November in Photos

This is how he gets cozy when he is watching a little movie.

He pulls up his special chair and arranges his favorite blanket (aka "deet-deet") on his lap every time.

Sarah's fall festival picture. She is wearing all of her "cowboy girl" gear from Grandpa:

Wrangler shirt and jeans and pink boots that light up.

When we bought our house last year everything was set up for wheelchair access. There was a really nice ramp in the garage that made it easy to move in. But, it took up too much space. When the weather got cold, David decided that he was tired of scraping ice off his car every morning. So, he took out the ramp (it was no small task) and built two steps in it's place. Now, we can fit both vehicles in the garage!

Our first (and only-so far) snowfall of the year.

They rolled giant snowballs to make a snowman, but I wouldn't go outside to stack them.

In fact, I took all of these pictures from inside. 

Yeah, I'm wimpy about the cold like that.

We set up the tree the Monday before Thanksgiving because

Grandpa and Grandma Wiseman were here.

We had so much fun when Grandpa, Grandma, and Laura came to visit!

We even got a semi-decent family photo out of it. =)

David has some amazing concentration skills. 

He's doing some editing while little Davey uses dad for a chair.

When Grandpa Chuck came for Thanksgiving he showed up with a full mustache and goatee. Kathryn thought he was scary and didn't believe he was the same Grandpa that she played with at the lake this summer. Then he shaved it off--they enjoyed watching that--and she declared him to be her real Grandpa after all. 

Thanksgiving dinner (Grandpa with a goatee). He made some awesome potatoes, turkey, stuffing, and pie. I made a sweet potato casserole and attempted to make rolls again (failed). 

Sunday morning before church (sans goatee), right before he left. The kids and I all loved having family come visit for the holiday. It was so nice to have the extra help around the house. The kids enjoyed playing games with their grandparents and sharing their talents (they were constantly drawing pictures for them or singing songs they had learned).

Blog trivia: how many times did you spot Davey's blanket in various photos in this post?

*Cough-Cough* Everyone is Sick Here!

This week has been rough. Everyone has been sick (except Kathryn) to a certain degree at some point this week.

Sarah was down early in the week. She was feverish and wanted to lie on the couch or sleep all day. If you know Sarah, this has never happened! We took Joseph to school, then after napping all morning, she couldn't wait to get back into bed fast enough for an afternoon nap. I thought for sure she would be up all night after all that sleeping during day. Nope--by 6:30pm she was sound asleep again and didn't make a peep until 7am or so the next morning. She took another nap that morning and has been doing well since, aside from the cough. Sarah is prone to coughs and they last a long time whenever she gets one. Too much coughing causes her to gag and vomit, which she did once this week, on the couch.

Joseph has "the" cough too, a runny nose, and slight fever. He has good days and tired days. Twice this week he has fallen asleep around 5pm, woken up around 7pm to nibble a few bites of food, then gone back to bed for the rest of the night.

Baby David is cutting teeth, at least 4 of them to be exact. He has had a fever too. Last night he woke up every 2 hours starting at 8pm until 6am. He decided he didn't want to nurse anymore and will only take a bottle, which was the only thing that got him back to sleep those 6 times he woke up. All day today he would wake up for 30 minutes for so, then sleep for 2+ hours. David put him to bed at 5 pm and he hasn't made a peep yet (it's 11pm now as I write this--I did check on him, he's still alive). Maybe he's getting better too?

David is really sick too -- coughing (sounds like a deep, dry, hacking cough), fever, achy muscles, dizzy. He looks worse than ever. He's probably down to his lowest weight since we've been married. Finishing that dissertation really took it out of him (waking up at 5am, going to bed at 11pm or later every night). Getting him to eat 3 square meals is almost impossible. He frequently eats only dinner, with maybe a small piece of fruit for lunch. He is starting to look like a holocaust survivor--and I'm not being trite or exaggerating! He must be under 130 lbs now. Anyway, he's totally swamped with work still and we both feel like we're trying to dig out of a huge hole. We finally called the home teachers around 9pm and they came to give him a blessing. I was thinking the whole family needed one.

Me, I'm not feeling too great either. Between his coughing and the baby crying last night, I didn't hardly sleep at all. I've got the cough and runny nose, etc. too, but thankfully I'm well enough to be able to take care of everyone else. Why am I awake at 11pm? I've been busy taking kids "potty", changing wet bedding, and administering medicine to all the sickies.

On the bright side, it's been nice and toasty warm here this week, compared to the rest of the country. I'm grateful that we didn't have rolling blackouts or frozen pipes.

We set up the tent inside and had a pretend camp-out.

Joseph & I built this "house" for his trains.

(Sorry, no other pictures this week.)

Some pictures from our trip to Utah

5 Days (Thursday-Monday), 1500 miles, and lots of family. We wish that we could have stayed longer and spent more time with all of our family in Utah. It was great to see some of David's cousins and all of his siblings (except for Krista) all together again.

Sunday, after church, Kathryn wasn't happy about the picture.

Friday, at Grandma LouAnn & Max's house.

We stopped here first thing when we got into SLC.

Saturday, Grandma's children (from left to right): Kent, Craig,
Annette, Gail, Don, Doug, Kim, and Keri.

With their spouses: Kent & LaVerne, Craig & Karen, Annette & Bob(?),
Gail & Ron, Don, Kim, Keri & Paul, Brenda & Doug.

Kathryn with Grandpa Kent

David's siblings: Jennifer, John, Jeffrey, David, Stephanie, and Laura
(with Sarah streaking across the front)

Joseph makes a guest appearance in this one. =)

More pictures and boring travel details to come. Although, I have to say that I think I hit the jack-pot -- David is a handsome guy with a head full of hair -- he takes after his Dad. His brothers are awesome too, but they seem to take after uncle Craig. =)