New Year, New Us

As I am writing this post, my poor husband is upstairs in bed covered completely in hives. I gave him the maximum amount of Benadryl and rubbed him down with anti-itch cream in hopes that he can recover quickly. He has tomorrow off and I want to go do something fun with our little family. We decided not to go to church today since Carson was up most of the night with a beastly cold. Mikayla is napping.... she is such a little angel.

We had a fantastic Christmas without company and without travel. It was splendid. After our Thanksgiving, we deserved it. We had nine of my in-laws here for the holiday and they all stayed with us, our house isn't that big. It would have worked out OK except that half of our guests and both of my babies got a 24-hour flu bug and spent most of the weekend (collectively) throwing up. At one point I had been double teamed by each of my children, there was vomit on the walls, in the bed and all over the floor. This is after we had spent the majority of the same afternoon cleaning Carson's carseat. Ugh. It was miserable, but I'm so thankful neither Jared or I got it. And actually, all in all, I think everyone had a good time.




So our Christmas was quiet. We took the kids sledding at the hill behind our house next to the school. I didn't make a big meal. We had tomato basil soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner on Christmas Eve. After building a gingerbread house with Carson, we had the kids open their new pjs and read The Night Before Christmas and Luke 2. We put the babies to bed and decided we would open our gifts together so we could enjoy watching the kids Christmas morning.



We had decided not to do presents for each other this year, or so I thought. But we had a few gifts from our parents and the kids to open. However, as Jared always does.. he had a BIG surprise up his sleeve. He handed me one last box and said it was from him. I opened it and found our computer... odd. So I opened the computer and he had made me a video with music and subtitles and pictures of our family and things that had happened over 2011. I was so touched and cried the entire time. Then as I was reading "I want to make all your dreams come true... that's why... on April 14, 2012.... we will be boarding a flight to Fiji.... " I about passed out! I've wanted to return to Fiji since I got home from my mission there in 2005. And every now and then I get an itch to start looking for flights, which is what I had had been doing that very afternoon. Tickets to Fiji run about 2K and it seemed impossible to actually entertain the idea of returning for too long. So I really couldn't believe it when he said the trip was all booked and there was no backing out. He had even arranged with my parents to come watch the kids while we travel. He did get a steal on the trip... an entire week long of accommodations plus airfare for less than we could have purchased two plane tickets at the price I already mentioned.



Christmas morning was fun because Carson is finally old enough to sort of get what's going on. He loved his train table and all of the Candy. Mikayla didn't have a clue what was going on but she had fun anyway. We feel so blessed and so grateful to have such sweet kids. They make our world so exciting and challenging. I'm going to miss Carson saying "Mamma, mamma... Christmas trees, Christmas lights!!!" As we drive through our neighborhood.

2012 is going to be a great year. We are excited to see what the future holds and what adventures await us.