We're in Nebraska!

About a month ago, we left Utah and made it to Nebraska. 

Tim and I were both sick for a few weeks leading up to the move. This was bad. It meant that we were WAY behind on packing, Jake had to do most of it, and we were at our apartment until 6 AM the day we were supposed to be out trying to finish. And we didn't clean any of it... just vacuumed...

Halfway across Wyoming, Tim's sickness got worse. He all of a sudden started spiking a temp of 102+ and sleeping 19-20h. Poor buddy. We had planned on stopping in Loveland, CO to visit Tim's great grandma and grampa. Since it would only add about an hour and a half of driving time and we have no idea when we'd make it back, we swung on down from Cheyenne to stop by for a 30-40 minute visit.

We got into Bellevue around 0200 that night with a sick, miserable little bear. The next morning as soon as they were open, we headed off to the Urgent Care. 

His cold had turned into Bacterial Bronchitis!

It did mean lots of snuggle time - especially for Mama (who wound up going to Urgent Care a few days later because her cold had turned into a sinus infection). Occasionally, he found his Dada to be an acceptable substitution. Especially if there was a phone used as bribery so that he could watch Pocoyo. 

Thankfully, Tim started perking up just in time for Christmas. Here we are listening to Bapa (Grandpa) read the Christmas Story. Tim was still running a fever, thus the lack of pants.

Something must have been funny!

Grammy got a Tim friendly Nativity set that he LOVED to play with!

This is what Santa brought Tim for Christmas morning:

The tree, presents, and cats:

Tim was appropriately excited and went right to work...

By taking apart the barn, of course!

Tim quickly got the hang of opening presents (good practice for his birthday next month). I even let him open this big one, even though it was for me.

Tim has had a blast playing with the "Meow"s. He won't go to bed at night now unless he gets to give at least one of them a hug.

Aunt "NoNo" (Laura) got Tim a little wooden cooking set of some pots and spoons.

He likes to make juice. :-)

These are random.... Jake was moving some things around from drawers and Rat Cat hopped on up to investigate!

Tim LOOOOOOVES bathtime. In fact, the only thing better than bathtime is bathtime with "Mommy" (Grammy). 

In the evenings when we ask him if he'd like to take a bath, he gets very excited and runs to find his grandma shouting "MOMMY! MOMMY! BATH! BATH, MOMMY! BUP! BUP, BATH! MOMMY!" (Bup = up. The bathtub is UPstairs).

One night he even convinced Grammy to paint his toenails!

There is more catching up to do. But this will have to suffice for now! :-)

December

December is going to be a bit of a crazy month for our family. 

Jake is finishing his last semester. So he is busy writing papers summarizing his research, finishing class assignments, helping students for the class he TA's, preparing for finals, working 20+ hours a week at his THREE campus jobs, etc. Lots to do!

I am much less busy than Jake overall. During the days I'm home watching Tim (which does keep me hopping!). Evenings are when I start my running around! I have been volunteering once a week at the Volunteer Care Clinic - a clinic that provides free healthcare for low income and uninsured families in Provo. It is also the busy season for my handbell choir. I have 4-5 performances a week from now until we move.

Oh yes, and we're moving! (So any free time we have is spent trying to pack up our apartment. You accumulate A LOT of stuff once you have kids)

We have to be out of our apartment on December 19th. That's only two and a half weeks, YIKES!

Where are we going?

Good question. We'd like to know, too!

Jake is currently applying/interviewing for jobs. In fact, he has his first telephone interview tomorrow morning  for a position with DowAgro in Oregon. Oregon wasn't our first choice, but a job is a job! So any free prayers you have, send them his way!

In the meantime, we are going to Nebraska for Christmas. The plan is to just hang out there until we have somewhere else to go. Hopefully we won't be in limbo for TOO long. 

December is hectic to begin with, but ours will be even crazier! So as much as I have enjoyed being a bit of a more regular blogger..... the blogging might be pretty sporadic until we get somewhat settled somewhere. 

There WILL be Christmas pictures of Tim though!

Duck Pond

Earlier this week, Tim and I were out running errands and finished up about the time Jake was going to be done on campus for the day. The duck pond is just down the hill from the chemistry building, so went for a visit while we waited for Jake to finish and meet us.

Tim waving "HI" to one of the ducks.

"GUCK!!!"

Thanksgiving in Minnesota

So.... obviously I haven't been good about my "Thankful a Day" thing. For a while I was keeping track and meaning to catch up on the blogging.... And obviously I didn't. Now there's just too much to make up for. But, I still thought of at least one thing each day that I am grateful for. Which still fills the goal/point of the exercise. The end.

We went to see Jake's family in Minnesota for Thanksgiving. We flew out on Friday November 16th and came back to Utah on Saturday November 24th. It was nice to have such a long visit!

The weather was beautiful while we were there. We got to take Tim to the park on THREE different days. So he got lots of time playing with cousins!

We all got awesome haircuts from Jake's sister Sarah!

Tim LOVED sitting on his Grandma's lap and watching her play facebook games. :-)

And he fancied himself quite the little pianist.

I hurt my elbow a few weeks before we left, so Jolene magicked it up with some accupuncture needles. Which helped a lot. Hopefully it all goes away within the next few weeks so I don't have to go get something drastic done!

Tim helping me make Swedish Sweet Rolls on Thanksgiving morning.