To the Snow

Last weekend we went up to Utah to visit family and play in their lovely snow. The long drive was fun for most of the time, Peter did get a bit sick of it after about 7 hours. It was 11pm and he was grouchy and we were stopped for a short break. Here is the conversation he had with his Dad:

Pete: "How much farther to Afton's house?"

Ryan: "2 more hours."

Pete: "No two hours! You are driving in circles!"

He entertains us. Once we finally got there we got a lot of weird looks when we told people we came there on purpose. It was chilly out, stayed in the single digits most of the time so the natives were hunkered down. We were happy to go up and freeze a little then come back home to 75 degree weather. Can I have a "neener neener neener"? Don't worry, I will be humbled in July and August.

We stayed with Uncle Kent and Aunt Katie and had so much fun with them and their lovely kids. We got to celebrate Uncle Justin's birthday while we were up there and see his new house. It was epic. We went sledding and it was very successful. I would upload pictures and videos but my computer is punishing me.

So we had a great time and we want to say thank you to Katie and Kent for putting up with us and feeding us and entertaining us. We love you guys!

Update

And it came to pass that all Livingstones survived winter break even though it was a close one for a little while!

We had a lovely Christmas with friends and family around. Christmas Eve was spent at our house, had about 40 people over, half of them were under 12 and liked to be noisey. My sister, Lindsey, gave us all pajama pants which is a tradition and they are fabulous as always. I especially liked finding two pairs of kids jeans in my closet the next day and wondering briefly where they came from... Sticklers for tiny details like - "where are my pants?", we are not.

Christmas Day was fairly peaceful, except for being woken up at 6am by my wonderful family, Ryan leading the offensive, as usual. The beasties were all pleased with what they received and we had a comparably quiet and relaxing day.

New Years was very nice, Jeffey went ahead and turned 13 just as the year was ending, he always likes to procrastinate his birthday until the very last possible day of the year. He was quite pleased to be a teenager, I had fun the week leading up to his birthday waking him up in the morning, jumping on him and tickling him and reminding him of the 13 years worth of payback I owe him for all those early morning wake up calls he gave me over the years: "I need cereal! Turn on cartoons for me!" He has no idea...

Here is a pic of him surrounded by his many admirers at our New Years Party/Jeffey party. He is loved.

New Years Day I got sick and I am just now feeling better. It has been a rough year. I had the flu I guess, I thought it was something closer to death. Yikes. Apparently in order to grow this little person my immune system just gave up on protecting me from horrific illnesses. But I am alive still and I guess that is a good thing. If you would have asked me last week I would have been on the fence about it. But from what I can tell everyone and their dog has been sick this year so I should quit being a wimp.

Speaking of babies, we had our ultrasound this morning. For those of you keeping score, I have one sister and two sisters-in-law expecting babies in the next few months - all three of them are having baby girls. All three of them have thrilling tales to tell, two of them are having their firsts which is a super big deal and worthy of breathless anticipation. Plus they are both darling and it will be fun to see them as Mommies, finally. The third is my older sister, Whit, who is having her SEVENTH baby. She has a house overflowing with boys. Boys boys boys. Those boys don't understand the words, "She, her, or hers" so finding out Whitny was having a girl was like the biggest miracle and most incredible thing in the whole entire world. Seriously big deal.

So for me, finding out what kind I am having didn't seem like a big huge deal, baby number six, I already have two boys and three girls. Either kind would be welcome and exciting to have. But I must say, I was pretty giddy to find out what we will be having. Ryan came from work, my Mom and sisters came out from Chandler to be in the waiting room... It was a big deal. We saw the little person on the monitor and it was head down with one hand up by its forehead and one thrown over its head (which is how I like to sleep sometimes). This baby has been very quiet so far and they were quiet in the ultrasound, slept thru the whole thing as far as I could tell. We got to see all the bits, heart, head, brain, arms, tummy and legs. Then we got to see that she is a she. A little baby girl. With hiccups. She looks darling and perfect and still no matter how many times I have an ultrasound or a baby I am surprised at how lovely they are and I marvel at how that intricate person could have formed inside me. (Although, looking at her heart and brain I thought to myself, 'well, that is why I was so horribly nauseous and sick all those months, I was trying to make that! It's a wonder I wasn't sicker.')

Peter was pleased that he will have a little sister even though he was sure it was a brother. He liked seeing her on the monitor. The bigguns will be home from school any second now and they will be excited to see the pictures of the new baby.

We haven't thought of names and if I were you, I wouldn't expect us to until she is born. We just have a hard time naming people, but we have named all of them so I'm not overly concerned that she will go very long without a name.

Terrific Tessa

Tessa came home with some fantastic grades this past grading period and apparently her teachers noticed her awesomeness.

They threw every award they had at her except for 'most improved' - but how does one improve on excellence? Don't worry, she will stay humble, Ryan and I plan to remind her that she only has the second highest grades in class. Lazy.

Milestone

I tried to pick up Alana the other day and I couldn't! She was actually too heavy.

Looking at the picture you may wonder how I was so wimpy, but I assure you, she was heavy.

Ripening for Destruction (?)

We have a tomato plant that has little tiny green tomatoes on it. Peter looked at them and said asked when we take them off. I told him we have to wait until they are red and yummy. He wanted to know why we don't take them off now. I said they have to stay with their momma plant until they get big enough for us to eat. "Just like you," I said, "You stay with me until you are grown up then someone eats you, right?" He said, "No, nobody eats me!" "Then what happens?" I said. "Maybe somebody eats you?" says he. "-No, probably that doesn't happen either." We will figure it out eventually, I hope.

It's beginning to look a lot...

We decorated the Christmas tree last night, each kid got to go up and hang their own ornaments. It was pretty exciting.

We looked at the tree with our glasses that make the tree look nifty. They also make us look super cool. Hooray for Christmas!!

Tessa's Ditty

On Sunday we made an announcement to the kids that they were very eager to share with the world so when we went to have dinner at Ryan's parent's house that evening they were all anxious to spill the beans.  I told them they were welcome to make up a skit or a song to perform for everyone after dinner if they wanted.  Tessa was the only one to take the suggestion all the way.  She wrote a song and bravely stood and performed it (that girl is a performer.  PS - she made the school play, The Little Mermaid, she will be Adelle, Ariel's sister also a princess and a sea creature.  She is pretty excited and has been showing it by singing Little Mermaid songs for weeks.)

We are very excited and looking forward to meeting our new little friend in May.