first smiles/the rest of october

october was an eventful month around our house.

i had my 2 week postpartum checkup as well as my 6 week.

c had his 2 week checkup where everything looked great.

i went in for weekly INR checks - boy were my numbers all over the place.  i don't think we once got them normal.  i had to keep switching my dose every week.  the gal at the front desk and i are on a first name basis.  the pharmacy may or may not recognize my car when i pull up to it.  thank goodness for drive through pharmacies when you have three kids.  whoever thought of that needs an award.

 the mister has been having some right side abdominal pain that won't go away.  it's not his appendix, which is what they all (this isn't our first go around with this) start to come too at first - "well, that sounds like your appendix.  it's too late in the day for us to do any tests here, so you should probably go to the emergency room.  you don't want that to rupture, because then you're going to have bigger problems."

after the last time we heard something similar (it could be your appendix - if it gets worse, you should go to the er), we opted to skip the er because we were fairly certain at this point that if it was his appendix it would get worse and we could face the hospital then.

so he went back to a different doctor after the weekend was over to see if they could figure anything else out.  so far, all they've come up with is that it is inflamed lymph nodes.   (like the last time)  thankfully, after another trip or two to the doctor because the pain won't go away, they've referred him to a specialist.  he had a colonoscopy done and we're just waiting to hear results at this point.  let me tell you though, the mister is hilarious coming off of those drugs.  i had a great laugh driving him back home.

little man loves to sleep on the mister's or my chest.  love that little guy.

it snowed and dumped about 8 inches of snow the other day.

this is what my backyard looked like:

the girls couldn't wait to get out there and play in it.

while they played out in the snow, this is what little man did for me.

first snow

January 2011

we finally had our first (real) snow.

there was a little break in the weather, so we went out to play before it turned to slush.

is it bothering anyone else that m's coat is that dirty?

it's getting a bath today.

spring

love these beauties.

too bad they won't last too much longer.

yesterday

yesterday, we took advantage of the gorgeous afternoon and played outside.

the girls had a blast.

b wanted nothing to do with the camera.

m wanted nothing to do with the dogs.

we can't wait until it warms up some more so we can spend more time outside.

beautiful day

it is a bea.u.tiful day out there today.

so beautiful i have my windows open.

in fact, i had to fight the urge to turn on the ac.

if the mr. would have been at home today, he probably would have.

tonight, we're headed to the temple.

is there any better end to such a beautiful day?

fun in the snow!

a few days before christmas, we still had snow...so what better way to utilize the pile of snow that was cleaned out of the driveway?

make it into a slide!

it was so cold outside, but b was having too much fun!

first snow

when we got back from thanksgiving at my parents house, we had snow.

so the next day after church, the mr. and b went out to play in it.

she loved to eat the snow.

but don't worry, he didn't let her eat any yellow snow.

since this snow, we've had a couple of good snow storms.

which i apparently don't have any pictures of.

oh well.  there was too much snow for b to play in anyway.

she wouldn't have been able to walk!

snow!!

on new years eve, it snowed.

 and snowed

and snowed some more.

the mr. took  bout with him one of the times he shoveled snow.

she loved it!

and of course, m slept through it :)

houston

after 3 days

2 hotels

5 states

and several bathroom stops later, we made it to houston.

we've been here for a couple weeks, but i didn't have internet for a while.

okay, i've been lazy too.

it's been hot here (apparently we haven't seen anything yet), and when it rains...it POURS.
i've never seen rain like this before.
i went to walmart one day while it was raining and by the time i was in the store, i was soaking wet.
i figured by the time i was done in walmar it would have calmed down (like when it rains in reno...for a few minutes and then stops), but no....still a huge downpour.

yes, those are cars sticking out the top of the water there. (thanks myfoxhouston.com for the photo)
they actually said on the news that they probably wouldn't have another freak rainstorm like that for a few decades.
the flooding that happened here was apparently worse than when hurricane ike hit the coast here.
so hopefully we won't have any more crazy storms like that while we're here.

this is the floorplan of our apartment.
our apartment is HUGE.
it's a good thing that apx is footing the bill for most of the apartment, because we'd never be able to afford it ourselves.
and the apartments are new.
they are still finishing up a couple of the buildings.

and just to make those of you who don't have a pool jealous.....

yeah...i get to swim in that.
i'm thinking of all of you as i do. :)

christmas with the k's

this year, it was the k's turn to have us for christmas.
the mr. had to work christmas eve, so we were going to leave after he got off work at 5.
it was snowing and the roads were getting bad, so we ended up leaving around 1:00 instead.
it snowed pretty much the whole way there and at some points, we could barely see the road.
we made it okay though and had lots of fun while we were there!

every year growing up, we would get pajamas from grandma m and open them christmas eve after we would read the christmas story so that we would be wearing them christmas morning.
my mom has continued that tradition and these were the cute pajamas b got for her first christmas.
thanks grandma m!

b also got christmas pajamas from grandma k.
the pajamas make b look like a christmas gift.
you can't see it very well in this picture, but the red stripes are like the ribbon on a gift.
m's finger is covering where a bow is on the pajamas.
b was the best christmas gift we got this year!
thanks grandma k for the super cute jammies!

the mr. took this picture of b and i sleeping together.
i love this picture because this is the only time i get to snuggle with her!

b with great-grandma k.
she was soo exhausted in this picture.

us with great-grandpa and great-grandma k

 us the sunday we left to come back home.
i think this is the first family picture we have of all of us together.
sad, huh :(

 oh how i miss rocky.
he's been living with the mr.'s parents the last 7 months.

thanks for letting us spend christmas with you guys!
we had fun!

are they ever going to stop?

i don't know how many of you know about these, but we've been having minor earthquakes in the area since the end of february.

they are slowly increasing in magnitude.

two days ago, we had one with a magnitude of 4.2

yesterday, we had one at a 4.7

the mr. and i were laying in bed talking, and we suddenly felt/heard the eartquake and things falling off of our shelves.

the poor dog was hit by a couple things from off of the entertainment center.

of course, if it weren't for him, those things probably would have been broken.

thanks rocky for saving my things.

we didn't have any damage where we live, but there's quite a few reports of some cracks in ceilings and walls closer to the epicenter.

just for fun, i put on an image from usgs.gov of the earthquakes in the area from last week.

i just hope there isn't a big earthquake when i'm in the hospital!

idaho winters as i remember them

the mr. and i had to leave sunday morning after the reception to head back to reno.
this is what we woke up to:

they didn't get all this snow at once.
the day before the road had been plowed.
they got enough snow that it was deep enough that dad had to go first with the tractor to get the snow out of the way so we could get to the paved road.
i knew i wasn't crazy when i remembered being able to make snow caves when i was younger!