December 2015 part one: Salt Lake City

Okay, so hopefully with these next couple of entries I will be caught up and I can attempt to blog with more regularity.  I had such grand plans to blog about Finn's ABA progress and what we did that helped him so it could help other families, but in real life I just didn't have the time.  I was too busy  actually doing the work with him, and keeping the data.  When I wasn't working with him 1:1, I was researching and coming up with ideas with how to help him, and still trying to be a decent parent to my new baby - oh and the full time job thing.  So, that didn't really happen, because it wasn't really feasible for me outside of theory.   It's a thing I tend to do:  I often think I can do more than I actually have the time or energy to actually do.  I have to remind myself that we get to do whatever we want to do, just not everything we want to do!

I got a musical hide and seek Elf on the Shelf.  We named him
Henry.  Finn liked to play with him. 

December:

December was a rough month for us.  Just before christmas my husband's grandfather passed away, and so we went to Salt Lake to his funeral.  While we were still on the train, we got a phone call from my mom that my grandmother had passed away.  We made the best of our trips and extra family time together though, and in many ways it was an joyful time, even though we were grieving our losses.









Before our trip Momma got a haircut, and was trying to take a selfie of the new hair, but the babies wanted in on the selfie action. They are a much cuter subject anyways! So, we had a family selfie party.  First annual I am sure, since I takes one selfie a year when I get my hair cut, haha.

Traveling by train was a bunch of fun, and I think the easiest way to travel with kids if you are traveling for long distances because you can sleep, eat, go to the bathroom, shower, without stopping every two hours to let your three year old pee.  Finn was excited about the train, but I think I was even more excited.  The train came barreling into the station in Osceola, much faster than I would have thought it would.   Luckily we had the kids really well wrangled because it was frightening, but exhilarating at the same time.  I remember jumping upside down in excitement, like a tiny child.  What can I say, I've always wanted to ride a train.  The food was better then expected, and I brought some gifts wrapped up for the kids and I handed them a gift every once and awhile throughout the trip.  This served two purposes, it gave them new toys and activities to do, and it helped Finn understand the concept of gifts and unwrapping in preparation for christmas.  I didn't snap a ton of pictures, but I do enjoy this one of Colin cuddling with his favorite girl.

Finnigan spent a lot of time in the observation car with me checking in the views while the dad and the baby preferred the family cabin we reserved.  It had four beds, and just enough room to move around a tiny bit. 

The Camera doesn't really do justice at all to the views we got to see as we drove through the Rocky Mountains.  However, the pictures are still pretty, even thought real life was 100x better.  I only got pictures of the ride back, because I was too enthralled to take any pictures on the way out.  Finnigan's favorite part was "tunnel city." Which had something like 100 tunnels in 60 minutes...or something like that, I don't remember.  Finn loved to yell, "through the tunnel!" each time.  When it was nighttime and dark out, he just thought we were in one long tunnel.

Colin wanted to see his old stomping grounds in Utah.  This apartment is where he spent most of his mission, I guess.  Well, it used to be an apartment, but apparently they just tore it down.  Colin was bummed.  We went to a park in the the mountains which was sweet.  Actually there is a view of a mountain everywhere in Salt Lake City.  It was amazing and gorgeous.  You would think I would have taken more pictures of the mountains there, but again, I was too enthralled. Then, Colin took us to one of his favorite restaurants, Dee's Diner which had pretty good food!

Salt Lake City Temple.  We also went at night to see the lights, unfortunately it was cold and raining and I was trying to keep the baby warm and dry so I didn't get any pictures of it at night.

Of course, you have to find the indoor playgrounds where ever you travel with kids when it's cold outside! 

Getting a family picture is hard. 

I enjoyed getting to meet Colin's family that we hadn't met yet and Addy got to meet the other half of her namesake.  Her name is Adeline Jocelyn.  Her first name is the middle name of Colin's maternal grandmother, and her middle name is the first name of his paternal grandmother.

At Great grandpa Franklin Faux's Memorial service.

Love this pretty girl!

That was salt lake city, via a Amtrak train.  It was a nice trip, despite the circumstances.  I was able to sleep every night in a bed with my kiddos, and see pretty mountains and meet Colin's family.  So even though it was stressful since Addy kept spiking a fever for some unknown reason (which is stressful enough when you aren't in an unknown city), I felt guilty the kids hadn't made it out to visit Colin's grandparents in time, and guilty because I was going to miss two unplanned weeks of work in a row to attend both of the funerals,  it was still a joyful time because we were having an adventure, and we were with family.

Catching up: Part 2

October 2015

We were settling into our new routine of work, school, and therapy.  It didn't leave a lot of extra curricular time except on the weekends. Sometimes I wonder if Addy gets cheated a bit since we are always running Finn around to his stuff, she does't get to do as many fun things as Finn did when he was her age.  She doesn't seem to mind though, all in all she's a pretty dang happy baby.

In October, my brother-in-law Nathan came home from his mission, and Colin's other brother came in from Denver to spend some time with the family.  I figured since I was taking time off of work to transition Finn into therapy and school, and the move, I might as well get my wisdom teeth out to get my dentist off my back about it.   I never wanted to take the time to have them out, because they never really bothered me.  Then my dentist stated I was starting to lose bone in my jaw because of them so I just figured I'd get it over with.  It wasn't very bad, just pretty swollen for about a week.

Addy was a pro by now at crawling, and began to pull herself up and cruise with her walker.  We were able to attend Finnigan's friend Sergio's birthday party and took a trip to a farm to pick out a pumpkin that I never really did anything with other than use it ornamentally on our front stoop.  Oh well, there is always next year.  Addy got a jumper,  which she frequently fell asleep in, and she enjoyed helping Momma unpack.  She and Finn started interacting more and more each day.  Finn chose to be spiderman for Halloween and practiced trick or treating at therapy, school, and in the community at Valley West mall before beggars night.  By beggars night, Finn was a pro.  He loved trick or treating with his friend Ezra so much!  So much so that he still asks to go trick or treating.  Finn picked out his spiderman costume after therapy one day, mugged a bunch in front of the mirror and wore it out of the store.  He fell asleep in his car seat on the way home, as he frequently does after his long day of school and therapy.  Addy and I spend a lot of time playing at the mall indoor playgrounds right now since it's winter and we always have a couple of hours to spend while Finn is in therapy.  I don't like to drive back and forth from Indianola to clive more than we have to.   Addy was a cabbage patch doll for Halloween, and the cutest one ever.   Finn also got his first school picture.  Also, I started to decorate and organize the kids rooms.

  

  

  

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

November 2015

In November we traveled for our first of three funerals within a few weeks.  My grandma Stark was right in wanting to gather all of us one last time, for she passed away and we traveled in the beginning of November back to Keokuk for her funeral.   The kids had fun playing with their cousins that they never get to see, and had a fun evening frolicking in the leaves before Finn melted down and we started out for back home so the kids could have a nap. We went to a friends birthday at chuck-e-cheese and met a storm trooper there.  Finn spent all of his time on the slide, and then got to go meet a fireman and sit in his fire truck after that. I am not sure why I don't have photos of that, because I thought I took some. My guess is my phone was probably dead.  Finn's cousins came from Denver for Thanksgiving, and he loved playing Star Wars with them.  Finn and Addy met Santa.   The kids had fun, especially Finn, decorating the Christmas tree and one of my close friends had a baby shower for her first little girl!