Christmas In Idaho!

Yes, I realize that Christmas was almost 3 weeks ago and I'm just now posting for our Christmas trip, but we've only been back a little over a week and anyone that has been gone on vacation for 2 weeks realizes how busy it is once you get back home. I have been unpacking, doing laundry, cleaning, running errands and trying to catch up on my church calling for the last two weeks- it has been crazy. Here are a few pictures (to say the least) of our wonderful Christmas and New Years trip to Burley, Idaho to spend with my family. My parents just built a brand new home and we were all able to celebrate the holidays in the new house. It is beautiful! The house still needed a few things finished in it- there was no carpet in the basement until New Years Eve, but there was pad down and it didn't stop us from using the basement to play Foosball, ping pong (or ping ball as Chloe called it) and pool. But, of course, something bad had to happen and that bad thing came the second night we were there, the day before Christmas Eve. We were all in the basement enjoying a show on TV for a few hours and after the show was over, my mom got up to go upstairs and stepped on the carpet pad near the stairs and realized it was sopping wet! Upon investigation, we discovered that the bathroom in the basement had overflowed and was dumping water all over the floor in the basement the entire 2 hours we had all been blissfully watching TV, totally oblivious. The pad had to be cut and removed (it was completely saturated) and Dad and the men (aka Neil and Ben) cleaned up the water as best they could with towels and the mighty shop vac. We tried all evening to place blame on someone for the catastrophe, but of course, no one plugged the toilet......it plugged itself!

Here's Dad in the bathroom with the shop vac, and the area of the floor where the pad had to be removed. We considered it very lucky that the carpet got delayed in being laid; otherwise, it would have ruined all the carpet and been an even bigger mess. It made for quite the exciting night- a fun project for Sunday evening!

Neil and Ben, ready for the flood!

Mitchell got to meet lots of new people this trip. Here he is with Papa, whom he had never met before this trip.


Christmas Eve in their snowflake pajamas, ready for Santa to come!

The kids with Great-Grandma Wright-another first meeting for Mitchell.
Chloe and Papa have a tradition of eating a Pomegranate together on Christmas Eve. Every time she sees pomegranates at the store, she always thinks of Papa.

Christmas morning, opening gifts. Chloe got so many great toys from everyone. She ripped through her presents very fast, then spent the rest of the trip playing with each one.

The only thing Chloe told Santa she wanted was Pajamas.....and she got them! (I think Santa also brought her bed head......) Thanks Aunt Amanda and Uncle Neil for the darling Princess Pj's! Chloe wore them for the rest of Christmas Day.
This is how Mitchell spent most of Christmas morning- Chloe had enough energy and excitement for the both of them, so Mitch bowed out and caught some beauty rest. I gladly held him all morning long- having a new baby for Christmas was the best gift Ben and I got all year.

Chloe loved Christmas this year- it was a fun stage for us to watch her. She understands Christmas a lot more this year, understood Santa more, and can really appreciate and enjoy all of her toys. She got spoiled big time. Thanks to everyone for the great gifts! We had to add another room on to our house just to fit all her toys.

Mitchell woke up long enough to get a picture with all of his gifts that he didn't open. For being only 2 months, he sure got spoiled too. Thanks to all, again.

After gift opening, we did the traditional birthday breakfast cake and sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. Chloe was very confused and thought that the cake was for her and that she should all be singing to her (a continuation of her birthday from earlier this month!) When I told her that it was Jesus' birthday and that we were singing to him, she turned to me and said, "But Mom, Jesus isn't even here!" Grandma put 3 candles on the cake for Chloe, but we still sang to Jesus.

And just because Mitchell couldn't participate in Christmas and open his own gifts this year, he thought he would have his own party.... He was unusually fussy the whole week of Christmas and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. He wasn't sleeping well at night and cried a lot during the day. I blamed it on gas, but knew he was acting different than even gas pains. The Friday night after Christmas, he was up almost the entire night screaming and we couldn't get him to calm down. He would scream even louder when we laid him down, so Mom helped us figure out Saturday morning that he probably had an ear infection. Off to the emergency room we went, since we have no insurance coverage here and since no doctor's were open on a Saturday. The ER was full and we didn't want to wait, so we went to an emergency clinic office down the street and was treated there. Just as we thought, he had an ear infection- in both ears! The doctor said that adults describe ear infections as a spike being shoved into the ear repeatedly, so she could only imagine how miserable Mitchell felt. That explains Friday night's scream fest. Poor baby...... the antibiotic and ear numbing drops helped and he was feeling and acting much better by Sunday. Ben and I had joked before we left to go to Idaho that we had one goal for Christmas- not to end up in the Burley ER (that is how we spent the 4th of July with my gall bladder problems). We honestly didn't think we would be back there and break that goal, but we did. What can we say? We are trying to support and keep in business the Burley medical staff. But, despite a painful week of 2 undiagnosed ear aches, Mitchell still found time to smile and have a great time. If you notice in the picture above, his outfit says "Crabby" on it, which is how he felt most of the time until he got some medicine!

Another new face for Mitch- Great Grandma Dewsnup, with the beautiful blanket she crocheted for him.

Chloe was so excited when her cousins came down the weekend after Christmas. Here they all are in their Sunday best- all clean, quiet and still, all at the same time.

My brother and his wife just had a new baby a the beginning of December- a little boy named Tristan. He and Mitchell are just 6 1/2 weeks apart in age. We had to get a picture of these 2 cute little guys, who couldn't look more different. One big, one small, one bald, one with a full head of hair and side burns, one white-skinned, one tan. Mitch looks quite pleased with himself for being twice the size of his cousin. He is planning on winning every fight in the future.....

Paige and Chloe had a great time together, even if they were a little sneaky. Amanda found them upstairs in the corner of the room surrounded by Starburst wrappers and mouths full of candy. The candy wasn't for them, but they still enjoyed it anyway.

Mitch and Grandma with the quilt she made him.

The two pretty princesses with their new Christmas Tutu's, gloves and headbands.

One of Chloe's favorite things to do at Grandma and Papa's house is to visit the neighbor's horse Modock. She is obsessed with that horse, and I think Grandma must have taken her out to visit him 10 times during our stay. She usually is too afraid to feed him carrots, but this trip she got brave and did it herself! She loves this horse and talks about him all the time at home. We are hoping a horse will not be next year's Christmas wish........

On the way home from Burley, we stopped in at Tri-Cities for a night to break up the trip. We got to see more cousins. Here is Mitch with cousin Sam. Mitchell is so excited to not be the bigger of the two cousins this time (although he may soon catch up to Sam in weight....)

A group of cute looking kids. Can you tell it is way past bed time? The kids, especially Sam and Mitch, look almost comatose because they are so tired.

We had a wonderful Christmas and a wonderful visit to Idaho. Mom and Dad took great care of us and spoiled all of us way too much- thank you! It went by way too fast and we are already looking forward to the next time we get to see everyone. We got to see all of my siblings (except Steve who is on his mission), my grandmas and all of Ben's siblings too (for a night). It was a great trip and we hope everyone had as wonderful of a Christmas as we did. Happy New Year!