Tuesday December 30

 

 

It was a good day today.

It was a COLD day today!!!!!!

It was -28 with the wind chill today!

Sooooooo cold!

Dad left with Port and Cassi to the feed store with Gramps this morning.

At some point they all ended up over at Dussy boys house to see his new cross bow.

And the kiddos played with cousins and made movies together.

Sandra was a good sport to put up with everyone at her house, she just had surgery a few days ago.

But this cross bow was great for Brent to play with and work on.

He put a racket crank cocking device on Dussy's cross bow.

So that made both of them happy :)

But now I know that Brent will be dreaming of a new cross bow now.

Thanks a lot Dussy boy!

Of course there was the usual "cover up the BYU stuff with BSU stuff "game for the kids :)

I brought them all lunch from McD.

Eventually we all ended up back at Gramps store.

The kids were great at not letting dad do any loading of feed.

They were good little worker bees.

Dad enjoyed his time with his dad.....

And I fixed his clock.

Which ended up not fixing it anyway.......

But it sure is clean and pretty now :)

I headed back to the house with the kids except for Madi.

She stayed to help dad and Gramps until closing time.

We hung out with Grandma.

Elsie didn't let Grandma out of her sight very often.

After dinner, our little family went out to Bear River to visit Ryan and Sami and little Ellie.

It was a fun visit and fun to walk through their house that they built together too :)

Besides it being so bitter cold.....it was a very lovely day!

 

 

Monday December 29

We made it to Evanston.

There were a few rough spots on the road.

But for the most part, the drive was good.

I think the ride was more painful for Brent than he anticipated......

But we are here now, and he is a happy boy :)

*****

It took us a while to get going this morning.

Last night Brent and I didn't get to bed until after 1, because we were trying to download some movie son the kindles and such for the ride.

So I never actually got packed up for Brent and I until this morning.

Plus the house was in a big mess....so I made the kids clean up a bit.

They also packed the car up for me.

Which was great.....but I think we packed up about half the stuff in our house to bring to Wyoming.

Silly kids!

Drew and Heather showed up this morning.

Drew was going to meet a drywall guy for us, because we meant to be gone earlier than we actually got going.....

Anyway, they got here a little early to clean things up there.

How awesome are they.

First of all, they know we are pigs, and love us anyway.

But they are so giving and willing to help out in any way.

They are so great!

So Thankful for them!

So we got off about 11.

I wasn't excited about driving.

I am not the best long distance driver......but I did it.

We all made it here alive, so that's good :)

*****

We got dinner on our way in and ate with Grams and Gramps.

It is good to be here.

The Thomson's stopped by for a visit.

They brought some gifts for the little ones.

Awesome gifts too.

Some bath towels with bubble bath and fun bath stuff.

Ninja Turtles for the boy and Doc McStuffins for little bug.

They couldn't have been happier.

We just have a bunch of happy people around here today.

The big boy is happy to be home with his mom and dad.

He is excited about spending time with his dad up at the feed store tomorrow.

I gave Gramps strict instructions to not allow him to do anything but chat.

Elsie Bug couldn't be happier to be right next to Grandma at all times :)

I think this will be a good little break for all.

Now, I need sleep.

To be honest....I'm not sure I have felt this tired since I have had a newborn.......

 

 

Sunday December 28

It was a good day today.

Brent wanted to get up and go to church.

He really wanted to get out.

He feels cooped up.

I know it hasn't been very long.....but he does not do well when he has to just sit and sit.

So we got to church.

He did good.

Once we got him onto the church bench, he said he felt like he had ran a marathon :(

It took a lot out of him.

Then he was in a bit of a sweat the rest of sacrament meeting.

But he was glad that he went.

Some great speakers, and an amazing musical number of "I Stand All Amazed" that felt like it was specifically sung for us.

I took the kids to class, and then took Brent home.

But first we chatted with some of the ward members.

I still can't believe what great people we have in our circle.

Such thoughtful people.

People who really care.

We are blessed.

So I brought Brent home and then headed back for the rest of church.

*****

So we are set to go Wyoming tomorrow.

Everyone is excited to get going.

We got mostly packed up this evening.

I do think it is gonna be good to get out.

I am not super optimistic about the drive......

I have to drive, which I hate :(

And we are gonna have to make more stops than usual.

But the end result will be good.

We will spend a few days in Wyoming and then head to Utah too.

*****

Brent went with Madi to go and do chores this evening on the Mule....you know, for a ride.

Well, a while later Madi comes in, telling on him, that he is doing more than he should.

Bum!

By the time he finally made it back in the house, he had taken a couple little falls, and one big one.

One that bruised his arm all up.

Gosh dang him!

It will good to get him away from where he feels like there is so much to get done.....

I will make his Dad keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn't do anything he shouldn't!



Saturday December 27

Today was the day we got to go and eat down Bubbles tree.

For Christmas, she makes her tree edible.

With gingerbread men, candy canes, sugar cookies, popcorn balls, and lots and lots of other yummy treats!

And for the last couple years, she has invited us to come and eat it down.

The kids always have fun with it.

And they come home with bags full of treats.

Most of it will end up as chicken treats.......because they would be super sick eating it all!

She also had cute gifts for each of the kids.

Port got a Captain America.

Elsie, a super cute blue tutu.

Cassi and Madi both told Bubbles that they wanted a puppy and a kitty.

They both knew that wasn't happening for real.....

So bubbles got them a puppy and a kitty :)

The perfect kind too!

We just love Bubbles and Eldon.

They are the best!

 



Friday December 26

Said by Dad today.....

"Maybe I can't build a house right now, but I can build a roller coaster."

The boys worked pretty much all day on this hum-dinger!

It was a lot of fun, but the instructions are not super clear to follow.

And Port is impatient (maybe Dad is too a little bit...)

But it was worth all the work once we got it going :)

*****

The big girls went to the movies with the Young's today.

They went and say "Into the Woods".

They were so happy to hang out together for a while.

They came over after and we talked for a bit.

Somehow Heather ended up cleaning Cassi and Elsie's room while talking with Els.

We kicked her out before she was finished.......and Cassi was in charge of getting the job done.

Well..........it's not done yet.

But IT WILL BE TOMORROW!

*****

We actually had Brent's surgeon stop by as well.

He's a good guy.

We had talked to him about what he thought about going out of town.

We have been thinking that maybe Dad would be a little happier sitting around if he was hanging with his parents instead of siting around here and thinking about everything in the house he wants to get done!

Doc said that it would be fine as long as we made stops more often than usual.

So that is the plan as of now....

Possibly Monday.

Anyway...the doc stopped by because we didn't have enough of the spasm meds to last us until Brent's appointment the 10th.

And his office was closed and he was going out of town tomorrow.

So he just came out to our place.

Pretty cool guy to come out and talk with us and make sure we had what we needed.

 

Thursday December 25

Merry Christmas!!!!

The kids slept great all night.

Well......if you call waking up at 5 a.m. all night!!!

We couldn't convince them to just hang out for a couple hours in their room, so we got up.

It was a great morning.

I know I say this every year, and every year I wonder if it will be as good.

But Elsie Bug is the BEST at Christmas!

So much excitement!

So many screams!

Smiles and hugs.

Everything you think of on a perfect Christmas morning.

Makes me smile.

She just loves life :)

So they each got to come I the room one by one.

The big presents from 'Santa' are unwrapped and they get to see those right away.

Then they go to their stockings.

In the stocking is a gift and that tells them what kind of wrapping paper is theirs.

This was something my mom did when we were growing up.

It was always a fond memory for me.....plus you don't have to label them :)

Anyway, then the unwrapping commenced!

It didn't take very long.

I did make them slow down and let us see them open stuff.

I love the reactions :)

Anyway....then we just hung out.

Played with new toys, did some painting (Cass) and some calligraphy (Madi) putting together Legos and erector sets (Port) and being a Ballerina with her new Ballerina bar (Elsie).

Dad needed to go lay down after a while and get some sleep, Madi did too.

I picked up wrapping paper, but mostly just played with the kids, and tried to get some shut eye....which didn't happen.

Then I made some scones for a pre-dinner kind of thing.

We had a turkey cooking, but needed a little something to hold us over.

When the sleepy heads woke up, we had our turkey dinner.

It hit the spot for everyone.

I got a puzzle for the family for Christmas.

Last year the Young's got us a puzzle of our family picture for us, and we had a lot of fun putting it together.

I thought it would be fun to do another one for this year.

I don't know what made me do it....but I looked through all my pictures.

(That is one thing that I actually have organized in my life :)

Anyway......I found a family picture for almost every month this year.

A couple it was just of the kids and then a couple of them months had two family pictures in one.

And Mom and the kids for Mothers day and Dad and the kids for Fathers day.....and then their Birthday month pictures.

Anyway...it totally made me happy and I had to do a collage.

I think it turned out so fun!

So we put that together.

Everyone worked well together to get the job done.

Then we FINALLY got around to doing our Christmas gingerbread train.

We decided to do graham crackers instead of real gingerbread.

And we were going to have it just flat, instead of 3D like usual.

But Port thought of the idea of putting the Oreos on both side of the cracker so it would stand up.

Brilliant boy, I tell ya :)

So that's what we did.

It was a fun time.

Dad has been pretty good today.

He is getting better every day, so that is good news.

I think it is just at a slower pace then we imagined it would be.

We need to get ahold of someone to tell him what to do.

At the hospital we were told both to start PT right away, but then we were told to let it heal before we start.

But I am thinking he needs to get started in PT to get things moving, keep him motivated.

Anyway....

Keep your prayers coming.

We feel them and appreciate them.

We knew this was gonna be hard......but it is turning out to be harder than we thought :(

But I can say one thing, it's a good thing we have each other!

Anyway.....

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Oh....and it deserves to be mentioned.

After dinner and chores, Madi and Cassi went in Madi's room for close to an hour and sang songs and played the Ukulele together.

Made my mama heart happy.

A Christmas Miracle!