Christmas was so fun! we left the thursday before christmas and drove all the way to Idaho Falls. We stayed with Jaxson and Christine and there little girl Qora. We have missed them so so much. I saw them last year right after Qora was born, but Justin hasnt seen them since we left Idaho 2 and a half years ago. dont worry they picked right back up with all the gun and car talk. I know justin missed it a ton so it was fun to watch. we had a great evening and kept it pretty chill. for our long drive and we had a quick morning the next day anyways. Livia, Cody and their little girl Natali came over and we all hung out in the morning. Natali is so precious and so small even compared to Rex. she is just a skinny girl! but way precious. we loved hanging out with old friends! it went by way to fast and we were so not ready to say goodbye and hit the road again. I know we just bought a house, but we still look forward to moving closer to all our friends and family again. hopefully in the next few years! we will see what the Lord has in store for us.
The kids did great on the road trip. they didnt get too cranky till the end, but who wouldnt after 15 hrs in car. rex even did pretty well. we had a good system going where I would pump in the front seat and then give him the bottle immediately. he did awesome with that. he didnt want it so much on the way home from thanksgiving, but it worked well for christmas.
oh! story time. those with weak stomachs skip this paragraph. its bad. so when we have a long road trip we get up early and put the kids in the car with their jammies on (with new diapers though). no problem. shortly before we get to our first gas stop where we would go in and change them into day time clothes we start to smell something really foul. someone has pooped. its a bad one. good thing we are about to stop. no harm done just wait an extra 5 min or so. but in those 5 min it gets bad! we can tell its really bad. we dont know who but its probably rylie, ryker can hold it when he is awake and rex doesnt smell that adult ish yet. so we park and start to get kids out. we can see poor rylies footie pajamas are turning brown.... uh oh. we rush in and go to clean her up first. i take her into the stall and get her on the changing table. (only her body fits, her legs hang off.) poor girl is uncomfortable and squirmy. i unzip her jammies and try my best not to vomit. poor thing has leaked all out of her diaper and all over her clothes. but i have to get them off her! only one way for that to happen. so i pull her leg out. she now has poop all over her stomach, bum, leg, in between her toes, its everywhere! somehow i manage to control myself and not breath while i get her cleaned up and changed. then wipe as much of the solid stuff i can off. then we go out into the sinks and i clean as much as i can off there. it was horrid. i was smelling poop for hours after. thats not all! after the first disaster we had to put something on her carseat because of course it leaked into the pad and then smelled up the whole car. to add unsult to injury basically every time we stopped, we had to change a diareahea rylie and get her some new pants. every, stop. for 15 hrs. im so sorry little one. thank goodness jaxson let us use the washer and dryer so we could wash all offending materials.
we got to the cabin in Garden City. snow was just starting to fall. Most everyone was already there. Tricia, Brandon and Bryce would make their way up that evening after Brandon got off work. ryker immediately took off with Kallen and they became good buddies. Rylie was introduced to maya and though they were both a little shy between them and ryker and kallen they all had a great time together.
that night was really come get in and get settled. we went out for Pizza that night. we ordered i think like a 28 inch pizza. it was huge! but delicious. they had a big blow up bear in a santa uniform. Rylie loved it. she wanted to "hold" it and would take it home with her if she were allowed. it was a little quick because we had kids getting cranky. but still fun.
The next day was mostly just chillin. we had some great fun in the snow outside the cabin. sledding, snowballs, and snow angels. then in the evening we had a short cute nativity. many kids got very distracted, but the thought was there and we did get a picture. thats important. kids went off to bed excited for the next day.
Christmas sunday was great! of course the kids were up by 630 and we went upstairs. we had filled all the stockings and laied out the santa gifts. we had fun playing and enjoying the morning. we all went off to sacrament meeting at 9 am. it was beautiful. they had some great musical numbers. Ryker and Rylie were really sad we were not staying for nursery. they come to love that time. we came home and finished opening presents, did the cousin gift exchange. then had a great time playing with all the new fun toys/learning that sometimes we dont want to share our new christmas toys so its okay if others dont want to share either. it was rough for the younger crowed but we managed and not too many tantrums or tears were shed. sorry to all if my kids did something rude!
We had a DELICIOUS! dinner and more fun with everyone. it really was so relaxing and chill i just loved it. I did get to skype with my family/fallyn on christmas day. she looked so good. i was wrangling rex the whole time but ryker and rylie did get to come say hi real quick. it was so good to see her. we miss her a bunch! but love her emails every week.
monday morning was clean up, pack up, and head to tricias house. that was a short trip but poor justin wasnt feeling the best. he spent the morning in and out of the bathroom as he tried to pack things up. then half way down the mountain pulled over and got sick in the car. i tried hard to reclaim my dignity, but i have such a hard time with vomit im sorry. i tried not to be a little girl about it but i sat there plugging my nose and humming to myself so i wouldnt have to hear or smell anything. ryker looks at justin from the back seat and says "dad? what are you doing?" justin is wretching his guts into a bag with a small hole in it in the drivers seat. it was an eventful drive! justin still wouldnt let me drive after that. come on man! you are clearly sick! but we made it to tricias with no further incidents.
tuesday we went to visit grandma deitrick. We left the kids at home and went during their nap. i have never met her. i really loved it. being in an assisted living place totally put me back in work mode. it was interesting. it was a little sad to hear how far her memory has gone. but she still seems happy and thats important. she had a little book with pictures of the whole family. we could show her a pic of rex and tell her we named him after her late husband. i dont know if she remembers, but it was good to share with her anyway. she acted like i was a friend that always came by! it was fun to have her remember me! even though she has never met me. we saw a pic of her with grandpa rex. i kept staring at it. oh my goodness that was my baby 40 years later. they look so similar!
the rest of the day we celebrated rylies birthday. we played with her and then we had spaghetti and garlic bread for dinner. i made her a fun strawberry cake with a duck pond on top with duckie candles. it was super cute. thank you tricia for letting me commandeer your kitchen. it was great to celebrate with family. (technically her birthday wasnt until wed but we would be driving all day) she got some adorable new outfits from grandma and grandpa plus a cute waterwow coloring book from aunt crystal and family. a few gifts from mom and dad. she was so happy and had a great day. thanks for celebrating with us everyone!
wed we drove to billings and spent the night in a hotel. it was weird. justin was in a bed with ryker and i was in a bed with rylie. we got rex to sleep and put ryker and rylie to bed. hoping that with a parent in each bed they would sleep okay. eh. we were tired. them not so much. it took a bit for them to fall asleep but it was mostly okay. my biggest issue was getting up to nurse rex and then coming back to bed to find rylie turned and her head or feet in my spot. i mean i knew she twisted a bit as she slept but i didnt really think about it till i was sharing a bed with her. but we made it through the night! woke up and got some breakfast before heading home. it was only a 6 hr trip so it wasnt too bad. we got home and didnt know what to expect. We had a big storm come through during christmas and with us not here to take care of it the wind drifted it pretty bad. we couldnt get into our driveway. justin got out and shoveled a walk way to get me and the kids inside. then he unloaded the car in our living room. we were going to tackle it the next day but remembered we had my new fixed stove coming early the next morning. no rest for the weary! we got the kids in bed then justin went and borrowed a snowblower from the church to clear our driveway. sorry neighbors. he was plowing for about an hour and a half at 10 at night. but we needed our driveway! we got the van in the garage and out mailbox cleared out so the usps could start delivering our mail again.
it was crazy, but we are happy to be home! i am not sure how many of these stories were repeats from my last post. but i hope you enjoy them none the less.
finally got to give misty the bed we made!!! it looks so good!
working on all the sections for the herringbone pattern for the bed. all pieces needed to be cut, sanded, stained, painted, and distressed. oye!
fully done in our garage
the cool string art we gave Beez this year. its our last name in chinese
early christmas at home!
big gift being the kitchenet this year
cool track!
hurray for road trips! this was after blowout number 1 i think
gorgeous views going through the teteons
liv playing with rex
jaxson with Qora
rylie loved playing with christine
this is the only pic i have of natali! which isnt even a pic! i need a better one. but she was there playing with us too!
our big pizza friday night!
maya and rylie hugging the bear
all the grandkids (minus Bryce)
maya shared her big monkey with rylie. she loves it!
loving time with grandpa
putting up the tree
rylie sledding with grandpa
dad with ryker
rex and i came out to play too
snow angels!
rex didnt sled down but it was a good seat for him
rylie still loves to playwith rex
bryce and rex became great friends. so cute holding hands
all our stockings!
a candid photo of grandpa taken by ryker. he was always good to indulge and play with him.
loving snuggles with grandma
kallen and rex
dad and ryker built a fire to help keep us warm downstairs
our wiseman
our nativity
christmas day! a fun car to take apart and a drill to use on it
rylie got some awesome velcro cut apart fruits and veggies for her kitchen
our sleepy wiseman that was only awake for it the next morning
ryker helped "fix" kallens lawn mower with his drill. so cute.
christmas french toast! with lots of bed head
baby santa and i after church
opening the rest of our gifts
maya got a bubble maker that everyone LOVED!!!
the adult gift exchange
we had fun playing this balancing game. i already forgot what its called. justin was good at being sneaky and throwing some crazy changes in there.
in the right pic is grandma deitrick and grandpa rex. i know its hard to see. but that is my baby! give or take 50 years
fun in the hotel
sparkly gift for justin! he loves it so much....
our christmas card!
family photo for the season
our fun track from Aunt Alicia and Uncle Brandon
sledding!
the nativity
kallen and ryker got some cool guns for christmas!
ryker hunting haha
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