Idaho Christmas

Due to Christmas Eve being on a Thurs and Christmas on a Friday Tony was able to take one day off of work and we had loved ones help us get to Idaho for almost an entire week (without the older boys, however, since they were with their other parents this Christmas)!

This holiday season has been more miraculous than we possibly would have guessed and our gratitude buckets are overflowing! We have so many people who love and support us and we are so humbled and grateful.

But what is Christmas without a little drama?

As we were frantically loading the car Tony sliced his hand on this protruding piece of metal from one of the handles you can hold on to--obviously it's a broken handle...(look at Rhett's face :)

Yeah, pretty sure that dark spot is his vein and the yellowish/whitish stuff is his fat--our Christmas miracle that it didn't slice into that vein or we wouldn't have escaped a trip to urgent care.

As it was, however, we ran over to Spencer's house to abscond some "Saniderm" (breathable, waterproof alternative-to-stitches-stuff we learned about from Claudia Orgill at healthypreparedness.blogspot.com). After things kinda calmed down I thanked Tony for volunteering his body since I've been wondering how well it would work!

Then we picked up this adorable little guy to take to Rexburg for a friend's Christmas present.

There may have been a few tears shed when we had to say good-bye...

Making homemade yogurt pops with Gma Laretta!

The next day--pretty amazing (he changed the Saniderm daily for awhile)!

Blurry, but this guy was a 5th grade student in my class the year I got engaged to his uncle :) And he's leaving on a mission to Seoul, South Korea (where Tony was that same school year!)!! Crazy!

One of our favorite Dayton/Summers' traditions--the white elephant gift exchange. These guys know how to do it right! Tony got a self-authored "How to Eat Figgy Pudding" from Jaxon (11), Rhett got a cool slingshot guy (that would have been a funny gift for anyone else, but for him it was a real awesome present!), I got a JUMBO pencil (for Jyson, I knew he'd totally love and USE it), and Ari got a ginormo box of old crayons/coloring books (both kids scored--which is good since they don't quite understand why the rest of us were guffawing loudly at all the rest of the presents...unicorn puppets for your hands? an old Fred Flinstone costume? the CAT box? gooood stuff...)

Then we opened up a real gift. The only present Rhett REALLY wanted were lightning McQueen jammies so of course he had to open those up the night before. HOWEVER, the funniest thing...I accidentally bought some look-a-like monster truck jammies!! Good thing those were a last-minute purchase I found at Wal-mart for cheap-o and so I gave him the real deal the next day from "Santa" (I was planning on returning those since they were way more expensive). 

Christmas morning :o

"Grandma can paint my toes, blue, right? That's a boy color..." Well, I guess it IS Christmas...

Our dazzling diva

This guy loves comfy clothes!

Since my parents live so close to his mom we always do Christmas morning at one place and then head over to the other house to do Christmas there. And since it wasn't the 'Cobia' year for Christmas and no one else was there, my mom spoiled us all totally rotten!

So cute!

Ahhh...her own baby, maybe she'll leave mine alone a bit more? Or at least we can both rock and feed our babies at the same time :)

Here's my baby-doll!! 

Tony made everyone strike a pose before eating Christmas dinner--and knowing him, they did :)

Aunt Dina, aka Santa Claus ALSO waaay spoiled us rotten giving us DoTerra oils and wow, Carson's laptop (since he's leaving on a mission and Tony's totally died and he reaally needs one for his 2nd part-time job)...how'd we get so lucky?!

And this shows our croupy little guy who still managed to be happy...I had planned to stay a few extra days at my parents house and then head back to Utah with my mom for New Year's but 2 days after Christmas he randomly (and very scarily) started 'barking' so we headed back to Utah since his insurance only covers him there...luckily we didn't need to take him in. I just slept by him, did Oregano/Breathe oils, Aconitum and Kid-e-Well (Dr. Christopher's). After 2 nights he was doing soo much better and it was my turn to get a plugged duct and a fever...so my mommy took care of me :) I was soo grateful she was there!

This frog was a present from Kelsi...apparently he's guarding the Baby Jesus back at our house :)

December

preschool fun...reflections of Christmas objects and baking soda/vinegar cookie cutters :)


Happy B-day cutie Sienna! We're so glad to be close enough to celebrate with you!

Hot dog Rhett, compliments of Jyson



ARE YOU KIDDING?? Rhett's head seriously attracted no less than 10 'attacks'...I only took pictures of the worst ones...and Ari decided to join in on the fun...luckily hers was only once. No stitches, just lots of horrible bruises and sad tears :(



Thank goodness we have this chubaluba to cheer us all up :) Daddy has never been cuter with a newborn than with this guy! Maybe it was because he spent so much time mentally preparing for 'what if' birthing scenarios with me!

Rhett's artistic shot of our Christmas village


His santa 'item' changed daily as this was the first year he really got into all of the Christmas-asking stuff, but when he finally saw Santa he just ran up and reverently laid his cheek on Santa's for most of their visit.

My cutie Santa kiddos--for some reason the older boys didn't see the need to sit on Santa's lap and decided to read upstairs instead (we're at the library)...

Maeser, 2 months & blessing day

Since everyone was there for Thanksgiving weekend (minus Spencer who was in Japan on business--but his kiddos/wifey were here & of course Dev/Sherilyn are in DC) I figured it'd be a good weekend to have Mr. Maeser's blessing. We also have some of my mom's family close by so it was a good group who were there to support us and we were so grateful! Those in the circle were: Tony, my Dad, my Uncle T-bird, cousin Jason, cousin Emmett, cousin Jean-Mi & the bishop. Jyson got to hold the mic. It was a short and sweet blessing--fitting for our little sweet spirited guy. Seriously, I see his eyes just trying to have a conversation with me, and heaven is definitely near.





And big-time thanks goes to a family in our ward for the blessing outfit--I had planned for him to wear the same one Rhett & Jaydon wore (my mom made it), but it's location has still yet to be discovered--normally it's been in the hope chest, but maybe in the move I relocated it?? Grr...


At 2 months:
-He is finding his voice.
-He smiles all the time!
-He loves to follow faces intently
-After 3 days in a row where I seriously thought he was giving up sleep all together he started getting better & better with his days...he can put himself to sleep without any props pretty well, though he still likes the swaddle.
-He has a bedtime usually about 7pm and was doing really great, sleeping longer and longer at night--even until 4am! Unfortunately, that didn't last, but he usually only gets up twice/night.
-With more awareness he's becoming pretty chill (unless of course he's hungry!)
-We're hearing the hints of a laugh!
-He rolled over three times from tummy to back right in a row but doesn't like his tummy enough to do it again
-I discovered he has a tongue-tie so we're going to have to take him in to get it check out (and the raised bump is still there on his ankle too). I didn't notice it before because he hasn't had any issues with eating at all!
-Ari especially has taken to him--she will pick you up (whether I like it or not) every.chance.she.gets!!

And though I forgot to get a big group photo with everyone who showed up for dessert after the blessing, here's a couple of us :)



And thanks Mom, for catching a few pics I didn't know you were getting :) Especially that last one! I never have very many pictures with my kiddos, usually since I'm the one taking them so I'm always excited to have a couple good ones, especially with my newborns!