All I Want for Christmas is . . .

Kailyn:

"I want roller skates and a red toothbrush."

Jordan:

"I want roller skates" and everything else at Wal-mart/Meijer/Target/etc. If you ask what she wants, she just asks for roller skates. If we go anywhere, she spends the whole trip asking, "Mom, can we buy this for my birthday or for Christmas?" She would own half the store, if she could.

Caden:

"Caden, what do you want for Christmas?" "Two!" "Two what?" "Two!!"

And a picture of our family in PJs at our ward Christmas party:

Kailyn's Pictures

Here is a picture that Kailyn drew back in the summer. We were sitting in church and she asked me to write, "Daddy, someday will you go to church with us?" on her picture. If you can't tell from this picture the first year of residency was rough. Ken rarely got to go to church with us.

Kailyn brought this home from school this week. The bottom says, "I take care of my mom when she is sick." She really does try to help. The first night the kids were home, Ken had to work. I still wasn't feeling very well. When it was time for bed, I told the kids to head upstairs and get their PJs on, and I would be up in a minute. Kailyn turned to me, "Don't worry, Mommy, we'll get Caden's pajamas on for you." When I finally made it upstairs, Kailyn came out of the room and told me they had started to put Caden's pajamas on and even started to change his diaper, but Kailyn said she quit once she realized it was poopy. "But don't worry," says Kailyn. "Jordan's changing him." I walked into the room to see Caden calmly laying on the floor with Jordan trying to change his diaper...with a huge pile of used wipes laying in the diaper next to her. I really do have sweet kids.

Manor House

Toledo has a lot of great metroparks. One of the parks, Wildwood, has an old Manor House. Every year for Christmas they have groups that come in and decorate the rooms in different holiday themes. The kids had so much fun looking at all of the different decorations. I think Caden's favorite room was the one with the trains. There was one Thomas Train that looked just like a train at home. He was thrilled to see it and kept calling it "my train." The girls were sad when it was all done, they wanted to go and see the rooms again.

Game Night

This is how it began.

Then Caden got a little hyper and this is how it ended

Thanksgiving

I know, it is the middle of December and I am posting about Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving kind of snuck up on us, and we soon realized we needed plans. We started thinking about people we could possibly invite over when the Webers so kindly invited us up to Michigan to join their Thanksgiving celebration. I'm glad we did. There were tons of people and tons of food. The food was so delicious! Mmmmmm, so good! It was so great to see the Webers again and their new little baby.

Rachel, Kailyn, and Jordan at the kids table.

Our kids are not known for their quickness when it comes to eating. They are almost always the last ones eatings.

More Polar Bear Pictures

So you saw the video of the kids watching the polar bears. Here are the rest of the pictures from our outing. After the polar bears, we went and saw the Christmas lights around the zoo. The kids' favorite lights were the ones that were coordinated to blink to music, thus giving the affect that they were dancing. The kids danced forever to the music. Kailyn danced so hard that she ended up taking off her hat, coat, and gloves (I'm sure people were wondering whose parents would let a child out in the cold without a coat on).

Careful what you wish for

Shelly mentioned to me last week how nice it would be to have a break and get away from the kids for a few days. She should have been more specific, I guess. Over the next couple days, she developed severe right side/back pain, fevers, and pain when using the bathroom. She went to her doctor's office and tried to treat it with antibiotics, muscle relaxants, and Tylenol, but the pain continued to worsen to the point that she could barely move. Finally, she said it was time to go to the ER. Of course, her OB physician had been begging her to go to the hospital from the beginning, so when she presented to the ER, her OB said she would definitely be admitted. Shelly's bloodwork suggested an infection, but all her other tests were normal. She ended up staying overnight in the hospital, receiving IV antibiotics and pain medicine. We're not really sure which of her treatments was the cure (the IV antibiotics, the overnight pain medicine, or the break from the kids), but by the next day she was moving around much more freely and begging to get back home. She hasn't needed any more pain medicine (an occasional Tylenol here or there) and she's taking antibiotics still, but she's feeling well enough to continue life as normal--she'll be going to the school to volunteer this morning.

Special thanks goes out to Uncle Dave and Aunt Sandy, who graciously took the kids for a couple days--not the greatest timing for them as they get ready for a wedding. Special thanks also to ward members who supplied food and rides home.