So Far in the New Year

We're slowly but surely getting reorganized with life in the new year. New toys and gifts from Christmas have found spots to live, everyone is back in school (L just this week), the new year to do list is slowly crossing off and adding things, we have a few Valentine decorations up which means our brains are moving forward, and we've even gotten around to starting a few organizing projects around the house.

In the midst of all of that we've....

...continued to have frequent visits from Batman and Batgirl.


...watched rockets full of astronauts take off around the house.






...had dinner with my college roomie Jamie and family. They are expecting baby boy #2 any minute now so it was fun to get in a quick dinner.


...checked out another new playground they put in about 5 minutes from our house. It was a super windy day so we'll have to go back again soon, but this was my first experience with a playground with electronic built in toys????? It also looks like it will have quite the splash pad though which will be great for another option in the heat.







...battled illness. Got to love January for always bringing out the sick. So far this year we've had a double ear infection, a minor case of allergy based hives, the throw-ups, lingering drippy nose, a little bit of eye goop upon waking, and a slight fever - and we're only a few weeks in to the year. It was bound to happen. I've actually been amazed that we've been as healthy as we have with a preschooler and a kindergartner. Last week Kai and Rori had there 1st school absences due to illness. It was the 1st day for Kai from this year and last year. I knew it was coming though when he came home last Monday and vividly told me all about the kid who sits next to him puking all over his white board in class. Colds are annoying but throw-up is what I dread. Thankfully it lasted less than 24 hours for Kai, but looks like he shared it with Rori. Now we just wait to see if it hits the rest of us.

New Primary Classes

We were still in UT the 1st Sunday of the new year so it wasn't until the 2nd week that the kids got to go to their new Primary classes at Church.

Kai moved up to CTR 6. He is excited to be in the oldest class in the JR Primary here. There are two classes of his age group so you always wonder about friends getting switched up, new teachers and things, but as usual no complaints from this kid. He just seemed to happily go with the change.



The big news though is Rori moved out of Nursery and in to Sunbeams. We can't imagine that she can really be old enough to go to Primary, but so far so good. She just followed Kai right in there the 1st day and never looked back. There are also 2 classes for her age group so we were thrilled to learn that she and best red headed buddy Kinzie are in the same class. Being the youngest group she gets to sit in the front row which I think she thinks is great. It is also pretty fun to get to be in there with Kai.



Zuri still gets to be with Mom and Dad until she is old enough for Nursery at 18 months. She is pleased with this as she isn't big on Mom being out of her sight lately.

Christmas 2011- SLC

We had debated going or not going to SLC this year at Christmas time. We love going but wondered if it would just be too much. It is really fun having such great places (San Diego & SLC) to be at during Christmas time, but going to both means a lot of coordination and driving in a pretty small window of time. We also have a baby and a lot going on in life this particular winter, so we debated. Lance's sweet parents had volunteered to come to us in Vegas, but in the end we decided to go and we are really glad we did.

There is just something so special about SLC at Christmas time. This was a bit of a strange trip though because there was virtually no snow. The kids would have loved some to play in, but it did make the driving and overall bundling quite a bit easier which was nice. We got to be there for cousin Kennedy's 7th birthday, go to our old Church in SLC, see a few Salt Lake friends, hang out with Lance's parents and Tyler and Kimberley and the cousins, and just breathe in some mountain air. Kai and Rori also got to check out the new dinosaur museum with Grandma, Grandpa, Kennedy and Jack which sounded pretty awesome. We sure love playing with these cousins and miss living close to them.

Another big highlight was we got to have dinner and go see the Temple Lights with the Wadsworth's (who drove down from ID) and the Reed's (who were also up from Vegas). The Wadsworth's are expecting #3 very soon and it's a GIRL! We are so excited for them. It was fun to see all these buddies jump right back in to hanging out again. Man how we miss the Wadsworth's being in Vegas.

The only bad part of our trip was poor little Zuri was feeling crummy. She started to cough on the drive there from Vegas and I knew that wasn't good. The first night she was up several times thanks to the cough. The second night she never slept for more than 10 minutes at a time for the whole night. One of us had to be holding her all the time in an upright position. Poor little thing was miserable and I was confident I knew the problem since her getting up in the night and especially being fussy was highly unusual. Sure enough after a trip to Instacare the next day we were given an antibiotic for a double ear infection. The only other time we've had a kid up in the night like that was due to an ear infection so I was hoping that was the problem. I say hoping because our experience has been that medicine provides relief from ear infections pretty quickly. It did seem to help her pretty fast and we've thankfully been back on track for sleeping. Poor kid also seemed to be have 2 more teeth cutting through during all of that as well.

We were able to wait until Monday to go back so it was extra nice to have the whole day Sunday to be there and just hang out and visit at Lance's parents. Going to Salt Lake still causes us some strong homesick pangs, but we're so glad we were able to fit this trip in.

Christmas 2011 - San Diego

We headed down to San Diego this year for Christmas. We hadn't been there since July so we were all extra excited to soak in a little San Diego time. The weather was perfect and everyone had a blast. In addition to the Christmas festivites we got in a trip to Sea World with the Holiday Bowl teams, some golf on the putting range, some shopping, and lots of playing with Grandma and Grandpa.

Our kids were more than spoiled with Christmas love this year from Santa and many others. It was the Christmas of Batman, Strawberry Shortcake, and a big suprise. When we got to San Diego on Thursday night they were allowed to open up one present early- an XBox Kinect. The Kinect provided tons of entertainment for eveyone over the next few days. The kids had a blast playing sports and dancing with grandma and grandpa. They would be dripping with sweat from all the exercise since you use your body instead of a controller which is pretty cool.

Zuri was at a super cute age for her 1st Christmas. She was alert enough to watch all the excitement of her siblings and enjoy some good paper tearing. She also seemed to really enjoy having someone willing and able to love on her at any time.

We all had a wonderful sunny CA Christmas which was finished off with an afternoon seashell hunt on the beach!