December 2012

We decorated the Christmas tree for family home evening early in December.  The kids loved it - you can see their clumps in the pictures below.  I got scolded for re-arranging their decorating, so I mostly left it alone, but after a few days the kids, of their own accord, had moved all the ornaments around and spread them out more.   

Elijah with a couple of the quilts I made for the craft fair in the background.

 

We finally moved Elijah out of our closet into Cora's room.  They've both done pretty well with the move, although we did have a few hard nights getting used to it.  Cora started sleeping in her tent, on the big guest bed in her room, with four pillows surrounding her.  Such a princess.  We tried to see if Elijah would sleep in his toddler bed, but although he liked the idea of it, he cried and got out as soon as we closed the door, so he's been in his crib still. 

Our Christmas present to each other - a new recliner.  The kids in the recliner the night we brought it home.

Mom was nice enough to watch our kids that night while we went to Costco to get it so that we could fit it in the back of the Rondo, and then she helped us carry it in.

Cora's long hair - a last look before we chopped it off.

 

Getting it cut...

 It's very mean of me to publish this post without an after picture, but I just haven't been able to get a good one yet.  She looks very cute with a chin-length bob, and we were able to cut enough off to donate to Locks of Love, like Grandma.  She was very pleased with her haircut, saying - "it looks just like I wanted it to look like!" although she also said "I don't look like me, I'm not Cora anymore.  I'm somebody else."  So for a few days she made us call her Cora Fey because she wasn't Cora anymore, but then I guess she got used to it and forgot.  We are both very happy with how much easier it is to take care of now.  It takes much less time to shampoo and only a couple strokes of a brush in the morning and she's done!

 Of course, the event that affected us the most this past month was Mom's stroke on the 14th of December.  We love her so much and are so grateful to the Lord for sparing her life.  She has been in the hospital ever since and is still recovering, slowly.  We have seen many miracles since that day and also received so much service and love.  We post more information about Mom's current progress on Facebook, so if anyone wants to know more, you can ask either Ryan or I for an invite to the group Madelyn Nielson so you can get the latest posts. 

Thanksgiving in Virginia

 We were so blessed to be able to go home for Thanksgiving and see all of our family!  Christopher, Nicole and Kate and their families and Grandma Wei and Manny and his family were all able to come and we had a lot of fun re-uniting.  

Elijah in the Captain's chair on one of our flights.

 We had a long stop-over in Minneapolis on the way to Virginia so we took a quick trip on the tram to the Mall of America.

  

We got to go to Kate's Crepes on Saturday the day after we arrived and stuffed ourselves silly with all of the different varieties she offered.  It was delicious and so fun to see her there.  The kids loved the autumn leaves and the crepes.  We could hardly get Cora to take her face out of her Nutella crepe, and Elijah loved the simple cinnamon and sugar. 

After church on Sunday we drove out to Jenny (Michaux) Sasser's house for a fun little reunion with Jenny, Brittany, Kate and I.  Jenny was so nice to invite us all out and make dinner for everyone, and it was so fun to get together again and see how many more of us there are now!  We have 11 kids now between the four of us!  I love all of those wonderful moms!  I didn't get a good picture of the whole group on my camera, but here are our kids outside with the twins and Brittany's cute little Juliette. 

And here is 9 of our 11 kids (missing Jenny's Tyler and Brittany's Vienna)

 Cora always gets some great hairdos when she has aunties around to do her hair!

 We all went to the National Zoo together on Tuesday before Thanksgiving.  It was gorgeous weather and there were no crowds!

Elijah has always loved lions - and they were growling the whole time, which was cool.

 The whole gang in the backyard on Thanksgiving.

Becky Davis, a very talented photographer in my parents' ward, took some great family photos for us the day after Thanksgiving.  Unfortunately, our kids had gotten a bug by then, so they were not very happy, but we got some good group shots anyway.  The background and weather was beautiful.  We took them just behind the little woods in front of my parents' house. 

 

It was a really great trip and we love our family so much!  Truly, we have so much to be thankful for.

October and November 2012

 The kids love to swing together at the playground like this.

 On Cora's birthday we went to the beach down by Chinaman's Hat at Kualoa.

 

 

 Our big 4 year old with some of her presents on her birthday.

 Trying on the princess things the from Heidi and family.  Can you tell she liked them?

 Cora's pink and sprinkle-y cake.

 

 

 Cute Troy having a tea party with his cousin - the tea set was another gift from Heidi and family that Cora loved.

 

 In between Cora's birthday and Halloween in October I got my tonsils removed, and spent a couple of weeks recovering.  It was not a fun experience but we were grateful to all the help we got from family and friends, including lovely meals from people in our ward.

So instead of sewing up some fun costumes for Halloween I decided to go the easy route and make us all Legos with cardboard boxes, plastic cups, hot glue and spray paint.  Here we all are at the ward Trunk or Treat.

 But unfortunately, Cora got sick the day before Halloween so she stayed home with me and passed out candy while Daddy and Elijah went out trick-or-treating.   See her lovely sick bucket?  She hadn't needed it for about a day already but she was so traumatized by the night when she first got sick when she needed it a lot that she wouldn't let go of it for a couple of days afterward.

Just hanging out with the cousins.

 

 Ryan and John made a yummy brown sugar chocolate cake for Mom's birthday.

 The birthday girl.

 

 Elijah modeling one of the new long-sleeved shirts I made for him in preparation for our trip to Virginia for Thanksgiving.  I sewed him about 6-7 new shirts and a couple for Cora so they would have some cold weather gear.  This was the shirt I was the most proud of - although you can't see it that well in this picture.