Christmas 2015 (The Long Version)

This post is going to be so long that nobody should read it. Ha! Seriously though, this trip should really be broken up into segments. But since I am lazy I just threw it all together. So for the sake of appeasing my OCD mind, I will divide the post into segments so I make sure and say everything I mean to!

PART I: THE EXODUS TO SPOKANE

The roads looked clear. The traffic cams on the pass looked awesome. There was some snow in the forecast but we figured better to beat it than try to drive after it happened. So we headed out. For most of our drive, this was all the worse it got. No big deal. We had driven in much worse. The girls were being good and we didn't stop more than for gas and a quick baby feeding.

And then we hit some snow. It was heavy and wet and sticking on the road. But again, nothing too bad. We were driving along at quite a clip. Not too fast, but not slow either. Visibility was still great and roads were mostly cleared, recently plowed. Like above. We came up on a semi going deathly slow, so we decided to pass. Now, if you know me, you know that passing semis on the freeway is my biggest fear. I get all tense and uptight and close my eyes most the time. This time, I decided to be brave and be an extra set of eyes, just in case. Well, good thing. Because I looked over and that semi was headed straight into our lane. We were, at this point, right next to it, slightly behind the cab. There was no blinker, and I knew that his drifting wasn't intentional. I knew that he wouldn't see us and he wouldn't stop coming. Scott saw the situation and started driving further onto the shoulder, straddling the rumble strip, but that truck kept coming. It all happened so fast. I heard him say, "We are going off the road, we're going off the road!" Luckily we were at a place with a ditch in between the freeways and not guardrails. That truck ran us straight off the road and into the ditch. So many things ran through my mind. Are we going to roll? I would never be able to survive losing one of my kids. We don't have service, how would we get out if we get stuck? We're not going to make it back onto the road. What the h*** (just being honest, not my finest moment) was that guy doing? Was he sleeping? He's not even slowing down to make sure we make it and there's no other cars. He's just going to leave us stuck in the ditch. I heard Scott say, "We're in tracks. We're just riding the tracks, we're going to make it. We're going to be okay honey it's going to be fine." Seriously, I was so scared. My heart didn't stop racing for the rest of the drive, pretty much. 

When it was over, I was grateful for so many things.

1. Scott narrated the whole thing, so I knew what he was thinking and that we would be okay. I knew he was aware. And because he said we were going off the road, my mind took that in instead of me screaming or having a reaction that would have distracted him.
2. Someone had gone off the road at the EXACT same spot we had. We never would have popped back up onto the road had we not ridden someone else's tire tracks. What are the odd?
3. We weren't stuck, we made it. Heavenly Father had watched over us.

Before we left our house, we had Addy say a prayer that we would be safe and make it to Mimi's house safely. We took the opportunity to explain to the kids what had happened, that we had gone off the road but that Heavenly Father helped us get back on. Right away, Addy connected the two. She said, "Hey, I prayed that we would be safe!" We took that opportunity to teach our daughter about giving thanks and had her offer another prayer, this time one of thanks. She still talks about that lesson today. In a way, I am grateful for the experience because it brought our family closer to Heavenly Father.

Throughout the rest of the drive we ended up sandwiched between two semis and getting stuck on the freeway and waiting until traffic cleared so we could back up and out because going forward was only making us slide.

The last adventure was a 3 hour stand still behind a jack-knifed semi who had neglected to chain up. It was seriously so crazy. The roads weren't even that bad. I mean, yeah, it was snowing, but the plows were going and there was no reason that we should have had all those problems. I have a lot of respect for truck drivers. We know and love several. But it only takes a couple idiots to totally ruin a trip...

While we were sitting there, we let the kids out of their seats. There was no moving traffic and no chance of being rear ended, so don't worry about that :) Grace loved helping daddy "Drive." I wish we had actually been driving! 12 hours after departure, we arrived at Mimi's. Usually a 7.5 hour drive.

PART II: CHRISTMAS

Christmas Eve we did a little pageant. Ethan starred as baby Jesus.

Christmas Jammies! We had to do the traditional pyramid picture. :)

Wesley. Oh, Wesley. What was life like before you joined our family and brought us so many laughs? lol. Seriously, I'm so thankful for the people my siblings married! We missed Shane and his sweet family. Mostly Heather and Jamie :)

Our girls joined my siblings in the living room to sleep while Santa did his business :)

Christmas morning was glorious. My kids slept until almost 8. And Ethan slept his first 5 hour stretch at night. Scott and I awoke refreshed and ready for the madness.

Santa brought a princess castle with a princess set for each girl :) And a Little People barn that he only paid 1.99 for :) 

Mimi made hats!

My mom and I have been collecting these disney dolls from DI and Goodwill all year :) My mom even made clothes for the ones we found naked. Then she kept going and made capes and pajamas for all of them, including the two Addy and Ellie already have. Our collection now includes Rapunzel, Tiana, Snow White, Belle, and Cinderella.

We had such a good Christmas being with family and thinking of Christ and then celebrating with gifts and family time. I love my family so much. I'm such a home body...now if only my body would realize that Rexburg is actually home and love it as much as Spokane...

PART III: THE BLESSING

Keeping with tradition, we blessed our baby in Spokane. And just in time too because his outfit was almost too small!

It was a wonderful blessing with this four handsome men in the circle :) We also had another miracle and I wish I had had my phone on me so I could take a picture, but alas, it was church. After a beautiful blessing by his father, Ethan had a poopy diaper. So I ventured to the mothers room to change him. On my way out of the chapel, I saw a woman who looked SO familiar to me. I looked once, then twice, then three times. She recognized me too, but we didn't know from where so we awkwardly just turned and started walking. I couldn't take it anymore so I turned around and said, "You look so familiar!" And then it hit me. I had been trying to place her in Spokane so it took me a second. But she was from Rexburg. She worked at the hospital as a nurse on the mother/baby floor. She was Robin. The woman who got my baby to the nicu just before he choked on fluid and needed chest compressions. She was the woman who had saved my baby's life. Once we established the connection, she remembered everything, even his name. It was such a blessing for both of us. For her to see the thriving baby boy who is here today because of her instinct and wisdom. And for me, to be able to truly thank her after having time to digest everything she had done for me and my baby. She had heard his blessing. I will always remember her name and face and hail her has a woman of faith and courage to listen to promptings. I will always love her.

PART IV: BURGER KING DRIVE-THRU

Ice cream. My weakness. And Burger King 50 cent cones was a perfect way to say thank you to my two amazing sisters who help with my kids so much while I'm home. We went through the drive through in our jammies and sat in the parking lot to devour our deliciousness. And then, what the hey, we went through again. And, maybe we went through 3 times...yolo, right?

PART V: COMPLETE CHAOS AT THE HAND OF BLOGGER WHICH WILL NOT LET ME MOVE MY PICTURES INTO ORDER, CAUSING ME TO GIVE UP DESPITE MY OCD :)

My mom was in Mimi heaven :) Two such cute boys to cuddle and three girls to giggle with <3 p="">

Pizza night! My kids had a blast helping Mimi and their aunts. And eating all the toppings before they made it to the pizza...

Aunt Ali, who I miss so much it's pathetic.

For Christmas, my parents got Shauna and Wes and Scott and I an all expenses paid trip to Outback Steakhouse. I had never been before, and it was amazing. A great first with amazing people. And the best part? My parents kept the kids. All of them. My mom, the only person I would every leave my 4 week old with :)

Gingerbread houses were a hit! Ellie just made a box and then filled it with candy. She had the right idea!

For Christmas the older kids got together to get my dad a fryer. So Scott and I had to use it to make donuts, of course! They were a hit!

One day, while I was out shopping with my mom, I got these pictures from Scott. Addy had posed in a hat she found. I laugh at these every time I see them. She's such a nut.

Gracie really enjoyed Mimi's house because Mimi let her eat everything herself, despite the mess :) Here she is after totally obliterating a donut...

Scott took each of our older girls on a daddy-daughter date while we were in Spokane. They loved having him all to themselves.

This boy has my heart. All of it. All the time. 

Sledding at the park! It was dark, so this was the only picture that really turned out. I stayed home with the baby and Scott and my sisters took the kids. They all loved it. It was perfect weather. Cold, but not too cold.

PART VI: A FUNERAL

While in Spokane, we received news that Scott's grandfather had passed away. The funeral was Tuesday so we decided to leave straight from Spokane to Miles City, MT for the funeral service. It was quite the drive (10 hours) but the girls were champs and were SO good the whole trip. We stayed one night in a hotel. Because we weren't planning on our trip ending this way, we were kind of unprepared. So the kids may have swam in their undies...except Addy, whose cousin is her size so Scott's sister had a suit that fit :) 

The above picture was after some coaxing. The below picture is how Ellie really felt about being so indecently exposed lol!

I was super worried about whether or not our kids would sleep, but they were little champs. They usually surprise me for the good on vacations. They all went to sleep pretty easily and slept in until 8. And Scott was the only one who spilled his cereal at the continental breakfast! Ha!

The funeral was a Catholic service. It was totally new for us. The whole communion thing was...different. I'm LDS. We do some different things. So it was interesting for me to see a different religion and their worship service and feel how people feel when they come to our church for the first time. I'd have to get over the whole "we all drink off the same cup thing...."

Scott and I felt like terrible people at one point. There was a lot of standing up and sitting down and our kids were antsy. It was so quiet. I had bought some things at the dollar store to keep the kids busy but hadn't thought about it and left them all wrapped in their celophane. At one point Scott actually laughed because when the pens were too loud to open I said, "I got some raisenettes, those will keep them busy" and when he pulled them out, the box was wrapped in plastic too! It just struck us as funny. What was I thinking?

After Mass, there was a graveside military service. That was pretty emotional for us. It made us feel, again, grateful for those who gave their lives for our freedoms. The gun salute was moving and it was awesome to witness flags given to each of Grandpa's sons with a thank you from the United States government and army. It was very special. 

This is Grace at the luncheon. Our kids did so good, but by this point they were all fried. Addy was even begging for a nap. Scott snapped this picture. It was just ironic that her shirt says, "Grandpa's little sweetie" and she was being so grouchy! But hey, she did want him over us, so there ya go!

We felt so blessed to be able to see both sets of grandparents this trip! The kids were in heaven. We love our Carter family :)

PART VII: THE EXODUS TO REXBURG

We left straight home from the luncheon. We got home in the middle of the night. Driving at night is great and awful all wrapped into one, as things often are with kids! The kids slept most of the way, but we were so dead dog tired. Luckily Scott had found a bunch of questions to ask your spouse online and had saved them to his phone so we got to ask each other questions. Some were just dumb like, "If you could be any animal what would it be and why?"  but some were deep and meaningful and we got to ponder on our relationship and find out how well we know each other. I love this guy. He's pretty awesome. We set some great goals and got to thank each other for everything we're doing right. Our life is so rich and blessed. We have three amazing daughters and a perfect little son. We have a wonderful home and live in a great place. We have a good job and amazing friends. We were overcome with gratitude for all that we have been given as we talked. And it kept us awake :)

I texted this picture to my friend and said, "Who's ready to be home?" Yeah...after 2.5 weeks in total vacation mode I was ready to buckle down and get back to life. Because, while vacation is awesome, my life is pretty great too.

My sister stopped and stayed a night at our house while we were still in Spokane while they were on their way home. She cleaned my house that I left kind of cluttered. It was such a nice surprise to walk into a vacuumed and picked up living room with this sweet message from her and her husband. I'm so glad my sister is my best friend.

And I am proud to report that life at home has been amazing. I have stayed on top of the housework and we have settled into life with our four kids. This was the first time we had really been in real life mode since Ethan was born, so it was different. And nice. And content. I love my family. Merry late Christmas!