Merry Christmas/Happy New Year--Belated of Course

Okay, this post is way, way, WAY overdue. Things have just been so crazy lately that I haven't been able to find much time for this poor blog. But I also don't want to just skip over all of the latest happenings either, so here you have the story of our Christmas vacation. (I will not feel bad if you choose to skip over all of the latest happenings--I'm really only doing this for my own record keeping).

The kids school break started on December 19th. We were really excited that they had that much time off before Christmas and we had planned to take them on the "dates" that we owe them plus we figured we could work in a whole family activity plus Kalen and I planned to let Taylor babysit one afternoon while we went to see a movie. What happened instead was that Spencer threw up at our Branch Christmas party on December 18th. We thought at first that he had just eaten some allergen-contaminated food. But when the vomiting continued throughout the night and when Spencer still didn't feel well all the next day, we realized that he was actually sick with a stomach virus. By Sunday, he was much better and we went to church and things were fine. Then Sunday afternoon Lynnsey started complaining that her tummy hurt and shortly after that began throwing up. Kaya woke up at about midnight throwing up. Around 3 a.m. I started and she and I spent the worst night ever. Once the vomiting ended we didn't immediately feel better. The nausea and cramping continued for a few days so it was awhile before we feld like we could resume eating. Kalen got it on Monday, Taylor on Tuesday and Kendall on Wednesday. So by then we had given up on doing any of the fun stuff we had planned and just hoped that we would feel well enough to enjoy Christmas. Luckily we did, at least for the most part. Kaya still wasn't quite herself but everyone else was doing pretty well. We went ahead on Christmas Eve with our newest tradition of making homemade chicken noodle soup including the noodles. I didn't get all the baking done that I normally do so none of the neighbors got plates of goodies from us. Oh well. In spite of things not being as great as they usually are the kids were still enormously excited and stayed up way past their bedtime. Santa was exhausted from having to wait for them to go to bed before he could come!

Our kids never wake up early on Christmas and this year was no exception. We got them up at 8:30. We all got to see what Santa brought and check our stockings before our tradional omelet breakfast. We were all thankful to have our appetites back again. Then we enjoyed opening the rest of our gifts and spending the day together. That afternoon we had a nice Christmas dinner.

Kaya loved her ball popper from Santa. It was a replacement for our old one that was used so much that it wore completely out! And Spencer got another Thomas the Train set to go with his ever-growing Thomas city.

Building toys are always a hit with Kendall. (Thanks Nana!)

A new ball hopper was also a hit from Nana.

Science stuff for Taylor from Nana--always appreciated.

Timothy joined us for the day and joked about his two meager gifts under the tree. Then he opened one box to find it packed with many, many presents!

Lynnsey had a High School Musical Christmas and couldn't have been happier: dolls, movies, art sets. Perfect.

We all really enjoyed the day, our gifts, the time together, and refelcting on the birth of our Savior.

The next day we were scheduled to leave for New Jersey. Kalen was supposed to conduct job interviews for a new Spanish professor at a language conference in Philadelphia so we decided to accompany him and have another visit with my sister and her family. But two things happened to change our plans a bit. Kaya threw up again during the night and then had awful diarrhea all the next day. And Timothy, who was planning to come with us also got sick. So we waited to see how each would fare. Kaya improved. Timothy did not. HE decided to stay behind and we went ahead withour plands leaving at about 3 a.m. It was not a bad drive at all and we would have made fantastic time except for an accident about an hour short of our destination that backed up traffic forever. It took us an hour and a half to drive 9 miles! So we made it just in time for Kalen to have to turn around and head for his conference.

The kids were so excited to be back with their cousins (and with their cousins trampoline) that they could have cared less that it was winter outside. I couldn't even convince Lynnsey that she needed a coat.

Lydia has gown so much and is cuter than ever. She is such a sweet baby!

On Monday, with Kalen still gone and the kids getting a little stir-crazy in the house, we decided to take them out to do something. We had a few options and after much deliberation and voting, they decided that they wanted to go and ride the escalator at the mall! Okay then. So we did.

They would have probably been content to do that a few hundred more times but we decided to give the people at Macy's a break and so we headed over to the Puppy Palace to let the kids look at the most adorable puppies ever.

Then we went to get Water Ice, a yummy fruity concoction that almost, but not quite fills the void in my heart that Arizona's Egees used to satisfy.

Any treat that is Spencer friendly is tops on my list. (And his! Cherry was his favorite.)

Lydia liked her first taste of the Mango flavor.

Kaya insisted on having her very own cup and spoon and feeding herself. She loved it too--at least the stuff that made it to her mouth.

We spent some time in the toy store and then after losing poor Isabel for a short time, we headed back for one last peek at the puppies before deciding to call it a day. On our way out we got a call from Mike's parents inviting us to dinner so we decided to head over there. After the meal the kids had a ball decorateing gingerbread houses.

Kaya was in it only for the candy.

Spencer was so cute decorating his and Bentley's house. He was very meticulous and stuck with it long after everyone else had called it quits. He used up nearly all of their candy and was so proud of himself. That night as I was tucking him in, he proclaimed the day to be his "best day ever!"

Unfortunately, on this trip we brought with us the monster stomach virus that we had battled. Cecily got it first and then Alison and Mike. Tuesday was so miserable for them. And that was the day that we had arranged to have them keep the kids for us so that I could join Kalen in Philadelphia for his last night and we could have a night on the town and a real honest-to-goodness date night! As soon as I saw Alison that morning, I knew it wasn't going to happen. She was optimistic that they would be feeling better by that night, but being a survivor myself, I knew they wouldn't be up to it. By noon, I called Kalen and let him know it wasn't going to happen and then I settled in for a long day of trying to keep kids entertained so that Alison and Mike could get some rest. They felt awful about not being able to watch the kids but I felt more awful about getting them sick in the first place. Bentley also ended up getting sick and we think Lydia may have had just a touch of it but Isabel, by some miracle, escaped it.

By the next day everyone was at least semi-functional again. We were treated on this trip to some really fun talent shows by the kids.

Cecily showcased her beautiful princess poster that she made.

Isabel demonstrated how to ride a scooter with a hat over her face.

Lynnsey also showed some of her artwork.

Kendall showed off his extreme strength!

Bentley demonstrated the correct way to ride the scooter and Spencer sang us his cute version of a little nonsense song called "Ram Sam Sam". I actually tried to post the video clip of it but it didn't work, so I may have to try it again in a different post and see if I can get it to work.

On another night we were treated to skits of dumb blonde jokes and the girls did a fashion show.

Alison and I managed to squeeze in a scrapbooking night that the girls joined us for.

We took the kids to lunch at Burger King and let them play for awhile in the playland before we went back for another visit to the children's museum. I found this time to be far more enjoyable than when we went in the summertime because Kalen joined us and we were able to keep track of the kids much better. (Although Kaya did her best to lose us and succeeded for a few frantic minutes.)

On New Year's Eve we took the kids to the aquarium and had a great time. At least most uf us did. Spencer got so grumpy near the end and said he just wanted to go to the bookstore instead.

The hippos were a favorite of everyone and they got right up close! (These pictures are all really bad--it was so dark in most of the exhibits that getting a good shot was nearly impossible).

Amazing jellyfish.

The shark exhibit was also a favorite. We got to walk through a tunnel that was surrounded by water so the sharks would swim all around us and we could get a great close-up view. Unfortunately none of my pictures of the real sharks turned out.

Kaya was so cute with these characters that came to wander among the visitors. She followed them around for awhile before she got brave enough to actually approach one.

Everyone loved the "touch a shark" exhibit--even Spencer who was pretty much done at that point took a break from his various meltdowns to enjoy himself thoroughly.

We spent our New Year's Eve evening with Mike's family again. We had dinner and played a fun game called "Would you rather" and then we did some activities for the kids. The Limbo and Duck, Duck Goose were great, followed by Mother May I and Charades. Mike's sister Cindy gave all the kids glowsticks and we turned out the lights to play with those for awhile too.

Finally at at about 10:30 we broke out the noisemakers and sparkling juice and did our little countdown so that we could get back home and try to get the youngest ones to sleep. At midnight all but Lydia were still awake anyway so we could have probably just waited for the real deal over at the Bramhalls after all. Oh well.

It was a fun night anyway and the kids were really cute bringing in the new year.

We are always so appreciative of Mike's family who always make us feel so welcome!

We slept in late the next day and had fun hanging out with everyone watching movies and playing the Wii. (Guess what is on everyone's wish list now?) The cousins all enjoyed their last day together and made sure to leave Alison with a weeks worth of restoration to tackle after we left!

Thanks again for having us. We can't wait to see you all again. (We are planning to be in Duchesne on June 25th for several days if we want to shoot for a Potter reunion then???)

We made the LONG drive back to Michigan on the 2nd and had Sunday to try to prepare for reality again when the kids headed back to school on Monday morning and I resumed babysitting. It was a great and much-needed break but it was just over way too fast. Summer can't come soon enough!