Crazy Christmas Family Reunion in Idaho

The time finally came for our big family reunion. On Wednesday, the 19th, we headed up to SLC to meet with our family that was flying in from the east coast. It was so good to see them. On the way to Idaho though, Jason was pretty sick and wasn't breathing properly. We got off on the nearest exits and Keith, Blaine, and Chris gave him a priesthood blessing. Kerri decided to take our car and head back to Salt Lake to Primary Children's Hospital. So that was a crazy start to our reunion! 

We finally made it to Idaho with cranky kids who were sleepy and tired from being in the car. Surprising Grandmom and Pop Pop was such a neat experience. Their living room was full of people and they just had the biggest smiles on their faces. It was so great. 

The next day, all the guys helped install a new door for Pop Pop's shed (his Christmas gift). Blaine was decked out to stay warm! 

The whole trip felt like it happened super fast. I barely remember the order of things that happened so here are some pictures of all the fun we had! 

The cousins played Monopoly Deal endlessly. There were times where I had to be a referee. That game never fails to bring up some contention!

We ate all the yummy food that Aunt Jan prepared. She did such a good job. There was always more than enough food and something for everyone. I was so impressed with her meal planning! And, as always, it was delicious. She also set up the garage with heaters and tables and that's where everybody ate all their meals! 

We got to bond a little more Trey. He is such a cutie. At first, he wasn't crazy about all the new faces, but he warmed up to Blaine pretty well!

We celebrated Chris' birthday with a cake and some treats. 

We went to Aunt Jan's ward Christmas breakfast. The food was great and they were so nice to allow 40+ people to crash their party. The primary did a small musical number and half of the kids that made of the primary were ours. 

Blaine loved chasing Tieg around. He is so fast!
He ran a 1 mile fun run in November. He's 2, turning 3 in February. 

Arranging all the sleeping arrangements was a big headache for Aunt Jan, but Uncle Lynn's brother offered for us to stay at their family's little cabin that they use when family comes into town. It was so cute! It was also close to Aunt Jan's house. It had a very western feel. The bathrooms were gorgeous as well as the kitchen. I wish I would've taken more pictures of the inside!

After being in the hospital for 3 days, Kerri and Jason finally joined us on Saturday. Jason is such a trooper. He is such a smiley, happy baby. 

I got to hang out a little bit with Mr. Tieg. He is so cute. I wish I had more time to hang out with each family individually! I felt like I just got small teeny tiny bit of time with everybody. 

Keith brought Scrapple from back east. I tried it for the first time. It was OK. I thought I was going to like it more. I don't know if I'll ever want to eat it again, but I'm glad I tried it. 

We did some more knitting. Almost all the women learned how to knit those scarves that Aunt Jan, Grandmom and I did during Thanksgiving. I made one and gave it to Kim, (who was sick with bronchitis and had to go to Urgent Care) and did not knit. Those scarves were a big hit! Demery even tried it and did a great job!

One day, Aunt Jan's friend closed down her tumbling gym for all of us to go and play. The kids had a blast. I'm sure it was fun for them to run around with all their cousins without any limits!

Tyson loved crawling under Aidan's bridge, over and over again. 

Not a good pic but these were most of the kids. 

Christmas Eve, we all got together in the garage for some games and for Grandmom to read the birth of Christ to us. We had a White Elephant gift exchange, which was a lot of fun thanks to Stace. I ended up with some thick mens socks and Chris was nice enough and let Blaine keep his original gift of Idaho Huckleberry Syrup. 

Grandmom did a great job at reading the story of the birth of Christ, even though she was probably exhausted and so overwhelmed from all the craziness of having everybody over. Surprisingly, the kids stayed quiet for a good portion of it. 

Christmas morning, we stayed at the cabin to open some gifts. Blaine got me new running shoes, a cute shirt and some leopard tights that I wanted. I was a bad wife this year and only gave him things in his stocking. I kept on asking him what he wanted and he said he didn't want anything! I didn't want to waste money on a gift he didn't want. But I'll make it up to him on Valentine's Day! It was fun to be with family and watch the kids open their gifts. It had a different feeling from our Delawarean Christmas, but it was still fun. 

Being the girly-girl that she is, Chase put on all the accessories from a gift set that she got. She had some heels on too, but we were too late to take a picture before her mom made her change. She is too cute. She is such a girl. She loves all things bling and pink. 

I loved seeing these guys again. I miss having them so close to us. It was crazy to see how much they've grown. I love talking to Miles about anything and everything. He is so open! Tyson was very sick the whole trip but he was still so sweet with me. He gave me kisses and hugs whenever I asked for them (and I asked a lot!). I spent some time teaching them how to play Mario Kart on the Wii and it was so much fun. Miles kept on saying how fun it was and how he was going "wicked fast." Tyson just kept on shouting "woohoo!" I love these boys! 

So that was our trip. The Saturday that we were all there, we took this family picture. I love how it turned out. Katie did a great job! We love having a photographer in the family. She even photoshopped Jeff in! Jeff is currently deployed and was the only family member who couldn't make it. It's crazy to see how big our family is and how fast it grows! We were also able to meet Race, Brock and Mitzi's newest baby. He is so cute! Kevin made it to Idaho as well, and I think everybody really enjoyed having him there. We are happy about the new additions to our family and are excited for the many more to come! It was so great to be with everybody during this special holiday. I don't know if or when this will ever happen again, but I hope we make family reunions a tradition in our family! 

Christmas Dinner with Michele

Before leaving to Idaho for Christmas, we met up with Michele at City Creek to do some last minute shopping, eat dinner, and exchange Christmas gifts. Ever since like 6th grade, Michele has spent almost every single Christmas with me and my family. So to make up for not being together on Christmas this year, we had dinner at The Cheesecake Factory. Michele shares our passion for The Cheesecake Factory. We have a goal to try each and every cheesecake on the menu. Michele introduced us to the fried mac n cheese (too good) and let us steal a piece of her carrot cake cheesecake when we weren't crazy about ours. Michele gave me some gorgeous vintage earrings and a Michael Kors tie for Blaine.Going out with Michele is always fun and memorable. We are so happy to have her in our lives.

End of Fall 2012

We finished our last fall semester at BYU and both did very well. I did pretty good on my finals and so did Blaine. This semester was a pretty stressful one for both of us. When we were done, it felt so good but it also felt so weird! We had so much time on our hands, we didn't know what to do.

The week finals started, I was offered a job with CompleteSpeech. I wasn't really looking to change jobs. I had been with Off-Campus Housing for 2 years, going on my third. I enjoyed working there, became friends with my co-workers, and loved that it was on campus (so convenient). But I received an email from my department secretary about a job opening as a blogger/social media specialist for this company. I just felt that I would really do great in that position. I also liked the idea of having something speech related on my resume. I applied, interviewed, and got the job. Leaving OCH was pretty emotional. I cried a little and so did my boss, Mereane. It was so sudden and unexpected. But I am so grateful for the time that I had there, for the things I learned, the memories created, and the wonderful people that I met who have supported me so much in school and work.

Cute Christmas gift from work!

Starting a new job during finals week was a little bit more stressful than I had anticipated. At first, I felt kind of uneasy. It was such a big change from my old job. This job is very challenging. I am on my own most of the time. There are only 5 of us in the company. I have my own office. There is no time for catching up on homework, blogging, or checking out Pinterest. It was just really different from what I had been doing for the last 2 years. So far, I've done little with social media. But I'm helping with some training videos for the product that we sell. CompleteSpeech is the only manufacturer in the world of the SmartPalate or palatometer. It's fairly new technology in the speech world, but it shows realtime feedback of tongue to palate placement while doing therapy. I think its super cool. Soon, I will learn how to make them too. This technology is great but not a lot of people know about it. So my job is to help spread the word. There has never been any official training for it, but now we are offering it. Anyway, I'm really liking it now. There are some cons to it (we rarely get holidays off), but I get paid more and work more hours which is always nice. And I'm learning a lot. If you want to learn more about CompleteSpeech (and read our blog :]) click here.

Blaine was also interviewing for several jobs to start this semester. He received an offer from US Bank, but he was going to be working 38 hours a week. He is taking a full load of credits as well as an internship on campus (20 hours a week or so). I don't know how he could've done it. Anyway, that was the end of our 2nd to last semester at BYU. We're so close to graduation - it's crazy!

"The Real Joy of Christmas"

This year, we were fortunate enough to get tickets (again) to the annual First Presidency Christmas Devotional. I love this devotional. It is definitely one of my favorite things about Christmas. I feel that the timing of it (they always have it on the 1st Sunday in December) is perfect. It reminds us of what Christmas is really about - the birth of the Savior. The messages were beautiful and inspiring. 

After the devotional, we went to Temple Square to see all of the lights on display. It was beautiful. I especially loved the simple, white nativity on the reflection pond right in front of the temple. 

Steve, Mechaella, us, & the Stevensons

It is my hope that I can keep this holiday season centered around the Savior and not let all of the other frivolous things stress me out and get in the way of the joy, peace, and love that we're supposed to experience during Christmas time.

"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas..."

The Sunday we arrived from Idaho, I decided to put up all of our decorations before my busy week began. Thanks goodness that I did, because it wouldn't have gotten done at all after that since I got sick!  

I love walking down the stairs and seeing our living room lit by the lights on the tree. Christmas songs are on most of the time as well as our pine-scented candle. 

I'm so excited for Christmas and for all the activities, treats, vacation, family time and wonderful feelings that come along with this holiday season. 

Sick as Dogs

As I mentioned in my previous post, Blaine began to get really sick while we were in Idaho. His throat was killing him, and that is never a good sign with Blaine. By the time we got home, he had a fever and we both had a horrible night. I was up all night taking Blaine's temperature, giving him water, and changing our bed sheets. Yes. I had to change our sheets twice in one night. Blaine was sweating so much, that it even went through our comforter. Everything was soaked. It was horrible. I barely slept and didn't go into work the next day of how exhausted I was. Blaine had a fever in the 100s several times. Finally, around Tuesday, he started to feel better.

But of course, I had to get sick as well. As soon as I was done with all of my big papers and projects for the week, I became sick Wednesday night. I went into work on Thursday anyway because I didn't want to stay at home and let this horrible flu get the best of me. I really didn't want to be sick. I had all these plans for the week and weekend. There was this fun 5k on Saturday (Santa Run) that I had really been looking forward to. We were scheduled to take Christmas pictures on Saturday as well, among other things. Anyway, as soon as I was done at work, I went straight home and slept the rest of the day. Friday, I woke up even worse, was vomiting (dry heaving, really) and had a fever of 102. I slept all day Friday as well. Saturday, I felt slightly better after receiving a priesthood blessing from Blaine and Matt, but still had a fever and continued vomiting. It was all so horrible. Sunday, I felt decent enough to go to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. I took as much medicine as possible and had a cough drop in my mouth the entire time.

Monday I felt better. I went to work, school and even went to a job interview. I cleaned up and cooked dinner (the house was a mess since I was sick and Blaine was fending for himself for dinner every night). Tuesday was a good day as well, until I started having a piercing neck pain. It was so annoying. I took ibuprofen and applied heat to it, but nothing seemed to help. Blaine wanted me to go to the ER but I felt stupid going for neck pain. I took some coughing medicine at night (it hurt the most when I coughed) and tried to go to bed. I woke up around 3 AM because the pain was too much. We got dressed and headed to the hospital, which is right across the street (so convenient). The wait at the ER wasn't that bad, but once I was seen it took forever. They took some x-rays of my chest to make sure that there wasn't any bacterial infection. After a while, the doctor told me that I had torticollis and pleurisy. Torticollis is basically a fancy term for having muscle spasms in my neck. He said that since I've been coughing so much for so long, those muscles are just going crazy (he really said that). Pleurisy is inflammation of the lining in my lungs since they have been rubbing a lot from how much I've been coughing. Usually, this causes severe chest pain but the doctor said that in some rare cases, it causes severe neck pain on one side of the neck. The doctor prescribed me 2 medicines and bed rest for 2 days. We were home by 6:30-ish. Needless to say, we were both exhausted.

I thought that being on bed rest would drive me insane since I had so much homework to do (being that it was the last week of class). But the medicines were so strong, that I had no problem sleeping all day. I've been tired the entire time. Blaine has been really nice and supportive. He's an excellent nurse :) I'm finally feeling better today. I'm still taking some of the medicine, but not as often. I can't wait to get back on track, go to work, study for finals, pack for vacation, and run again! Today was the last day of classes. We are so close to being done! One more week of finals and we're one step closer to graduation. Hallelujah.

Thanksgiving Break

So I feel like ever since Thanksgiving break, time has gone by super fast! I've been slacking on keeping up with the blog. Being super sick hasn't helped and neither has the fact that I've had a ton of homework to do. But today was the last day of classes and I'm FINALLY feeling better. So, it's time to get back on track. 

It was SO nice to have a break from school and work. Idaho is perfect for relaxing since Declo is so tiny. We only have a limited number of things that we can do so it's definitely a stress-reliever. I was determined to go running while on vacation and took Rue with me. She did great! I'm sure it helped that there was nobody on the road when we ran. That way, she wasn't distracted. She gave me consistent 9-minute miles! I need to run with her again now that I feel better. 

One night, Mekhi was able to sleepover. We played Monopoly Deal and Hangman. Mekhi actually beat me at Hangman several times. One of the words he chose was "Cuban" and I couldn't guess for the life of me! Mekhi is one funny and smart kid. We loved having him around. He and Blaine also played tons of video games together. 

On Thanksgiving morning, Blaine FaceTimed with Keith, Brian, Kim, Aston, Chase, and Tucker so that Grandmom could see them. It was so neat to watch. You can tell Grandmom really enjoyed it. Technology is seriously awesome. 

Thanksgiving dinner this year was smaller than other years in Idaho. It was just us, Aunt Jan, Uncle Lynn, Grandmom and PopPop. But Aunt Jan didn't scale the food down. There was enough food to feed dozens of people. We cooked for 2 days for all the food to be ready. I learned how to do almost everything since it might be the last Thanksgiving we spend with the Idaho fam. My favorite dish that Aunt Jan makes is her sweet potatoes. They are so good! I also made my first pumpkin pie, along with 2 coconut creme pies and a pumpkin cream cheese roll. It was all so delicious. We had leftovers for days on end. 

After our Thanksgiving lunch, PopPop and Blaine sat in front of the TV for the rest of the day. When football is on, these two can't seem to do anything else. The Redskins beat Dallas and Blaine was ecstatic for the rest of the day. 

During the rest of our stay, we did what we usually do. We help everybody with whatever they need around the house and listened to Grandmom and PopPop tell stories. I love listening to them. These moments with them are cherished and very precious to Blaine and I. 

After Thanksgiving, Aunt Jan and I got into Christmas-decorating mode. We made several wreaths and decorated the entire house. Uncle Lynn and Blaine helped us with the tree. I love her tree! It's gorgeous.

Rue had a great time in Idaho as well. She got to play (almost non-stop) with Rusty. We also had Chester (Janae's dog) with us for a couple of days. She was in doggie-heaven. One day, Uncle Lynn took her to the farm and she rode in the tractor with him all day. He said she loved it. 

She also got to cuddle with Grandmom. They really like each other :) 

On Friday night, I started learning how to knit. Aunt Jan bought this yarn for us to make scarves for our big family picture in December when the whole family is going to be together. I was intimidated at first and made several mistakes that required me to start over. But after a couple of tries, I really got the hang of it. I didn't want to stop till I was done. Blaine had to take it away from me so that I could go to bed one night. But I woke up the next morning and finished it before it was time to go. I love it! I'm asking for knitting needles and yarn in my stocking for Christmas this year :) 

We had a great time in Idaho, except for the fact that Blaine started getting really really sick towards the end of our break. We decided to leave a little bit early because it was going to snow and Blaine didn't want to drive sick in bad weather. I can't wait till everybody gets here in December. Grandmom & PopPop are going to be so excited. It's going to be great!