Christmas

Somehow we didn't manage to get that many pictures at Christmas. We took quite a bit of video, but not so many pics... It was a pretty good day - we started about a quarter to 7 (Reilly and Jaina had been up for a while, but it took a bit to get everyone else up, especially since half of us were sick or recovering from being sick. Santa brought Reilly some Legos and a stocking full of goodies and he brought Jaina a remote-control Strawberry Shortcake car. Katy got a Leapfrog activity table. Katy didn't nap well all day (too much excitement?) and between that and David calling from Kenya, we didn't get over to the Kerrigans until after 11. We had a fun afternoon there and a yummy Christmas dinner.

All 5 Weech grandchildren! Katy-Jaina-Justin-Reilly-Kinzi

We're getting ready to leave tomorrow to start the trek back home, so there may not be any updates for a bit...

Here Comes Santa Claus

A few days before we were scheduled to leave for Arizona, I got the flu. Not Influenza, but it was still pretty icky, with chills and fever, and a cough that I'm still trying to get rid of. And, of course, the day we were supposed to drive home (the 22nd), Jeremy woke up with it. But my amazing husband still drove us 8 hours that day (I helped a tiny bit) and luckily my brother-in-law's family offered to let us stay in their mostly empty house in Joseph City. It's a good thing, because I don't think Jeremy could have driven any more that day!

The morning of the 23rd we slowly made the rest of the trip to Pima, and attended our huge family party that night. My mom said we had over 60 people this year. Completely crazy, but fun to see so many people. It has been nice to hang out with Phil, Sophie, Jason, & Emily, all of whom we don't see often.

Christmas Eve was somewhat busy. I don't remember what we did exactly, except that Santa Claus came to see us! It was so exciting! I was afraid the voice would give it away to the kids, but they couldn't hear past how loudly that red suit was talking to them. Reilly was really rather nervous, and wouldn't open the door when he knew it was Santa knocking. Most of the kids did pretty well and weren't afraid to sit on his lap for pictures and a present, but Justin (Emily and Jason' 15-month-old) was a little uncertain, and Chloe (Jeremy's sister's little girl - 2 1/2) was terrified. We got some cute pictures and video, and hopefully it will be a fun memory for (most of) them!

Of course we had to get pics of the cousins (born 10 hrs apart!)

Justin did finally smile at Santa. Who can blame him
for being scared of that huge Santa?

Provo Pictures (6 Months Old!)

Katy almost didn't get any 6-month pictures. (She hit that marker on the 12th of December!) Things were just a little crazy, and I also managed to get some kind of flu. She has grown up so much lately! She sits on her own (often without falling over) and eats all kinds of "big people" food. favorites so far are wheat bread and bites of bananas. (Real ones, not that mushy stuff) Her sleep is all over the place. We've been having to do some cry-it-out because she WON'T stay asleep when we lay her down, and she also has been getting up every 1.5 to 2.5 hours all night. This has been going on for weeks. I'm guessing a combination of all the moving around and teething? Who knows...  Here are a few pictures of her.

It was actually pretty mild the whole first week we were in Provo, but last week we got a couple of decent snow storms. The kids were so excited that there was finally enough snow for a snowman! I was sick, but luckily (for our kids), so was the doctor Jeremy is working with, so Daddy came home from work and took them out to build a snowman.

More updates to follow in a day or two. We've been in Arizona since the 23rd, and we'll be headed back in a few days. It's so nice to have access to the internet for a while at least!

Picture overload

So my loving husband first fed us Cafe Rio tonight, then brought us to Borders and has all 3 kids so I can enjoy the free Wi-Fi for a few minutes... I don't even have time for captions, so you'll have to make those up...

Trial and error

This is my first attempt at posting from Jeremy's phone, since it's the only internet access we have here in Provo. We are doing well and like the little condo we are renting just off State st. and it so nice go have our own place again. Jeremy fit what he could of the essentials into our van (much of our stuff is still in Henderson) but that means we don't really have much in the way of furniture. The weather has been pretty nice since we got here. It takes forever to type on this thing... at least for me!
Today is our little Jaina's 3rd birthday. Maybe someday I'll get to post pictures...

The Frozen North

Well, not really. Here in Utah County, it's quite beautiful, and not all that cold. (About 46º at 11 today)  Depending on what you classify as cold, that is. Coming from Iowa and Arizona (which is supposed to be about 77º tomorrow), we're thinking it's just nice and wintery here. No pictures (and it could be a while) because we technically don't have Internet (and probably won't for a while) but I thought I'd let a few people know what we're up to. And maybe I'll catch up one of these days on the last two weeks...
We drove from 7:30 am yesterday until about 9 pm last night. It went really super well until about 10 hours into it when Katy decided she was done being put back in her car seat and did a lot of crying for the last few hours. Oh, and when Reilly got severely car sick (we thought he didn't do that anymore!) about 10 minutes from our destination. LONG day. But thankfully just one day, instead of the 3 days of driving we always took to get from Davenport to Arizona.
We are staying in Spanish Fork with the Leatherwoods, and they are so sweet to take us in and give us a little "homeless" haven while we find and move into a place. We looked at 3 different places today, and there were positives and negatives about all of them. It was such a hard decision! We finally went with which one felt best for our little family and our situation, and hopefully it will work out well for us. It is a 3-bedroom condo over near Macey's and D.I. in Provo. The part I like most about it is the access to a big "clubhouse" with a jacuzzi, sauna, big (read- the kiddos can run) nice upstairs room with couches (we don't have any of those anymore) and a piano, and a neat racquetball court-turned-exercise room that has a gated area for the kids to play while you use the equipment. It's very useful, but not so "nice" that I couldn't let the kids run all over if there weren't other people there (like today - it was empty). I think we'll be glad for the little getaway during these next few cold months in Provo.
So Jeremy's on his way down to Henderson with our empty minivan to get the essentials - air mattresses/kids' mattresses, some cooking/kitchen gear, our winter clothes (we all have light jackets currently), and and some other odds and ends that will hopefully make our condo a fun little home for the next little while. We won't have internet access for the most part (unless we go to the library, and/or from Jeremy's Droid) so posts may be a little spotty for a while. We are excited to be together as a family again, and to have somewhere to call home for now!