Christmas and Chaos

Hope everyone is having a great New Year thus far!  The Kemps are so so ready for a healthy 2017 with good things to come.  We ended the year with a bang, and not a good one....we all fell apart.  It started with Hudson getting pneumonia and was out of school the week before Christmas.  He was healthy right in time for the Wilson visit and for Santa.  Soon after the holiday, Adley started to go downhill.  No appetite, fussy and a temperature ranging from 101-105 for 4 days.  She went to the doctor twice and we left with no diagnosis other than a virus and to take some Tylenol.  Poor Lolly had two weeks of watching our sick children.  By the end of that week, both Chris and I contracted a stomach bug that left us debilitated and in bed for over 24 hours.  We couldn't eat or hold anything down and struggled to stay hydrated.  "Thankfully," Adley was sick so she was sleeping more than usual.  But Hud was active and energetic, so he went to a movie with LollyPop and the cousins and stayed overnight.  Assuming everyone was on the mend, we woke up the next day to discover Hudson had nausea and vomiting and a bad stomach all night as well.  So we were in a whirlwind of disease and disaster, and were slowly taking LollyPop down with us (at least mentally).  

Our last bad news of the year was that our sweet Penny Lane passed across the Rainbow Bridge and left us right before Christmas.  We have all been grieving, even weeks later.  It was a devastating event, but we are fortunate to have had such a lovely animal in our life that impacted so many people.  She will be dearly missed.  Chris will be updating the blog with a Penny Lane tribute hopefully soon.  The pictures below were our last night with our sweet girl.  I almost postponed taking pics because we were all sick.  I feel so blessed I could capture a boy and his dog at the final moments.  And reflecting back, Hudson seemed way more aware than I gave him credit for about understanding his dog's illness.  He still talks about her almost every day.  It breaks my heart.

Now for a positive note, THANK THE LORD, we are all healthy (at least, at this very moment).  And we rallied through the trials and tribulations in order to enjoy the holiday with family and friends.  The kids got to spend a couple days with their cousins Hannah and Nate, who now live in Germany.  It was special treat to have them all together.  These kiddos are growing up so fast.  They loved playing together and sharing their Christmas gift-lists with each other!

Adley is not quite ready for staged group photos yet....

But she does love to play with the big kids.  Hannah had no problem entertaining our lil bit.  Pushing strollers, "feeding" babies and playing with dolls and jewelry are her favorite past times.  And she is still captivated by all books.  Adley is also learning her body parts.  Showing us her "belly-button" and "tongue" are the most entertaining moments to watch.  And she will make an "hmmph" sound as she points to each part.  She can also identify about 10 different animals and can sound-out a couple animal noises.  But let's be honest, almost every animal sounds like an elephant in her little world.  Very cute to watch her grow.  She just turned 17 months!

Christmas Eve entailed church and then dinner at the Bockelmans.  We were able to get a cute family photo op of the fam...

Group photo!  We had the pleasure of Karen and Bo (LollyPops neighbors) joining us for dinner as well.  The kids know them as K'ma and Bo'Pa, their honorary grandparents, who get to share in all the crazy commotion with us adults.

Then came Christmas morning!  I was so excited and arose early, all happy and giddy.  And then I waited...and waited for these dang kids to wake up.  This was the first day in a long time that BOTH children slept in late.  After drinking a nice (hot) cup of coffee, I couldn't wait any longer and woke them up at 8 am.  Hudson was more concerned about his elf Damien leaving, rather than the excitement of Santa and gift-giving.  Adley was befuddled about the entire situation; skepticism was deep in her eyes.  But it quickly faded once Hudson "helped" open her presents and she discovered fluffy, furry stuffed animals!

Hudson is still obsessed with horses.  He got over a dozen small plastic "horsey's" and will not put them down.  I have limited him to only sleeping with two horses, as he wanted to pile them (along with his 20+ stuffed animals) all in his bed.  And he has a couple farms now, so all of his horses have a home.  Football trading cards have been his next favorite thing to play with.  Weeks later, he will still trade cards with everyone in the family.  And we had to make a "special place" to keep the cards so they wouldn't get bent/ripped/lost.  First it was under the bed, but we have transitioned them to his nightstand drawer.

After nap time, we headed to LollyPop's house for another round of presents and then a yummy dinner.  The picture below would make any grandparent proud, right?!  I mean, the excitement and love displayed by ALL the children is impeccable.  

Again, Adley does not like a planned photo op.  Hilarious.  And she will immediately stop once she is removed from the lineup of children.  Hudson was having a moment as well.  I would be upset too if I had to wait more than a minute to open up all those presents.

Overall, we had a great day.  The boys helped pass out and deliver presents to everyone, which was cute to watch.  Adley cuddled with more baby dolls and cousin Claire was outfitted in numerous princess dresses.

Even Pop got some cool gifts!

After all the chaos of presents and sugar-overload, we turned on Paw Patrol, which immediately silenced the children.  Each one curled up in their shark or mermaid blanket that Aunt Missy got them.  The blankets stay at LollyPops house, so I'm sure they will get plenty of use!

Now we're in birthday mode.  We have already celebrated cousin Claire and Uncle Drew.  Anderson has a big party this weekend, then Chris is up next.  Hudson has picked out fun-fetti cake mix and sprinkles to make his daddy a cake.  His favorite colors are blue and "rainbow."  And he's still working on how to keep a secret.  Chris asked him what kind of cake he would get and Hudson said; "Shhh daddy, it's a rainbow cake....and it's a secret."