We spent some time this week just reading stories. I think this one has been her favorite for the past several months. She loves to "read" the parts that she's memorized with me :)
I have been working on this stocking for her for about a week here and there. It took a lot of time, but I'm super happy with how it turned out. Hopefully she loves it too!
We got news late last week that my grandfather who had previously fought lymphoma (and beat it) now had the cancer return accompanied by leukemia. I got a text from my mom that he really wasn't doing well. I called my dad and he was on his way to Idaho. I really felt like I needed to head up there. We didn't tell my dad we were coming, we just showed up. I called both of my sisters who lived here and we ended up all driving up together. It was a sad thing to be doing, but great company and a fun sisters trip. Because it was late when we got there we went directly to the hospital. My dad and grandpa were so surprised to see us. It brought a smile to both of their faces which made it totally worth it. Because it is flu season they don't want children under 18 visiting. I sat in the lobby alone with the two kids while my sisters spent time with grandpa. My dad came down for a few minutes. The picture below kept these two busy for quite a while. Who knew there was such thing as an automatic opening trashcan?! I did take a video of it, but for some reason can't get it to upload :/
This next picture seems pretty insignificant, but was huge for us! A mom and her 5 kids (6-15 maybe?) walked into the lobby and seemed to be looking for something. One of the older girls came up to me and said, "We're doing random acts of kindness. Can they (meaning the kids) have these?" I almost started crying right there. How thoughtful of a mom to teach her kids something so selfless. I told them we had been in the car for over 4 hours and how much we appreciated their kindness. It only cost a few buck, but meant so much to us!
We finally hit the hotel. The four of us waited in the car while Jessica went in to get us a room. Cousin J had at least slept part of the time, but S was awake and talking the whole way. You'd have thought they'd have been ready to crash....SO wrong! I couldn't get Scarlett to sleep until after 11. We all made sure to turned off all alarms. We woke up shortly after 8. That wasn't nearly enough time for S and I think she is still trying to catch up.
Two cute cousins in the morning before checking out of the hotel.
The next morning we went to visit grandma at home. We couldn't make that drive and just see grandpa because he was in the hospital. While we were there a home health person came by. She said she had heard about grandpa and wanted to see if grandma needed anything. Grandma said she was okay, and that her grand kids she hadn't seen in a while were there to visit so she'd like to visit with us. The home health employee said, "It's sad that it takes something like this for people to come visit." I felt like I'd been stabbed in the heart. Who was she to judge me? Did she know we lived 4+ hours away, all of us had small children who shouldn't be around people who are sick, and grandma and grandpa had been sick a lot this year? I'd never say something like that. Who am I to judge? Shortly after that we headed up to the hospital to see grandpa again. Dad was already there. We all took some time. Grandpa had had a really rough time as we were getting there and my uncle thought that might have been the end. After we had all spent a few minutes with him we went to the lobby to decide what to do next. Did we stay up and support my dad? Did we hit the road? We felt like the kids at least needed a little break, and we all (dad included) needed a little break from the sadness of things. So, we took a 30 minute ride out to Cami's house. She's been there only a little over a month, and her new place is super cute! It was a cousin's birthday the day before and we shared cupcakes from her birthday after lunch. I wish I could have shared S's reaction when we go out of the car at Cami's house. Maci was on the stairs and as soon as S saw her there was a high-pitched scream of "Maciii!" She was beyond thrilled to see her. It made it harder to leave, but I'm so grateful that we got to see them this weekend as well as again at Christmas.
Cami has a fun little play ground at her apartment complex. We took all the kids outside to get some wiggles out before we got back in the car for a long ride. To say the ride home was long might be an understatement. There were lots and lots of toddler tears.
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One of the best things this week. We had the most beautiful sunrise. I saw it out the kitchen window as I was doing dishes. I made sure to tell Brett so he could enjoy it too :) It's not a stellar photo, but it does the job.
Brett was trying to think of a fun date for Friday night. I had several things that I had pinned on Pinterest that had lots of ideas for date nights at home. Let's face it. Everyone needs to be able to take a break, enjoy time with their spouse, and not pay out the nose to do it. We did a "color me mine" at home. The top is Brett's creation, and the bottom is mine :)
We had our annual cooking day with grandma for Christmas on Saturday. Grandma was kind and thoughtful enough to have a fun few crafts for the grand kids. They made Santas and Christmas trees. Somehow I missed a picture of all the treats we created.
