Name that disease: We are well on our way to acquiring most of the childhood illnesses this month. This is her 3rd fever in 4 weeks. Roseola. Hand foot mouth. Diarrhea/vomiting illness. We do good work. We try to very efficiently cover all of our illnesses, not missing any. To support this, my mom owns her own bottle of infant tylenol since this is now the 3rd time Lilah has gotten sick at her house. To make matters more difficult, daycare insisted that Lilah stay home for an entire week following her hand-foot-mouth illness. Can I order up one grandma, please?! A week? Out of work?! What? But we figured it out and luckily I was doing night shifts in the ER for most of the week. Our little booger is trying to get us fired :) She'd love that... more play time.... and so would I!
Christmas: Let me just say the grandmas got a little ridiculous on this one. We have one spoiled little lady... but who cares, it's fun! And there's plenty more room for more pink things in this house. I don't know how many more talking/singing toys we can have, but we have a few more now. In addition, we turn off our lights at night to go to bed and immediately hear animal noises. We just now (3 weeks later) figured out one of the puzzles is light responsive. Geniuses. We also have a Lilah-sized baby stoller that is a riot- complete with baby, pacifier and stick shift. Another favorite is a new singing soccer ball, hello Kitty ornament, a wagon scooter, and a fuzzy chair with her name on it. Lilah is also one of fashion's rising stars after some very cute additions to her wardrobe from both Grandmas and Jen. We had too much fun seeing relatives, playing with toys, eating home cooked food and enjoying time in the Good Life, Nebraska. And I don't think she could have any more adoring uncles. Between her 4 uncles, this kid is set for life with funny face, plenty-o-hugs and 4 great role models. Well, mostly great role models :) (They're our brothers after all... who else taught us to be naughty?!)
 |
| Thanks Ty, we know you're cute! |
 |
| New Xmas present from Gramma |
 |
| UncMan Chris... daddy to be! |
 |
| Taking the baby for a walk |
Baby New Year's: We know some cute kids. Their parents are pretty cool too. H-man (Harrison) is a pretty handsome guy. I asked his mom, Veronica, if it would be ok to arrange a marriage between Harrison and Lilah now, she's holding out on answering me for now. I think she's waiting to see if Lilah tolerates beautiful golden curly hair and witty jokes before agreeing. Harrison had us in stitches all night making fish sounds and staying up into the wee hours past the other kids. A New Year's with babies takes on a whole new identity, but we had a great time laughing, swapping parenting stories and re-hashing the days where we stayed up until midnight on New Year's.
 |
| They had absolutely no fun together |
 |
| Take 1 of all the babies |
 |
| Take 2- Sidney rocking it out in the middle, surrounded by amateurs |
|
| (Harrison-11 months, Kennedy 2 months, Sidney 2 years, Cole-11 months, Lilah- 9 months) |
 |
| Saw our bud, Gavin, before New Year's Party |
UncMan Gets Married: Uncle Andy (Ben's brother) married a lovely lady named, Joelle, on Jan 4th. We are big fans of Aunt Joelle. Who gets Christmas and a new aunt all in one week?! They were married on a chilly weekend in Fairbury, Nebraska, but we had a great time! We got to see family and watching these lovebirds tie the knot! Many congrats! They are moving up to Sioux City, IA, starting new jobs and raising a new puppy. No biggie. Lilah sort of made it through the wedding. She started happily screeching from the 2nd row, so a grandparent rescue mission ensued. Unfortunately, the "quiet room" my dad took her to was the room directly behind the altar, so we still heard her laughing, screeching and giggling. But she had a great time! She partied the reception away dancing with her grandparents, great grandparents and meeting more friends. We loved seeing her giggle, smile and charm her way through the day!
 |
| Beautiful :) |
 |
| Family Time |
 |
| Flirting with the Groom, Uncle Andy |
 |
| Gramma and Popper Otto |
 |
| Nana and Papa at the rehearsal |
 |
| Nana and Papa at the wedding |
 |
| Taylor-Nelson Family |
Scary Car Ride: Why we did it, I still don't know. Wish we would've stayed, but once you start, you just find yourself keep going. We attempted to drive overnight after the wedding through northern Kansas and Missouri during the "Polar Vortex" Blizzard. We timed it pretty poorly and hit the heaviest part of the storm and essentially drove with it through all of Missouri and Illinois. Poor visibility, single lanes, too much snow for a Hyundai Sonata to handle and a 14 hr drive on no sleep. Dumb thing for a family with a baby and a dog in the car to attempt. Only one 911 call later, we were in our driveway exhausted, but safe. We had to call for a driver who mistakenly was driving against traffic the wrong way on the highway in the snow and eventually crashed in a ditch. Yikes. Not a good night to need an emergency crew. Ben is tougher than I am in these situations, thank goodness he calmed me down. Home was even sweeter that day. Bless all those who drive on bad roads.
 |
| Polar vortexes are fed by bread, lots and lots of bread |
On a side note, we've had so much snow here, it feels like Nebraska! They cancel school so often, the kids are already paying back days... that's the worst! Snow in Indiana is like snow in Florida, it causes city-wide panic, massive traffic chaos and a eruption of immediate school closures and delays. The ER has been shockingly deserted over the last few weeks due to weather. Rooney on the other hand thinks it's the coolest thing that's happened to his backyard since getting a doggy door. Lilah's marshmallow puff coat has kept her uber warm, but smushes her in her car seat like a little sardine.
 |
| Our puffy marshmallow! |
 |
| Christmas Day with friends |
 |
| Christmas Eve dress, Not happy about the Santa delay |
|
