Christmas 2013

Merry Christmas 2013!  Family photo taken a few weeks before Christmas.

Christmas this year was one for the books!  Jon had almost two full weeks off of work and we were planning to spend most of that in Minnesota with Jon's family sledding, ice-skating, going to dinner, movies, playing games, two-on-two volleyball games, etc.  Needless to say, we were SUPER excited!  On top of all that, we were most excited for Colton's Christmas.  He is finally to an age where he can understand things and get excited about Santa coming and he definitely was!  He was loving all the Christmas decorations and movies and kept asking about Santa and opening presents!  We were really excited to see his excitement Christmas morning. 

We got to MN on Saturday afternoon.  Sunday morning Katie woke up with a horrible cold.  It was seriously the worst colds I remember either of my kids ever having.  She sounded awful.  We worried it was maybe whooping cough or croup but after doing some more research and googling what those coughs sound like, we ruled out whooping cough and were less convinced about croup.  Still, it was awful.  She ended up being sick the whole break and is just now getting better.  Looking back, I'm pretty convinced it must have been croup.  I've never heard a baby hack so hard!  She struggled sleeping all week and was, understandably, cranky and stuffy and just didn't feel well!  Still, it was just a cold- and at least those are manageable...

Tuesday morning (Christmas Eve) Colton was sleeping in really late so at 9:00am, I went in to wake him up.  Immediately I though, "It reeks big time in here!! What is that?"  I turned on the light and had my answer.  Colton was sleeping in a huge puddle of puke, all over his blankets, pillow, face, hair, etc.  The poor kid!  We rushed him to the bath and got him and the bed all cleaned up.  We hoped he'd just had too much sugar the day before- both of us had been out shopping a lot of the day and weren't entirely sure what all he'd eaten.  But no, we weren't just bad parents, he puked again a couple hours later and was miserable all day- puking and crying and feeling awful.  Christmas morning he woke up puke free so we hoped it was over and just a 24 hour thing.  He was lethargic and sad through most of the present opening- and just laid on the floor (not the excitement we were hoping to see!).  About an hour after presents we found out why....he puked again.  All day Christmas was filled with pukes and the runs for Colton.  He was pretty miserable.  The next day as well.  Friday he didn't puke any more but still had the runs and didn't feel the best.  Finally Saturday he was back to 80% of himself and Sunday he was back to Colton!  We left for home Monday morning.  Needless to say, we didn't have the Christmas we were hoping for.  We spent almost all week on puke watch sitting at the house. 

We did have fun chatting with family and we were able to get out and do a few fun dinners and things with family.  Jon got me some good gifts and even surprised me with a Gel Nail machine!  We also had fun doing some after Christmas bargain shopping! 

When we got home we decided we'd do a second smaller Christmas for the kids, since we felt robbed of the excitement.  We had only brought about half of our gifts for each other to MN anyway and Santa felt bad Colton was sick so he decided to swing by again and bring another small gift or two for the kids.  That Christmas was a lot more fun :)  Colton was VERY excited by the giant crocodile Santa brought him to go with the giant shark, t-rex, and triceratops he'd gotten on the real Christmas.

Love our Christmas Tree!

New Years Eve Jon was feeling sick so we just rented Wolverine and stayed home.  The kids went to bed early and Jon fell asleep watching the movie just I just partied the night away by myself :)  Haha, here's to better luck with our holidays next year!!  Despite all the holiday mishaps, we had fun spending time together as a family and felt so grateful for the safety we had in our travels.  We both love the holiday season and the spirit of Christ in the air and look forward to next year!  We're both so grateful for the amazing family and friends and blessings from the Lord that made our 2013 a great year!

Catching Up: Halloween & Thanksgiving 2013

HALLOWEEN

Happy Halloween 2013

Yes, I realize this is a very belated post but life just seemed to be full to the brim the last few months of 2013 and I didn't get much blogging done!  Halloween 2013 was pretty fun!  Colton was finally old enough to grasp the concept of Trick or Treating and dressing up so that made it fun.  He was really into "doggies" and loved to bark all the time so I thought it would be just adorable for him to go as a dog.  I found an adorable dog costume at Kmart, that I even got for free with some couponing, and was so excited to get it on him.  He LOVED it in the store but the second I tried to put it on him he freaked out!  We tried for a couple weeks to get him used to the costume but in the end, sadly, he still hated the idea of putting it on and we ended up just sticking him in a buzz lightyear costume I'd bought the year before on clearance.  It was still pretty cute but we had to do some Toy Story marathons to teach him who Buzz is- cause you can't dress your kid up as something they don't even know, right? 
Halloween was on Thursday but Davenports Trick or Treat day was Wednesday and it was pouring rain.  Seriously- cats and dogs style!  We wondered if we'd even get any trick or treaters but- true to the typical candy loving kid- most braved the rain anyway and we got a good turn out!  When the rain finally died down a bit we grabbed our umbrella, threw Katie in her adorable little cow outfit, and took Colton around the neighborhood.

My adorable little trick-or-treaters :)

 It was pretty fun and adorable watching Colton trick or treat and getting to know our neighbors a little bit.   Katie was a trooper for a little while but then got tired and Daddy took her home while Colton and mommy hit a few more houses.  When Colton started barking at the doors (only cute if he would wear the doggie costume) instead of saying "trick-or-treat", I figured it was time to head home.  Friday night was the ward Trunk or Treat and Colton got to dress up again with the rest of the family and go get more candy while I, Katie, and our friend Alissa Thompson hung out in the van handing out candy.  All in all it was a fun Halloween!

Me & Alissa at Trunk or Treat

Handing out candy!

THANKSGIVING

For Thanksgiving this year (2013), we decided to stay home again and have some friends over.  We had a lot of fun with it last year and liked the idea of not having to travel for all of our holidays.  We had our friends Aly & Taylor Larsen, Stefani & Colin Cragun, and Sarah & Jared Haslam over for dinner.  I made the turkey, yams (with lots of gooey marshmallows of course!),  and a fruit salad and everyone else brought yummy food to complete the meal!  I have to say, Sarah makes some awesome mashed potatoes!  I made the dumb mistake of not buying a Turkey with one of those "done" poppers in it, so I had to use an actual meat thermometer.  I felt both annoyed and very culinary at the same time :) 

That night Jon sent me out to the crowds to try and snag him a 70 inch tv on Black Friday sales.  I was happy to do it for him until I got to the store and realized they were making us wait in line outside and it was FREEZING cold! I didn't even have a coat because last year they let us all inside and I was super hot and didn't have anywhere to put my coat!  I was outside about 45 minutes and when I finally got inside they told me the tv's were all gone.  It was only 6:30 and they weren't going on sale until 8 but APPARENTLY they handed out wrist bands for them at 6- and you couldn't buy a tv without one.  Pretty dumb.  What's the point of not letting you actually buying something til 8 but giving out the "coupons" to buy them at 6?  Again I say, pretty dumb.  I found a couple toys and movies for the kids and then headed to 3 other stores to be my ridiculous self.  I waited in line at Von Maur for an hour to spend a free $10 coupon they'd sent me on a $10 toy for Katie.  When I checked out with just one small toy and spent only a few cents in tax, a lady behind me commented, "You seriously waited in line just for that?"  It wasn't rude, she was just amazed.  What can I say?  I love a good deal!  I then proceeded to do the same thing at two other stores.  In the end, was it worth it?  At the end of the night, and even the next day I'd probably say,  "No chance."  However, once I get beyond the crappiness of waiting in lines for about 3 hours for just a couple small toys I'd say "Yeah".  I mean, I only spent like $7 dollars that night combined at all three stores and got like $50 dollars worth of stuff!  Gotta love a good deal!

Playing over Thanksgiving break!