This week.
I should start of by saying that Michael and I had our TEN YEAR anniversary this week -- because that's happy! That's a happy thing.
But this week. Oh it hit us hard.
We started off on Monday looking forward to Ali and her crew getting here for a visit. But the visit turned way too eventful.
Tuesday she had a scheduled extraction with Michael, which is why she made the trek out with her two cute kiddos. She's had two teeth giving her trouble for years and years and it was just time to see them go. We just kind of weren't prepared for the recovery week after that double extraction though (you'd think I'd know exactly what to expect?), and the day of the procedure itself was bananas. We basically had twin toddlers and twin babies for the week, plus Westy and Benny. I had a neighbor walk the older two to school, Ali left for work with Michael, both babies cried while the toddlers did their frenemy things they do, and it was pretty crazy there for a little bit. Then I got one baby asleep, then two toddlers watching Cocomelon, then the other baby to sleep, then my other neighbor came over to sit with the sleeping babies.
Then I loaded the toddlers up and we went to Michael's office to pick up Ali. The procedure took a little longer than expected because those teeth have had a rough life, and I kept Elise and Camden entertained in the break room and prayed my neighbor wasn't home with two crying babies. Everything was smooth though, but Ali was so dizzy and out of it and nauseous and tired after. So they wheeled her out, we got home, babies did good, so grateful for neighbors. Ali fell asleep and I took two toddlers and a baby to get her meds while Asher kept napping -- hooray for him finally sleeping in his own space. His first nap of the day is his long one these days, which is sad when I want a good rest at 1pm and he only sleeps 45 min, but great for productive mornings.
The next few days involved -- a sinus infection (me), a recovering weekend sickness (Michael), a continuing extraction recovery (Ali), a stomach bug (Westin -- we kicked our tenth anniversary off cleaning up the WORST throw up event of our married life at 2 a.m.), another stomach bug (Bennett), congested baby (Asher), mastitis/nursing troubles (Ali), multiple daily syringe feedings and ultimately a release into the wild (Squirrel), and we fell into Sunday with a what-is-next-oh-my-goodness mentality.
Ali was going to leave Friday originally, but she was just not up to it yet. So she switched her work schedule to have Saturday free, but the weather had snowstorms that day. So Sunday was her day, and that was the morning Bennett threw up and Ali was feeling so sick too. I held Dallin while nursing Asher and got them both down for morning naps while Ali took a morning nap too. Westin and I watched Michael speak in church on Zoom. Not really sad I didn't have four kid alone in the chapel during that. He did great! Then Ali woke up feeling like she needed to just get on the road before another ball dropped.
She is amazing. Such a wonderful mom. I love her and her kiddos so, so, so much. I felt horrible that a week that should have been her taking it easy while I took care of her and her kids ended up having so much more sickness piled on top of it and caregiving spread way too thin. We gave each other breaks all we could and ended up just both feeling exhausted all the time, all while she was in a lot of pain too.
We just... are happy we survived this week and it isn't topping our list of our favorite visits together. Which is such a bummer because oh how we love seeing each other. Especially now that I get to see how much bigger her cute kids are each time and the hilarious things Elise does at that moment. She is so funny and adorable.
Here's to better visits together this summer... we could not have done this week without each other!
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| Bennett is so into playing Sorry for hours. With Westin or solo, he's not picky. |
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| Little Squirrel got bigger and more energetic and just wilder every day. It was fun to see, but also the feedings took more bravery on my part every time haha. |
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| Cousins! |
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| All four on my own Tuesday morning after sending the boys off. |
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| Sweet Dallin. His smiles just melted me. |
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| Holding hands! |
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| Elise loves joining tummy time :) |
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| This sweet mom. Taking care of kiddos when she needs taking care of. The extractions were pretty painful for her after, but the doctor did a great job :) I think. I'm going to assume. |
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| These two got some heavy doses of Cocomelon this week, we won't lie. It was survival. |
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| Almost late to get Bennett because of multiple losses of shoes and multiple collections of sticks. Toddlers are the best, and insane. |
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| Dallin is about to be sleep trained but isn't quite old enough, so he's still majorly preferring be held for naps. I looooved holding him. |
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| She rocks that ice pack. Asher rocks that natural mohawk. |
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| Dallin would cheer up so much when we'd lay Asher by him, so cute. |
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| They aren't quite coordinated to fully control what happens during their hang outs though. |
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| He looks so much like his daddy! |
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| Everyone lined up to watch me set squirrel free. He didn't know if he wanted to run away or stay, but we are keeping tabs on him as much as we can still. He huddles up under our deck stairs, and he let me syringe feed him while he was in a tree a couple days later, so he still trusts us and is figuring out to be a free squirrel. |
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| A little throwback pic to our first year of marriage in honor of our tenth anniversary! We drove to Walmart and got a cheesecake that night. I think we'll go bigger next year. I hope. |
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| Elise got to ride front facing to get her mom some medicine, which she hasn't done before. She was loving it. I was loving the pigtails. |
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| Sick days and bowl shows. |
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| Tummy time for the whole crew. |
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| This week warmed up! |
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| Tray lunch in their fort of the day. They're always building this and that from everything in the backyard. |
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| Like I said, not fully coordinated during their hangouts. Dallin wasn't trying to wrestle Asher, but he was wrestling Asher. |
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| We made one outing attempt with all 6 under 7 -- Scheels in Loveland. They loved the fish and animals, and Ali loved catching the end of the Jazz game on the big screen there. |
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| Nursing one and holding one, crazy times but so sweet too. |
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| Michael and Westin went on a Sunday hike together. Westy did 5 miles and loved it. He's getting so big and fun. |
