Dyl Slept in a Box

All the beds were taken so Dyl was sleeping on a cot. As fate would have it,  the cot wasn't very comfortable and our living room tends to get exponentially colder than the rest of the house.
AnDee had made a fort in one of the giant boxes left over from the move. When I came down the stairs in the morning, this is what I found.

Turns out the homeless know what they are doing. He slept much better in the box than he did on the cot.

We had one more day before Grandma and Jake had to fly home and then Dyl had to head out the next night so we decided to head downtown and see a few of the sights. It was too cold to do any of the outside stuff but we did drive by "the bean" and stopped at the giant two story McDonalds downtown for lunch. Then we headed over to Shedd aquarium... which is really quite incredible. they even have sharks and beluga whales! We got to see a 3D movie (the seats rumbled and the dinosaur actually sneezed on us! It was totally gross and yet totally awesome) AND the dolphin show! Of course AnDee was mesmerized by the dolphins. They also had a seal that did tricks and some of the belugas too! SO FUN.

Ike got a little slap happy in the car. I think he was beyond crying cause he had just spent 4 days in a car and knew it wouldn't do him any good so he just got really goofy instead.

3D movie

 Before the dolphin show....
 My eyes are puffy from the lack of sleep and amount of stress but at least Im trying to fake it. Pep just looks like he wants to die.

 AnDee falling in love with the dolphins.

 Pep passed out. The look of death was justified... he was beat.

 City lights

The next day we had to say goodbye to Grandma and Jake (Which I didn't get one stinking picture of) They both worked their guts out to help us get organized and unpacked before they left. We owe them big time.

The night before Dylan left we were sitting in the living room and all of the sudden Dylan just got up and grabbed Ike and asked the other two to come upstairs with him. He could see how tired and worn out both Andrew and I were so he took them up, put them in their bed and read stories to them. This kid gonna be an incredible dad one day. We sure do miss him.

The Move

The good news was that we received news about a week before Christmas that Andrew didn't have to be to work in Illinois until the 6th of January instead of the 2nd so we had a few extra days and didn't have to leave the day after Christmas. (This was very good news. Getting out the day after Christmas would have been next to impossible) The bad news was that even though we had a few extra days, we still had an incredibly long and difficult journey ahead of us.
We got the Uhaul truck on Saturday the 28th and pulled out first thing on the 29th
(thanks to everyone who helped load the truck)

We had to say some really tough goodbyes

 And had a few really emotional moments (If we are being honest mom was the one who had the most difficult time)

and we started on our way....
I still maintain that I HATE Wyoming. It was hands down the worst part of the drive. The weather was awful. It wasn't even snowing but the wind was blowing so hard that there was a complete whiteout from the wind picking the snow up off the ground and blowing it across the road. We finally reached Cheyenne (Long after we had planned to.) I have never been so happy to see a cruddy hotel in Wyoming.
The next day was Nebraska...

I know it looks horrendously boring but after Wyoming I welcomed this sight with open arms.
Im generally one of "those" moms. I don't like my kids watching TV. and I HATE that people use phones and iPads to keep there kids entertained at every moment of every day. Its ok for kids to just sit sometimes! but.....

How do you tell them that they have to sit in the car for 8 hours and stare at nothing but windmills and dirt for 4 days? We were in the car for at least 8 hours all 4 days. Between bad weather, gas stops, bathroom breaks and having to stop to feed Ike it took us FOREVER! and I was put in my place and realized that iPads are a gift from the gods of Apple.
We spent the night in Omaha (which was super weird. Im pretty sure its a ghost town. I think we saw a total of 3 other people while in the center of the city) and the next day we headed to Iowa! This was exciting cause we got to meet up with the Bundy's and have lunch. We are hoping we will get to see them more often now that we are a little closer.
I took zero pictures of their cute little family. In fact this is the only pic I got...

He crashed after lunch and slept right through a diaper change.

That night we finally saw this...

We got to drive over the Mississippi river but it was dark so it was pretty anticlimactic. That night we got a special treat. One of Andrews friends from work offered to have us stay in his parents home they have in Nauvoo. He said it was super close to the temple but in fact it was actually kiddie corner to it. Like you walk across the street and you are on temple grounds. So awesome. The house was just a cute little old home that they use for vacations and family get togethers. There were well over 20 beds set up... there were even beds in the closets. It was pretty awesome. It was SO nice of them to just let us stay there. Even though it was New years Eve I think we were all out by 10pm. Its amazing what driving for hours does to you. Its extremely draining.

the next morning we caught just a glimpse of the temple in the day time and the river and all the old pioneer buildings. As we drove past the river (which was frozen over) Pep got a little frustrated with me "MOM! Cant you just stop so we can go fishing?!"... hopefully we will get to do that this summer..

Another ridiculously long drive (thanks to tons and tons of snow) and we finally made it!
Pep didn't get a nap that day. This pic was taken at about 5pm. Poor little guy couldn't keep his eyes open for long enough to eat his mac-n-cheese

I don't know what we would have done without Pam, Jake and Dylan. It was a long hard trip and I don't know how I would have survived it without their help. Thank You!!!!

The Boy Gets a Haircut

I hate cutting his hair. I love his long shaggy blond locks but there comes a point when it has to go. (like when you can no longer comb through the dreadlocks that form every time he sleeps on it)

  we should have left it like this..

  He does have some stinking cute features underneath the mop though

Temple Square

On Christmas day we decided to make the most of the evening and head up to temple square. We had done this once before on Christmas and loved it. There is hardly anyone there and it is just quiet and peaceful and has an incredible spirit about it.
We talked Dave and Dyl in to coming with us and thank goodness we did. We haven't had that much fun in ages. My kids were running and jumping and being thrown around and giggling like you wouldn't believe. Pep kept falling over but he was in his snow get-up so he was padded nicely. At one point he jumped off a little bench and some how belly flopped completely. I couldn't stop laughing, especially after he had slipped on ice a few times and had been completely leveled by AnDee (we are talking they just ran straight in to each other and AnDee won and ended up on top. I was bracing myself for a total melt down but Pep's response was exactly what you would expect.... a growl of intense anger. Have you ever seen Water  Boy? If you have you know what Im talking about) When Pep saw that everyone thought it was funny, he of course started falling on purpose. We were on our way back to the car I couldn't get him to stay on his feet. Every two seconds he was flopping on the ground. So I was really mature and pulled the "Fine! Im leaving! See ya later!"... which back fired.
He lay there on the ground yelling "HELP! HELP!" to every person he saw and when they wouldn't look at him he would say "Hey!!! Im over here! Help me!".... He didn't get these kinds of things from me. I was FAR too shy to do something like that. I blame Andrew for it. However... its stinking funny and I hope he is always like that.

Andrew always tries so hard to look really nice in our family photos

Do you see the look of pure joy on my sons face?

Jumping fools

"HELP! HELP! Im over here! HELP!"

Christmas!

A month late. Thats not so bad considering everything.
We FINALLY got a computer!! Wahoo! (I did the last post on the iPad. Lets just say it was less than easy.)
Christmas was crazy. We spent some major time contemplating how we were going to do it. Amber had invited us to join their family, Pam had asked if we wanted to spend the night at her house and do it with them there, or we could do our own little gift exchange up in our own room and then join everyone else. The last is definitely more our style. We like to have our own little quiet family time on Christmas mornings but considering the circumstances. (Us moving away and all) we decided to let the kids experience a big crazy Christmas with their cousins. Its something that may not ever happen again... or at least will be a very rare thing.
I had to set an alarm for my family so we could get up at the same time as Ambers kids. My kids like sleep. Not only that but I don't think they know that they are "supposed" to wake up SUPER early and be all crazy and excited. Its something we are trying to keep a secret for as long as possible. (speaking of which... Ike slept through the entire thing. Not so much as a noise came out of him until well after presents were opened and breakfast was being cooked) It was so fun that they got to get in a little huddle with their cousins and walk in to the living room together.
We tried to keep things simple this year. We didn't need any more to worry about packing up so we tried to do mostly things that they could play in the car with on the drive out. We did get them both the things they were dying to have. Pep got a train (of course) and AnDee got jewelry and a jewelry box. I tried and tried to talk her in to something else but she wouldn't have it. All she wanted was jewelry. Ike didn't even open his presents from us until the next day. Needless to say he wasn't even bothered by that.
As soon as presents were done at Amber's we had to run over to Grandma Pam's to talk to Uncle Stevie and have some breakfast. After we got the phone with Stephen (his last Christmas away from home!) we did presents with the Naugle side. My kids were super spoiled, as always. Uncle Jake even got Pep the fishing game he was dying to have!

So here it is. Christmas in Pictures...

We did Christmas Eve dinner at Grandma Pam's. Dad turned in to a caveman and the kids got new jammies!

 We also built snowmen with uncle jake

And gingerbread houses

Christmas morning

And of course Ike was wiped out after sleeping through opening presents so he needed a nap

The kids made Jake go back out and touch up the shrinking snowmen.... My kids are stylish in their pi's and boots

AnDee looked like this for days and days

Andrew was super smart and got me a GPS for Christmas. Good thing too cause we have been here a month now and I still don't have a stinking clue as to where I am or where I am going. I need my mountains back!