Christmas (Finally)

We had a great trip home to see our families over Christmas!  I was crazy and flew home with both kids by myself – our flight departed Omaha at 6:45 am, which means we had to be up and gone by 5:15ish AM.  It made for a long morning, but my kids were total champs I have to say.  

(I took this picture with my phone.)

While we were home, we were able to visit with family, visit with our buddy Addy Young, attempt a sledding trip (the kids weren’t fans!) and of course, OPEN all of our Christmas presents! 

 

Davis’ cousin Zachary hand-picked a few of his own collection of dinosaurs to share with Davis for Christmas this year.  We sure missed you, Zach, but Davis loves his dinosaurs!!!!!!!!!!

Like I said, we didn’t really like the sledding this year…

We spent a lot of time in the lodge at the base of the hill with grandma instead!

We’ve had a bit of snow…..

I’ll just let the pictures speak for themselves…

First, just a reminder of what my house looks like in the summer:

And now……

I was going to leave today for the library….but literally couldn’t get out of my subdivision….  

To Hold You Over...

...I realize I am a few weeks behind on blogging. Life has been non-stop since Christmas! Anyway, my dad sent me this video of Addie that I had to post. I will get some more Holiday pictures up soon.

Background: We took the kids up to a sledding hill in Garden Valley, Idaho while we were in Idaho for Christmas. It would be an understatement to say Addie and Davis were less than thrilled with the idea of being towed on a towrope up the hill and sledding down. My dad decided he could take Addie up with him and after an initial period of protest, would eventually settle down and enjoy the ride. See for yourself if that happened. (Make sure your speakers are turned on.)

Did I mention it snowed?

So we had quite the winter storm this weekend. The kids and I have been homebound since Monday night. It dropped over 8 inches of snow, which was lovely, but then temps close to zero and winds picked up to around 30 mph. I heard the wind last night, but this is what I saw when we woke up this morning.

Drifts in our driveway. Yeah, you're not backing out through that.

Backyard.

Neighbors. Look at the way the snow built up around his Honda.

View from my basement window.

Normally you step up a few inches to get from my front porch into my entry way....

View from front door.


I have to throw this one on here. I snapped it through Addie's window this morning. Jeremy still had class. Creighton U canceled or delayed their classes this morning. All public schools and Universities were closed, not to mention banks, etc. But, Jeremy had to dig out (literally) and take my car with the 4-wheel drive and get to school. Anyway, I put this picture on here because our neighbor was kind enough to let us borrow her snow blower. Then, a different neighbor saw Jeremy trying to plow out, and grabbed his SHOVEL and starts shoveling with Jeremy. We really live on the best street and I have LOVED my neighbors.

And maybe I'm just overly emotional (who, me??!?), but laying in bed last night listening to the wind howl and wondering if my kids were warm enough in their beds, I couldn't help but think of the early Mormon pioneers who were camped in this very location during the winter of 1846-47. More than 300 of them died here, and last night, wondering if my babies were warm, I thought of the agony those mothers must have had trying to keep their families safe and warm. I am just in awe of their sacrifice. (To read more of their story, click here or here.)

What we've been up to...

Here are some recent picture of what we've been up to! The only pictures I have of actual Thanksgiving is the aftermath. (I have the world's smallest counter space kitchen.) Luckily we had two very willing little helpers.... (I use that term loosely.) Hey, I needed to clean out my drawers anyway, so the gallon of water Davis dumped in them was just the push I needed.

We also visited the zoo and a local museum with lots of TRAINS, oh Davis was in heaven. Davis has really turned into a toddler these past couple of months. Finally talking and putting words together, slimming out, and my favorite - full-on tantrums. That's the picture where he's on his tummy in the train museum. (With Addie I would have been horrified if she did that in public, with Davis we snap a photo before scooping him up. Ha ha.)

Not much to report...

Sorry for the lack of updates. We have been having fun this fall with our friends and each other.

Davis and Addie are the best little playmates. It's been so fun to watch their relationship grow.
The other day I was working on a project in Addison's room and Davis was in his room playing
with his trains and I heard Addie trying to convince him to come play with her downstairs. It went like this: (in super sweet voice) "Davis, do you wanna come play with me downstairs? It will be really fun. Let's go play with the cushions (they always play with the couch cushions). Davis, let's go play!" It was so funny to hear her in their trying to negotiate with him.

Davis started nursery last month and hated it! He cried and cried and was just so sad about going in. Even with Addie in there! (It probably doesn't help that there are thirty kids in our nursery.) He's getting better now. We let him take his blanket with him and he's doing better. It was so weird to have the kid that was afraid of nursery and heart-breaking at the same time. They are just so different.

Jeremy has a big cardiology test on Wednesday morning and has spent 80 hours at the school the past week between classes and studying. I was feeling sorry for myself when it hit me that's the average work week of a resident. So I'm trying to have a good attitude about it since I know I will look back and think these were the easy days! It helps that my parents are flying in on Tuesday for Thanksgiving and I'm staying busy with Christmas gift projects.

I honestly haven't taken any photos of the kids lately. These are all taken with my phone:

The indoor waterpark here was doing free admission in early afternoons for the whole month of November. I went with both kids and met some friends with their kids. Davis and Addie were a little nervous about the water at first, but eventually warmed up.

We went to Costco a few weeks ago and Addie loved this princess bike. It was so funny to see her sitting on a bike! She even pedaled down the aisle a little bit, but was nervous about falling the whole time. I tried explaining that with the training wheels she wasn't going anywhere, but she wasn't buying it.

We always laugh because Davis does the goofiest things. He's just a little boy I guess. Anyway, he has started to try undressing himself after he wakes up from his naps and in the morning. Sometimes I'll come in and his pajamas are halfway unzipped or whatever. Well, the other day he apparently tried to take his shirt off after nap time but it got stuck!

I will take some better pictures this week and get them up here! Hope everybody has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Oops...

So we took lots of great Halloween photos - front porch, walking with friends, family pictures, etc. - and when I went to update the blog on Sunday, I realized our esteemed photographer (ahem-Jeremy) took all the photos with no card in the camera. Lovely.

Luckily some our friends had our kids in their Halloween pictures and sent me some copies! So, not a lot, but I'm just glad we have some pictures of the night!


Lots of fun - Addie got the hang of trick or treating fairly quickly, as it looks like most of the kids her age did. She insisted on wearing the dollar store princess high heels we borrowed from a friend. They lasted about two houses. I think you can see the high heels in one shot, and then the next one you can see the little fleece sticking out of her Crocs, which I was smart enough to bring along!

I LOVE our neighborhood - so many kids and we have the best neighbors!

Our view of things on Halloween.

Things here are great - Jeremy and three guys he studies with are doing really well and are able to get home most nights by or just after. We've even had a few WHOLE SATURDAYS OFF!! You can't ask for more than that (sad, but true).

We are lucky enough to have my parents come visit for Thanksgiving which will be interesting because my dad is such a chef and I have a very limited kitchen arsenal. Either way we will love having a visit! We've already made a paper chain to countdown the days because I made the mistake of already telling the kids they were coming so multiple times a DAY I'm asked when they are coming. Oops.