some grand scheme, often from on top of the table or desk! This is one of many pillow forts that she builds to watch the Wiggles from. I kind of hate the Wiggles, but am loving that she will sit still for about 5 minutes, which is just long enough to grab a shower!

As of now, she's also legal nursery age! We sent her once solo a few months ago and then I had been going and sitting with her (she didn't want me to leave after that one time.) However, when I got called to Primary and Sean took her, she was fine with him leaving her there. She loves going now, and talks about Church-Nursery all week. Every time a put a play dress on her she wants to go to Nursery!

Kennedy is very fun to feed. She's very adventurous in her tastes and LOVES fruits and veggies. She would live on avocado, blueberries, and broccoli if I've let her. Quite the opposite of big brother who is afraid of green foods. I hope this lasts with her and we can skip or minimize the toddler bland food phase.

What, don't you all soak in the bathtub with your sippy of "choc-o-wat miwk?" Really, what better way is there? Kennedy begs all day for tubby time, but inevitably makes poor choices regarding the dumping of water over the side and ends up getting the boot early. We've taken all the tub toys out even and she still finds a way to throw water over the edge. The other night, no lie, I watched her get her hair wet and wring it out over the edge of the tub, just to see what I would do. Can you say "limit testing behavior?"

I guess it's a good thing she's So Darn Cute. She really is the sweetest girl, and loves to cuddle and snuggle and love. Her personality has always been bigger that her body and we love that about her. It's been fun to watch the girl coming out of the baby--even though we (having now been there, done that) know that there will be many stormy minutes of toddlerhood ahead, we couldn't live without this little girl's sunshine in our lives! We love you, Addy-girl!

Halloween, Part Two

Buzz and Tinkerbell, working their door approach.
Patrick and I decided that some green hair would round out his look.
Kennedy wanted to "WALK, by SELF!" all night.

Our nice neighbor who would like to adopt the kids.

I cheated and posted pictures from the ward party (which happened a week ago, pre martian-death-flu) on Halloween day. But we did in fact, take advantage of the lull in sick and let the kids trick or treat the neighborhood on Halloween night as well. They both LOVED it. Kennedy was particularly hilarious, since she would give every door-answerer a little monologue.

"Hayo-ween! Happy Hayo-ween! I Tinka-beya! Pat-a-rick Buzz-Yight-Ye-ah! I Tink-beya!" And then she would throw in several "Twick-o-tweat!" rounds for good measure.

Good thing she's adorable--people are much more interested in cute little people at their doors at 6:30 PM on Halloween than the gangs of teenagers doing the sweep through two hours later.
Anyway, they had fun, even though it was a mellowish evening and we didn't stay out long. It's nice that they have low expectations at this age!

Surfacing

OK, am currently knocking on wood....I kind of feel like a human being today.

As opposed to the death-flu-martian-type person I was becoming. Seriously, we don't know if what we've had was regular type flu or the H1N1 kind (although, it would be nice to know, cause if I knew I had it, I could stop stressing out about the vaccination, right?) but it really hasn't been pretty. The hardest part has just been how dang long it has lasted. That would be forever, in case you were wondering. We've all had sicker and weller days, I keep thinking we're getting there, and then someone else comes down with new symptoms. We sent Mal and Carson home on Friday (she was on Tamiflu so hopefully not contagious), and on Saturday, we all started to feel somewhat better. Sean was just starting with a cough, but he usually gets a mild version of whatever we all have. We even dressed kids up and ventured out for a half hour of trick-or-treating in the cul-de-sac and were hopeful that this death virus was over.

Only then, on Sunday morning Sean went to an early priesthood leadership meeting and came home pale and shivering and proceeded to stand in a hot shower for about an hour and then shiver under a pile of down for another hour. Another one bites the dust. Patrick woke up with a high fever, again. Kennedy had a milder but present fever. I threw up twice before breakfast, whether pregnancy or flu related, who even knows anymore. And just like that, we were back out for the count for the day. More laying around feeling crummy, not cleaning the house or getting our acts together. I'd like to say that all of this promoted a feeling of family togetherness and cozy home time, but if your family is anything like ours, it was quite the opposite. Seriously, where is Mary Poppins/Florence Nightingale/your mom when you need her?

However, long story short, every one in this house went to bed at absurdly early hours, for the most part slept through the night (Kennedy was up with a fever and needed more ibuprofen/sleeping on mom at one point, but just once which was in improvement), and everyone feels....a little better today. Sean had to-had to-had to be at a meeting in Seattle this morning. I made him wear a mask. Yes, I did. I told him it was his civic responsibility to do at least that. And also I'm hoping it will make people at work send him home early. And here at home, well so far so good. We've yet to turn on the TV, the kids are both normal temperatured and playing together nicely, everyone actually ate breakfast, no one has puked (me), and I'm thinking I may just do the laundry and possibly start the cleaning of the kids rooms that is far overdue. Crazy ideas.
Crossing fingers, knocking on wood, and every other superstition that might help. We're way over this. If we could at least see some steady improvement, instead of one day better and the next day worse, we'd all feel a little better about life. Here's hoping!

(In other news, assuming I actually do feel better from here on out, I'm thinking of informally participating in NaBloPoMo, just to motivate myself to get back on the blogging bandwagon. We'll see how it goes, since I already missed yesterday. Check back!)