Must start off this evening with two cute pics. I made roasted beets for dinner. Ethan wouldn't touch them, but Gwennie loved 'em. Can you tell?




Stuff happened over the weekend, but I'm too tired to go over it all. Suffice to say that we were pretty busy :)

I made two loaves of bread today. Both came out perfectly and beautifully. When it comes out right, bread is my favorite thing to cook in the world.

Tonight Gwen crawled normally! I was taking Ethan into the bedroom after bath to get his jammies on and she came tearing down the hallway at full speed. She was even going arm over arm instead of putting both arms forward and pulling. She increased her speed dramatically. Just another way my little baby girl is growing up. Sniff.

Had hoped to go walking today, but it was incredibly rainy all day. Much too rainy to go for a walk... the kids and I would have been drenched.

One more for good measure

I just exausted myself by searching for books on Amazon then putting them on hold at the library. I probably looked at 100+ books and have about 20 on hold now. No theme, they're all over the place, but all historical/biographical fiction.

Why I did this when I have a basket full of library books still waiting to be read, I do not know. I do know that I'm fearful of forgetting what books I want to read so I get into these flurries and end up with stacks of books to read in like two weeks.

Already Chronicles of Narnia is like 10 days late.

Speaking of, Shelly is coming tomorrow to babysit so J and I can do lunch and see the movie.

Off to bed. Me tired.

Oh, p.s. Ethan has not taken an afternoon nap the last two days. Are the double nap days numbered? Sigh.

What do you get when you have a distracted Mommy trying to cook dinner and dessert at the same time, a box of powdered sugar on teh counter and a 2 year old wandering the kitchen? See below:


































Today we took Gwen for her 9 month checkup. Here are her stats:

Weight - 15lbs, 2 oz (5%)
Height - 27 7/8 in (50%)
Head - 44cm (50%)

As you can see she moved up in the weight! We're back on the charts :)

So I've found a new shopping obsession. These shoes:



















And these for Ethan














They're crib shoes, made from soft leather. They're good because they don't restrict the foot, yet provide protection. And they come in like the cutest designs, EVER! I bought them online here.

Last night Dad came by and installed the dishwasher and took a look at our water heater. Although it appeared that we couldn't get the new element to work, we now have more hot water... So we're going with it.

The dishwasher worked great through two cycles, but this evening it flooded... looks like water was coming out the door. Perhaps I loaded it wrong though, so we'll try again.

Ethan was in heaven when Dad was working on the dishwasher. He wanted to see and touch everything. He even sat down in front of the wires and said, "hmmm" and looked very thoughtful. I tell ya, that kid is going to be be a serious repairman at like 5.

Here are some pics of him hovering around Dad.

Hmm...


Whats in there?


Giving Grandpa tips...


Tool boy...


Awww Mom, why'd you put me over here? I wanna help!

*yawn*

I'm tired. Got up about 3 times last night, then was up bright and early this morning. The co-rooming of children has been working fairly well. Certainly much better than Jason or I thought. Its nice to have our own room back.

I was able to keep up with laundry today (I even put it away, proud of me Mom?) and cleaned up the kitchen. Also went through all the kids clothes and weeded out a laundry basket full of stuff that was too small. Then I went through the next box up for Gwennies clothes and put a laundry basket full of clothes back for just her! Her closet and drawers are packed, but everything is SOOOOO cute I couldn't pass it up! She'll be dressed to the 9's every day just to get everything worn.

Angela, I'm almost done with Jamie's poncho. Its going to be adorable. Hopefully I'll be able to mail it out next week.

I got an Amazon gift certificate for Christmas and recently spent it. I chose a new pepper mill (much bigger than my tiny one), a totally awesome butter keeper and a french rolling pin. They arrived yesterday, but much to my dismay the butter keeper lid was cracked :( However, Amazon has an awesome return policy so I printed off a shipping label (Amazon foots the bill) and late last night I got an email saying a replacement had been sent. Wow, can't beat that!

I haven't walked in over a week now :( Feel dreadful about it. I've also been ravenously hungry, like, all the time. Need to get back in the groove with walking. So close to reaching my goal.

Yet another pic.

Today we tried coloring again. I keep trying in hopes that Ethan will not eat the crayons, but draw with them. He drew today and they didn't come anywhere near his mouth (though I can't say the same for Tilli. She crunched down a few).

Now not to be one of "those" Moms, but I think its interesting how he grouped (for the most part) the blues and reds. The blues/greens above and the red/pinks/oranges/browns below.

Woo, kids slept through the night!

More pics from yesterday













The guys watching football...

Wow. I'm still in shock. Seahawks in the SuperBowl? I really did not think I'd EVER see that day.

We had lots of people over here and lots of food. I'm pooped and far too tired to type.

But, here's a pic of me and the kids from tonight


Uh, can you tell Gwennie woke up cranky and all the guys yelling at the tv wasn't helping?

This has truly been a banner day for us.

Two naps and a bedtime have passed, all with successful room sharing. Unbelievable. We did not think it would go this smoothly. Both naps had some initial fussiness. As I posted earlier, 20 min the first time, less than 10 the second nap, and just now, less than 5 min. WOW.

After first naps, we went and ran errands. We grabbed lunch at McD's, then off to Fred Meyer where we picked up groceries and snacks for tomorrow. Because Jason was with us, I was able to have Ethan walk with me and pick out groceries. He sure did love picking out stuff and putting in the cart. He went fairly nuts in the ice cream aisle :D After that, we went to Lowes to get some pellets and a new heating element for our water heater. We will try replacing it first before we get a new one, though those enormous 80 gallon water tanks looked soooo nice.

We got home, put the kids down, then I ran back out to the library and Top Foods. I had bought a Cooks Illustrated at FM and was inspired to make some Hot and Sour Soup.

The soup was really good. It had paper thin slices of pork, shitake mushrooms, bamboo shoots, pressed tofu and little bits of egg. Seasoned with soy sauce, hot chili oil (and man, I cut the amount in half and it was HOT), and sesame oil. Completely fat free, healthy and as an added bonus, Atkins friendly so I can give some to Mom tomorrow :)

Tomorrow a big crowd is coming over to watch the Seahawks hopefully win and go to the Superbowl. Have to say, even I am feeling a bit of excitement and Seahawks are not my thing.

Well, I should end this. I'm going to whip up a double batch of molasses cookie dough tonight so I can make them in a flash tomorrow in between cleaning and such.

Just a quick post to tell you the good news.

The kids went down for nap today in the same room and it only took 20 min for them to quiet down. Yahoo!

You will remember that we tried this a few months ago, but J and I were too sleep deprived and stressed to follow through with it. This time we are not. It will work :) It shall be quite lovely to sleep on a mattress again and have access to our bedroom and clothing while the kids sleep.

Thank you Mom!

My Mom is the best. She came over here, and despite me reassuring her that she did not have to do anything, upon my arrival home she had cleaned my kitchen and picked up toys. She then asked me a few questions about the laundry mountain on our bed, then put it ALL away and cleared the floor in the nursery. WOW! We can actually walk on our carpet now and not trip. Its so nice.

Today I ran out to BabiesRUs and got a mattress. They still did not have any foam ones, but I found a lightweight spring one for $50. While there I picked up some adorable girl clothes that were on clearance. Couldn't resist! One is a purple ruffle velour skirt (a little too big right now) and the other is a denim ruffle skirt (fits perfectly). Also got a bright blue and orange-pink t-shirt with ruffly sleeves. Girl clothes are just to DIE for. Got Ethan a 3T denim overalls to replace the ones he's outgrown, but to my surprise the torso section fits just right, no growing room. The legs are longish though. He's all torso and not so much leg.

Yesterday for dinner I made a really delicious cream of tomato soup. It was sooooo much better than the canned stuff we usually have. Tonight, I made creamy shells with peas and prosciutto. VERY good, and very kid friendly. Even Gwennie was able to eat it, and eat it she did!

Our water heater is continuing to act up. When I ran bath for the kids tonight we weren't able to get a full bath without it turning cold. We need to get a new one ASAP.

Gwen is going through a big growth spurt verbally. She growls, whispers, babbles and laughs like crazy. She loves playing peek-a-boo with Ethan and gets such a kick out of his antics. She's starting to cruise and I could see her walking here in the near future. Ethan is also making leaps and bounds with his vocabulary. He'll just pop out with these words. When he's in the bath he'll ask for his towel or toothbrush, he'll also just name things out of the blue. Its amazing how he just says it as if its no big deal and we're sitting there with our mouths open wondering when he learned that word!

Happy Birthday to our little niece Jamie! She's 1 year old today.... It doesn't seem like she could be a year already.

Seriously dragging right now. Head feels full of rocks. I'm drinking coffee now and will chase that with some meds. Hope it goes away.

I've stopped caring about the mess. I'm keeping the main areas fairly clean, doing loads of dishes, keeping up with laundry (though its creating quite a mountain on my bed), but I just don't care about sweeping or mopping or washing counters right now. Perhaps this is my "place", my everyday living level... Perhaps trying to keep things more clean and neat is just not possible right now. Mom is coming over tomorrow to babysit while I run errands and I'm absolutely embarrassed about how my house will look. I just hope that she doesn't feel like she needs to clean it... I often think that perhaps she feels that I don't bother cleaning because she comes over once a week and does it. That's totally not true (really Mom, its not!). I don't expect her to clean and I hope she doesn't feel like she has to.

Last night I made really good buffalo wings. They were sweet with a hint of heat behind. Ethan really liked them. We had them with the leftover homemade blue cheese dressing and celery sticks. Mmm. Good eats.

Went walking yesterday, although I really did not want to. Had to force my legs every step of the way. My motivation to lose weight is fading... Luckily, I'm not a fast gainer. Usually, without exercise I don't gain, I just stay where I am. So, if I fall off the wagon for a bit it probably won't do me too much harm.

This morning, I almost lost my cool. Gwen slept through the night, so I was VERY ready to nurse this morning. Since I had more than enough, I decided to pump as well. I got 4 oz which is like, AMAZING, for me. Usually it would take me all day to get that much. I put it up high and forgot about it. Well, along comes Ethan with the broom. He sees the pump and, although we've been over this many many times and how he is forbidden to touch it... *SMACK*... down comes the pump. Ethan then picks it up, turns it upside down and out pours all the liquid gold. Sigh. I was more than bummed. Couldn't really get mad at him. He certainly seemed very sorry when he saw me practically in tears about it.

Why is it when you seem to be doing good for a couple days... your mood is up, life feels full of zest, you get smacked in the head with something that just brings you all the way down? You look around and think that there isn't anything oh so bad as all that, but its there and it just tears your heart into little pieces and scatters them on the wind.

Didn't do much. We went to the store after first nap and the kids were surprisingly well behaved, except for Ethan screaming out randomly then looking around to see who was paying attention. When he saw someone looking at him he'd give his really sneaky smile. Those of you have seen it know what I mean. He kinda looks at you sideways with this downright mischievous grin. He got great kicks out of yelling "DADA" at the top of his lungs, then basking in the smiles of everyone around him.

For dinner, I'm making Fragrant Beef Curry (my fav beef curry dish), rice, and iceberg lettuce wedges slathered in homemade blue cheese dressing. I've never made blue cheese dressing, but wow, this stuff I made tastes SO good. I can't wait to have it on the lettuce. Looks like there will be plenty extra, so maybe I'll make some spicy chicken wings tomorrow to dip in it.

I really want a vacation. I want to just go away for a few days, sleep in, lounge around, be in a different place, like the ocean, alone. No kids, no husband (though I love them all dearly). Just me. Sometimes, I do really think that I'm on the verge of loosing it. On that fence between just really stressed out and overwhelmed, teetering towards the straight-jacket. Frankly, being confined to a little white room doesn't sound so terribly bad some days :)

Think I'm gonna ask about upping my Zoloft dosage.

I just has a brief taste of the future...

I'm wrestling (really, like physically wrestling) with Ethan to get his pants on. Just as he starts to hold still Gwennie starts laughing like crazy at our antics. Ethan starts wrestling again, and this time with quite exaggerated yells, kicks and facial expressions. Gwennie is like falling overherself with laughter.

I saw, for just a moment, how they will entertain each other with their naughtiness and both work against me and then laugh about it.

It was cute :)

Two questions I'm pondering right now:

1. Why did I eat 4 peices of pizza for dinner when I could have been fine with 2? Blech.

2. Why do I keep getting Steinbeck books from the library? I liked Grapes of Wrath and East of Eden but the three others I've gotten have been so dull that I abandon them after a few chapters.

Today we didn't do much. After the kids went to their first nap, J and I decided to do 30 min of focused cleaning and it was pretty amazing how much we got done. He tackled the kitchen while I cleaned up the living room, dusted and swept. Then I mopped the house and vacuumed when the kids got up. Looked a lot better. I also wanted to clean up the bedrooms (mostly putting laundry away) but it just didn't happen. Maybe tomorrow.

We mostly played with the kids and caught up with all the Tivo'd shows from the week we were away. I skated on dinner and made frozen pizza. I simply love playing with my new oven :)

Here is a random, pointless picture I took of Gwendolyn this evening.















I'm about 5 lbs short of dropping a size. Yay! I had a minor relapse while at my Moms as it was WAY too wet to walk on the driveway. I plan on restarting tomorrow and maybe I'll be into that new size by the end of the month. Sounds like an excellent excuse to buy some clothing :D

Time to get back into the blogging routine after being out for so long!

Let me start back at Thursday. We went to a super cool children's museum in Everett. I would highly recommend it. We're thinking of getting a family pass as its a place I could take the kids 1-2 a month, easy. Ethan had a great time... his favorite spot was the water room where he could splash around in all the water he wanted. We went with Aunt Deanne, Ben, Aaron, Grammy, Grandpa, Mom & Jenni. Even Aaron and Jenni enjoyed themselves. Heck, I would have loved to run around and play with things too :)

Friday, we packed up very early and headed for home. I got the kids down for morning nap and cleaned like crazy. Got lots done and even made some cookies for Jason. Poor guy ran into all sorts of trouble after arriving in town. Car almost ran out of gas, bad traffic, etc so it was nearly 3 by the time he got here. The kids were thrilled to see him and he spent the next hours playing, reading and giving them lots of hugs. I made a really nummy Sausage, Kale & Lentil soup with garlicky bread. Mmmm

Today was very busy. Dad came over with all our replacement appliances. I don't know if I explained this before, but I will do so now. My Aunt Deanne's inlaws are replacing all their appliances and getting rid of many of their belongings. My Aunt Deanne took their almost new stuff and handed down her stuff to us to replace our very ancient appliances. Our appliances (except for range) will be heading to E. Washington to Josh and Amber. We ended up getting a washer, dryer, range oven and dishwasher. All were installed except for the dishwasher because the guys were too tired to do it after all the other stuff and the football game :)

My new range (this was direct from the generous inlaw people, not my Aunt Deanne's old one) is a glass top Jenn Air. It has an oven which can be normal or convection (w00t!) and I'm quite pleased. I used it tonight to make stew and as with anything there will be a learning curve, but I'm so happy that I'm rid of that junk pile of a stove.

Despite the influx of new things (which generally would fill me with much glee), I've been fighting this "downer" feeling all day. Not sure if its the hecticness (pretty sure that is not a word) of the previous week or what. It is the same old stuff... Just frustrated at how things get dirty so fast and how I just can't stay up with basic tasks. Truthfully, I know that if I dropped all my computer, knitting and little bit of game time that yes, I could get more done. But I don't want to drop that stuff. I need and like my hobbies. But I do hate seeing my dirty floors and laundry piled on the bed. Ugh.

Not being able to keep things as orderly as I like makes me feel like such a failure. I want to be that supermom who is fit and fashionable, keeps a neat house, cooks fantastic meals, is a good wife and spends lots of time with her kids, while fulfilling her own interests. Easy, right? If I can't be all that, then I need to find a way to be ok with it because its just frustrating me to no end.

Right now I'm sitting in an icy cold house, looking at the mess around me. I'm supposed to be here to clean, but I just can't motivate myself to do so. Its a great opportunity with the kids not here and such, but blah.

We had a rough night last night. Let me tell you, sharing a twin bed with a toddler and infant... Not fun. Especially when this darling little infant wants to steal binks from the toddler and turn and sit up and the toddler and Mommy are trying to sleep. I got maybe 3 hrs sleep. Ugh.

I left my Mom's early today to hit Target and some craft stores for a couple different things. Much to my irritation, I hit a major traffic pileup north of Lynnwood and it took me well over an hour just to get to where I needed to go. I still have not been able to find the ribbon I need for my knitting project. How hard is it to locate 1/2 inch black satin ribbon? Well, nearly impossible apparently. I went to three huge craft stores with no luck. A lady I spoke to at one of them told me that its a very popular size and color and they're always short. Hence, one might ask, why not order more so that you do not constantly run out. Obvious question, but no answer.

After that irritation, I headed to Target to get a crib mattress for Gwennies crib as I want to start room sharing once we return home. No luck. They had only one mattress, and it was like $200 and spring. I want a cheap mattress, no springs, and foam please. No luck. Hit two other stores with no results.

What the HECK is up with my inability to locate anything today?

Needless to say, I'm feeling cranky and depressed that I've spent my entire day running around town with nothing to show other than a CD (James Blunt) and a bionicle that Jenni asked me to buy for her. GRRRRRRR

I don't think I'm going to clean the house. Its so cold my fingers are stiff! I think I will head back to my Mom's to crash and then speed clean Friday morning before Jason gets home.

Oh, I must say that having high-speed internet is a DREAM. The dial up at my Mom's has been killing me. One cannot truly appreciate the beauty of instant and speedy access to the internet unless one has had to deal with dial-up with a 24k modem.

Will be stopping by the library to pick up books for me and Mom and also getting a chicken to roast. That sounds good. Roasting meat always puts me in a good mood.

I'm at my Mom's through Friday, so blogging will be intermittent.

Jason left yesterday for Orlando for some meetings. He's also going to see the space center and maybe hit some part of Disney. Mostly, he seemed excited about just being able to sleep through the night and wake late. I'll admit I'm jealous about that!

Last night was our first night at my Mom's and it went ok. Not great, but better than I might have expected. Ethan ended up sleeping with me in a twin bed (actually, it was not that uncomfortable) and Gwen in the crib.

Well, thats all for now. Hopefully I'll be able to blog later this week :)

A great deal got done today. Last night I took my Zoloft in the evening instead of morning and I don't know if that accounted for my spurt of energy or not. In any case, it was good that I got the energy!

During the kids first nap, I sorted laundry, washed up the kitchen, swept all the floors, mopped all the floors, cleaned off the table and washed it, washed the highchair and Gwennies jumper. It took 3 hours of pretty constant moving to get it all done. After the kids got up, I vacuumed. Of course, things are already cluttered again, but at least its clean underneath :)

I made homemade pizza for dinner. It was really good. One was homemade sauce, pepperoni, mozzarella, parm and olives and the other was the same but with green peppers and ground black pepper over the top. Tasty good (to quote Uma from Ethan's favorite show). Ethan totally digs pizza.

Gwen has her first tooth. I kept forgetting to mention it, but it finally broke through last Friday. She's bit me a few times while nursing, but I think we have it under control now. It doesn't take them long to learn not to bite when I yelp, jump and pull her off!

Poor Jason got caught in a horrible traffic pileup and it took him almost 2 hours to get home :( I remember those types of days and they just take it out of you. Sometimes I miss working, but I never ever miss the commute!

The book I'm working on right now is the Neverending Story. I remember watching this film as a child... It scared me. The book has been hard to get into as I'm not usually into fantasy AT ALL. However, I'm sticking with it and its starting to pull me in a bit more. Jason has been driven crazy by my book obsession lately as I'm reading about 4 books at once and I leave them scattered about, pages marked or sitting upside down on something. The only way I can read is to take the books everywhere... OR... have the books laying around so I can read them at various stops :)

Here's a picture of poor Ethan's burn that he's had since Monday. It doesn't seem to be hurting him at all and looks like its healing, but its so big and ugly that I cringe every time I look at it :(


We didn't go walking today. Its been pouring like crazy all day and the kids would have gotten too wet. Figure that my housework must have counted for something, right? Gonna try to walk every day when I'm at my Mom's, which should be a real challenge as her driveway is just KILLER. So many hills!

I've rambled enough... Nighty night!

I'm very sad today.

Partly because the kids did not sleep well and we were all up at 5:30 and then they didn't nap in the morning.

But a much larger part is because I heard some terrible news about a friend on the breastfeeding board I visit. This woman is amazing. We had started talking when she found out she was pregnant again and was still breastfeeding. She knew I had breastfed Ethan while pregnant with Gwen and she wanted to know how that went.

See, this woman and her husband have been through so much. Their little boy was born with SMA and lived only 5 short months before passing away. You can read their story here. Its truly heartbreaking. After Marshall died they had another child, Murphy, who was SMA free (as both the mother and father carry the gene, they had a 1 in 4 chance of passing it to their children). She waited so anxiously for the results of the testing to come back about the child she was carrying. Was it also SMA free? She couldn't bear to see another child go through what Marshall endured.

5 weeks ago she found out that indeed, this little child was SMA free. She could feel happy about the pregnancy... feel relief that she would not have to see another one of her children suffer.

Unfortunately, a few days ago she suffered a placental abruption. She delivered a little boy through agonizing labor, but he was much to young too survive... only 18 weeks old. They were able to hold him before saying goodbye.

I just can't understand sometimes. In my head, I get that things like this have some meaning behind them, that God has a plan. But my heart cannot accept that a family who has suffered a painful and drawn out loss of one child must suffer again. That a woman who has been such an encouragement and light to others has to endure saying goodbye to another one of her children... children that she wanted so badly. Its just not fair. Its not right.

What really chokes me up is that on the 31st she sent me a message telling me how cute the kids were and how she enjoyed watching them grow up on the videos I posted. Today, before I had heard the news, I responded, asking all sorts of questions about her pregnancy. At some point she will read that message and it will cause her pain and it tears me up to think about it. That a day or two before she lost her own baby she was telling me how cute mine were. My brain just can't wrap itself around such heartbreak.

...

So. On to a lighter subject.

Ethan is healthy as can be today. He woke up feverless, grouchy and hungry. His normal morning self. However, as I noted above, we were all up super early and our day was all off.

We did take a walk around the block, and when Jason got home I went and did some grocery shopping (Angela, I got the yarn for Jamie's poncho and will start it tonight!).

My house is horrendously filthy. Clothes piled high in every basket, dirty floors, Christmas decorations still up, don't even talk about my kitchen. Every day I've been trying to get things done, but it just never gets there. Either the kids don't nap or something comes up, or Gwen doesn't want to be put down and nothing EVER gets done. Its frustrating. After 8 months of having two kids, why can't I get a consistent routine going? A large part of me is happy that I will be at my Mom's next week so that I can simply ignore the house. Perhaps I'll come back to the house next week and clean, while my Mom has the kids.

Sigh. I'm off to bed. My heart is so heavy tonight.

Mr. E is sick :( Very sick.

He was getting a bit of a runny nose and cough yesterday, but this afternoon the fever really kicked in. We had been out at my Mom's picking up the dogs and he just wasn't up to speed. On our drive home he started holding his head and moaning... Just so uncomfortable!

When we got home, I tried to take his temp, but the darn thing fell apart in my hands. He felt very hot though, so I gave him some motrin and laid him down for nap. He slept like a rock. When he woke, Jason had come home with a thermometer and we took it... it was 102.5. About 30 min later we took it again and it was 103.7... and this with motrin in his system! We called our Mom's and the pediatrician and everyone agreed. Give Tylenol and get some fluids in him.

Poor little guy didn't want to eat dinner, but he did manage to get down some canned fruit. During bath he actually smiled, which was good to see. However, he hasn't made a peep since then. Just laying with his Daddy watching tv. My little sick baby :(

Anyway, besides dealing with Ethans illness and getting the dogs, we didn't do much. I got the house cleaned up a bit which felt good.

Haven't blogged in a very long time!

We just got back today from Spokane. We left Friday morning and made fairly good time across the pass. Took us 6 hrs, including a 1 hour stop in Vantage for lunch.

Originally we were going to stay with Jason's friend, Jason. However, upon our arrival at his house, we found that our bed had been set up among very expensive stereo and TV equipment and that they'd done a couple bug bombs and had not cleaned up at all... there were dead bugs all over the floors. Obviously, this wasn't going to work with two little kids.

We ended up staying in a hotel, which worked out very well.

Saturday we had breakfast with Jason's friend and his girlfriend. It was some kind of disaster.
We ate late and Ethan was starving and cranky and the food was slow to come and I do think we probably frightened these people from ever having children :) We then headed to Angela's house (Jason's sister) for a get-together. We all exchanged gifts and the kids came home with some really great stuff. It was fun to see all the cousins together and interacting. Ethan really had a super time rough housing with his older cousins and would tackle Matthew (6) repeatedly, wrestling with him all over the floor.

After Angela's house, we went over to see Amber and Josh. Grammy & Grandpa, Aunt Daralyn & Uncle Greg and Tim & Lindy were there. Ethan and Kadin played well together, Gwennie was kinda cranky. We played games, ate some pizza and had a good visit until we had to leave when the poor children reached the very end of their rope. It had been an extremely long day!

Jason took us back to the hotel room, helped me get the kids settled and then left to be with his friends. He came back right around 12:45. I brought in the New Year sleeping like a rock :) Ok with me though, I don't like New Years anyway!

Sunday we decided to stay another day and headed out to Coeur D'Alene to visit with Jason's brother. Ethan was a little hellion (he was so over-tired and over-stimulated... he acted about 1000x worse than he normally does!) but we enjoyed our little bit of time with them.

After coming back to the hotel, we all crashed big time. Jason and Ethan fell asleep on the bed, Gwennie in her pack & play, me on the couch playing Animal Crossing on Jason's new Nintendo DS. A few hours later, and feeling much more rested we ordered dinner in from Outback and had big steaks. We hadn't really eaten a decent meal since we arrived and felt much better after having a big meal.

Today we headed back early and again made decent time. We stopped for an hour in Ritzville to eat, change diapers and stretch our legs. After that stop we didn't make another (except to briefly switch drivers) until we got home. The kids slept from just outside Ritzville all the way to Issaquah. Once they awoke they had no patience and fussed until they got out. I don't blame them. We spent so much time in the car!

Our evening has been pretty calm. We had Parmesan pork chops and garlicky spinach.

We were playing in the living room and Ethan stepped on a toy, slipped a bit (didn't fall though) and gave a great cry and ran into my arms. He cried a little bit but we couldn't figure out whether he was just scared or hurt. He stopped crying a minute later and we didn't think anything of it until we were about to put him to bed. Then we saw an ugly, large red spot on the underside of his upper-arm. He burned himself on the stove! :( Poor baby! He barely cried about it, and it looks soooo bad. I put some antibiotic cream on it, covered with a sterile bandage and then wrapped it loosely in one of those stretchy bandages. It really doesn't seem to be causing him much pain at all, but it looks so bad :(

Well, I think this blog has gone long enough. We are pooped and I'm ready to crash into bed. Happy New Year everyone!