Here in Utah

My kids and I finally made it to Utah. I can't believe how much stuff I packed and brought with me on this trip. I had one big suit case, a carry on sized suit case, a co-sleeper (basically like a pack and play... for Natalie to sleep in), two car seats, a double stroller, a diaper bag, and a backpack. Everyone at the airport probably thought I was crazy. Jocelyn also had her own little backpack filled with toys and coloring books. I have been stressing about this trip for weeks and it turned out fine. We woke up at 4 AM and drove into the Chicago Midway airport. We left around 5:15 AM and got there around 7:20 AM and my flight was at 8:40 AM. We didn't think that traffic would be that bad, but I was glad that we made it with enough time to go through security. The nice thing was that we didn't have to wait too long before boarding the plane. I packed plenty of snacks to eat on the plane and had my laptop with me so the kids could watch the Wiggles and Finding Nemo. We arrived in Salt Lake about 40 minutes early. It was great that we got there early, but Valeria didn't know it was going to arrive early so we had to wait about 40 minutes before she would get to the airport. So I was planning on having Valeria there to help me get the luggage, but since she wasn't going to be there I had Jocelyn help me push the cart with all the luggage piled on top. It was pretty funny. I eventually just had to push the cart so far and then come push the stroller so far.... and so forth until I got to the benches to sit and wait for Valeria to come.
Valeria finally got to the airport and we were able to load and fit everything in her CRV. Valeria was nice enough to make us some yummy quesadillas filled with some cafe rio sweet pork. All of us were starving!!! The girls actually took a short nap in the car so they didn't nap during the afternoon. Natalie was so tired by late afternoon so we both took an hour nap while Jocelyn stayed up and played with Valeria.
Natalie still has stranger anxiety so if I ever leave the room or even set her down she starts crying and freaking out. Hopefully she will warm up to my side of the family soon.
My mom also made a great dinner for us last night. Thai food!!! We had some pineapple shrimp fried rice, pad thai, and tum yum soup! I was definitely spoiled last night and ate too much.
The girls were so tired and fell asleep pretty fast. The only bad thing is that it doesn't matter what time Natalie goes to bed, she always wakes up around 5:30 AM Illinois time... which means that she was up at 4:30 AM Utah time and didn't fall back asleep. Hopefully she will adjust with the new time change in Utah.
Well it is beautiful here and I love the view here in my parent's home.

Rough Day

It was a tough day, but I made it through. I had some cranky kids and teething baby today. Jocelyn had a peeing accident today while wearing a tutu... it's frustrating because she rarely has these accidents and today she totally soaked her pants. It's probably because she isn't feeling the greatest right now. Anyway, some of the things I tired to do to keep them and me happy was bubbles. At first Natalie wasn't too sure if she liked them, but after seeing Jocelyn going around popping them she thought it was funny and got into popping the bubbles too. I also took out our bag of jackets out of storage. It is starting to get cold here and we are heading to Utah next week so I thought it might be a good idea to see if we have everything we need. Luckily we have enough warm jackets to last us through this winter. Which is good because then I won't be so tempted to go to Old Navy and buy the girls some cute winter jackets that are on sale for 50% and I have an additional 30% off too... Oh well, we don't need them. After trying on jackets with the kids, we decided to keep our jackets on and go out for a walk. The kids loved it. Natalie didn't have any socks or shoes on because she never keeps them on. Good thing her feet weren't that cold. She actually liked it and thought it was fun to be barefoot. Jacob had a long day today too. He just started going half days at his clinic today. The first half of the day he is in classes and then drives about 25 minutes to his clinic where he spends the rest of his day there. So he left at 7:30 AM and didn't get home until a little after 6:30 PM. At least the kids were able to see him a little bit in the morning and ate dinner with him.
I made some of my mom's yummy Vietnamese style beef stew tonight for dinner. It was pretty easy and I got most of it done in the morning and had it stewing in the pot for the rest of the day. Good thing dinner was easy tonight. Jocelyn had a fever of 101 yesterday and is fine today, but she was still kind of irritable today. I think she is okay though. I'm going to be taking her to the doctor on Monday to get her flu shot and to meet our new doctor. Natalie is getting bigger too. I can't believe next month she will be one!!! They are growing up so fast.
Anyway, a hard day turned out still to be a good and productive day.

Trying to Keep Up

The past couple of months have been pretty crazy. So much has happened. I want to write about every thing, but it would take me forever. I want to try and be better and updating the blog. Our little girls have grown so much and there are so many things that I want to share. I'm trying to figure out how I can make time to write more. Anyway, Jacob's dad passed away last month, and we were grateful that we were able to fly down to Arizona for his funeral. The service was beautiful. He was a great father-in-law to me. I miss him and think of him often. I can't believe how much Jocelyn talks now. It's funny because since we have been back from Arizona she talks about grandpa all the time, and she didn't use to do that at all. One of our conversations about grandpa went like this:

(in the car driving to the grocery store)

Jocelyn: Later grandpa and grandma are coming to our house.
Me: Grandma and grandpa aren't here. Grandma is at her house and grandpa is in heaven.
Jocelyn: Oooooohhh. Grandma is going to heaven to see grandpa. Grandma loves grandpa.
Me: Yes, grandma does love grandpa.
Jocelyn: Grandma misses grandpa.

It was so cute. I love the sweet spirit little kids have. We love and miss you dad.