Back to Frigidity

After spending nearly a week and a half on vacation in relative sunniness and warmth, we have returned to breathing arctic air. We were greeted by temperatures in the teens and wind chills in the below-zero category. But we do have sun! The drive was relatively uneventful, besides the day of driving in rain (sometimes quite hard) yesterday, and my spilling coffee on our portable DVD player, which seemed to render one of our two screens unusable. We'll see what happens after it "dries" out, but I'm not hopeful.

We had a wonderful time visiting family and friends. The highlight of the trip was seeing all three of Tarren's living grandparents. Naturally, they all had the opportunity to reacquaint themselves with their great-grandchildren, which was nice. It was a busy set of days without much down time. The biggest drawback was having children sleeping next to us nearly every night, due to Grace's unwillingness to sleep in a pack-n-play. It will be nice to have her and Lucas in their own beds tonight; we won't mind being in ours either.

Perhaps I will get a chance to post a few additional pictures in the coming days, but I thought I'd share a couple right now (one with some of the children I've had the privilege of baptizing in the past 3+ years and another with Tarren and her godchild Hanna).

Checking In

It's my understanding that, even though I have been quite delinquent in posting anything new, there are still some people who check this blog out from time to time. Perhaps more feedback from "viewers" would encourage me to blog more often (do you see how I managed to blame YOU for the lack of news on this page recently?).

Just a few updates before I add a lovely video of the kids ... Grace saw a allergist yesterday, and it was determined that she's allergic to peas and nuts and probably to dairy products as well. Tarren will be eliminating all dairy and soy from her diet over the next couple weeks to see if there is marked improvement both with Grace's reflux and chronic congestion. Both the doctor and nurses wanted to keep her after the appointment; she wins them over pretty easily with her quiet charm. She's also begun to crawl in the past couple days, so we need to be a little more vigilant about what we leave lying around now. I suspect that she's going to be a quiet mischief maker (unlike Lucas, whom you can hear coming from a mile away).

Lucas continues to be the doting big brother (you'll notice his fondness for Grace on the video). We've registered him for two days of preschool beginning in the fall; we're pretty sure that he'll enjoy that and benefit from it.

It's cold today, with the prospect of even colder temps tomorrow (highs in the single digits!). It's about time to go someplace warm for a few days!

Here's that video: