Trip to Phoenix

So apparently I'm not so good at keeping this thing up to date. The kids and I just got back from a 2 1/2 week trip to Phoenix. We went down to give Brandon a break, he's had tons of papers and tests lately so we gave him some time to take care of things. We only intended to go for a week, but we ended up staying longer because the kids and I got sick and I didn't want to drive home with sick kids. When we got there, we found out that Jason, my brother-in-law, who was on his way back from Texas at the time, was running a fever. I debated on whether or not to leave Brandon's parent's house and go stay with his older brother, but I ended up staying. Bad decision. We did end up leaving after my pregnant sister in law got the flu though.


So things were better until Henry tripped and busted his head open on their coffee table and had to get 5 stitches! Luckily, Aaron and Alisha's neighbor is a doctor and came over right away, he drove us to the Urgent Care where he works and stitched Henry up. We were home within an hour. We are so greatful that he was able to help.
Henry at the Urgent care


Then both kids developed ear infection, and I caught a cold. Turns out my brother-in-law who was originally running a fever had bronchitis. Great. SO we waited until we were (for the most part) feeling better, and headed home. What an adventure!Jake, Kyra, Cade, Henry, and Haylie


Henry and Cade at the Phoenix Zoo


Haylie swinging, her new favorite thing!

There was a sandstorm on the way back to Utah. It was crazy!

Success!

Haylie is finally eating baby food! I tried for two months to get her to eat rice cereal and that was a no-go, and I've been trying to get her to eat baby food, but she hates everything. (Well, we've been trying all of the vegetables since that's what they say you're supposed to start with so they get used to them or else the won't like them blah, blah, blah) She also won't take formula so here I am thinking that she's going to be on strictly breastmilk until she has teeth and can chew food, when she suddenly decided that she likes Sweet Potatoes. Hooray!

The kids and I just got back from Washington for a week. My Dad's friends were throwing him a suprise 60th birthday party so I decided that we needed to be there. We had a great time and got to spend some quality time with all the grandparents, which we hardly ever get to do. The birthday party was fun, my dad had a blast, which is the most important. We left on Monday because Brandon's youngest brother and sister were coming to visit. We were going to split the trip into two days like we normally do, but since the kids were being good I just decided to go for it and drove the whole way in one shot, getting us to Utah around 1230 p.m. Not too bad. Now we've just been spending the last week hanging out with Jason and Samantha and relaxing.


Henry, Samantha and I went and played in the snow yesterday, it was a perfect day for it, the sun was shining and it wasn't very cold. I think the only reason Henry's face is all red is because he kept sticking his face in the snow and eating it.

New Years

My dad left on Monday, Brandon took him to the airport then went to the doctor for a check-up. They ended up keeping him on his meds that make him really nauseous until after the new year but we decided to go to AZ anyways. So, after he got back from the doctor on Monday, we loaded up the van and drove down to Phoenix, staying overnight in Kanab on the way.

The drive was really beautiful, and we got to see snow on the red rocks, which we had never seen before.
Our good little traveler.

We had a really great time, all the kids were together for the first time, and they had a blast. Henry didn't know what to do with himself with all the kids around. It was really cute after he learned their names cause then he would chase them shouting "Jackson! Jake! Kyra! Where are you going?" He also got to play with Cade's police car which he practically lives in every time we visit. I got a nice break too, everyone took turns holding Haylie, so I was able to relax a bit. Brandon was still sick, but it was better being sick there and having the kids occupied than being sick in Utah and having to entertain them.

All of the male grandchildren so far... by the way, mine is the only one crying.


On our drive home we stayed overnight in Vegas. We stayed in the coolest hotel for only $40! We've decided that we're going to go back sometime when we can actually stop and stay a few days and I am so going to a lobster and steak buffet.

Christmas

This Christmas was interesting to say the least. Since Brandon was in the hospital and then we were all sick, we decided to postpone Christmas until Saturday which worked out pretty well. We were able to finish up our Christmas shopping on Dec. 26th, therefore taking advantage of the sales and my dad got to be here to open up presents. We didn't get to go visiting and taking part in all of the holiday parties because we didn't want to spread our grossness, but it was nice to stay home and relax, since nowadays going places like that usually just consists of chasing Henry around anyways.

Christmas Eve with Grandpa.

Henry going through his stocking on Christmas morning.

Haylie in her new bouncer.

Henry loved his "motorcycle". Thanks Grandma Carol!

Sick

I'm going to try to make this short. This last week has been crazy. Brandon finished his finals on Wednesday and he and I got to go out to dinner without the kids for the first time since we've been here. Hooray!

On Thursday he had a CT scan and they found an abscess so the VA sent him to the VA hospital in Salt Lake and there he stayed until Monday so that they could give him antibiotics and monitor his progress.

He was released on Monday so Tuesday we decided to go get some of our shopping done that we weren't able to get done while he was ill and on Wednesday we were going to finish our shopping up, but I came down with the stomach flu sometime during the night and we are not going anywhere.

We have also decided to postpone Christmas until Saturday. My dad's coming into town Thursday evening, so we decided that it would be nice for him to be able to be here to open presents and then we can get our shopping done on Friday when all the Christmas stuff is on super-sale.

So far, our plan is still to go down to Phoenix for New Years. We're crossing our fingers...

Snow!

It's finally here! It's snowed here a couple of times but it melted right away and this last Saturday it snowed and stuck! And the forecast for the next week in off and on snow storms. I'm so excited to have a white Christmas!! But now it's going to be harder to get Brandon to hang the lights on the house with snow up there....

Thanksgiving in Washington

So I'm backtracking a little bit, since I'm really no good at this whole blogging thing yet. Oh, and I will add pictures...eventually.

So we drove up to Spokane for Thanksgiving this year, it was our first Thanksgiving at home with family in 6 years so we were pretty excited. We had originally planned to leave on Tuesday after Brandon's classes, but on Monday the teacher of his first class told them not to bother showing up on Tuesday so he got the lesson plan from the teacher of his other class and we were able to leave a day early. Well, we started out around 5 pm, driving until about midnight and stopping in Deer Lodge, MT. The kids did surprisingly well, we put on a movie and they fell right asleep. We got into Spokane at about 11 am on Tuesday, which was the time we were supposed to be leaving UT, so we got to surprise my mom! (she cried)
On the drive up we had to go through a couple of mountain passes and we found out that Henry get car sick. He started throwing up so we pulled over at a rest stop and let him get some fresh air and play in the snow.

We had Thanksgiving at my mom's house, with us, my mom and Dan, and Brandi came over. Then later The rest of my mom's family came over for dessert and to visit.

The next day we had a birthday party for Henry (his actual birthday was on Thanksgiving) at my mom's house. We had an open house and he got lots of cars and books, which are his favorite. Thanks everyone!

On Saturday we went to my dad's house. We did a little shopping with him, then we met my aunt and uncle for lunch. Unfortunately, my grandmother had fallen very ill the weekend before we came to town so we were unable to see her, and my uncle had caught it as well, so he wasn't really feeling up to a party, but he was feeling well enough for lunch :) Then we went to my dad's friend Kathy's and had another party for Henry and Dad treated us to delicious steak.

So part of the reason for us going up to Washington was to go get some of our stuff that we had stored up there at my parent's houses but then we had two birthday parties and some people sent Christmas gifts home with us so we pretty much came home with a van full of toys and our pack-and-play and some suitcases. Well mom, maybe next time!

This was Brandon on the way home. Poor guy was pretty tuckered out.