The Chappell Family

Wednesday, February 3, 2016

The Holidays 2015 and Plane Cancellations that Stink

November started to get a bit chillier here. Of course I never take pictures of the major holidays, like Thanksgiving or Christmas morning or anything. Maybe I should get better at that. I just always like being involved. I've thought of maybe setting up a camera sometime, and set it to take pictures every 30 seconds or something. That could really be entertaining.

Anyways, we got family pictures taken! The photographer did an awesome job, in spite of a cranky girl that absolutely HATED getting her picture taken. The boys did great though (including Rick). It was really cold and windy out, and towards the end they were all over it.

Logan with a funny face. See that leaf? That's his friend. He's my collector.

The whole family. If only Sadie would look up at the camera.

Angry toddler.

Evan cracks me up with this pose.

All three kids together. I need to get this framed.

Another of Evan. I love the color he's wearing and the colors in the background.

Sadie is a daddy's girl a lot of the time.

Da boyz

Another one that I need to frame. This is just such a great shot of Logan with his little leaf friend.

This might be my favorite family pic. Evan is trying to comfort Sadie and instead, she's pushing his hand away. That is so typical of their relationship.

The whole family.

Rick and I with our babies. They were so cold, they were trying to huddle into us for warmth.

Evan with another pose. He did such a great job listening to directions.

Sadie is so sad.

Logan and the leaf. It should be a picture book or something.

That bottom lip.

Mona Lisa smile.

Another family pic. The kids and Rick were super freezing.

So the rest of November went by fine. My sister Sarah came out to visit, and I don't have any pictures because we were all puking and sick to our stomachs at one time or another. Honestly, it was so bad that we had to switch our dinner for Thanksgiving to Friday instead. Oh well, we were still grateful and we ate, but it was definitely low-key. I don't know when Sarah is going to visit us again for Thanksgiving. I don't blame her if it's never.

The end of October, we found out that I was pregnant. We were, of course, excited and managed to stay quiet about it until 10 weeks. We had already seen the heart beat on the ultrasound and told the kids. So we decided to do what the cool kids do and announce it creatively. This is what we did.

Coming sometime in July. I don't have my hopes up that he/she will actually come on their due date. That hardly happens. Poor Sadie will either hate the kid or think it's her baby. I'm not sure which is worse.

For Christmas, I really didn't do too many pictures. Our ward Christmas party was nice. The kids all got to see Santa. They were, of course, thrilled. (sarcasm)

Sadie. And yes, those are Christmas Cat leggings. Neither of us are stylish, so the poor girl is going to be stuck wearing clothes like that during the holidays that we just think are hilarious.

Logan with Santa. He told him that he wanted Legos.

Evan wanted Legos too. He also loved that candy cane.

We flew out to Utah for Christmas with my family. We were pretty happy and excited, and then it got cold. And then I got really tired and super cranky (blaming the pregnancy) and wanted to go home. Of course, that was a funny story.

My kids with their cousins Casey and Oliver at Temple Square. I just have to laugh at how puffy Sadie is.

Evan contemplating life and his puzzle at my parent's house before church.

Sadie in one of her Christmas dresses.

The one picture I took before we went to Temple Square to see the lights. It was so cold.

Logan and Daddy. So cute. Logan is such a little cuddle bug. He can be a total sweetheart when he's not acting like a threenager.

My brother Aaron took some great pictures in Utah while we were visiting.

All of my parent's grandchildren by the tree.

Poor Logan cut off. Why does that always happen to my middle child.

All of outside in the freezing cold for a picture. Thankfully we just did a couple of shots.

In my parent's living room.

Our trip home was super long and exhausting. Our flight to Denver was fine. However, as soon as we landed in Denver, we found out the flight had been cancelled. After waiting close to four hours in the customer service line for United, we finally got a flight. What a crazy four hours. I mostly stayed with the kids and Rick stayed in line. I don't know who had it easier, to be honest! The kids did such a great job, we mostly walked a lot and at lots of snacks to stay occupied.

We got a flight that night to Dallas, and then we found out as we were boarding that our connecting flights to Dayton the next morning were all correct, except for Logan, whose boarding pass said "Indianapolis" instead. So instead of going to a hotel like we wanted when we arrived in Dallas, we took another 45 minutes and they figured it out. They still couldn't print out a new boarding pass though.

We were exhausted but by the time we would get to a hotel, we would only sleep for about 3-4 hours until we had to be back at the airport, going through security. It was rough, but we saw the cots and blankets provided and Rick and I made the executive decision to just stay overnight in the airport. Of course, I'm pregnant and burst into tears but I managed to get it under control. The boys were so excited to be "camping" and fell asleep as soon as they put their little heads on the cots. Sadie took a little more persuasion. The poor girl was so sleep deprived. I felt so bad for her.

I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. We flew from Dallas to Dayton, and arrived close to 11:30 in the morning. And then we found out that our luggage was lost. We had to borrow car seats so we could go home. Thankfully we got our luggage the next night, so it wasn't too long that we didn't have stuff (including temple clothes!). I'm so glad that we planned on flying home relatively early, just so that we could get back to our regular schedules and sleep.

And we did sleep. Quite a bit. I'm thankful that my kids are such amazing travelers. I'm pretty sure that they handled the situation far better than I did.

October 2015

Here's to attempting to catch up on this sucker! October was such a fun month. Evan turned 6 and of course, we had Halloween. I also had a rare opportunity to volunteer in Evan's class for one morning. October also marks the month that Evan finally snapped into a routine and started to love school and all of his various therapies.

This is actually from September. Sadie had to get steroids to help her breathing when she had a nasty cold.

Went out to dinner with these ladies since our friend Myca moved on without us.

These are three of my favorite people ever. I love working with all of them in Primary. Since Myca moved I got another great counselor, Bree, who is also fantastic. I'm just so blessed to work with such great people.

So, for Halloween this year, we had several events we went to. First was our ward's Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook-off; second was the AFIT Halloween party; and third was finally Halloween. Evan decided in September that he wanted to be Darth Vader and we just created the costumes around that. My Chewbacca costume did not turn out as planned and I felt super lame with the rest of the family. But the boys love A New Hope, and so, we went with those costumes. Sadie was still technically a Disney princess. We lucked out finding Sadie's Leia dress from Once Upon a Child and Evan's Darth Vader costume we found at Goodwill. Logan's costume we just made and picked up orange stuff for him to wear underneath. Rick actually sewed his Han Solo vest (It was an thrifted black button up shirt). I think he secretly wants to cosplay sometime. He knows that I won't do it with him though...

Logan was Luke wearing the X-wing Pilot Gear. The kid loves plans so much.

I'm wearing a Chewbacca shirt, but everyone else is dressed up pretty well.

Sadie staring after Rick

Fast asleep after the AFIT party.

Getting ready to go trick-or-treating on Beggar's Night here.

Sadie's buns were so easy to make. I can't believe she kept them in.

Logan with his awesome Mickey Pumpkin.

They were grumpy going to Rick's school party. They perked up though when they started getting a ton of candy.

Rick and the kids before trick-or-treating.

Sadie after the AFIT Halloween party.

This is just a random pic from when we went to the Pumpkin Chuck that was on base. It was kind of super lame. But the kids liked being outside, so that counts for something, I guess!

Of course, on the 28th we celebrated Evan's 6th Birthday. What a crazy notion, that my little guy is now 6. I am so grateful for him. He teaches me patience, and he absolutely loves learning. What a great kiddo he is.

Happy Birthday Evan!

R2-D2 Cake. Honestly, I love pinterest because I can make fun cakes for my kiddos without having to know how to use fondant or be super awesome at piping.

Opening up presents. He was so excited for the Lincoln Logs and Legos (of course).

We had a really great time in October. It was so mild weather wise which was awesome. I really am more of a warm weather creature. But not Arizona hot. That's just crazy.

Monday, September 21, 2015

Summer 2015

We had such a great summer. Evan "graduated" from preschool, we played outside, went to the "beach" a couple of times, went to the zoo and just had a grand time playing around.

In May, Rick turned 30! We went out for dinner and had cake and ice cream. The boys went to Five Below and picked out some super hero toys that they ended up confiscating as soon as Rick opened the gifts. The boys also went on a fathers and sons campout with Rick. They had a blast, setting off rockets and the big fire was a huge hit. The boys always ask to go camping now, which can be a little annoying but they're happy with setting the tent up in the living room downstairs.

Rick had the whole month of June off, really, since his classes didn't start until the end of the month. My parents visited in June as well, and we had such a great time seeing them.

July was a little long and it took a while to adjust to Rick's new schedule for his classes. He was gone for quite a bit during the day, but he also had Fridays off, which was really nice for us to do stuff as a family. Rick and I even had the chance to go to the Columbus temple for a session, which is so rare for us but now that the kids are getting a little bit bigger it's easier. We went to the Columbus zoo for the fourth of July weekend. It was packed, but so much fun.

August was crazy. We went to the Indianapolis temple open house, which was so much fun. The boys talk about the "temple" all the time now. I also turned 30, which was a little weird, I have to admit. I'm still in denial that I am actually 30. Evan started school in the middle of the month, which seems so early. He loves school and his teacher, but he has a hard time with sleeping at night, still trying to adjust to the schedule.

I've been trying to get a playgroup started/going with church. Sometimes I forget though, especially during our crazy, busy weeks.

Our ward just had the primary presentation yesterday, so I am really glad that it's over because there is a lot less on my plate now. The kids did great, Rick played the piano well, and I am so glad it's over. It's always a great experience to work with the kids in church and I am grateful for my calling to work with them.

I've also started working out first thing in the morning, on most days. I've had a hard time sleeping lately, so I am having a hard time waking up at 4:30. I love working out. The boot camp is such a great work out and I love working out with other women.