This past month my kids have been sick more times than I think they have in the past year. THREE different episodes of stomach bugs/flu have plagued our house.  I was lucky to get it each time along with them! Isak wasn't feeling so great one day and so Edyn decided to take full advantage and cuddle as long as she wanted too. She really loves Isak.

Poor Lucy has had it the worst and was sick over Christmas. Looking back I'm pretty sure she had the full on flu and should've seen the doctor. She lost about 5 lbs and was sleeping all the time. Poor kid, she is by far the most pitiful when she is sick.

 In September Kevin and I had this great idea to rent out our current house and buy one a few blocks behind us that is twice the size with a full basement. We had been looking at it for a while and felt we could get a good price. We knew the rental market where we live is very tight so our chances of finding someone to rent our current house was good. Within a week we found renters and scheduled to move out the end of October. Our new house closed the first week of November and we decided to stay with Kevin's parents for a while while we did some fixing up in that house. So of course, all of our half finished projects quickly got finished with a deadline ahead of us.

 This is our house the night before we completely moved out. Pretty big difference from when we moved in almost 5 years ago!

 Trying to take pictures of the kids in their Christmas clothes, went about like this. The girls dresses were super gorgeous, the pictures dont' do them justice! And I'm pretty sure in last years picture we had robots. This year Lucy insisted on holding stuffed animals.

 We went and saw Santa at the local christmas bizarre.  Isak and Lucy have the exact same expression of slight fear on their faces and Edyn just wants the heck out of there. And why isn't Santa looking at the camera?

 The week before Christmas we were lucky to have Kevin's brother and his family come down to visit. We made gingerbread houses and made some yummy juice with the juicer.

 Edyn and Jayden also took rides on Kevin playing horsie over and over.

New House

 So these are some pictures of our new house "before" we ripped out all the carpets and painted.  I love how big the front room is in this house and the window seat and the taller ceilings.

 One of the bedrooms, soon to be girls rooms, that we painted and redid the floors in.

 This was our floors after we had them redone. Kevin and I had to hire someone to install about 80 feet of new hardwood that wasn't part of the original house and was added on later. The front of the house where the window seat is was bumped out and had a plywood subfloor. Anyway, we had about 1,000 sq ft of hardwood to refnish  that was hidden under the carpet.  It took a few weeks, we hired out more of it than we planned, but it turned out beautiful and was done right!

Christmas 2013

We were lucky to be into our house in time for Christmas. I even set up the tree the night before because I was so excited! We had boxes everywhere but I was bound and determined to have Christmas in our house with our kids.

The kids were so excited Christmas morning and Edyn was still in her coat from being brought in from the car the night before.

 Lucy and Isak with their stack of presents.

 Kevin's dad came over and spent Christmas morning with us since his mom was out of town.

 Isak got a huge Lego set, Skylanders game, games, new books, crystal mining set, dvds, and a planatarium projector and a few robot kits to assemble.
Lucy got an American Girl doll with a bunch of very cute doll clothes that my mom made for her and a My Little Pony playset for her and Edyn to share. Also the Equestria Girls DVD she's been wanting forever, some new games, books, a Rainbow Dash sweatshirt, new sticker and coloring books, and some doll furniture.

 Edyn got a Little People Zoo playset and my mom gave her a ton of animals to go with it.

 My family, including my brother and his wife, came over later that afternoon and had their Christmas with us.  We had Christmas dinner together and enjoyed playing with our presents. It was a great day and so nice to be in our new house all together!

Lucy was very excited to have aunt Jen there to do her sticker books and read with her.

Gilbert Christmas Card 2013

 This year for our Christmas card I was very excited to find matching pajamas for family. And Kevin was a good sport and happily agreed to wear them along with the rest of us. I wanted to have them taken outside but time got short and it was freezing so we did the best we could inside the house.

 2013 was full of new adventures, surprises and fun.

But I have to say I’m glad it is almost done!

Edyn turned one, loves to climb, jump, and talks nonstop all day.

She loves to chase her siblings and is so cute she usually gets her way.

Lucy turned four and played soccer for the first time this spring

She spent most of her time spinning, cheering, and showing her teammates how to sing.

She started preschool and a ballet/tap class this fall

She loves making friends, dancing, and looking at herself in the mirror on the wall.

Isak turned six in May and this past year played soccer and t-ball.

He loves to read, learn about science, do experiments and started first grade this fall

He just lost his two front teeth and thinks he’s pretty cool.

He is great big brother to his sisters and is doing great at school.

This summer we adventured on a big road trip out west.

Wisconsin and Michigan to visit some of our family we love the best.

36 hours each way, 3 children under six, and puke bags filled our car.

Memories were made, lessons were learned, and in about 5 years we might again travel that far.

Summertime also brought a trip with Kevin’s family to a beach house on the Oregon Coast.

Great food, hikes, walks on the beach and sandcastles with some of the people we love the most.

Kevin changed jobs in August and took a leap of faith returning to the family dairy and farm.

Back to the manure and milk, he’s learning quickly and trying not to cause too much harm……

We bought a new home and are renting our old one out for the next year.

It has lots more room and of course, lots of projects for Kevin to work on, he has no fear!

But our BEST news (and biggest surprise) from this year has to be

That coming in April we are having a new baby!

And we, especially Isak, are elated that we are having boy number two!

And Lena’s excited that she doesn’t have a third head of hair to do!

Lena ran a few races this year and tagged along to Louisiana this year with Kevin for fun

She’s keeping busy working part time, chasing kids, and cooking her new bun.

We have so much to be grateful for this Christmas Season and have been greatly blessed

We love you all and hope this next year will bring you lots of joy and happiness!

Love the Gilberts, Kevin, Lena, Isak, Lucy, and Edyn 

StoneRidge

 We went up to Kevin's family's timeshare up by Couer'd Alene for a few days this past weekend. This is our third year going and my kids always look forward to it and talk about it for months beforehand. I found some great swim gear on super clearance the end of August and gave it to the kids for the pool.

 Isak was very excited to resemble SharkBoy and Lucy was very happy to be a pink shark.

 The pool there is HUGE and is saltwater, is great to swim in. Since I was largely pregnant, I happily let Kevin brave the semi cold water and toss around children while I watched. Then we went and played in the hot tub for a while.

There is also a racquetball court there that the kids always love to throw the ball around in. Usually there is some snow so we brought all of our sledding stuff only to find it to be 45 degrees and no trace of snow anywhere.

 We stopped at Riverfront Park Square in Spokane on our way home and went on the North Pole Express Train.  It was a little train that went around the park and along the river to a Gazebo that was housing Santa Claus, cookies, hot chocolate and a large fire.

 My kids thought it was pretty fun, although Isak kept telling me how we really weren't at the North Pole. Funny how skeptical they can be at the ripe old age of six!  Poor Isak actually vomited right as we were parking to get over to where the train was. Being the great mom I am, I asked him if he felt better, he did, asked him if he still wanted to go, he did, so I packed a few plastic bags and we were on our way. Luckily no more puke on the train but the hot chocolate and cookies didn't quite make it all the way back home...

And then as we got to Kevin's parents house and Kevin's dad was tossing Edyn around and playing with her, she promptly got up and vomited all over his mom's ipad.  It luckily was just fine and the whole thing was pretty humorous.  We can't shake sickness around here lately! I've had  a different stomach bug three different times over the past month and my kids keep getting vomiting sick too.  I sure hope the new year brings us some health around here!