It's the best day EVER.

Tuesday my parents got home from a two year mission for our church.  They were the Presidents for the Missionary Training Center in Madrid, Spain.   We all loaded up to meet them at the airport.  Justin was out of town on business and Mike and Allie are in school in Idaho, but Sam drove over from Oregon (leaving Kyle home to work).  We missed those that weren't here but I was excited for Sam to be here because she wasn't here when they got home from their last mission.  I love seeing missionaries come home.  There were tons getting home that night and I was crying before my mom and dad even got there.  

 Cali made all of the signs.  I thought this one was hilarious "Hi, I'm Theo"  It floated around from kid to kid throughout the night. 

 My parents have 19 grandkids.  

Yup, here I am already starting to cry.  I was so happy.  

Me, Cali, Jason, Grace. 

 Pure happiness Abby and Eliza. 

 My beautiful niece brooklyn.  She is turning 13 soon!

sisters

 Grandma and Vicki. 

Isaac and Linh were waiting in the wrong terminal and BARELY made it over when they realized the other terminal looked pretty empty.  

 I look crazy in this picture and it is out of focus (cortney was chasing hens and saw that they were coming so he just turned his camera and shot)...but I love how happy we all look.  Especially Isaac. 

grandkids.

owen

 so glad to have my daddy back. 

 I love this picture.  My mom and her sister vicki, and her mom.  They have a real special thing I tell yah.  I know my mom was real homesick for them. 

 Fiona and Joe

 Dad and Angelique and Marion.

 Dad with the sign KaeLynn's kids made. 

 I love how happy dad and Jason look. 

 Dad and Rob.  I hope Rob can turn out like my dad someday.  

I hear my dad could be hard sometimes as a kid.  Hahaa. 

 Tyson and Grandma.

Grace and Linh. 

Sup. 

We headed back to Cali's house for appetizers and desserts.  We sat around and talked until past 10.  The kids ran wild.  Us grown ups just tried to soak in our parents. 

It feels good to have them home.  They left to Peru in 2007 and it is so nice to have them HOME HOME....not just waiting to go on another mission.  I am grateful for their example. 

And it came to pass that I, Nephi, said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them.

Nephi 3:7

Christmas...again.

I stole a bunch of photos from my Mom in law's blog.  So here is another christmas eve post.  

I love all these pictures because you can see Theo floating around the room.  

 Shade, Carter, Heather (holding theo), and cooper.

 Uncle Griff

 Morgan and Griff.

 Grandma ALice. 

 Carter would have held Theo the whole night.  I love the way Theo is looking at him.  So sweet.  I love that Carter. 

 Me and an out of focus henry.  That kid would not hold still.  He was crazy that night. 

 Ahhh...look at these lovebirds. 

 Bob listening to an AMAZING song Griffin wrote (and sung)

 These two...I tell you.  Two peas in a very loud pod.  They are BFF's as Rob likes to say.  

 Just in case you haven't gotten enough of Cortney's beard yet. 

I know I haven't.  hahaa

Santa called the kids.  They made it on the nice list.  Hurray!

This is how I have been feeling lately.  Pretty darn tired.  

It was a great night. 

MY PARENTS GET HOME TONIGHT.  HOLLA. 

Theo 6 weeks old

We got home from Rexburg with a nice little package sitting on our doorstep.  My sister's sister in law (haha) and one of my BFF's sent me a box full of onsies and sleepers that her little Marcus had grown out of.  It made me so happy.  It was especially nice because Theo had just that day grown out of most of his preemie clothes and I didn't have a lot for him to wear.  Also because he was covered in spit up from the long car ride home, we had no clean clothes, so I just opened the package and dressed him right then in new nice clean clothes.  How nice is that??

Thanks Emily and Jared (and marcus of course)...we love you guys.  

Cali told me about your surgery...we are all praying for you here. 

I weighed Theo on sunday here on my scale and it said he was 6.8 lbs.  The little bugger keeps on growing and growing.  He is doing great and sleeps most of the day and night.  He has started spitting up like crazy just like all my other babies (DRAT).  I had hoped he would be an exception to that rule.  Oh well.  

We just sit around the house and do laundry (lots of spit up equals lots of laundry) and watch shows.  Today was beautiful out and we were able to walk to pick the kids up from school.  All of the kids liked being able to get out and move.  I must say though,  I have really been enjoying all of the sitting around and relaxing with my two little babies.  I am pretty blessed.  

Rob broke a molar while we were in Rexburg.  (a week after getting one pulled)  Today Cortney took him in to the dentist and was pretty embarrassed by Rob freaking out.  They are having us bring him in on Monday after we have given him some Valium...haha...the joys of parenting.  

Thats all just a little update. 

Christmas

I don't know how it happened...but we managed to get almost NO pictures from our Christmas trip.  It totally annoys me.

We left for Rexburg Thursday afternoon.  Tyler came with us, which was nice.  I got to sit in the back of the van and snooze my whole way there.  Usually I try to talk to Cortney and keep him awake but being so far back I got to nap a little.  There is something to be said for sleeping in the car...I tell you.

That night Whitney and Schueyler and their kids, Heather and cooper, and Griffin and Katrina were all there.  Along with grandma Alice.  It was great to catch up with everyone...I hadn't seen most of them since last Christmas!!

The saddest part of this trip was that there was NO SNOW.  I don't know if that has ever happened in all of my years spending Christmas in Rexburg.  My kids were definitely disappointed.

I need to mention the first night we were there Oliver threw up ALL over the place in the middle of the night.  I couldn't believe that we were brining the flu to Christmas.  Luckily he was the only one that was sick in that way while we were there.  Roberta, Cameron and I all had pretty nasty colds...but we managed not to spread it further than that.

Most of the time we were in Rexburg we spent just hanging out at the house.  I only left for Christmas eve dinner and church....oh I did go get diapers once.  Cortney managed to take the boys to do some fun stuff but me and Theo and Henry were house bound.

Saturday morning Shawn took the boys out for some ice fishing.  I stole this one picture of Rob and Tyler from Ty's facebook.  I wish I had more.  The kids had the best time.  I think they would love for this to be the new Christmas Eve tradition.

Rob managed to catch the biggest fish of the day.  He was pretty proud.  (he was also so scared that the ice was going to break and he was going to fall through)

Oliver also caught a couple of big fish.  They loved it. 

That night we headed over to Grandma Alice's for Christmas Eve dinner.  Cameron had made it into town at this point.   I also stole these pictures from Ty's blog.  I will have to wait for Roberta to post before I can get any other pictures.  Dinner was delicious and it was great to sit around and talk with everyone.  

 Ty and Theo. 

I realized that I have so few pictures of Cortney, some people might not realize how hot he is right now.  This picture is out of focus because I was laughing so hard and they  were too close for my lens.  Griffin and Cort....being charlie's angels I guess. 

While we were at dinner Griffin showed us some of his music.  He is one talented boy I tell you what.  What would it be like to be so good at something??

We got home and put on our pajamas.  The kids LOVED that we all matched.  I loved it too...  I didn't love how UNFLATTERING the mom pajamas were.  They were bad. Real bad.  

I then tried to read Jest fore Christmas for my kids but they just didn't get it.  I realized that I didn't know what one word of that poem meant until I was older...and by then I loved it.  So now that will be the same for my kids.  I missed my mom reading it, but I guess I am the mom now. 

We set out some delish cookies for Santa and got the boys in bed.  They slept good the whole night and didn't wake up until after 8:30.  Hallelujah!  All of the adults were grateful for that. 

I love this picture because Cameron and Rob have the EXACT SAME hair in this picture.  Plus look at sleepy Bob. I got Rob a Guinness book of world records.  One of their FAVORITE gifts. 

 I think Henry was the funnest.  I love this age. 

 Opening madness. 

 Oliver asked mostly for clothes this year.  WEIRD. 

 My grandma Jones always gets us hickory farms.  YUM. 

 I made my mom in law and grandma in law calendars.  They turned out really cute. 

 Look at that double chin...(on theo, not on me...haha)  That boy is growing like a weed. Today I weighed him at home and he weighs a little under 7 lbs.   

 Now if that isn't happiness I don't know what is. 

We then headed to church.  The ward had an awesome french horn number with a chello and violins, I loved it.  

After church we just hung out  and waited for the rest of the family to get there for brunch...which was actually linner (get it lunch and dinner combined) haha.  We had our traditional egg casseroles.  Yum.  

All in all it was a great holiday.  Henry wouldn't stay in his bed, and my kids were stressing me out but was great to be with family.  

Merry Christmas

We just got back from Christmas in Rexburg.  We had a great time.

We actually took a picture all together Christmas morning.  Yes we all had matching pj's and yes...Cortney's are the footsie kind that zip up.  He looked awesome. 

 I have tons to post but only 6 minutes of battery left on my computer...and at least 6 hours of laundry to do.   I will post...soon. 

P.S. Have I mentioned my parents are coming home from their mission in 12 days??  Can't wait. 

My man

Today is Cortney's 35th birthday. It started off on a bad foot when Henry and Rob were sick throwing up in the night. Then Theo was having some gas issues (for the first time ever). When morning came around we were both pretty tired. In the afternoon Cortney watched the kids so I could go and get some last minute Christmas stuff. Poor guy It had to have been the worst birthday ever. He did go play racquetball tonight but came home to a major clogged drain in the kitchen (which he is still working on...and still all sweaty from playing racquetball, but he can't shower until it is done). Poor guy. Luckily I had a birthday dinner/survivor night on Sunday for him. Tomorrow we are going to try again. Maybe go out to dinner or something like that. I feel so bad for him having a birthday so close to Christmas. He got some new glasses for his birthday...he has been needing them FOREVER but we could never afford them. We are both excited for them to come, it will be nice for him to be able to take his contacts out when his eyes are tired. The man has a huge beard right now. HUGE. What can I say? I am grateful everyday for the man Cortney is. He is so kind, and loves me no matter what. Happy birthday babe.

spreading a little Christmas cheer

Carolina video recorded this little gem the other day. I almost had a heart attack when I watched it because...those of you that know Rob know that he isn't one to perform a song...let alone a song with actions. I love it.

due

Yesterday was my due date.  Instead I have now had Theo 22 days (and it is still hard for me to call him Theo...for some reason he is Henry to me...just like Henry was Rob forever). I always miss being pregnant.  I think really I am always just sad that the exciting part is over.  There really is nothing quite as exciting as delivering a baby...it is as good as it gets for a mom.

Today Theo gets circumcised.  He hasn't been big enough for the procedure.  I have NEVER been to a kids circumcision and now today I have to take all my kids (minus Oli) with me to get it done.  That sounds pretty horrible.

This week around here

We have been really trying hard to really celebrate the Christmas season. To make Christmas more about traditions and family and less about presents and electronics.  It has been a little hard since I don't leave the house and we can't really go anywhere outside all together.  We took the kids to see the lights 2 mondays ago (the lights at riverwoods) Cortney and the kids walked around and I stayed in the car with theo.  It took about 15 minutes before the kids got in trouble and we had to leave.  (Cortney never gets them in trouble so they must have been being REALLY bad).  This week we made gingerbread men for family night.  Can you see my gingerbread man holding a cute little baby???  how adorable is that??

Mom and Theo, Cortney, Oliver, Rob and Henry.  I did something that is hard for me a didn't tell my kids one time how to decorate theirs.  I did however have to make Cortney re do his since all he put on his was chest hair and armpit hair.

We watched Elf on Wednesday and then on friday we got a sausage stick and cheese and crackers and watched The Christmas Story (originally we had wanted to watch Griswalds Christmas Vacation...but Cortney and I had totally forgotten  how inappropriate it is for kids. hahaa We turned it off after Clark flips the other car off but before he talks to the lady at the lingerie counter...it has been years since either of us had seen it)

Theo has these preemie gowns that are the cutest things i have ever seen.  Every time he wears them I can't get over how adorable they are.

I took a picture of him next to the preemie gown and then next to a normal newborn sized gown from the same comapany...so you can get an idea of how small the gowns/Theo is. 

I think he is going to have dark brown eyes like Rob. 

Henry has been doing a lot of this lately.  We all stayed home from church (stake conference) today because we all as a group aren't feeling too hot.  Boo.  

On the plus side.  Oliver's eye is looking almost all the way better. 

It really is the most wonderful time of the year.  I absolutely love this time. I wish now it would just snow. 

p.e.

I have been so good since Theo has been born.  I haven't taken him anywhere.  I haven't left the house.  I NEVER do this when I have babies.  I always am taking them all over the place.  I have been trying so hard this time to avoid RSV.  All of my other babies have had it.  Not this time.

However....my other kids, I can't keep them away from germs though.

Oliver woke up this morning with a NASTY case of pink eye.  I wanted to die.  I hate pink eye.  It is the worst.  He has an appointment this afternoon...I want the strongest medicine possible.

Henry also had a fever last night.

Theo is officially off limits to all the kids.  Luckily...he and I spend a lot of time downstairs by ourselves.  And you wouldn't believe how much this little guy sleeps.  I don't know if it is because he is so little and he just needs to spend all his time growing...or if he is just a good sleeper.  He is ALWAYS sleeping.  I have to wake him up almost every single time that we feed him.  After eating he goes straight to sleep.  So it won't be that hard to keep him away from the other kids.

Henry watches TANGLED as much as he possibly can.  He absolutely loves it.  I think it is so cute...and am actually quite in love with the movie myself.

Ahhh yeah

My baby Theo is a superstar! In the past 7 days he has gained 10 oz. Which is tons, by the way. He now weighs 4 lbs 15 oz. So close to 5 lbs! It makes me feel good because all I do is sit in my house and feed him. At least it is working. He is now almost drinking 2 oz at each feeding. When we left the hospital he was only drinking 1/3 of an ounce, which is about 2 teaspoons. What a good boy! The dr said I didn't need to come back until his 2 month appointment. I was in shock. Everyday this baby amazes me.