I'm finally home.

Well, I am returning from a long hiatus and I have a lot of pictures. But not as many as I normally would have had, because shortly after getting to Utah I got sick. Very sick. And I stayed that way pretty much until I came home. Which was enormously sad, since I wanted to do lots of fun things in Utah. Lots and lots. And instead, I mainly laid on the couch.

Here is mostly everyone at the Halloween/Birthday party.
My brother, King Tut, and his family.
Kiersten, Maloree, Hazel, and Brynne
Myles and Jethro being pulled behind the 4-wheeler on two kneeboards.
Here you can see Wyatt on the 4-wheeler and see all the animals they were maneuvering through.
Jethro riding Fahs Elle, the beloved horse of many children's childhoods.
Me and Hazel.
Dad and Ethne. And if you look, you can see the temple in the background. Is that not the awesomest thing ever?
Dad and Hazel.
The E's: Emeline, Elena, Ethne. It's hard to get a good picture of 3 two-year-olds.
Thanksgiving dinner pictures.
Here you can kindof see how crowded it was. 41 people. One table in front, a little kid table, then a couple people standing, and another table. I think there were a couple people in the front room too. Mmmm, good food.
My mom and dad and my kids. Isn't my mom so beautiful?!
Isabel and Talmage. We love how much smaller she is than him, even though she's a month older. They love each other so much already--see how they hold hands?
Grandpa pushing Hazel on the swing.


Grandpa and Hazel feeding the horses. I loved seeing Hazel's little pink head bobbing around.
Jumping on the tramp.

Even though I was sick, it was still nice to go and see everyone. I am glad I went. And by the way, the plane ride with my children went very smoothly. Even on the way back. Lots of people were helpful and my kids were good. Someone even said to me when I was picking up luggage "Your kids were really well behaved." I was proud.

Anyway, some of the fun things I did get to do in Utah were ride my dad's horses, have Canadian Thanksgiving dinner (and there were about 42 thousand people there, I swear), go to Church with my mom and dad and all my brothers and sisters--we took up about 42 rows I swear, go out for Chinese food, watch my brothers play a basketball game, watch the grandkids play at the Halloween party, and there was an unfortunate incident where I crashed my niece's motorcycle. Ouch. I also went to Vernal and hung with my in-laws, although I was sick while I was there. I also saw Brett there, because he flew out to help my brother-in-law frame his house, but I was so sick I basically said "Hi, goodnight." And I didn't even go to Ethan's football game, which I hear was the game of the century and Ethan was an all-star as usual, because I was sick. But that's the breaks. (And if you really feel inclined to read more about the game, and see Ethan in all his football glory, you can read my sisters' blogs.)

On the way home, Hazel started to cry because she wanted to stay with Grandma. I was trying to get her to be excited to go home, so I said, "But if you stayed with Grandma, you couldn't go to Joy School, and you wouldn't ever see Daddy." and she said, "I love Grandma more than Joy School and Daddy!" So pretty much we can't go visit Grandma ever again because it makes us Loserville, USA. And then I tried to make things better by saying, "It's Halloween on Friday and we'll go trick-or-treating," but she said, "I'd rather go trick-or-treating with Grandma." So forgive me Mom (not that you'd ever read this), but I said, "She couldn't go trick-or-treating, she's too old," (HA--I'm sure she could out trick-or-treat me any day of the week, but I was grasping at straws). And THEN Hazel started crying again and I asked her what was the matter, and she said, "I'm sad that Grandma's going to die!" Oh boy. I should have stopped when I was ahead. I tried to say how my grandma only just died and I'm grown up and have children of my own, so Grandma won't die until she's all grown up and has children, but she was still upset that Grandma was going to die, even if it was far in the future. She was a little overtired.

Oh, and I didn't mention that a couple days before I left, I was up in the night to feed Talmage, and as I walked down the hall I stepped on a very wet spot. I turned on the light and looked up, because it had been raining for several days. But it wasn't leaking from the ceiling. So I woke Brett up and he figured out that it was the water heater leaking. We went back to bed and before I even got up Brett had put a new one in. He had it all fixed and good as new by noon and went to school, so besides a big chunk of change gone to pay for the new one, it was barely an interruption. I love having a handy husband.

And now I think I'll go brush my teeth and go to bed. I was so excited to sleep in my own bed last night and have my husband next to me. In fact, I'm quite looking forward to it again tonight.

UTAH!

I haven't even been here 24 hours yet, and...

Dad called Talmage "Trouble Jack"

I had 3 or 4 bowls of deLICIOUS beef stew and a couple slices of mom's homemade bread with real butter, fudge for dessert, pancakes that looked like pumpkins, a bowl of raspberries and cream, and more fudge.

Mom said, "I need to go take a shower and get dressed," and Dad said to her, "Need any help with that?"

Hazel, Jethro, and Ethne went out to help Grandpa feed the horses, got pushed on the swing, and jumped on the tramp.

It sleeted/snowed for about an hour (?!)

Dad was saying that he bought Mom a new purple bathrobe but she never wears it.  I asked why she never wears it, and he said, "I don't know, whenever I'm around she just doesn't want to wear anything."

Ethne is petrified of Uncle Ethan (though Hazel has gotten over her great fear of Uncle Ethan).

Dad entertained Hazel the whole way home from the airport by insisting that horses say moo, cows say oink, ducks say neigh, etc. etc.

Mom has done more work than I've done in the last month.

I slept on the comfiest mattress ever, which used to be mine.

Jethro had a pillowfight with Grandpa.

We made another batch of fudge  :)

It's so nice to be here. 

Illness and Injuries

So, all the kids have decided to become unwell at the same time.

Jethro hasn't really been feeling good for over a week, but we made him keep going to school until Friday. I REALLY hope he gets better by the end of next week!!!!

Ethne was wearing dress-up shoes on Wednesday and slipped and hurt her leg or foot or ankle or something...and now she won't stand up or walk or put any weight on it at all. She crawls around like a little puppy. It's really difficult to do anything/go anywhere when you have to pack two babies.

Talmage was sleeping in his carseat the other day when I was at the church for aerobics and another little kid (almost two) came up and scratched him on the forehead and down on his eyelid. It was bleeding a tiny bit, but not anything bad at all. I kinda like it--makes him look tough. ;)

Hazel--well, Hazel didn't have anything major, but the other day I told her to play in the backyard and she came back in crying with a big red welt on her head and said that she ran into the tree. That sort of thing usually happens at least twice a day, so she still counts as ill or injured, right?

Otherwise, we're doing really well and looking forward to next Friday when we FLY TO UTAH!!!!!!!! WOOHOO!!!!!!!! I can't wait to see my family-o! YAY! (I can wait however to take four kids on the plane by myself. Oh well, some torture you just have to endure in order to get the reward.)

And I'd just like to say that yesterday I cleaned my bathroom. Thoroughly. Spent good time scrubbing my tub, and let me just say that it really needed the attention.

And, very exciting, I went to the mall today and bought a shirt that I am absolutely in love with. That happens so infrequently that I'm just really excited. Brett didn't like the shirt by itself (what a surprise, he NEVER likes any new clothes), but thought I looked attractive in it. I will wear it (and the new necklace to go with it) in Utah and feel very stylish.

And, though I would have happily paid the $24 dollars for it, it was that great of a find, I exchanged a different necklace that I decided I didn't like very much, and finally had filled up my Maurices card with punches that I've had since I was in high school so I got ten dollars off. So for the shirt and necklace both it only came to 12 dollars and something cents. Sweet. I also exchanged a shirt somewhere else (yes Kami, I finally took it back because Brett didn't like it at all) and got a different shirt that was on clearance for $3.90 and got 8 dollars back, so all in all, a very good shopping experience. What a rare treat.

Ethne has really started talking lately, and it is pretty fun. The other day at dinner Jethro said, "More sausage," and she said it after him and it sounded really close! She also says "soother" (which is the Canadian term for pacifier), which sounds like 'soo-a' and is very concerned when Talmage loses it. But my favorites are still Jethro--'weh-wo', and Hazel--'ee-o' :)

no cleverness, just pictures

Big boy.

Yawn.

I. LOVE. this. picture. :)

Have to take pictures of myself with Baby since no one else will. Sniff.

This is why I never have a desire to clean the bathroom. (Okay, actually I never have a desire to clean the bathroom because I don't like to clean, but still.) Once he goes in and washes the sink is completely a mess. And actually, I don't think the picture does it justice, because the flash brightened everything up, and makes him look cleaner than he really was.

This is what Brett does almost every night--reads until he falls asleep, still holding the book. Silly guy.