Jeff, Dawn and the girls came down for close to a week over Thanksgiving and boy was it good to see them! Poor Ashley though wasn't used to all of the noise that comes with five additional people at Grandma and Papa Hillins house and was given the name 'fussy pants' during their stay but we can't blame her...she is used to our quiet routine at home! Evidence of 'fussy pants' - Lauren was so so so excited to see baby Ashley and this was the reception that she got :(
It did get better though - by mid week Ashley was thankful that Lauren would pick her up, cart her around and play with her! After we got over there on Saturday we had a quick lunch and naps before having the Hillins family pic. Grandma Pauline and Trevor looked dashing in their navy!
One of the Hillins' friends came over and snapped a few pics of us. He did pretty good considering the task at hand - getting five kids under the age of 7 to look at the camera. Smiling was a bonus!
It was so cold and raining most of the day but the rain let up so that we could get a pic outside. Notice the gloomy skies :(
Daddy took a quick pic of Mommy and Ashley to see how much she's changed in one year!
Yep, she's grown quite a bit!
Most of the pics from our week together are family pics. It's nice when Dawn is around because she helps us get family pics that we don't always take the time to get. We even got one of just Mommy and her two angels.
We may have had to feed Ashley cheerios through out the photo sessions...and as you can see she likes to stock pile them in her mouth like a chipmunk!
Oh, wait! Are we actually all smiling?? Yay!
Maybe even two smiling ones! Wow! Thanks Dawn!
We were hoping to get one of all of the grand kids but Ashley wasn't having it!
She wanted out. She was done!
So we got one of the four older grand kids instead :)
After Ashley settled down a bit we tried to get a pic of our two cuties. This was as good as it got. How many pictures do we need anyway? LOL
We slept over at the Hillins' house that night so that it was like old times before we moved here and had our own home. The kids, plus Jeff, enjoyed watching a movie!
On Sunday we went to church and had brunch at the Troon Country Club with the Hillins' friends, Jim and Mary Pat who took the family pic for us. They don't have any grand kids yet so it was fun for them to be around all of us and we enjoy being around them too. After that some people braved the yet again chilly weather for a game of bean bags!
Some of us preferred to stay inside and play before enjoying a yummy ham dinner.
We have a separate post about Trevor's birthday day (Monday) so on to Tuesday. We started our day at Trevor's 4 year well check. He passed his vision check somehow (he's such a teaser....she'd point to an object and he'd chuckle and say a different object. So hopefully he really can see!) His stats:
Weight: 38lbs (65th percentile)
Height: 41.75 inches (80th percentile)
He handled his three shots without any crying. He was ready for them. He cheerfully asked the doctor if he was getting more than one shot today and when the doctor said yes, Trevor let out a big woo hoo. Our ped, Dr. Siegel said he's never once in his fifteen years of practice had a kid actually ask for and want shots!
When it came to the nurse actually doing the shots, he was just fine. The first two were a piece of cake but the MMR one is a bit painful so Trevor let the nurse know that it hurt a lot. Mommy was prepared to bribe him with a toy at Target to get through the shots but nope, didn't need to! He walked out, got two stickers and that was that!
After his appointment we headed to Grandma and Papa's house for a quick swim and lunch then home for naps. When he woke up he said his one leg really hurt. So much so he wasn't putting any real weight on it. But he rallied enough to go to soccer...he knew that Grandma Pauline, Papa John and his cousins were coming to watch (Jeff and Dawn were having a getaway at a local hotel)! Trevor made Papa so proud by wearing his ASU (gold and maroon outfit)!
Ashley was soaking up the sunshine during his practice. Apparently she thought it was warm enough to take off her socks!
It sure was fun having the girls at soccer!
Leah kept giving Trevor a thumbs up!
And when practice was done, Lauren stormed the field to give Trevor a big hug and tell him he did a good job!
The kids played for a bit at the playground before we headed to Wolfley's (a nearby restaurant in Desert Ridge) where kids eat free on Tuesdays. Lauren was such a good big cousin playing Trevor's new favorite game...tic-tac-toe!
While we were waiting for our food, Lauren asked if we could take a pic with Ashley. Of course! #threepersonselfie
After dinner we headed over to the snowfall (read bubbles). The kids thought it was a blast and the adults had fun too!
That night we discovered that there must have been something bad with Lauren's chips or Trevor's fries because both Lauren and Trevor threw up (and they shared each other's side dishes). Lauren made it mostly in the toilet thankfully since Grandma Pauline and Papa John were in charge but poor Trevor got sick all over his bed. Literally,all over everything! Mommy found out about it in the morning...Daddy said it wasn't a two person job (sure sounded like it though) so he let her sleep! Pure love.
On Wednesday Trevor and Lauren were feeling fine so we visited Jeff and Dawn at their hotel for the kids to go swimming and use the water slide. Trevor was apparently just a bit too short to go but they said he could go if Jeff stayed at the bottom of the slide and caught him.
At first Trevor sat up the whole way down but then Uncle Jeff told him to lay back and he'd go faster so he did and pretty soon all he wanted to do was to race someone!
All of the swimmers!
And Ashley? She was perfectly content eating (and dumping out) Cheerios!
After going home for naps, we decided to spend the night at the Hillins' one last time. Ashley's first overnight there was less than ideal (even with us bringing her crib mattress) with her waking up frequently but we thought maybe now that she was more familiar with the room we stay in it would be better. So, we packed up, met everyone for dinner and had a nice night...including a hot tub chat with Jeff and Dawn. A did pretty good that night, only getting up once before Sara went to bed and then once in the middle of the night but then she was wide awake at 6am!!
On Wednesday Trevor and Lauren were feeling fine so we visited Jeff and Dawn at their hotel for the kids to go swimming and use the water slide. Trevor was apparently just a bit too short to go but they said he could go if Jeff stayed at the bottom of the slide and caught him.
We had a somewhat relaxing Thanksgiving morning thanks to Grandma Pauline being so organized, so some of the kids and Papa John went swimming!
We also had a quick parade just like the Macy's parade we were watching on the TV!
Then it was time to get ready for the big meal and Mr. Trevor put on the wrong underwear! Silly boy!
The girls were ready!
What a feast Grandma Pauline prepared!! She even made separate dairy free things for Sara and Ashley so that they didn't feel left out. Everything was so so yummy! Now if only Auntie Dawn's popovers could be made dairy free :)
After we stuffed ourselves and some kids took naps, we tried again for a grand-kid picture :)
Ashley was okay for that one but then she was done. No more pictures she said!
She wasn't even going to suck it up for a quick pic with our guest of honor at Thanksgiving, Aunt Nancy! It sure was fun spending the day with her and hearing all about what her and her kids are up to!
And because we didn't have enough pictures of the four of us (ha!) we tried for some more!
Trevor was just fine smiling away!
And even Ashley broke out of her crabbiness for a few shots!
This Thanksgiving we are especially thankful for our family of four, each of our extended families, safe travels, health and....
...beautiful sunsets on our last night with Jeff, Dawn and girls!
Even if neither one of our families got a good sunset picture! It was probably God's way of saying we have enough :) Happy Thanksgiving everyone!
