New Years Day started with cozy Bradley cuddles and then he fell back to sleep beside with the help of a kitty across him.
Then we gained another kitty
He was very happy when he woke up
We left on a Boise trip on the 2nd to celebrate Nathan's little sister graduating from her master's degree program. And Nathan earned a gold star to start the trip by managing to grab a ton of baked goods and a latte for me from the Delta Sky Club in the very short time we had to spare before boarding our early morning flight. Hero!
Continuing our fancy food streak - the kids all got to have smoothies when we got to our layover in Salt Lake City.
Nathan got an action shot of me and the girls walking through the airport.
Meanwhile, Callie was being well tended to by my parents. The kitties got regular visits too, we haven't ever tried having them live at my parents' house while we're gone.
Callie couldn't believe that they didn't want her to sleep on this cozy spot on their bed.
We landed and went to Panera with Aunt Anna, which was lovely. Bradley's favorite food in the world in Panera Mac n cheese so he was a very happy boy.
Patrick should have perhaps not gone on the trip at all. He was running a fever of 101.5 the morning we left. For the record, I strongly voted for him not going on the trip but Nathan really really wanted everything to be okay and for him to go (and for me to go as well, since I would have stayed home with him). Patrick was an absolute wreck after the flight, but he perked up considerably after another day and was better for the last couple days of the trip. Still, very questionable decision to take him and I don't think we would have done it if we had known it was going to be this tough for him. We think it was the flu, at least he didn't share it with any of the family we visited.
The rest of our kids had a lovely time hanging out with cousins.
And Nathan got many long chats with Tim and Tina.
Juliet had a little sleep spot in our bedroom and she slept very hard each night. My empathy for Patrick went down considerably when he spent a night couching loudly about every 30 minutes. "Cough into the pillow!!!" was my warm and nurturing response.
Juliet adored Tim and Karla.
I brought Eleanor's favorite game. Juliet is scary and I love her.
Patrick was feeling well enough to play some games with me in the afternoon.
Meanwhile, everyone else went to Top Golf to hang out with other cousins.
Logan, Connor, and Caitlyn were very fun and cool cousins. My kids are used to being the older cousins so this was fun for them.
Playing Mario Kart!
Back to the little cousins!
And Grandma Kati and Anna cuddles!
Nathan got in some good time with his Dad and I'm pushing for him to get to visit more often, he was so happy on this trip.
We got the Yoto box out for some party time with Challis and Jonas.
Patrick finally felt good enough to go outside and we took him to the park for a bit of soccer with Uncle Tim.
Then Juliet rough housed with a very kind Uncle Tim when we got back to the house. It was so nice of him and Karla to let us stay with them for this trip. I was very nervous about it because I had no idea how they would feel about our loud bunch being with them for so many days but it was a really nice visit.
Craft time with Aunt Tina!
And then Zombie Dice! Tina got to learn to be a good little zombie and roll for brains! It's very darling to hear my little daughter chant "brains brains!" whenever we play this game.
Karla got a group shot of us before we left for Anna's party. I see that Bun Bun made it into the picture ...
Hurray for Aunt Anna!
We got to use a nice little clubhouse for the party.
Siblings!
I'm always pleased when my children are doing something a little naughty, like hiding behind pillows, and the sweet kids they are playing with are easily led astray.
Patrick did not get to go to this party but he was feeling well enough to watch The Princess Bride with Tim and Karla. We were really grateful that they watched him so I could go to the party.
Juliet and Eleanor were quite the duo on this trip.
Meanwhile, Callie got her cuddles in. I'm told she was especially helpful whenever my parents did their morning workouts and would give lots of kisses. They are so lucky!
Evening cuddles for me and Eleanor!
Juliet stepped up her bedtime ensemble by using the panda eye mask she got from Girl Scouts.
They actually did a puzzle!
And Patrick was finally well enough on our second to last day to be able to come out to a little kid play place with our little cousins.
He ran all over and was amazing playing with them. And then he was pretty exhausted the rest of the day.
The girls - Juliet would love to be on trips for always so she gets this much Eleanor time all of the time.
I took it upon myself to invite Nathan over to his brother Jake's house and played a board game with him and his girlfriend. Eleanor got to go along as our token child.
Meanwhile, Juliet got Karla cuddles. I told Karla and Tim that Juliet was actually quite selective with her cuddles so it was a great honor to be allowed to snuggle up with her. She even gave Karla a hug and a kiss when it was time for us to go catch our plane to go home - sometimes she doesn't even want to kiss me. It was so nice to have our crew be so happy and comfy in their house.
We had a nice big family dinner on our last night.
The crew! Bun Bun made it into another one of these pictures I see.
And our final morning was spent around the house playing games with cousins that came to visit.
Juliet wasn't sure about Challis at the beginning of the trip, she's not used to playing with younger kids, but they were good buddies by the end.
I'm pretty sure we're playing a New York Times puzzle here.
Patrick was feeling almost back to 100% by this point and learned how to solve his triangle Rubik's cube.
Time to go home!
Three mountains in the distance.
Our layover in Seattle.
It was a late trip home and was especially exciting because Kansas got a foot of snow while we were gone and our airport had been closed the day before. But we didn't even have much of a delay, I think we landed 20 minutes after our originally scheduled time.
That said, it was about 1AM and it was literally 1 degree outside as we caught our shuttle and went to go get in our car and go home.
But we made it! Good job to Nathan for springing for covered parking, it meant we didn't have to dig out our car. It took forever for Nathan to warm back up after standing out in 1 degree temperature without full snow gear for a while when he was waiting for the shuttle.
The pets were so happy we were back!
Bradley and I went on an adventure walk. There had been an ice storm before the big snow and we found some good chunks of ice to play with.
Juliet got to play in the snow with our neighbors! She was out there for hours.
And a couple of days later she had her first ballet class at Blue Valley Rec!
She's so cute to watch. I love it!
The kids only had one day of school the first week back from break. This was the animal situation on yet another snow day that week. Not enough laps to go around!
There was so much snow!
Nathan caught Patrick's flu and spent a few days being pretty reasonably sick.
And then in the middle of this Thomas came to visit! He got to see one of Patrick's basketball games.
And then I got sick and was basically bedridden for the next few days. The cats were so happy.
Thomas still hung around a bunch though. The kids were very pleased.
Callie was quite pleased as well. It's funny, I don't think anyone in my family really considers themself a dog person but they all like Callie. She's just so sweet.
We gave him a homework assignment when he left - Flat Gingy needed to go on an adventure so Juliet could write about it for school. Flat Gingy went off to Austin!
Juliet also lost a second tooth, this time at school. She brought it home and we had her help write a note to the tooth fairy so that she could share the tooth with Aunt Diana's fish.
I was sick for a whole week. The cats have never been happier. One day the housecleaners were here for our first go at an entire house clean and so I camped out in the basement for a bit because I was still pretty wrecked and it took them forever to clean the entire house - the basement was done first so I was out of the way. I don't think we're that dirty but apparently they're quite particular about dust.
Meg loves to sleep in this position by my face.
Sookie was traumatized by all the cleaning so she joined Meg in hanging out in the basement.
They even ornately made all of our beds. The kids were way too excited about the level of fanciness.
This is Eleanor's face when you ask her how she would feel if her parents went on a Hawaii vacation without her. Good news, we're planning on taking the entire family. May of 2026 is going to be a lot of fun!
Winter is wonderful for kitty snuggles.
Callie is pretty used to Meg coming around but whimpers with joy whenever she sees a rare Sookie sighting.
The kids finally went back to school and Patrick refused to dress appropriately for the weather. I'm not sure what this art project was but he was very proud of it.
More ballet for Juliet! She says she doesn't really like it but she's always very excited about going each week and has a huge smile on her face for the entire class. It also helps that her best friend Addy is in the class.
Patrick and Juliet made a giant fort and Callie decided it was cozy enough for her to use it as a bed.
Juliet is rather like Patrick when she gets ardent in her love and snuggles.
The girls decided to watch Wicked with me one evening while the boys watched football. It was much better than I expected it to be! And Eleanor is rather obsessed, she's watched it at least three times now.
Bradley has been volunteering in the church nursery with Nathan and it's really neat that he enjoys it so much. I also appreciate how it gets me off the hook. I could use a break from babies for a few years.
The kitties are happy that I have more time for cuddles and reading these days. Meg is barely ridiculous.
Although when it's cold they have gotten quite serious about trying to get under the covers.
Patrick had a pretty impressive basketball game the other weekend where he scored 21 points, which was over half the points for the entire team for the game!
Patrick also learned how to solve a 2x2 Rubik's cube thanks to Grandma. Grandma bought one and looked up how to do it and taught Patrick - she's pretty amazing.
Bradley came into our room the other night and asked about someone singing him some goodnight songs and I lovingly told him he was like a little baby and picked him up and tried to rock him while singing him a song. He laughed a lot and I almost died, either he's getting bigger or I'm getting weaker.
He also finally agreed to lose a tooth by having me tie a string to it and shutting a door! He insisted on no video but agreed to a picture. I was so happy!! And I think he actually enjoyed it, he's saying I can do it again sometime.
Here's Juliet saving Meg from Callie. Lucky Meg.
We briefly had a new couch except it didn't quite fit the space and all of Callie's fur showed up on it - so we returned it but they didn't take the giant boxes. So our garage is now filled with giant boxes and we're trying to fit them into the recycling little by little. And isn't this a dignified photo of Callie?
Callie and I have been getting to do a lot of no leash walks because no one else seems to want to go on walks in icy, frozen weather. We love it though!
A couple weekends ago Eleanor had a friend over and they were playing hide and go seek and Eleanor decided to hide inside of one of the furniture boxes we still had in the living room. And it was the funniest thing, Callie got really worried and kept looking straight at the box. She was obvious enough that when Juliet came down to look for Eleanor she found her right away. Thanks, Callie!
More basketball for cool kid Patrick. He loves it but I'm really glad he's taking a break for lacrosse after next month, it could become too much if he did it year round and I don't want to do anything to mess up his love for the game.
Sometimes I get so many loves! Lucky me!
Patrick helped out at a Girl Scout meeting and then showed me his drawing in the hallway afterwards. Such good shading!! I'm so impressed by the art programs at their schools.
Nathan finally fixed our front doorbell and got one with a camera that records if you push the button. The kids think it's pretty neat and I need some time to come around to the idea.
And we got a couple things to prep for the Super Bowl! We first mocked these KC Chiefs chains as being stupid and ridiculous but it turns out we love them. And the cup was overpriced but Patrick is using it every day so I think it was worth it.
And he's good at sharing and Juliet looks cute in the chain too.
It took forever for the thick layer of ice on the water where I take my walk to melt and when it finally did it was really neat - it was about 50 degrees out and you could see the ice misting upwards.
The family has been really into Mario Party lately and it's been cute to have a few family game nights.
Bradley continues to steal my cat.
And now the best part of the month - lice! I discovered lice in Juliet's hair as I was braiding it on the day before her birthday. She didn't get to go to school and instead of having a date day as previously planned, Nathan and I got to take her to a location in Olathe that specializes in eradicating lice.
She was a champ about the process and the woman and her daughter who run the place were so nice.
And then, joy of joys, they checked me and I too had lice! Juliet is a sharing girl!
The end of the process was a sort of hair diaper covering the oil that was killing anything that was left. It was so classy.
On the way out I realized that Eleanor probably had lice if I had it and I called the school and had them bring her to the office to check her. Sure enough, she had it too. We scheduled her appointment for the next day.
So we picked Eleanor up early from school (I'm very grateful Nathan got to go in to get her and I didn't have to while wearing my hair diaper) and then we took her home and treated her hair with some of the oil and I proceeded to wash all of the bedding and Nathan vacuumed everything and the kids played Mario Party.
We spent a total of $600 on getting the lice sorted out and I consider it some of the best money I've ever spent. It's a mystery where Juliet got the lice - we assume school but I hadn't heard anything from anyone. We're just lucky I braid her hair every day or it would have taken longer to notice and it wouldn't have been a mild case for the three of us girls, it would have been a lot worse. But still - vermin in hair. Trauma. At least Juliet was clear for all of her weekend birthday fun after this!
