Matt had the whole week of March 9th off of school.  Wednesday, the 12th, we headed down to St. George to visit my parents.  Matt was initially going to go to Las Vegas for March Madness stuff, but then Garth ended up being on a cruise that week, so he had no one to go with.  Instead, he hung out with us at my parents' house.

Matt had a meeting Wednesday afternoon, and it went later than I was anticipating, so we left later than we had planned.  It still worked out well, though.  Henlie slept the first 1 1/2 hours or so of the trip.  What wasn't so good was she threw up all over herself and the back seat after she woke up.  We pulled off the freeway off the side of the road on a no services exit and used wipes to clean her and the car up.  I changed her clothes, and we were eventually on our way again.  Not too far down the road, we pulled over under an overpass because she was pretty upset.  I got in the back next to her, and she did okay.

She had one little throw up (a single noodle, which she had for lunch, and some clear liquid) shortly before our exit, so I thought maybe it was all done and a one-time occurrence.  Well, 5 to 10 minutes before we got to my parent's house, but at least we were off the freeway at this point, she threw up a ton again.  We just drove as quick as we could.  I cleaned her up some with more wipes.  When we got to my parent's house, we let her out, and she wandered down the side of the house into the backyard while we gathered up everything and pulled the car seat out.  Matt eventually sprayed it all out and let it stay out to dry, and he did his best to clean the upholstery of his car.  Once we got our stuff in, we got the baby in the house, stripped her down, and plopped her in the tub.  I pre-washed all of her clothes in the bathroom sink while she played in the tub.  After her bath, I did a load of laundry, and we were able to finally eat some dinner :)

Thursday we started a little slower.  Dad made us yummy french toast for breakfast and I got a good workout in.  In the afternoon, we headed to my sister Makayla's house to steal her internet to stream the UVU game.  Lexie and Lainee were on break, so they played with us and the baby on the swing set and the little trike.  We got some loves in on Candy, too.

After the game, Matt and I went to Ernesto's Mexican Restaurant for lunch.  The food was yummy, and they were super sweet with Henlie.  We got her a kid's meal, and it came with a drink.  They were kind enough to put it in Henlie's sippy cup directly.  When our food came, my water got spilled all over me (good thing it was water!), so we moved to a different table and got half off of our total bill.  Not too shabby. 




Friday was a packed day.  After breakfast (pancakes, if memory serves), we ventured to the soccer park that we always pass on our way to Mom and Dad's.  Funny thing - there are no soccer fields. Yet.  It's being built in phases, and the first phase doesn't have any fields.  However, it does have an awesome duck/fishing pond.  We hung out at the park and made a puppy friend, Ollie.  We also saw a couple of fish and three turtles.  We weren't positive if there were any ducks at this pond, so we didn't take anything to feed them.  After the park, we went to Matt's Aunt Lori and Uncle Dave's house to check out Dave's new toy, a pace car.  He took Matt for a ride while Henlie and I visited with Lori and the kids.  Well, Henlie visited with the puppies, too :)







After Matt and Dave got back, it was back out to Makayla's for dinner with her family and Monica's family and to watch more basketball.  As always, it was fun to visit with family and hang out.


Saturday, I got Dad to make us pumpkin waffles (they had a mix - and it was so yummy!).  Apparently it was the first time they'd used their waffle iron since moving down there.... :)  We eventually got everything together and made the journey home.  Henlie was fine the whole trip, although she and I did come home with colds :(  It was a wonderful get-away.

Of things that happened, but don't warrant their own post.  Besides, today is the last day of the quarter.  If they all had their own post, we might never get to them! ;)

They aren't! hahaha The Covalt party was held on New Year's Day this year.  Truly, it's nice to have a party after Christmas to free up December a little.

We ate yummy food and then the littles got to play piñata.  It was adorable!  They got a good haul, too.








After the piñata, we had a white elephant gift exchange.  We ended up coming home with a fun cup and swirly straw, a package of lighters, and ...something else. (hey, I'm finishing this post on the last day of March, give me a break! :))

I know it only took 3 months, but I think we're finally caught up on the Christmas posts!

So, umm, our Christmas morning is pretty much all in video form.... :D  However, we got up, and Henlie opened presents. (We did too, but let's be honest, she's the one everyone cares about ;))  By this point, she was pretty good at this whole present thing.  She knew what to do!  She got some bath toys and new clothes.  She also got her traditional new ornament and hope chest item.

Matt got some new clothes, a pop-up net for soccer, and a Los Gringos scarf.  I got two new books and a shirt.

After presents, we loaded up and went to Grandma Biggs' house!  Sibling gifts were later in the day when Jason and Camile would make it, but Mom let Matt open his stocking.


After brunch (mmm caramel cinnamon rolls :D), we went downstairs to open sibling presents.  Lynell got the girls a stuffed dog and cat.  After that, with all of the chaos around, Henlie was disinterested in opening her own presents :)


Grandma sure knows how to spoil us.  The grandkids got homemade puppets and two books, plus new clothes and a couple little plastic toys.  Couples got a binder of recipes (so excited!) some movies from their childhood (California Raisins, anyone?), and food storage items. 

Jennifer had us this year.  She got Henlie another new outfit and a fun soccer ball that plays music and has numbers and colors on it.  She got us a Skookie set. (They were yummy!) 


We had Jackie and Curtis.  However, we only had something for Christopher to open.  A girl I went to high school with sells appliqued onesies, and they are adorable!  Chris got a dress onesie with a vest and tie appliqued on it and some brown pants to match.  Jackie and Curtis got an e-code for $25 in iTunes.


That afternoon, Matt and Henlie played soccer in our dining room with his new goal and her new ball.  It was so cute! (She has some natural soccer talent :))  Since the tree was in the dining room this year, I'd moved the kitchen table into the kitchen for Christmas morning.  Cabinets on three sides plus a tablecloth made it an instant fort, which we totally played in!




I love the low-key feeling to our Christmases now.  (One year of being flat broke helps you make that adjustment ;))  Thanks to our awesome parents, we still get pretty spoiled.  This year was especially fun for me because I did really well on Matt's gifts.  I didn't even ask him once what he'd like.  (I totally wrote down things he said earlier in the year so I wouldn't forget! haha)  He was surprised and got things he really did want.  Low-key presents mean less stress and more time to hang out together.  It really is great :)

With December comes parties.  Lots of them.  We started off with our ward party on Friday, Dec.13th.  I took time off of work so we could actually go.  Luck would have it that the baby took a late nap, and we weren't sure if we were going to make it.  She did wake up, and we got there late.  It worked out because she got to bed later than usual, so at least she was pleasant.  We got there in time to grab some dinner before the program started.  It was the nativity story, and it was cute.

Next was McKade's birthday on Friday, Dec. 20th.  I worked that night, so I didn't join in the fun, but the whole family did get together on Thursday the 19th to see Frozen.  Since it was at 6:20, my cousin Elisabeth babysat Henlie and put her to bed for us.  Jackie and Curtis were in town for the break, so we had everyone plus Charlie and Christopher.  With all of the adults, we took up a full row!  The movie was adorable.


Saturday, Dec. 21st, we got together for family pictures since everyone was in town.  After pictures, we got to see my parents as well, since they had come up for a Christmas dinner with Dad's parents and siblings.  Then that afternoon, we had the Hadfield party where we ate yummy soups and went sledding with the four-wheelers.  So much fun!  We of course had hot cocoa, but after yummy soup, I was too warm to enjoy cocoa.  Fortunately, I have an awesome husband who bundled back up and took me on a four-wheeler ride, just the two of us while everyone else was inside.  Cooled me right down so I was able to get some cocoa ;)







Sunday, Dec. 22nd, we had the Christiansen party.  We had dinner and then opened presents.  Only real difference was this year, we did presents upstairs since Grandpa can't get downstairs at the moment.  Henlie got a doll (that is machine washable!) and we got a gratitude journal and a challenge to write down things we are thankful for throughout the year to take to the party next year.  So far, I'm doing really well writing in it.  Matt has even written a few things down. :)



Christmas Eve is always the Wilson party.  Henlie loved the pass-along gifts.  We had yummy dinner and had a tiny program.  Apparently Grandma is a little sad that no one does anything for the program anymore.  Fortunately, Benjamin and Rebecca are still little enough that they perform for us :)  Then we sing carols (we did better with all of the words this year - yay for phone apps!), and I read the Christmas story in Luke.  Then we all sing Silent Night, and it is present time!  This year, we only put Henlie in the cousin draw.  It was much nicer only having to come up with one gift :)




Christmas Day will be its own post :)

My birthday fell on a Thursday this year, which meant Matt was gone to work and class all day.  So it was me and the baby all day.  And frigid temperatures!

We had a pretty relaxing day.  We texted Matt a lot and posted our happenings on Facebook. (Including learning how to take a snapshot of my phone to show just how cold it was!)


A whole bunch of people wished me happy birthday on Facebook. Love notifications :)


I dressed cozy.  While the baby napped, I walked the dog and got the mail.  I got a birthday card from my parents. :)


I also put together bookshelves for Henlie's room. Finally! Somewhere to put all of the kids' books I've been storing :)


I was going to watch my new favorite show, Reign, but Henlie had lost our remote weeks prior, and I couldn't find it.  Needless to say, I still ended up watching it online after-the-fact. (We did find the remote that Saturday, in the kitchen, behind the cheese grater...)

I made myself a cake on Saturday - because I wanted a chocolate carmel cake and didn't get to it on my birthday :)

All in all, it was a pretty low-key birthday, but it was still enjoyable :)