Random Winter Mix

Olive has a perpetual snuggle partner. 

I think it was about the beginning of December when Weston catapulted himself over the couch in his excitement to see Dad. I heard the crack. Not thud, not smack. But crack. I thought for sure he had busted all his teeth out. Just the chin. And a good gash in his lip where his teeth cut through. Darn kitchen tile! 

This makes the second time I've ended up in the dental chair, with Weston on my lap, getting stitches on his face. I'm so grateful though! The peds office doesn't do stitches and theres no Urgent Care here, so it would have been a long wait in the ER with all the winter germs of Gallup. Bleh. Yay for dentist Dad!

He was a champ, but it wasn't without tears or his whole body seizing up in my arms. I felt so bad for him. 

This was the sweetest scene I could have walked in on, one night. The first bath Dad has given Olive. I think it took 4 months before this happened. I usually bathe her in the day since it's too chaotic at night. 

She gets swaddled with one arm loose now so she has access to that thumb! I thought this pose was funny. "Do you wanna join my crew?" Hot Rod fans?

I thought this little hat turned out cute. I made it for Megan's little guy, Steel.

He might like stuffed animals.

Her middle name really ought to be Blowout. I swear this girl doesn't poop without it gushing out everrrywhere. I need to buy stock in Oxyclean and Shout.

I found Collin ferociously pounding away at a balloon and exclaiming that he was "Goldshmint" and hitting "bombs". Puzzled at how closely that sounded to Goldschmit (and trying hard to recall if that was in fact the name of a baseball player), I questioned him about it. Yup, he knew exactly what he was talking about! Aunt Aubrey taught him all about her favorite players on the Diamonbacks! He was so proud of it too. I'll also get admonished regularly from Weston, with a very sober expression, "There's no crying in baseball." You must have hit home, Aubrey. :)

Oh my heavens. If this didn't give me ulcers, I don't know what will! I was recently called as the ward's Cubmaster and conducted my first pack meeting in December. I was a hot mess. A hot mess, I tell ya! I don't know the first thing about scouting and it's honestly like learning a new language. Belt loops, Webelos, patches, beads, getting hung upside down to get your Bobcat, flag ceremonies, Bears, Day camp, the Law of the Pack, Wolves and cheers! Oh don't get me started on the cheers! It is SO much to learn. And I'm on display, leading all the chaos in front of a room full of parents and kids. I was scared out of my wits. And it showed, I promise. I started 15 min. late and ended 15 min. early. What a circus. Travis blew up 6 black garbage bags full of balloons for the boys to play a game with. He is amazing. We dumped them all in our living room afterward and the boys ran around, playing with them for a straight hour afterward. This will all be a huge learning experience for me. Now that I'm several den meetings in, I can say that I'm starting to like it. It's very disorganized, but I like the boys and my attitude is definitely starting to change. You never know what you're capable of til you try it!

We had a few snow storms before Christmas and I feel like by back door will always have a pile of coats, mittens, boots and hats by it. Along with a muddly trail of footprints around the house. Sigh. Life in snowy places. 

Some tummy time! 

You'd think she was getting teeth because she is ALWAYS knawing on something! Her hands, arms, MY hands, a blankie, towel, etc. Slobbery mess. She seriously has my heart. I just look at her and wonder how I got so lucky. I love this little girl so much.

Now, I'm getting out of order here..... these pictures are from after Christmas. We went to Albuquerque the weekend after we got home and took the boys to a place called Gravity Park. They had a ball. I mean a jump! ;)

The Dad's had a pretty good time too.

I had my good time at Hobby Lobby and TJMaxx. 

And then we all ate good at a Mexican food place called Sadies. It's just so fun for us country folk to go into town. :)

I also got the results from Collin's allergy test after Christmas. High allergy. Class 3 apparently. It was something like 7.5 on a scale of 1-100, so that seemed like nothing to me, but anything over 3.5 is a high allergy. Weird. They only tested cashews and peanuts though so I'm a little irritated. It was no small thing getting him to hold still for that blood draw, and I want to know if he's allergic to any other tree nuts! And even though he hasn't had an anaphalactic reaction before, it's better to be safe than sorry, so we are now the proud owners of Epi pens. Except, not so proud owners. Allergies are so annoying! I wished so bad my kids wouldn't have them. Maybe that's why we got 'em. :(

Some things just make you so giddy happy that you HAVE to dance a jig right in the middle of your kitchen. Cardamom bread does that to me. And I only make it once a year. And since last year's batch got burned, my jig was two years in the making. If you could overdose on Cardamom, I most definitely did that week. I will always revere Diana Hopkins for this recipe!

Farmington, Thumb sucking and More

The weekend before Thanksgiving, we drove into Farmington on a Friday afternoon to get Ol' Dirtay checked into the dealership. Yup, the time had come for him to get fixed! He has been broken for two years now, but still driveable, so we've endured. It started the last winter of dental school and I don't know all the technical terms, but basically he revved uncontrollably when in park or idling. It was kind of embarrassing.... it sounded awful. However, it wasn't too big a deal, except for when on ice, snow, mud or slick conditions. Then, for some reason the car didn't know what to do and the tires would slip and you'd lose control. Since he was our only car in dental school and it was over $1000 to fix, we just prayed really hard and somehow managed to never crash. There were a few close calls though. Last winter, I just drove Trav to work whenever there was snow on the roads. And here we are, two years later and approaching another winter. Fixing this dang car has been on the "to do" list for sooooo long. You have no idea how good it felt to wipe it off my dry erase board. I actually asked Travis for a drum roll.

Anyhoo! We were told the dealership in Gallup was sketchy, so we called into Farmington, got the part ordered and drove it in that Friday. And since Travis is an angel sent from above, he suggested we may as well stay the night. Yesssssss. 

We stopped in at his old office first, to say hi and show off the babers.

Then, the boys played at the bounce house place which is conveniently located next door to Hobby Lobby. Can I get another Yessssss?!

So I shopped with my Olive until my cart was full and I was happy. 

Then we checked into our hotel and headed to Target. Time to fill another cart. :) I finally found wreath boxes. Score.

Next up was dinner at the yummiest Mexican food place around, Si Senor.

Their sour cream dip is to die for. I could hardly get in gasps of air as the chips never stopped entering my mouth. And then there's the Asada burrito. Sigh... pure happiness. And we even ran into some people from our old ward. Fun!

Our hotel was so very conveniently located right next to the mall, so Travis stayed with the boys and I got an hour of shopping in all by my lonesome!

That's when fate happened and I found my new favorite thing! Love!!! Of course, I had to text my sisters first to ask their approval and make sure I wasn't crazy. I'm never too sure when I jump into new fashions.

From there, I had to grab my favorite frozen yogurt before heading back to the hotel. 

The next morning, we picked up the new and improved, but still Dirtay and Travis drove the kids to the Children's museum while I went to my old Zumba class. You guys, this class is the bomb.com. 

I had the biggest smile on my face the entire time. It was like nirvana for my soul. 

Then I met up with the family at the museum. 

So here's another reason why I love Farmington. I got hugs just about everywhere we went. The girl at Bounce Magic was so excited to see me and the boys and meet Olive. (I was still pregnant when I left Farmington, of course.) Everyone at Zumba just about tackled me and was so excited I had come back. And then the lady that runs the museum was excited to see me and chat about life and the kids. Bah! I just miss that place so much. I was really feelin' the love.

After the museum, we got lunch at Mikasa. 

Mmmmmm, hot and sour soup!

Quadruple MMMMM!!! Las Vegas roll!! 

I am now determined to figure out how to make one of these suckers. I just can't wait for a Farmington trip. This stuff is the best.

Then we shopped some more at TJ Maxx before getting Panda Express to take home for dinner and hit the road. 

Just in time, too.

We drove the last hour in some pretty good snow and not the best driving conditions. Ol' Dirtay got fixed just in the nick of time.

Here's a look at our street.

The rest of these pictures are just the random happenings of the past couple weeks.

I love my Weston. He is a sweet hearted goofball sometimes.

Here's how he presented himself after playing with Ruby. Complete with red lip gloss.

Alright, time for the life changer..... my baby sucks her thumb now!!!!!

I cannot express in words how this has transformed my life. She sleeps soooo much better. She'll be crying in her swing, then I'll look over and she's got her thumb in her mouth and has soothed herself to sleep. I have to scoop my jaw off the floor. We leave her one arm out of her swaddle now and it's helped her to take so much better naps. Now she is rested and wakes up happy. It's honestly incredible. The things I've gotten done this week!!! Ahhh! I seriously say prayers all day long, thanking Heavenly Father for this gift... this miracle. I am so grateful! And I'm also crossing my fingers it's not a fluke. Now that I've seen the bright side, I can't go back!! This is just too wonderful.

She also flipped herself over this week. Ack! This is too soon. I really think it was in an attempt to see the TV better. Stinker. She's always trying to watch that thing, no matter where I place her.

Baby stretches might be my favorite thing ever.

FYI, if you forget to make your boys spit their gum out before taking a bath, one might meet you naked in the hallway to happily announce that it's shoved up his nose. Yes, that would actually be Weston. I almost had a panic attack. Trav was at meetings and I thought I'd be driving to the ER. Luckily, I just plugged up the other side and put my hand over his mouth and told him to blow. That boogery thing slid right out. Relief!

This funny thing held her own bottle the entire time!

Friday night was the office Christmas party at Zens. It turned out to be a fun night, but later I told Travis that I felt kind of bad. The rest of the employees and staff (who all happen to be Native Americans) ended up sitting around the tables that were shaped in a big "U" around the room. And all the dentists and one other white lady and her husband sat with us at some tables in the center of the room. We didn't plan it that way, it just worked out that way somehow. It looked like some serious segregation..... hopefully I was the only one that noticed. :/

I feel bad that we didn't get Yolanda in this picture, but this is Brinn and Megan, the other dentist's wives. I love these girls. Gallup would be a sad place without them!