To Georgia and beyond!

We decided to go visit James and Amber in Savannah over President's Day/Valentine's Day weekend. Sounded simple enough because I had a plan. Marybeth was coming in to watch the other kids (not Carter because he flies for free) and we'd be off. Boy do I owe her - her weekend was filled with chicken nuggets and sleeping on tents on the couch!

We had a small layover in Chicago on the way there and all would be smooth. The weather was supposed to be in the 70's in Georgia so I packed capris and sandals. Sounded lovely. Well as any good story goes, we had a couple hiccups getting there, such as our connecting flight through Chicago didn't connect and they couldn't get us any closer than Atlanta (4 hour drive) and that wasn't until the next morning. The "good" news was our luggage made it to Savannah... right.

We spent the night in Chicago which turned out to be fantastic because we were able to hook up with Dee's step-brother, Rocky, and our niece and nephew for dinner.


Then off again! We made it finally after lots of early morning hours and not much sleep. Once we were finally there we had a great time. We got to meet our beautiful niece, Savannah (who I think looks like her beautiful mom.)

Unfortunately our trip was over way too quickly and alas, the return trip was also filled with mis-haps including our flight not going because of a leak and spending 6 extra hours in Savannah after waking up at 12:45 our time we didn't make it home until 12:30 our time. A full 24 hours of partying in airports. Carter caught the flu somewhere along the way and the next day everyone here was puking which made me wish we had a vacation coming up...

Winter?

We've been having interesting weather as I'm sure most of you are. Here it's been beautiful (70-80's) and everyone insists on worrying about what is to come "Sure going to be a bad summer...". Now, don't get me wrong this may be very true. However I've come to the conclusion we can't change the weather so dang if I'm not going to enjoy it while it's here!

We celebrated last week by going to Whiskeytown Lake with our dear friends. We had a picnic and played in the sand pretty much all day. The kids were crazy enough to play in the water a bit but I just enjoyed the sun and kept saying things like IT'S JANUARY!

Christmas Fun

Christmas was magic this year. The kids are the perfect ages and it was absolutely fantastic. We started Christmas Eve with tracking Santa across the world on a NASA website. Man that guy can move! When he got to New York it was time for the kids to go to bed. We opened the Christmas jammies and read the story of Christ's birth from the bible and off they hopped to bed.

My favorite story was in his letter to Santa, Tyler asked for "a Nintendo DS or 3 king-sized Slim-jims". So Christmas morning at 5:30 on the dot the kids tip toe into our room and we all head to the living room. Ty could see Slim-jims poking out over the couch and started yelling, "I got the Slim-jims! He brought me Slim-Jims!" Didn't get a DS but I don't think he noticed. All three of the kids were so excited for Christmas and the whole day was magic.

A perfect weekend

As you know by my previous posts, I am often astounded at how quickly time is flying. My youngest son has turned six months before I even had time to catch my breath. He is rolling, sitting and babbling as if everyone knows what he is trying to say. Until this point I have felt behind and trying, unsuccessfully, to catch up. I am drowned in the things I need to do or what I should have accomplished rather than the present. However, this weekend I was blessed with the most wonderful thing - time. I never once felt rushed, behind or like I needed to be somewhere else rather than enjoying the moment and I loved it! Perhaps the tides of the full (HUGE) moon slowed the earths rotation or perhaps this is how life is supposed to be and the rest is just noise. What ever the case I thought I'd let you in on my fantastic day.

Saturday started with some quick carpentry by my super handy husband. I thought I'd be clever and get a can-consolidator for a cupboard. Sounds good, but it didn't fit into the cupboard it was supposed to, so I moved the stuff in the other cupboard where it did fit and thus had to again rearrange. I thought it would end up being a difficult job but Dee was able to get all the shelves just right and all put back together better than it was. So check off getting something done.

I looked at the clock thinking of lunch and nap and was delighted to see it was only 10:00. We started in on some board games but as I said the weather was delightful (70's) and we ended up at the church playing baseball. I learned a few things such as, Tyler will not bat without wearing his batting helmet. Ellie doesn't care about 1st or 2nd base but always has to step on 3rd. McKenna wore the wrong shoes and ended up playing with the baby because her feet hurt. This was good for me because I learned it's OK to pitch while holding a 20 pound kid but not as easy to run and tag someone out. I learned Dee can hit way into the outfield but Pete (the dog) will not retrieve it unless Dee goes with him.

After baseball we went to dinner and came home to play the Wii. We were all completely exhausted once the day was over but I loved just being. The best way to describe it is complete joy and I feel fortunate to have enjoyed it for a full day.

Christmas Tag

Christmas Tag
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping Paper - in fact my first job was as a gift wrapper at Deseret Book.
2. Real Tree or Artificial? Artificial but I always buy an Evergreen wall plug-in!
3. When do you put your tree up? The day after Thanksgiving if we're home. If not, as soon as we can!
4. When do you take your tree down? After New Years
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, diluted.
6. Favorite gift received? My husband gave me a piano the first year we got married. I don't play much anymore, but the kids do and what a surprise it was!
7. Hardest person to buy for? My in-laws!
8. Easiest person to buy for? McKenna, she loves everything and is so gracious even if the present is sucky.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes I have 3.
10. Mail or e-mail Christmas Cards? Mail
11. Worst Christmas presents ever received?
12. Favorite/Worst Christmas movie? It's a Wonderful Life and Elf. Worst? I want a dog for Christmas Charlie Brown. Stunk big time.
13. When do you start shopping? Usually not until the end of November unless I find the perfect gift.
14. Have you ever recycled a gift? Yep, this year in fact!
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas time? I love chocolates, hot chocolate, chocolate candies, peppermint chocolate... you name it.
16. Lights on tree? Clear but I love the color ones too.
17. Favorite Christmas song? O Holy Night and the entire muppets CD
18. Travel on Christmas or stay home? Every other year we travel on Christmas
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? Yes - in order too
20. Angel on top of tree or star? Angel
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve? The kids open the Christmas jammies
22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? Angry Walmart shoppers. So you have to walk a few more parking spaces, don't try to run me over!!!
23. Favorite ornament? We get a new ornament that represents the most important thing every year (i.e. This year is Carter's first year...) and those are my favorite.
24. Favorite food for Christmas Dinner? We have strawberry waffles for breakfast. It's better than dinner.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? Plane ticket to Georgia
26. Tag 3 friends: Suzanne, Amber, Shally

Merry Christmas!

12 days to go! This is going to be an awesome Christmas at the Treadway home. The kids are perfect ages, although it might be the last one of "belief" for McKenna. They are all so excited and Ellie is just brimming with joy all the time. Only 4 days of school until Christmas break then we are all looking forward to some sleeping in (right Carter?)!



To post on our travels, we went to Utah to visit family for Thanksgiving. It was a great time but it flew by. We went to the zoo, played touch football, played a lot of Wii and ate a ton. It was a great time and we were able to see many Treadway-side family. We had a big sleepover on Wednesday at Pat and Lee's and stayed up playing games until the wee hours of the morning. We all laughed so hard and it was just fun being together.


I've attached a video of Carter laughing for those far away so you won't miss it. The video is a bit shaky, I was actually playing peek-a-boo and holding the camera. Worth watching, though. He has become such a fun chunky baby!


The last exciting thing that has just happened is our first niece on the Powell side was born yesterday! Congratulations James and Amber!

Since we've been home it's just been a countdown to Christmas. We've seen the kids' school performances, decorated, constantly listened to Christmas music, shopped and most importantly paused during the chaos to count blessings and think of our Savior. We miss you that are dear to us and far away. May the Spirit of Christ touch your lives and hearts. Merry Christmas!

Holidays are coming!

A quick update on what has happened the last two week. Some of the biggest news is Tyler lost his two front teeth. This alone is pretty exciting, but I have to tell the story of HOW he lost his teeth. The first one was super wiggly and grossing me out. Finally Dee convinced him to tie it to his nerf gun with floss, but the nerf gun wasn't strong enough to pull it. Then he convinced him to tie it to an arrow and shoot it with the bow across the yard. It worked so well and was so fun a few days later he was able to repeat the process with the second tooth. I've attached a short video clip of the second tooth for you to see. Not as cool as the video of the first tooth but too long to put on this.

McKenna made Honor Roll for the first time and we are so proud of her for it. She is growing so big so fast and I love to see the good decisions she makes and the tender heart she blesses us all with.

Carter turned 4 months and at his checkup/shot appointment we found out he is a healthy 15 1/2 pounds. By the time this kid can walk I'll have the biceps I've always wanted! He is sick with a cold this week but has been doing better overall. He's laughing and interacting and is just so much fun.
Halloween came and went with LOTS of candy. The only decent pictures I got were of Carter (mini D)/Dee and Ellie. Tyler and McKenna were a little fickle on their costumes and by the time they decided it was time to head out the door. We had fun and lots of candy but we're ready for the other holidays to start!