Welcome to...

the newest member of our family. Yes, I'm excited... Yes, Reilly and Jaina are excited. Yes, I have a super-cool husband.

Edit: To answer a few questions - I don't know if Jeremy just saw it on Craigslist, or if he had specifically been looking for one, but I know he contacted the person (a chiropractic family in Clinton, IA, about 30 minutes from here) over Christmas break about it, but never breathed a word to me until a few days before we actually decided to get it. But that's how/where we got it. It's a little over 40 years old, but in really good condition, and is even still mostly in tune after its trek from Clinton in the back of a truck. We'll probably have it tuned after next tri's check comes in...

Still here...

We're still around, it's just been busy (not really in an exciting way) around here. Jeremy has one more weekend left of his NUCCA elective, and we will be so glad to see him a little bit more after that! The kids are keeping me on my toes. It seems like Reilly learns new things and new ways to get in trouble every day. He is so sweet much of the time, as long as Jaina isn't getting too much attention, and as long as I feed him often. Jaina still isn't interested in walking, but she's obsessed with her new-found stairs and we can't keep her off them. She has been having a rough time with teething and with trying to transition from two naps to one. I never know which it will be on any given day. Things are going well, and we are all relatively healthy. Definitely something to be grateful for!

'Twas the Day(s) After Christmas

We stayed in Arizona for another 10-ish days after Christmas, and we kept pretty busy. Our whole little family got knocked down a bit by a yucky cold, so we were dealing with some sleep deprivation, but otherwise we had a good time. We got to go bowling twice, (which we don't think we'd ever actually done together) once with friends and once with Jeremy's family. We were able to leave the kids and go down to Mesa with Phil, Sophie, Emily, and Jason and go to the temple, which was definitely a treat, and we celebrated Emily's 20th birthday, as well. Jason and Emily packed up their stuff (with Jeremy helping) and headed to Joseph City for New Years' on their way to move to Rexburg, ID. At that point we relocated to Jeremy's parents' house, and I think that on New Year's Eve we MIGHT have made it to 10:30... sleep deprivation, remember? :) The weather was cold some days, and really nice on others. The kids enjoyed being outside some, especially Reilly. That was a nice change. :)
Jaina, wearing Christmas clothes and playing with Christmas toys.
Reilly being silly with Grandpa.
She LOVED playing the piano while we were there.
Celebrating Emily's birthday.
Celebrating again the next day in Mesa at Macaroni Grill.
Reilly, playing with all sorts of Christmas.
He was being helpful and whipped Grandma's snowmen into shape...er...lines.
Silly Jaina
Bowling with Grandpa. Grandpa was the best at helping him actually hit pins.
At the Thatcher Park.
It was warm enough, we actually had to all take off our jackets!

Sleeping Beauties

An interim post..I notice that I have an awful lot of "sleeping kiddos" pics over the last month. These only occur when we need to go in and wake said chiquitos, which I HATE. But I do love to see them sleeping, and, if possible, to take pictures of them. So here are a variety of pictures of my little angels (they're only guaranteed to be angelic when they are in this state) sleeping in several different places...
Here are Jaina and Reilly asleep in their beds at our (new) house.
Notice the elephant-pillow. Her preferred sleep position.
Reilly asleep in the car a few days before the Christmas break. He does this if we're not careful anytime after 4 pm. (Now that he seldom naps during the day)
Jaina crashed at Jeremy's parents with a substitute elephant.
Reilly actually looking rather angelic at Jeremy's parents...

Christmas Day

Mostly just picture overload. I've been sick the last few days, and haven't kept up with wading through all our Christmas break pictures...
Christmas day was really nice. It was fun to have my whole family together. :) I think Jaina woke up first, and I waited until at least 2 other people woke up before we got everyone up. (at like 6:30 - sorry Phil & Sophie. :) After Jaina's nap we went over to Jeremy's parents' and did Christmas with them too. It was fun, and Reilly had a blast with all the presents. We had to watch him though, because he wanted to open EVERYONE's... sigh.
Emily and Jason, doing the present thing. Maybe Emily is sad because it's not currently her turn?
Phil & Sophie - Phil was excited because Sophie surprised him with a snowboard!
Reilly helping Uncle David unwrap his present.
Emily and I with our books. - I want mine back, Emily...
Reilly being disgruntled because he couldn't pick up all of his dinosaurs at once...
Jaina and Grandma
All the guys got airsoft guns and had a lot of fun with them. Yes, this is Christmas day in Arizona. Be jealous, Iowa friends.
Jeremy had to restrain Reilly for a bit while we waited for "present time" at Jeremy's parents'...
Jaina finally figured out the whole "tearing the wrapping paper off" thing, just as we ran out of presents to open.
Jeremy was VERY excited for this GPS unit that his dad surprised him with.
Jaina, with the cool toy G&G gave her for Christmas.
Reilly, snuggling with his new Diamondbacks blanket. Not sure why that one decided to be sideways...
Chloe, (R&J's cousin) modeling her new hat and wondering what all the fuss is about.

Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Even late afternoon/evening at the Kerrigan's house. Reilly was pretty impressed by all the decorations outside. He was in love with"Fosty the Noman" this year, and there were LOTS of snowmen. We were out looking at them when a special guest showed up. The kids weren't quite sure what to think, though Reilly warmed up quite a bit after Santa gave him a present to unwrap. It was a cool fire truck! Santa gave Jaina a cute baby GloWorm, which she is still excited about.
Reilly (VERY unsure about all this) and cousin Chloe, with Santa.
Jaina, wondering why Santa sounds so familiar...
Reilly, showing his love for all things Snowmen.

















The kids actually went to bed for us pretty well Christmas Eve, and we enjoyed hanging out with my family and playing Mario Kart and stuff the rest of the evening. All 12 people that are now in my family slept in the house that night. :)
Here is Phil, being tired, and Sophie, being not.



Emily looks a little worried about what Santa may or may not bring her.



Jeremy's not concerned. He knows he's been good this year!

Fun and Games

Our kids were a little difficult about going to bed, so we had a hard time getting things settled enough to play some games, but we did manage a few times. Here we are playing (well, not my Dad... he was supervising) WhooNu, an early birthday present we brought for Phil..

We made it!

We were pretty worried about actually getting to Arizona. We had been having all kinds of snow storms, and it was anyone's guess if our flight would make it out... The kids did really well for the drive down to Chicago on Friday evening, and we stayed at a Park n' Fly that night. The price of the suite was a lot less than parking would have been for 16 days. The kids actually slept amazingly well, as did we, on the queen-size mattress we dragged into the "main" room out of the "bedroom" in our suite. :)

It snowed Friday night, but it was clear (if FREEZING - there was a wind chill advisory, because it was putting temps at 30 below!), and our flight got out without a hitch at about 10 am. There were at least 150 flight cancelled out of Chicago later that day; there was possibly a blizzard on its way when we left... The flight was nearly 4 hours, because of a bad head-wind, but we made it, and without too many problems. (other than Reilly continually wanting to push on the seat in front of him with his feet.)

Jeremy's parents picked us up at the airport, and we had a good trip home. We stopped in Globe to have dinner with his Grans and Grandpa Walt. It was so good to be home and to see everyone! There was a lot to do and to see, and that first week was just really nice! The kids were excited to see everyone and to have so much attention, and we were excited to have so many more people to give them that attention. :)

This is us, up WAY too late that first night, visiting with my brother David.

Reilly spent a lot of time doing this. He was suitably impressed by how many animals and people Grandma Weech had to line up all over the place.

My mom's labrador had 9 puppies at the time (and 0 by the time we left), and Reilly thought they were pretty cool.

This picture is just for you, Karen!

Reilly was so happy that it was warmer in Arizona, and that he could play outside many days!

Jaina approved of Grandpa's famous yummy waffles.

Here is Reilly snuggled up with Uncle David, watching Wall-E. That kid definitely didn't get enough sleep while we were there, since he had recently given up naps, and he didn't want to go to bed until late. There was too much family and too many toys to play with!

Aunt Ashley came down to visit us - her little girl Chloe is getting so big!

An Early Christmas - Iowa Style

We decided to do our own little Christmas before we left for Arizona, so we didn't have to pack any presents with us. When we found Palmer was cancelled Friday morning due to ice and snow, we jumped into action, and got Christmas set up before the kids woke up (at about 7 - 7:30). Reilly and Jaina got Little People sets (thank you, eBay) and a few other fun things...
Here is Reilly checking out what "Santa" brought...
And Jaina with her doll house. She looks a little dazed, because we woke her up so we could all do Christmas together...
A little more awake here.
We had the slight problem (as usual) of each child being more interested in each others' toys. That was fine, as long as they were cross-interested at the same time... Reilly's feeling a little crowded here. :)
Watching to see if Daddy truly got Crispix, or if there's something else in that box...
I think I can safely say that none of my friends got THIS for Christmas. :) (and yes, I was happy :) Don't mind poor Jaina's psycho face there... Or my tired one...