The Answer is No.

The last post asked if the sickness would ever end and the answer is no, I dont think it will.
How was everyones Thanksgiving? We left on Wednesday and drove to St George, Ut to spend it with my grandparents. The first night we got there, Lexa threw up and Clara had sour stomach and a really high fever. It was a fun night. Thanksgiving dinner was great even if I did have to run to the grocery store for more cough medicine. I think Clara had an ear infection from being a little congested and then going over some mountain passes. She survived with Tylenol. My grandparents took us to a new park that cost around $3.7 million to build. It was really cool and pictures are the only way I can describe it but I dont have a way to post them here. You can see them at www.steffandnols.com. We also got to see the Christmas lights on at the St George temple. I remember going to see my grandparents in Arizona for Thanksgiving and going to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. We had a lot of fun hanging out, beside the wonderful cold we all got!!!! I thought I was allergic to the cat, but it is more than that and Nolan got it the day we headed home. Really, we will be sick all winter I think.
We headed home Sunday morning expecting to be behind a storm, but it ended up shutting down I-70, plus the traffic was so bad that it was taking 3 hours to go 10 miles anyway. We decided to stay the night in Glenwood Springs, before it got too expensive in Eagle, Avon or Vail. We stayed at a nice enough hotel, got to see some Christmas lights in town, rented a movie and got to see the sights. The next morning Nolan had to call in to a couple of meetings so I took the girls and headed into town. I was going to take them to a park but saw a sign for Doc Holiday's gravesite. It turned out to be a trail to a pioneer cemetary that was really cool. We could see all of Glenwood Springs and the cemetary had an average death date of 1880. We got left around 11:30, made it through some wet roads, and made it home later that night.
Today we got to take out all of our Christmas ornaments. Some people really get into Halloween, but I really like Christmas. Last year we couldnt get all the ornaments on the tree but Lexa found a way this year. There is a lot to get done before Christmas, but it is a fun time of year. We are very excited to get a new stocking for Clara!

Will The Sickness Ever End?

I wrote 10 days ago about being sick. Well, Lexa got sick the next day and Nolan and Clara got sick the day after that. When the stomach bug finally started to subside, we all had a head cold! Now that that is clearing up, we are getting the stomach bug back!! I am tired of this. But I will say that I have been pretty darn good about not drinking pop! I have had a few here and there, but even when we eat out I have had lemonades instead. Hard to tell if it is helping with still being sick and all, but I really still feel that it is the right answer.

Arent Weekends Great?!

Nolan and I love to play games, like Ticket to Ride and Catan games, but sometimes have a hard time finding people who love to play as much as we do. We knew a few people in Texas and finally found someone here in Colorado who loves to play as well. We got to spend hours on Friday night at the Pippins house playing games to our hearts content. We played Alhambra, Ticket to Ride, Ruckus, Gillatine (sp?). We are hoping one of the days of forced two week vacation from HP during Christmas will be a good time to play more. We even worked out a way to get my girls to sleep at their house so we didnt need a babysitter.
The next morning we woke up bright and early. I packed while Nolan fed the girls. Around 8:30 we left our house. We dropped Clara off at my mom's house and then went to Colorado Springs. This was our first night without our baby! We went to our old neighbors house who now live in the Springs, left Lexa and went to the BYU/Air Force game. One year we get to see 2 BYU games, the next none. Why cant they play Air Force here one year, then here at CSU the next? Oh well. I was all set to cheer for Air Force, but our tickets were not in the BYU section and Nolan was getting a hard time from an obnoxious fan a few rows up, so I supported my husband instead. Turns out, the more we ignored the guy, the quieter he got. The lady next to me said he was annoying enough to make her even cheer for BYU. The first half was a close game, but the second BYU pulled ahead and stayed ahead. The game was riddled with penalties including one for a defensive delay of game (while they were already at the line of scrimage) and a BYU player who false started about 6 times by himself! It was a good game but it would have been better if it was not so cold. Hand warmers and hot cider helped.
We spent the night at our friends house. We had some awesome Cinnicinati style chili (which I highly recommend to anyone who has not had some before). We were all tired and sick so we went to bed pretty early. Sunday we had a great breakfast, courtesy of Dave, of french toast and bacon. We hung out most of the day and let Lexa play with her friend Julie. They used to fight all the time but are getting better and better every time they see each other. There was only one small incident this time. Katie and I are so happy! After the Broncos game we all went out to eat at Red Robin. The whole weekend I was amazed at the Donohoue's baby because she is sooooooooo quiet and happy.
We headed home to get our baby. My mom did a great job taking care of her overnight. Clara screamed the entire 45 min drive home, making me all the more glad for the one night and two days we had of peace. Babies are HARD WORK!!!!
There is one more funny thing I want to mention. The day before we left our washer would only go straight to final spin and nothing else, so I washed 4 loads at our neighbors house. I tried to scan a picture for Grandpa Wright, the scanner stopped working. When we got home tonight the TV in Lexa's playroom was not showing pictures, just sound. This is a problem we have had before and a friend took the tv apart and fixed it. Our trucks transmission has also been slipping. SO, all these things combined all at once was starting to get to me, especially right before we would be starting to try to buy Christmas present. When we got home tonight Nolan took a look at the scanner. Turned it off, started again, IT WORKS!! Looked at the tv, unplugged it, started it again, IT WORKS!! Again, he unplugged the washer, plugged it back in, and (guess what?) IT WORKS!! For the love of Pete! This always happened while I was growing up as well. Things would be broken but as soon as dad touched anything, it worked again. I guess Nolan also has the special touch.

God is Great!

I had a small but very nice and impressive experience tonight. Actually I am still having it and hope the bad part will go away soon.
Nolan and I try to keep in mind the principle of Thy Will be Done. So when Lexa asks at night for Clara to stop crying, we try to tell her we need to ask for Heavenly Father to help us know how to help Clara stop crying. Well, when I was pregnant I was very sick my third trimester. I threw up a lot! and ended up in the hospital one night because of it. I was on a lot of drugs until I had Clara to help me feel better. Since then I have had this nauseous feeling come and go about every week. I haven't actually thrown up until tonight. I have had SO many people tell me to just go ahead and be sick, then I will feel better. That never happens for me! I have spent the last two and a half hours being very sick, including my stomach hurting very bad. So as I am in pain and trying to read the Ensign to distract my mind from how bad my body felt, I just started praying and praying and praying for Heavenly Father to take this feeling from me. I told Nolan I would rather have my arm cut open than have this feeling anymore. Well, the answer was easy and immediate. I have always been an admitted pop-aholic. I drink diet, but a LOT of it. The answer is that the carbonation is eating my stomach. Right now I have to make a determination to stop!!! I will probably have some if we go out once in a while, but stop buying it and drinking 5 average a day! I know that this will help my stomach heal, without drugs.
I am so thankful for the opportunity I have to pray. I know I have someone to go to when I feel completely helpless and lost. I wonder how many times I have been given these simple impressions and not listen to them. I hope I can listen harder!

A New Day

Well, my choice did not win on Tuesday but I am hoping and praying for Obama. It is fun and a little hard to explain the world to a 5 year old but she is like a sponge and ready to learn! She said on Monday that Obama was the bad guy. I told her he wasnt bad but just someone we didnt agree with. When we told her today that Obama won she asked if it was the guy we didnt agree with. When I said yes, she said, "Well, we arent letting him in our house!" It was pretty funny. But I also did my best to try and explain to her the significance of the first black president for our country. She is confused as to how I dont agree with him, voted for a different guy but there are still some good things that have come from this. Sometimes it is also confusing to me but I am trying to make the best of the situation. The best thing now is that it is the end of commercials and 200 calls a day for the election!!! Let me know what you thought of the elections, either local or national!
As for Lexa, she sure loves her Uncle Caleb. He called tonight and I havent heard her chat like that in a while. They talked and talked. It was very cute. She has her big 5 year old check up at the doctor tomorrow and knows she will have a lot of shots. I have bribbed her with ice cream. I think it will work! She wants the giant cup from Sams Club that costs about $1.
Clara has been very fussy and seems to be in pain while she has been eating for a while now. She had been on Zantac for acid reflux before she started eating solid food but the reflux was very slight. We stopped once she started eating solids but the doctor thinks the reflux has come back even stronger. So we doubled her Zantac and hopefully she will be more pleasant during meal times.
One more note. We have a friend with a blog who mentioned her son was eating his pizza with the topping side down (obviously with toppings that didnt fall off too easily) and so she tried it. What a novel idea, letting the toppings hit your tongue instead of the roof of your mouth. I think I will try it tomorrow while watching the Broncos game.

Another week gone by

On Sunday our ward had their primary program. I am Lexa's teacher and asked her many times a day what her line for the program was, and she knew it. Then she was the only kid who was too shy to spit it out! Then I found out that I inadverdently taught another kid his lines just while in class. Ah well, she has her mom's stage fright.
Monday was uneventful. Tuesday was babysat a couple of kids. Wednesday Lexa got to bring in her birthday treat and show-and-tell. Most kids bring cupcakes on their birthday, but Lexa wanted Entemens chocolate doughnuts. Apparently Walmart in Loveland does not sell those (or they were too lazy to admit it and check it out for me). She brought in a v-tech globe that is pretty cool.
Thursday was Lexa's birthday. She opened presents in the morning and had waffles for breakfast. We got her a v-smile hand-held game system. I dont think she has set it down since. Good thing most of the games are educational! She also got the new TinkerBell movie. It is pretty cute. We went to McDonalds for lunch and she didnt even put her game system down to play at the play place. Then we went to school. It was their Halloween party. Lexa dressed as a butterfly. We cut out wings from cardboard boxes and painted them. She was very insistent that it be a blue butterfly. We also put pipecleaners on a headband. She was adorable but the wings were very unweildy. They were a little too big. That night we had a family and neighbor dinner of quasadillas. That was all one day. whew.
Today we carved some pumpkins, went shopping, made chili for the ward party, did trick-or-treating at HP, then went to the ward party. They had a chili and mac-n-cheese potluck and then the kids played a real life Candyland to find King Candy at the end. It was cool because they left all the parents to chat and eat in the cultural hall while they took our kids. Then Nolan took Lexa around our neighborhood while I put Clara to bed and handed out candy. We dont live in the hotzone of trick-or-treating, but we had a handful of kids. We still have a ton of candy left over, not to mention the candy from trick-or-treating at HP and our neighborhood and the ward party!!
Now we are gearing up for the BYU/CSU football game tomorrow. Go RAMS!!!

We Survived :)

Well, about 3 or so families didnt show up to the party, so it wasnt absolutely crazy. It was a lot of fun. Our neighbor Jen helped decorate the day before and spent most of the party helping us with Clara. She is awesome!! We also got to see our friends from Colorado Springs. We love to spend time with them. At times, the Wii tennis tournament seemed more out of control than the kids! One friend cracked her own 2 year old in the head with the Wii-mote, another hit her husband, and my friend from the Springs hit my pinky finger and made it bleed! It was a blast and the final winners were Nolan and Jeff (a dad of a girl from Lexa's preschool class). Shawn and Meredith Logan came in a close second.
Afterwards Jen, Katie Donohoue and I cleaned up as best we could. Then a friend came to help blow out our sprinklers for the winter. It took them a few hours to figure out how to do it. We finally ordered dinner from this awesome restaraunt (not too many to chose from where we live) with the worst name in the world (the Ant's Locker Room). They were pretty good enchiladas. Now the girls have crashed and Nolan and I are ready to do the same. Whew! Now for the primary program tomorrow...

New Hobby

I feel bad a lot that I dont journal, but I love to read and get to know other people through their blogs. So I thought I might give it the old college try. Maybe now I can help other people get to know me and us, but also I can look back and remember fun things.
A couple of funny things Lexa is saying right now:
The primary program is singing I Am A Child Of God. A line from the 4th verse says "Celestial glory shall be mine, if I can but endure." The primary chorister asked the kids what endure means. Most kids started talking about going indoors. So I asked Lexa later that night what she thought it meant. She thinks it means getting her "butt in doors". It is too cute for me to correct for now. She has a whole lifetime to grow up!
We also were talking a lot about hurricane Ike (some of our hearts are still in Texas). Nolan started noticing that Lexa was pronouncing hurricane a little funny. So I asked her to say it. It sounds exactly like 'whore'ican. It is pretty funny.

Well, we are getting ready for a big birthday party tomorrow. My little Lexa is turning 5. Her birthday is always so close to Halloween that we either have to have the party way early or way late (it is Oct 30th). I wanted to keep it small, but it just kept growing and Growing and GROWING! We will have about 15 families here tomorrow. Kinda freaking out! But it is only from 1-3 so we dont have to have lunch or dinner. We have little gourds for the kids to paint and cookies to decorate and a pinata. Since we invited the whole family we are having a Wii tennis tournament for the adults. We even have a prize, a gift certificate to Target. It should be wild and crazy!!! I havent even tried to REALLY clean the house because I know it will just be trashed anyway. :)

So, there is my first attempt that blogging. Hope you enjoy and please let me know if I am slacking!