Vacation!!

Well, just in case you were wondering, my crazy week that I wrote about in my last post continued on into the next week. Nathan got sick, Emory got antibiotics, and the kids kept coughing. But at some point they finally stopped and amazingly all was calm again. For, like, an hour :)

On Thursday Nathan called me and said I might have to come pick him up - he was driving and couldn't keep his eyes open b/c of the brightness. He had slept in his contacts the night before but we weren't sure what was happening. I did have to go & pick him up, and the eye Dr called in some antibiotic drops for him. When we got home he just stayed in the dark as much as possible. I felt like I needed to get one of those shirts that say "I Love Vampires"! Then I left him and went to bunko :) Hey, don't judge. I was gonna stay home & he insisted that I go. The next morning was his birthday and I took him to the eye doctor. Mr. Tommy Moseley was so great. He said Nathan's eye was a little roughed up but should be fine.

In the meantime my brother and sis in law came to visit at the last minute b/c Kristin had a possibility of a job and they wanted to come while they could. Kelly came too :) Nathan got to stay home from work that day but was feeling a lot better so it ended up being a pretty good birthday for him. We went to Carino's that night and all 9 of us ate for almost nothing on his Pasta Points.

Saturday night we celebrated Nathan's birthday with his family. Sunday our whole family got to go to church for the first time in at least 3 weeks. Of course we had nursery duty :) We also had to get there really early for a Deacon/Widow breakfast. Nathan has 3 widows that we are supposed to keep in touch with. we haven't done a very good job but I want to visit them a little more. They are the sweetest ladies. I had fun at the breakfast. One lady just kept me laughing, she has the best sense of humor.

And on Friday we are leaving for our ski trip! We are going with the same friends we went with 5 years ago. If you want to see pics or more details, my friend Amber just blogged about it. This time we are bringing our "big kids". They are all 6. They will all be in ski school so we will be pretty free. Me and Nathan need this vacation. We didn't take one at all last year. Even though we still have K, she's easy so I think it'll be a wonderful break. I'm not even dreading the drive. I saved up some Christmas $$ and got a new laptop so I'll be playing games, watching movies, reading, talking to friends, etc... I'm excited about my laptop. I know I'm a little behind in technology. I wanted an iPad but I had $200, not $700. We got a deal on this laptop. Also it will do so much more, as far as connectivity. We've never even had a new laptop before. Some friends were so sweet to give us their old ones, back when I was on bedrest, but it's amazing how fast a new one goes! I guess in about 5 years, I'll probably get an iPad :)

We did get some sad news yesterday. My friend Nitzia's mom is very sick. She lives in Mexico and Nitzia is going to be with her and will not be going on the trip. Please keep the family in your prayers. Her mom went from very healthy to very, very sick in such a short amount of time. The Dr's still aren't sure what is causing all her problems. My heart is very heavy for all of them right now. I believe God is in control but it's hard to understand His ways sometimes, for sure.

I'll try to update during our trip if I'm not too exhausted! I tried to exercise a few times but it didn't go too well. I may end up in ski school with Kaleigh, ha! This is probably the worst shape I've ever been in for something like this.

It's just been one of those weeks...

Yep. It started last Saturday with Alexis getting a cough that Sunday morning was a hacking cough and low fever. So Nathan took the other kids and we had a quiet morning at home. She was doing pretty good so we took her Sunday night and she sat with us. She did great but I'm still glad we have a year & a half before we have to start bringing her & her sister with us for good!

Then to Monday. Alexis was better and we had some friends coming over. By "some friends" I mean 8 more adults and 10 more kids. And in the craziness of preparation I cooked some taco soup and drained the meat into a bowl. I left the bowl out and a little later caught Emory eating it. I promise that girl will eat almost anything! I think I heard her say "ummm". Yuck! I disposed of that then continued on and forgot about it. She got exceedingly whiny and needy and about 15 minutes after everyone was there fixing food & visiting, she threw up all over the kitchen. Fun, huh? We really know how to entertain! So Nathan & I took turns watching her & giving her a bath. She was sick a couple more times then we put her to bed. I'm still not sure if she was sick from the food or a bug but it lasted several days.

Then Tuesday...Valentine's Day. Last week I had to go to the dentist and get a temp crown put on. So Tuesday my tooth was not hurting less, it was hurting more and I was taking pain meds round the clock. I didn't know if this was normal so I called the dentist and the said I would probably need a root canal. Great. Nathan and I were gonna have a date but b/c of that and Emory we decided to postpone. I took some Ibuprofen and we still had a nice night at home. We decorated for the kids and gave them some goodies then put them to bed. Then we watched Courageous and went to bed. Hey, it might sound boring but a nice quiet night at home is good for me right now!

Wednesday Emory was still sick and I went to my dreaded dentist appt. But thankfully when we got there they had the permanent crown & decided to just put that on and see if it helped. I actually noticed an improvement almost right away when the meds wore off. That was such a relief. I tried to get him to let me buy an iPad with the $$ we saved but he didn't quite see it my way ;)

Thursday night we took all the kids to Nana & Poppa's house to spend the night. We went to a couple of stores, then to eat, came home & watched some TV.  It was great. I'm not sure if Nana & Poppa thought as much, the twins kept them up half the night! They frequently wake with night terrors but go back to sleep. With Nana, they didn't want to go back to sleep.  It wasn't until Nathan's Dad finally got stern with them that they quieted and went to bed for good. I know that pained him so :)

Friday morning I slept in a little then went to Kaleigh's parent/teacher conference. Found out she is in GT and one of the top readers in her class! I was/am so proud, though slightly ashamed that I didn't already know this. Guess I need to communicate with her a little more, huh? Cleaned the house for a couple hours then went and got the kids and they were all coughing pretty good.

Saturday (today) I was helping host a shower at our house. We scrambled around trying to clean everything, especially with the crud in our house. The kids "helped". Anytime we sent them out of the room, someone was crying within 5 minutes. Emory was cranky and only got worse as the day went on. She was asleep for the shower though. That went really well. I made this bad boy. A motorcycle diaper cake.

It was fun to make - I'm sure you'll be seeing them all over the place soon!

The funny thing is, my friend Liz showed up with one also. My hub and her hub Andy are always doing the same things at the same time and we laughed that it was rubbing off on us! Of course we both got the idea off pinterest. Here's the link to the tutorial if you're interested. This girl has the most detailed, easy to follow tutorial that I've ever seen! Pictures too! I'm not crafty but I figured I could follow directions and it wasn't that hard. Liz just looked at the pics and made one, but I can never do that, I would just make a mess.
My friends had some other beautiful creations. Jennifer is very talented and made some adorable petit fors (sp ?) and these amazing chocolate suckers. Hand painted!

I can't fathom how she did these!

Nathan took Emory to a party and I relaxed a bit but also am feeling ill. I had a feeling it would hit me at some point.

And that's where we're at right now. A week of ups & downs. Some trials & some blessings. It makes me think of the verse in Isaiah "For my thoughts are not your thoughts, Neither are my ways your ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts." It's hard not to let circumstances affect you and God showed me this week that things can change and then change again before I've had a chance to analyze it! (As I so love to do). I have a friend Jill who is fostering two little girls right now and I think of her a lot. Changes like that can throw a person if they aren't grounded in a constant, which is only God. So yeah, it's been a crazy week but who am I to say next week won't be crazier?!

Happy 2nd Birthday, Emory!

Today is our special little girl's 2nd birthday. Because we are still on our Daniel Fast until tomorrow we are having Emory's party on Monday. But I think she still had a fun day. Nathan and I woke her with a pink marshmallow and 2 candles. She loves blowing candles out! This afternoon we went to a friend's party and that's almost as fun as your own, right? She didn't seem to mind.

Emory is doing great, from what I can tell. She is more than developed socially, talks constantly. She loves to copy her sisters, especially Kaleigh. And me. We were leaving the house the other day and she said "Come on kids, time to go!" And she has started calling her sisters "girlies" cause I call them that. She's definitely independent and is getting fairly defiant but overall she's a good, fairly easy child. Slightly strong willed and very mischevious. I haven't worked with her much on shapes or colors yet. She's probably sat still for about 2 books in her whole life :)

In some ways Emory is one of our easiest kids. She sleeps good, doesn't cry a lot, and has been pretty healthy. She's got a fun personality and people seem to really like her, especially cause she still attaches herself to certain people. But in other ways Emory is definitely, shall I say "challenging". What do I mean? Well...

• she went through a phase of climbing on our bathroom sink, getting in, and playing in the water
• she emptied my dad's wallet, likes to go through people's purses, takes what she likes and runs away with it
• climbed on K's top bunk before the twins would, at 1 1/2 
• likes to get food out of the trash can and run off with it. 
• Drags chairs around the kitchen and gets food off the counter, runs off & eats it
• She once got into a tray of deviled eggs my mom was making. She had taken bites out of 7 of them before we noticed her
• likes to get toothpaste out of the bathroom and eat it
• uses Kaleigh's lip gloss as skin moisturizer

You get the picture! Not trying to pick on Emory, she probably knows how much we secretly laugh at her even while we're scolding her. She is just a Busy girl! She's full of fun and we love her so much.

Watch this video and see how crazy she is!