We Are Healthy!!

Finally! Everyone is over whatever that life ruining illness was that we had. (knock on wood) We even all went to church together last Sunday! It was magnificent! And when you are healthy you get to play. Lucky for us it has warmed up enough a few times to actually go outside to do the playing! To give you a little background... last year it was too stinking cold to even go out and play in the snow. Not to mention that there are no hills to sled on and that even when we did brave the snow (for approximately 38 seconds) it was too cold to stick together so we couldn't even build a snowman. Last year we waited until April. Yup APRIL! To build a snowman cause the snow was finally melty enough to stick together. I thought I knew what winter was when we lived in Utah. I was wrong. Utah's winter is like a nice warm spring in Illinois. Im not bragging.. I hate it. When you get a brain freeze from walking from your car to the grocery store... its too cold and I want nothing to do with it.
However.... This year hasn't been nearly as bad. We have even been out in the snow a few times. Once was at night because the temperature jumped to almost 30 degrees! Fun times.

 AnDee even built her first snowman of the year...

 This was very exciting walk around the block. Ike couldn't stop squealing and laughing and we were driving Andrew crazy cause we had to stop and look at everything. It literally took us 45 minutes to get around the block.

 Miss Bernadette is fitting nicely into our family. She is endlessly patient with the kids. The only issue we have at all is that she is still a puppy and she likes to chew. Nothing is safe from her little champers. Not even fingers or toes. None of it is mean or malicious by any means but trying to convince Ike of that is pretty hard to do.
 She got her very first bath last week and it resulted in some really awesome 80's hair..

She is picking up on things really quickly. She is pretty much completely house broken, she knows how to sit, stay, come, and shake. We are working on laying down and of course... no chewing on children.
In other news, the kids started swim lessons! The first lesson was a total win for AnDee Lew

and a total fail for Pep

However at lesson number 2 there were zero tears and while he still had his stone cold facial expressions to impress everyone with, he tried everything he was asked to and earned every bite of the cheetos I rewarded him with afterward.
Poor little Ikey didn't get to do lessons this time. However he enjoys the simple things in life and is just has happy to stay home with daddy and party like a... cowboy?

Sometimes after swim lessons you fall asleep while eating ice cream... on the couch and your ice cream might melt and spill all over the couch... might.

 Mostly things are really good right now. We just heard back about Andrew's back surgery and are in the process of getting that scheduled so Andrew (and maybe the rest of us??) will be heading back to Utah in a couple of months to have his spine fused. Its a little scary but the hope is that life will be a little (or a lot) more pain free post-surgery and maybe Andrew will even get to do things like play soccer or go hiking without wanting to die.
Our new house is great! The ward seems great and our puppy is great! We are finally healthy and its warm enough to go outside without getting a brain freeze. Life is good.

A Couple Things to Remember

So Im taking it a few months back today. To a few events that never made it to the blog but that Id like to remember. The first comes to us from Miss AnDee Lew. She had a sock hop party at her school and was specific about needing a pink poodle skirt. I struggled to want to put an actually poodle on the skirt so after a little convincing she gave me  permission to make it a "scotty dog skirt"

Then we did her hair all fancy. Cutest girl ever.

                                                


Next up we have a little gem from Andrew. He went in for a discogram as part of the prepping process for possible back surgery. He was doing a little drugged texting..

Once he sobered up he had zero recollection of this.

And last we have a few words from my kiddos

 AnDee and Pep were playing in the yard and I was sitting in a lawn chair listening to them. (When I do this I have to be sneaky cause they don't play the same when they think Im paying attention) A rainbow appeared in the sky and this is the conversation that followed.
AnDee: Pep! Look! A rainbow!!
Pep: Yeah... but we better not touch it cause it will just sting us.
AnDee: No... Did you know there is golden at the end?!

 A while back AnDee and Pep were facetiming  with their cousin Felicity and Pep wanted to draw a picture for her.
Pep: Ok Jayne, you tell me what to draw for you.
Jayne: Ok... Um... draw me a flower.
Pep: I can't draw a flower! (like this was a preposterous suggestion)
(after a few more suggestions that were shot down) Jayne: Ok Pepperoni, tell me what you CAN draw.
Pep: I can draw a circle!!!

While walking AnDee to school The Girl was trying to explain The Boy about writing letters.
AnDee: First you have to get your mom to write your address.
Pep (in total embarrassment): AHHH! I don't have a dress on!

I was cleaning up the living room and Buggy was hovering like she tends to do.. you know, cause she never gets ANY attention.
AnDee: Guess what I learned in school today?
Me: What?
AnDee: Wait... I gotta say it so that no one can hear. (leans in and whispers in my ear) Q and U got married!
At which point she covered her mouth and giggled like it was the silliest and most embarrassing thing she could ever think of.

For some reason Pep has this weird thing where he HAS to have socks on at ALL times. He had had the same pair on for a couple of days and I couldn't get him to change them so I sat him down and peeled them off of his feet myself. As I finished pulling the second sock off, AnDee walked into the room. You would have thought she walked in on him with his pants down and his bum hanging out. He was mortified!  "AHHH! MOM! DONT LET ANDEE SEE ME" then he tucked his feet under his legs and did his best to cover them up with his hands.
Weirdest. Kid. Ever.  Should I worry?

December

Yup. Thats it. You get one little post about the entire month of December. Why? My life is has been utter chaos and I am tired. Oh. So. Tired. We kicked off the month with Ike and AnDee getting a little cold. We have been sick since. (Yes... we are still sick over 3 weeks later) We are talking really sick like Pep had a temp of 105.4 on Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas??? And last night AnDee jumped up to 104. Its been a blast!
This is what Ike has looked like for approximately 3 weeks.

What else have we been up to? Oh you know, the usual. Just moving to a new house the day after Christmas, having Nanny and Poppy come stay with us (And save my life by  helping us move and watching the kids endlessly while I tried to get things in order) and celebrating that little holiday in December. I think its called Christmas? Im not really sure, it was all a blur of fevers and snot and boxes and sleepless nights.
AnDee's last day of school was strange. She didn't want to go (which isn't strange) but when we actually had to leave and she had to say goodbye she cried. A lot. Like a half hour of constant tears. Sad ones too. Broke my heart. Change is so hard.

 Our tree has a candy theme...

 AnDee Lew's  introduction to Home Alone. She loved it, of course

 Christmas curls

 This is where I prove how pathetic Ive been this month. These are literally the ONLY pictures I got on Christmas. I didn't even get AnDee jumping up and down squealing when she realized that Santa really did come! And to top it off.. they are blurry. Winner winner chicken dinner!

 The Day after Christmas Nana and Papa came.... and saved us all.  I honestly have NO IDEA how I would have got everything done without them. Between Andrew and the kids being sick, moving and trying to get the old house in good enough shape to get our deposit back I was at a loss. SO SO SO endlessly grateful to them.

 Plus Papa spent endless amounts of time like this..

which was all that sick baby wanted and I couldn't give it to him at the time


Its been a hard month for sure but SUCH a blessed one. We finally got a house with a fenced yard! Our Christmas was insane. How do we always end up with so many gifts? I honestly ended up throwing out 90% of the kids' old toys to make room for the new ones. When I was a kid my grandparents weren't overly involved with our family so now as an adult I tend to forget that my parents and Andrews parents will be sending gifts as well, (Not to mention Gayle and cousins)  so I always end up getting way too much stuff thinking that the only people they will be getting anything from are Andrew and I. We are so blessed to have such awesome grandparents and cousins and Aunts and Uncles that are involved! Most of our gifts somehow involved trains (of course) Miss AnDee Lew (we have been informed that she wants to be called AnDee Lew, not just AnDee) got roller skates and it has been nothing but pure entertainment watching her try to figure them out.
I was hands down the most spoiled of us all though. Andrew broke down and let me get my puppy.

We had to dive out to Iowa to get her and this is what the two of them looked like the entire way home. Seriously, 4 hours of puppy naps. They sure settled in to things quickly

When Grandma Pam called last night to wish us a happy new year, she had no idea we had a puppy until she asked the kids what their favorite part about their new house was to which they both replied "our puppy"

 Her name is Bernadette (Bernie) and she is a Saint Bernard/Poodle mix. We like big dogs... We honestly did consider something smaller but it just didn't fit.

 Pretty sure Ike likes this thing more than Bernie does..

She is the best. She is like a fluffy little Betty and her personality is a blend between Hunter and Betty (at least so far) If we can't have the two of them here, we will try our best to come as close as we can. We are still planning on bringing Hunter out here in the spring and then things will feel complete ;)
 This year has been a crazy, scary, awesome, fun, full of changes kind of year but it has been oh so good. We have grown and changed in so many ways I never could have imagined. Im so grateful for my family and extended family and friends. And Im especially grateful for the gospel and for Christ and his constant companionship. Without it I don't know if I would have made it through the craziness that has been my life this year.
Happy New Year! To you all! I hope yours was as good as ours!

Thanksgiving

We made a surprise trip to Utah for Thanksgiving. Up until about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving we had no plans to go back to Utah this year but Andrew had a bunch of vacation days he needed to use and we happened upon some super cheap plane tickets and so off we went!
It was a blast! We got to stay for eight whole days! We spent tons of time with cousins and at Aunt Gayle's house. On Thanksgiving we went up to Uncle Phil's house which was awesome. They just built a new house and they even have a play room that has a basketball court, a rock wall and a huge slide. The slide was surprisingly fun (yes... I tried it... multiple times)
Our kids were in heaven. Between the good company, and the good weather (not to mention all the animal friends we have been missing so badly) We couldn't have asked for anything better.

 AnDee (of course) rocked the climbing wall. Even her older boy cousins that live in the house couldn't compete. The girl is a natural... to bad we live in Illinois and its not a skill that she can put to much use right now.

My kids got reintroduced to their Uncle Caleb. Its been while since we got to spend some good time with him and Im pretty sure he reached favorite uncle status within minutes.

Ike got to learn how to drive the truck (He was so serious about it. Super funny)

 and ride a camel

 My kids miss their dogs almost as badly as I do. We all wanted to go visit Betty but never had the chance. It probably would have just resulted in tears anyway.

Every morning when the kids woke up, the first thing they asked was if they could go to Gayles. The poor lady was pretty worn out by the time we left but when you do cool things like fishing and making cupcakes and planting gardens my kids are gonna spend every second they can with you!

We are so so so blessed to have such awesome family and friends. This trip was so relaxing and pleasant. Thanks to everyone who went out of their way to spend time with us!

Halloweeny Stuff

We kicked things off this year with pumpkin carving with the missionaries! Im sure they LOVED every minute of it. Hehe. The kids sure did though.
Unfortunately I got approximately zero pics of the finished products but we went old school this year with the good old Jack-O-Lantern style. Except Andrew "helped" Ike do a pretty sweet witches hat.

Next up was our ward trunk or treat. The kids loved it and all the the attention they got. Ike caught on to the trick or treating thing pretty quick. He would run up, yell something that sounded vaguely like "trick or treat" and hold out his hand. Once candy was placed in his had he would do a little dance, put it in his bag and say "dee do" (which obviously means "thank you") and give a little wave and then he was off to the next car!
The older kids in the ward wiped out our candy pretty quickly but it ended up being Okay cause after our kids made their round they quietly climbed in the car and got their buckles on and waited patiently for mom and dad to be ready. (Im sure the candy had NOTHING to do with their patience.)

Next up we went to AnDee's school to watch the Kindergarten Halloween parade. It was FREEZING and the parade lasted about 10 seconds but it was worth it cause she was SO excited to see us there!

This is a shot of her make up. In AnDee's world this is by far the most important part so we of course had to have a picture of it.

Last but not least we took the kids out on Halloween night to trick or treat.... at the outlets... because we don't know anyone around here and going to the people in our ward would be far more driving than it would be worth.
The outlets were actually quite perfect though. We stayed decently warm and got a ton of candy. Not to mention that the Disney outlet was so awesome with the kids. They took individual time with each kid to make a Mickey or Minnie Halloween crown and then gave them a whole snack bag.
Before we left our house to go to the outlets AnDee had taken a note pad and had written "Happy Halloween" (to the best of her ability) on about 20 of pages. As she received candy she said thank you by giving everyone  one of her happy Halloween cards. It was super cute and super funny to see the reactions of some of the people. Some thought it was the cutest thing ever and told her they would cherish is forever. Others looked slightly disgusted as they hesitantly took the crinkled little paper from her and others looked completely confused and occasionally some even refused them. It didn't deter her though. Im pretty sure she was far more happy about handing those little papers out than she was about getting candy.

This is the only pic we got of the evening. We suck at picture taking.

The next day we got to "join in" on the Cowley cousin Halloween party via FaceTime. I thought this was going to be hard on the kids to see their cousins all having fun at Nana's house without them but it had quite the opposite effect. They got to talk to all of their cousins (that were in attendance) and got to see everyones costumes. I think they were on the computer for over 2 hours. Somehow they even managed to play games like hide and seek over FaceTime. It was fantastic and they were so so happy. We are SO grateful for the crazy technology that exists these days.