Summertime

Tonight I'm catching up a bit, starting where I left off talking about the camping trip we took at the beginning of summer.

We made it home form the camping trip pretty late on a Friday night. The next morning we were all up bright and early to take Abby to her dance recital. She was stunning, as always.

Then, just three days later, we got on a plane headed for Utah. We weren't planning on going to Utah this year, but then we stumbled on a great deal on nonstop tickets and bought them right up.

We had a lovely trip. We visited a gym designed for children, where Jacob's brother works. Jacob and Grandpa took Abby & Thomas fishing. We visited the splash pad and the zoo. And we spent a lot of time with family, which was the best part, of course.

We made it home from that trip at the wee early hours of the morning on Abby's birthday (actually, the car clock turned to midnight as we were leaving Long Term Parking at the airport, and we sang "Happy Birthday" to Abby as we drove out.) When we woke up the next morning with the house filled with suitcases that needed unpacking and loads of laundry that needed washing and a bare refrigerator and pantry, I knew this would have to be a birthday of Low Expectations. I promised Abby that we would give her an actual birthday party soon, and then picked up a cake from the grocery store (and a pony from the dollar store to put on top).

She was sweet about it. It helped that the cake had a rainbow inside.

Then the busy-ness of life with little ones settled in again. We did the summertime things that we love to do, like visiting the library and riding bikes and getting plenty of sunshine.

(Jungle Exploration activity at the library)

We always have a lot of fun. But those two big trips back-to-back were a little rough on little kids. We were all pretty tired for a few weeks.

And that brings us to the end of June.

(Take THAT, blogging goal of 2018!)

Merry and Bright

Hello friends, sorry I've been gone the last few months.

In the beginning of 2018 I made a goal to write twelve blog posts this year (to average one post per month). Right now it is 12:13 AM on December 31st and I have posted TEN blog posts. So I have twenty-three hours and forty-seven (hmmm...now forty-six) minutes to piece together two posts. That seems doable, although possibly a very stupid use of my time considering how tired I am and that it is ridiculous to begin a blog post (let alone two posts) after midnight. HOWEVER, if five years of crazy has taught me anything, it's that viewing photos of the kids accompanied by simple captions really is valuable to me. Which is why I made that goal in the first place. So I am determined to push through and get this done.

[You're not here to witness this, so I'm just going to fill you in that as I was typing that last sentence, Lydia started crying and Thomas started coughing, so I am going to leave for a few minutes to soothe my kids/possibly give Thomas a breathing treatment/possibly fall asleep in the process, so here go all of my good intentions about accomplishing this goal.]

[I'm back. It's 12:55 AM and the kids are sleeping peacefully again. I am determined to get through this post tonight!]

It seems to make the most sense to talk about Christmas since it just happened and I'm still feeling the warm holiday fuzzies. I'll catch up on June-November another day.

We started the season in the traditional way - taking hundreds of photos of our family/kids! With a tantruming toddler and a baby intent on crawling every second, it was quite the challenge this year.

Sleep in heavenly peace, little baby

Then we got out all the Christmas decorations. The kids were eager to help!

The big kick-off to the holiday season in our small town is the Lantern Parade and lighting the town tree on the Squirkle. We made our own lanterns this year! Here are the big kids as we are getting ready to join the parade.

Abby had Candy Cane Day at school.

She turned her head to the side "because I'm a candy cane!"

 We made salt dough ornaments with friends, then decorated them with puffy paint.

We let the kids try egg nog. They let us know exactly what they thought of that. (All the more for me!)

I've been taking Thomas to monthly puppet shows while Abby is away at school. This month was Mother Goose rhymes with a Christmas twist, and he loved it!

For whatever reason, our town didn't notify us when Santa was coming on the fire truck this year. I wasn't sure it was even going to happen. But one night as the kids were finishing their baths, I heard the engine in our neighborhood! I threw towels on the kids, trying to keep them covered, and let them look out the window. It was not as magical as standing on the sidewalk and waving to him like last year, but it was still fun.

Soon afterwards, Santa and Mrs. Claus came to visit the library.

And one night there was a knock on our door, and there he was! With presents for the kids!

Lydia was really not sure about this!

Santa could not have picked a better toy for Abby, who is currently obsessed with all things purple and all things puppy!

The next day Grandma & Grandpa arrived! (I can't believe it, I don't have ANY pictures of this visit! For shame!) We were so delighted to have them here for Christmas.

On Christmas Eve we made our traditional fancy dinner and then rushed the kiddos to bed.

And then Santa came!

It was a lovely Christmas. We probably didn't get to about half of the things that I had planned, but meh. Life happens sometimes. We did the important things and spent a lot of time together, so there was still plenty of Christmas magic.

Not pictured: Thomas' trip to the ER ten days before Christmas, and then how sick he was (AGAIN) on Christmas Day. Also, how Abigail, Thomas, and Lydia all had ear infections on Christmas (Thomas & Lydia both had them in both ears), and Thomas and Lydia also had RSV. There were lots of nebulizer breathing treatments, doses of antibiotics, and Tylenol. Thomas got up to open presents on Christmas morning, and then immediately went back to bed where he slept for six more hours. But it was still magical.

Poor kid.

[Little sidenote here: it is 2:10 AM and I am DONE with this post and going to bed. Just twenty-one hours and fifty minutes left to write another post, but it will just have to wait. Wish me luck.]