Zada's pastimes include getting into the pantry and getting out whatever she can.  I have quickly learned not to keep anything open on the lower shelves!  Today she was using the box of graham crackers as her platform.

She's doing really well with feeding herself with a spoon, although it is still super messy.  That isn't likely to change anytime soon, though!

Tonight was a big night!  Mac got to attend her very first young women's activity with Leiden!  She has been so excited for so long.  The oldest children in the primary really struggle with feeling "too old" to still be in there.

She also got her very first temple recommend!  Bishop did not know I snapped this, but I couldn't resist.

We are going to make it a priority to get to the temple as quickly as we can so she can begin to experience those blessings!  Love this girl!

I've been working hard on getting these ready for the girls for their personal spiritual growth this year.  They will be part of a larger bulletin board for each of their rooms that will include the Young Women's theme for Mac and Leiden, and "I Will Go and Do" for Mac.  I'm really excited about it!

The girls finally came back from their dad's after the winter break, so we were able to celebrate Jon's birthday with them.  They gave him a Michigan key chain and a dad jokes book!

Despite the fact that it's January, the park is one of Zada's favorite places to take walks to!  If we tell her we're going on a walk, she knows to get her snow gear and bring it to us.

Such a happy little girl!

Zada spends a lot of time over by the shoe hotel, especially with the snow boots that are always there!  She wants to wear them, and it's really fun when she clomps around in them!

Today for dinner I made egg foo yung, which I have never even eaten before, let alone made!  It's fun to try new recipes.  Jon said it was very good, and totally reminded him of the Chinese he would get as a kid.

Bedtime stories are so cozy in jammies, with blankie and daddy.

We hit a week today with Mac, so she isn't contagious anymore, thankfully!  She still has a cough, but she is definitely doing better.

And, by the miracle of elderberry syrup and lots of love, so is Zada!!  Her fever broke, and she has been much more herself today.  We will continue with the syrup, and use it religiously throughout the rest of the winter! 

Higher fever this morning,

and she's clearly not got a lot of energy.  She spent most of the day cuddled up and wanting to be held.  Poor dolly. 

Happy New Year!  2020 has arrived, and with it, a little fever for this babe.  She's still playing, although a little less enthusiastic.

It's likely she got the same flu the girls had/have, so I made elderberry syrup and gave her 3-4 doses today for active illness.  Fingers crossed she doesn't have a week long thing!  I feel bad I didn't get some made in time to help Mac and Mimi before they left for overnight with their dad.  It's something I need to just ALWAYS have on hand during the whole winter.  Lesson learned.

Zada is still acting a bit off, so we are watching carefully for signs of illness.  It's almost impossible to tell if she's ill, showing leap symptoms, or teething.  It all looks the same!  Wanting cuddles and a few more frowns than normal.  But I love the cuddles part!

She will so rarely stay still like this for any length of time.

We took a little walk to the park where the slide was enjoyed and explorations were had. 

This evening Zada and I sat down and tried coloring.  She didn't seem to impressed that the crayons make colored lines on the paper, and I had to remind myself she is actually probably a little too young for this. 

But definitely not too young for laundry basket adventures! 

We tried a big girl bath tonight, and it went fine, it's just a lot of water! 

I can't believe it's New Years.  Time is flying by so quickly I don't even know what's happening!  We have high hopes for 2020!

Happy Birthday to Jon!!!  He got to open a present first thing this morning.  I got him an authentic handknit sweater from the Aran Islands in Ireland in a lovely green color.  He is so excited to have it!

Zada had some fun in one of the girl's boots before they left to go up to their dad's house.  Unfortunately, Mac is feeling even worse today, and just as the girls were leaving Mimi said she wasn't feeling good.  So we are bracing ourselves for the onslaught.  They mentioned that their stepsister's daughter had come down the flu a day after Christmas, so we are betting they got flu from her.  With any luck, Leiden will be spared as she just had the strain going around right now.  I have made some fresh elderberry syrup, and we will begin with that in earnest.

She got daring today and not only touched the vacuum while it was on, but tried to hold it up.  She ended up on her bottom, but she's getting less nervous about the contraption!

Another fun game is blanket fort!

Jon requested his mom's greek spinach pies, so I obliged!

They were actually a lot easier to make than I expected, and the phyllo dough didn't give me any trouble at all.  They were very tasty!  I was glad I could make him something he wanted.  Birthdays as you get older are often a little anti climactic, and his more than many because of its timing right between Christmas and New Years, and one of the shortest darkest days of the year.

Little Miss learned how to swipe the Portal this evening, which cracked us up!

Happy Birthday, sweet husband.  I hope you have MANY more!!!

Thankfully there has been no more illness for little Zada, which is such a blessing.  I threw out the greek yogurt, the kefir, and the coconut milk we had used to make her drinks and all seems to be well.  

Grandma came over early today so she could begin cooking our dinner for tonight.  We are expecting everyone and we are excited to have our blessings from Grandpa and enjoy our last evening all together!  It takes Zada a few days to warm up, but by now she was sufficiently accustomed to Grandma that she was happy to sit on the floor and play with her.  I'm so glad we caught these moments!

Mac spent the entire day in the basement, quarantined from everyone else, although Mimi takes advantage of Mac's dispensation to watch shows all day long, and I fear has not stayed as far away from Mac as she ought.  We are fearful Mac also has Flu B, but we haven't swabbed her.  We will just see how it goes.

Our dinner was wonderful roast beef!  We didn't get a picture of everyone, and I regret it, but we definitely enjoyed our time, and the conversation and bonds of love we share.  Zada has been a little off still, and despite her being in a leap, I've had it cross my mind a couple times that maybe she's teething, but I would look at her gums without trying to put my fingers in her mouth, and see nothing.  After her bath this evening I thought I'd weather the fit and check with my fingers...Miss Zada cut two molars recently and I didn't even know!  Her top two molars are in, and I realized I had been looking at her gums in the wrong spots, having forgotten the first molars come in before the canines.  No wonder she has been a bit fussy!  Her bottom molars are still just bumps on her gums, but they are next, so we will begin ibuprofen protocol.

After she had recovered from the indignity of Mom's hands in her mouth, she wanted to sit and play the piano.  She looked so cute up there all by herself.

And she has excellent posture! 

The good nights were bittersweet tonight, as Grandma and Grandpa leave tomorrow morning.  We SO wish they were in a position to be out here earlier rather than later, and we will miss them so much!  The new Portal we gave them should hopefully facilitate much more face to face communication. 

After Zada went to bed, we enjoyed more family time as Jon's dad gave blessings to each of his children and also to me.  We are so grateful for them!

We have been so happy to have Jon's parents here.  It's been a rough week with illness and holidays, but we are always so sad to see them go.

Fun day today!  Zada was looking smashing in her little striped jumper, and when she came with us to the grocery store, she absolutely had to have a bunch of bananas.

She was initially content to just hold them, but that quickly turned into necessary investigations in her mouth. 

This afternoon we went to the Olympic Oval to ice skate with Jon's family.  We had initially planned to go go karting, but found out that none of the girls could do it, so ice skating it was!  Zada was so happy to be out and about! 

Here we are, ready to hit the ice.  It's almost comical how I put on ice skates and there is instantaneous pain in my right inner ankle. 

This place allows you to take babies out onto the ice in strollers, so that was super fun for Zada to participate!  We didn't catch any shots, but she would randomly lean forward, clap, and squeal her excitement.  Jon skated her around as fast as he could! 

I don't know why we didn't get Faith and Clayton in this pic, they were out on the ice with us.  But Grandpa G got in on the icy fun, too! Grandma G came and chose to stay in the bleachers to avoid mortal injury, and Tara stayed with her.

 

Silly girls and Jon!! 

After skating everyone met back at our house for crock pot dinner, and we enjoyed everyone's company.

Mac started complaining of a sore throat today, so that's not good.  Fingers crossed it doesn't get worse.

Oh my goodness, we don't even know what's going on, but this morning at 2:00, Zada started crying, and didn't stop.  So I went in to check on her and she had THROWN UP AGAIN.  I've never heard of vomiting episodes 48 hours apart.  She was so sad again, but luckily after the first bout, only had one more bout where nothing came up, and then she slept.  The ONLY thing I can think of is both days before she was ill she had her yogurt drink.  She's had it a hundred times, but these two times she had it from a new container of yogurt.  If she had a bug, there's no way Jon and I would have escaped, but we have, so it's got to be something she ate twice, and only on those days.  We feel so awful for her, and we spent the day completely exhausted.

However, our Christmas had to go on!  Grandma and Grandpa showed up at 6:45 AM, just a couple hours after I got Zada to bed again, and we had to wake up both Mac and Leiden for our Christmas!  They had a really great morning, with a TON of gifts, and they seemed in better spirits (and had better attitudes!) than yesterday, which I am grateful for.

Zada eventually woke up and seemed to be feeling okay, so she got to have her Christmas, too! 

She LOVED her busy board, and I'm so grateful for Mimi's idea, and all the work Jon put into it. 

Another hit was balls for Zada's ball pit! 

The older girls went to the mall for a couple hours to spend their Christmas money. 

The biggest downside to the day was we had PROMISED Leiden we would take her to the Salt Lake temple for baptisms before it closes for four years, and Grandpa wanted to go with them.  But first, we decided it wasn't a good idea to leave Zada home with anyone else...no one but us should have to deal with a baby that potentially could be throwing up.  So I stayed home and was sad about missing that.  Then, I called the temple and they said there had been a THREE to FOUR hour wait in the baptistry!  This was at 4 in the afternoon, so there was no way that was an option, even if they could have left right away.  So they decided to go down to Provo City Center and do baptisms there, where Leiden got to witness for baptisms, and she got to do some names from Grandma's family line! 

I'm so glad she had the opportunity to go with Jon and Grandpa, and I'll get to go with her, Mac, AND Mimi to SL in four years when it opens again!  I'm trying really hard to not feel sad about how this week has turned out.  I'm looking forward to the next couple days before Grandma and Grandpa leave, and am praying so hard no one is sick tonight!