New Year's in Arizona

When we were trying to figure out the details of our move, it was decided that having an 8 month old in the car for 35 hours was not going to be ideal. I decided since it was going to take Ethan and his dad (who flew out to drive back with him), some time to drive back, I'd make a stop in Arizona to see Kara and her family.

I flew out on New Year's Eve to celebrate with the Pothiers. Poor Steve, was sick with the flu, so Kara and I waited until her two youngest were down for the night and we went out to celebrate at her sister-in-law's house.

We played Wits and Wagers, which was a super fun game, had some good snacks, and brought in the New Year with Martinelli's and fireworks! 

After the festivities were done with, we gathered up the kids and headed home. Kara had just mentioned how she hated driving on New Year's Eve because of the crazies that are out. And wouldn't you know it? Some driver started driving like a complete idiot, compelling us to call the cops. I hope nothing bad happened to them, but I do home they finally got caught before they could hurt someone else!

The next morning all of Pothier women got together for Kara's birthday breakfast. It was a little place called T.C. Eggington's. It was delicious!! I got the strawberry smoothie with a bran muffin and it was SO good. I seriously wish they would consider franchising and opening one out here!

The rest of the week was fairly low-key because the next day Kara came down with the flu as well. I was kind of glad I was there to help, because if I'm being honest, they looked/were a little pathetic. I spent some time relaxing and basking in the beautiful Arizona sun, jumping on the trampoline with the kids and teaching Bennett about vitamin D (there was a song and everything)!

My favorite part of the entire trip was the night before we left. Everyone had gone to bed and we were sitting in her office. I won't go into details, but we spent a good amount of time laughing, creating commentary and ducking!

We packed up the next morning, did a little photo op, and then said goodbye to beautiful, sunny Arizona, and the west.. for now.

37 Weeks

Nixon is 27 weeks and is all over the place. We're constantly having to keep him from getting into things that he's not supposed to be in. He's also gotten into this hissy fit stage where if there's no more food he throws a tantrum. It's super cute.. oh wait.. 

He also had a rough night this past week. We're trying our hardest to get him on a schedule for this timezone, but man alive! Talk about hard! He hadn't gotten a nap, so I thought, "This is perfect! I'll just put him to bed a little earlier, than he'll wake up earlier and we'll be set!" That was until 11:00pm came around. I snuggled him for about 20 minutes and then he was down again. I was sure he would be good for the night. Cue 5:00am. Ethan and I heard him crying. Ethan went and got him to bring him back into our bed to see if he would go to sleep. Not a chance! For two hours he was up rolling, head butting us, kicking us, picking our noses, playing peek-a-boo, grunting, etc. It was exhausting. We finally changed him and put him back down and he went down without another sound. When Ethan and I were talking about it the next day, we couldn't help but laugh (obviously not at the time), and think it's a good thing he's so darn cute!

36 Weeks

Nixon may be crying but at least he's not sucking his toes right? This guys has sure been a trooper through this whole move and I think we're all ready to just sit tight for a bit! You probably can't tell, but he also got his first shiner on the outside corner of his right eye! Cousin Cannon thought it would be fun to chuck an Altoid tin at his head and hit him right in the corner of his eye. Nixon cried, then Cannon started crying, and Hunter (Kara's second oldest) just rolled his eyes at both of them.

Matching outfits

While we were in North Carolina, Ethan's Aunt Debbie and Uncle Jim came into town from Tennessee as well as his Grandma Thomas from South Carolina, bearing Christmas gifts for all! One of the gifts were matching outfits for all of the grandsons. What do you do when everyone has matching outfits? You take pictures so you can embarrass them years down the road of course!

Colton, Mason, Owen, Emmett, Deacon, Nixon

Great Grandma Nuni (Thomas) with the boys

 Uncle Jim and Aunt Debbie

 Aunt Debbie matching all of the boys