Health is Wealth

Wow, can I tell you how much better life is when you're not sick?  Last week Jeremy was out of town most of the week, but it really wasn't too bad because I was finally feeling better!  The flu got to all of us and then I had a sinus infection, but I finished off the antibiotics and I feel SOO much better now.  It was so nice to leave the house again last week.  We got together with friends twice, went to the store, did a fun storytime at the library put on by the Oregon Symphony, and even played outside a couple times (we had actual sunshine for several days!).  It was a good week!

One night we had a friend and her two boys over for dinner.  Her husband was out of town too.  We made burritos and Eli was my tortilla-cooker.  What a helper!

 And there was also a lot of walking going on from this girl!  (Her favorite toy is my phone)  She is getting FAST, which is no surprise.

Jeremy got back Thursday night, and then on Saturday morning, he and Eli flew to Idaho to pick up our minivan!!!  Yep, we have a van.  I feel reeeally old now, in case you were wondering, but I'm excited to have it.  We bought my sister Amy's old van (new for us!) and we're looking forward to putting it to good use!  We still have our other car to sell, but hopefully that will happen this week.  I haven't even driven it since they got it, but today I finally switched all the car seats over, so tomorrow we'll test it out!

Eli was SO excited to go on a trip with Jeremy.  It was really cute.  The flights were so cheap and with Jeremy having been out of town, I thought it would be nice for him to take one of the kids with him...nice for all of us. ;)  It turned out great!  Jeremy was grateful to have some company and it was nice for them to have some bonding time.

It was also nice for me to have some rare one-on-one time with Connor too (poor neglected middle child).  We went to the grocery store for a couple things, read books, played with toys, and went on a long walk in the afternoon.  Connor rode his tricycle for awhile, then ran and walked for a really long time.  I kept asking him if he wanted to head home and he'd say "No!  Let's go on another street!"  We went for about an hour when all of a sudden he was pooped, so I loaded him in the stroller with Anna. :)

These two are going to be good friends when Eli goes to school in the fall!

Eli and Jeremy got back by 6pm, so it wasn't too bad.  Eli and Connor both missed each other, which is pretty sweet.  They are good buddies.  It's crazy how much quieter the house was with one kid gone.

Then on Sunday we finally went to our regular church.  After being in California, then being sick for 2 weeks, and then having Stake Conference last week, we hadn't been to our ward since the Sunday before Christmas.  Yikes!  It was SOOO nice to be back.  I really really really love our ward.  It was our Ward Conference and our Bishop gave one of the most amazing talks ever.  The topic was grace and it was beautiful.  He asked me and 2 other ladies to sing a trio of Amazing Grace, so we had to sing right after him (which was hard to do after his talk!), but it went really well and it was neat to be a part of such a great meeting.  It was a wonderful Sunday back at church and a great way to end the week/start the next week!

It was also great to have 9am church instead of 2pm!  Everyone (but me) had a nice afternoon nap, and then we had a delicious dinner and then the boys and I went to a baptism of an 11yr-old girl in our ward.  It was great.

Why yes, that is bacon-wrapped albacore.  You can be jealous.

Like I said, it's great to be feeling good again!

Reading

This week Eli completed his 100th reading lesson!  I am so impressed with this boy. When we started these lessons several months ago, I really thought he would lose interest after awhile (which was totally fine with me), but I thought it would be a fun thing for him to do for a month or so.  Well, he never lost interest!  He kept his sticker chart we made on the refrigerator and I don't think a week went by without him wanting to several lessons.

It was so fun a week or so ago when he was reading a story in one of his lessons and was laughing at how funny the story was as he was reading it.  I'm going to miss doing these with him!  We would often do them right after Connor and Anna went down for a nap, and it was our special little time.  He even told Jeremy one day, "I like doing reading lessons more than playing with any of my toys!"  (I know, who is this kid?)  He loves to read scriptures with us now and I often catch him reading a book to himself on the couch...which I think is pretty much the coolest thing ever. A whole new world has opened up to him and he is loving it!

Here he is, so proud, with his completed chart:

I'm proud of him for sticking to it!  Way to go, Eli!

Anna Banana

This little girl is full of PERSONALITY!  She cracks us up all the time and is getting to be quite the ham/performer/charmer/goofball.  She takes 10+steps now and started saying "ow" over and over and over the other day.  It's hilarious...and she knows it.  She LOVES to be smiled at and is so much fun!  Here are a few pictures we snapped at the end of dinner last night.  Anna loves beans!

I sure love that cheesy toothy grin!

Update:  Here's a video of Anna walking from Jeremy's phone.  Please watch on mute, my voice is so obnoxious! Haha.  And I know it's not the best shot, but once I got a better angle, she stopped doing it as well, so this is what we have for now!

California 2

On the 28th, we headed over to the Nowlands to be there until the 1st.  All of the Nowland cousins were over there, plus one of Jeremy's cousins and his wife and 3 kids, so it was a party!  Jeremy was having lots of fun playing with our new camera, so we have a lot of pictures. :)

Beautiful Grammy and Anna.

 My cousin-in-law Melarie with Camden, sis-in-law Becky and Levi, and me and Anna.  It was so fun to have some time with Robert (Jeremy's cousin) and Melarie.  They lived in Provo the same time we did, and we used to all go over to Jeremy's grandma's house and play games a lot.  It always brings back good memories to see them!

 Nowland boys - Jeremy, Jared, George, Ben, Jon, Boston, and Cooper & Levi

 Eli playing with Aunt Mimi (the favorite Aunt, everyone knows it! She's so fun!)

 Reading with Grammy about "The Beeman"

 Oh yeah, mash those potatoes.

 We went to the park twice while we were there.  Again, gorgeous sunny weather!

 Cute baby Kamryn falling asleep on the swings.

 Boston - good thing we have this super fast camera because this kid is always moving!

 Ben likes to pose for photos. :)

 We decided to have a race with the kids.  Ready, set, go!

 Anna and Levi were so adorable looking at each other through the window here:

Also while we were there, Jeremy and I were able to take his grandma to lunch.  We had such a fun time!  It was nice to spend some one-on-one time with her.  We love you Tutu!

We had such a great visit with all of Jeremy's family.  On New Years' Day, we went back over to my parents' house for two more days.  Steve and Yihua were still there for one more night.  They made us delicious dumplings and it was great to visit with them some more.  They took off the next day and then we had a visit from our great friends, the Arnetts.  We were in MBA school with them, and they live in the Bay Area now.  It was so great to catch up!  

 Matching and we didn't even plan it!

Eli and Joey are 10 months apart, Connor and Moses are 2 weeks apart, and Naomi and Anna are 4 months apart.  Pretty fun!

The next day we walked down to the lake with my parents.  There's a trail that goes down from their backyard and it's just the perfect little hike to do with the kids.  They are having a pretty bad drought right now, so the lake was SO low.  It was really weird.  But it was nice to be outside walking around in the warm sun!  After we got home, I asked the kids what were some of their favorite things they did and Connor said, "Throwing rocks in the lake".

The next day we headed home!  We had a great time seeing so many wonderful people and enjoying the California sun!  Thank you, families, for the great visit!

California, here I come!

We left for California at 4am on the 26th.  I know, we're crazy.  But it made the drive much more enjoyable!  The boys only went back to sleep for about 20 minutes, but Anna slept for a couple hours right at the beginning, which was huge.  She's not such a fan of the car.

So we pulled into my parents' house around 2pm.  Three of my four siblings were there with their families, so it was a party! (We missed you, Wendy!)  The boys had a great time playing with their cousins and Jeremy and I had fun doing puzzles, visiting with everyone, and playing some fun games after the kids went to bed.

Who knew you could look so cute chopping lettuce? :)

 My mom and I always seem to match.  It's happened for years - when she taught choir at my high school, I would leave for seminary before she was even up and show up to class and we'd be wearing the same color/pattern.  Great minds think alike I guess!

 Only grandmas are allowed to buy electric pink sweater-vests. :)  Anna pulls it off quite well!

Cute cousins - 5 months apart.

 Heidi also played a few of her piano pieces for us.  She has her graduate recital coming up in just a few weeks!

 Jeremy getting ready to act out something...Steve and Yihua taught us a really fun game that we ended up playing at the Nowlands' too.  Good times!

Good-bye hugs:

We were only there for 2 days before we headed over to the Nowlands, but it was a fun 2 days!  It's always so nice to spend time with my siblings.  We had a great time!  Still more post-Christmas catching up to come!

Christmas

Okay, now for Christmas.  We decided to stay home for Christmas this year.  It was our 9th Christmas being married and the first time we've ever stayed home.  It was wonderful!  We were lucky enough to have the best of both worlds - we got to be home for Christmas with just our little family, and then we were able to travel to California and see so many of our wonderful family members.

Jeremy had been working a lot and traveling a lot, so he was SO excited to be home.  He got Christmas Eve and Christmas off and all day Christmas Eve he kept walking around with a big smile on his face saying, "This is the BEST Christmas EVER!"  It made me happy to see him so happy.  We definitely made the right choice. :)  The night before Christmas Eve we went caroling with a bunch of people from the ward (church) and then a lot of them came over after for cookies and wassail. I think we had about 35 people!  It was a fun thing to do and helped add to the Christmas spirit.

Then on Christmas Eve we had a wonderful time baking, reading Christmas books, listening to Christmas music, and relaxing together at home.

Our best attempt at a kid picture, pretty bad...

I bought a small ham and we had a delicious feast of ham, roasted garlic mashed potatoes, rolls, roasted green beans, and spinach salad.  It was soooo good!

The kids were really excited about the sparkling cider too.  It doesn't take much to please them. :)

After dinner we read Luke 2 and acted out the Nativity.  Eli wanted to be Joseph, Connor wanted to be Mary :), and Anna crawled around as the sheep.  I was the angel and shepherd and Jeremy was the narrator, donkey, and wiseman.

 Oh, and Connor's bear was baby Jesus.  Classy, I know.

The kids were really cute.  We then sang a few Christmas songs.  They each had a few favorites and it was sweet to sing them together.

Then we had our dessert, opened up some Christmas jammies, and put the kids to bed!

Christmas morning was a fast one.  The kids were up by 6:45 and we were all done opening presents by about 8:00am. :)  It was great though!  We relaxed, had a nice breakfast, played with our new toys, and then got packed for our trip to California the next day.

They weren't quite ready for the lights to turn on...

Headlamps in the their stockings! 

 Ahhh, new wool socks!

 This basketball hoop was for both of the boys, but Connor is definitely more interested.  It's pretty much all he wants to play with all day everyday.

 Burt's Bees - happy Jeremy.

 I love this face!

 Hehe, and this one.

 Connor got this big dumptruck from his cousin and he exclaimed upon opening it, "I would like this!"  Haha, I told him, "Good!  It's for you!"

 Legos!!

 And lego duplos!!

 Yum.

 And double yum.

 Finished lego product:

It was a very successful Christmas at home!