I'll Be Home for Christmas...

The boys enjoying a cartoon together

I've always loved that song! :) Wow, it's been a busy couple of days here as we get ready to leave tomorrow for all of our travels. While it feels like I'm packing up half of what we own, I'm also trying to clean the house along the way so that we have a clean house to come home to on New Years Eve. Levi is doing well through finals and has the last one tomorrow morning before we leave.

We're very excited for our trip and are praying for safety on the roads, decent weather at least on travel days, and that everyone stays healthy. (I do realize all of this is a lot to ask for) We'll be taking a blogging break for the next three weeks to enjoy the holidays and family time. We hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Seeing the finish line...

Marcus in his spare time...
Levi hitting the books

Levi is seeing the finish line, for this semester anyway...This week is finals week, so the last few weeks he has been really busy studying and getting ready for this upcoming week. Most classes will end, but I think one or two carry over into next semester as well. He'll have finals Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday of this week then we will pack up and leave Sioux Falls for the next three weeks. On the 17th he'll start a week long clinical in Kirksville, which I think he is really looking forward to. It will mostly be an orientation to his clinical site, getting to know staff, seeing as many cases as he can in a week. It is possible he might do some intubations, but not too much further than that yet. I guess if he does get to do an intubation it will be his first live patient...though he has had lots of practice on the simulator patient. It has been a very intense semester, but I can tell he is learning so much and will really enjoy this as his career.

Once that week of clinical ends he'll have a nice three week break. We plan to spend time in Kirksville with family, and all of the Lebron side of the family is coming into town for a family reunion that we are all looking forward to. Most live fairly close, however Santiago and Mary Lebron (Levi's Grandparents) will be traveling from Tucson, AZ. His cousin Charity is coming from California, and Uncle Michael and family will be there as well. They live in Mongolia.

It will be a great time of visiting and catching up. After the reunion we'll head to KC to see my family, have the Ballew Christmas Eve party, and spend time with family and friends for a week. Then for the final week off, we'll be back in Sioux Falls to get the boys back on a good schedule and have time to just relax at home before starting the new semester on January 7. We are praying that the boys do well with all of the traveling and that no one gets sick, so that we can all enjoy the holidays to the fullest. I've never been away from home around the holidays, but in a wierd way it feels so much more like Christmas with all the snow around, travel plans, and the excitement of seeing people we haven't seen for a while. We are so thankful that we have all of this to be excited about.

Wintery weekend

Daddy playing with the boys

Twins watching the snow plows
Cole enjoying some snow
So wrapped up they could hardly move!
Oh no! MAN DOWN!!!
Daddy to the rescue!
Marcus riding his tricycle

Looking out our front door
Could this hat be any more ridiculous Mom?
Ooops!
Deep in thought
Not very happy about having to wear this hat!

This weekend we were supposed to get a big snow storm, however we only had 4 inches of snow, then the rest was ice...a pretty far cry from what they were predicting. It was a nice quiet weekend at home though anyway, and gave us a lot of time to rest up and start feeling better. The boys have runny noses still, but other than that seem to be doing better. While we had a little snow we let the boys go out for a little bit today (probably not the best parenting since they are just getting over colds...but we couldn't help ourselves), it was the first snow the twins have really had a chance to play in. It was fun, but shortlived, as everyone seemed to get tired and not want to be outside anymore... it probably took us longer to get them all bundled up than the actual time we spent outside. We'll try it again soon though!

What a week!

Just as I thought the boys were starting to feel better, we discovered around 11pm last night that Carson had gotten sick in his bed. After an extensive cleanup effort (TMI?) we put Carson in bed with me so I could keep an eye on him all night. He was running a fever and pretty much cried most of the night even after Tylenol. Needless to say we're sleepiheads this morning...
On a fun note, we had our first real snow last night. (although I think it snowed over Thanksgiving, we just were not here) I had to go out and get more medicine at the store and it was pretty slick out. We're supposed to get up to 10 inches tomorrow, so that will be exciting! When I woke up this morning it was 3 degree's here...a subtle reminder of where we are I suppose!
I plan to get a pot of vegetable soup going today, and we'll settle in for a quiet weekend at home watching the snow fall...and of course the Missouri Tigers vs. Oklahoma on Saturday night...
I've included a pic of our Christmas tree, we put it up before Thanksgiving since we'll be on the road for 3 weeks during Christmas break. We wanted more time to enjoy it! It's very pretty, and lights up the whole room.

Thanksgiving 2007

Our family
Cheering on the Tigers
Cousins
Ready, set, hike!
Daddy and babies

Dad and boys
Mom and Marcus
Cole
Terri and Amanda
Carson
Jim and David

Marcus, Kaitlyn, and Meghan
Deann, Ryan, and Amanda
Daddy and Carson
Cole
Meghan and Carson

Silly boys!
In the car
The babies close to midnight when we arrived in Kirksville
Sleepy heads!

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving in Kirksville. It was great to see family and friends, and nice for Levi to get a break from studying for a few days. We were thankful that we were able to travel on Tuesday, as very cold weather and snow hit our travel areas (including Kirksville) on Wednesday. We celebrated Thanksgiving at David and Deann's house and of course enjoyed a huge dinner, and some of us took short naps afterward! :) Looks like Deann caught Levi and I just resting our eyelids for a few seconds as she took our picture! It was wonderful to sit by the fireplace and watch the snow coming down outside...very cozy!

Friday we enjoyed meeting the Couch family for lunch and visiting. They are our friends from KC who were visiting family in Green City (only 20 min from Kirksville) for the holiday. It was wonderful to see them!

Saturday my parents came up for the day to spend time with us too. We enjoyed the day together and then we all watched the Missouri Tiger's win on Saturday night to take the number 1 ranking in the nation!!! It was pretty exciting to watch the game, especially with Levi around! ;)

The only unfortunate thing about the whole trip was that all three of the boys became sick Friday night, which made for long nights and a mishap in the car on the way back Sunday. Marcus and Carson had sore throats, fevers, and were not sleeping well...while Cole had a stomach issue...did I mention a mishap in the car??? Yucky...well anyway you get the idea. Needless to say we were happy to get home Sunday evening and are still dealing with sickness so pray for us if you think of us. I don't think we've had all three boys sick at the same time so far. Hopefully it will pass quickly and we can get back to normal sleeping patterns and everyone back in their own beds, etc.

THANKSGIVING

We'll be taking a blogging break for a week or so while we celebrate Thanksgiving with our families. We'll be traveling this afternoon and evening to Kirksville and will return home on Sunday afternoon or evening. We love driving, so we're really looking forward to getting on the road. It will be nice to visit, listen to music, and just enjoy each other's company along the way. I'm sure there will much reflection on all that we are thankful for...by God's abundant grace we have so many reasons to give thanks. There is one reason though, that sums all the others up nicely...

Give thanks to the Lord, for HE is good. -Psalm 136:1

Happy Thanksgiving from the Kelly family!

Winter Wonderland

Daddy and his boys
Marcus
Marcus looking at a deer
Mommy and her three babies
Lights

Mr. Camel
Mommy and Marcus
Twins
Falls

Winter Wonderland at Falls Park was not quite ALL that it was cracked up to be... but it was still pretty good. The weather here is unusually warm (40's last night) so we were thinking this whole deal is probably much more impressive with some snow around and the falls being frozen. The boys enjoyed seeing all the lights and the falls change colors. There were reindeer and camels, and horse drawn carriage rides with lines a million people long. All of this was free which was wonderful. We enjoyed just walking around and letting Marcus climb on the rocks. While we were there we saw a couple of guys from Levi's class, so I got to meet their wives. One couple is from El Paso, Texas and the other from somewhere in California. Very nice people, and the guys got to chat about the weeks worth of tests that they just endured.

It was a nice little outing and the boys seemed to enjoy themselves and were definitely ready for bed when we got home.

Average week

Silly Marcus
Marcus and Cole
Playing some ball

Happy Carson!
Small scuffle in the kitchen
Cole
Happy moment
Big Brother

Fighting over a chair
still...
Carson is NOT giving up!
Cole giving him grief!

Carson, with bump on the head...bathtime can be pretty crazy!
Marcus
Cole enjoying bathtime...and getting water all over the bathroom
Our three sweeties
Battle of wills...

This week has been pretty much routine...seems most weeks are, but that's what seems to work best for us. Levi has been very busy studying for 3 big tests and two quizzes all within less than a week. Tuesday before Thanksgiving will be the last one and then we will be on the road to Kirksville. We are all looking forward to the road trip! As much as we love it here, we are ready to get out and get away for a few days.

This week has been a challenge as the babies have decided they are going to fight over literally everything! This is new to me! Marcus never had anyone to fight with, so we haven't had to handle this yet. Toys, chairs, books, you name it...if one has it, the other one wants it. Since they still can't talk, they just scream at each other and start crying...a test of my patience for sure! God always knows where I need to grow.

On a happier note, Marcus and I have had some quality time this week (since fighting usually lands the babies in bed for a little while). He loves to play catch, read books, color, paint, and draw with Mommy. He surprised me yesterday by starting to draw letters. He knows all the letters, I just didn't know he could draw some of them. Then he looked up at me and said, "Mommy, what letter starts with the T-t-t sound?"...then asked about the B-b-b sound? I guess I need to get out some of the preschool learning activity books I bought. I love it that he likes to learn, I just feel bad not having as much time for just he and I as we would like. He's a good kid, and thankfully very patient with frazzled Mommy.

Tonight we are headed to Falls Park for the Winter Wonderland lighting. Should be a good time, I'll probably have some pictures to post tomorrow.... IT's FRIDAY!!!!! :)