Whirlwind of Family

When we initially planned our trip to Dallas for Christmas, we purposefully planned it for a fairly succinct amount of time. Reason being was that my parents would be at our place just a month later for Cade's birthday and my brothers and their families would only be there for a short window of time as well. Since the reason to go was for the whole family to be together, we went when they were going to be there and I didn't have to burn through much vacation time. I think I gave some thought to that quick of a trip being hard traveling with kids, but I honestly was more worried in general about the flight part itself and not the impact of packing that much into such a short amount of time. While it was a great trip in general, it was also tough in some ways.

First tough part was the plane trip. Our trip to CA in June for my cousin's wedding scarred us fairly badly in regards to flying with Cade. We hoped that a good 6 months later he would be at a an age where he'd be able to handle it better. And, while he was definitely markedly better than our previous flying experience, he was still far from easy. I sat with the boys on one side of the plane and Mike sat on the other side of the aisle so I was a busy girl. They actually did a great job of hanging out and watching movies\playing games on the ipad but neither of them slept a wink. And our 4 hour flight started at 6pm. There was a small window where I got some calm snuggles but there was no sleeping which made for exhausted kids when we got there. Dylan took a trip to the bathroom on the plane with Dad and announced to me when he got back that flushing the potty scared him a little. Soon after he looked a little pale and said the bathroom made him sick. We didn't know it at the time, but that was the beginning of a stomach bug that he had all weekend (we're still trying to convince him it wasn't the bathroom that made him sick though we all agree plane bathrooms are pretty gross).

Dylan woke during the night and threw up...in the same room he was sharing with Cade. So after getting to bed 4 hours later than usual, both the boys were up multiple times during the night. Dylan has a history with vomiting so while we were concerned, he seemed fine the next morning so life carried on. He had a great time playing with his cousins but didn't eat very much and did throw up again after seeing food on Mike's shirt (not unusual for him to do). It wasn't until we got home and he had diarrhea all the next day that we realized this was a bug. Unfortunately my sweet nephew Ryker caught the bug and had an unpleasant New Years Eve. Luckily, the rest of the family escaped it.

As for the family events, Saturday was the big day. The whole gang was there and the house was full and chaotic. We did a present swap, ate a lot (except for Dylan) and hung out. It was a nice day.

Sweet Bryson

Payton and Ryker on an Uncle Jody Roller Coaster Ride

Dylan Playing Outside

Cute Ginger

Cade and I Reading His New Book, Marcy, Reece and Mom Behind Us

The Whole Gang!
Back Row - Dad, Aunt Pam, Uncle Kerryn, Presley, Marchy, Mike, Bryson, Jody, Reece, Sarah, Jamie
On the Couch - Payton, Mom, Ryker, Dylan, Me, Cade and Blanche

Between juggling visiting with everyone, sick kid, tired kids and just the rigors of quick travel, we somehow didn't get any more pictures then what we took with the family on Saturday. Sunday we spent at church, eating Mexican food, watching sports and hanging out. On Monday, just about 60 hours after arriving, it was back to the airport and back to Boston. Mike and I did weekend trips all the time pre kids and it was no biggie. With kids....major biggie. I'm not sure we'll be doing any kind of trips of that size for so short of a time for a while. Lesson learned.

It's always good to spend some face to face time with all of them but I think we all felt that it was especially great to see Mom. After her health scare just 2 weeks earlier, I was really happy to give her a big squeeze. I was also proud of her. She, like myself, is definitely the ruler of the home roost and likes things done a particular way. I thought it would be difficult for her to sit around and let us cook and clean up so that she could give her body the healing rest she needed. It may have been hard for her, but she sure was great about letting us to the heavy work. Hmmmm....maybe it was all a big ruse to get out of housework? (Just kidding, Mom!)

Tomorrow we are off for our next adventure - a week in the San Francisco area to visit friends and go to a wedding. Even though the boys did fairly well on our last flight, the almost 7 hour flight to San Fran is gives me a minor panic attack every time I think about it. I picked up a lot of supplies to arm myself with kid entertainment so I'm hoping for the best. Wish us luck! I'll be posting our California adventures here soon. Stay tuned.

Wrangling the Herd

Before I blog about our trip to Dallas, I had to share the full timeline of pictures of trying to get the cousins couch picture. I laughed watching the tale unfold (on camera....in person trying to get Cade to cooperate was not nearly as funny until after the fact). Let's just premise it by saying, 1) it's impossible to get that many young kids cooperating at once 2) especially kids that are beyond exhausted from traveling and lack of sleep and 3) on a couch that's just not big enough for all of them. Put those 3 together and here's what you get:

Technical Difficulties

Technical Difficulties and Wiggles

Ryker and Dylan's faces make me laugh!

Major Wiggles

Ryker's silly face, Cade not having it and Bryson wondering why this kid beside him is crying

One Missing

Cade still not having it....Bryson saying "someone get me out of here"

Cade making an escape

And then crumbling in a tantrum heap on the floor

I held Cade, tried to keep him happy then plopped him on the back of the couch - instant crying.

Tried again. Still crying but at least looks less so.

Now Cade's crying and not looking. Bryson still doesn't seem to be impressed by this situation

Not bad....Bryson still not impressed.

Another pretty good one.

I popped up to try and get Cade to actually sit with the gang for another try.

Yep, that didn't go so well.

There you have it folks. In pictures, that's about 1-2 minutes of trying to wrangle these kids to all look happy and in the same direction for 1 picture. At least we got 1 or 2 candidates that Mimaw and Pipaw can frame on their wall.

Christmas Day 2013

Well, it's a rainy\icey day in NH. I had planned to try and teach Dylan to ski this morning but the weather actually followed the forecasted plan (which it rarely does up in the mountains) and is really nasty. We tried to run some errands but if you saw my Facebook post, that excursion didn't go well. So, now the fire's roaring and the boys are all napping. With 2 hours to myself, I decided it was high time I look back at the pictures we took from Christmas to New Years. And what better time than looking through pictures to put some aside and blog about them. Lucky for you, the weather is crappy and I have some moments to blog. Let's cover Christmas.

Christmas Day was spent at our house in the morning and then we moved our party to my sister in laws for the afternoon with the rest of Mike's family (who are all local). Our morning discovering Santa's gift, and unwrapping our gifts was really pleasant. Dylan loved helping to hand out presents and Cade loved unwrapping them. Once they were all unwrapped, they hung out and played while I made breakfast. After more play we headed up to shower and get pretty to head over to Maureen's. Here's our morning in pictures:

Ok, this one's from a couple nights before when Dylan and I were making cookies for Santa.

The Boys and Our Lovely Tree

Santa loved the cookies we made!

The Stacks of Presents from Santa

Anyone who knows Dylan wouldn't be surprised that pretty much everything on his wish list
was Sylanders related. It was definitely a Sylanders Christmas for him.

Cade Roaring Back at His Dinosaur

And Admiring His Bear Paw Slippers

Riding on His New Scooter

Dylan Playing with His Skylanders
This is how you'll find him at our house at many points in any given day.

Reindeer Pancakes!

My favorite gift was framed hand prints from the boys.

Putting Dylan's Skeleton Obsession to Educational Means - a Book About Bones
He also got a toy brain with labeled parts, a human body book about our systems and a floor skeleton puzzle with the names of the major bones.

Flynn's Ship! (Skylander thing of course)

Daniel Tiger's Tree House
For those of you that don't know Daniel Tiger, it's a cartoon based on Mr. Rogers land of make believe. My kids love it.

At Maureen's house that afternoon, it was the usual chaos it is there - lots of kids running around, a couple of dogs running around and barking as well, and lots of us loud adults (our family and Maureen's in laws). There was also lots of great food, conversation and fun. And, of course, more presents for the kiddos. Amidst the craziness, we did manage to get a picture of the Hines\Hickey\Almo cousins.

My Handsome Boys

Corwin, Dylan, Emily, Cade, Jacob and Patrick
Pretty good lookin' crew, huh?

Without anyone having had naps, we called it a day pretty early and headed home. That was a lot of excitement for one day. It was a great Christmas! But I gotta admit, with all the new clutter in the house, I was ready to get all of our Christmas decorations down. However, with only 2 days left in town (in which I spent working), that didn't happen until we got back from our Christmas festivities in Dallas. And unfortunately, I'm still working to get it all packed up and put away. It's like the holiday that just won't stop giving.

A Month of Celebrating

Well, here we are with another holiday season come and gone. The last month (plus) has been a whirlwind of parties, eating, fun activities, eating, shopping and more eating. As our hours of sleep decreased, our waist lines have expanded. I'm looking forward to getting the holidays behind us and these extra pounds off. BUT before that happens, I'm heading back to Texas to spend a little Christmas joy time with my family. In addition to all the holiday chaos, the last week has been chaos with Mom in the hospital .We're all looking forward to getting home and giving her big hugs to aid in her recovery.

Since all of this madness has kept me from properly blogging, here is our celebrating in pictures taken with my phone (I haven't even looked at the ones we took with our actual camera yet).

Dylan being a turkey.

Gobble Up That Cuteness!

We got a couple of great snowstorms that filled our yard with snow and then had a big melt the week before Christmas. Before the snow was gone, we needed to make a snowman. Dylan gave him ears. Cade was a sledding maniac and wanted to do nothing but go down the hill, walk up and hop on the sled back down. Dylan also got new skis and the lessons will start in the new year.

Frosty with our inflatables - Cade got great joy out of watching them go inflate and deflate all month.

Saw Santa at my company holiday party. The boys had a great time dancing on the dance floor but hightailed it off quickly when Santa showed up to hokey pokey. I guess they were intimidated! Dylan was very excited to see Santa getting ice cream at the dessert bar.

Got our Christmas tree early - the weekend after Thanksgiving.
It made it to Christmas but I'll be tossing that thing out very promptly when we get back from our trip.
Hopefully it won't be kindling while we're gone.

Dylan was a great help decorating the tree. Cade just wanted to play with the ornaments.

This was Cade's addition to the tree. Poor dangling Spiderman!

We had an impromptu pizza party with some of the families we've met through Dylan's preschool. I am completely in awe of the wonderful people that we've met in our community. It makes us really love it here. These lovely gals are MacKenzie and Isabella - 2 of Dylan school friends and wonderful cooking assistants.

Santa also came to Dylan's preschool party. He was very eager to share one of his candy canes with his brother.
(That sound you just heard was my heart melting a little.)

Cade's finally got enough hair to get some seriously cute bed head. (AKA crazy hair.)

Christmas Eve Snowman Pizza

Christmas Morning Reindeer Pancakes
I may have a problem with making theme food. Is there a group therapy for that?

Waiting on the stairs for the ok from Dad to come down to see what Santa had left us.

Lots of presents under the tree!

We didn't get to spend much time in NH this month but we did squeeze in one quick trip last weekend.
We went on a little hike. The boys did a great job walking in the snow. I was more comfortable with snowshoes on but the boys opted to just use their boots. Dylan plopped his snowshoes on towards the end of the hike and did great with them. Cade was not a fan...perhaps we'll try them on him again when it's not right at nap time.

So that's a really quick review of what we've been up to. With our trip to Dallas and a to do list a mile long to do when we get back, I can't promise I'll be back here before the new year. So happy holidays, Merry Christmas and Happy New Years to you all!